Mage Spirit

These spirits have the appearance of small wrinkled crooked old humans, always bent over a stick as twisted and gnarled as themselves. This is not their preferred form, however: they prefer to enter the mortal world via the mind of another, who they use to satisfy their lust for the arcane. Mage Spirits constantly the thrill of using magic, and all of their activities are centered around getting their next 'fix'.



When in a spirit body mage spirits have no energy reserves and are not ritual adepts, though they retain the ability to cast spells at their full skill. In such a form they are tougher than a typical mage, but they prefer to have full arcane power rather than physical strength, even though the arcane power frequently comes with their temporarily loosing control over it.

In a spirit body mage spirits spend their time seeking more and bigger fixes. This usually manifests as collecting grimoires with ever higher bonuses, seeking places of power, trying to find people to cast group rituals with, and creating grimoires to bring them in their preferred form. They also love to help others by enchanting items, and ask for no charge. The catch is they usually over stretch themselves on the enchantment: items are extremely quirky, and critical failures are common. They also tend to go all out: If you ask for a morsel of bread, you are likely to get a large feast of ham, potato pie, and wine -- dyed odd colors and tasting funny.

The preferred method for a spirit mage to enter the world is via a ritual that binds it to a human. The two are in mental communication, though neither can read thoughts the other does not wish them to. The human gains the adept advantage, the path skills of the mage spirit, and thaumology of the mage spirit at its highest path (not the spirit's actual thaumology score), as well as access to its energy reserve.

Usually the host gains access to the host through the use of a grimoire. Much like demon grimoires, these are half price or less, do not warn of the dangers of use, and are mostly made by mage spirits. The ritual looks like this: lesser create crossroads, lesser sense mind, lesser sense spirit, lesser create magic, lesser create spirit, duration. Each grimoire is keyed to a single mage spirit, and if the spirit already has a host the spell will fail.

As the host uses the magic of the spirit, he gains the addiction (magic use). The amount of magic needed for a fix and the penalty to withdrawal rolls depends on the length of use. The addiction does not start until either a spell of 30 or more energy is cast, 10 spells are cast in a single day, or a spell is cast every day for a week. At that point the host gains both a psychological AND a physiological addiction, and must roll for withdrawals each day they do not perform magic.

initial +1 to rolls any spell casting
week 1 +0 to rolls 3 energy spell
week 2 -1 to rolls 5 energy spell
week 4 -2 to rolls 7 energy spell
week 5 -4 to rolls 10 energy spell
week 6 -5 to rolls 15 energy spell
week 7 -6 to rolls 20 energy spell
week 8 -7 to rolls 30 energy spell
week X -X+1 to rolls follow size/distance table for X

casting any spell 3 weeks in advance of the current energy requirements moves the caster up by a week automatically, as does casting 10 spells of the current energy level in one day or casting a spell of a given level seven times in a week.

The effects also apply to those who conduct group castings with mage spirits. However, the addiction only worsens if the caster continues to work with the mage spirit: one who participates in a single large ritual will need to keep casting spells daily or go through withdrawals, but unless the caster continues cast spells in conjunction with the mage spirit the addiction will not worsen and a single spell per day will suffice.

This addiction is, of course, not sustainable. Eventually a critical failure will either kill the host or banish the spirit. The spirit will have to wait for its next chance to enter the mortal world, and a surviving host will have to cope with the addiction it can no longer satisfy.

Additionally, the host begins to acquire some of the spirit's traits. They become boastful and overconfident, try to use magic to solve every problem, rapidly age, and become more physically deformed and stooped, with more 'gnomish' features. These are not reversed if the spirit is lost, and quirks and disadvantages gained during withdrawal follow these lines.

An addicted host can be taken over by the spirit. They have a quick contest of wills, with the host receiving half of the withdrawal modifier (rounded up). The spirit looks forward to this, but is as cautious as it ever is: springing the attempt before the subject is hooked can result in the loss of the host!

The Mage spirits can be driven out in a variety of ways: via an exorcism, by breaking the spell that binds the spirit to the host, and using 'lily of the valley'. This plant can be used to counter any any all effects of a mage spirit -- but doing so can be dangerous, as the plant is quite poisonous, and needs to be quite close to effect the mage spirit. To kick it out of the host, it must be ingested -- which will probably send the host to the emergency room. a vase of it in the middle of a room won't protect the room, but it will protect the table its on and placing the flowers on a person (in their hair or as a corsage) will protect them from the magic.

Some unscrupulous individuals will use a grimoire to grant unwary or power-hungry minions powerful magic abilities. The trick here is always keeping control of the minion as they often become as powerful as the master that granted them the powers. The safest way to deal with an enemy mage spirit is to wait it out or distract it: its a ticking time bomb that will eventually destroy itself. Unfortunately, this is not always an option.

ST 11 HP 8 speed: 5.5
DX 12 Will 14 Move: 5
IQ 14 Per 10 SM: -1
HT 10 FP 10 DR: 0* (may use magic)

Baton (12) 1d+1 cr or 1d-1 cr
Innate Attack (16) : *carries spell to target.

Traits: Spirit Creature MetaTrait, Obsession (Cast larger and larger spells), overconfidence, Appearance -1, Unnatural Features 5, Magery cap 14+15 for one path, Grants host 30 Energy Reserve, Grants host Ritual Path Magic Adept, Dread (lilly of the valley).

Skills: One path at 15, the rest at 14. Thaumology 20

Notes: Hosts will normally have their own statistics.