[UA] Thanatourgy

[DL]

Hello All,

   I was waiting to get PoMoMa and re-edit this before sending to the list,
but since PoMoMa looks a lot like a big collection schools i already saw on
the web, im not that eager to get the book anymore, i can wait to get it
with Statosphere.
   I created Thanatourgy as a old magick school, Robert have edit the damn
thing to be more palatable to english readers. Something i notice, and
RObert confirmed when making coments later on, is that Thanatourgy maybe
will not be that great for players, but really good to GMCs. I hope you guys
and gals (there is any gal on the list???) enjoy it.
   Piromancy, as it is on the UArchive, will not get another revision, maybe
I add a line later about what they see as innocent ppl, but based on the
discussions, i think ppl will handle it right. Oniromancy (it's not
Oneiromancy) have no been comented at all, so it stays the same way too, i
hope ppl ready it when they see Sopiomancy, something im brewing right now.

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Thanatourgy

"A man got to know his limitations" - Dirty Harry Callahan

Thanatourgy is one of the oldest arts of magic. It sprung from the beliefs
of the first shamans, and was strongly used and perfected in ancient Egypt.
The Necromancers see death as a natural phase of our lives: we are children,
grow adult, get old, die and (through their help) evolves into an undead
state. Most parts of the school were developed in the area close to the
waters of the Nile, but the knowledge has withered through the ages and many
of the original scriptures and tomes have disappeared. Most of their written
wisdom and spells was kept in the city of Alexandria, in tombs now long
lost, and more commonly in the corpses of dead Necromancers (used by their
disciples as hidden caches and, most of the times, as traps).

The adepts that for one reason or the other created cabals outside of Egypt,
is mostly responsible for the remains of the schools knowledge, gathered
during the Dark Ages (some even credit the first inventive, but still
clueless, necromancers of that time for the Black Plague). The Necromancers
of the Dark Ages did not succeed where their predecessors had failed, they
where destroyed (or actually, went underground) by the forces of the
inquisition, and even the Templar Knights. The school was once again lost.

In late 1940's, an egyptian/english expedition finally found one tomb with
enough knowledge to resurrect most of the school. They also found a few
"older than death" adepts. The expedition was seized, and the old adepts
started to prey on villages and travelers in the area. In 1954, a new
expedition found a habitable site where there had been indications of an
ancient tomb. They had a very different destiny than the lost expedition
before them. The adepts, with their leader Akhenankh, invited them to join
the school. The ones that refused became the test subjects of the new
students. The new, and still living, students were then sent to other places
to teach and gather knowledge about the occult presence in modern times,
studies they later reported back to the first cabal.

Some new "cabals" spawned from the members of this expedition, making at
least eight news groups; one of them, a British one, set apart from the
others. The seven other cabals have very different degrees of knowledge,
loyalty and religious inclination. To keep them at a close leach, the
original cabal (now resident a few kilometers from Cairo) never told them
the full potential of their magicks, keeping to themselves the most powerful
spells (almost all the significant ones, and all the major ones), and
sometimes sending one of the original members to make a surprise visit and
check on the progress of the individual cabals. The upper side of this
concealment was that this left the others cabals to create their own spells.
Below, the spells that are known by just one of the cabals will be noted to
avoid problems. Most of the cabals are resident in the US (four of them),
and the others have made their home in Chile, Hong Kong, Germany and
England.

The cabals have no more than 7 members each, and besides the original cabal,
still in Egypt, none has a full staff composed solely by adepts. They almost
always have contacts with some local religious group and their studies, but
keep their distance from the occult underground as much as possible. They
are not that interested in Alex Abel and others, preferring to keep their
eyes open to dangers on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Death is not treated lightly by the school, even to the least religious of
the adepts avoid killing human beings, and treat UA Demons with respect, as
do they with the ghouls and undead they create (rules for both are found
below). Most of the cabals have good knowledge about the way a corpse should
be embalmed, in both new and older Egyptian ways. Some of the members works
at police departments or morgues, so they can have a full source of bodies
without having to get them at graveyards. They rarely kill people
themselves, since they firmly believe that killing a human being (and thus
stopping their maturation) causes terrible bad luck. They even treat the
ghouls (whom they don't think of as being alive, and use as robots of rotten
flesh and decayed bones) with good care, despite their lack of intellect.
This is because the members feel that to disrespect them is like to
disrespect life and death itself. They are demanding, but rarely cruel.

Extending peoples lives is not an easy task, to do it the Necromancers do
not just have to give of their own life force, but also sometimes have to
handle people not ready to be undead. Some of them even fight against the
adept, and have to be put down. Sometimes even the ghouls attack their own
creators.

The Necromancers believe in the continual state of life, and believing in
this they do not seek to live forever, but neither do they want to die
faster. They feel as caretakers of the process of resurrecting people after
their deaths. They try to perpetually extend their undead lives.
Thanatourgists can still use their magick after becoming undead, since this
was already their obsession when being alive, and there is even ways to keep
them away of the rotting process that cripples the usual undead. They want
just that: to be eternal, and slowly, but surely, spread their beliefs
through all other religions.

Blast Style(Alive): This blast causes no damage in the minor, but put the
target against terrible visions of death. The significant blast kills the
target for a few minutes.

Blast Style (Undead): The minor blast causes an excruciating pain, failure
of organs, internal bleeding, and sometimes even death. The significant
blast causes the target to weaken, taking their life force to the undead
necromancer.

Generate a minor charge: Visit a place where a violent death has taken place
(once visited, the place no longer gives charges); Meet someone that has had
a post-mortem experience (once meet, the person will have no more use);
Sleep in some kind of tomb or coffin, mausoleum, or anywhere a dead should
rest (only for undead Necromancers).

Generate a significant charge: Witness a violent death (not one caused or
arranged by the adept himself); Visit a place where death occurs frequently,
or where several deaths has happened once (once visited, the place no longer
gives charges); Meet someone that has survived a real attempt of suicide
(once meet, the person will have no more use).

Generate a major charge: Witness a very long (at least 2 months) genocide
process

Taboo: To desecrate a burial ground, a graveyard, or to disrupt even the act
of putting flowers over a tomb. Trying to use magick on dead that have
received a last farewell from a religious figure (like the catholic extreme
unction). They are not allowed to kill, but that does not mean they cannot
employ a Ghoul or Undead to do the job.

Note: Most spells requires some Wound Points from the caster. Small amounts,
up to 5, will just make him feel a little fever, but larger quantities of
damage, like 15-20, can cause an old scar to open again or even spawn a gash
on the flesh causing an additional bleeding to the Wound Points lost.
Necromancers will heal these as normal wounds points. After receiving the
damage, and the undead or ghoul created, the Necromancer can for any reason
get back half of those Wound Points - but at same time causing that much as
damage to the ghoul, or undead. As a last rule, optional to better balance
things, the maximum number of wounds of the Necromancers is reduced by one,
for each ghoul or undead created that is alive and kicking.

Random magick domain: Bring dead things, that has been alive before, back to
life. Talk, bind, and banish UA Demons. Sense death.

Starting charges: newly-created necromancers receive four minor charges.

Minor formula spells:

Smell of Death
Cost: 1 minor charge
Effect: The Necromancer can sense if, and where, a death will occur, up to
one kilometer from where he is and 20 minutes into the future. This will not
give exact directions or time, but can give a good impression of When and
Where.

Rotten Wood
cost: 1 minor charge (+1 die)
Effect: The Thanatourgist can bring back to life, a plant up to the size of
a large bush or small tree. She must touch the plant, then roll a die to see
how many Wound Points she loses.

Smelly Cat
Cost: 1 minor charge (+ 1 die)
Effect: The Necromancer will bring a cat back to life as Undead (rules for
ghouls and undead, below). The body of the animal should be put on the bed
used last by the Necromancer, he shall then hold it firmly at the same time
he casts the magick. The cat, as any Undead, will feel an urge to follow and
protect the Necromancer, and will have a general idea of the Necromancers
feelings.

Hound of Set (Egyptian Cabal only)
Cost: 2 minor charges (+ 2 dies added together)
Effect: This spell will not just bring a dog back to life as an Undead, but
the animal will be linked strongly to the Necromancer and Death itself. The
dog will do as much as possible to please the Necromancer, knowing her
desires and protecting her, besides, the hound can track any fresh death to
up 10 kilometers and sense when a death will happen in immediate future. The
Necromancer have to tie the jaw of the dog with a thin string of his own
hair at the time of the new moon so make the spell work.

Sight of the Underworld
Cost: 2 minor charges
Effect: With this spell, the Necromancers can see and hear ghosts/UA Demons
in their field of vision, even if the demon is possessing someone. This
spells effect works for the whole night, till the first light of day.

Ouija (English Cabal only)
Cost: 3 minor charges
Effect: The Necromancer, using a Oui-Ja board, can summon a specific UA
demon, and bind it to speak only the truth. The Necromancer needs an object
that was the UA Demons possession when still alive to make the spell work.

Death Vision
Cost: 3 minor charges
Effect: This is the minor blast. The target is hit in a instant with
terrible visions of the deaths already witnessed or caused by the
Necromancer. The target makes a stress check (Unnatural or Violence -8). If
succeeded, he will lose his next action but is free from the vision, if
failed, he will run, get stunned or go berserk, but the vision won't fade
away for at least three more rounds.

Little Death (Undead Only)
Cost: 4 minor charges
Effect: This is the Undead Necromancers minor blast. The target will have a
minor organ failure, that is wide open to liver failures, strokes, etc.
Anyway, this spells doesn't intend to kill the target, just make him feel a
terrible pain, or put him out for a few moments. It causes hand-to-hand
damage.

Ammit
Cost: 4 minor charges (+ 2 dies added together)
Effect: A ghoul is created. The Necromancer performs a ritual very close to
the ancient Egyptian embalming method (including the brain sucking
technique). After the ritual is performed the ghoul will wake up to serve
his necromantic master.

Voodoo Shit! (New Orleans Cabal only)
Cost: 5 minor charges
Effect: The Necromancer can use a doll and nails to inflicted terrible pain
in someone. She have to get hold of earth from the resting place of a parent
of a very close friend or lover of the target, the mud will be mixed with
the hair, blood or a piece of nail of the target. When created, the
resulting roll will set how many times per day the doll can be pinched and
how much damage it causes (per each ten die in the result. e.g. the roll was
34, so it will work 3 times per day and each time it causes 3 points of
damage). When the Necromancer uses the doll the target will resist with a
soul roll. If he fails, he will feel the pain and the receive the damage.
Example: Jarmar have a doll of Davies, and he can use it 4 times per day (he
rolled 47 when creating it). When he wakes up, he uses the doll (pushing a
nail through it's knee), and Davies automatically resists, but the roll was
a 68, and so he fails. Davies then wakes up, feeling a terrible pain in his
knee, and loses 4 wound points.

The Heart and the Feather
Cost: 5 minor charges
Effect: This spell expels a ghost from someone, and protects the person from
further attacks of this specific ghost. It works with astral parasites as
well as with similar beings. The thanatourgist have to touch the person to
cast this spell (NOTE: the English cabal uses this spells to transfer the UA
Demon or Astral parasite to a black feather. When someone is bled with the
feather, the UA Demon or Astral parasite lashes itself on to the target.
This modified version costs two minor charges more).

Significant formula spells

Undead Eye (Hong Kong cabal only)
Cost: 1 significant (charge + 1 die)
Effect: The Necromancer will when concentrated see through an Undead Eye
(this eye will have the same stats as the body for the purpose of decay, see
UNDEAD below). To make this spell, the Necromancer takes out one eye from a
fresh body and spits over it at the same time he spend the charge. Anytime
the necromancer close his eye and concentrates, he can see with the dead
eye, and besides a normal human vision, the dead eye can see Ua Demons and
ghosts.

Dead Tongue
cost: 1 significant charge (+ 1 die)
effect: This spell binds a demon to the tongue of a newborn baby recently
dead. This tongue, when put on the mouth of a living, pregnant woman, will
answer one question to the caster, as precisely and true as possible, as
long as the demon know the answer.

Summon Aker
cost: 1 significant charge (+ 2 dies added together)
effect: An Undead is created. The target should not have been dead for more
than 15 minutes. The Necromancer writes her name (not her real name, but an
adopted one) in the corpses chest, and then put her fingers inside the
corpse mouth.

You shall not die
Cost: 2 significant charges
Effect: A terrible curse, this spell keeps the target alive as long as his
family and friends are alive. The target looses his fertility (he or she
becomes sterile), and there is no longevity associated with the spell so the
target will grow old and look like the dust of a tomb, but will not die
until the curse is accomplished. A thumb (feet or hands) should be taken
from target, and during eleven days it should be carefully eaten, piece by
piece, by a black dog; the remaining pieces of bone have to be served to the
target, no matter the way.

Touch of Death
Cost: 2 significant charges
Effect: This is the significant blast. The target feels week and loses
consciousness and experience a post-mortem experience. This blast is
extremely traumatizing, since most targets really believe they just died.
The target will get back in a few minutes.

Replenishing (Undead only)
Cost: 3 significant charges
Effect: This is the Undead Necromancers significant blast. The target can
try to resist with a soul roll. The Necromancer, quite literally, suck life
from the target's body. The BODY stat of the target, is lowered for each
Tens Die the Necromancer rolls for the spells, and the Necromancer receives
it reforming his lost BODY stat, or even increasing it. The target receives
a hand-to-hand damage, but he will just look week, maybe a little older, and
probably with nose or mouth bleeding.

Seth protects the boat (Egyptian Cabal only)
Cost: 3 significant charges
Effect: This spell binds a UA Demon to be the guardian of the Necromancer
for all eternity. This spell is quite dangerous because to make it work, the
Necromancer have to let himself be possessed by the UA Demon. If the spell
fails, he could have a new guy in charge.

Pharaoh's Curse
Cost: 4 significant charges
Effect: The Necromancer nest several astral parasites to an enclosed space
where no light can come in. The place must be prepared as a burial place,
but truly it is a trap. The spell is powerful enough to keep the astral
parasites closed inside and still be ready when the time comes. In the
moment the chamber is open, they will start to attach themselves to the
victims. The resulting roll when casting the spell, is the number of astral
parasites that will be keeping the place.

The Haunting (English Cabal only)
Cost: 4 significant charges
Effect: This spell creates a quite effective haunted house that will try to
scare, maime or kill everyone except the Necromancer. In the house, a number
of murders should have taken place, or at least a nasty suicide. The ghosts
still around that have been involved in the houses terrible history will be
destroyed, and their essence will be merged with the house giving it life,
or at least a very nasty and evil conscious energy. The Necromancer must own
the house, then he have to spend a full moon night sleeping in it's
backyard, and open all windows and doors in the first light of day. During
all day he must keep candles lit in each room and burn feathers on each of
them at each hour. After that is done the spell works, and the house becomes
haunted.

The Death of Death (Chile Cabal only)
Cost: 5 Significant charges
Effect: This spell enable the caster to cure an uncurable disease on a
single person. The caster must severe the hand of a dead doctor or shaman,
and then call his spirit (Soul check). If it works, the spirit/UA Demon will
receive his Final Award after he cures the person indicated by the caster.

Amenti Award (Egyptian Cabal only)
Cost: 5 significant charges
Effect: This spell curses the person so that it will not receive the Final
Reward, becoming a UA Demon, no matter if it has a obsession or not. The
Necromancer needs an object the person owns, then he will have to leave it
in a haunted place for three nights. After the nights have passed he must
return the object to the person. The target can try to resist with a soul
check.

I Crossed the Door
Cost: 5 significant charges (+ 2 dies full result)
Effect: The Necromancer becomes an undead. But, differently from the
non-Necromancer undead, he retains his magick powers. This spell should be
made BEFORE his death, and then keeps the effect within the Necromancer
until the right time came. The spell requires the Necromancer to feel like
dying, so he will be severely tortured by his peers, and when ready, if
conscious, he will cast the spell. Many have died trying to achieve this
immortality.

Major spells and effects:

Acacia Tree (Egytian Cabal only)
Cost: 1 Major charge (+ 1 die)
Effect: An Acacia Tree will be linked to the Necromancer. As long it lives,
the Necromancer will lose half the wound points with her magicks, and her
body stat will be lowered by one per 5 Ghouls or Undead, instead of 1 per 1.
The Necromancer must plant the tree at a place of great sorrow, or some kind
of battle field. If an adept looks at the tree she will see the faces of the
Undead and Ghouls the tree cares for, and a stress check maybe should be
awarded.

Breaking the KA, and re-forming the Ank (Egyptian Cabal only)
Cost: 2 Major Charges
Effect: The Necromancer can achieve death and still have his necromantic
power intact, without losing any stat. The ritual involves "eating" a UA
Demon of a recently deceased that must be from the same family, or have a
strong resemblance to the Necromancer. The Necromancer will then be buried
or at least, put on a place absent of sunshine for at least 30 days. The
body will not suffer any decay, and the Necromancer will be as if dead, and
will wake up when sun light touch him.

Deathless (Undead only)
Cost: 3 Major Charges
Effect: The Necromancer can't be destroyed by usual means anymore. Being
undead already protects him, but still he can be crippled, stabbed, etc.
Now, even if he is totally turned into pieces, even to ashes, he can be
formed back. The only way to prevent this is to keep his heart locked away
from the rest of the body (not the brain, the heart. The brain was just
fetid flesh for the Egyptians). He will be reformed in a number of days
equal to the BODY stat, or sooner, depending on the damage taken.

Small rule additions for:
Ghouls, the eaters of flesh, bone, blood, and occasional meatloaf.
Undead, the rotten bodies full of hatred for their masters.

Ghouls
There are dead men risen after their souls have gone away. The Necromancer
after calling them back to life, have to remember that they require flesh or
blood to keep themselves alive. Ghouls are almost mindless robots, and the
state of the corpse will say a lot about the senses and capacities the
specific ghoul retains. Nevertheless, they will follow their masters will
instinctively, almost telepathically. Ghouls will have the same stats as
they had when alive, minus 1 in each stat for each month after death. Their
MIND provides no cunning thought, but memory and perception. They will rot
away faster after being called back, and to slow down the process they have
to feed on live beings souls, something they do by eating their flesh or
drinking their blood. For each week without been fed, the ghoul lose 1 at
each stat. Feeding then correctly, will keep them healthy, and even
preventing the terrible stench that accompanies the Undead.

Undead
They are the dead still with souls, and must be made of really recent
corpses (dead for more than 15 minutes - forget about it). Magic is the only
thing that can explain how they are still alive, breathing, with blood
flowing, and still rotten away each day. For each 2 days after coming back
to life, an Undead loses a BODY point. Besides, no Undead, except the
Necromancers that choose to transform themselves, retains their magic
powers. They are intelligent, almost fearless, and hatefull of their
masters. Without the bounds that are cast when creating the Undead, they
will probably kill their masters in the first chance. They smell like a
corpse, but don't behave like one. For almost everything they look as a
living being, but with a very limited life span. No created Undead can
understand magick, their obsession is to protect and serve their masters.

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 []s,

     Haroudo S. X. Filho, the brazilian guy that loves Robert Silverberg,
Orson Scott Card, and Walter M. Miller Jr. :):)
     dreamlord at cryogen.com
     UIN 1504427

     Hiperbórea - www.geocities.com/Area51/Vault/3057/
     Web of Lies - www.geocities.com/SoHo/Exhibit/1515/

P.S.: I lost my ICQ list, so please, anyone in the list that have me on his
own ICQ list, send me a msg. Thanks. :)




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