Pacts and Spirits: Giving Up Your Self for Power

 I'd been thinking about how I wanted to go about adding warlocks to Destination:Nowhere for a little while, because I wanted to base it on the kinds of pacts made in ChainsawMan, which doesn't lend itself to a four template class format very well.

And so, in favour of flavour, I've decided to go about it in a different way. Every game needs a way to get neat powers outside classes anyways, right?

First we need to reestablish some things about the world, and how spirits operate.

Spirits

Souls are the most common kinds of spirits, they drift around, doing whatever souls do, mostly invisible to humans. They are the spark that sets a forest ablaze, or the mote of wind whistling through the crags. By inhabiting a flesh sack, a soul can grant it sentience, it's own will and determination. It is through a common ritual imbuing that gibbering babies learn to form words. Humans, of course, are not the only species able to gain this sentience, but they most commonly possess it. It is also possible to lose your soul, and in turn lose what makes you unique, this is how men are driven to become like wild beasts, relinquishing their self.

In contrast, it is also possible to tether additional souls to your own, by doing this, you can send out these other souls to perform feats of magic. However, if you're not careful, you may allow another soul to domineer it's will over your body, altering your self along with it.

Artist

Guardians are the more rare spirits. They're more powerful, and choose to inhabit parts of the world, such as mountains, forest groves, or rivers. They manifest themselves from the land they inhabit, and gain followers from nearby souls. The will of a guardian spirit can manifest through the wills of their followers; thus, by garnering a large enough following, guardians can increase their power, influence, and domain, sometimes even putting themselves over other guardian spirits.

By choosing to imprint a larger part of a guardian spirit's will on your self, you can manifest aspects of that spirit. This is known as a pact. Any person may choose to accept a pact, though it is just as easy to be coerced or forced into taking one. If any person goes against the will established in a pact however, the consequences are often quite severe, often result in death or the loss of your soul.

Artist

There's one more class of spirits, known as angels. Angels inhabit celestial bodies, and thus rarely affect the goings on of those on Maamilla, both the name of the planet as well as the common name of it's angel. Angels imprint their will on entire celestial bodies, and thus it can be said that anything which comes from the earth, or rather all life, is a part of Maamilla. The natural instincts of this life are how Maamilla's will expresses itself, in order to keep its dwelling alive.

Pacts

A pact can be made with a guardian spirit or, more rarely, an angel. By letting the more powerful entity in on your Self, it influences aspects of your outward and inward appearance. Those imprinted by a spirit often show some physical trait of the spirit that controls them, and have parts of their personality affected by that spirits Will.

It is not uncommon to see entire villages which are under the influence of a guardian spirit, who may help protect them from attacks, as well as helping their livelihoods.

Cencayohtli

Domains: Cultivation, Burials, Vines.

Mark: shows as a hole peering into a hollow cavity in the forehead, looking inside it will show a weirdly distant rattling skull.

Gift: You don't require water to survive however, the longer you go without it, the more dried up you appear.
If you go a month without drinking water, you gain a permanently dried up appearance, and look not unalike to a hollow dried gourd in the shape of a man.

Imprint: You hate animals and they hate you. They'll either be violent towards you or give you a wide berth. If interrogated they will state that you smell like oppression, this is true and you are at least a little more tyrannical than you were before making this deal.

Atoyaatl-Cihuapille

Domains: Flowing Water, Smooth Stones, Farewells.

Mark: bright blue eyes which glow mildly in darkness.

Gift: You are incapable of drowning in water so long as it isn't stagnant.

Imprint: You forgo your name and Important belongings, no bond is permanent, and you can stay in no land forever.

Temazatl

Domains: Obsidian, Slumber, Dying Flames

Mark: Forearms that appear blackened and charred beginning from about halfway down the arm.

Gift: You are not harmed by reaching your arms into fire. The rest of your body and possessions are more than capable of burning up.

Imprint: After a significant achievement or victory, you must surrender an object of value to the fire. Apathy and inactivity is against your nature now.

UPDATED: GLoG Wizard Chassis: the Soulcaster

Starting Gear: Ceremonial Garb (identifies you as a soulcaster), knife, birdcage.

[A]: Tethered Souls, Spells +1 MD

[B]: Soul Vision, +1 MD

[C]: Spiritual Shunting, Astral Travels +1 MD

[D]: Vomit Soul, +1 MD

Tethered Souls

You can tether additional souls to your body, allowing you to cast them as spells. You begin play with two spells from your school. nd generate both it's spirit score and personality.

Spells

You get a list of spells determined by your school, with the last two being Pinnacle Spells. Whenever you gain a new spell-soul, roll 1d6 and consult your school's spell list. Whenever a spell is gained from the list, remove it and move all spells on the list ahead of it down by one. You begin play knowing two of the spells from this list.

You cast spells with a number of dice called Magic Dice, or MD. A level one Soulcaster begins play with one MD. You can invest as many MD into a spell as you currently have. Each time a spent MD rolls a 3-6, it is depleted for the day and can no longer be used.

Whenever you roll doubles, The spell-soul you just cast moves to hating you. It will still serve you as it's bound to you. If the number of spell-souls that hate you outnumber those that don't, they will stage a coup, causing you to lose half of your spells, determined randomly. After a coup they become content again.
You can choose to do a favor for a spell-soul that currently hates you, which usually involves you suffering in some way, to bring it back into the realm of contentment.

Soul Vision

You can see the souls inside living beings. This allows you to see whether or not a creature has a soul, as well as allowing you to see where an invisible being would be.

Additionally, you can pick up on small markings within wildlife areas that tell you when you're in a Guardian Spirit's territory.

Spiritual Shunting

You can shift unwanted curses or pacts onto the spirits who are tethered to you, make sure to keep track of these. If a spirit with curses or pacts placed on it has taken you over, you regain any of those attached afflictions. Additionally, if a spell-soul of yours breaks a pact you have made, they are affected by that pact. It should go without saying that using this effect on one of your spell-spirits will cause them to hate you.

Astral Travels

You can choose to enter the astral realm in whatever way your practice allows you to, bringing you to a cosmic realm wherein the true forms of spirits reside. Your Spell-Souls guide you on this journey, with all that implies. In this realm, it can be far easier to seek out and speak with particular spirits, even from great distances.

Vomit Soul

You gain the ability to cast your own soul out of your body. This takes the form of one of this class' Pinnacle Spells, chosen at random. Each time you do this, there is a 1-in-6 chance one of the other souls you have tethered to yourself will take control over your body, this chance increases by one for each spell-soul you have that actively hates you. When this happens, you gain that spell's Spirit score and personality.

Pinnacle Spell List (1d6)

1.  Deluge - An area of [dice] mile radius centered on yourself receives heavy rain for [dice] days. If cast with one [die], clouds gather over the course of [least] days, to steadily rain on the target area for the duration. If cast with two, clouds hurry to the area on sudden winds over [least] hours. If cast with three, the clouds are visibly dragged across the sky within [least] minutes. Casting with four [dice] will cause you to vomit out dark storm clouds which form immediately, and the duration is extended to [sum] days.
2. Fireball - An explosion is called at a point [sum] feet from the caster that has a [dice]*5 foot radius. Any creatures caught within the explosion immediately incurs a Serious wound. Breakable structures are blasted away.
3. Love and Death - If [sum] exceeds the caster's Spirit score, the target is killed, and their spirit is stolen by the caster. If [sum] does not exceed the caster's Spirit score, the target gains a Serious wound.
4. Mighty Wind - You expel a powerful blast of wind. At one [die], it's powerful enough to knock a bird out of the sky. At two [die], it's powerful enough to knock a person off their feet. At three [die], it's powerful enough to knock an elephant off their feet or lift a person [sum] feet backwards in the air. At four [die], it's powerful enough to (temporarily) knock spirits out of their vessels.
5. Untamed Soul - Your vessel cracks and your spirit spills out into a radius of [dice]*10 feet centered on your body. [sum] spirits in the radius must be devoured and erased permanently, this can include your own spell-spirits; you can choose to remove one [dice] from the pool to determine this [sum] to instead devour a Guardian spirit in this way. If a living creature's spirit is devoured in this way, it becomes a mindless beast.
6. Raise Earth - You lift an area of up to [dice] miles out of the ground. At one [die], this will create a sandbar or hill. At two [die], it creates a rocky atoll or a large hill. At three-to-four [die], this will create an island or mountain.

Regurgitative alchemist (GLoG Class)

Starting Gear: mortar and pestle, chalk, jar of snake venom, Prepared components for 1 potion.

[A]: Extra Stomachs, Esophigeal Reaction

[B]: The Path to the Heart is the Stomach

[C]: Smoke Tricks, Eureka

Extra Stomachs - You have three extra stomachs, each of which can hold two negligable items. As you swallow, you can choose which stomach(s) the swallowed items go to. Items can only leave a stomach by choosing to regurgitate the full contents of a given stomach. Nothing that is left in your stomachs will affect you in any way unless left in overnight; in which case they will be digested, with all that entails.

Esophigeal Reaction - By regurgitating certain components at the same time, you can belch out a cloud, which effects a 3m diameter circle, with you at the back of it. The effect lasts 1d6 rounds.

The Path to the Heart is the Stomach - Whenever you would gain any number of fatal wounds. You can instead choose to permanently lose 1 stomach and immediately stabilize.

Smoke Tricks - You can now change the shape of your belch, choosing what areas it affects, as long as the cloud stays within a 3m radius of your person.

Eureka: - You have a stroke of genius, and can, as a player, create your own Reaction.

 Reactions

1. Breath of Life

    Components - bone-dry twig, aged feces

Sprouts up bushes and local flora in the area, as well as boosting growth in existing flora dramatically. If there is already local plant life in the area, it becomes impassible until cleared out.

2. Aspect of the serpent

    Components - A snake fang, psychedelic mushroom

Intelligent creatures within the cloud must save or begin mindlessly wriggling along the ground while sticking their tongues out.

3. Rising Sun

    Components - a salt rock, wet earth, bird eye

A wave of intense heat is felt a moment before the affected area is ungulfed in an explosion. Anyone in the area immediately rolls wounds.

4. Transposition

    Components - brimstone , pine resin, nightshade

A cloud of ash envelopes the area, switch places with anybody in the cloud.

5. Irritation

     Components - burnt wood, poison ivy, oil

Dramatically increases the amount of irritants in the surrounding air, causing coughing, choking, and a burning sensation in those who inhale it.

6. Sucking Sands

    Components - driftwood, fish eye, baked clay

The area becomes malleable and wet. Creatures and objects touching surfaces in the area begin to fold into the surface, making it difficult to get out. Eventually a creature left inside the area will be pulled in fully and suffocate.

Reverse-Oddomatic Combats

    This post will be detailing a combat system I will be dubbing: "reverse oddomatic"; which isn't technically accurate, butbit almost makes sense.

    Combat in this system has two phases: the attack roll, and the injury roll. The attack roll actually ends up being a standard stat roll, which will be detailed in an upcoming post on character generation, if it is succeeded, or if the player fails their dodge roll, they either deal or are dealt a hit.

    For each hit they receive, they gain an injury. the severity and location of that injury is determined by rolling on the following tables:

Location (1d6)

1.     Arm

2.     Leg

3-4. Torso

5-6. Head

Severity (1d6)        Modifier        Recovery

1. Cosmetic                +0              Overnight

2-4. Minor                  +1               1 week

5-7. Serious                +2             1 month + medical attention.

8. Fatal                        -                You're dead :(

    The severity roll is modified  by two things: armor, which reduces the severity by 3; and active wounds, which increase it as according to the severity table. An active wound is any wound which has not yet healed, and they stack.

    Yes, it's deadly, that is one way in which I draw the similarity to oddomatic combats, in that combat ends rather quickly. But it keeps a few things I like, namely, the ability to put a dodge roll in my games.

    Additionally, combat has lasting consequences. It can put out a character for anywhere from a week to a month in game. If a character goes into a fight without armor, their first hit could leave them out for some time. This puts it in a much less desirable position than other forms of resolving conflicts.

    As usual for my posts about homebrew rules and whatnot, I will end with my disclaimer about it being pure theorycraft that should only be implemented with utmost personal discretion.

The Devouring Gourd

 When somebody has taken on a pact from the Great Gourd, they become marked by him. This mark takes the form of a dark cavity in the individual's forehead. Other acolytes of the Gourd will recognize this mark, and generally react at the very worst neutrally to any person bearing it.

On death, however, a curious process takes place on one marked by the Great Gourd. Their body doesn't decay, rather, it hardens and begins to change in shape to a form more pleasing to the Gourd. as this happens, the opening on the forehead of the deceased begins to grow into a gaping maw, and a Devouring Gourd is born.

I'm starting to draw stuff too!

Devouring Gourd

HD 8 Attack Swallow, Seed Sputter, Squash Defense 2 Move 8 Morale -* Save 16

Swallow The Devouring Gourd chooses up to three spaces around it at random, slamming the top of it's neck onto it and swallowing the first object it catches in this way.

Seed Sputter The Devouring Gourd flails it's neck about wildly, flinging large seeds out from the hole on the end of it, and dealing 2d6 damage to anything within 20 meters of it.

Squash The Devouring Gourd  springs it's legs and leaps 10 meters in any direction, dealing 4d8 damage to whatever it lands on, and pushing back anything else nearby.

*Behavior Devouring Gourds are completely mindless, they are hollowed out husks fueled by the Great Gourds destructive rage, as such, many of their actions are decided on a whim as they flail about breaking things. This can be modeled by deciding it's actions through dice rolls. This makes it a dangerous opponent for players to fight, as there is no real reason for it to do anything, and approaching it to attack is a gamble.

Farewell and may the Gourd be with you.