The Spiral Path
From FFa2Wiki
Title: Infernalist, Diabolist, Warlock
Origin: Petition
Attribute: Social
School: Evocation
Effects: Acid, Chaos, Death, Disease, Metal, Poison, Profane, Vermin
This Path is one of the most despised and hated paths in Kith Kanaan. Those who practice it are deliberately contacting creatures from the Abyssal and Infernal realms, entreating them to act on the character's behalf, and sacrificing or destroying lives to gain power. The deliberate summoning or bargaining with demons is almost universally banned in Kith Kanaan, and the destruction of Cordona is often used as the case argument against the study of the Spiral Path. This Form of Sorcery is dangerous, as a single mis-step may result in the destruction of the caster, but the powers granted often outweigh the threat.
Those who walk this Path are often desperate, or have no love for their fellows. They sacrifice everything for power and immediate gratification, making pacts with creatures intent on the subjugation or destruction of all life. Those who have morals and who still use this Path are very few, and often very deluded.
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Form Benefits
The character may choose to perform a Petition to summon an Infernal familiar. This ritual is a Results Roll and takes a number of hours equal to the Difficulty. Summoning the Familiar requires an amount of DP equal to the desired Growth of the Familiar, up to the character's Growth. The Potency becomes a Pool, which the character divides among the traits of the Familiar as follows:
- Attribute: The Familiar begins with 1 in each Attribute. Each Pool grants the character one Point to increase an Attribute.
- Size: -6. Each Pool increases the Familiar's Size by +1.
- Skills: The Familiar begins with Occultism 1 and Stealth 1. Each Pool grants the character four Skill Points to split between Skills.
- Talents: The Familiar begins with Devil's Kiss. Each Pool grants the Familiar a Talent.
- Merits: The Familiar may have any one Merit from any Infernal Bloodline. This costs 3 Pool, and can only be used once.
- Powers: The Familiar begins with Wings. Every two Pool grants the Familiar a single Power. If the Power is favoured by the Familiar's Bloodline (determined by taking a Merit), the Power only costs 1 Pool.
- Sorcery: The Familiar begins with no Sorcery. Every three Pool grants the Familiar a Form of Sorcery the character knows, and each additional School costs 1 Pool + 1 for each School the Familiar has.
The game master assigns any new Pool to the Familiar, not the player. The character has no say in how the Familiar progresses.
Familiar Bond
The Familiar, once summoned, forges a bond with the character. The character can speak telepathically with the Familiar at any range as long as they are in the same Realm as a Free Action. If needed, the character can use the Familiar's Essence in place of any the character needs to spend as a Free Action. While the Familiar is within a number of yards equal to the character's Might, they gain a bonus to all Spiral Spells and Form Benefits equal to the Familiar's Growth, without using an Action. Any Spell the character casts upon themselves, can be duplicated onto the Familiar for 1 Essence immediately. The character can gain access to any of the Familiar's senses as an Action, and can cast Spells through the Familiar when doing so as if they were in the Familiar's location. If the Familiar is destroyed, it may be re-summoned by performing the ritual again. The character must roll a Potency equal to the Familiar's Might.
Malefic Rite
At Growth 1, the character can perform a Petition as a Full Round Action. The character makes a Results Roll using Spiritual + Occultism, and performs a sacrifice, inflicting a number of Wounds upon themselves or upon a helpless or willing target equal to the Difficulty chosen. The Potency grants the character a number of Minimum Successes on Benefits from any Invocation Forms or Invocation or Spiral Spells cast for the Scene. Failing the Petition produces a Botch Condition (see below).
Malefic Form
At Growth 3, the character can perform a Petition to gain greater Infernal power. The character makes a Results Roll using Spiritual + Occultism, and performs a sacrifice, inflicting a number of Wounds upon themselves or upon a helpless or willing target equal to the Difficulty chosen. The Potency grants the character the character the ability to manipulate their Traits. For 4 Pool, the character can reduce an Attribute by one, and gain a permanent +1 Bonus to any Attribute. For 2 Pool, the character can reduce four Skills by one, and gain a +4 Bonus to split between any Skills as the character sees fit. For 1 Pool the character can lose a Talent and gain any other Talent as a Bonus Talent. Manipulation of Attributes and Skill adjust the character's Growth and Experience accordingly. The character's Base Attributes can not go below 1 in this fashion. Failing the Petition produces a Botch Condition (see below).
Malefic Bargain
At Growth 5, the character can perform a Petition to gain greater Infernal power. The character makes a Results Roll using Spiritual + Occultism, and performs a sacrifice, inflicting a number of Wounds upon themselves or upon a helpless or willing target equal to the Difficulty chosen. The character then spends 20 DP minus the Potency of the roll to gain one Power of the character's choice, permanently. If the character can not afford the DP Cost, all the character's DP is spent and the Power is gained for a number of days equal to the DP spent. Failing the Petition produces a Botch Condition (see below).
Malefic Minion
At Growth 7, the character may choose to perform a Petition to summon an Infernal Ally. This ritual is a Results Roll and takes a number of hours equal to the Difficulty. Summoning the Ally requires an amount of DP equal to the desired Growth of the familiar, up to the character's Might. The Potency becomes a Pool that the character divides among the traits of the Ally as follows:
- Attribute: The Ally begins with 2 in each Attribute. Each Pool grants the character two Points to increase an Attribute.
- Size: +3. Each Pool increases the Ally's Size by +1.
- Skills: The Ally begins with Occultism 2 and Unarmed 2. Each Pool grants the character six Skill Points to split between Skills.
- Talents: The Ally begins with Devil's Kiss. Each Pool grants the Ally a Talent.
- Merits: The Ally may have any one Merit from any Infernal Bloodline. This costs 3 Pool, and can only be used once.
- Powers: The Familiar begins with Natural Weapons, Resilience, and Wings. Every two Pool grants the Ally a single Power. If the Power is favoured to the Ally's Bloodline (determined by taking a Merit), the Power only costs 1 Pool.
- Sorcery: The Ally begins with no Sorcery. Every three Pool grants the Ally a Form of Sorcery the character knows, and each additional School costs 1 Pool + 1 for each School the Ally has.
The game master assigns any new Pool to the Familiar, not the player. The character has no say in how the Familiar progresses.
The Ally, once summoned, forges a bond with the character. The character can speak telepathically with the Ally at any range as long as they are in the same Realm as a Free Action. While the Ally is assisting in the casting of a Spell, the character gains a bonus to the Spell equal to the Ally's Growth. Any Spell the character casts upon themselves, can be duplicated onto the Ally for 1 Essence immediately. If the Ally is destroyed, it may be re-summoned by performing the ritual again. The character must roll a Potency equal to the Ally's Might. Failing the Petition produces a Botch Condition (see below).
Botch Conditions
When performing a Spiral Spell or using a Spiral Benefit, the character taps into infernal energies. Contacting the Infernal Realms for power is dangerous, and can destroy the character, body and soul. If at any time, when performing a Spell or using a Benefit, the character does not gain any Successes beyond the Minimum Successes the character may have, the Petition or Spell fails, and the character suffers a Botch.
The Infernal hate weakness. For every die the character rolled as part of the Petition or the Spell, the character loses one Bonus Trait that they possess (gained from the Malefic Form Benefit), chosen by the game master. If the character has any dice remaining, they must make a Spiritual + Presence roll against a Difficulty equal to the number of unclaimed dice left. This roll is made for each Malefic Minion the character has, and then finally for the character's Familiar. Each time the character fails, the Minion or Familiar turns against the character. Depending on how powerful the character is, the Infernal may attack, or leave to destroy the character another day. If the character has no Minions or Familiars and suffers a Botch, the character must make an immediate Death Save with a Difficulty equal to the number of dice remaining unclaimed. If the character fails, their soul is pulled screaming into the Infernal Realms, and the character dies immediately.
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