Onmyōji Pre-release

Description

+Intelligence, +Spirit, +Will

Look at what they have to work with. There's Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoist alchemy and sorcery. We take what we want and leave the rest. Just like your salad bar.

— Egg Shen, Big Trouble in Little China

You are a liaison with the spirit world, entreating and controlling the innumerable lesser deities inhabiting the places and objects around you. These spirits can be powerful allies and benefactors, letting you work effortless miracles, but are equally dangerous enemies, which you must be prepared to protect yourself and others from if negotiations go awry.

Conduits designing a mission for you should be ready to play plenty of unplanned NPCs — most of the spirits you summon are not companions. You have a slow, deliberate playstyle, requiring plenty of planning and talking, and specialize in the immaterial, so if the Conduit wants to really challenge you, they could present you with fast, physical enemies who put you under immediate time pressure.

Grounded in the magical court diviners of Heian-era Japan, the mélange of belief systems that gave rise to them, and the media they later inspired.

Examples from history, myth and pop culture include:

The Bureau of Onmyō of the Ministry of the Center and other historical institutions
Abe no Seimei
Uncle Chan (Jackie Chan Adventures)
Sailor Mars (Sailor Moon)
Qing Ming (The Onmyōji Series)
The Medicine Seller (Mononoke)

Challenge Level: Mid

Class by Rich DiTullio

Edition: Advent v2

Public: Yes

Signature Gear

Base Gear

Ofuda

Base

Strips of ensorcelled paper.

Quantity: Low
Aerodynamics Boost: High

Place or throw to an entryway or route, causing the paper to hover in position in front of it, to give that area a Ward against a Pitched being or type of being. This Ward has a Low Duration once tested by its target(s).
Impact scales Low–High on the specificity of the Pitch. (e.g. Naming a single, specific being would have High Impact.)
Impact as capped at Low against non-supernatural beings.

Senkō

Base

Incense sticks, magically lit at will.

Quantity: Low
Duration: Mid

While lit, this incense gently draws all unquiet spirits, ghosts, and other incorporeal, supernatural beings within a Mid Range towards it.
While such beings are within a Low Range of the incense, they are rendered visible and able to communicate in simple ways (even if not normally able to) but reduce incense Duration to Low.

Sokutai

Base

Sacerdotal courtly garb.

You may Pitch that your character is recognized as diviner (High Cooldown).
Once per mission, you may Pitch that a local holiday or heavenly phenomenon (meteorological or astronomical) is soon to occur.

Elective Gear

Washi Paper

Elective

Sheets of colorful, high-quality craft paper.

Quantity: 5x

Fold into an animal’s likeness to ensoul the paper with an animistic spirit, with the paper as its physical body.
This spirit’s disposition and a single-use, Low Impact magical power it possesses are Pitched by recounting a short tale while folding.
Starts palm-sized and very physically weak, but using more sheets of paper when folding its body will make it larger, marginally less frail, and gain +1 Use for its magical power for each sheet used.

Gobosei

Elective

Pentagram-inscribed amulet.

Chant esoteric mantras over a willing target for a Low Duration, then either…
- Heal all their wounds and maladies of Mid severity or less but cause them to lose a full Threshold of both Essence and Stamina.
- Restore a full Threshold of both their Essence and Stamina, but Pitch a High Impact malady that spontaneously afflicts them at full strength.

Turtle Shells

Elective

Cleaned and dried turtle shells, used in divination.

Quantity: 3x

Apply heat to one while asking a question of your Conduit that can only be answered with Yes or No.
After a Low Duration, the Conduit truthfully answers this question by describing the cracks and patterns incurred by the burned shell, which you must interpret yourself (but this must be a Yes or No).

Abilities

Kuji-Kiri

Weaken any single magic sourced from a target (High Impact).

Essence Cost: Mid
Range: Mid
Cooldown: Low

Paired Action: Make a series of cutting gestures while speaking a short mantra.

If targeting a weak incorporeal being, this Ability can cause them to vanish from existence entirely.
May instead choose to weaken an emotion being demonstrated by the target, though this increases the Ability’s Cooldown to Mid.

Rude Awakening

Conjure an animistic spirit from a location or object and compel them to obey your commands.

Essence Cost: Low–High
Duration: Low–High
Cooldown: Low

Paired Action: Proclaim a fitting name for the spirit and firmly request its presence.

The spirit is entirely controlled by the Conduit, who also determines its disposition and appearance, as befitting its nature. (e.g. A lake spirit might be calm and gentle, with a wide, glassy body.)
Spirits are not happy to be awakened, are rivalrous with one another, and only reluctantly follow commands. Demanding too much of one may cause it to turn against the user.
While the spirit is incorporeal, it has full control over its physical form and may also produce some thematically-related magics. (e.g. A mountain spirit might send a rockfall or open a fissure.)
The spirit is physically incapable of moving more than a Low distance away from its physical form.
Essence Cost scales and Duration inversely scales on the power of the spirit, as befitting its physical form. (e.g. The spirit of a campfire would have a Low Cost and a High Duration, the spirit of a great furnace would have Mid for both, and the spirit of a wildfire would have a High Cost and a Low Duration.)

Norito

Beseech a known spirit for help, receiving an Insight or Pitched, non-violent boon thematically befitting that spirit.

Essence Cost: Mid
Cooldown: Mid

Paired Action: Humbly petition the spirit, emphasizing your worthiness of its aid.

Impact scales Low–Mid on the persuasiveness of the user’s Paired Action.
A successful Mid Impact use increases the maximum Impact for future uses to High.