[FOCI]
The Strange
You can mold souls like an artisan can mold clay. You begin your training by learning how to install your own soul in a phylactery you wear as a ring or amulet. You soon learn to attract the lost souls of the dead who evaded the Night Vault and house them in rings you wear, figurines you carry, and even tattoos you sport.
A soulmancer (as someone who Practices Soul Sorcery is sometimes called) at the height of her power might wear a ring on each finger, each one resonant with a particular ability or piece of knowledge a resident soul possesses.
You wear robes stitched with runes of spirit warding, spirit luring, and spirit calming. The runes have no intrinsic power, but they help you concentrate when you wield your soulmancy.
Soulmancers are most often paradoxes and spinners, but a vector (a soul warrior) is a frightening enemy to have.
If this is your starting focus, choose one of the following connections.
Ardeyn clothing, light armor, one weapon of your choice, an explorer’s pack, a phylactery, a handful of rings set with semiprecious gems, and 100 crowns.
The target’s soul is tweaked, causing the target to stumble and drop whatever it’s holding.
The target’s soul is dislodged before settling back in place; this dazes the target.
Your soul is installed in a ring or amulet. This insulates you somewhat from pain, granting you +1 to Armor, and you are trained in Intellect and Might defense tasks. If your phylactery is destroyed for any reason, your soul returns to your body, and you lose all benefits of this ability until you can construct a new phylactery, which is a process requiring a day of labor and a suitable ring or amulet worth at least 100 crowns. Until you construct a new phylactery, all your stat Pool maximums are reduced by 1 point.
A lost spirit takes up residence in a piece of jewelry you wear or in a tattoo on your body. With this ability, you can clothe the spirit in the physical body of another creature no more than twice as large as you for up to an hour before the spirit must depart and return to the jewelry or tattoo that normally houses it.
The target body can be any dead body within short range. The body can also be that of a sleeping creature that you touch (to clothe the spirit in a sleeping body, you must touch the body and make an Intellect attack). If you clothe the spirit in a living, sleeping creature, upon waking that creature retains no memory of having been the vessel for a spirit, except perhaps in the hint of a dream.
The resultant “clothed spirit” is a level 2 creature devoted to you. You and the GM can work out the details of your particular spirit, independent of the body it inhabits. You’ll probably make rolls for it when it takes actions (but see below for combat). The clothed spirit acts on your turn. As a level 2 creature, it has a target number of 6 and a health of 6. It can produce a terrifying Soul Scream once per day that attacks up to three designated living targets within short range. If a target of the Soul Scream is affected, it cannot take any action other than movement on its next turn. (A clothed spirit doesn’t physically attack other creatures, but it can spend its action to serve as an asset for any one attack you make on your turn while it is embodied.)
If the body housing the spirit takes 6 points of damage or if an hour passes (whichever comes first), the soul returns to whatever item you house it in; if the body was a living, sleeping creature, it wakes up (with 6 points of damage to deal with).
Action to clothe spirit.
If your phylactery is separated from you, you can concentrate to see, hear, and smell through it. Your sensory capabilities aren’t greater than normal, except in one way: you can sense the environment around the phylactery even if it’s in another creature’s pocket, bag, pack, or similar container. A few feet of earth, a foot of stone, or an inch of metal blocks your ability to see.
The spirit you create with Clothe Spirit increases to level 3. As a level 3 creature, it has a target number of 9 and a health of 9, and you can call it up to twice a day. Its Soul Scream is unaffected, other than it being a higher-level attack.
A lost spirit of a vindictive qephilim takes up residence in a piece of jewelry you wear or in a tattoo on your body. You can coax it to enter either you or an ally within short range who allows it. Upon installation, the vessel (you or the chosen ally) gains the following benefits: add 10 points to Might Pool, add 2 to Speed Edge, add 4 points to Intellect Pool, and add 2 to Intellect Edge. The vicious spirit doesn’t care to distinguish its enemies, and it randomly attacks any creature it can see and reach. You or the allied vessel can attempt a difficulty 3 Intellect task each round to eject the vicious soul. Afterward, whoever hosted the raging soul loses 1d6 points from its Might Pool and 1d6 points from its Speed Pool.
Action to initiate.
The spirit you create with Clothe Spirit increases to level 4. As a level 4 creature, it has a target number of 12 and a health of 12, and you can call it up to three times a day. Its Soul Scream is unaffected, other than it being a higher-level attack.
You can mold souls. If you succeed at a difficulty 4 Intellect-based task, you can transfer up to 5 points among your Pools, or among your Pools and another willing creature’s Pools, in any combination, at a rate of 1 point per round. For example, you could transfer 3 points of Might to an ally’s Speed Pool, and 2 points of Speed to your own Intellect Pool, which would take a total of five rounds. Each time you attempt to use this ability, the difficulty becomes one step higher; the difficulty resets to 4 after your next ten-hour rest.
If you are slain in Ardeyn, your spirit is drawn to your phylactery instead of the Night Vault, assuming the phylactery is not also destroyed. Your soul is housed for ten days in your phylactery, after which you are reincarnated in a new body identical to your old body at or near where your phylactery resides. You return with nothing but your phylactery. After you enjoy this benefit, you cannot do so again for one year (so if you die again before a year elapses, your spirit falls to the Court of Sleep, who are likely unhappy that you cheated them once).
Alternatively, you can attempt to pull another soul out of the Night Vault and reincarnate it as a living creature. You can do so only if you know the full name of the creature, if you have something of its body or a cherished possession, and if it has not been dead for more than one year. The spirit must also be available to return. After you use this alternative, you cannot use it or the option to return yourself to life described above for one year.
The spirit you create with Clothe Spirit increases to level 5. As a level 5 creature, it has a target number and a health of 15. You can call it up to four times a day. Its Soul Scream is unaffected, other than it being a higher-level attack.
GM Intrusions: Spirits can wrest themselves away or even possess you.