Chapter Five

The Unseen Craft

Steel Age is not, by default, a high-magic setting. In Dyrhal, magic is rare, esoteric, and widely feared. Scholars estimate that only one person in five hundred across Telas has the potential to wield it, and that only one in a thousand is an active practitioner at any given time. Most learned voices agree that magic is shaped through the Nine Gods, yet its deepest root seems tied to the unnamed, unseen Tenth — a presence little understood and less trusted.

Rarity alone would make it strange, but the Unseen Craft also exacts a real toll on those who practice it. Taken together — its obscurity, its cost, and its uncertain source — magic has earned a suspicious reputation among commoners and nobles alike. And yet, when it solves problems no steel or coin can, it is prized... and those whose Workings are openly bound to the Nine can wield significant standing in the struggling states of Dyrhal. Those who wield it are not a separate profession of robed mystics behind the shield wall. They are warriors, judges, hunters, priests, and wanderers first — people who reach for magic when necessity, discipline, or conviction demands it.

Access to Magic

Magic is only usable by characters who have the Omen-Born trait. Learning the mnemonic devices and movements necessary to complete Workings of the Unseen Craft requires the Unseen Craft (Casting) skill at least at Trained rank. Unlike other skills, this skill has an immediate path assigned at Trained rank — determined by the character's birth omen and cannot be deviated from. Characters cannot under normal means have access to more than one Omen-Born Path.

Workings and the Unseen Craft

The Workings of the Unseen Craft are discrete magical effects shaped through a caster's Path. Most magic in Steel Age is structured rather than improvised: a Path grants a defined list of Workings, organized by tier of mastery. A Working in combat is not a quick gesture or a casual phrase — the caster must focus, speak, and shape forces that resist being bound.

Casting Time

Unless a Working states otherwise, a Working cast during combat requires two consecutive action segments to complete. The caster begins the Working in the first segment and completes it in the next. While casting, the caster may not take other actions until the Working resolves.

Interrupted Casting

If a caster is interrupted between the first and second segment — by becoming Engaged, taking damage, being Restrained, or any circumstance the GM rules prevents completion — the Working fails. The caster still gains Strain equal to the Working's tier. The power was drawn; it simply could not be shaped. An interrupted Working does not trigger Backlash — there is no roll and no margin of failure. Strain is the only cost.

Types of Workings

Contested Working: Resisted by a creature's innate Magic Defense.
Resolution: Unseen Craft Skill Check Total vs Magic Defense Total (Attribute).

Marked Working: Resolved against a fixed difficulty. Used for self-targeted blessings, allied protections, environmental shaping, or effects that don't overcome an unwilling target.
Resolution: Unseen Craft Skill Check Total vs Challenge Mark (CM).

Ritual Working: Cannot be performed in the pace of combat. Requires time, preparation, and uninterrupted focus. Some may be performed during exploration, travel, camp, or downtime.
Resolution: Unseen Craft Skill Check Total vs Challenge Mark (CM), unless the Working states otherwise.

Resolving Workings

Unseen Craft Skill Check Total = 2d6 + Unseen Craft (Casting) Skill Modifier + Casting Attribute Modifier + Situational Modifiers

Magic Defense Total = 2d6 + Relevant Attribute Modifier + Unseen Craft Skill Modifier (if relevant) + Situational Modifiers

Contested Working Results

If Unseen Craft Skill Check Total > Magic Defense Total → Working succeeds; resolve effects per the Working's description.
If Unseen Craft Skill Check Total = or < Magic Defense Total → Working fails. Check for Strain Backlash.

Marked Working Results (Including Ritual Workings)

If Unseen Craft Skill Check Total > Challenge Mark → Working succeeds; resolve effects per the Working's description.
If Unseen Craft Skill Check Total = or < Challenge Mark → Working fails. Check for Strain Backlash.

Innate Magic Defenses

Only Omen-Born characters may also add their Unseen Craft Skill Modifier to any defense or resistance rolls due to their intimate knowledge of the energies of Workings. Some creatures also have innate defenses or resistances to Workings that are applied as situational modifiers.

Creatures without the Unseen Craft skill simply roll 2d6 + the relevant attribute modifier — the Unseen Craft Skill Modifier is 0.

Damage from Workings

When a damaging Working hits, resolve damage the same way as a melee Momentum Press hit. Use only the raw 2d6 dice from the opposed roll to determine the margin, then add the Working's Lethality and the caster's Casting Attribute Modifier. Subtract the target's Resilience. The difference is Health loss. Whether or not Health is lost, a successful hit also inflicts +1 Fatigue on the target.

Example — Resolving a Working (Success)

Aldric is a Skilled caster on Farrkjol’s path. He invokes Ember Lance against a shieldman pressing through a doorway. He rolls 2d6 and gets a 7, adding his Unseen Craft modifier (+2) and his Casting Attribute modifier (+1) for a total of 10. The shieldman defends with a 9. The Working lands — margin 1. Damage is resolved against the target’s Resilience as normal: the margin plus Ember Lance’s Lethality and Aldric’s Casting Attribute Modifier.

Results Working succeeds. Margin 1. Damage resolved against Resilience.

Strain & Fatigue in Spellcasting

Magic in Steel Age is not limited by memorization, spell slots, or fixed daily uses. Instead, casting is governed by Strain — the mounting difficulty of controlling the Unseen Craft — and Fatigue, or even loss of Health as the consequence of pushing too far.

Magic in the Steel Age is not a bottomless well. Each casting draws upon forces that resist containment. The more often a caster invokes such power within a scene, the more difficult it becomes to hold that power safely. Some theologians claim that beyond a certain point, magic no longer answers to The Nine alone.

Each time you successfully or unsuccessfully cast a Working, you gain Strain equal to the Working's tier:

Tier	Strain Gained
Trained	+1
Skilled	+2
Expert	+3
Master	+4

Strain accumulates and persists for the entire scene. Strain may be cleared during a Rest Segment during Exploration Time (see Chapter VII). Strain does not affect your casting roll directly — it represents how unstable your magic has become.

Strain Threshold

Every caster has a Strain Threshold representing how much unstable magic they can safely contain. Up to this point, you are working within the ordered fragments of the Nine. Beyond this point, something deeper notices.

Strain Threshold = Casting Attribute Modifier + Unseen Craft Skill Modifier

If desired in your campaign tone, the GM may also allow Toughness Modifier to be added to this value.

Working Failure & Fatigue (Clean Miss Rule)

Margin of Failure (MoF) = Defense Total − Unseen Craft Skill Check Total (minimum 0)

If MoF ≥ Strain → Working fails cleanly. No Fatigue gained.
If MoF < Strain → Gain 1 Fatigue.

A narrow failure means you nearly contained power beyond your limit — and it strains you. A large failure means the magic slipped away before fully taking hold.

Backlash (High Strain)

If Strain > Strain Threshold and a Working fails with MoF < Strain, the failed casting becomes physically dangerous. Instead of the normal Fatigue, you suffer:

+1 Fatigue, and
Health loss equal to MoF. This Health loss is not reduced by Resilience.

Strain is meant to discourage Working spam without forbidding it; keep lower-tier spells relevant at all levels; make high-tier magic a deliberate commitment; and allow tension to build naturally. If a character continues casting despite high Strain, the system resolves the consequences without additional rulings.

Example — Strain, Clean Miss, and Narrow Failure

Continuing from the previous example — Aldric’s Working hit and his Strain is now 2. A second threat moves in. He invokes Ember Lance again. He rolls a 2, totaling 5. The target defends with a 10 — margin of failure is 5. Because MoF (5) is greater than his Strain (2), the Working fails cleanly. No Fatigue. The magic slipped away before it could take hold. Strain rises to 4.

Pressed further, Aldric invokes a third time — Strain now 6. He rolls a 5, totaling 8. The target defends with a 9 — margin of failure is 1. Because MoF (1) is less than Strain (6), he gains 1 Fatigue. The magic nearly held and the cost was real.

Results Second Working fails cleanly — MoF ≥ Strain, no Fatigue. Third Working fails narrowly — MoF < Strain, 1 Fatigue gained.

Set Workings (Ritual Casting)

Not all magic is invoked in the chaos of combat. Set Workings (also called Ritual Workings) are cast outside immediate danger — deliberate, methodical, and carrying different risks than combat casting.

A Working is considered a Set Working when: it is cast outside a scene of immediate danger or conflict; it is performed with deliberate preparation rather than as a reflexive invocation; and the GM determines the casting is methodical rather than urgent.

Set Workings always require an Unseen Craft Skill Check against a Set CM. Even in calm conditions, the power being drawn resists containment. Set Workings generate Lingering Strain.

Lingering Strain

Strain generated during Rituals or Set Workings does not clear at the end of a scene. It lingers until the caster completes a full night's uninterrupted sleep (3 consecutive Sleep Segments). A caster who performs multiple Rituals throughout the day may enter later conflicts already burdened by accumulated Strain. Rest segments clear scene Strain, but they do not clear Lingering Strain.

Example — Lingering Strain (The Cost of Preparation)

Jula performs a ritual Working at dawn. It succeeds but generates Lingering Strain. Hours later during a skirmish she invokes a second Working, but is already carrying 3 points of Lingering Strain. Her total climbs to 5, pushing past her Threshold of 4. The Working succeeds — but the next failure will cost Health, not just Fatigue.

Results Lingering Strain from Set Workings persists into subsequent scenes. Rest Segments clear scene Strain — Lingering Strain requires a full uninterrupted night’s sleep.

Heightened Backlash

When performing a Set Working, accumulated Strain draws deeper attention. If your current Strain exceeds your Strain Threshold while performing a Set Working, increase Health loss from magical backlash by the amount your Strain exceeds your Strain Threshold. This increase applies in addition to normal backlash effects. Combat casting does not apply this amplification.

Example — Heightened Backlash (When the Well Runs Dry)

Jula carries 5 Strain, past her Threshold of 4. She attempts Verdant Mending again — it fails with a margin of failure of 2. Backlash applies and Heightened Backlash amplifies it: +1 Fatigue and Health loss equal to MoF (2), not reduced by Resilience, plus 1 additional Health loss because Strain exceeds Threshold by 1. Total: +1 Fatigue, 3 Health loss.

Results Strain (5) exceeds Threshold (4) by 1. Working fails with MoF (2) less than Strain (5) — Backlash applies. +1 Fatigue and 2 Health loss (MoF), not reduced by Resilience, plus 1 additional Health loss from Heightened Backlash. Total: +1 Fatigue, 3 Health loss.

From the collected observations of Frunda Kesa, Loremaster — Barony of Lhokas

Battle-priests speak freely of how power answers in moments of blood and desperation. They are less forthcoming about what happens when they work slowly. I have watched three ritual castings in my years of study, each performed in calm conditions by practitioners I would call competent. In each case, the caster grew uneasy before the Working concluded — not from strain, but from something they described only as attention. As though the act of drawing power deliberately, without the cover of violence and urgency, announced itself somewhere it should not.

My working theory: power invoked in chaos is brief and scattered, too fleeting to attract notice. Power drawn with intention gathers weight. It lingers. And something notices what lingers. No temple records this. None deny it either. I have stopped asking why.

Conditions

Some Workings impose Conditions on their targets. Conditions defined in this chapter are as follows:

Chilled

The target is Chilled until the end of their next turn. Chilled targets take +1 Lethality from cold-damage Workings.

Confused

The target cannot press Momentum.

Dazed

The target cannot take actions during either action segment this round and automatically loses momentum.

Frightened

The target suffers −2 on all rolls.

Greater Misfortune

Whenever the target makes a roll, one die showing its highest value is rerolled and the lower value is kept.

Ill-Fortune

The target suffers −2 to their next roll before the end of their next turn. Opening Order rolls are excluded.

Rooted

The target cannot take a move action until the end of their next turn.

Slowed

The target suffers −2 to Opening Order and their movement is reduced by 5′.

Summoned

A magically manifested creature. Follows normal melee rules using its listed attack formula in place of a Melee Combat Skill Check. Individual Workings may specify exceptions.

Chapter Five

Paths of the Unseen Craft

Each of the Nine grants a distinct Path: a structured expression of power shaped by that deity’s nature. A Path is not an endless Working list or a modular toolkit. It is a disciplined ascent, and deeper mastery brings deeper danger.

Every Working carries Strain. The more you draw on the Unseen Craft within a scene, the more it pushes back — first with faltering force, then with exhaustion, and, if pressed too far, with blood. Magic can turn battles, shield the innocent, or curse the unjust — but it is a blade without a hilt, and every Working tests the hand that grips it.

Path Structure

A Path is not chosen casually, nor learned through experimentation alone. For those with the potential to wield magic, a Path is most often revealed through an Omen — an inborn alignment to one of the Nine. That sign is not symbolic. It is formative, shaping temperament, instinct, and spiritual resonance long before a Working is ever cast.

A character’s Omen determines the Path they may walk, and that alignment cannot be changed. A mortal may deny their sign, ignore it, or fail to cultivate it — but they cannot exchange it for another. The gods do not share their workings freely, and the imprint of one Omen does not harmonize with another. Each Path is internally coherent and exclusive.

Each Path is organized by Casting skill tier: Trained, Skilled, Expert, and Master. At each tier, a character gains access to two new Workings from their Path. Advancement does not broaden one’s magical vocabulary across traditions; it deepens mastery within a single divine expression. Power expands vertically, not laterally.

Working Forms

Workings are built from structured forms — Bind, Bolt, Ward, Enchant, Affliction, Heal, Transmute, Summon, and Wave — which describe how magic functions in play. A Bolt delivers focused force. A Bind restricts. A Ward protects. An Enchant augments. An Affliction imposes a condition. A Transmute alters state or substance. A Summon brings forth an entity or construct. A Wave projects power across an area.

Not every Path grants these forms in the same proportion, nor at the same stages of mastery. One god may grant resilience early and devastation late; another may favor control and inevitability. The order and emphasis of a Path’s Workings reflect its theology and temperament — and that structure is what makes each Path distinct in the hands of the living.

From the collected observations of Frunda Kesa, Loremaster — Barony of Lhokas

I have now witnessed castings from four of the Nine paths, and I can report with confidence that they share almost nothing in common except their effect on the observer. A practitioner of Eirveth’s path works in near silence — hands held flat and still, head slightly bowed, lips moving through sounds that are not quite words. The air around him grows heavy. A practitioner of Arkaelos invokes with sudden, sharp movements — a closed fist brought to the chest, a pivot, a single guttural syllable that sounds like an order given to something that doesn’t speak. A follower of Tajmork does nothing you can see at all, and that is somehow worse.

Common folk do not understand this. They see a person doing something strange and purposeful and they feel the result before they can name it. A hedge-priest told me once that the mnemonic devices and physical forms required to complete even a single Working take months to master, and that the gestures used to invoke one Working bear no resemblance to those required for another — even within the same path. He said it was as if each Working had been designed by a different intelligence, for a different body, and only coincidentally placed in the same tradition.

There is one more thing I have been reluctant to commit to paper. Scholars older than me have recorded a theory — not doctrine, not heresy, simply a theory — that the Nine are not the whole of it. That there exists a tenth configuration of the moons, one that occurs perhaps once in five centuries, and that those born beneath it walk a path no living practitioner has mapped. The Nythrasi, if the old accounts are to be believed, followed such a path. What their Workings looked like, what forms and sounds they used, no record survives to say. I have found one reference, in a damaged folio from before the Aurikronton collapse, that describes a Nythrasi casting as “nothing a human throat should be able to produce.” The folio does not elaborate. I suspect whoever wrote it did not want to.

Frost · Death · Peace · Casting Attribute: Toughness

Eirveth does not rage, nor does he hurry. He is the long winter that outlasts fire, the quiet that follows collapse, the endurance that survives when others break. His Path does not overwhelm the battlefield; it slows it, preserves it, and waits for weakness to reveal itself. Power drawn through Eirveth is not explosive — it is patient and inevitable.

Grasp of Frost

Bind · Contested Working

Trained

Cold does not strike — it settles. The air around the target thickens with invisible frost, stiffening joints and shortening stride. Movement becomes effort, and effort becomes exhaustion.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetOne creature

Duration1 round

Testvs Magic Defense (Prowess)

On a failed defense roll, the target's movement is reduced to 5′ until the end of their next turn. If the target attempts to move farther, they may do so but gain +1 Fatigue for every additional 5′ moved in a phase.

Winter's Needle

Bolt · Contested Working

Trained

A thin shard of ice forms without flourish and strikes without spectacle. The cold it carries sinks inward rather than outward. Those already touched by frost find the second bite deeper than the first.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeMedium

TargetOne creature

Lethality3

Testvs Magic Defense (Toughness)

On a successful hit, the target is Chilled until the end of their next turn. This Working gains +1 Lethality against already Chilled targets.

Enduring Chill

Enchant · Marked Working

Skilled

Eirveth does not promise comfort. He grants the discipline to endure what others cannot. Under this enchantment, the target accepts the cold as a companion rather than an enemy.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetSelf or one creature

Duration1 round + 1/tier

TestCM 8

Target ignores penalties from cold, wind, snow, and extreme weather, and is immune to cold-based damage. Additionally, reduce Fatigue gained from environmental sources by 1 (minimum 0).

Stillness of the Gravebound

Affliction · Contested Working

Skilled

The afflicted feel as though the ground has claimed them early. Limbs respond more slowly, initiative fades, and motion requires deliberate will. It is not paralysis — it is the weight of inevitability pressing down.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeMedium

TargetOne creature

Duration2 rounds + 1/tier

Testvs Magic Defense (Prowess)

On a failed defense roll, the target is Slowed, suffers −2 to Opening Order, and has movement reduced by 5′.

From the personal account of Thera Klaisten, Mercenary — Strandholdt

We had an Omen-Born with us for the Drevka contract. I didn’t know his path until the second day, when one of the Komes’s men got through our line and came at him from behind. He turned around — just turned, no panic — and did something with his hands I couldn’t follow. The man stopped. Not fell, not stumbled. Stopped. Like something had reached into him and turned down a wheel. He was breathing when we tied him. Barely. His lips were blue and he couldn’t tell us his own name.

I’ve seen men hit hard enough to go quiet. This was different. Whatever the Omen-Born did, it didn’t feel like a strike. It felt like something being taken.

I didn’t ask him about it afterward. He didn’t offer. We rode out of Drevka the next morning and I made sure to stay on his right side for the rest of the contract.

Manifest the Frostbound Sentinel

Summon / Manifest · Marked Working

Expert

The Sentinel arrives without sound. It stands as memory made solid — a guardian shaped from ice, silence, and unbroken resolve. It does not pursue; it holds.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TestCM 10

Manifest a Sentinel that acts immediately after you each round. Uses Unseen Craft (Casting) Skill Check in place of a Melee Combat Skill Check. Reach 1, Lethality 3. On a hit, may impose Slowed or Chilled (caster's choice). Any successful hit against the Sentinel dispels it.

Preservation of the Long Winter

Transmute · Marked Working

Expert

Winter does not mend wounds — it preserves what remains. Flesh stiffens, bleeding slows, and pain is deferred rather than erased. The reprieve is temporary, and when warmth returns, so too does what was held at bay.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetSelf or one creature

Duration1 round + 1/tier

TestCM 10

Restore 2 Health immediately. At the end of the duration, the target loses 2 Health. This Working may not be cast on a target already under this Working's effect.

White Silence

Wave · Contested Working

Master

The storm does not roar. It hushes. Frost spreads across the ground and air alike, stealing momentum from every movement. Those already burdened by winter feel its weight deepen.

Cast Time2 segments

AreaMedium radius, within Medium range

Lethality3

Testvs Magic Defense (Toughness)

Creatures that fail the defense roll suffer Health damage and are Slowed. Creatures already Slowed gain +1 Fatigue instead of the slow effect. Terrain in the area becomes difficult terrain until end of next round.

Ward of the Last Breath

Ward · Marked Working

Master

Eirveth does not deny death; he postpones it. When the final blow would fall, winter intervenes and holds the soul at the edge for one measured moment. But nothing held in frost escapes unchanged.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetSelf or one creature

DurationUntil triggered or scene ends

TestCM 12

Trigger: When the warded target would be reduced to 0 Health. When triggered: the target instead remains at 1 Health, ignores all Fatigue penalties until end of their next turn, and cannot be reduced below 1 Health during that time. At the end of that turn, the ward ends and the target gains +2 Fatigue.

Omen & Month

Eirvethon — Dead Winter

Naur and Aesh dominant · Oru distant

In Eirvethon, Naur and Aesh rise together — blue and grey filling the long nights while Oru retreats below the horizon for days at a time. The sky is bright but cold, offering light without warmth. Those born in this month arrive in the hardest weeks of the year, when survival is not assumed.

Eirveth's omen-born tend toward stillness. They are observers before actors, comfortable with silence, and rarely surprised by loss. Healers, undertakers, confessors, judges of the dying — the professions that require steadiness when others cannot manage it are disproportionately filled by those born in Eirvethon. They are not cold people, but they have made peace with cold things.

Birth Omens · Breath that mists indoors on warm nights; water that stays still when wind moves everything around it; infants who do not cry at birth.

Night · Secrets · Misdirection · Casting Attribute: Mind

Tajmork does not conquer through strength; he conquers through uncertainty. Where others strike with steel or flame, he alters perception, intention, and awareness itself. In darkness, in hesitation, in the space between decision and action, Tajmork's influence is strongest. His Path rewards patience, precision, and the understanding that a misdirected foe is often already defeated.

Veil of Unknowing

Ward · Marked Working

Trained

A whisper of shadow settles over the warded soul, bending attention away from where it should fall. The Veil does not hide — it misleads, convincing the world that something else deserves notice more.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetSelf or one ally

Duration1 round + 1/tier, or until triggered

TestCM 8

Trigger: The first time the warded target is engaged or attacked in this scene. When triggered, opposed rolls against the target suffer −2 until end of the attacker's turn. The ward then ends.

Hidden Constraint

Bind · Contested Working

Trained

The target knows what they mean to do, yet when the moment comes, the action simply will not happen. The shadow does not restrain the body — it forbids the choice.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetOne creature

Duration1 turn

Testvs Magic Defense (Prowess)

When the target declares an action, the caster names that action. On a failed defense roll: the declared action fails and the target gains +1 Fatigue.

Night's Friend

Enchant · Ritual Working

Skilled

Darkness ceases to be an obstacle and becomes a companion. To Tajmork's faithful, shadow is not concealment — it is familiarity, a place where the world finally makes sense.

Cast TimeRitual

TargetSelf

DurationUntil end of Exploration Segment

TestCM 8

You gain darkvision. While in dim light or darkness, you gain +2 to Stealth rolls.

Shadow Strike

Bolt · Contested Working

Skilled

The blow does not announce itself with force or flame. It arrives as a moment of doubt, a flicker of uncertainty that cuts deeper than steel.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetOne creature

Lethality3

Testvs Magic Defense (Mind)

Damage. If the caster is Hidden from the target, or the target is Blinded, gain +2 to the opposed roll.

Accounting of Bram Holt, Gate Guard — Town of Argathis, as recorded by the garrison clerk

Orvyn was beside me. Then he wasn’t. He made a sound — I don’t know how to say what kind of sound — and he sat down on the stones. Just sat down. Like his legs stopped working all at once. I turned around because I heard it and there was a figure standing near the well housing. The shadow there. I had seen him before, earlier, across the square in the alley by the cooper’s. He had just been standing there. I didn’t think anything of it. But then he was over by the well and I didn’t see him move. I don’t mean I looked away. I mean — he was there and then he was somewhere else and I don’t know how to say it better than that. There wasn’t anything in between.

Orvyn’s not right. He’s not speaking, not properly. The surgeon says — I don’t know what the surgeon says exactly. Something about his mind. Orvyn’s a good man. We’ve stood post together three winters.

I don’t know what that figure was. I don’t know what he did. I have been in the Baron’s service for eleven years and I have never — I don’t know how to finish that.

Veil of the Empty Eye

Affliction · Contested Working

Expert

Sight drains away without darkness. The world remains present but unreadable — shapes without meaning, motion without context. Tajmork teaches that ignorance is not absence, but overload.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeMedium

TargetOne creature

Duration1 round + 1/tier, or until overcome

Testvs Magic Defense (Mind)

On a failed defense roll, the target is Blinded. At the end of each of the target's turns, repeat the opposed roll to maintain the effect.

Shadowbound Agent

Summon · Marked Working

Expert

From pooled darkness, a fragment of intent takes form. It moves without sound or hesitation, pressing close, eroding resolve through presence alone.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

Duration1 round + 1/tier

TestCM 10

Manifest a shadow agent that acts immediately after you each round. Uses Unseen Craft (Casting) Skill Check in place of a Melee Combat Skill Check. Reach 0, Lethality 3. When the agent is hit, roll one die — on an even result, the hit lands on a nearby shadow instead and is ignored. If a hit lands on the agent, it is dispelled.

Collapse of the Unspoken

Wave · Contested Working

Master

The battlefield fills with unasked questions and half-finished thoughts. Direction loses meaning, coordination breaks down, and every action feels one step behind intention. Tajmork does not command chaos — he releases it.

Cast Time2 segments

AreaMedium radius, within Short range

Duration1 round + 1/tier

Testvs Magic Defense (Mind)

Creatures that fail the defense roll are Confused and gain +1 Fatigue. Confused combatants may not press momentum.

Shadow Form

Transmute · Marked Working

Master

For a heartbeat, the caster ceases to exist as a solid thing. They pass through darkness as easily as breath through lungs. No trail remains — only the unsettling sense that space itself briefly forgot how distance works.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeLong

TestCM 12

As an action, choose a shadow you can see within range. You instantly move from your current shadow to the chosen shadow. You are Hidden on arrival until you move or take an action.

Omen & Month

Tajmrokar — Long Darkness

Naur dominant · Aesh near · Oru distant

Tajmrokar follows dead winter without relief. Naur rules the sky alone in its cold brightness, with Aesh drifting close behind — two pale lights, no warmth. The nights are the longest of any month that is not Eirvethon, and in Dyrhal the saying goes: what is said in Tajmrokar stays in Tajmrokar.

Tajmork's omen-born are difficult to read and rarely try to be otherwise. They move through social situations with an ease that unsettles people who notice it — they seem to know things they shouldn't, arrive at convenient moments, and disappear before questions are asked. Many find roles as spies, thieves, brokers of information, and occasionally priests of the god himself, which in Dyrhal is considered a profession best not inquired about too closely.

Birth Omens · Shadows that fall in the wrong direction; candles that refuse to light in the child's presence; the sudden silence of animals.

Beasts · Storms · Fear · Casting Attribute: Charm

Vargthyr is not the patron of measured war or orderly judgment. He is the breath before the charge, the crack of thunder over open ground, the certainty that prey cannot outrun what hunts it. Those born under his sign feel the pull of pursuit and the promise of dominance. His Path does not teach patience; it teaches escalation. Power gathered under Vargthyr is not meant to be hoarded — it is meant to be unleashed.

Wind of the Hunter's Shield Ward · Marked Working

Trained

The air around the chosen target tightens and shifts, as though unseen currents anticipate danger before it arrives. Missiles veer, arrows falter, and thrown steel seems just slightly misjudged.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetSelf or one creature

Duration1 round + 1/tier

TestCM 8

Ranged attacks against the warded target suffer −2. This ward provides no protection against melee attacks or area effects.

Mark of the Quarry Bind · Contested Working

Trained

The prey is chosen. The scent is fixed in the mind and spirit alike. Once marked, the target feels the weight of attention — a subtle pressure that follows them through shadow and brush. Vargthyr does not easily release what has been claimed.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeMedium

TargetOne creature

Duration2 rounds + 1/tier

Testvs Magic Defense (Mind)

On a failed defense roll, the caster gains +1 to ranged attack rolls against the marked target, and the target may not hide or be hidden from the caster. Only one creature may be marked at a time.

Stormfang Strike Bolt · Contested Working

Skilled

Lightning does not wander. It descends with intent, sudden and absolute. When called through Vargthyr's Path, it strikes hardest when prey has already begun to flee.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeMedium

TargetOne creature

Lethality3

Testvs Magic Defense (Charm)

Damage. If the target has moved this turn or is Marked, gain +1 to the opposed roll.

Aspect of the Ravager Enchant · Marked Working

Skilled

Muscle tightens. Breath deepens. The world narrows to threat and opportunity. While this enchantment endures, hesitation becomes foreign and restraint feels unnatural.

Cast Time2 segments

TargetSelf

Duration2 rounds + 1/tier

TestCM 8

Gain +1 to combat rolls and +1 to Toughness modifier (Temporary). While active: you must move toward the nearest hostile creature if able, you cannot voluntarily disengage, and social actions suffer −2. This enchant cannot be sustained alongside other enchantments on the same target.

From the accounting of Thend Harlsjon, Huscarl — Jarldom of Thal, as recorded by the hall-keeper

We hit the village at dawn, same as always. Twelve of us, good men, no trouble expected. Then one of theirs stepped out from behind the granary and I knew before he did anything that something was wrong. The air changed. That’s the only way I have it. Like before a storm breaks, when the horses go quiet and your skin feels wrong.

He turned toward Grettir — Grettir was our fastest, always first through a door — and he brought his arm down. Not a swing. A movement I don’t have a word for. Something came out of him that wasn’t quite light and wasn’t quite sound and hit Grettir in the chest and Grettir went down like a timber. Not dead. Breathing. But wrong. His hair was standing. There was a smell like rain on hot stone.

We pulled back. I’m not ashamed of it. Ragnar said afterward that he’d fought shield walls and bog-men and once something that came up from the water, and that this was different from all of them. I agreed. Some things you don’t press into. We know that on the water. We should have known it there.

Manifest the Stormbeast Summon / Manifest · Marked Working

Expert

The beast that answers is not a creature of flesh alone, but of hunger shaped by thunder. Its form flickers at the edges, as if wind and fur were indistinguishable. It does not defend. It does not retreat.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TestCM 10

Manifest a Stormbeast that acts immediately after you each round. Uses Unseen Craft (Casting) Skill Check in place of a Melee Combat Skill Check. Reach 1, Lethality 3. On a hit, may knock the target Prone instead of dealing damage. Any successful hit against the Stormbeast dispels it.

Terror of the Hunt Affliction · Contested Working

Expert

To be hunted is to feel time shorten. The afflicted sense movement in every shadow and judgment in every gust of wind. Courage erodes not through force, but through certainty — the certainty that something stronger has already chosen them.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeMedium

TargetOne creature

Testvs Magic Defense (Charm)

On a failed defense roll, the target is Frightened (−2 to all rolls). At the end of each of the target's turns, repeat the opposed roll to maintain. Each failure inflicts +1 Fatigue. If the target successfully damages the caster, the affliction automatically ends.

Tempest Unleashed Wave · Contested Working

Master

The storm no longer selects a single target. It descends indiscriminately, wind and lightning sweeping outward in violent arcs. Those already weakened or marked feel the strike more keenly.

Cast Time2 segments

AreaMedium radius, within Medium range

Lethality3

Testvs Magic Defense (Charm)

Creatures that fail the defense roll suffer Health damage as normal. Creatures that are Marked or Fatigued suffer +1 additional Health damage.

Bloodlust Transmute · Marked Working

Master

There are older instincts than mercy. Under this transmutation, wounds close as quickly as they are opened. But such ferocity is never gentle — when the surge fades, the body remembers the strain it endured.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetSelf or one creature

Duration1 round + 1/tier

TestCM 12

At the end of each of the target's turns where the target has inflicted Health damage upon an enemy, restore 1 Health and 1 Fatigue. While active, the target ignores Bleeding or similar conditions. When the Working ends, the target gains +1 Fatigue.

Omen & Month

Vargthyrion — Spring's Fury

Oru dominant · Naur near · Aesh distant

Vargthyrion arrives like a door kicked open. Oru rises rust-red and heavy while Naur chases close behind — warmth and cold colliding, driving the storms that tear through Dyrhal in early spring. The animals that survived winter are hungry. The ones that hibernated are waking. The sky is violent and the land is not yet safe.

Vargthyr's omen-born are rarely subtle. They lead from the front, burn through resources and relationships at pace, and tend to attract both fierce loyalty and fierce opposition. They make exceptional hunters, soldiers, and warband leaders — and poor diplomats. The ones who learn patience become dangerous. Most don't bother.

Birth Omens · Animals going quiet then suddenly loud; storm breaking at the moment of birth; the child born with a clenched fist that takes hours to open.

Earth · Plants · Healing · Casting Attribute: Toughness

Verdaine does not answer with fury or haste. She answers with weight, patience, and the certainty that all things either take root or wither. Stone outlasts steel. Roots split walls. Life returns to the soil and rises again. On the battlefield, Verdaine's faithful do not overwhelm — they remain, and in remaining, they prevail.

Stone's Endurance

Ward · Marked Working

Trained

Verdaine does not seize through force. She simply reminds the body of its connection to the ground. The target is not thrown or struck — it is held by inevitability.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetSelf or one ally

Duration1 round + 1/tier

TestCM 8

Reduce the first instance of Health loss each turn by 1 (minimum 0). This ward does not prevent Fatigue.

Patient Growth

Enchant · Marked Working

Trained

Growth is not hurried. Under this enchantment, strength gathers in restraint, and power builds quietly beneath the surface. Each moment spent standing firm becomes a promise of greater impact to come.

Cast Time2 segments

TargetSelf

Duration1 round + 1/tier

TestCM 8

At the end of each of your turns, if you have not used a move action or disengaged, gain +1 to your next combat roll.

Roots Take Hold

Bind · Contested Working

Skilled

Verdaine's grasp is not a snare. It is consequence. Roots answer the will of the caster, turning motion into effort and effort into loss of balance.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetOne creature

DurationUntil end of target's next turn

Testvs Magic Defense (Prowess)

On a failed defense roll, the target is Rooted and cannot take a move action until the end of their next turn.

Verdant Mending

Transmute · Ritual Working

Skilled

Life does not always surge back; sometimes it returns gently. In calm soil and unhurried breath, wounds begin to knit. This healing is not miraculous — it is natural.

Cast TimeRitual

RangeShort

TargetSelf or one creature

TestCM 10

Restore 2 Health. May not be cast while engaged in combat or while hostile actions are occurring.

From the collected observations of Frunda Kesa, Loremaster — Barony of Lhokas

The casting I found hardest to write about was Verdaine’s — which surprises me. Violence is easier to record than mercy.

The practitioner was a woman I will not name. She was treating a man whose leg had gone bad from a wound taken three days prior. The surgeon had already said what surgeons say when they have run out of useful things to do. I expected something dramatic from the Omen-Born. What I saw was almost nothing. She placed both hands on the wound and was still for perhaps twenty heartbeats. Her eyes were open but not seeing the room. The smell changed — briefly, like turned earth after rain, like the moment before something grows. The man made a sound and then stopped making sounds. When she moved her hands away the wound was not healed. But the rot had retreated. The flesh at the edges was pink rather than grey. The surgeon, to his credit, said nothing.

She was exhausted afterward in a way I recognized — a specific kind of depletion that is not tiredness exactly. It is closer to having given something away that cannot simply be replaced by sleep. She ate everything on the table and slept for most of the following day. The man kept his leg.

I do not know what Verdaine asks of those who walk that path. But whatever it is, she had paid it, and she did not seem to resent the cost.

Stonebreak Pulse

Bolt · Contested Working

Expert

When Verdaine strikes, she does not burn or flash — she fractures. The force travels through ground and bone alike, answering resistance with crushing certainty.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeMedium

TargetOne creature

Lethality3

Testvs Magic Defense (Toughness)

Damage. If the target is Rooted, gain +1 Lethality.

Healing Ground

Wave · Marked Working

Expert

Where Verdaine's power settles, the land lends its quiet strength. Allies standing upon soil feel their breath steady and fatigue lessen, as if the ground itself supports them.

Cast Time2 segments

AreaMedium radius, within Medium range

TestCM 10

All allied creatures within radius heal 1 Health and remove 1 Fatigue. Creatures must be standing on the ground to benefit.

Manifest the Verdant Colossus

Summon / Manifest · Marked Working

Master

Growth made monumental rises at her call. The Colossus is not swift, but it is relentless — a living pillar of root and stone. Around it, the ground grows uneven and uncooperative.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

Duration1 round + 1/tier

TestCM 12

Manifest a Colossus that acts immediately after you each round. Uses Unseen Craft (Casting) Skill Check in place of a Melee Combat Skill Check. Reach 1, Lethality 4. The Colossus creates difficult terrain in all adjacent squares. The Colossus takes 3 hits to destroy — each successful hit counts toward this total. Fire- or cold-based attacks bypass this and dispel it in one hit. Dissipates at end of duration.

Death Flower

Affliction · Contested Working

Master

Life and decay share the same soil. When Verdaine invokes this affliction, vitality begins to slip away — not violently but steadily. The bloom is quiet — but it is merciless.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeMedium

TargetOne creature

Duration2 rounds + 1/tier

Testvs Magic Defense (Toughness)

On a failed defense roll, the target loses 1 Health per round for the Working's duration. If the target takes a move action while affected, it gains +1 Fatigue. At the end of each round, the target may repeat its defense roll to end the effect.

Omen & Month

Verdaineis — Growing Season

Oru and Aesh dominant · Naur distant

In Verdaineis, Oru and Aesh ascend together — rust warmth and grey steadiness paired while Naur withdraws. The cold is fully gone. The ground opens. This is the month of planting, of the first green, of the year's promise becoming visible. The dual-dominant sky feels fuller than usual, both moons large and present across the long evenings.

Verdaine's omen-born are grounded in ways that can seem almost stubborn. They are slow to uproot, committed to place and people, and possess a patience with living things — crops, wounds, grief — that others find either reassuring or maddening. They make the best healers in Dyrhal, but also the most tenacious landowners and the most immovable village elders.

Birth Omens · Flowers blooming out of season near the birth; wounds on the mother healing faster than expected; the child smelling of earth and green things.

Craft · Fire · Knowledge · Casting Attribute: Mind

Farrkjol is not worshiped in the charge or the storm, but at the anvil and the forge. He understands that strength is not granted — it is shaped, tested, and refined. Those born under his sign see the world not as chaos, but as structure: joints, seams, weaknesses, and reinforcements. His Path does not overwhelm through passion. It alters the battlefield by understanding how it was made.

Weaken Links

Affliction · Contested Working

Trained

Every suit of armor carries a flaw. Farrkjol reveals it. The target's protection does not shatter — it simply ceases to function as it should.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetOne creature

Duration1 round + 1/tier

Testvs Magic Defense (Mind)

On a failed defense roll, the target's armor value is reduced by 2 (minimum 0). Successive applications on the same target while the effect is active refresh the duration but do not stack the armor reduction.

Forged Mantle

Ward · Marked Working

Trained

The memory of the forge settles across the warded target. Heat hums faintly, as if unseen hands have tempered the metal anew. Blows that would have found purchase instead glance aside.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetSelf or one creature

Duration1 round + 1/tier

TestCM 8

Increase the target's armor value by 2 while the ward is sustained. This bonus does not stack with other armor-boosting effects.

Ember Lance

Bolt · Contested Working

Skilled

A focused lance of fire strikes not wildly, but precisely. Farrkjol's flame seeks the thinned seam, the cracked plate, the place where armor has already betrayed its wearer.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeMedium

TargetOne creature

Lethality3

Testvs Magic Defense (Toughness)

Damage. If the target's armor has been reduced this scene, gain +1 to the opposed roll.

Circle of the Living Forge

Bind · Contested Working

Skilled

A ring of coiled flame encircles the target like a forge half-closed. The boundary does not rage or expand; it simply waits. To cross it is to test whether flesh can endure what metal cannot.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetOne creature

Duration1 round + 1/tier

Testvs Magic Defense (Prowess)

On a failed defense roll, a ring of fire forms around the target. If the target attempts to leave the ring, they immediately suffer 2 Health damage (not reduced by Resilience) and the movement fails. If this effect triggers, the Working dissipates.

From the accounting of Wulf Brennar, Blacksmith — Town of Skellinford, as recorded by the guild clerk

I am not saying he cheats. I am saying what I have seen with my own eyes. Ostav has been working iron in this town for six years and his work is good, I will grant him that, but it is not that good. Not naturally. I have been at the anvil for twenty-three years and I know what a man can do with heat and hammer and time and Ostav does things I cannot account for. The edge on his blades holds longer than it should. The joins on his ironwork don’t fail the way iron fails. Last autumn he repaired a cracked axle in the time it takes me to eat a meal and when the merchant came back three months later it had not shifted.

I am not saying he is Omen-Born. I am not saying that. But his father was from the east and nobody in this town knows who his mother was, and there is a smell in his workshop sometimes that is not coal smoke. My journeyman says he has seen him stand very still over the forge with his eyes closed. Very still. Not the stillness of a man thinking. The other kind.

Call it what you like. I call it Nythrasi trickery and I want it noted in the guild record that I said so first.

Manifest the Forged Armament

Summon / Manifest · Marked Working

Expert

From nothing, the shape of a weapon emerges as though drawn from molten steel. It hums with the memory of hammer and heat. While it is wielded, each strike feels deliberate, as though shaped before it lands.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeSelf

DurationUntil end of scene or dropped

TestCM 10

Conjure a magical weapon of your choice. While wielding it: gain +1 to rolls involving this weapon, and attacks count as magical for overcoming resistances. May be cast only during combat.

Measured Tempering

Enchant · Ritual Working

Expert

Farrkjol teaches that haste is waste — but knowledge shortens labor. Under this ritual enchantment, metal yields correctly, joints align, and even broken works find new life under patient hands.

Cast TimeRitual

TargetSelf

TestCM 10

When crafting, repairing, or reforging an item outside of combat: reduce the required time by half, decrease the Challenge Mark by one step, and unrepairable items may be repaired.

Conflagration of the Great Work

Wave · Contested Working

Master

The contained forge erupts outward, no longer disciplined by walls or tools. Flame spreads in deliberate arcs, consuming what is unprotected and testing what claims strength.

Cast Time2 segments

AreaMedium radius, within Medium range

Lethality3

Testvs Magic Defense (Toughness)

Creatures that fail the defense roll suffer Health damage. Creatures wearing no armor suffer +1 additional Health damage. Objects and unattended structures in the area may be damaged or ignited at the GM's discretion.

Skin of Living Steel

Transmute · Marked Working

Master

Flesh takes on the memory of tempered iron. Blades scrape rather than bite, and fire meets resistance it does not expect. The transformation is not graceful — movement grows heavier — but what endures is forged rather than born.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetSelf or one creature

Duration1 round + 1/tier

TestCM 12

The target gains resistance to slashing, piercing, and fire damage — reduce Health damage from those sources by 2 (minimum 0). While active, the target suffers −1 to movement-based rolls and loses 5′ of speed. Cannot be stacked with other transmutation effects.

Omen & Month

Farrkjolar — High Work Season

Oru dominant · Aesh near · Naur distant

Farrkjolar is the longest-feeling month of the year — high summer, long days, the forge running hot. Oru sits heavy and rust-red overhead while Aesh trails steadily behind. Naur is barely visible, low on the horizon before dawn. The heat is controlled now, purposeful. This is the month when things are made.

Farrkjol's omen-born are builders and thinkers in equal measure — they do not separate the two. They tend toward obsession with craft in whatever form it takes: metallurgy, scholarship, surgery, architecture. They are tireless when interested and utterly disengaged when not. Many of Dyrhal's most significant structures, texts, and weapons were made by hands born in Farrkjolar.

Birth Omens · The hearth burning unusually hot on the birth night; the child's first word being a tool's name; a smell of hot metal with no source.

War · Vengeance · Fate · Casting Attribute: Mind

Arkaelos is not the god of battle's chaos. He is the certainty that conflict will come and the inevitability that someone must fall. Those born under his sign do not rage — they commit. His Path does not grant reckless strength or blind fury, but clarity of purpose sharpened into steel. War, in Arkaelos' sight, is not disorder. It is judgment carried to its conclusion.

Foretold Strike

Bolt · Contested Working

Trained

Arkaelos does not increase the force of a blow; he ensures it was meant to land. Wounds taken earlier in the fight seem to guide the strike to its mark.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeMedium

TargetOne creature

Lethality3

Testvs Magic Defense (Prowess)

Damage. If the target has already taken Health damage in this scene, gain +1 to the opposed roll.

Oathbound Guard

Ward · Marked Working

Trained

An oath spoken under Arkaelos is not comfort — it is obligation. The ward hardening resolve and sharpening defense so long as the target does not turn away from the enemy before them.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetSelf or one ally

Duration1 round + 1/tier

TestCM 8

The warded target gains +1 to defense rolls while engaged with a hostile creature. If the warded target disengages voluntarily, the ward immediately ends.

Call to Reckoning

Bind · Contested Working

Skilled

War narrows until only two remain. This binding draws an invisible line between caster and foe, demanding answer for answer. While it endures, neither side may pretend the other does not exist.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetOne creature

Duration1 round + 1/tier

Testvs Magic Defense (Mind)

On a failed defense roll, the target must treat the caster as their primary opponent until end of their next turn — must direct attacks toward the caster if able, and cannot disengage from the caster.

Battle-Trance

Enchant · Marked Working

Skilled

The mind clears. Doubt recedes. Pain becomes distant and irrelevant. The caster does not fight harder — they fight without distraction, pressing forward as though the outcome has already been written.

Cast Time2 segments

TargetSelf

Duration2 rounds + 1/tier

TestCM 8

Gain +1 to Engagement Clashes. Once per turn on an Engagement Clash, you may ignore 1 point of Fatigue penalty for that roll only.

From the accounting of Palentho Jurgfjor, Soldier — Barony of Aurikast

There were nine of us sent into the Holt and four of them came out of the trees before we were ready. Mira was the one with us who was Omen-Born. She had not done anything up to that point that I had noticed. She was quiet on the march. Kept to herself.

When the beast-kin hit us she did something I felt before I saw. The air tightened. She changed. Not her face exactly — her face was the same — but everything behind it was gone. She went at them without hesitation, without the half-second a person takes before they do something dangerous. She took a wound on her left side that would have stopped any of us and kept moving. She killed two of them. The other two ran.

We were calling to her to stop. She couldn’t hear us, or she could hear us and it didn’t mean anything to her anymore. There was one beast-kin at the edge of the tree line, wounded, trying to crawl away. She went after it. We tried to follow.

We found her a hundred yards in. She had finished it but the wound on her side had opened fully by then. She was sitting against a tree. She knew us again by the end.

Rain of Foregone Blows

Wave · Contested Working

Expert

The ground remembers every war it has held. Unseen strikes fall across the field, as though the echoes of past battles demand to be felt again. Those already weary feel these blows most keenly.

Cast Time2 segments

AreaMedium radius, within Medium range

Lethality3

Testvs Magic Defense (Prowess)

Creatures that fail the defense roll suffer Health damage. Creatures already Fatigued suffer +1 additional Health damage.

Mark of Inevitable Defeat

Affliction · Contested Working

Expert

Some defeats arrive long before the final strike. This affliction settles upon the target as a certainty — a growing conviction that escape is the only remaining choice. It does not wound the body; it breaks the will to stand.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeMedium

TargetOne creature

Duration1 round + 1/tier

Testvs Magic Defense (Mind)

On a failed defense roll, the target is Panicked and must Disengage during the next melee phase. If the target successfully disengages, the Panicked state is removed. If they fail, they must continue attempting until they succeed or the duration expires. This Working has no effect on targets not currently engaged.

Manifest the Warbound Avatar

Summon / Manifest · Marked Working

Master

The Avatar is not summoned — it is revealed. A fragment of endless war steps forward, focused upon a single foe as though all history has narrowed to that point. It cannot be stopped by steel, only answered by power equal to its own.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

Duration3 rounds

TestCM 12

Manifest a Warbound Avatar that acts immediately after you each round. Uses Unseen Craft (Casting) Skill Check in place of a Melee Combat Skill Check. Reach 1, Lethality 4. The Avatar selects one target upon manifestation and may only attack that target. The Avatar is immune to non-magical damage — a successful magical attack dispels it immediately. Dissipates automatically at end of duration.

Victory or Nothing

Transmute · Marked Working

Master

Arkaelos does not mend wounds gently. He commands the body to continue. Flesh knits through force of will alone, fear dissolves, and fatigue is ignored in the face of necessity. But when the moment passes, the cost of that defiance remains.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetSelf or one creature

TestCM 12

Restore 2 Health and immediately remove Frightened, Panicked, or Routed. Until end of the target's next turn, they ignore all Fatigue penalties. After this effect ends, the target gains +1 Fatigue. A creature may benefit from this Working only once per scene.

Omen & Month

Arkaelios — Campaigning Season

Aesh dominant · Oru near · Naur distant

By Arkaelios the harvest is still weeks away but the ground is dry, the roads are passable, and the calculation shifts in favor of movement. Aesh rides high — grey, neutral, inevitable — while Oru burns close below, hot enough to feel but not to dominate. Naur has retreated. The sky feels like a held breath. In Dyrhal, Arkaelios is when warbands move.

Arkaelos’s omen-born carry a weight of purpose that others notice and cannot always name. They are not necessarily violent — but they believe in consequences, in the rightness of things being resolved. They do not forget. They do not negotiate what they consider settled.

Birth Omens · A crow landing on the windowsill and staying; the birth happening at the exact moment of a death elsewhere in the village; the child's eyes fixing on something no one else can see.

Law · Sun · Judgment · Casting Attribute: Mind

Pravon is the light that exposes, the law that endures, and the certainty that wrongs will be measured. His power is not wild flame, but illumination — steady, unwavering, and difficult to escape. Those born beneath his sign channel conviction. Pravon does not destroy for pleasure. He reveals, restrains, and restores according to order.

Measured Resolve

Enchant · Marked Working

Trained

Pravon's light steadies the mind and aligns intention with action. The weapon chosen becomes an instrument of certainty, striking with clarity rather than excess.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetSelf or one creature

Duration1 round + 1/tier

TestCM 8

Choose one wielded weapon when the Working is cast. Combat rolls made with that weapon gain +1. This does not increase lethality.

Edict of Truth

Bind · Ritual Working

Trained

Pravon does not compel confession through force. Instead, he removes the refuge of deception. The Working does not humiliate or harm — it simply permits no evasion.

Cast TimeRitual

RangeShort

TargetOne creature

Testvs Magic Defense (Mind)

On a failed defense roll, the target must answer one direct question truthfully on its next turn. This Working cannot compel self-harm or suicidal revelation.

Radiant Verdict

Bolt · Contested Working

Skilled

A beam of disciplined radiance descends like a pronouncement rendered. It burns not with chaos, but with judgment. Creatures born of corruption find no shelter in shadow.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeMedium

TargetOne creature

Lethality3 (4 vs undead)

Testvs Magic Defense (Mind)

Damage. If the target has acted against the caster or an ally in this scene, gain +1 to the opposed roll.

Bulwark of Faith

Ward · Marked Working

Skilled

Pravon's light anchors the soul. Under this ward, fear falters and dread loses its hold. The warded stand as if backed by unseen pillars.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetSelf or one ally

Duration1 round + 1/tier

TestCM 10

The warded target ignores the first instance of fear or panic each turn. Additionally, the target gains +1 to defense rolls against undead creatures. This bonus does not stack with other wards.

From the accounting of Yenna, Serf of Kethvara Manor — Barony of Omsk

They came out of the low field three nights after the harvest. Seven of them, maybe eight. We had bolted the doors and my husband was saying we should run for the woodline when the Omen-Born came through the gate. I don’t know where she came from. She was just there.

She stood in the middle of the yard and did something with her hands — slow, deliberate, like she was arranging something we couldn’t see. The light changed. Not firelight. Something else. Something that came from inside the air itself and had no color I have a name for. And then there was something standing beside her that had not been there before. Tall. Still. It looked like a man the way a statue looks like a man.

The shamblers came apart. Quietly.

The Omen-Born put her hands down. The thing beside her was gone. She looked very tired. She asked if anyone was hurt. Nobody was. We gave her everything we had in the larder. It didn’t feel like enough.

Manifest the Arbiter

Summon / Manifest · Marked Working

Expert

A figure of luminous balance takes form — not wrathful, but resolute. The Arbiter acts without hesitation, striking where imbalance demands correction.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

Duration1 round + 1/tier

TestCM 10

The Arbiter acts immediately after the caster each round. Uses Unseen Craft (Casting) Skill Check in place of a Melee Combat Skill Check. Reach 1, Lethality 3. Any successful hit against the Arbiter dispels it. The Arbiter does double damage against undead.

Restoration of Due Measure

Heal · Marked Working

Expert

Wounds close not through mercy, but through restoration of rightful state. Flesh aligns as it should. In moments where honor has been upheld, Pravon's light answers more generously.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetSelf or one creature

TestCM 10

Restore 2 Health and reduce Fatigue by 1. If the target has acted lawfully or honorably in this scene (GM adjudication), restore +1 additional Health. A creature may benefit from this Working only once per scene.

Edict of the Blinding Sun

Wave · Contested Working

Master

The light intensifies beyond comfort. Illumination becomes revelation, and those who cannot endure it falter. Shadows are stripped away, and the unworthy stand exposed beneath brilliance they cannot escape.

Cast Time2 segments

AreaMedium radius, centered on caster

Testvs Magic Defense (Mind)

Creatures that fail the defense roll are Blinded until end of their next turn and gain +1 Fatigue. Undead creatures that fail the roll suffer damage equal to the margin of failure (ignores armor).

Pravon's Grasp

Affliction · Contested Working

Master

Condemnation descends like a verdict delivered. The target feels the weight of law settle upon them, constricting movement and draining resolve. It is not rage that binds them, but inevitability.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeMedium

TargetOne creature

Duration1 round + 1/tier, or until dispelled

Testvs Magic Defense (Prowess)

On a failed defense roll, the target is Restrained and takes 1 Health damage. At the end of each of the target's turns, repeat the opposed roll to maintain. Each failure inflicts +1 Fatigue. The caster cannot cast another Working while this Working is active.

Omen & Month

Pravonar — Harvest

Oru and Naur dominant · Aesh distant

Pravonar is the year's fullest month. The harvest is in or coming. Oru and Naur rise together — warmth and cold, rust and blue, in rare conjunction — while Aesh withdraws. The days are still long. Markets are full. Contracts are signed. In Dyrhal, Pravonar is when baronies settle their accounts and the roads are thick with merchants.

Pravon's omen-born tend toward order as an instinct rather than a philosophy. They are reliable, consistent, and expect the same from others — not out of rigidity but because they genuinely find chaos wasteful. They make natural merchants, magistrates, tax collectors, and priests of the ordered faiths. The ones with ambition tend to accumulate authority quietly and hold it tightly.

Birth Omens · The sun appearing through clouds at the exact moment of birth; merchants reporting unusually good trades that day; the child born with open eyes.

Sea · Travel · Chance · Casting Attribute: Charm

Thalarion governs the turning tide, the shifting wind, and the uncertain road. He is neither cruel nor merciful; he simply allows the world to lean one way or another. His Path bends probability, opens passage, and reminds all who walk it that chance is never neutral.

Favorable Winds

Enchant · Marked Working

Trained

The air seems to cooperate. Footing steadies, timing aligns, and movement becomes just slightly easier than it should be.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetSelf or one creature

Duration1 round + 1/tier

TestCM 8

The target gains +1 to movement-based rolls and may move an additional 5′ per move action.

Fortune's Tread

Ward · Marked Working

Trained

Luck is rarely loud. It settles quietly, waiting for the moment it is needed. When the ward triggers, failure hesitates just long enough to offer another chance.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetSelf or one creature

DurationUntil triggered or scene ends

TestCM 8

Trigger: The first time the warded target would fail a roll in this scene. When triggered, the target may reroll one die from that roll and take the new result. The ward then ends.

Spray of Uncertainty

Bolt · Contested Working

Skilled

The strike carries more than force — it carries doubt. For a heartbeat, outcomes no longer seem guaranteed.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeMedium

TargetOne creature

Lethality2

Testvs Magic Defense (Charm)

On a successful hit, in addition to damage, the target suffers Ill-Fortune: −2 to their next roll (ignoring Opening Order rolls) made before the end of their next turn.

Wayfarer's Grace

Enchant · Marked Working

Skilled

Mud does not cling. Ice does not crack. Water bears weight as if it were stone. Under this enchantment, terrain ceases to dictate movement.

Cast Time2 segments

TargetSelf

Duration1 round + 1/tier

TestCM 8

You ignore penalties from difficult terrain. You may move across water, ice, mud, or unstable surfaces as though they were solid ground. This enchant ends immediately if you are Immobilized or Restrained.

From the accounting of Vasek Morin, River Trader — Starostw of Durnov

We were three days past the confluence when the storm broke the tiller and took Danylo overboard. We got him back but the boat was going nowhere and the current was wrong and I was starting to count what we had left to eat.
The Omen-Born had been a quiet passenger, paid his fare, caused no trouble. I had not given him much thought. He went to the bow when the storm cleared and stood there for a long time with his eyes on the water. Then he began — I don’t know what to call it. His hands moved low, close to the hull. He wasn’t looking at his hands. He was looking at something underneath the surface.
The mist came in off the water, which was strange because the day had cleared. And then there was a boat alongside us. Not a boat that had sailed up. A boat that was simply there, in the mist, as if it had always been there and we had only just noticed it. It had no crew. It moved when we needed it to move. It held all of us and our cargo and it did not ship water.
We made port two days later. When we tied up the boat was gone. I looked back and there was nothing there. I have been on the rivers for nineteen years. I filed this accounting because I did not want to be the only one who knew.

Rolling Misfortune

Wave · Contested Working

Expert

When invoked across the field, a subtle current of misalignment sweeps outward. Strikes land slightly wide. Plans misfire. Those already struggling find the tide turning harder against them.

Cast Time2 segments

AreaMedium radius, within Medium range

Lethality2

Testvs Magic Defense (Prowess)

Creatures that fail suffer Health damage and Ill-Fortune (−2 to their next roll, ignoring Opening Order rolls). Creatures already suffering from Ill-Fortune gain +1 Fatigue instead.

Saltwater Renewal

Transmute · Ritual Working

Expert

The sea is patient. Submerged in natural water, wounds seem to quiet as though drawn into the depths. This renewal does not feel miraculous; it feels restorative.

Cast TimeRitual

TargetSelf or one creature

RequirementPartially submerged in natural water

TestCM 10

During an Exploration or Travel Time's Rest or Camp segment, heal up to 3 Health. Cannot be cast during combat or while hostile actions are occurring. If the target leaves the water during the segment, the ritual fails.

Manifest the Vessel of Passage

Summon / Manifest · Ritual Working

Master

Thalarion does not carry his followers — he provides the means. A vessel forms from mist, tide, or wind, suited to the terrain at hand. It moves steadily, indifferent to doubt.

Cast TimeRitual

RangeShort

TestCM 12

Conjure a temporary vessel appropriate to the terrain — a boat on water, or a wagon/sled on land pulled by spectral oxen. Carries up to ten creatures and their gear, moves at a reasonable travel pace, and lasts until end of scene or journey segment. Recasting refreshes the duration.

Curse of the Unlucky Tide

Affliction · Contested Working

Master

The world ceases to align with the target's intentions. Moments that should favor them slip away. Success becomes fragile, and every action feels just slightly off course — as though the tide itself has chosen to withdraw.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeMedium

TargetOne creature

Duration1 round + 1/tier

Testvs Magic Defense (Charm)

On a failed defense roll, the target suffers Greater Misfortune: whenever the target makes a roll, one die showing its highest value is rerolled and the lower value is kept.

Omen & Month

Thalarionis — Last Voyages

Aesh dominant · Naur near · Oru distant

Thalarionis is the last month the sea lanes stay reliably open before winter closes them. Aesh dominates — grey, cool, the color of deep water — while Naur drifts close, blue-tinted and cold. Oru has pulled back. The air smells of salt and approaching frost. The ships that haven't left yet are leaving now.

Thalarion's omen-born are the hardest to predict of any path. Luck, genuinely good or genuinely terrible, seems to follow them — they are rarely unaffected by fate, but the direction is impossible to forecast. They make exceptional sailors, gamblers, scouts, and occasionally the kind of merchant who somehow survives situations that should have killed them. They are rarely boring company.

Birth Omens · A sudden wind from no direction; the sound of the sea heard far inland; something lost in the household turning up in an unexpected place.

Love · Art · Dreams · Casting Attribute: Charm

Lyubera's power is not easily catalogued in the language of war. Where other Paths reshape the battlefield through force, control, or devastation, Lyubera's influence moves through connection, devotion, and the strange authority that love holds over the waking mind. Her faithful do not overwhelm — they endure together, protect fiercely, and at their most dangerous, reach into another's dreaming will and reshape it entirely.

Bonds of Loyalty

Bind · Marked Working

Trained

Affection and confidence briefly shield the spirit.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetOne ally

Duration1 round + 1/tier

TestCM 8

The target cannot gain the Panicked or Frightened states while within 15′ of the caster. Likewise the caster cannot gain the Panicked or Frightened states while within 15′ of the target.

Gentle Glamour

Transmute · Ritual Working

Trained

Lyubera's touch on voice, form, and spirit — subtle enough to be mistaken for natural grace, but present enough to matter.

Cast TimeRitual

TargetSelf

Duration2 hours

TestCM 8

Caster becomes subtly more attractive in voice, form, and spirit, gaining +2 to social rolls. If they fail a social roll, the Working is dispelled and the target of that roll may react one step more negatively, as the target senses something amiss.

Dream Strike

Bolt · Contested Working

Skilled

The strike carries no physical force — only a sudden, invasive wrongness that stops thought cold.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeMedium

TargetOne creature

Testvs Magic Defense (Mind)

This bolt does no damage. Instead the target is Dazed for one round — cannot take actions during either action segment this round and automatically loses momentum if they had it.

Fury's Regret

Ward · Contested Working

Skilled

The target's focus narrows irresistibly. Harm dealt returns as hesitation.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

TargetSelf or one creature

Duration1 round + 1/tier, or until triggered

Testvs Magic Defense (Charm)

When the warded combatant is damaged, the combatant dealing the damage must win an opposed roll — 2d6 + Charm modifier vs the caster's Unseen Craft Skill Check Total — or be unable to attack the target they damaged next round. If they attack another target, they suffer −1 to their next combat roll. The ward dissipates after being triggered.

Manifest the Muse

Summon / Manifest · Marked Working

Expert

From whispered memory and half-remembered longing, the Muse takes shape. She taunts, distracts, and unsettles — not through strength of arm but through the slow erosion of certainty. Where she lingers, resolve frays.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeShort

Duration1 round + 1/tier

TestCM 10

The Muse acts immediately after the caster, attacking once per round. Uses Unseen Craft (Casting) Skill Check in place of a Ranged Combat Skill Check. Lethality 2, max range Medium. Each hit that does damage applies a stacking −1 to the target's die rolls for the duration. Any successful hit against the Muse dispels it. If the Muse becomes engaged it is dispelled.

Lyubera's Blessing

Ritual · Ritual Working

Expert

To the devoted, rest comes swifter and deeper. In dreams guided by Lyubera's hand, hours stretch thin and weariness dissolves.

Cast TimeRitual

TargetUp to 4 creatures (incl. caster)

TestCM 10

During Exploration or Travel Time, one sleep segment counts as three sleep segments, allowing targets to have a full rest in one segment. A person may be affected only once per day. This sleep only clears 1/3 of the normal ritual strain a full night's sleep does. If the sleep is disturbed, the Working has no effect.

Dream Master

Affliction · Contested Working

Master

The target's waking world becomes pliable, reshaped by the caster's quiet command. Yet such dominance demands full surrender of the caster's own awareness — for to control another's dream is to stand defenseless within one's own.

Cast Time2 segments

RangeMedium

TargetOne creature

Duration1 round + 1/tier

Testvs Magic Defense (Charm)

On a failed defense roll, the target falls into a waking dream and is controlled by the caster. While controlled: caster may direct the target to move and make basic attacks; the target cannot use spells, special abilities, or limited-use powers; the target cannot be directed to inflict intentional self-harm — attempting to do so immediately ends the Working. At the end of each of the target's turns, repeat the opposed roll to maintain. While maintaining control: the caster is treated as Dazed and may take no other actions; if the caster takes damage, the Working immediately ends.

Dreamtide Benediction

Wave · Marked Working

Master

A gentle wave of remembrance spreads across the battlefield. Fear quiets. Doubt softens. Allies move as though guided by the same unspoken understanding, sustained by something deeper than courage — shared devotion.

Cast Time2 segments

AreaShort radius, centered on caster

Duration1 round + 1/tier

TestCM 12

All allies within range: cannot gain Panicked or Frightened; may reroll one failed roll per round (must take new result); if they would lose momentum, they may instead retain it once during the Working. If the caster becomes engaged, the duration immediately halves (round up).

Omen & Month

Lyuberan — Closing of the Year

Naur dominant · Oru near · Aesh distant

Lyuberan is the last month before Eirvethon returns. Naur is cold and clear overhead, but Oru burns close behind — warmth still present, still felt, even as the nights lengthen. Aesh has withdrawn. The sky is intimate rather than vast. In Dyrhal this is the month of hearthfire, of stories told indoors, of things said before the cold makes them harder to say.

Lyubera's omen-born feel things at a register others don't always access. They are perceptive about people, moved by beauty in forms others overlook, and capable of an emotional endurance that looks from outside like softness but is anything but. They produce Dyrhal's artists, its poets, its most dangerous seducers, and occasionally its most effective spies — people who understand what others want and need before those others do.

Birth Omens · Unusual warmth on a cold night; a vivid dream reported by everyone in the household; the child born with their eyes already moving as if watching something.