Definitions

From Summoner

Revision as of 20:21, 8 February 2008

Definitions are similar to Arts in that they are methods in which Summoners may invest Id into gaining powers normally beyond their reach. What differs with Definitions are method and scale. While Arts are practiced, straightforward, and yield standard results, the Art of Definition is more complicated. Id is cast into the World, and set to resound with it and undergo a slight, but telling change in the world itself. There is great power in Definitions, but there are also drawbacks and terms that must be met for this power to work.
Each dot of the Art gives the Summoner access to greater and more powerful rituals of Definition. The Summoner receives a free Definition for each dot purchased in the art, and can buy additional ones at a cost of the level of the ritual x 2. To enact these rituals can require a variety of Skills, but the most common ones are Occult and Politics. One grants insight into the mystical workings of the World, while the other allows the Summoner to manage rumor, hearsay, hidden threads, and power games to her advantage.
Setting a Definition is a roll of Manipulation + Skill + Definitions, but the roll time varies greatly depending on the nature and the power of the ritual. Some rituals require certain actions or resources to prepare them, and will be listed in the ritual's description, called the medium. Common things include money, symbolic objects, ritual behaviors, and social interactions.
Some later Definitions may require tests of Identity to complete. Power comes a price, and some media are more potently descriptive than others.

Echo Kiss (O)

Sometimes, someone just needs information. Whether it is a warning, a word of hope, or just notice that an ally or enemy is still alive, the message needs to be delivered. This simple Definition taps into the powerful network of human interaction and plays a flawless "telephone game" with a message the Summoner states. The Summoner may whisper the message into a stranger's ear, and that stranger finds themselves telling a random customer at a coffee shop about the 'weird guy' who told her something. That person may then call a friend, who posts the odd encounter on a semi-popular blog. One of the subject's friends may read the blog, and text a link to it to the subject's cell phone. Upon reading the blog, the subject knows the true meaning of the message, as well as its source. More and stranger connections can be drawn, but fate seems to conspire to get the message to the subject in a timely manner.
Sending the message requires only a point of Id and a single success, but additional successes beyond the first reduces the time it takes for the message to reach the target. The default time is roughly 12 hours, but each additional success halves that time.
Cost: 1 Id
Skill: Socialize
Medium: The Summoner must speak the message clearly to a stranger Action: Instant

Crosses the World (OO)

They say that a lie goes around the world before the truth can get its boots on. Negative information has a certain tendency to spread, regardless of truth. It catches attention and expands like wildfire into a ready environment. Sometimes a Summoner needs to flush someone out, get their attention, or simply cause social havoc. This Definition ritual is just the thing for the job.
The Summoner spends some time each night spreading the lie at popular nodes of information, or leaves the money in unmarked packages in places like trash cans, the bottoms of bridges, and other 'shady' drop points. Who picks this money up is a mystery. For the ritual to work, the lie must be plausible to the introduced community, and lasts for a day per dot of Definitions the Summoner has.
Cost: 1 Id
Skill: Subterfuge
Medium: Either Resources OOO, or the Summoner must humiliate themselves within that community. For example, spending public time with a social pariah, admitting a personal fault, or airing out some of the Summoner's own 'dirty laundry', true or untrue. Action: Extended; required successes vary depending on the size of the community. Each roll represents an hour of duty, which can be done once per night.

The Open Door (OOO)

Retreat into a 'nearby' Velvet Room through any abandoned door. The door always leads back to where the Summoner came from...unless a bargain is arranged with the Facilitator within. Medium: A point of Willpower, or the blood from a lethal wound on the doorknob.

The Midas Touch (OOO)

Creates the necessary funds for a single purchase of an available item, to a maximum resources value of the Summoner's dots in Definitions. Medium: The funds fall to the Summoner in an emotionally or socially costly way

Blood of the Earth (OOOO)

This Ritual allows for a Summoner to get their hands on difficult-to-acquire goods, as a means of acquiring them reveal themselves, and will be affordable with only moderate effort. The price, however, may not always be money... Medium: Someone has to be named as a 'sacrifice', who will suffer greatly, possibly (but rarely) die, as a result of events that get the Summoner their goods.

The Ancestral Heirloom (OOOO)

This potent ritual converts an item into a Symbol, granting it powers fitting to its "nature". Medium: A worthy object, with a worthy story. Each Symbol bears its own drawbacks.

Actualization (OOOOO)

This ritual grants an Alter Self to an object, animal, or place. Medium: the evocative death of the subject's "owner".

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