Nightcats:Sorcery

Nightcats

Sorcery of Jhelum

“Those who speak lightly of the Secret Fire do not speak of it long.”

Sorcery in Jhelum is not a list of spells. It is not a polite mystery taught from tidy books. It is a dangerous practice of bargains, rites, sacrifices, dreams, idols, names, and old forces that were never meant to answer mortal need.

Those who practice it do not memorize fixed effects. They learn how to approach the Secret Fire, how to force it into a shape they can survive, and how to endure the cost of doing so.

The Secret Fire can wound, bind, reveal, conceal, transform, summon, and corrupt. It can also leave marks that do not fade, draw notice from things best left sleeping, and strip away pieces of the self. No one comes to it cleanly. No one leaves it unchanged.

The Sorcerer Career

Any character who takes the Sorcerer career must choose a Path at character creation.

A Path is not merely style or color. It is the way the sorcerer has learned to make the Secret Fire answer. It determines what sorts of workings come naturally, what sorts come badly, and what sorts may be all but impossible without terrible effort.

A sorcerer may attempt many things, but not all sorcerers attempt them in the same manner, and not all should attempt them at all.

The Secret Fire

In rules terms, sorcery is powered by Secret Fire. This is the same resource BoL calls Arcane Power, but in Jhelum it is better understood as a dangerous inner reserve spent to force workings into the world.

A character with the Sorcerer career begins play with Secret Fire equal to 10 + Sorcerer rank.

When Secret Fire is spent, it is gone until recovered.

Recovering Secret Fire

The Secret Fire returns slowly, and never without rhythm.

• Secret Fire spent on Cantrips returns at both noon and midnight
• Secret Fire spent on First Magnitude workings returns at either noon or midnight; each sorcerer chooses one of these and keeps it for life
• Secret Fire spent on Second and Third Magnitude workings returns at a rate of 4 points per lunar month, on the phase the sorcerer has bound themselves to

Whenever a sorcerer performs a Third Magnitude working, they permanently lose 1 point of Secret Fire. At the GM’s discretion, this loss may instead reduce an appropriate Attribute, representing visible aging, spiritual exhaustion, bodily distortion, or some other lasting diminishment.

The Paths of the Secret Fire

Sorcery in Jhelum is fragmented, regional, secretive, and often contradictory. Most practitioners know only one Path well enough to survive it.

The Blood Path

The Blood Path works through injury, sacrifice, opened flesh, spilled life, and the terrible intimacy of pain.

It is strong in Harm and Control. It is poor at subtle concealment, gentle revelation, or delicate transformation.

Blood sorcerers compel through pain, destroy through sacrifice, and master by making the Fire feed on living things.

The Dream Path

The Dream Path works through incense, altered breath, trance, sleep, song, rhythm, memory, and states of mind that are not wholly waking.

It is strong in Conceal and Reveal. It is poor at direct physical destruction or immediate material transformation.

Dream sorcerers cloud minds, send visions, hide truths, distort perception, and draw out what lies buried beneath waking thought.

The Idol Path

The Idol Path works by placing force into form. It binds power into vessels, rings, masks, blades, idols, jars, painted symbols, sacred objects, and crafted bodies.

It is strong in Summon or Bind and Transform. It is poor at quick improvisation, sudden violence without preparation, or purely mental workings detached from an object or vessel.

Idol sorcerers house, preserve, anchor, enchant, imprison, and shape.

The Curse Path

The Curse Path works through names, tokens, hidden rites, burial, contamination, repetition, patience, doom, and things that ripen over time.

It is strong in Harm and Transform. It is poor at sudden revelation, quick concealment, or any working that must happen at once.

Curse sorcerers begin processes that worsen, spread, endure, and finish in their own time.

Paths and Domains

Each Path is aligned with two Domains of Effect. These are the Domains the sorcerer truly understands.

Path	Favored Domains	Nature of Practice
Blood Path	Harm, Control	Force, pain, sacrifice, domination
Dream Path	Conceal, Reveal	Vision, trance, illusion, perception
Idol Path	Summon or Bind, Transform	Vessels, objects, housing power
Curse Path	Harm, Transform	Slow ruin, decay, inevitability

Favored Domains

When a sorcerer works within one of their Path’s Favored Domains, choose one:

• Reduce the Secret Fire cost by 1 (minimum 1), or
• Gain +1 to the Task Roll

Choose each time a working is cast.

Strained Domains

A sorcerer may attempt a working outside their Path’s Favored Domains, but such workings are unnatural to their practice.

If a sorcerer attempts a Domain outside their Path:

• The working’s Magnitude increases by one step, or
• The GM adds one additional Cost from the d66 Ritual Costs & Conditions table

The GM decides which is more appropriate.

If the effect strongly contradicts the Path, the GM may rule it impossible without special training, rare lore, or some major story justification.

Path Expression

The Domain describes what is being done.

The Path describes how it is done.

A Blood Path sorcerer using Control binds through pain, blood, and terror.

An Idol Path sorcerer attempting Harm outside their Path likely does so by means of a prepared vessel, a spirit-bound blade, or a set idol rather than by flinging raw force across a room.

A Curse Path sorcerer does not act like a Dream Path sorcerer just because both might want the same enemy ruined. One works by doom ripening over days. The other works by dream, vision, and mental distortion.

If the Path does not clearly explain how the effect happens, the GM should either raise the Magnitude, add Costs, or refuse the working.

What Sorcery Can Do

All workings fall into six broad Domains of Effect. These are not spell lists. They are categories of intent.

The player declares what the sorcerer wants to accomplish. The GM decides which Domain applies, what Magnitude is required, and what the Fire will demand in return.

Harm

Harm is sorcery that wounds, withers, burns, weakens, breaks, sickens, rots, ruins, or destroys.

This Domain includes injury to flesh, blight on crops, wasting disease, destructive force, spoiling, breaking, and curses that bring pain or death.

Blood and Curse sorcerers excel here. Dream and Idol sorcerers can attempt it, but usually only indirectly or with greater cost.

Magnitude	Harm Examples
Cantrip	Cause a sting of pain, spoil food or drink, crack a fragile object, extinguish a candle, blister skin, sour milk, curdle oil
First	Inflict a real wound, strike with fire or force, blight a small patch of field, shatter a door, bring fever, weaken a target in a scene
Second	Cripple several people, level part of a structure, spread a serious wasting affliction, lay a powerful blight, call a destructive storm over a small area
Third	Plague a district, lay famine on a region, destroy major structures, curse a bloodline with sickness or death, unleash catastrophic fire, storm, or ruin

Control

Control is sorcery that restrains, compels, dominates, commands, paralyzes, terrifies, enthralls, or enforces obedience.

This Domain includes bodily restraint, pressure on the will, sorcerous taboo, spirit-command, and all manner of bindings laid on people, creatures, or lesser powers.

Blood sorcerers excel here. Others may do it, but by stranger routes and often at greater cost.

Magnitude	Control Examples
Cantrip	Cause hesitation, force a dropped object, induce a brief pause, make a target flinch, stammer, or recoil
First	Bind a person briefly, compel a simple act, send fear into a target, command a weak spirit, prevent movement for a few moments
Second	Enthrall a mortal mind, enforce obedience, imprison a spirit in a vessel, seal a door or chamber against use, bind a dangerous haunting
Third	Create long-term thralls, geas a household or bloodline, seal a powerful entity away, lay binding law upon a temple, tomb, or district

Conceal

Conceal is sorcery that hides, veils, blurs, masks, misdirects, distracts, silences, or causes others not to notice.

This Domain includes illusions, veils, muffling, hidden roads, disguised appearances, and the bending of attention or memory away from what is there.

Dream sorcerers excel here. Others use it poorly, and usually by awkward or indirect means.

Magnitude	Conceal Examples
Cantrip	Dim a light, blur a sound, distract the eye, make a small object easy to overlook
First	Pass unnoticed, hide a person or thing from casual notice, create a convincing single illusion, muffle speech, blur memory of a moment
Second	Veil a room or group, erase or distort recollection, make a place difficult to find, sustain a false appearance through a scene or a night
Third	Hide a shrine, road, tomb, or household for years, erase a truth from common memory, shroud a district in sustained obscurity or false appearance

Reveal

Reveal is sorcery that uncovers, sees, hears, interprets, remembers, locates, or forces hidden truths into knowledge.

This Domain includes omen-reading, dream-sight, speaking with the dead, detecting spirits, identifying curses, and witnessing distant or recent events.

Dream sorcerers excel here. Other Paths may reach for it through sacrifice, idols, or curse-roots, but with more strain.

Magnitude	Reveal Examples
Cantrip	Sense nearby sorcery, feel a presence, receive a fleeting omen, know whether something is tainted
First	See recent events in a place, locate a nearby person or object, know whether someone lies, identify a curse, haunting, or spirit
Second	Witness distant events, read dreams clearly, speak to the dead or a bound spirit, uncover hidden paths, know the history of a place or object
Third	See across kingdoms, pierce ancient concealments, learn truths buried by kings or gods, witness the deep past, expose what has been hidden for generations

Transform

Transform is sorcery that alters shape, quality, function, nature, or enduring condition.

This Domain includes enchantment of objects, alteration of flesh, hardening, softening, corruption, strengthening, reshaping, animation, and all manner of changing what a thing is or does.

Idol and Curse sorcerers excel here. Blood may transform flesh violently; Dream may transform perception more easily than matter.

Magnitude	Transform Examples
Cantrip	Change smell, taste, warmth, color, or another minor quality
First	Harden skin, alter appearance, sour wine, warp a simple object, strengthen or diminish a trait briefly
Second	Reshape a body in a serious way, animate an object, alter a weapon or idol, change the lasting nature of a crafted thing, twist flesh into beastlike form
Third	Create permanent monstrous transformation, corrupt a sacred thing, alter the nature of a place, remake flesh or matter on a grand scale

Summon or Bind

Summon or Bind is sorcery that calls, houses, imprisons, bargains with, directs, wards against, or anchors spirits, demons, ancestors, and other unseen powers.

This Domain is feared throughout Jhelum, and rightly so. To summon is not to command. To bind is not to own. Success often means only that one danger has been exchanged for another.

Idol sorcerers excel here. Others can meddle, but rarely with the same confidence or stability.

Magnitude	Summon or Bind Examples
Cantrip	Stir a nearby presence, ward off a weak unseen thing for a moment, receive a whisper, attract a minor spirit
First	Call a minor spirit, bind a weak presence into a token, ward a doorway, send a messenger-spirit, compel a small local power
Second	Summon a dangerous spirit or demon, bind an entity into an idol, trap a haunting thing, command an otherworldly servant for a time
Third	Call a great demon, imprison something ancient, bind a temple or tomb to a housed power, establish a lasting pact with a terrible force

What Sorcery Cannot Do Easily

Sorcery in Jhelum is broad, but it is not effortless and it is not benign.

As a rule:

Sorcery does not heal living wounds cleanly. It may preserve life briefly, shift hurt from one body to another, harden flesh unnaturally, or close wounds in ugly ways, but true healing belongs to herbs, prayer, treatment, and time.

Sorcery does not excuse preparation. Even a quick working has shape, method, and cost.

Sorcery does not come free of consequence. Every working alters something.

Sorcery does not ignore the Path. If the Path does not support the effect, the GM should raise its Magnitude, add Costs, or refuse it.

Magnitude and Difficulty

The greater the working, the more the world resists.

Magnitude	Description	Target Number
Cantrip	Petty, fleeting, or slight effects	Automatic or trivial
First	Serious workings affecting a person, object, or scene	9
Second	Major workings beyond what one person could normally achieve	12
Third	Great desecrations that alter lives, places, bloodlines, or communities	15

A simple rule helps when judging Magnitude:

If an ordinary person, with tools, labor, and time, could achieve something roughly similar, it is probably First Magnitude.

If not, but the scale remains limited, it is probably Second Magnitude.

If it changes a place, lineage, community, or sacred order of things, it is probably Third Magnitude.

Secret Fire Costs

Use the following as the standard costs of sorcery:

Magnitude	Secret Fire Cost
Cantrip	1 or 2
First	5
Second	10
Third	15

These are the starting costs before Favored Domain benefits or other modifiers.

Sorcery cast while wearing armor is more difficult. Increase the Secret Fire cost by:

• +1 for Light Armor
• +2 for Medium Armor
• +3 for Heavy Armor

Cantrips usually need no roll unless they directly affect a sentient target or circumstances make them difficult.

Costs and Conditions

No working is free.

Before a sorcerer rolls, the GM sets one or more Costs using the d66 Ritual Costs & Conditions table.

These are not decorative details. They are the actual conditions under which the Fire will answer.

As a rule of thumb:

Magnitude	Typical Cost
Cantrip	Usually none, or one slight condition
First	1 meaningful Cost
Second	2 Costs
Third	3 or more Costs

The player may suggest Costs appropriate to their Path, but the GM decides what the working requires.

Consequences

Sorcery is never clean.

If a working fails, a consequence follows.

If a working succeeds at Second or Third Magnitude, a consequence may still follow.

A Third Magnitude working always causes a consequence, even on success.

Use the appropriate table:

• Minor Consequences for Cantrips and First Magnitude workings
• Major Consequences for Second Magnitude workings
• Catastrophic Consequences for Third Magnitude workings

The GM may choose an entry or roll.

The Mark of the Fire

Some consequences inflict a Mark of the Fire.

A Mark is not spent. It is endured.

It measures how much the Secret Fire has noticed the sorcerer, altered them, or laid some claim upon them. The more Marks a sorcerer bears, the less ordinary they seem. Spirits take notice. Priests become wary. Sleep grows strange. Reflections worsen. The line between practitioner and practiced-upon begins to thin.

There are stories of such people.

They are not told as warnings.

They are told as recognition.

Working Sorcery at the Table

When a sorcerer attempts a working, use this order:

1. The player states what they want the working to do
2. The player identifies the most fitting Domain
3. The GM judges whether the Path supports that Domain naturally or only with strain
4. The GM sets the Magnitude and Target Number
5. The GM sets one or more Costs from the d66 Ritual Costs & Conditions table
6. The sorcerer pays the Secret Fire cost
7. The sorcerer rolls
8. If needed, the GM applies a consequence from the appropriate consequence table

Examples of Use

A Blood Path sorcerer wants to strike down a guard across a courtyard by opening old scars and calling the man’s blood to boil. This is Harm, which is Favored, so the sorcerer may gain +1 to the roll or reduce the Secret Fire cost by 1. Because it affects a single target in a direct and immediate way, it is probably First Magnitude at TN 9.

A Dream Path sorcerer wants that same guard removed, but not by force. She breathes incense over a coal-bowl and sends a vision of divine judgment into his mind. If the goal is to make him flee or freeze, this is likely Conceal or Reveal twisted toward panic, or possibly Control outside her Favored Domains. The GM may raise the Magnitude or add a Cost.

An Idol Path sorcerer wants to ward a merchant’s house against a haunting by fixing the spirit into a painted mask hung over the courtyard gate. This is Summon or Bind, a Favored Domain. If the spirit is minor, the working may be First Magnitude. If it is dangerous or the ward must endure a long time, Second Magnitude is more likely.

A Curse Path sorcerer wants revenge on a tax collector. He buries a knotted cord, the man’s name, and a shred from his robe beneath a tamarind tree. Over the next days the target weakens, quarrels with his household, and begins coughing blood. This is Harm through the Curse Path and may be First or Second Magnitude depending on severity.

A Final Truth

Sorcery can do what steel cannot.

It can reveal what eyes cannot.

It can destroy what law cannot touch.

It can also stain the hand that uses it, draw attention that cannot be escaped, and open doors that should have remained closed.

The Secret Fire does not care why it is invoked.

It only cares that it has been fed.

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