Dark Magic

Dark Sorcerers focus magical energy through a theoretical structure they call the Fabric of Fate. This invisible substance pervades all of space and time, and its warp and weft determine the direction matter falls.Any Sorcerer can gain the abilities in this section with XP. However, you must first know or learn ✪ Focus Dark Magic to learn the other Dark Magic abilities.

✪ Focus Dark Magic

✦✦ Intellect Requires two free hands. Take -1 awareness and roll Focus to magically manipulate the Dark Fabric. You generate dark focus equal to your roll*. You can then immediately cast a dark magic spell you’ve learned. ↳ * If you know the Scrolls of the Sorcerer lore, you generate dark focus equal to your roll + your Intellect. Spells. You know six spells as part of this ability: ⧨Untether, ⧨Curve, ⧨Fling, ⧨Fate's Grasp, ⧨Fall, and ⧨Rise. Spellbinding. The ⧨Fate's Grasp spell enables you to spellbind a foe, entangling them with the Fabric of Fate—similarly to Taking hold of a foe, but with magic and over a distance. Certain spells—⧨Fall, ⧨Rise, and others you can learn—only work against foes you've spellbound this way.If you spellbind a foe who also knows dark magic, beware—the binding goes both ways, and they can cast similar spells on you!

Maintaining Dark Focus

Focusing dark magic produces a deep, pulsing noise—wohm-wohm-wohm—that’s noticeable anywhere within earshot. While you have dark focus:

You can't regain awareness.
You automatically fail to take Initiative.
You and allies close to you can’t Hide—unless the wohm-wohm pulse is somehow muffled or drowned out.

Focus is precarious and can be lost. If you take lethal damage, make a free challenge roll to maintain your focus. Roll your Focus die.

✦ 5+: You maintain focus.

⬖ 3–4: You can take -1 awareness to maintain focus, or else:

ⓧ 1–2: You lose all focus you've accumulated.

⧨ Untether | DARK FOCUS 2+

As an action (no roll required), you cast yourself into freefall. You rise up to 1 height in the air and float. You can continue floating as long as you expend 1 focus at the start of each subsequent turn (no action required) to maintain the spell. At any point you wish, you can end the effect and drift harmlessly to the ground. However, if you lose your focus after taking lethal damage, the effect ends suddenly, and you fall normally (and dangerously). You can also cast this spell as a reaction if you're about to suffer falling damage, provided you have focus to cast it. Cast this way, you twist gravity so you take no damage from the fall, but you don't rise 1 height or float.

⧨ Curve | DARK FOCUS 4

You imbue the space around you with extra gravity, causing the trajectories of incoming attacks to plunge downward or veer sideways. Until your next turn, each time you’re attacked, roll Focus and subtract the result from the attack roll. You can also cast this spell as a reaction to an incoming attack, provided you have the focus required. However, you can only affect one incoming attack at a time this way.

⧨ Fling | DARK FOCUS 1

You magically levitate and accelerate a loose projectile at a foe. Make a ranged attack, but roll Focus instead of your Attack die. This attack inflicts lethal damage and -1 guard.You can cast this spell using loose debris or rocks as your ammunition, which are easily found on most of the Skysea’s islands. You can also collect and hold debris in a pouch stowed on your belt.

⧨ Fate's Grasp | DARK FOCUS 0

You weave an invisible cat's cradle with your hands, attempting to spellbind a foe so you can wield dark magic against them more directly. As part of casting this spell, make a ranged attack, but roll Focus instead of your Attack die. ✦ Success: You spellbind the foe and can cast ⧨Fall, ⧨Rise, or another dark magic spell that requires spellbinding as a free action. Add your margin of success on this attack to the subsequent roll. ⬖ Struggle: As above, but without the bonus.ⓧ Failure: No effect. This spell costs no focus and only establishes a temporary link between you, the foe, and the Fabric—a spellbinding. If you cast ⧨Fall, you can maintain the spellbind.

⧨ Fall | DARK FOCUS 2

Requires spellbinding.Roll Brace with focus advantage against a spellbound foe. With a clawlike gesture, you magically pull the foe's body downward with terrible force.✦ Success: Inflict -2 guard (or life, if the foe has no guard). Until you lose all focus or take another action or reaction besides Focusing and casting this spell, the foe remains spellbound and rooted in place: they can't move or maneuver, and they can't make melee attacks unless a foe engages them in melee first.⬖ Struggle: The foe can take -1 stamina to resist your pull, escaping your spellbind.ⓧ Failure: The foe escapes your spellbind.If you successfully cast this spell on an airborne foe, they plunge to the ground at high speed: double their lethal and guard damage from falling.

⧨ Rise | DARK FOCUS 2

Requires spellbinding.Roll Brace with focus advantage against a spellbound foe. The foe's size can't exceed your Intellect. Spinning your hands past each other like a top, you magically toss the foe into the air. ✦ Success: Inflict -1 guard, and the foe abruptly rises 1 height and then falls, taking damage from the impact unless they can avoid it.⬖ Struggle: The foe can take -1 guard to avoid being flung.ⓧ Failure: No effect. Casting this spell ends the spellbind linking you and the foe.

Abilities to Learn

.5xp new ability | 10xp with attribute increase

You must know ✪ Focus Dark Magic before learning the abilities in this section.

✪ Steadfast Focus✧ Will Gain +1 max Spirit. After you Stand Fast, you can immediately Focus Dark Magic as a free action. You can’t cast a spell after Focusing in this way, however.

✪ Wide Magic✦✧ Will You can cast ⧨Fate's Grasp, ⧨Fall, and ⧨Rise simultaneously against a number of targets up to your Will. Multiply the focus required for each spell by the number of targets affected. Make one roll for each action and apply it to all targets.

✪ Heart of Dark Magic✦✦✧ Will Gain +1 max Life and +1 max Stamina.

✪ The Untethered World

✦✦✧ Intellect You've mastered the ⧨Untether spell and expanded its utility.

You can now cast Untether on a willing ally, including as a reaction when they fall.
You can Untether objects—and cast the ⧨Fling spell to throw them at foes!

You can simultaneously Untether yourself and one additional character or object, expending 2 focus at the start of each turn to maintain both.Untethering an object requires more focus the larger the object is. The focus required equals the object's Structure. When you expend this focus, the object rises up to 1 height and hovers there, but doesn't float actively like a character would. At the start of your next turn, you can:

Expend 1 focus (no action required) to maintain the spell, which keeps the object hovering in place,
Cast ⧨Untether again, expending focus equal to its Structure, to raise the object an additional height, or
Cast ⧨Fling to attack a foe (or foes) with the object.

Flinging an object can inflict much more damage to more foes, depending on the object's size.

The AoE (area of effect) shows how many targets you can potentially strike at once by Flinging an object. The targets must be standing near each other. Roll once to attack all of them.
If your Fling attack doesn't miss, add the listed Impact attack bonus before resolving it, and increase the guard damage accordingly as well.

✪ Origin of Curvature

✦✦✧ Intellect You gain a deeper understanding of the Fabric’s form, sensing how its curvature determines—and is determined by—the presence and motion of matter. You know the following dark magic spells:

⧨ Satellite | DARK FOCUS 2

Mirroring your circular gesture, a small object—such as a rock or a dagger—begins orbiting around your body, then accelerates to an extremely high speed. Cast this spell as an action (no roll required). Expend 1 focus at the start of each subsequent turn to maintain the orbit (no action required). If a foe makes a melee attack against you, the orbiting object interrupts and attacks the foe. Roll 3d4 for the orbiting object’s attack. The object inflicts -1 guard and lethal damage up to your Intellect +1, and can't be countered. On a hit or block, the object stops orbiting and falls to the ground.Alternatively, you can convert the object's orbital motion to a ranged attack with the ⧨Fling spell, which inflicts an extra -1 guard.

⧨ Hyperbolic Curve

This technique improves the ⧨Curve spell. If casting Curve causes an incoming ranged attack projectile to miss, you can redirect the projectile at a foe: make a free ranged attack with focus advantage. Your target doesn’t have to be the foe who attacked you.

✪ Warp and Weft

✦✦✧ Intellect

You can sense the details of the Fabric’s substance as a complex space of precisely-interwoven coordinates. You know the following dark magic spells:

⧨ Sense Density | DARK FOCUS 4

As an action (no roll required), you sweep your hands across an area. You sense changes in density in the space ahead, “feeling” them as textures in the Fabric of Fate. This magic reveals:

Invisible creatures or objects
Large, solid objects in the distance—islands, vehicles, or objects—hidden beneath the clouds or in the darkness of night
Interior spaces—tunnels, rooms, vaults—within solid structures like buildings or caverns

The magic only reveals something’s rough form and density, as if by blind touch. Moving things are much easier to sense than stationary ones.In the short period of your turn, this spell only reveals rough shapes—a pocket of air within solid rock, or a skyreme beneath the clouds. Sensing more complex structures—such as the layout of an underground lair, or the deck plan and number of people aboard a skyreme—requires casting this spell continuously as a rest activity.

⧨ Condense Coordinates | DARK FOCUS 4+

Requires spellbinding.This spell greatly increases gravity at a tiny point in space—perhaps a foe’s head or heart. You can only cast this spell at a foe you've spellbound with ⧨Fate's Grasp.Expend focus equal to the size of a die—a minimum of a d4 (4 focus) and a maximum equal to the size of your Focus die. Then roll the die. You can’t gain advantage on this roll.You inflict -2 guard and lethal damage equal to the result. This attack can’t be blocked, dodged, or absorbed by armor.Casting this spell ends the spellbind linking you and the foe.

✪ Mass Acceleration

✦✦✧ Intellect

This ability empowers the ⧨Fling, ⧨Fall, and ⧨Rise spells.

When you cast Fling, you can expend an additional 1 focus (2 altogether), causing the projectile to inflict -2 guard.
When you cast ⧨Fall, you inflict -3 guard on a success.
When you cast ⧨Rise, you can expend an additional 2 focus to toss the foe an additional 1 height (2 heights altogether).

✪ Black Gauntlet Synergy

✦✦✧ Intellect Requires a pair of black gauntlets. During a rest, roll Focus. You store an amount of dark focus equal to the result in your black gauntlets, which emit a continuous, moderately loud wohm-wohm-wohm pulse until the focus is discharged. This roll doesn't count as a rest activity, and the focus generated doesn’t prevent you from regaining Awareness.

✪ Topology

✦✦✦✧ Intellect

You’ve learned how to fold and even pierce the Fabric of Fate. You know the following dark magic spells:

⧨ Tesseract | DARK FOCUS 8

You fold space around yourself and any number of characters of your choice in your span, seemingly teleporting into a cube-shaped room with walls, floor, and ceiling made of translucent faience. You can only see blurred light from outside the cube.To outside observers, you and anyone else in the tesseract appears to vanish. To Zordin with Sideways Sight or similar abilities, you, your allies, and the cube appear superimposed over the space you were in previously, all suspended in slow-motion.After one minute in the tesseract, the walls of the cube fade, and you reappear in the same space you were in—where an hour has passed. (Time passes faster in the tesseract.)The tesseract’s volume is size 6. You can form a tesseract within a smaller space, but you can’t enfold characters or objects inside your tesseract that themselves are size 6 or larger.If you create a tesseract within a tesseract, the Guide rolls six times on the Dreamshape tables (see the Dream lore) and chooses the worst result.

⧨ Portal | DARK FOCUS 8

You pull the air in front of you apart, revealing a shimmering portal that you and others can step through. The portal lasts for the duration of the Hero Round, and leads to a space of your choosing that you can see.If you open a portal to a dangerous space—for example, the empty expanse above the bottomless Skysea—an ally can try to Shove a foe through the portal while you hold it open. The ally must make their Shove roll with a -2 penalty, however, since the portal is not large. Only characters and objects of size 3 and smaller can fit through the portal.

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