MATRICES DE ANÁLISIS

Mental Disciplines are rare talents open only to those characters whose Magical aptitude scores are 15+, and whose Drive scores equal or exceed 14. Each discipline must be acquired separately.

HYPNOTIC INTERROGATION

Experience points cost: 1 Difficulty level: Difficult

The mage may read the surface thoughts of a victim who is in a state of shock, panic, fear or distress.

ESP

Experience points cost: 1 Difficulty level: Difficult

The mage may tell if he is being watched, discussed, or is about to be ambushed.

LEVITATION

Experience points cost: 1 Difficulty level: Difficult

Upon entering a trance for two to ten minutes, the mage may elevate himself off the ground for a number of yards equal to his Drive characteristic. The Mage may leave his trance once he loses contact with the ground, and may control his height and rate of ascent. After ten minutes, the mage must roll his drive vs. an average task to maintain his height, otherwise he will drift back down to earth.

ASTRAL PROJECTION

Experience points cost: 2

Difficulty level: Very difficult

The mage goes into a trance for an hour or more, during which time he projects his spirit (visible as a ghost of his true form) across great distances. His spirit form may observe its surroundings, speak, hear. It is vulnerable to the attentions of guardian spirits, which may fight the spirit in mental combat (roll each spirit’s Drive vs. its opponent’s Drive. If the roll is successful, reduce the target’s Magical aptitude by 1D6. If either character ’s Magical aptitude reaches zero, it is dissipated/dead).

Astral travel is dangerous to the unskilled. If a character ’s first attempt at astral projection fails, then the character ’s spirit loses its way back to its body. The body will die in a week or so unless another mage can use astral projection to find the wandering spirit and bring it back home.

NECROMANCY

Necromancy is the art of dealing with the dead, and communing with the spirit world. It is only open to characters with a Magical aptitude of 20 or more. Necromancy does not involve the actual animation of corpses. This has been known to happen, but only through direct treaty with the Devil, whose province includes the souls and remains of the damned.

Necromancy is viewed with horrid fascination by the public. Necromancers are shunned, and most characters feel ill at ease in their ghoulish company.

Necromancy can be a useful skill for talking to dead party members!

SPEAK WITH DEAD

Experience points cost: 1

Difficulty level: Average if corpse of the subject is present.

Difficult if no corpse is present, but the task is performed at the site of the subject’s death - otherwise the task is very difficult.

The necromancer raises the spirit of a dead person and may speak with it. Spirits do not like returning to the worlds of the living, and will leave if their interest is not held. It is thus easiest to deal with spirits whose own interests are served by communicating the information desired (e.g.. If the ghost was asked to reveal the name of its murderer).

This spell is dangerous if wrongly cast, since the enraged spirit might attack the necromancer and attempt to possess him (roll the spirit’s Drive vs. the Necromancer ’s Drive for success). Possession attempts will not be made by gentle or sad spirits, but only by the shades of the angry or greedy.

COMMAND DEAD

Experience points cost: 2

Difficulty level: Difficult

The necromancer may force a spirit to perform an act that goes against its will (e.g. hold a spirit in place until it answers his questions, or cause the spirit to appear to another character and deliver a message).

SPIRIT BINDING

Experience points cost: 1

Difficulty level: Very difficult

The necromancer may bind a spirit into the land of the living as a ghost. The spirit is confined to a set area until the spell is lifted or the necromancer dies. If combined with a command spell, the spirit may be forced to perform certain actions within its specified domain (deliver warnings, attempt possession etc.).

EXORCISM

Experience points cost: 2

Difficulty level: Very difficult

The necromancer may liberate a bound spirit, or force a spirit to cease possession of another character ’s body. It can also be used to force a Demon temporarily back into the spirit plane (roll the necromancer ’s drive vs. that of the Demon).

The dead desire blood! Summanation of spirits must be accompanied by blood sacrifice.

SORCERY SAMPLE

1 - Linette’s companion Annalise is a sorcerer, and she finds herself locked in mortal combat with an enemy sorcerer. Both antagonists have a skill of four and a maximum sorcery hand of 4. Annalise’s New Draw rating of 3 is equaled by her opponent’s score. Annalise looks like she might have quite a fight on her hands!

Of the four cards dealt to her, Annalise takes three of the most powerful and puts these face up in front of her as her shield (a LIGHT 2, and a SHADOW 2 and 4). Her opponent only puts up two cards as his shield (a LIGHT 3 and a SHADOW 4) - he’s keeping the other two cards for offense.

Both combatants cut the deck to test for initiative, and Annalise gets the highest card (winning her the initiative). She elects to go for a new draw. Annalise now draws three cards from the deck and adds these to her hand. She now has four cards in her hand. With a maximum sorcery hand of 4, this is as many as she can ever hold (her shield cards don’t count towards this total). Annalise’s action is over, and the initiative passes over to her opponent.

Annalise’s opponent chooses to make an attack. He plays a single card face up - a SHADOW 2, and adds a second card to his attack - a SHADOW 4 (this time face down). Both cards can truly be linked into one attack in this manner, since they are both in the same element and the same suit (skulls). This has exhausted his hand, but makes for a fairly powerful attack.

SORCERY

Sorcery is the skill of manipulating the 2 main elements of LACE &STEEL’s magic - light and shadow. It is the skill of magical combat - a destructive talent of enormous potential. Sorcery skill is only open to characters whose Magical aptitude score is 15+, and whose significator is one of the major arcana.

There are two main elements known to the magic of LACE &STEEL - Light and Shadow. Light is an element embodying heat and anger, and Shadow embodies cold, and calculating ruthlessness. Sorcerous attacks create finely directed blasts of intense heat or cold which are capable of causing fearful wounds to flesh or massive structural damage to wood, metal or stone. The physical damage caused by sorcery attacks is halved outside of 100 paces range, and sorcerous attacks have a maximum range equal to the sorcerers (Magical aptitude + Drive) x 10 paces. Sorcery attacks operate only within line of sight of the spell caster.

Sorcerers engaged in sorcerous combat will be readily noticeable to other characters. Auras of force swirl around the sorcerer, lunging forth to strike down an opponent or fend off enemy magics. The sorcerer will often be standing within a protective circle scribed upon the ground, a ring of symbols and runes which flicker with the forces of raw magic.