Spells in Attovia, called Workings, have tags that inform us about how they might function and what kind of effect or consistency the caster might derive or have with them.
Competency
Competency represents your confidence and consistency with a Working. When conducting a Working you will almost always roll+Competency. Competency ranges from -4 to +2 and can be increased through failure or if the GM permits through consulting an expert.
Potency
Potency is a score which increases with your level as a caster. You generally have 4 Potency per level unless some other outside factors are altering it. A Working will have a Potency tag followed by the number of potency it costs to typically transfuse
Complexity
The complexity of a Working determines the level at which it can be learned. Any complexity rating above your level is unlearnable until it is equal to or less than your level. This is usually due to a lack in knowledge in regard to how to even record the Working accurately in the first place.
Meyda-marks
Competent Workers usually remember roughly 5 Meyda-marks efficiently. These are simple patterns used to target entities or objects of Workings some of which require Meyda-marks. If you wish you may keep track of currently active marks any way in which you desire, allowing you to quickly Transfuse a Working that requires pre-targeting for any item that you keep a unique mark on. The same mark can be used for any Working that has the pre-target tag and who’s target makes sense to the Working’s function.
Modifications
Workings can be modified once you are at least two levels higher than their Complexity rating. You may need to discuss with the GM before hand about what tag you wish to remove or add to the Working, for example it doesn’t make sense to add the tag permanent to Blast. When you seek to alter the effects or function of a Working and test it roll+Competency. On a 10+ the Working’s alterations are successful and you may record it with said changes as a new Working at Competency 0. On a 7-9 something goes wrong and the modified Working fails, you can’t record it but you learned something new about the base aspects of the Working you attempted to alter: +1 Competency to the Working you attempted to alter only to a maximum of +2. On a 6 or less you realize you fundamentally misunderstood some aspect of this Working to begin with: -1 Competency to the Working you attempted to alter down to a minimum of -4.
Modification Notes
Generally within the fiction it is probably unlikely someone understands a Working enough to modify it if their Competency in that Working is below 0. This is up to the GM of course, but keep in mind that Modifications are the kind of thing that should take multiple days at the least, and depending on the Complexity of the Working perhaps weeks, months or even years to attempt.
Tags
Workings have a myriad of tags that help define how they engage with the fiction.
- lifetime-x the duration the Working effect lasts, written as lifetime-1hour. If no lifetime present it is presumed the Working’s effect dissipates immediately after casting. A simple explosion won’t have a lifetime since the result is immediate and doesn’t “stick around”.
- sustain-x this Working’s lifetime can be reset by spending an amount of Potency as determined by the tag. This is only if transfusion was not dropped before its original lifetime ended, otherwise you must reconduct the Working at its base Potency.
- dx the damage dealt by the Working in dice. Examples include 2d4, 1d8 etc.
- potency-x all Workings have a weight ranging from potency-0 to potency-5 that defines how much pressure your Soul undergoes when transfusing.
- windup requires a significantly long series of somatic gestures and chanting to cast.
- loud can be heard at significant distances and can damage hearing if too close
- remote the resulting effect of this Working can be steered or manipulated post casting
- permanent the effect of the Working remains in the world indefinitely, otherwise Working effects vanish after their lifetime
- spread the Working effect can have multiple targets, by default the Working targets a single thing or creature as defined in its description.
- area-small the Working effects everything within a small area, think a grenade.
- area-large the Working effects everything within a large area, think an artillery shell.
- ap ignores armor.
- (Element) spreads the material or element in question, if fire things can be set aflame, if ice could cause frostbite or freeze the top of water. It is not and does not always have to be something obvious, the Working Ensnare has the tag (web) and spreads web like ropes and tendrils in its area
- circle only really useful as a drawn or hewn Meyda-circle, means you can only use this as a ritual.
- touch requires that you touch the target of the Working whether it is an object or living being
- pre-target requires that you have drawn a Meyda-mark on a potential target before the Working is cast, otherwise the Working fails or goes off as though the caster was the target. Often things that are pre-targeted only need to be so once and the Working in question can be recast on that item if the context has not changed in a way that would break things.
- touch the Working targets something you touch
- reach the Working targets something at arm’s reach or a few feet away
- near the Working targets something 20-40 feet away.
- far the Working targets something at shouting distance.
Starter Workings List
Complexity 0 (Triflings)
These Workings are so simple and fundamental that they do not tax the Soul.
Minor Flame (lifetime-1minute, sustain-0, touch)
A small flame alights in your palm, it can be carried about at will. It is for all functionality purposes like having a candle and could be used to light a torch, burn through rope, or aid in starting a fire.
Air Buckler (touch)
When you are attacked you may use this Working before applying armor or damage. Roll 1d6 and subtract that number from the incoming damage.
Gentle Frost (touch, snow, permanent)
Create flakes of snow in the air or on the ground. One can also pre-target this trifling to enforce where the resulting frost forms.
Emit Light (lifetime-10minutes, sustain-0, pre-target)
Draw a Meyda-mark on an object, 150 feet of connected surface area (that is the surface area of a 5 ft. cube) will emit a moderate level of light when you transfuse this Working targeted to that mark. This light can be used to navigate in very dark spaces relatively well but does not shed much more than a 20 foot radius before quickly falling off.
Complexity 1
Cleanse Water (area-small, permanent, potency-1, touch)
Separate water from impurities in a small area, this can be anywhere from a small glass of pond water to a relative tub full. Up to 80 gallons of water can be purified this way. The impurities will almost always settle at the bottom and the newly cleaned water can be scooped or poured off the top. However, be aware that something like carbonation would be released as a gas and eject above the waters surface.
Blast (area-small, 1d4, Potency-2, loud, near)
A concussive explosion of pressurized air that can easily throw a full grown adult ten or more feet from its center.
Summon Water (area-small, Potency-1, permanent, near)
Ten cubic feet of water appear in a sphere shape where designated by the caster and immediately falls sending water everywhere.
Air Spear (remote, 1d8, Potency-2, far)
Using the Karev field of Workings you compress a portion of air in a thin spear like shape which then surges forward following your eyeline as you target it through a hole in your hand(s). It is barely visible as a shimmer in the air, but is as solid as a hunk of iron and can pierce flesh and wood. It fully dissipates after it strikes its target.
Wall of Air (lifetime-5min, sustain-1, Potency-2, near)
A compressed wall of air 100 square feet in any rectangle formation you choose comes into existence up to 30 feet away from you. The Wall of Air is like a 2 inch steel plate in what it can rebuff.
Detect Soul (pre-target, circle, permanent, Potency-3, far)
When a sentient creature steps on the detection portion of the Meyda-circle a Meyda-mark of your choosing and placement glows softly no matter where it is.
Explode Light (Potency-1, instantaneous, near, pre-target)
Requires a solid object be Meyda-marked first. When transfused the portion marked flashes a blinding white light capable of damaging vision permanently in small portions. Can discombobulate anything that usually traditional eyes for vision for a short time.
Emit Great Light (Potency-1, lifetime-10minutes, sustain-1, pre-target)
Much like the Emit Light Trifling but with a denser instruction set, covers a similar 150 square ft. surface area directly connected to the Meyda-mark on the pre-targeted object. but the light can easily be seen from a mile away in low light, or from a great distance at night. Can light a dark room up better than several torches.
Complexity 2
Anti-light Area (Potency-3, lifetime-20minutes, near)
An Ashem Working that absorbs any and all light in a 10 foot radius sphere. When inside the sphere absolute no light exists and nothing inside can see with even magical eyes. If one looks at the Anti-light Area from outside they cannot see around or past it as all light attempting to pass through it is absorbed.
Combustion Sphere (area-small, Potency-2, fire, 2d6, near)
A large sphere of air erupts instantaneously into flame. The fireball resulting is roughly 20 feet in diameter and its heat can be felt from 50.
Cage of Air (lifetime-10min, pre-target, Potency-2, touch)
The lifetime of this Working only activates once an individual with a Soul steps on the pre-targeted location in which it instantaneously hems them in at all sides by a wall of Air that acts like a 2 inch steel plate in terms of strength.
Ensnare (Potency-2, web, lifetime-10minutes, area-small, touch)
Strange viscous web like tendrils cover the surface of a 10x10 foot area and stick to any would be traversers. Anyone stuck to one of these tendrils is greatly hampered if not stopped entirely depending on their size. After their lifetime these tendrils harden and crumble away into dust.
Image Swap (Potency-1, lifetime-24hours, sustain-1, pre-target)
Choose two items, leave one in a Circle and inscribe a Meyda-mark on the other. The marked item will take on the image of the item in the Circle. This image is explicitly the change in the way light is reflected off of the object, no material change is made and all senses but the eyes can potentially deduce this.
Transmute Water (permanent, Potency-x, touch)
When you choose this Working choose two target substances from the list below. When you conduct this Working the Potency will be based on which target substance you are currently attempting to transmute water into. You can transmute up to 80 gallons of water. You can expend a multiple of the potency cost if you wish to transmute additional quantities in one go.
Some substances are complex enough they require a higher complexity of Working. You cannot choose these options until you can conduct that Complexity of Working.
- Ale: Potency-2 (lacks flavor, but not alcohol)
- Acid: Potency-2 (eats through metals, deals 1d4 damage if it comes into contact with skin)
- Milk: Potency-2 (sours quickly)
- Stone: Potency-4, Complexity-3
- Gold: Potency-8, Complexity-4
Complexity 3
Shimmer (Potency-2, lifetime-1hour, pre-target)
This Ashem working warps the light around the Meyda-marked object. It only effects all connected surface area of an object up to roughly 500 square feet. The effect of this can often present as a kind of invisibility if the object is left still in one place. If moved or partially eclipsed by some connected object then it confuses the eye more than anything. Wearing something that is being affected by this Working makes it harder for things to track you easily, add +1 armor and take +1 to anything that involves an adversaries sight. Object with exceptionally strange forms may give off unique appearances when still or moving as the light is wrapped around them.
Glossary
Fields of Meyda-work
Links go to the attovia.wiki for anything published there for additional reading. Remember to watch for spoiler tags!