New Background Profession
Scholar (Literate)
You are a scholar in the Hyborian Age, so you must often quest for knowledge, for there are few formal academies or other teaching processes from which to learn and perhaps draw an income. For you, digging around in dusty tombs or leading expeditions deep into the jungles of Khitai is not just a way of life, it is a way to make a living, since both ancient artifacts and rare knowledge can be valuable.
Scholars must choose between one of four specialisations, which determine their background.
Acolyte: Acolytes are members of a coven or sorcerous society, or are occasionally apprenticed to a lone sorcerer. They are usually in thrall to their coven leaders, though they can gain a great deal of power this way. The drawback is that they rarely understand said power without their masters’ direct assistance. An acolyte must always select a specific group to join, or a master to whom he may apprentice himself. An acolyte may only ever learn new sorcery styles or spells (see below) known to his masters.
Independent: Independents are the most versatile variety of scholar, since they have no particular ties to any authority. However, they also have no one to teach them or to guide them through their sorcerous paths and so must work a good deal harder to gain access to any true secrets. Though at best their advancement can be highly flexible, at worst it is simply haphazard, with the independent scholar simply picking up a little knowledge here and there as he goes.
Pact: A scholar who makes a pact with a demonic entity or other dark force to learn sorcery is in a very similar state to that of an acolyte to a sorcerers’ ring or coven, since he is often effectively in thrall to the source of his knowledge. He has a lot more choice as to what he learns; however, the
master has no human compunctions to prevent him from forcing the poor scholar to perform the direst of acts. Furthermore, he will begin the game at least somewhat corrupt, for no truly decent sorcerer makes pacts with demons.
Lay Priest: Scholars who choose the lay priest background are attached to a temple for purposes of study but with little or no religious authority. If they wish, they can work their way up to the position of fully ordained priest (see the Priest profession), which brings with it a number of benefi ts and responsibilities. Priests, whether they are lay priests or fully ordained, do not usually have access to sorcery at all; if they do, it is most commonly some form or other of countersorcery with which to combat evil cults. The precise nature of each priest and which magical abilities (if any) are available to him will vary depending on both the deity he worships and his own honesty – or lack of
it.
Sorcery
In true sword-and-sorcery style, magic in RuneQuest: Slayers is a shadowy and unnatural force - one into which only the most daring, obsessed, or mad inquire...
Who Can Use Sorcery
Anyone can learn sorcerous skills, but not everyone wants to. The quest for sorcerous knowledge involves spending long hours in musty libraries, poring over crumbling scrolls searching for scraps of information humanity was never meant to have. The sorcerer's growing intimacy with unnatural forces exacts other, grimmer tolls on mind and body. Once the forbidden knowledge has been gained, anything less than perfect application has the potential to destroy the user. And crucial bits of information have usually been lost to the ages...
On top of all that, the citizenry of the typical sword-and-sorcery world consider sorcerers suspect at best, demonic at worst. A career in sorcery is not going to win you any friends.
Learning Sorcery
Sorcery cannot be learned like mundane talents. Many sorcery styles exact a price from those who learn them. Furthermore, simply learning a sorcery style is only the beginning; each spell to be cast must subsequently be learned individually.
Study
Each sorcery style demands a long period of study, numbering at least in months, before it can be used. The description of each sorcery style gives the length of study necessary to begin learning effective spells with that style. To learn the style, the prospective sorcerer must spend the specified length of time doing nothing but studying. She may travel and participate in adventures, but the time spent on those activities does not count toward time spent learning the talent.
Obsession
Upon learning his first sorcery style, a character acquires an Obsession “attribute”. Every time the character learns a new sorcery style or a new spell, his Obsession increases by 1 point. Obsession may also increase as a result of using certain sorcerous items.
Obsession is a measure of how fixated the character is upon gaining new sorcerous knowledge. Every time the character has the opportunity to acquire more sorcerous power, he must make an Obsession roll. If the check is a fumble (two 10's rolled) the character gives in and will do whatever he must to gain the power.
Obsession can be worked around, but never ignored; if it possible to sate the character's lust for magic without harming his friends, he will do so. But if injuring or betraying them can't be avoided ... well, sometimes a magician just has to do what he has to do...
Sorcerous Weaknesses
In almost every case, learning a new sorcery style inflicts a new sorcerous weakness upon the student. Prolonged intimacy with unnatural forces gradually warps mind and spirit into something no longer entirely human. If a sorcery style specifies that its students acquire a sorcerous weakness, choose one from this list:
· animal aversion
· disfigurement
· distrusted
· endurance loss
· madness
· nocturnal
The weakness takes effect immediately on completion of the course of study in the new sorcery style.
Animal Aversion
Something about characters with this weakness is inherently unsettling to animals and humans who possess an affinity for animals (e.g. Animal Handlers). Any such animal or person within 10 feet of your character instantly becomes nervous, skittish and irritable.
Those who suffer from Animal Aversion suffer a penalty on reactions when dealing with characters who have an affinity for animals. A character who has Animal Aversion cannot become Animal Handlers (or similar professions) or learn Nature Magic.
Disfigurement
Those with this weakness have been scarred or otherwise mutilated, either by injury or as a side effect of their magical studies. Sorcerous disfigurements are often strange warpings of the body such as shriveled limbs, bizarre scarring, eye discoloration or loss, transformation of hands or feet into claws or hooves, and so on. Disfigurements are permanent and always blatant, but can be hidden with some work. Characters with disfigurements also suffer some social disadvantages (-1 to reaction checks).
Distrusted
A Distrusted character has an unshakable aura of untrustworthiness. Long hours of probing arcane secrets have subtly warped his personality and demeanor. A reaction roll on meeting an NPC can elicit a generous or friendly response. People may help the distrusted character, but they will never be at ease around him (-1 to reaction checks).
Endurance Loss
Study of the dark arts has sapped your character's physical and psychic vigor. The characters loses one point of Might and one point of Willpower; all related secondary attributes need to be recalculated.
Madness
The terrible secrets your character has unearthed in his quest for forbidden knowledge have begun to loosen his grip on reality. Every day there is a cumulative 1% chance that he will be struck by a fit of madness (so he will without fail go temporarily mad at least every 100 days). When it comes, the fit lasts for 1d10 hours, during which time he will run wild, liable to do or say anything. At the end of the fit, the chance of another fit begins at 1% and slowly climbs as before.
Nocturnal
Your character has has delved so long into secrets that may only be spoken of by night that he has himself become a creature of the night. When the sun is down, he is full of energy and will not sleep. By day, he is lethargic and groggy if not actually asleep. He is dazzled by sunlight, so much so that he suffers an increase of difficulty on tasks that involve vision when in broad daylight.
Spells
Mere knowledge of a sorcery style is not enough to produce sorcerous effects. It simply prepares the student to learn spells that fall under that talent's rubric. Researching a spell is no easy matter. The spell will require obscure, costly, and probably immoral components that must be gathered from remote and inhospitable locations.
There is no standardised spell list. Each sorcery style describes the sorts of effects it encompasses. When a magic-using character wants to learn a new spell, the character's player will describe to the runemaster what the spell should do. The player and runemaster will then settle on what must be learned or acquired for the character to use that spell. Then it's up to the character to track down each item.
Sorcery Styles
There are many different sorcery styles, each conferring different powers, demanding different prerequisites and exacting a different cost. The sorcery styles are:
· alchemy
· divination
· hypnotism
· nature magic
· necromancy
· physical laws
· summoning
· transmutation
To learn a sorcery style, 8 hero points must be expended.
Magic Resistance
Living beings who have spells cast upon them have a chance to resist. Depending on the effect of the spell, a Basic difficulty attribute check is used to assess whether the spell has some effect. The Scholar's experience level modifies the difficulty of the check. On a failure result, the spell or item does affect the target. At the runemaster's discretion, professions might be considered relevant to the check (for example, a spell requiring an Agility check to avoid its effects might benefit from a Thief's experience).
Alchemy (Intellect)
This sorcery style is used to create sorcerous compounds, whether they be potions, powders, sorcerous alloys, or gases. Three months of study are required to learn Alchemy. The student must also select a sorcerous Weakness. Some representative items that can be produced using Alchemy include:
· Basic
· Stupefying powders
· Love potions
· Sleeping droughts
· Difficult
· Knockout gas
· Poison gas
· Antidotes
· Hopeless
· Healing elixir
· Insanity potions
Divination (Willpower)
The Divination sorcery style is the province of soothsayers and seers. It gives knowledge of distant or future events. It takes only one month of study to learn the Divination sorcery style, but the student must take a sorcerous weakness and become a Priest of a setting-appropriate deity.
Divination magic include such spells as:
· Basic
· Clairvoyance
· Clairaudience
· Difficult
· Prediction
· Spiritual Advice
· Hopeless
· Prophecy
Clairvoyance: seeing distant events.
Clairaudience: hearing distant events.
Prediction: foreknowledge of near-future events.
Prophecy: foreknowledge of weighty events in the near or distant future.
Spiritual Advice: petitioning a deity for knowledge or advice.
The knowledge gained through Divination spells is always cryptic or fragmentary. Events foreseen are not inevitable; they are the outcome of the current situation. Human agency is required to cause the event, and is capable of preventing it.
Hypnotism (Willpower)
Hypnotism is used to cast spells that create illusions or dominate the thoughts of others. Learning Hypnotism requires six months of study and imposes a sorcerous weakness on the student. The caster of a Hypnotism spell must be able to make eye contact with its target. Some typical Hypnotism spells are:
· Basic
· Paralyzing glare
· Momentary indecision
· Sound
· Difficult
· Fear
· Illusion
· Long term suggestion
· Hopeless
· Instant hypnotism
· Complete hallucinations
· Mental slaves
Besides the use of spells, Hypnotism gives the sorcerer the ability to make compelling suggestions to others. To use this talent, your character must have his subject in a comfortable, quiet, and dimly-lit situation. He must spend 10 uninterrupted minutes working with his subject. At the end of this time the target must win a Opposed Willpower check. If the check is successful, the victim is hypnotized and is open to suggestions. Your character can now try to implant suggestions in the mind of the other. For each suggestion, another check must be done as described above. Suggestions must be simple—to give information, change an attitude, or do a specific action. A suggestion cannot force the victim to do something suicidal or deadly to his own person. Likewise, the suggestion cannot be a complicated series of actions.
Typical suggestions are to reveal secrets, guide the sorcerer to a particular place,
or to consider him a friend. All suggestions wear off after 24 hours, at which time the victim returns to his normal behavior with full knowledge of what has been done to him (unless a suggestion has been made that he forget all this).
Nature Magic (Willpower)
Nature Magic is the most ancient of the sorcerous arts, dealing with animals and the wilderness. Its teachings are never written, but rather passed orally from instructor to student. What few symbols it uses are carven in the rock of secret caves and grottoes.
Those who would learn Nature Magic must study for one year in the wilderness, communing directly with the fauna and flora. A teacher is not necessary; it is possible to learn the basics of this art through observation and meditation. However, spells of Difficult or Hopeless level can only be learned by those who are Priests of a nature god (like Jhebbal Sag). Students must select a sorcerous weakness other than Animal Aversion.
Typical Nature Magic spells include :
· Basic
· Protection from animals
· Animal location
· Animal friendship
· Difficult
· Animal speech
· Animal commanding
· Hopeless
· Monster commanding
· Sight through animals
Most NPCs who practice Nature Magic will live in remote forests, tending members of the tribe and wild animals.
Necromancy (Perception)
Necromancy is the blackest of the sorcerous arts. It is akin to Summoning, for its purpose is to reach out and draw upon the invisible. However, it is fundamentally different. While Summoning attempts to reach beyond the confines of this world and bring alien creatures into it, Necromancy attempts to rebind the dispersed energies of this world for the purposes of preservation, knowledge, and animation. Its practice is a heinous crime in all lands but those which routinely practice sorcery. Restraint is needed, for Necromancy is second in danger only to Summoning. The simpler spells of preservation and knowledge do not carry as much inherent risk, but the restructuring and animation of the dead is fraught with peril. The purpose of such spells is to bring back from the dead animals, monsters, or people. Unless the Necromancer exercises care, his animations may turn on him and the world. One year of study is required before a character can attempt any spells, and a character must choose a sorcerous weakness. Necromancy is a draining art. Each time a character attempts to cast a spell he loses 1 Health point even if the spell is not successful. The loss is permanent. The following spells are typical of the type that may be learned:
· Basic
· Preserve Organic Material (50 years)
· History of Deceased*
· Animate Small Animal Body**
· Difficult
· Preserve Organic Material (1,000 years)
· Question Deceased*
· Animate Large Animal Body**
· Hopeless
· Preserve Organic Material (5,000 years)
· Force True Answers from Deceased*
· Animate Monster Body**
· Animate Human Body
· Prolong Life***
*A small part of the original creature or object must be obtained (feather, hair, dust) or an accurate likeness of the creature.
**A large part of the original creature must be obtained.
***May be cast on self or other, but may only be attempted once per year. Success adds 10 years to the subject's life, but cuts Might in half immediately (recalculate Health accordingly) and permanently (although lost points may be slowly renewed through the gaining of new hero points).
Each time an animation of an animal or monster is successful, the Necromancer can control that creature for one service of limited duration. After the service is performed, the creature returns to its previous form. Animated humans also perform one service the first time they are animated, but if the same human is reanimated, he is hostile toward the Necromancer unless some form of coercion (such as mind control) is employed. A reanimated human attempts to destroy the Necromancer and escape into the world to live a new life. Animations have Attributes equal in all respects (including spells) to those they possessed before death except that their Fatigue rating is halved and they are invulnerable to poisons. Animated creatures may be dematerialized at the Necromancer's will. Human animations attempt to resist dematerialisation, however, opposing the Necromancer's Willpower with their own. Any time a spell of Difficult complexity fails, a sorcerous fire (equivalent to an inferno; RQ p.83) engulfs the room. The Necromancer should be allowed to escape or quench the fire. His spell components may, however, be damaged. Necromancy's need for components from the original creature forces the character on quests for various tombs, should he wish to animate or question someone of ancient repute.
Physical Laws (Perception)
As sorcerous arts go, Physical Laws is among the least dreaded because it can be used for the good of the people. Those who study Physical Laws gain the ability to bring about changes in the forces of nature. Some representative uses of this sorcery style include:
· Basic
· Create fog
· Influence weather 1 month out
· Stimulate plant growth
· Summon favorable winds
· Difficult
· Cause rapid plant or animal growth
· Summon weather
· Blight an area
· Hopeless
· Eclipse the sun
· Create freezing cold instantly
· Cause earthquakes
· Cause tornadoes
· Summon comets or meteors
· Instantly age an object or being
Summoning (Perception)
Summoning is the most dread and dangerous of sorcerous arts. Those who dare probe its secrets learn to rend the veil that separates this world from other, uncanny realities and call forth the dwellers in those mad, horrifying realms. These unwholesome creatures, often referred to as demons by mortal men, possess strange physical and mental powers because of their alien origin. Once the summoner has brought the creature into our world, he may then attempt to impose his will upon it. Should he fail, the consequences are dire indeed.
Summoning is the hardest to learn of any sorcery style. A sorcerer must study for two years before he may even attempt a summoning. The sorcerer must also take a sorcerous weakness. Furthermore, every time the sorcerer learns to summon a new creature, he must take an additional sorcerous weakness. This may be a new one, or the same as the one previously taken (in which case its effect becomes more severe - disfigurement becomes more terrible, animal aversion grows more extreme, and so on).
Each summoning spell summons a single type of creature and no other. The creature's abilities are determined by its form. For example, a winged demon could fight, carry messages, or stand guard, but not swim, burrow, or assume the form of a human. When your character learns a new summoning spell, you describe what you would like the summoned creature to be able to do. The referee then sets the difficulty level of summoning the creature. Some sample difficulties follow:
l Basic
A creature that can perform a single non-combat action, e.g. transporting the summoner, delivering a message, tracking a quarry, or locating an item.
l Difficult
A creature that fights with claws, fangs or weapons, can follow simple
instructions, can operate semi-independently, can relate lost knowledge, strikes fear in the summoner's enemies, or will stand guard for a short time.
l Hopeless
A creature that fights using supernatural powers, will stand guard for a long time, can track and kill a target without fail, can teach its summoner a new spell, can assume the likeness of a specific individual, can serve as the summoner's advisor, or can imprison a person in perpetuity.
Summoning is time consuming and costly. A summoner must track down rare and hard-to-obtain material components - magic powders, directions for drawing blasphemous symbols, noisome incenses to be burnt in jewel-encrusted braziers. It is also incredibly physically taxing. Every time your character attempts to cast a summoning spell he loses one point of Health. This wound is permanent, cannot be healed, and is inflicted whether the summoning is successful or not.
Summoning is only half the job; the summoner must still convince the creature to do his will. Basic-level creatures will do a service in return for freedom to return to their own world. Difficult- and Hopeless-level creatures, however, give themselves more credit. Unless the summoner can threaten them with instant destruction (no mean feat itself), he must have something to offer the creature that it wants. It may accept a rare or sorcerous item, but more likely it will demand a very personal price from the summoner - anything from an eye, to a service in exchange, to title to the summoner's soul. Whatever the price, it will mark the summoner as set apart - and increasingly different in nature - from ordinary humans.
Ordinary failure means that no creature appears. On a critical failure (two 10s rolled), however, the summoner has made a critical error in casting and the creature enters the world out of control. It will immediately attack the summoner, either to kill him or carry him screaming back to the horrible netherworld from which it came. It never tires, it never gives up, and it will not stop until the summoner - or it - is dead.
Transmutation (Willpower)
Transmutation magic is used to alter shape or substance. It can be used to change a person's appearance, animate statues, turn stones to chunks of ice, and so on. One year of study is required to learn transmutation. The student must also select a sorcerous weakness. Typical transmutation spells include:
· Basic
· Change object to similar item
· Temporary change of non-living form
· Difficult
· Change your own form
· Change form of an animal
· Permanent change of non-living item
· Hopeless
· Change form of another person
· Animate item
· Permanent change of non-living item to precious item
Transformation spells are very draining. Every time a magician tries to cast one he suffers a point of Health damage. This loss is permanent and cannot be healed.
