Elemental Magic

Basic Elemental Magic
Elemental magic involves calling upon or conjuring physical power from the pure elements. It uses more basic magical techniques - such as names of power - to achieve these effects. There are, of course, actually four or more distinct types of elemental magic - one for each element - but they all follow similar rules. Each requires the appropriate Elemental Lore skill, which contains the basic knowledge for working with that element. Separate magical traditions may use different techniques, but the skill is functionally equivalent, for the most part. The Elemental Lore skills allow the following actions:

• Entice Element: Novice. The character whispers to a small amount of the element, attempting to make it obey his will. The character may attempt to control no more than approximately 1 cubic foot of the element per rank - slightly more for air, less for earth, due to density. This amount costs 1 Ka per round; if the character is attempting to have the element do something contrary to nature (such as water flowing uphill) it costs double this. Note that some actions may not be possible; for example, water cannot bridge a gap, and fire needs fuel to continue burning. The character must Concentrate on the element and then roll his Lore skill against a TN which is based on the difficulty of what he is asking.
• Conjure Mote: Apprentice. The character may conjure a small amount of the element. This is no more than may be held in a hand. Note that the element will actually appear above the character's palm, or at the tip of a finger, and will swiftly disperse (water and air), go out (fire), or crumble to dust (earth). The character must Concentrate and then roll his Lore against a TN of 11. Whether successful or not, 1 Stability must be expended. The mote will not last beyond the round in which it is conjured.
• Sense Element: Apprentice. The character may attempt to sense nearby amounts of the element. Purity is a factor and may adjust the TN. The character may normally sense a relatively large amount of the element within 100' per rank, assuming he can roll against an 11 with Perception. Smaller amounts either greatly drive up the TN or decrease the range. Great concentrations of matter in the way can likewise decrease range and/or raise the TN. This ability requires Concentration and a full round action.
• Expand Element: Apprentice. The character may attempt to increase the amount of the element present at a particular location. The element must already be present in a relatively pure form; the character Concentrates on this, and after a full round rolls against a TN of 15; if successful, over the course of the next round additional elemental material will appear. Each of these 2 rounds the character must expend 1 Stability, and 1 Ka must be expended in the second round. The amount of element that can be conjured per round is no more than the original amount present, and in any event no more than the character could Entice; the character may continue for as many rounds as his level in his Lore skill, paying the same costs (1 Stability and 1 Ka) each round. Naturally, he must continue to Concentrate. The additional element slowly dissipates, although its effects may linger.
• Deflect Element: Journeyman. The character may attempt to turn the element away from his person. The character may attempt to deflect a specific manifestation of the element, or may simply maintain this power against any that comes at him. Maintaining the power requires Concentration, 1 Ka, and 1 Stability per round; the character rolls to establish a TN for anything to beat to reach him. Any source of the element not reaching this does only half damage; if the roll is under 50% of the character's, no damage is suffered. If against a particular source, the character must Concentrate on that source, and then roll against an appropriate TN for the source, expending 1 Ka per every 5 points of TN in the process. If the character rolls at least 50% of the TN he suffers only half damage; if he reaches the TN he takes no damage. Note that this protects only for a single round.
• Distant Mote: Journeyman. The character may attempt to conjure the elemental mote at a distance. The character announces that he is attempting this, and then attempts to Concentrate on the spot he wishes the mote to appear. Assuming he is successful, he may attempt on the next action to Conjure the mote; naturally he must continue Concentrating. This raises the TN to conjure the mote by 3, and increases the cost by 1 Ka. If all is successful, the mote appears as he wishes.
• Traveling Mote: Journeyman. The character may attach a velocity to a mote as he conjures it. The character must select a target or at least direction and Concentrate on it, and then may attempt to summon the mote on the next phase. This raises the conjuring TN by 3. In addition, the cost to summon the mote is raised by 1 Ka.
• Extended Duration: Journeyman. The character may make his mote last slightly longer by expending Stability. 1 Stability buys 1 more round of existence for the mote.
• Imbue Element: Journeyman. The elements in their pure forms lack many of the virtues that normal impure matter possesses. For example, elemental earth will not grow plants, nor is it hard and durable like stone or malleable like metal. This ability allows the elementalist to sacrifice some bit of impure matter to transfer some of its properties to the element he summons. The stronger the virtue, the less matter is needed. For example, sacrificing a diamond to create a stone wall is the same as sacrificing a cubic foot of normal stone. Note that this does not enable the character to actually create specific items; you cannot get diamonds this way. Rather, you can pass along the concept of hardness from the diamond to the element (although it will not be quite as hard). A list of a few of the possibilities follows this section. To Imbue, the character must Concentrate on the normal matter while in contact with it, and expend at least 1 Ka and 1 Stability. He then attempts to Conjure normally, although there is at least a +3 to the TN. If successful, the normal matter disappears and the element appears with the desired trait. Note that living matter cannot be used for this ability.
• Purify: Master. With Concentration, the character may sift matter, moving it toward a purer elemental state. This requires 2 Ka per round.
• Conjure Sphere: Master. The character may conjure a larger amount of material, equal to a sphere that can fit in both palms (about 6 inches in diameter). This costs 2 Stability and 1 Ka and has a TN of 14. All of the variants on mote conjuring can be performed with a sphere instead.
• Command Element: Grandmaster. The character may control the element to a much greater degree than with Entice Element, going beyond its normal restrictions. For example, wind can be made to carry a message, fire to burn only certain things, etc. The amount that can be controlled is similar to the lower rank ability. Naturally, Concetration rolls must be made first. Both immediate and extended commands may be issued. Immediate commands are similar to the sort of thing you might issue under Entice Element; go this way, climb here, etc. The major difference is that you can command almost anything, even if contrary to natural law, so long as it is not contrary to the nature of the element. For example, you could command water to form into a pillar, but you cannot command it to become acid. You could, however, have it freeze itself into ice. Regardless, this requires 1 Action per round spent in Concentration, as well as the expenditure of 3 Ka per round (including the cost for the Concentration). Extended commands, on the other hand, are designed to last without Concentration. For example, wind could be given a message to deliver, or an ice wall could be formed and left to melt on its own. Setting these commands up may require an immediate command. For example, that ice wall may take an immediate command to make the wall, and then the extended command could be issued to make it stay ice. The character must Concentrate on the element for 1 round, then expend 3 Ka and Stability equal to the number of minutes the command will last. Note that some commands, such as messages, may be completed in less time than expected; in this case the Stability is not refunded. The character may burn points of Mind to extend this time; each point raises the units by 1 (i.e. minutes to hours to days to weeks to months to seasons to years). In addition, the character may increase the amount of material affected by expending Spirit; each point burned doubles the volume.

Virtues for Imbuing
This is a partial list of ways to Imbue conjured elements. The listed costs are in addition to the 1 Ka and 1 Stability used for the ability itself.

• Fertile: Earth. Use some form of fertilizer, and expend +4 Ka and Stability. This creates Earth that will support plants and grow strong, hardy plants, even after the duration ends (assuming it is mixed with a greater volume of natural dirt.
• Hardness: Earth. Use a diamond or a larger volume of stone, expend +1 Ka and Stability. This creates stone similar to granite. A smaller volume of stone can be used to create softer walls, down to approximately adobe durability; softer walls also do not require the additional expenditure. Expending an additional diamond or similar very hard material, as well as 4 extra stability, can create virtually indestructible walls.
• Color: Fire. Use colored flames or colored flammable material to produce colored flames. Note that the colors should be similar, but do not have to be identical.
• Poison: Air or Water.
• Scent: Any.
• Vital: Water. Use blood to produce a liquid which can be ingested to replace blood and aid healing. Each Hit sacrificed is enough to create a sphere; this is enough to heal 4 Hits, or 2 if the blood is from a different species. No more than 50% of damage can be healed in this fashion. This requires +3 Ka and +1 Stability, and adds +2 to the TN (+5 total).

Combining Elements
The four elements can be combined in various ways to produce other effects. Many of these are also found in nature, as the physical world is made of combinations of the elements. To work with multiple elements simultaneously, the character must possess both Elemental Lore skills. The character may attempt any magic he is allowed by his lower-Ranked skill, but must spend an action preparing the other element. To do this, he makes a roll just as if he were performing the most basic form of what he is attempting. A second action is then spent to make the actual roll, with all modifiers, with the primary element. For example, a character who is trying to create a lightning bolt must roll to Concentrate on his target, then roll for summoning fire, then roll for summoning air - and after this is when the bolt appears. The roll for fire, in this case, does not require any velocity, distance, or other modifiers, as it is being used as the secondary element. Both rolls do, however, receive a +2 to difficulty for each element being added. Otherwise, if the action requires Stability, 1 Stability must be expended when rolling for the secondary element, and likewise 1 Ka if Ka is required. The roll for the primary element also requires +1 Stability.

Combined elemental forms include:

• Lightning: fire + air.
• Fog, Rain, Cloud: water + air.
• Steam: fire + water.
• Lava: fire + earth.
• Mud: earth + water.
• Dust: earth + air.
• Thunderstorm: fire + air + water.
• Hailstorm: air + water + earth.
• Geysers: water + earth + fire.
• Sandstorm: fire + earth + air.

Elemental Mastery
The various Elemental Mastery skills are focused skills under the Elemental Lores. One exists for each element, and in addition combined forms exist; Lightning Mastery, for example. Note that if the elementalist is wishing to use Mastery abilities with combined elements, he can only work with the lowest Rank Mastery he possesses for that combination. For example, an Apprentice Master of Air cannot use his Mastery abilities in the creation of lightning if he does not also possess Fire Mastery. This is the reason for taking combination Masteries. Some mastery abilities are shared by all the elements; others are specific. General abilities include:

• Increase Amount: Novice. The character may add his Mastery rank to his Lore rank for purposes of determining how much he can Entice/ Control. Note that this increases the cost of doing so as well.
• Attract Element: Apprentice. The character may attempt to pull manifestations of the element in his area toward him. This works similarly to Entice Element, but is not specific to one unit of the element. Rather, any of the element with his sight (even if he cannot actually distinguish it; for example, this ability can be used on air even though the elementalist can obviously not see air) can be affected by this power. Because other factors are acting upon the element, it may not actually reach the character. For example, an elementalist uses this on a body of water; a current forms towards him. If the water is already agitated, smaller waves may form into a larger wave that rushes at him. Attracting lightning during a storm causes strikes to occur closer to the elementalist than normal, and some (perhaps many) will definitely hit him. Obviously this ability has many dangers. This ability requires Concentration and 2 Ka per round. Note that the element does not gain any unusual abilities by use of this power. The TN will be set by the GM, and will vary based upon the element and the situation (for instance, Earth is harder than Water to move). The roll may function as a contested roll if some other force is attempting ot restrain the target.
• Conjure Flow: Apprentice. Similar to Conjure Mote and Conjure Sphere, this power allows the wizard to summon a greater amount of the element. The amount here is larger, and is "poured" from the mage's hands. The total amount conjured is similar to that the wizard can control with Entice Element. This has a TN of 17 and a cost of 3 Ka and 3 Stability.
• Elemental Joining: Apprentice. The wizard may summon elemental material into his own physical form. This has certain dangers, but can also provide benefits. This power varies depending upon how much is summoned: mote-equivalent, sphere, or flow. Each element has three levels for this power, based upon how much is summoned. The character must roll to summon the amount as normal, but adds +3 to the TN, +1 to the Ka cost, and the wizard loses Hits equal to the amount of Ka expended. Earth makes the character more resistant to damage, so he gains a damage absorbtion of 1, 2, or 3. Fire warms the character; he gains Resistance 1, 2, or 3 against cold attacks; he also can Concentrate to expel the fire from him by breathing it, or Concentrate to ignite flammable materials. If the character has more than a mote Joined, he may expend smaller amounts than the full, which are equal to either a mote or a sphere. For example, a character joined with a flow may release a sphere's worth and still keep a mote Joined. Breathing flame acts as if a Traveling mote was conjured, although it affects a cone immediately in front of him. Igniting objects typically requires a mote's worth. Air can make the character lighter; a mote allows him to walk on liquids or to fall slower, while a sphere allows levitation, and a flow allows slow flight. Water provides heat and fire Resistance in the same manner as Fire does for cold; also, the character can attempt to extinguish fires he comes into contact with. Joining with Water does 1 Hit less damage than the other elements. This ability lasts for 1 minute per point of Body the wizard possesses. It cannot be used if Body is lower than Spirit.
• Excite Element: Apprentice. The wizard may provide greater energy to the element. The mote's damage die increases by one step for elements where this is appropriate (for example, fire and lightning). This requires a TN increase of +2 and the expenditure of +2 Ka. Note that certain combinations are not possible; for example, Exciting Ice merely melts or shatters it. Note that this does not provide heat, as that is part of Fire.
• Elemental Boon: Journeyman. As Elemental Joining, but the wizard can affect another creature with contact. This again adds +1 to the Ka cost and +3 to the TN.
• Endure Element: Journeyman. The wizard moves his body closer to a chosen element, enabling him to withstand that element better. The character effectively gains a Resistance to the element while this is active. Activation requires Concentration and 2 Ka; maintainence costs 1 Stability per minute. The elementalist may sacrifice a point of Mind to make this a permanent effect.
• Still Element: Journeyman.
• Sense of the Element: Journeyman. The wizard may, through contact with the chosen element, feel other manifestations of the same element at a distance. This enables him to locate such manifestations, and to know what is happening in contact with them. This does not enable him to actually perceive anything in that area; it is more general knowledge. For example, a water wizard might be able to tell that several ships were on the sea; the GM might give him a better estimate if he could make a Perception roll. In general, this power allows sensing out about 1 mile per Rank. However, if the element is not continous, the GM may stop it before that limit; likewise, if the only instance of the element is beyond this range, the GM may provide this information, but even less specifics.
• Elemental Scrying: Master.
• Inhabit Element: Master.
• Elemental Traveling:
• Elemental Becoming: Grandmaster. The character changes himself into living element.

• Elemental Gate: Grandmaster.

• Emulate: Special. The character may learn and use Lore abilites for the combined form. The character must possess both basic elements at the proper Rank to use the ability. In addition, the character must either do research or learn these abilities from some other source; they are not automatically gained. The character uses his Mastery level for these abilities.

Attacks and Damage from Elemental Magic
Attacking with summoned material requires the wizard to either strike his target with the element in his hand, throw the mote or sphere, or send it to the target with Traveling mote. Attacking with a mote in hand is the same as an unarmed attack and throwing a mote is a throwing attack; the mote is an improvised weapon, but the wizard receives no penalty in this case. If the wizard uses Traveling Mote, he makes an attack roll using his Intelligence and his Lore skill against the target's defense. Note that armor is only effective against physical attacks, so it does not stop Fire,Lightning, or Steam. Armor will stop Lava, but the heat damage (per phase) will still get through, and, in addition, the armor will suffer damage to its durability.
A mote of Fire does 1d4 damage. A mote of Earth does 1d4 non-lethal damage (that is, only 25% of it goes to Hits, the remainder to Stamina). Air and water motes do no damage normally. A sphere does 1d8 (Fire), 1d6 (Earth, still non-lethal), or nothing. Certain variations do different amounts of damage. Imbuing Earth with Hardness changes its damage to lethal. Traveling Mote can accelerate summoned material; this has little effect on Fire, but increases the Earth die type by one; if Water is frozen and then has Traveling Mote used, it does damage equal to Hardened Earth. Ice and Hardened Earth could also be shaped using Command into sharpened projectiles; these do 1d8 damage. Using Traveling Mote on a mote of Air can do 1d4 non-lethal damage. This damage is not increased by using a sphere, but the attack gains a Knockdown chance. Lightning does 2d4 damage from a mote and 2d6 damage from a sphere. Steam does 1d4 and 2d4, respectively. Lava does 1d6 and 2d6, respectively; it also clings and does either 1 or 2 points per phase until removed. If Traveling Mote is used with Lava, it does +1 damage.