ANDERS MAGE PAGE 2.0

Verbena magic tries to work with nature as much as possible, both in order to avoid disrupting it and to reduce the possibility of paradox. The Verbena excel at shapeshifting, and employ it in a variety of unexpected ways. Temporary alterations to other life forms are accepted, but permanent changes are discouraged except as a punishment. They have a strong belief in the principle that one's actions return to oneself three times over, which discourages them from harming others without good cause, and they prefer to avoid confrontation by misdirecting opponents and deceiving them. But when they do decide to fight, they employ brutal magics and do not hesitate to kill their enemies.

Mapping the Track (Corr. 1, Prime 1)

The Verbena feel that Quintessence flows across the surface of the earth in streams that are called Ley Lines, also known as the Old Straight Track. Ley Lines come in minor, major, and great versions, which facilitate the casting of Correspondence, Prime and Spirit magick. For this reason, many Verbena holy sites are situated on them.

Two successes will locate a minor line, 4 successes a major line and six successes a great line. A minor line reduces the difficulty of Correspondence, Prime and Spirit magick cast in its vicinity by 1, a major line by 2 and a great line by 3.

Laying the Line (Corr. 2, Prime 3)

This spell requires a complex ritual, in which the druid begins at a Node and walks to another point, dragging his blood-smeared staff in the dirt all the way. If successful, Quintessence will begin to flow along the line. Thereafter, by standing on the line, the Node can be tapped, without having to be present at it.

Walking the Old Straight Track (Corr. 3 or 4)

Ley Lines facilitate travel for those who know how to employ them. They allow the witch to walk almost instantaneously from any point on the line to any other point on it.

Correspondence 3 transports the witch, while at the 4th level, she can take others with her. So long as no Sleepers witness the departure or arrival, the effect is coincidental.

Tapping the Ley Line (Prime 5)

This rote allows the witch to drain off some of the Quintessence that flows along Ley lines.

Each success gives the caster 1 point of Quintessence.

Sense the Land (Corr. 2, Life 2, Mind 1)

First employed by the witch Brangian to keep track of the Saxons who were raiding her land, this rote has become a standard surveillance effect among the Verbena. The witch extends her senses and merges them with those of the plants and small animals in a given region.

The Life magic allows the witch to blend her perceptions with those lives around her, while the Mind sphere enables her to understand the sensations she receives. Because her awareness is covered by the lives in the area, this effect is very difficult to detect. Every success increases the difficulty of detection by one.

Transcendent Touch (Life 1, Mind 1)

The Lifeweaver Edwin Stroud once found himself blinded by the muzzle flash of a Hitmark's cannon. Desperate to escape but lacking any knowledge of the Correspondence sphere, he instead relied on his powerfully heightened sense of touch, a sense particularly favored by his Tradition.

The rote makes the witch's sense of touch so strong that it compensates for the lack of sight.

Murder of Crows (Life 2 or 4, Mind 2, sometimes Prime 2)

A favored spell of the Twisters of Fate, this enables a witch to conjure a swarm of creatures which will do her bidding, usually by attacking a target, with only a wave of her blood-smeared staff.

This spell will summon, or with Prime 2, create a swarm of animals. With Life 2, it will summon insects or other invertebrates, while with Life 4, it will produce birds, rodents or other small creatures, up to the size of cats. The control she has is limited and only simple commands are possible.

Tongue of the Adders (Life 2, Mind 2)

This simple rote has a history dating back to ancient Greece, but it is still common today.

This spell allows the witch to speak with and understand animals. Most animals, it should be noted, have very simple thoughts and few have much to say about anything other than food, safety and procreation.

Fury of the Fields (Forces 3, Life 2, Prime 2)

This is another old spell which summons the power of the land to the witch's aid. It animates plants and causes them to attack a target.

Each success gives the plants 1 point of Dexterity to attack with and 2 points of Strength for purposes of damage. With 2 successes the witch can animate grasses and flowers, 3 will animate vines and bushes and 4 or more will enliven whole trees. The effect is inevitably vulgar, but it terrifies most opponents.

Bride of Flowers (Life 2, Forces 3, Prime 2, sometimes Mind 5)

The Tradition is divided over the morality of this rote, and its use is not as common as it once was. It originated in first century Gaul, when a Roman commander demanded that a group of Verbena provide him with a bride or be destroyed. Loathe to submit to him, the circle created a wife for him from a mass of flowers and he remained in ignorance of her true nature until she killed him. The people created from this spell have been used as servants, traveling companions, decoys and assassins.

If successful, the rote transforms a mass of living plant matter into the semblance of a human. In its basic form, the "bride" is little better than a zombie, capable of following only the simplest orders. With the application of the Mind sphere, the bride gains full sentience and at least one Bride eventually Awoke.

Strength of Antaeus (Life 3)

Another old Greek rote, this one is employed mostly by the Twisters of Fate, who like the way it reminds the caster of her dependence upon the earth by allowing her to tap the earth's strength.

Each success give the witch 2 points of Strength as long as she is in direct contact with the earth. If she breaks contact with the soil, the strength immediately fades, but returns when contact is re-established. If someone attempts to lift or otherwise move her off the soil, she resists with her full strength, regardless of whether she has leverage or not.

Couvade (Life 3, sometimes Corr. 2)

The entire army of Ulster was brought to its knees by the use of this Verbena rote in the fifth century. While it has never again been used on such a scale, it remains a potent spell, as many of the Tradition's enemies have discovered to their discomfort. It transfers physical pain from one target, usually the caster, to another. In the case of the Irish army, they were forced to experience labor pains, but the pains of battle injuries are the most common sensation.

If successful, the target will suffer all the pain and wound penalties experienced by the person to which he is connected, although the wounds themselves are not transferred. Hollow Ones have developed a similar spell they call the Corsican Game.

Drawing Out Blood (Life 3)

As the Verbena like to say, "blood calls to blood", and this brutal rote is an application of that idea. The witch bleeds herself and then uses the blood to draw blood out from the target. If the target already has injuries, they will bleed copiously. If they don't, they spontaneously start hemorrhaging from various orifices. Repeated use of this effect is generally fatal to the target, but that's the point.

This rote does a level of damage for each success and cannot be soaked. Exactly how the bleeding occurs determines whether the rote is vulgar or not.

Second Body (Life 5, Prime 2, sometimes Mind 5, Corr. 2)

While most Traditions use Co-location if someone needs to be in more than one place at a time, the Verbena prefer to create a duplicate of the person out of their own blood. This person shares the awareness of the original and they are usually mentally linked, but the second body is physically independent of the first and can suffer harm or even death without serious effect to the original.

The duplicate is physically identical but it lacks a true spirit or Avatar, and so cannot perform magick. The Mind component is necessary to fill the body with a functional personality. If it is left out, the duplicate will be a simple programmed robot. The Correspondence component allows mental contact and can be omitted if not desired. The duplicate will die when the spell expires.

Swarm of Bugs (Life 5, Mind 2)

This rote is a good example of the skill at shapechanging attained by some Lifeweavers. With it, the witch transforms not into a single creature, but into an entire mass of them, usually insects or rodents.

The Mind sphere allows the witch to maintain her single consciousness while her body is divided into many units. It requires at least three successes to work, in which case the witch may function as a swarm. While the swarm can be blown around or evaded, it is difficult to harm enough of the swarm to cause serious damage to the witch. The witch is immune to attacks that do not effect an area.

Poseidon's Wrath (Forces 5, sometimes Corr. 2)

Yet another ancient spell (the Verbena have a strong appreciation for traditional things, and this includes time-honored rotes), this one creates an earthquake.

The intensity of the earthquake is determined by the number of successes, with each success rising one step on the Richter scale. A magnitude of 1 or 2 is barely even perceptible, while the most severe earthquakes ever recorded had a magnitude of 8.7 and killed several hundred thousand people. For a sense of scale, in 1988 a earthquake of 6.9 killed 28,000 people in Armenia. The earthquake that hit San Francisco a year later had the same magnitude but killed only 65 people because of quake-proof architectural standards. The 1906 earthquake in San Francisco was an estimated 8.3. Adding Correspondence to the effect will increase the area of the quake. Since earthquakes do not always produce fore and aftershocks, this effect is usually coincidental but highly discouraged.

The Moon's Pure Light (Mind 3)

River Dancer, a Moon-Seeker, used this rote to penetrate the disguise of a Nosferatu bent on killing her, and it has become popular since then as a way of detecting those with deceptive intent.

This spell allows the witch to see the target as he truly is. Successes count as countermagic against illusions and similar Mind magic. If the caster scores at least 4 successes, she also learns the target's Nature.

Race Memory (Life 1, Mind 3, Time 2)

A common spell of the Gardeners, this enables the witch to search the memories of her ancestors.

Each success acts as 1 point of Dream and allows the caster to reach one generation back. Unlike the normal Dream ability, specific facts can be retrieved.

Threefold Return (Entropy 4)

Using the principle that evil done returns to the doer three times, the Druid Hwyll employed this effect to discourage attacks on his person. When the Celestial Chorus finally captured and slew him, all those involved perished within a year.

Casting this rote involves a ritual bath in a cauldron. From that point on, any harm intentionally done to the bather during the duration of the effect will eventually return three times upon the person causing the harm. The exact effects are left to the Storyteller, and they may involve an exact repetition of the harm or merely something equivalent. The effect is never immediate, and in extreme cases may take months or years to play out.

Hand of the Crone (Entropy 4, Time 4)

The Danish witch Gunnhild invented this rote to enable her to destroy the Progenitors who slew the members of her coven, and the more bloody-minded members of the Tradition continue to employ it to bring sudden death to their enemies.

The witch employing this effect must make physical contact with her target after ritually anointing her body with a potion brewed in her cauldron and stirred with her wand. This sets the effect in motion, and the Time sphere causes the rote to hang for period of time until the Entropy sphere suddenly causes catastrophic damage to the victim.

Warning Curse (Time 4)

The ancient Verbena reputation for effective curses rests in no small part on the power of this rote, by which the witch warns that dire consequences will strike the target if he fulfills the conditions set by the witch.

This spell is cast in conjunction with a second one. The Time sphere allows the witch to specify a moment or condition which will trigger the second spell. There are many versions of this, but one familiar example is "On your sixteenth birthday, you will prick your finger on a spindle and die." Another example is "If you strike your wife three times, you will lose your family and property."