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Seithr
The different abilities Runa can use as a voelva.| Ability | Score | Method |
Effect | Difficulty | Range | Duration | Limitations | Cost | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prophecy | Spinning or Weaving | The voelva weaves or spins an image into a charm that foretells an event based on a series of omens. | The events foretold occur if the omens occur. | The difficulty is determined by the intended effect and how it fits into the story of the characters involved. Singing a galdr and the involvement of the targets may make this easier. If the voelva takes henbane before hand and has a vision of the prophecy, it becomes even easier. |
N/A | The prophecy will occur within a year and a day of weaving or spinning the charm. | The mechanics of a prophecy are always "if, then". They impose a perspective that is then later brought to be if certain omens occur. These omens are based on the völva’s cultural background. They can be as simple as “when the cocks cries thrice in a morning” or as massive as “when the temples are destroyed in thunderstorms”. These are always part of the vision spun into the fabrics made. | Failed prophecies may come back to haunt the voelva. Henbane can poison or kill the voelva. |
The voelva weaves or spins an image into a charm that foretells an event based on a series of omens. The events foretold occur if the omens occur. | |
| Wound Stitching | Sewing | The voelva uses their galdr-enchanted needle to stitch wounds. If the voelva sings a galdr while doing this, it can reduce difficulties. | The wound is reduced from deep, mortal, or critical to a lower level, and risk of death is gone. | Stitching a wound requires the wound be deep, mortal, or critical. Otherwise, the wound will not be large enough to require stitching. Difficulty to stitch a deep wound is 14, which reduces penalties to normal wound level. Stitching a mortal wound is difficulty 20, reducing it to deep wound penalty levels and preventing death. Stitching a critical wound is difficulty 26, reducing it to mortal wound penalty levels. It must be stitched further to prevent death. These difficulties can be modified by the skill in singing the galdr and the nature of the needle used. | Arm's reach | It takes 30 seconds (10 rounds) to stitch a wound without taking penalties for a rush job. | The needle used must be enchanted. The stitching does not heal the target. It simply stops the bleeding and reduces the wound level. Normal wounds cannot be stitched, as they are not large enough to require it. |
It takes time and concentration to stitch a wound. | The voelva uses their galdr-enchanted needle to stitch wounds. If the voelva sings a galdr while doing this, it can reduce difficulties. The wound is sealed with the stitching. | |
| Bonded Summoning (Object) | WIL | The voelva touches the binding charm on their belt or girdle and wills the object to appear in their hands. | The object appears in a violet flash of light. | A bound object can be summoned at a difficulty of 1 if within visual range (even if obscured by barriers). It is +3 difficulty per ten miles after it is outside of visual range. The average human can see three miles on a clear day, so that is a difficulty of 1, and after that, it is +2 (even if by millimeters outside that range). Then it is another +3 if it is another ten miles out - so 13 miles out. And so on. This can be mitigated if the object's story is fully understood by the völva. | Depends on the WIL of the voelva (see difficulty). | Instantaneous | If the object is too large to hold in the voelva's hands, they must be ready to step back out of its way when it appears. This is automatic unless the voelva is somehow impeded from movement. | If the voelva rolls a critical or exceptional failure, the binding fails. | The voelva touches the binding charm on their belt or girdle and wills the object to appear in their hands. The object appears in their hands in a flash of violet light. | |
| Bonded Summoning (Mortal) | WIL | The voelva touches the binding charm on their belt or girdle and wills the mortal to appear within eyesight. | The mortal appers within eyesight of the voelva in a ring of violet light and under the voelva's influence. | Summoning a mortal requires willingness of the mortal, even if bound, unless the völva is beats them in a WIL vs. WIL contest. Summoning difficulty is 10 if the target is within visual range (three miles). 11 if outside of three miles, then +3 more per ten miles out of range (so at 13 miles, difficulty is 14), with variations based on success rate of the initial rolls. | Depends on the WIL of the voelva. | The mortal remains summoned and under the influence of the voelva unless they break free of the binding. If they break free, they are not transported back to where they were. | The voelva must be familiar with the mortal's story. The mortal is only under the influence of the voelva, not the control. They are not under the influence of the voelva's allies. |
If the voelva rolls a critical or exceptional failure, the binding fails. | The voelva touches the binding charm on their belt or girdle and wills the mortal to appear within eyesight. The mortal appers within eyesight of the voelva in a ring of violet light and under the voelva's influence. | |
| Bonded Summoning (Animal) | WIL | The voelva touches the binding charm on their belt or girdle and wills the animal to appear within eyesight. | The animal appears within eyesight of the voelva in a flash of violet light. | A bound animal can be summoned at a difficulty of 4 if within visual range, +1 if even slightly outside visual range, then +3 per 10 miles outside of that range. This difficulty goes up if the animal is larger (i.e. cows, horses, bears, adult wolves, big cats, adult boars, etc., all are +3 above base - elephants, hippos, rhinos are +4, whales are +6, to give an idea of the range). Magical animals are also more difficult, with their magical abilities score being the indicator - any magical ability above an eight adds +1 difficulty per every three points above eight (i.e., 9 is +1, 12 is +2, etc.). | Depends on the voelva's WIL. | Instantaneous | The animal is bound to the voelva and will not act against them, but those allied to the voelva are not necessarily protected. | If the voelva rolls a critical or exceptional failure, the binding fails. | The voelva touches the binding charm on their belt or girdle and wills the animal to appear within eyesight. The animal appears within eyesight of the voelva in a flash of violet light. | |
| Bonded Summoning (Ancestor) | WIL | The voelva touches the binding charm on their belt or girdle and wills the ancestor to appear within eyesight. | The bonded ancestor appears in as a translucent, violet version of themselves as the voelva imagines them, capable of acting for a brief period of time. The ancestor appears within 10' of the voelva. |
A bound ancestral legend can be summoned at a difficulty of 7. Because these are legendary figures drawn from the völva's own mind and understanding of their stories, they are always near to the völva. The difficulty exists only in binding them. After that, they are always close enough to be summoned at a 7, no matter their power, age, or other factors. The voelva must reroll to maintain the ancestor's presence every ten rounds in combat or every ten minutes out of combat, with the difficulty going up +3 with each reroll. |
Within 10' of the voelva. | Depends on the WIL of the voelva. | The voelva can only bind and summon an ancestor they are familiar with the story of. | If the voelva rolls a critical or exceptional failure, the binding fails. | The voelva touches the binding charm on their belt or girdle and wills the ancestor to appear within eyesight. The bonded ancestor appears in as a translucent, violet version of themselves as the voelva imagines them, capable of acting for a brief period of time. The ancestor appears within 10' of the voelva.
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| Bonded Communication (Object) | PRS | The voelva touches the binding charm on their belt or girdle and speaks aloud. | If the object is a communication device, the voelva's voice will emanate from its applicable parts. | Difficulty is also very high - 14 base, +3 per ten miles outside of visual range. | Depends on PRS of the voelva. | The communication lasts until the voelva stops speaking for more than three seconds. If they wish to speak again, they must roll again. | Communicating with a bound object is possible, but usually not helpful, as they are still inanimate objects. The exception to this is communication devices - i.e., a bound telephone. Essentially, this allows the völva to speak through a bound speaker, grammophone, etc. | The binding is lost on an exceptional or critical failure on the PRS roll. | The voelva touches the binding charm on their belt or girdle and speaks aloud. Their voice then comes out of the applicable part of the object if and only if it is a communication device. | |
| Bonded Communication (Animal) | PRS | The voelva touches the binding charm on their belt or girdle and speaks aloud. | The animal hears the voelva's voice and reacts according to their ability to understand it. | Communicating with a bound animal is only affected by the distance - same rules as with riding or summoning (see below). | Depends on the voelva's PRS. | The communication lasts until the voelva stops speaking for more than three seconds. If they wish to speak again, they must roll again. | The intelligence of the animal affects their ability to understand or act on any communication | The binding is lost on an exceptional or critical failure on the PRS roll. | The voelva touches the binding charm on their belt or girdle and speaks aloud. The animal hears the voelva's voice and reacts according to their ability to understand it. | |
| Bonded Communication (Ancestor) | PRS | The voelva touches the binding charm on their belt or girdle and speaks aloud. | The ancestor hears the voelva and responds within the mind of the voelva. | Communicating with an ancestral legend is basically just the völva speaking to them in her own mind. Difficulty is 7, but must be rerolled after every five interactions (question/answer or back-and-forth dialogue), but the diffiiculty goes up +3 after the third reroll. | Depends on the PRS of the voelva. | Depends on the PRS of the voelva. | The ancestor is not necessarily friendly. | The binding is lost on an exceptional or critical failure on the PRS roll. | The voelva touches the binding charm on their belt or girdle and speaks aloud. The ancestor hears the voelva and responds within the mind of the voelva. | |
| Bonded Communication (Mortal) | PRS | The voelva touches the binding charm on their belt or girdle and speaks aloud. | The mortal hears the voelva's voice within their head and may respond. | Communicating with a mortal requires willingness of the mortal, even if bound, unless the völva is beats them in a PRS vs. WIL contest. Communicating difficulty is 10 if the target is within visual range (three miles). 11 if outside of three miles, then +3 more per ten miles out of range (so at 13 miles, difficulty is 14), with variations based on success rate of the intiial rolls. | Depends on the PRS of the voelva. | The communication lasts until the voelva stops speaking for more than three seconds. If they wish to speak again, they must roll again. | The mortal does not automatically understand the language of the voelva. They can only respond with an equal number of words as the message the voelva sends. | If the voelva rolls a critical or exceptional failure, the binding fails. | The voelva touches the binding charm on their belt or girdle and speaks aloud. The mortal hears the voelva's voice within their head and may respond. | |
| Bonded Riding (Object) | AWA | The voelva takes a bit of henbane, allows it to affect their mind, then touches the binding charm on their girdle or belt, closes their eyes, and focuses on the object. | The voelva's mind enters the object. | The difficulty on riding an object that qualifies under is very high, as they have no mind - usually a base of 14, +3 per every ten miles outside of visual range. | Range depends on the AWA of the voelva. | The riding lasts until the effects of the henbane wear off. This varies by dose, usually 4 hours per success level of the dosage. However, a critical success of dosage kills the voelva and an exceptional success makes them very sick. | A bound object cannot be ridden as it has no mind - however, there are a few exceptions: any object designed to work with the senses of a person can be ridden as if it is being used. I.E. eyeglasses may be ridden to imitate wearing them. In other words, riding eyeglasses, even if they are not on your face, will give you the effect of wearing them and seeing from their perspective depending on their location. Hearing aids, gloves, mirrors, windows, and other objects affecting a base sense can be used this way, but objects that interact with a base sense do not count - i.e., simply having an aroma or tangibility is not enough to qualify for this. The voelva cannot do this without taking henbane. |
The henbane has a physical effect on the voelva, poisoning them on an exceptional success and killing them on a critical. | The voelva takes a bit of henbane, allows it to affect their mind, then touches the binding charm on their girdle or belt, closes their eyes, and focuses on the object. The voelva's mind enters the object. | |
| Bonded Riding (Mortal) | AWA | The voelva takes a bit of henbane, allows it to affect their mind, then touches the binding charm on their girdle or belt, closes their eyes, and focuses on the mortal. | The voelva's mind enters that of the mortal. This allows them to use the animal's senses and have influence over the mortal's behavior. | Riding a mortal requires willingness of the being, even if bound, unless the völva is beats them in an AWA vs. WIL contest. Riding difficulty is 10 if the target is within visual range (three miles). 11 if outside of three miles, then +3 more per ten miles out of range (so at 13 miles, difficulty is 14), with variations based on success rate of the initial rolls. The riding roll must be rerolled every fifteen actions or every fifteen minutes, with variations based on success rate of the initial rolls. | Depends on the AWA of the voelva. | Until the voelva fails their rolls to maintain the riding or until the henbane wears off. Henbane duration varies by dosage. | The voelva can only do this after taking henbane. The voelva can only do this to someone whose story they are familiar with. |
The henbane has a physical effect on the voelva, poisoning them on an exceptional success and killing them on a critical. | The voelva takes a bit of henbane, allows it to affect their mind, then touches the binding charm on their girdle or belt, closes their eyes, and focuses on the mortal. The voelva's mind enters that of the mortal. This allows them to use the animal's senses and have influence over the mortal's behavior. | |
| Bonded Riding (Animal) | AWA | The voelva takes a bit of henbane, allows it to affect their mind, then touches the binding charm on their girdle or belt, closes their eyes, and focuses on the animal. | The voelva's mind enters that of the animal. This allows them to use the animal's senses and have influence over the animal's behavior. | A bound animal can be ridden at a difficulty of 4 if within visual range, +1 if even slightly outside visual range, then +3 per 10 miles outside of that range. This difficulty goes up if the animal is larger (i.e. cows, horses, bears, adult wolves, big cats, adult boars, etc., all are +3 above base - elephants, hippos, rhinos are +4, whales are +6, to give an idea of the range). Magical animals are also more difficult, with their magical abilities score being the indicator - any magical ability above an eight adds +1 difficulty per every three points above eight (i.e., 9 is +1, 12 is +2, etc.). | Depends on the AWA of the voelva. | The riding lasts until the effects of the henbane wear off. This varies by dose, usually 4 hours per success level of the dosage. However, a critical success of dosage kills the voelva and an exceptional success makes them very sick. | The voelva cannot do this without first taking henbane. | The henbane has a physical effect on the voelva, poisoning them on an exceptional success and killing them on a critical. | The voelva takes a bit of henbane, allows it to affect their mind, then touches the binding charm on their girdle or belt, closes their eyes, and focuses on the animal. The voelva's mind enters that of the animal. This allows them to use the animal's senses and have influence over the animal's behavior. | |
| Bonded Riding (Ancestor) | AWA | The voelva takes a bit of henbane, allows it to affect their mind, then touches the binding charm on their girdle or belt, closes their eyes, and focuses on the ancestor. | The ancestor takes over the voelva's mind, giving the völva their skills and abilities for a very brief amount of time. | Difficulty to do this is high - 14 - and must be re-rolled after every use of their knowledge, power, senses, abilities, skills, or voice. After two uses, the difficulty goes up by +3 for each additional use. | Self | Until the voelva fails their rolls to maintain the riding or until the henbane wears off. Henbane duration varies by dosage. | The voelva cannot do this without first taking henbane. The voelva can only ride an ancestor they are familiar with the story of. |
The henbane has a physical effect on the voelva, poisoning them on an exceptional success and killing them on a critical. | The voelva takes a bit of henbane, allows it to affect their mind, then touches the binding charm on their girdle or belt, closes their eyes, and focuses on the animal. The ancestor takes over the voelva's mind, giving the völva their skills and abilities for a very brief amount of time. | |
| Warding Charm | Weaving and Singing | The voelva sings a galdr while weaving a charm of protection. | The charm is formed, glows violet, then is carried by the intended protectee. | Difficulty is determined by intended effect. They can be as simple as “ease childbirth” or as powerful as “repel spirits” or “prevent death”. The galdr singing can lessen the difficulty. If the voelva has a bound being, they can infuse it into the charm, lowering the difficulty. This requires a summoning roll plus a new binding spell. |
The charm only works on the person who carries it. | Charms last 1 year for a normal success; 3 for a special; 6 for an exceptional; 9 for a critical. | Charms can only be created for likely dangers based on the character of the target, the voelva, or the bound being. | Making a charm with a bound being uses up that being's life. Making a charm otherwise requires time and patience. |
The voelva weaves while singing a galdr, creating a magical charm. | |
| Blood Divination | AWA | The voelva performs a blood sacrifice of captured enemies before taking henbane. The blood is captured in a brass or pewter vessel as the voelva watches from their platform. While on henbane, the voelva then interprets the blood in the vessel. |
The voelva sees images in the blood that hint at the future. | Difficulty is based on the questions the voelva is asking. | Self | The interpretation takes an hour per three questions. | The questions must be related to the enemies sacrificed. Henbane is required for the spell. |
The blood of one's enemies. Henbane may poison or kill the voelva. | The voelva sits on their dais, watching as their assistants kill and drain their enemies of blood into brass or pewter vessels. The voelva then takes henbane and reads the blood. | |
| Hex | WIL | The voelva either strikes the target and speaks the hex or draws energy from a vision to make a prophetic hex after taking henbane. | A hex can do almost anything negative to the target, ranging from giving them a sickness, sinking a ship, causing a storm to strike them, or causing them to fall dead. The hex must be appropriate to the story of the target(s). | To hex someone without first using henbane for visions, the völva must strike the victim with their staff, and the difficulty is much higher - base difficulty is 14, with increasing difficulty depending on the severity of the hex (hexing someone to death and/or damnation being much harder) and number of targets. If the völva uses henbane and has visions beforehand about the target, they can use those visions to simply speak the hex without having to strike the target. The target must be able to hear the hex, however, and the vision must be relevant to the target. In order to ensure the visions are relevant, the völva must roll to control the vision - AWA vs. difficulty of 17, with modifiers based on how well she knows the target's story. She has a day to use her hex after having the vision. |
Within range of striking someone with their staff and/or within earshot. | The hex will befall the target within a year and a day. | To hex someone, a völva needs to know their story well enough to know what will have a meaningful impact on them - this can be knowing them personally or knowing enough about them via context (i.e., they are the leader of an army or member of a tribe). The voelva must either use their staff or henbane. The target may be able to avoid the effects of the hex, rolling against the effects with appropriate stats (i.e., swimming from a sinking ship).
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If the hex is inappropriate to the target's story, the hex will recoil on the voelva. Henbane can poison or kill the voelva. |
The voelva either strikes the target and speaks the hex or draws energy from a vision to make a prophetic hex after taking henbane. The hex befalls the target within a year and a day. | |
| Amplify Self | Singing/Galdr | The voelva chants lines of galdrar that evoke stories of their own people in a style drawn from their own culture. | Any numbered score on their character sheet may gain a bonus of +1 to +9, depending on success rate. | The difficulty is based on the base score they wish to improve. | Self | Three rounds per round of singing in combat. Three hours per minute of singing out of combat. | They may not improve their own singing skill or galdr ability. They must know their own story and culture to use this ability. Some beings may not be able to be targeted due to energies or powers that they have. If the voelva cannot hear herself, she cannot use this ability. |
After the amplification ends, the score they amplified suffers penalties for an equal amount of time as the amplification lasted at a rate of ⅓ of the bonus. | The voelva chants stories of their people’s past in relation to the part of themselves they wish to amplify. | |
| Amplify Other | Singing/galdr | The voelva chants lines of galdrar that evoke stories of their own people done in a style drawn from the culture of their target(s). | Any numbered score on the character sheet(s) of the target(s) gain a bonus of +1 to +9, depending on success rate. | The difficulty is determined by the base score they wish to improve, the number of targets, the number of scores they wish to amplify, and how strong an amplification they wish to cause. | As far as the song can be heard. | Three rounds per round of singing in combat, one hour per minute of singing out of combat | The voelva cannot amplify the galdr or singing of other voelva with this. They must know an appropriate style based on the culture of the target(s). Some beings may be immune due to energies or powers that they have. If the target is unable to hear, they are unaffected by this ability. |
Targets experience penalties equal to a third of the bonuses they received for equal time to how long the bonuses lasted after the effect is over. | The voelva chants stories of their own culture in the style of the targets’ culture to amplify specific scores. | |
| Blood Potion | Singing / Herbalism | The voelva chants a galdr while mixing blood and henbane with healing herbs. | A potion is concocted that can heal wounds. | Potion-making requires rolling against a difficulty of 11 for a potion to heal normal wounds; a difficulty of 14 to reduce deep wounds to normal wounds or mortal to deep; a 17 to heal deep wounds or reduce mortal wounds to normal wounds; a 20 to heal mortal wounds; a 23 for critical. These can be modified by skill in singing galdr, potency of the blood used, and the power of the legends referred to. | N/A | The potion lasts until used. It takes 15 minutes per wound-level to create a potion. | The potion tastes foul and causes hallucinations at a power of 13. | The blood used must be the voelva's, which will weaken the voelva (normal wound). If they magically heal this wound, the potion loses potency. | The voelva chants a galdr while mixing blood and henbane with healing herbs. The end result is a violet-glowing potion that can heal wounds. | |
| Binding | Spinning (with bonuses from Singing) | The voelva chants a galdr appropriate to the target while spinning a pattern in flax or wool appropriate to the target. The spun object is then bound to the voelva as a belt or girdle. They roll spinning as the main score here, gaining bonuses from singing the galdr if applicable. | The target is bound to the voelva magically, allowing the voelva to communicate with them, ride them (put her mind in theirs), or summon them (see separate cards for details of each of these). The voelva can only bind objects, animals, magical beings, or ancestral legends (see below for variations). | Difficulty is determined by target. | The initial casting requires only familiarity with the target’s story. After binding is done, range varies by effect. | The binding lasts until the target breaks free or the voelva releases it. | The voelva must know the story of the target extremely well to make this possible. | The bound being may not appreciate it. See specific effects cards for more detailed costs. | The voelva chants and spins a charm relating to a target they are familiar with the story of, then wears that charm to bind the target to themselves. | |
| Divination | AWA | Divination is when the völva uses her henbane-induced visions to ask specific questions of magical beings, the ancestral legends, or simply of the universe in order to divine information about the future. | The voelva sees a vision of a magical being, ancestral legend, or simply the universe, then speaks with them, asking questions to divine information. | Difficulty for magical beings is the being's STH. Difficulty for ancestral legends is 13. Difficulty for the universe is 16. | Self | 6 hours of visions for 12 questions | This is impossible without henbane. The voelva must know their ancestral legends to speak to them. |
Henbane can poison or kill the voelva. | The voelva takes henbane and has a violent vision for hours, speaking gibberish as per what outsiders hear, but in fact communicating with the universe, magical beings, or their ancestors.
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GrandGuignol
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