Shadowmancy
Scholars of magic and magical theory believe the stuff of Shadowmancy bleeds into reality from the Underworld. Truly, it’s spells deal in darkness, oblivion, and ennui. Students of the tradition tend to appear wan, pale, sickly even. Bruises smudge their eyes and lights seem to dim around them.
Shadowmancy Talents
DARK SIGHT (Magical): You gain the Dark Vision trait. If you have this trait, you increase its range by 3 yards.
MANTLE OF DARKNESS (Magical): You can use this talent at the end of your turn, if you are in a space lit by dim light, faint light, or no light at all. Until the end of your next turn, you are invisible and you take half damage from ordinary sources. Once you use this talent, you lose access to it for 1 minute.
NIGHTFALL BLADE (Magical): You can use an action to produce a blade of solid shadow in your hand and use it to make an attack, if you choose. The blade remains for 1 hour or until you use this talent again. The blade uses the rules for a dagger, but attacks with it deal an extra 1d6 damage (2d6 damage at level 3 or 4d6 damage at level 7), and the weapon lacks the Light trait. When you attack with the blade, you can use Intellect in place of the attribute you would normally use, and you roll to attack with 1 boon. Finally, when you get a critical success on a roll to attack with the blade, the target loses 1d6 Health.
WALL OF DARKNESS (Magical): You can use an action to blanket an opening with darkness. Target one opening, no larger than 5 yards wide by 5 yards tall. An opaque wall of darkness spreads across the opening and remains there for 1 minute. The darkness blocks all ordinary forms of vision, though True Vision can pierce it. You can use this talent once, twice at level 3, and three times at level 7. You regain expended uses after you rest.
Novice Shadowmancy Spells
Blackest Razor
Castings: 1
Target: One Size 5 space within 10 yards
Duration: Instant
You sweep your arm to let loose blades of solidified darkness that streak toward the target space. For each creature in it separately, make an Intellect roll against its Agility. You roll with 1 boon if you target three creatures or more, 2 boons for two targets, or 3 boons against a single target. On a success, the target takes 3d6 damage. On a critical success, the target takes an extra 2d6 damage.
Blinding Bolt
Castings: 3
Target: One sighted creature within 15 yards
Duration: Instant
An undulating ball of darkness flies toward the target. Make an Intellect roll against its Agility. On a success, the target becomes blinded until the end of your next turn. On a critical success, the target instead becomes blinded (luck ends).
Clutching Shadows
Castings: 1
Target: One creature within 15 yards
Duration: Instant
Shadows gather around the target creature, pawing at it. Make an Intellect roll with 1 boon against the target’s Agility. On a success, the target takes 4d6 damage and the shadows drag the target into your reach. On a critical success, the target also becomes weakened until the end of your next turn.
Dark Bolts
Castings: 3
Target: One creature within 15 yards
Duration: Instant
A shadowy bolt flies from you toward the target. Make an Intellect roll with 1 boon against the target’s Agility. On a success, the target takes 2d6 damage and is pushed 5 yards away from you. On a critical success, the target takes an extra 1d6 damage.
Enveloping Darkness
Castings: 3
Target: One Size 5 space within 15 yards
Duration: 1 hour
Magical darkness fills the space, creating total obscurement in it for 1 hour. You ignore the effects of this obscurement on your vision. A creature that would move out of the target space first makes an Intellect roll and, on a failure, becomes lost in the space and cannot attempt to exit again until the start of its next turn.
Into The Darkness
Castings: 3, reaction when you move 1 yard
Target: You
Duration: 1 minute
You can leap from shadow to shadow. You know the location of each space in faint, dim, or no light within 15 yards. Provided you are in faint, dim, or no light, you can expend 1 yard of movement to move from your space to another one in faint, dim, or no light within 15 yards.
Expert Shadowmancy Spells
Chilling Darkness
Castings: 1
Target: One Size 5 space within 15 yards
Duration: 1 minute
Magical darkness fills the space, creating total obscurement in it. You ignore the effects of this obscurement on your vision. A creature that attempts to move out of the target space first makes an Intellect roll. On a failure, it becomes lost in the space and cannot attempt to exit until the start of its next turn.
At the end of each round, each creature in the target space makes a Strength roll and, on a failure, takes 4d6 damage and becomes Strength impaired until the end of its next turn.
Darkling Transformation
Castings: 1
Target: One creature within 5 yards
Duration: 1 hour
Inky shadows gather around the creature and seep into its skin, transforming it into a darkling for 1 hour. The target gains the Keen Vision trait and the Climber and Silent movement traits. The target imposes 1 bane on rolls to attack it and rolls against its Agility by enemies that can see it. Finally, the target is invisible from enemies more than 5 yards from it while the target is in an area lit by dim light, faint light, or no light at all.
Midnight Razor
Castings: 3
Target: You
Duration: 1 hour
An utterly black razor appears in your hand. The razor uses the rules for a saber. You can use Intellect in place of the attribute you would normally use for the roll to attack, and you roll with 1 boon if the target is in faint or dim light, or with 3 boons in no light. When you get a critical success on a roll to attack with the razor, the target also loses 2d6 Health.
See In Darkness
Castings: 1
Target: You
Duration: 24 hours
Your eyes turn into yawning black pits. You need no light to see for 24 hours, but the spell ends early after you rest. Your vision can even pierce magical darkness.
Shadow Blade Barrage
Castings: 3
Target: A line of three contiguous Size 5 spaces, one of which must be within reach
Duration: Instant
Long spikes emerge from your body and then leap free, speeding away from you. Each creature in a target space takes 2d6 damage and makes an Agility roll. A creature makes the roll with 1 bane if in faint or dim light, or with 3 banes in no light at all. On a failure, the creature becomes weakened (luck ends). On a critical failure, the creature takes an extra 2d6 damage.
Shape Shadow Monster
Castings: 1
Target: One Size 1 space within 5 yards that’s lit by dim light, faint light, or no light at all
Duration: 1 hour
A monster forms from the shadows in the target space. It can have any shape you choose. It becomes your controlled companion. The spell ends early if the companion becomes incapacitated. When the spell ends, the shadow monster disappears and magical darkness spreads out 5 yards from the space it occupied, creating total obscurement in the area that lasts until the end of your next turn.
| SHADOW MONSTER |
ATTRIBUTES: Strength 14 (+4), Agility 14 (+4), Intellect 8 (-2), Will 12 (+2)
SIZE: 1, SPEED: 6 (Silent, Strider)
SENSES: Awareness 10
IMMUNE: asleep, blinded, deafened, impaired, on fire, poisoned, prone, weakened
MELEE ATTACK—CLAWS AND TEETH: Strength (+4) with 3 boons (1d6). On a critical success, the target becomes blinded until the end of your next turn.
SUNLIGHT WEAKNESS: At the end of the round, if the shadow monster is in a space lit by sunlight, it becomes weakened until the end of the next round.
Master Shadowmancy Spells
Devouring Darkness
Castings: 1
Target: One creature within 15 yards
Duration: Instant
Darkness blooms and swallows the target. The target takes 10d6 damage, and you make an Intellect roll against the target’s Strength. On a success, the target takes an extra 8d6 damage and becomes blinded (luck ends). On a critical success, the target takes an extra 10d6 damage and becomes blinded (luck ends) instead. In either case, each time the target gets a failure on a luck roll to remove the blinded affliction, it takes 5d6 damage.
Obsidian Gate
Castings: 1
Target: One empty Size 1 space within 5 yards
Duration: 1 hour
You punch through reality causing a black hole to open inside the target space. When you cast the spell, and again when you use an action to do so while you are within 5 yards of the target space, you can choose one empty Size 1 space anywhere in the world that you have seen at least once before and cause a second hole to open there. Until you choose a different space, anything entering one hole instantly emerges from the other.
If the hole has no exit, anything that enters it makes a luck roll. On a success, it emerges from the other side of the target space. On a failure, it disappears, never to be seen again.
Shadow Killer
Castings: 1
Target: One empty Size 1 space within 10 yards lit by dim light, faint light, or no light at all
Duration: 1 minute
The shadows in that space form into a monstrous killer. The shadow killer becomes your controlled companion for the duration, but the spell ends early if it becomes incapacitated. When the effect ends, the shadow killer disappears and magical darkness spreads out 5 yards from the space it occupied, creating total obscurement in the area that lasts until the end of your next turn.
| SHADOW KILLER |
ATTRIBUTES: Strength 13 (+3), Agility 14 (+4), Intellect 9 (–1), Will 15 (+5)
SIZE: 1, SPEED: 8 (Silent, Strider)
SENSES: Awareness 10
IMMUNE: asleep, blinded, deafened, impaired, on fire, poisoned, prone, weakened
MELEE ATTACK—SHADOW BLADE: Strength (+3) roll with 3 boons (5d6). On a critical success, the shadow killer and the target teleport to empty spaces of your choice inside one Size 2 space within 20 yards of the spaces they left.
SUNLIGHT WEAKNESS: At the end of the round, if the shadow killer is in a space lit by sunlight, it becomes weakened until the end of the next round.
Shrieking Darkness
Castings: 1
Target: One Size 20 within 30 yards
Duration: 1 hour
Magical darkness fills the space with total obscurement. You ignore the effects of this obscurement on your vision. A creature that would move out of the target space first makes an Intellect roll and, on a failure, becomes lost in the space and cannot attempt to exit until the start of its next turn.
From the darkness come sounds of terrible shrieking. Each creature in the darkness or within 10 yards of it, other than you, makes a Will roll. On a success, the creature becomes immune to this aspect of the spell for 24 hours. On a failure, the creature becomes frightened of the darkness (luck ends).
At the end of each round, each creature in the target space, other than you, makes a luck roll. On a failure, the creature takes 4d6 damage and becomes held until the end of its next turn. While held in this way, the creature is also Will impaired.
Slicing Shadows
Castings: 1
Target: One Size 5 space within 30 yards
Duration: Instant
Blades of solidified darkness crisscross the target space and dissipate. The blades deal 5d6 damage to each creature in the target space. A creature that takes this damage makes an Agility roll with 1 bane. On a failure, it takes an extra 5d6 damage. A creature that becomes injured by this damage takes 2d6 damage at the end of each round (luck ends).
Steal Shadow
Castings: 3
Target: One creature within 10 yards
Duration: 8 hours
A horrible tearing sounds as you rip away the target’s shadow. The target no longer casts a shadow. You always know the target’s location in relation to your own. For your attacks, spells, and talents, you can target the shadow, which squirms somewhere in your reach until the spell ends, instead of the target creature and the effects apply to that creature regardless of the distance between you. The shadow uses the target’s Defenses and attributes. Each time you harm the target through its stolen shadow, the target makes a Will roll with 1 bane; on a success, the spell ends early. In addition, until the spell ends, you make rolls against the target with 1 boon, you impose 1 bane on rolls the target makes against you, and your attacks against the target deal an extra 5d6 damage.