Arcane Means
Arcane Means are focused on your attempts to shape reality to meet your desires. The arcanist studies formulae and baroque texts full of diagrams and dead languages all to exert control over space and time. In time reality will snap back to equilibrium, primarily by colonizing or corrupting the arcanist, whose accumulated knowledge is contained within the bounded pages of a Grimoire. There are few who dare to reach into the space behind space, and fewer still who live to record their learning.
While the theurge petitions the gods to heal and protect the faithful or damn and condemn the heretics, and while the elementalist reshapes the elements of creation through the sheer power of both nature and their force of personality, the arcanist attempts to warp reality to their desires with the help of arcane texts or contact with impossible beings.
Finding and Losing a Grimoire
If you find a Grimoire during your adventures, you may study it to unlock an alternate version of one Means you already know, such as alternate familiars or summoned creatures.
If in the course of adventuring you ever lose your Grimoire, any Arcane Means you have learned remain in memory until the next time you use them, at which time you forget them. Unless you can sit and scribe your Means, or you discover a new Grimoire, you will lose your access to forgotten Means completely. You must gather the parchment, ink, and leather binding, and then begin the process of scribing your Grimoire. It takes 24 hours to scribe each Arcane Means you remember into your Grimoire.
Anyone who discovers your old Grimoire may attempt to learn to read the Arcane Means within during an Overnight Rest. Take the Intellect Measure. On a Hit, they may learn one Means for which they meet the prerequisite. On a Complication or Miss, they may learn one Means for which they meet the prerequisite, but they take a Mutation immediately and their Void Die ticks down 1. On a Fumble, the Grimoire expends all of its stored Arcane energy at once, giving the finder 2 Mutations, ticking the Void Die down twice, and does 3 damage as it violently disassembles.
Base Means
Level 1 - Arcane Understanding - Through happenstance or grim desire, you have stumbled upon, uncovered, stolen, or been gifted a rare and powerful book of arcane teachings, known as a Grimoire. Inside this book, often bound in skin and inked in blood, are the workings of spellcraft so profound that they can be manipulated to reshape, weaken, or tear into the very fabric of space and time, making the impossible possible. . Apply Intellect bonus to attack windows with spells. On a Complication, your spell resolves as if it were a Hit, but you are also knocked Off-Balance by a momentary glimpse into the beyond. On a Miss, the spell fizzles and you are knocked Off-Balance unless a Means says otherwise. On a Fumble, the spell fizzles, you are Exposed, and you Mark 1 Corruption in addition to whatever the Means says. The laws of space and time are coherent, consistent, and hard to bend, and there are entities who exist in the spaces between spaces, outside reality or between dimension, who are always looking for thin places and fractures through which they may enter and control or consume all that is, was, and ever will be.
Conjuration
Level 1 - Summon Familiar (requires Arcane Understanding) - Encoded in your grimoire is one specific familiar who once belonged to the creator. While present and within Far range, familiars provide benefits as listed below. When you learn this spell, roll 2d6:
On a Rule of 7 - Your choice from the list.
On a 6 or 8 - House Cat or Domesticated Rat
Dexterity Measures widen by 1
On a 5 or 9 - Bird (Crow-sized or smaller)
Wisdom Measures widen by 1
On a 4 or 10 - Amphibian (Fist size or smaller)
Strength Measures widen by 1
On a 3 or 11 - Snake or Lizard (up to 2 lbs)
Charisma Measures widen by 1
On a 2 or 12 - Cosmic Horror (Palm size or smaller)
Constitution Measures widen by 1.
You may summon or dismiss your familiar as 1 Action. Familiars look and sound like solid physical beings and can be picked up, petted, fed, etc, by the caster and anyone the caster chooses. Describe your familiar in detail according to its type. Maybe it's a three-tailed hairless cat, or maybe it's a floating eyeball with batwings. In reality, the familiars are more like spirits, lacking any true mass or volume. Anyone attempting to interact with a familiar without the knowledge and consent of the caster instead feels empty space as the familiar were an illusion. Familiars may be directed as a free action and can Reposition up to Medium Range each round. If at any time the familiar would exceed Far Range from the caster, it immediately snaps back to the caster's shoulder. At any time, the caster may spend 2 actions to see and hear what the familiar sees and hears.
Level 3 - Summon Creature (requires Summon Familiar) - The original creator of your grimoire was deeply enmeshed in the practices of summoning creatures of only one type. Other grimoires that exist might have different knowledge contained within its covers. When you first learn this spell, roll 2d6:
6, 7, 8 - Beasts - A terrestrial (non-flying) natural beast up to 200 lbs or 3 ft tall at the shoulder (e.g. gray wolf, black bear, cougar, jaguar, leopard, boar, deer, mastiff, wolfhound)
5, 9 - Undead - The animated remains of creatures (zombie, ghoul, skeleton, skeletal/zombie version of a beast)
4, 10 - Demons - The spawn of Hell (imp, quasit, dretch, lemure)
3, 11 - Cosmic Horrors - Creatures from beyond space and time (mi-go, mind splinters, myconid, ooze)
2, 12 - GM's choice of one from the above.
When you cast Summon Creature, Take the Intellect Measure:
On a Hit or Complication - Summon 1 creature of the type listed in your grimoire.
Summoned creatures act on your turn, use your Intellect Measure for attacks, do 1 damage on Hits, have 2 Health, 2 Nerve, and remain for up to 5 rounds, unless a Means says Otherwise. Directing summoned creatures is a free action.
Level 6 - Advanced Summoning (requires Summon Creature) - When casting Advanced Summoning, Mark 1 Corruption Choose 1:
Summon Multiple Creatures:
On a Hit - Summon 3 creatures of the type listed in your grimoire.
On a Complication - Summon 2 creatures of the type listed in your grimoire.
Summon Superior Creature:
On a Hit or Complication - Summon 1 Superior creature of the type listed in your grimoire.
Summoned Superior creatures increase to 2 damage on Hits, 4 Health, and 4 Nerve.
Superior Beasts - Terrestrial (non-flying) natural beasts up to 400 lbs or 6 ft tall at the shoulder (e.g. lion, elk, gorilla, crocodile, ostrich)
Superior Undead - Risen dead with a hatred for the living (e.g. ghast, mummy, vampire, banshee, revenant)
Superior Demons - Lesser lieutenants of Hell seeking to punish the wicked (e.g. oni, asura, succubus, vrock, fiend)
Superior Cosmic Horror - Monstrosities seeking to open the gates between realities (e.g. elder thing, shoggoth, deep one, cthonian)
Evocation
Level 1: Force Bolt (requires Arcane Understanding) - Choose one target up to Medium Range. Take the Intellect Measure: On a Hit, deal 1 damage to target and involuntarily Reposition the target Close in the direction of your Force Bolt. On a Fumble, you involuntarily Reposition Close in the direction opposite your Force Bolt. If a Reposition would move a creature into a hazard (over an edge, into a vat of acid, etc), creature may take the Agility Measure. On a Hit or Complication, they stop on the edge.
Level 3 - Force Blast (requires Force Bolt) - When casting Force Blast, choose up to 2 targets within Medium Range and within Melee Range from each other. On a Hit, deal 2 damage split evenly between targets and Reposition them close in the direction of your Force Blast. On a Fumble, take 1 damage and you involuntarily Reposition Close in the direction opposite your Force Blast. If a Reposition would move a creature into a hazard (over an edge, into a vat of acid, etc), creature may take the Agility Measure. On a Hit or Complication, they stop on the edge.
Level 6 - Force Burst (requires Force Blast) - When casting Force Burst, Mark 1 Corruption and choose target a point in space up to Far Range away from you. On a Hit, deal 2 damage, knock Off-Balance, and involuntarily Reposition Close outward all creatures within Close Range of the target point. On a Fumble, you take 2 damage, are knocked Off-Balance, and involuntarily Reposition Close in the direction opposite your Force Burst.
Charm
Level 1 - Command (requires Arcane Understanding) - Choose 1 target within Medium Range. Take the Intellect Measure. On a Hit, target will perform the selected action on their next turn unless it is obviously suicidal. Speak a command word from the below list:
Come - Target will Reposition toward to caster up to Close range.
Flee - Target will Reposition away from caster up to Close range.
Drop - Target will drop any items currently in hand.
Stay - Target is Rooted.
Down - Target falls Prone.
On a Complication, target takes the Insight Measure. If target Rolls a Hit, they resist. If target rolls a Complication or Miss, proceed as though the spell was a Hit.
Level 3 - Sleep (requires Command) - When you cast Command, replace Down with Sleep in your list of command words.
Sleep - Target falls Prone and drifts into a deep sleep from which it cannot be awakened unless it is awakened by damage or deliberate actions by others. Roll 2d6. Target naturally awakens after that many rounds.
On a Fumble the spell backfires. Roll 2d6. You fall asleep for that many rounds unless awakened by damage or deliberate actions by others.
Level 6 - Compel (requires Sleep): - When you cast Compel, Mark 1 Corruption and choose up to 3 targets within Medium Range. Take the Intellect Measure. On a Hit, all targets will perform the selected action on their next turn unless it is obviously suicidal. Speak a command word from the below list:
Come - Targets will Reposition toward to caster up to Close range.
Flee - Targets will Reposition away from caster up to Close range.
Drop - Targets will drop any items currently in hand.
Stay - Targets are Rooted.
Sleep - Targets falls Prone and drift into a deep sleep from which it cannot be awakened unless it is awakened by damage or deliberate actions by others.
You may maintain this spell by spending 1 Action each turn concentrating on it. If you lose Health or Nerve, immediately take the Intellect Measure. On a Hit, concentration is maintained until the end of the next round. On a Complication or Miss, spell effects immediately end.