[FOCI]
It's Only Magic
You're comfortable with decomposition: the bacteria and fungi that break down organic material are living creatures, and you coax magic from the interplay of life and death. To you, rot isn't cause for revulsion—it's an opportunity to build something new. Maggots, mushrooms, and mold are actors in your process, not unlike familiars. You probably keep a garden, nourished by your meticulously maintained compost pile. Your community might express discomfort with your methods, leading to friction. If you react to criticism by isolating yourself, you won't be lonely for very long—what you have to offer is vital and rare, and it's inevitable that someone will ask you for help.
Connection: Choose one of the following, or choose one of the Focus Connections.
Your foe is dazed (hindered) for the next round.
Your foe is stunned for one round, or you restore 2 points to any one of your Pools.
You are trained in wilderness navigation and in identifying plants and creatures.
You throw a handful of mushrooms that speed toward a target within long range. The attack inflicts 3 points of damage and envelops the target in a haze of toxic spores, which inflicts 1 additional point of damage per round (ignores Armor) for the next minute or until the target uses an action to wash the spores away.
While taking any action (including fighting) in the wild, you ignore any penalties due to natural causes such as tall grass, thick brush, rugged terrain, weather, and so on.
Ability Choice: Choose either Reading Decomposition or both Grasping Foliage and Necromancy at tier 3.
You gain knowledge about an area by reading energy released by decomposition and decay. You can ask the GM a single, matter-of-fact question about the location and get an answer if you succeed on the Intellect roll. “What was the last ritual performed in this room?” is a good example of a simple question. “Why was this room used for a ritual?” is not an appropriate question, because it has more to do with the mindset of whoever performed the ritual than with qualities of the room. Simple questions usually have a difficulty of 2, but technical questions or those that involve facts meant to be kept secret can have a much higher difficulty.Unless an environment is absolutely sterilized, there are enough microbes, fungal spores, and other organic debris in an area to allow you to use Reading Decomposition.
or both
Roots, branches, grass, or other natural foliage in the area snags and holds a foe you designate within short range for up to one minute. A foe caught in the grasping foliage can't move from its position, and all physical tasks, attacks, and defenses are hindered, including attempts to free itself. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to deal damage with the initial attack. Each level applied inflicts 2 additional points of damage when Grasping Foliage first snags and holds your foe.
You can also use this ability to clear an area of entangling growth in the immediate radius, such as an area of tall grass, thick brush, impenetrable vines, and so on.
and
You animate the body of a dead creature of approximately your size or smaller, creating a level 1 creature. It has none of the intelligence, memories, or special abilities that it had in life. The creature follows your verbal commands for one hour, after which it becomes an inert corpse. Unless the creature is killed by damage, you can reanimate it again when its time expires, but any damage it had when it became inert applies to its newly reanimated state. If you have access to multiple bodies, you can create an additional undead creature for each additional Intellect point you spend when you activate the ability.
Action to animate.
If you have Necromancy, your tier 4 ability is Greater Necromancy. If you have Reading Decomposition, your tier 4 ability is Rewind Rot.
This ability works like the Necromancy ability except that it creates a level 3 creature.
Action to animate.
Your grasp on life and death energy means that you can heal—even from death—as long as your head, heart, and hands remain intact. One minute after descending a step on the damage track, you regain 2 Pool points. However, if you return from death, it is with a permanent 2-point reduction in your Intellect Pool. Enabler.
You call a swarm of insects in a place where it is possible for insects to appear. They remain for one minute, and during this time, they do as you command while they are within long range. They can swarm about and hinder any or all creatures' tasks, or you can focus the swarm and attack all targets within immediate range of each other (all within long range of you). The attacking swarm inflicts a minor wound (2 points) per round. You can also command the swarm to move heavy objects through collective effort, eat through wooden walls, and perform other actions suitable for a supernatural swarm
Action to initiate.
Ability Choice: Choose either Restore Life or Word of Death as your tier 6 ability.
You can attempt to restore life to a dead creature of up to level 3, as long as the corpse is no more than a day old and is mostly intact. You can also attempt to restore life to a corpse that is much older but is especially well preserved. The difficulty of the Intellect task is equal to the level of the creature you're attempting to restore to life. For each additional level of Effort applied, you can attempt to restore the life of a creature whose level is 1 higher. When first restored to life, a creature is dazed for at least a day, and all tasks they attempt are hindered. It automatically works on player characters, regardless of tier.
One minute to initiate.
or
Your attack is the utterance of a magic word so terrible that it snuffs the life from a living target within short range. The target must be level 1. In addition to the normal options for using Effort, you can choose to use Effort to increase the maximum level of the target. Thus, to kill a level 5 target (four levels above the normal limit), you must apply four levels of Effort. In some settings, using Word of Death may gradually stain a character’s soul, making them vulnerable to future temptations or evil creatures they might otherwise be able to ignore.
GM Intrusions: A decomposing animal becomes animate and aggravated. A compost pile catches fire. You accidentally cause food to go bad.