The dark arts #

The dark arts have always held power, spacefarer, but their results have been…well…let’s say they were unreliable. Getting any result at all, let alone the one you expected, felt like 99% luck and 1% chance.

But now, though — now that we can see the Symbol in the night sky, the dark arts have become more of a science. You can make the forces of the Negaverse do whatever you want, whenever you want, to accomplish anything your heart desires.

As a necromancer, you harness the energy of the Negaverse to bend reality to your will. The stronger your connection to the dark forces of the Negaverse, the stronger your ability to remake the world around you. But be careful — if you gaze too long into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back.

In This Mortal Coil, the dark arts take three primary forms: thralls — skeletons, zombies, and even more powerful creatures that you control; fleshcrafting — diabolical surgery to enhance and improve your thralls; and spellcasting — esoteric rituals that allow you to break the rules of time, space, and causation.

You wield these powers in service of creating your anchor, the mystical object that will tether your spirit permanently to the physical world and grant you immortality.

Focus #

In order to make use of any of your necromantic powers, you require a focus — an object of devotion that channels the energy of the Negaverse into the physical world and which stores the spiritual energy of the souls you collect. You create your focus when you create your character and it remains with you through your adventures.

Your focus can never be taken from you by force and cannot be destroyed while you are alive, but you may willingly part with it. Doing so breaks your connection to the Negaverse and renders all of your powers useless.

Collecting souls #

Humans are bad at delayed gratification, spacefarer. You’d be surprised at what people will sell their souls for…or maybe you wouldn’t.

A sentient creature’s death creates a conduit to the Negaverse. Typically, their soul travels through the conduit and is eventually consumed by the Great Gaping Maw. Your focus gives you the power to interrupt this process — but only if the soul is willing.

Some creatures will agree to trade their soul in exchange for the fulfillment of some worldly desire. They may be interested in power, wealth, and fame, or they may be motivated by greed, envy, or revenge. Every creature that is willing to give you their soul has their own specific criteria for doing so.

Other creatures have an obsession so strong that their soul resists the pull of the Negaverse and becomes trapped in the physical world. These tormented spirits are doomed to an eternity of obsession and are powerless to release themselves. They are always willing to trade their soul for the fulfillment of whatever desire tethered them to this world.

Unwilling spirits can’t be collected — the pull of the Negaverse is simply too strong.

Thralls #

The first of the dark arts is the power to create thralls, undead creatures under your control. Creating a thrall requires a freshly deceased body and about a minute of uninterrupted time in which you can concentrate while holding your focus.

Once a minute has passed, the cadaver becomes a zombie and will obey your instructions to the best of its ability. In order to receive orders, your thrall must within your line of sight and be able to see and hear you.

Your control over the thrall ends once you cease thinking about it. Your connection to it is severed and it returns to its previously inanimate state, though you can reanimate it if you have the opportunity to do so and it is still structurally sound.

As a neophyte, you can only animate one thrall at a time. However, you can create an additional thrall for each inventory slot filled by fallout. Each thrall associated with an inventory slot:

Remains under your control until destroyed or dismissed, even if you are asleep, unconscious, or otherwise distracted.
Can be repaired and empowered through the dark art of fleshcrafting.
Can be sacrificed to power your spells.

When you have an eligible open slot, you can also enthrall an existing corporeal undead creature who is not a thrall of another necromancer. The targeted creature must make a CTRL save or fall under your control. See [[Amalara Game Studio/This Mortal Coil/Dangerous creatures|Dangerous creatures]] for a complete list of undead.

Once you complete your anchor, you can control an unlimited number of thralls.

Fleshcrafting #

The second of the dark arts is the power to improve the undead creatures you control. Once you’ve created a thrall, you can repair any damage they accrue while serving you and enhance their strength and abilities. Both actions take uninterrupted time and the necessary resources.

Repair #

As you use your thralls, they’ll begin to show wear and tear. Undead can’t heal ability damage naturally, but you can repair them by replacing worn parts with fresh ones. It’s a simple task, for example, to hack a damaged leg off of a zombie and sew on a new one.

To repair a thrall, you simply need time and spare parts. An hour’s worth of uninterrupted effort restores 1d6 points of ability damage to one thrall. You choose which ability you’re attempting to repair with each operation.

If any of a thrall’s abilities are ever reduced to 0, it is damaged beyond repair and ceases to function.

Empower #

To create more powerful creatures, you can take the best parts of two thralls under your command and combine them together.

Empowering a thrall takes a day’s worth of uninterrupted effort and access to saws, scalpels, thread, wire, and any other materials you need to perform the surgery. You create an entirely new creature of the target type and destroy the original two. The new creature is automatically under your control.

A creature’s description indicates whether it can be created via fleshcrafting and what constituent creatures are required.

Spellcasting #

Thralls are useful, to be sure, but spells allow you to break the laws of time, space, and causality. Before you can cast a spell, you must learn it – and as you might expect, that knowledge doesn’t come easily.

Learning spells #

Trying to learn the secrets of the dark arts is like trying to build a grenade by reading instructions written in a language you don’t know, can never hope to learn, and which might not be a language at all.

Learning a spell is an intentional process that takes time and effort and often involves creative or risky problem solving. To learn a spell, a character must first become aware of its existence and then take the steps necessary to decipher it.

To decipher a spell, a character must have sensed the entirety of the spell, though they can do so in any number of parts over any period of time. Spell information can be conveyed visually, aurally, kinesthetically, or via any other sense. It may even be undetectable or inaccessible without the use of special tools or technology.

In any case, once the character has all of the available spell information, they must spend 1d6 days working to assemble the symbols and formulae in their mind. At the end of this period, they know the spell.

Only one player character may learn a spell from a particular source at any given time, though other characters may directly aid in the process.

Casting spells #

Once you know a spell, you can cast it as often as you wish as long as you can pay the cost. The dark forces of the Negaverse require sacrifice — typically in the form of thralls. A sacrificed thrall is completely consumed by negative energy.

Beguile #

You cloud the mind of a single living creature and plant your own version of reality in their head. They are still capable of independent thought and decision making, but they favor you and your friends, considering you important allies. They will proactively aid you, intercede on your behalf, and give you the benefit of the doubt.

Any attempt to harm the creature or other beings that the creature also regards as allies will immediately break the enchantment. When the spell ends, the affected creature is no longer compelled to view you as an ally, though it may choose to do so if the circumstances warrant.

The number of thralls you sacrifice determines how long your enchantment lasts.

1 thrall — 1 minute
2 thralls — 1 hour
4 thralls — 1 day
8 thralls — 1 month
10 thralls — 1 year

Decay #

You hasten the aging of a single inanimate object up to one square meter in size. You can also target a one square meter cube of a significantly larger object (like the airlock door of a space station, or a support pillar of a megastructure).

The number of thralls you sacrifice determines how much the object ages.

1 thrall – a decade
2 thralls – a century
4 thralls – a millennium
8 thralls – a megayear
10 thralls – an aeon

Divine #

You pose a question about people, places, or events to one of the dark spirits of the Negaverse, who answers plainly and to the best of their knowledge. If the question involves conjecture about the future, the spirit can only provide probabilistic answers.

The knowledge and power of the spirit depends on the number of thralls you sacrifice.

1 thrall — local, general, known by many
2 thralls — regional, specialized, requires study
4 thralls — global, expert, limited to specific groups
8 thralls — stellar system, esoteric, known only to a handful
10 thralls — galactic, arcane, closely guarded secrets

Entomb #

You seal a single living creature into an impenetrable, black sarcophagus. The creature is aware of the passage of time, but does not age and does not require food, water, or air while entombed. The tomb blocks all attempts at communication, regardless of method.

When you entomb a creature, you must specify a method to release it. The method must be feasible, though it need not be obvious or easy.

The number of thralls you sacrifice determines how long the creature remains entombed.

1 thrall — 1 day
2 thralls — 1 month
4 thralls — 1 year
8 thralls — 1 century
10 thralls — 1 millennium

Expel #

You choose one living creature that is currently possessed and sacrifice one thrall. The possessing entity is forced to release control of the creature.

Hex #

Pick one living creature within your line of sight and sacrifice one thrall. Everything is now harder for that creature than it was before. For example, all attacks made by the target are impaired. This curse lasts until it is removed by casting this spell a second time.

Infect #

You imbue an object or location with a connection to the Negaverse that causes all living creatures that come into contact with it to make a STR save or become afflicted with a disease. You determine the specifics of the disease: its symptoms, incubation period, and lethality. The disease can be medically treated, but the affected object or location remains infectious until destroyed or until another necromancer uses this spell to remove its effects.

The number of thralls you sacrifice determines how large an area or object you can affect.

1 thrall – a bed, blanket, or well
2 thralls – a room, car, or shuttle
4 thralls – a house, airplane, or small spacecraft
8 thralls – a neighborhood, arena, or large spacecraft
10 thralls – a city or space station

Perceive #

You can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch through a thrall’s senses. This spell works across any distance and across dimensions. When you cast this spell, you enter a trance that renders you incapacitated until you end it, at which point the targeted thrall is destroyed.

Protect #

You ward an area from interference by outside forces. When a necromancer who is opposed to you attempts to enter the area you designate, they must make a CTRL save or immediately take 2d6 STR damage and be unable to enter.

The protecting effects lasts one day for each thrall you sacrifice, and the number of thralls you sacrifice determines how large an area you can protect.

1 thrall – a circle the diameter of your outstretched arms
2 thralls – a room, car, or shuttle
4 thralls – a house, airplane, or small spacecraft
8 thralls – a neighborhood, arena, or large spacecraft
10 thralls – a city or space station

Revive #

You bring a spirit back from the Negaverse. It takes a physical form that resembles the body it possessed in life — save for a disconcerting lack of heartbeat or body heat. The spirit has access to the skills and knowledge that it accumulated while alive.

The number of thralls you sacrifice determines how long the spirit will remain in the physical universe before being reclaimed by the Great Gaping Maw.

1 thrall — 1 minute
2 thralls — 1 hour
4 thralls — 1 day
8 thralls — 1 month
10 thralls — 1 year

Teleport #

You instantaneously teleport a willing creature to another point in the physical universe via a tunnel through the Negaverse. The creature takes 2d6 STR from the destructive energy of the journey.

Anchor #

To create your anchor, you will need to have collected twelve souls and be in physical possession of your three symbolic ingredients. The ritual itself is straightforward: first, place your ingredients in a vessel of your choice. Second, call out each of the souls stored in your focus by name, recite the terms of your agreement, and ask them if the terms have been fulfilled.

If the answer is yes, then the soul will be absorbed into your vessel. If the answer is no, then it will be reclaimed by the Negaverse. Once your vessel has absorbed twelve souls, then it becomes your anchor, the magical tether that binds your spirit to the physical world and unlocks the full extent of your power.

Once you have built your anchor:

You are no longer in danger of death. If you are ever reduced to zero STR, DEX, or CTRL, your material form dissipates into a fine black mist and reforms in the vicinity of your anchor 2d6 days later.
You are no longer in danger of corruption from fallout. Once all ten of your inventory slots are filled with fallout, you no longer roll on the fallout table.
You are no longer limited to one thrall per inventory slot of fallout. You are now able to command unlimited thralls.
You are aware of any and all activity occurring in the immediate vicinity of your anchor. This awareness extends across time, space, and dimensions.

Your anchor can be destroyed, but doing so requires providing a dozen souls and the same symbolic ingredients used to create it, and then performing the creation ritual in reverse.