Unaligned Passagers

Those who wield unaligned magic for transport or travel.

Dracoporter

A wagoner whose cart is shaped like a dragon, thus drawing special magic. Dracoporters either have magical wagons crafted by wielders of dragon magic and thus gain dragon magic directly from the wagon, or they are bonded to or serving a dragon who is the source of their power. If the former, they have a smaller amount of magic which cannot be restored without finding a dragon to restore it. If the latter, they must pass a series of tests to be worthy of the dragon.
  • Trial of Discipline: they must prove they can follow orders and a routine of exercise and study.

  • Trial of Power: they must prove themselves strong enough to survive the wilderness and the dragon’s demands.

  • Trial of Majesty: they must prove they have a sense of authority and the ability to lead.

  • Trial of Territory: they must prove they know the dragon’s territory.

  • Trial of Accumulation: they must prove they know all of the previous trials again.

When they complete the trials, the dragon begins giving them abilities. There are a few dragons native to the area, but most who are in the colonized lands are from other places, either as settlers, colonizers, immigrants, or former slaves or indentured servants. The following abilities assume an unaligned dragon. These are also present if the wagon is the source of magic. Consult the GM for celestial, elemental, or fey dragons.

  • Trundling accumulation: as it moves, it gathers magic. 1 point per 10 miles traveled while not using magic to travel.

  • Wheels to wings: the wagon takes flight, using up 1 point of dragon magic for every 500’ it moves.

  • Draconic armor: the wagon is immune to or resistant to heat, electricity, cold, piercing, and/or slashing (25 points per immunity per week, 10 points per resistance per month, 15 points per immunity per combat, 5 points per resistance per combat, 3 points per immunity per round of combat, 1 point per resistance per round of combat).

  • Return to den: the wagon can return instantly to its “den” for 1 point per 10 miles away it is.

  • Fifth wheel: it gains a magical fifth wheel that allows it to move effortlessly over rough terrain for 1 point per mile of usage.

  • Dragonflame blast: the wagoner can unleash a blast of dragonflame from the reins (which will not hit the animals) that hits anyone ahead in a 30’ cone for 16/22/28/34 damage.

Other powers may be possible as it accumulates magic. Consult the GM.

Dracoporters are often hired for difficult or dangerous journeys.

PRO +1 ATH +1 STR +2 AWA +1 WIL +2 PRS +1 STH -2


Rocksplitter

One who uses the power of division to dig through solid stone.

Life is a continuous cutting motion. To tap into the power of division, one must contemplate the cutting motion, the power of fission, and see life as nothing but a series of cuts through moments, through possibilities, through probabilities. Life is a continuous cutting motion, and rocksplitters see it and know it and experience it.

Rocksplitters tap into the power of paradoxical magic, the energy of breaking contradictions and thus reality, directing it to solid matter and splitting passages through it. A rocksplitter does this through decades of meditation and reordering their thoughts, hyperfocus, and self-control, culminating in them splitting themselves and becoming a living blade.

Rocksplitters use no tools but their own bodies. For every use of their splitting power, they risk dividing themselves further. Their power can split through any solid matter at a power equal to the difficulty they roll against to survive the use of their power. If they wield a power of 22, they roll one of their base stats against it:

Roll EffectSorted descending
Critical failure Their entire being (True Name) splits in half and they die, with their half-souls being destroyed as well; the attempt to split something fails
Normal failure The base stat they rolled is temporarily halved; they must rest for a number of days equal to the difficulty they rolled against without using their power; the attempt to split something fails
Special failure The base stat they rolled is permanently halved; the attempt to split something fails
Exceptional failure The base stat they rolled is permanently halved and their soul is cut in half; they barely survive and must find a way to restore their soul or lose their entire being; the attempt to split something fails
Exceptional success The base stat is unaffected; the target is split in two; they must rest for a number of hours equal to the difficulty they rolled against without using their power
Critical success The base stat is unaffected; the target is split in two; they must rest for a number of hours equal to half the difficulty they rolled against without using their power
Special success The base stat is unaffected; the target is split in two; they must rest for a number of days equal to half the difficulty they rolled against without using their power
Tie The base stat is temporarily halved; they must rest for a number of days equal to half the difficulty they rolled against without using their power; the attempt to split something fails
Normal success The base stat is temporarily halved; the target is split in two; they must rest for a number of days equal to half the difficulty they rolled against without using their power

Difficulties are based on the size and abstractness of the target.

PRO +3 ATH +1 STR -1 AWA +3 WIL +2 PRS -1 STH -1


Submariner

A sailor on a submersible who understands the systemics. Submariners see the world as an endless chain of cause-and-effect, and their in-depth study of it allows them to manipulate that chain to cause long-term effects. To them, everything is a Rube-Goldberg device waiting to happen. They see the butterfly flap its wings and know when and where the hurricane will happen on the other side of the world, and they know how to interrupt, alter, reverse, or control that process.

To become a submariner requires incredible amounts of study. Part of their study is mundane, but in a magical world, they need to study it magically as well, and they need a way to tweak those energies to their needs. This is why they study the systemic magic and the systems that comprise submersible machines.

To tap into systemic magic, a submariner needs to introduce an antithetical, unpredictable element into any system they wish to manipulate. As part of their training, they learn to do this and gain other powers by introducing the unexpected into their own mental systems, usually in the form of trepanning at the hands of another submariner. This leaves a permanent hole in their head, preferably in an inconspicuous place that can be covered by a hat, and an unpredictable but potent ability to see the lines of systemic magic extant in any system. With this, they can simply mentally "grab" these lines and alter them, inserting the unpredictable in the system and allowing them to insert change that they can control. The paradox of this is inherent to their magic.

The abilities they gain for this are dependent on the submersible they are working on, but the common themes are as follows:

Some common powers include

  • Reversal: seeing the inevitable end to a series of causal events, they tweak the lines to make the exact opposite happen.

  • Hasten: seeing the inevitable end to a series of causal events, they tweak it so it happens sooner.

  • Delay: seeing the inevitable end to a series of causal events, they tweak it so that it happens later.

  • Interrupt: seeing the inevitable end to a series of causal events, they tweak it so that nothing happens.

  • Direct: seeing the inevitable end to a series of causal events, they take total control of that series of events to alter it point by point.

  • Redirect: seeing the inevitable end to a series of causal events, they tweak it so that something different happens.

  • Undirect: seeing the inevitable end to a series of causal events, they tweak it so that something they can't predict happens.

And this would be perfect, except that no system is isolated enough for this to always work, and the systemic magic itself is unstable. If any people are involved in the system they are tweaking, the existence of free will has an unfortunate effect on their plans. Chaos, fortune, and other powers may cause unexpected disruptions. And systemic magic has a tendency to simply go off the rails. And these are only some of the factors involved.

  • People: every person involved in a system a submariner is affecting must roll WIL, whether they know the effect is happening or not. Failure means they are subject to the submariner's control, but every action they are forced to take is another WIL roll.

  • Other energies: before a submariner attempts to manipulate a system, either the player or the GM will roll a d100. On a 100, there is no interference. Anything less than that, there is interference on an escalating scale ((100-N)/4, where N is the result of the roll, rounding up).

  • Instability: before every tweak to a system, the submariner rolls their skill or WIL-3, whichever is higher, against a difficulty determined by a roll of 3d12+N, with N being the number of attempts after a failure.

Any failure results in the unpredictable. These magicks are wielded to keep a submersible functioning, and failures can mean sinking or worse.

PRO +1 ATH / STR -1 AWA +3 WIL +1 PRS -1 STH -1


Wayfinder

Wayfinders are those who use travel magic to create forms of transport, to teleport, or to improve travel. To gain these powers, they must travel thousands of miles and attune themselves to constant movement, creating a feedback loop in which movement begets energy begets movement. They learn to do this from other wayfinders, who show them how to recognize the energy and capture it in special staves topped with spinning wheels.

Wayfinders have seven powers (called “wayfinding”):

  • Direction sense: a wayfinder will always know north, south, east, and west, but they can also sense which direction something lies in (AWA).

  • Distance sense: if a wayfinder has an object they have once held or a location that they have been to before, they can always know how far away it is.

  • Passaging: a wayfinder can open a path where one does not exist if they are outside a populated area once per month.

  • Farsight: wayfinders can close their eyes and cast their consciousness up to seven miles away once per week.

  • Swifting: a wayfinder can make themselves, others, steeds, or vehicles faster, but at a cost of 1 point of STR per 5 MPH they add per person or vehicle, to be recovered after one long rest per point of STR.

  • Longtreading: a wayfinder can increase the endurance of themselves, others, steeds, or vehicles at a cost of 1 point of STR per 3 points of endurance added per person, to be recovered after one long rest per point of STR.

  • Waygating: a wayfinder can create a portal if they have liquid metal, an arch or doorway, and their staff. This portal must either be paired with another waygate or limited to a seven mile radius. If they know of any other waygate, they will roll AWA to remember its markings to connect to it. They can do this once per year.

  • Wheelwrighting: a wayfinder can magically create a mode of transportation befitting the terrain they are in by transforming their staff. So long as they do this, they cannot use their other powers, and once they are done with it, they must restore the power to their staff via the same rituals they used to gain their magic to begin with.

Wayfinders are usually employed by large companies or governments.

PRO +1 ATH +3 STR +1 AWA +2 WIL +2 PRS / STH +1

Topic revision: r3 - 07 Jul 2025, SallyJaneBlack
This site is powered by FoswikiCopyright © by the contributing authors. All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.
Ideas, requests, problems regarding Foswiki? Send feedback