Geomancy

in: Magic Spheres

## Introduction

Geomancers are mages who can control the very rock and stuff of the earth, incorporating stone, crystal and even sand into their magic and manipulating each to their will. They excel at defensive magic and controlling the battlefield around them through powerful environmental spells.

## Spells

### Stone to Clay (Special)

The caster can invoke this power to render stone that they touch malleable, their fingers able to indent into rock as if it were merely thick clay. They can drag their fingers through it and leave carvings and even messages which will settle into the stone, and even shape the stone itself in a limited fashion. This power is not strong enough to destroy stone walls or otherwise force its way through earthen barriers, and its ability to shape objects is very crude and limited. However given enough time it is possible to use this power to ‘shave down’ stone objects like a whittler might wood.

#### **RPR Stats**

* **Target(s):** One object or surface.
* **Dice Modifier(s)**: Support Casting
* **Difficulty Class:** Fixed (5)
* **Cost(s):** 1 mana
* **Effect(s):** The caster calls upon their magic to write on, draw on or crudely shape stone.
* **Cooldown:** None

### Stonespike (Attack)

The caster violently calls up the power of the earth in a vulgar and direct manner, causing a spike of stone to shoot out of the ground and spear toward a target. The sharp end of the spike can tear through flesh as easily as a spear or sword, and has the advantage of being potentially harder to anticipate. This spell is notably ineffective against creatures in flight and has limited range and is more akin to being jabbed at by a weapon than most spellcraft. Causes bleeding

#### **RPR Stats**

* **Target(s):** One target
* **Dice Modifier(s):** Offensive Casting
* **Difficulty Class:** Target rolls physical defense
* **Cost(s):** 3 mana
* **Effect(s):**  Deals damage to a single attacker. Causes bleeding.
* **Cooldown:** 2 minutes

### Crystal Edge (Buff)

The caster can imbue their own weapon or the weapon of an ally with a keen crystalline edge, razor sharp and yet brittle. This combination of qualities causes the weapon to not only cut with great sharpness, but also to break bits of itself into the wound and cause them to bleed profusely and become difficult to mend.

#### **RPR Stats**

* **Target(s):** One target
* **Dice Modifier(s):** Support casting
* **Difficulty Class:** 20 fixed
* **Cost(s):** 3 mana
* **Duration:** 15 minutes
* **Effect(s):**  Makes a single weapon cause more damage and bleeding.
* **Cooldown:** 2 minutes

### Shield of Stone ((Buff)

The caster can animate a ‘disc’ of earth and wield it without a hand like an enormous, thick shield with ease thanks to the power of their magic. This shield will actually partially shift its shape to better react to attacks, making it more effective than a mundane shield. Provides a +2 defense bonus against both ranged and melee attacks.

#### **RPR Stats**

* **Target(s):** One target
* **Dice Modifier(s):** Support Casting
* **Difficulty Class:** Fixed (20)
* **Cost(s):** 3 mana
* **Duration:** 15 minutes
* **Effect(s):** Provides a temporary defense bonus against ranged and melee attacks.
* **Cooldown:** 2 minutes

### Earthen Toughness (Cleanse)

The caster can call upon the earth and even partially crystallize or calcify parts of their own body to halt effects such as bleeding, poison, burning and other harmful ongoing effects.

#### **RPR Stats**

* **Target(s):** Self
* **Dice Modifier(s):** Support Casting
* **Difficulty Class:** Fixed (20)
* **Cost(s):** 3 mana
* **Effect(s):**  Cleanses many ongoing negative conditions.
* **Cooldown:** 30 minutes

### Sandstorm (Attack/Debuff)

The caster stirs grains of sand or dirt into frenzied motion in the air, using their magic to cause them to rise into a swirling vortex. The particles begin to move so violently through the air that they can actually cause cuts and damage to exposed skin and worse, temporarily blind those within its effect as they cut like tiny razors through the air.

#### **RPR Stats**

* **Target(s):** Up to four targets
* **Dice Modifier(s):** Offensive casting
* **Difficulty Class:** Target rolls
* **Cost(s):** 6 mana
* **Effect(s):**  Chance to slightly damage and blind multiple targets.
* **Cooldown:** 10 minutes

### Stone Fortress (Buff/special)

The caster causes the earth to shoot up from the ground around them into a protective dome, nearly impenetrable in its strength but also restricting the caster’s ability to use further magic. In an emergency this can protect a caster being overwhelmed by attacks, but is typically seen as a play for time rather than an actual solution itself. Gives a caster a huge +10 bonus to physical and magical defenses for a short duration, renders them unable to use spells or attack for the same duration.

#### **RPR Stats**

* **Target(s):** One target
* **Dice Modifier(s):** Supportive Magic
* **Difficulty Class:** Fixed (20)
* **Cost(s):** 6 mana
* **Effect(s):**  +10 bonus to defenses, inability to cast further spells or attack for duration.
* **Duration:** 10 minutes.
* **Cooldown:** 30 minutes

### Earthquake (Debuff)

The caster can smash down with their magic into the earth, causing a localized and powerful tremor to start rippling through the ground. The violent shaking has the power to rock people from their feet and send them toppling to the ground. Additionally, this spell does not halt immediately as many others do and instead the earth continues to shake for a long duration, during which the caster can choose to spend additional mana to produce an aftershock and knock further targets from their feet.

#### **RPR Stats**

* **Target(s):** Up to four targets. Aftershocks limited to one target.
* **Dice Modifier(s):** Offensive Casting
* **Difficulty Class:** Target rolls resistance
* **Cost(s):** 5 mana initially, 1 mana for an aftershock.
* **Effect(s):**  Knocks multiple targets down with additional aftershock effect.
* **Duration:** 30 minutes
* **Cooldown:** 1 hour

### Grasp of the Earth(Attack/Debuff/Special)

The caster of this spell causes a great upheaval of earth and stone from the ground which erupts to nearly the height and thickness of a man, quickly forming a humanoid fist made of rock. Using this fist, they can powerfully grasp an opponent with its rocky fingers and hold them in place. Worse, by continuing to empower the spell they can cause the fist to tighten and constrict on an opponent still in its hold!

#### **RPR Stats**

* **Target(s):** One target
* **Dice Modifier(s):** Offensive Casting
* **Difficulty Class:** Target rolls resistance initially, grapple or escape artist to escape the hold
* **Cost(s):** 4 mana initially, 2 mana to constrict
* **Effect(s):**  Grapples an opponent and may be reused to constrict a grappled opponent.
* **Cooldown:** 20 minutes

### Roots of the Mountain (Buff)

This spell roots a caster’s feet firmly and powerfully to the earth as it rises about their legs, though this connection is maintained at their own will. When this spell is in use, the caster is immune to all knockdown effects.

#### **RPR Stats**

* **Target(s):** Self
* **Dice Modifier(s):** Supportive Casting
* **Difficulty Class:** Fixed (20)
* **Cost(s):** 2 Mana
* **Effect(s):**  Gives the caster immunity to knockdown effects for the duration.
* **Duration:** 15 minutes.
* **Cooldown:** 2 minutes

### Crystalline Forgery (Special)

Using this spell during the course of a ritual, a user of earth magic can infuse a gem with magic to cause it to mimic the nature of another gem. This mimicry can only be sustained long enough for the purposes of that ritual, and no more than one gem can be effected in this way during a ritual even by multiple casters. For example, an onyx could be made to mimic a jasper for the ritual and then be counted as a jasper for the purposes of that ritual’s ingredients.

#### **RPR Stats**

* **Target(s):** Self
* **Dice Modifier(s):** Supportive Casting
* **Difficulty Class:** Fixed (10)
* **Cost(s):** 20 mana
* **Effect(s):**  Causes a gem to ‘mimic’ another gem’s properties for the purposes of a single ritual.
* **Duration:** Ritual length.
* **Cooldown:** 24 hours

### Crystal Skin (Buff)

This spell draws up a dusting of earth about the caster and crystallizes it against their skin, creating a thin layer of magical protection against spells. The tiny crystals pulse to life when struck by hostile magic, helping to repel it and shield the recipient. Provides a +2 to resistance against magic for the duration.

#### **RPR Stats**

* **Target(s):** One target
* **Dice Modifier(s):** Supportive Casting
* **Difficulty Class:** Fixed (20)
* **Cost(s):** 3 mana
* **Effect(s):**  Provides a bonus of +3 to magic resistances .
* **Duration:** 20 minutes
* **Cooldown:** 2 minutes

### Crystalline Barrage (Attack)

A user of the earth sphere can draw up a fist full of natural earth into their hand and crush it within their fist, infusing it heavily with their magic and changing its composition in a moment. This magical process causes that earth to become a mass of unstable crystals which the mage can cause to burst forth from their hand, glowing, sharp and infused with power. They can direct this explosion of crystalline shrapnel at up to two opponents, shredding their skin with burning razors that can pierce armor and skin alike.

#### **RPR Stats**

* **Target(s):** Up to two targets.
* **Dice Modifier(s):** Offensive Casting
* **Difficulty Class:** Target rolls resistance
* **Cost(s):** 4 mana
* **Effect(s):**  Inflicts damage on up to two targets at range and causes bleeding.
* **Cooldown:** 2 minutes

### Stoneslam (Attack)

The geomancer infuses their hands with great, unwieldy lumps of stone which they can then smash into an opponent with incredible force, causing high damage as the great mass connects and shatters against their enemy. Only usable at melee range.

#### **RPR Stats**

* **Target(s):** One target
* **Dice Modifier(s):** Offensive Casting
* **Difficulty Class:** Target rolls physical defense
* **Cost(s):** 4 mana
* **Effects:**  Inflicts high damage against a single target in melee distance.

## Rituals/Curses

### Petrification (Curse)

The caster of this ritual calls upon the very stone of the earth to curse their target, infecting them with an insidious, advancing condition that slowly causes their body to calcify into stone. Their joints become heavy and harder to move, their skin begins to take on a dry, hard appearance and lethargy begins to set in quickly as their body becomes heavy and hard to move. Eventually if left unchecked, the progress of this curse will halt all of their movement completely and the calcification will complete, turning them into a cold and lifeless statue.

Alternatively, this curse can be used against an already mortally wounded and dying individual. Used against someone on the brink of death, this will kill them and nearly immediately turn them to stone. (This comes with the same considerations as a perm in any other circumstance.)

*Day 1:* The subject of the curse will note a patch of stoney skin beginning to form on their body which will slowly advance with time. The curse begins to make them feel lethargic, their body heavy and hard to move. They can otherwise conduct themselves normally, but they are all too aware that something is terribly wrong.

*Day 4:* The curse advances to a point where the victim can no longer manage the effort of running or fighting, leaving them forced to PvP Surrender in the case of an intent. Their body by this point will have become completely covered in stony growths and their skin will be rocklike to the touch.

*Day 7:* After the passing of the seventh day, the victim will find their joints immovable and all motion ground to a halt. Their final moments will be spent in the horror of knowing that their body will be preserved in stone for eternity.

* **Ingredients:** Corrupted Essence, Phosphorus
* **Requirements:** 1 Chunk(s) of Onyx, 2 Chunk(s) of Topaz
* **Required Scroll:** Conjuration
* **Effect of Ritual:** Slowly turn the victim into a statue, or used as a perm.

### Curse of Mud (Curse)

The victim of this ritual must be covered from head to toe in cakes of mud and earth during the course of this ritual, and the humiliation of this curse is that through calling upon the power of geomancy the ritualist can cause this mud to become, for a time, impossible to remove. No amount of normal scrubbing or scraping will remove the mud, and though some of it might harden and dry irritatingly it will remain caked against the skin for the entirety of a 3 day duration unless removed by a curse-removal ritual. Not only will this change the victim’s appearance in a way that most consider undesirable, if left long enough, the smell tends to become terrible as hygiene becomes impossible.

* **Ingredients:** Yafaem Wildgrass, Doman Plum
* **Requirements:** 1 Chunk(s) of Emerald, 1 Chunk(s) of Topaz
* **Required Scroll:** Transmutation
* **Effect of Ritual:** Cover a victim in irremovable mud.

### Earthen Ramp (Raid)

The ritualist can concentrate on their connection with the rock and stuff of the earth over the course of a powerful ritual to invoke a vulgar and direct display of Geomancy’s power. Used against a walled settlement, this ritual will cause a ramp of stone and earth to suddenly and violently erupt from the ground in a place of the caster’s choosing, reaching straight up to the walls and creating a new access for the attackers.

This ramp can be destroyed the same way as other building pieces by bombs and siege damage, though the defenders cannot attack it until the raid properly begins.

* **Ingredients:** Dragon Bile, Liniment
* **Requirements:** 2 Chunk(s) of Emerald, 3 Chunk(s) of Topaz
* **Required Scroll:** Conjuration
* **Effect of Ritual:** A ramp will be created from Tier 3 material up to 6 foundations high to create a ramp access to a wall.

### Stone Reclamation

A geomancer has a special and more direct connection to the stones used by all mages in rituals and the creation of magic items, being better able to feel the magic within them than any other sphere users. This special connection has been harnessed by geomancers to ‘reclaim’ these stones from magical items, though these are always destroyed completely in the process. This process involves somehow crushing the magic items in question within rock, and then magically coalescing the remnants of the gems back into a usable state.

Only half of the gems used for the creation of an item can be recovered in this way, rounded down. Ingredients and scrolls are not recovered. Items that require curse removal to remove cannot be removed by this ritual, though an unused item can be destroyed to reclaim gems.

* **Ingredients:** Dragon Bile, Outer Void Vapor, Liniment
* **Requirements:** None
* **Required Scroll:** None
* **Effect of Ritual:** Destroy a magic item to recover 50% of the gemstones used in its making.
* **Special:** This ritual is usable only once every 72 hours.

### Cursecrush (Curse Removal)

This ritual is capable of removing the curses of many different spheres in an unusually direct and violent fashion. A ritually prepared heavy crushing stone is prepared alongside the required gems, and the magic of a curse can be ‘lured’ into the gems from its victim and trapped within. Before the curse can again manifest itself, the stone is smashed down over the gems to shatter them to dust and render the nefarious magic inert.

* **Ingredients:** Doman Plum, Ghoul Saliva
* **Requirements:** 2 Chunk(s) of Topaz, 1 Chunk(s) of Ruby
* **Required Scroll:** Transmutation
* **Effect of Ritual:** Removes a curse from the Hydromancy, Nature, Dark, Mental, Wind and Holy spheres.

### Stoneflesh

A massive step in many geomancer’s journeys is to fully embrace the power of the earth by incorporating its strength into their own body, forever and irreversibly changing themselves. By conducting a long and elaborate ritual involving specially prepared rock, powdered paints and a powerful infusion of geomancy they can actually partially transform their own body, not only changing it aesthetically but endowing themselves with certain beneficial properties. Choose one benefit below.

*Aspect of Rock:* The geomancer incorporates the strength and endurance of stone into their own body, transforming much of their skin to be more stonelike and accentuated by stony growths. These growths render their body more resilient, granting a permanent +2 bonus to physical defense.

*Aspect of Crystal:* The geomancer incorporates the conductive and reflective nature of crystal into their body, transforming their skin in a way that incorporates embedded crystal and may cause some of it to shimmer as if speckled with tiny crystals. These growths aid in the use of their offensive magics, granting them a permanent +2 bonus to offensive casting.

* **Ingredients:** Corrupted Essence, Doman Plum, Liniment
* **Requirements:** 6 Chunk(s) of Topaz, 2 Chunk(s) of Aquamarine, 2 Chunk(s) of Onyx
* **Required Scroll:** Transmutation
* **Effect of Ritual:** Change your appearance to include stone or crystal elements, gain a small bonus to a skill

*Credit for Lore Contribution: Rattenkrieg*