The Supernatural

Some characters can harness powerful forces beyond mortal understanding. Your character may perform incredible feats of magic and technology. Harnessing this power comes with great risk and only to those willing to devote themselves wholeheartedly to its pursuit.

Each supernatural path has a slightly different way of invoking its power. In order to learn to use new powers, you must be trained in the appropriate skill (see Skills), and you may need a related Talent, from your profession or selected during a level-up.

Prayer

You have a deep connection to one of the gods or spirits of the First ones, or to the Radiant Eye of the Sovereign. You have spent years honoring the old covenants, whether through the study of sacred texts and paintings or the mastery of powerful songs. Through prayer and concentration, you can thin the barrier between the Middle and Upper World and bring forth supernatural aid.

Requirements

In order to invoke prayers, you must have the Initiate talent and be trained in Prayer. All prayers have a lengthy contemplation time, and some require additional materials.

Learning Prayers

You may learn new prayers by taking the Talents Initiate, Adept, and Master. You may also learn prayers by studying with monastic scholars, wizened hermits, or tribal elders. If you find such a teacher and they are willing to teach you, spend 3 days in study and roll Wits. On a success, you learn the new prayer. On a failure, you do not and must continue to study. On a critical success, increase your Prayer skill by 1. On a critical failure, this prayer is your antithesis and you may never learn it.

Invoking Prayers

Prayer takes at least 10 minutes of peaceful contemplation. Some prayers require specific materials (such as silver oil, tobacco, or incense).

After you have completed your contemplation, test your Prayer. If you have already invoked this prayer today, roll with disadvantage.

On a success, the prayer is invoked. On a critical success, the prayer is strengthened in some dimension. Roll on the power surge table.

Power Surge

1. Restores a Wound to the affected party.
2. Targets more people.
3. Lasts longer.
4. The effect is doubled.
5. The caster sheds light for the rest of the day.
6. You may invoke the prayer again today without suffering disadvantage.

On a failure, the prayer does not work and the materials are lost. On a critical failure, roll on the Spiritual Fatigue table.

Spiritual Fatigue

1. Cannot invoke prayers until you perform a night of fasting and atonement, leaving you exhausted.
2. Your connection to the Upper World fades. Lose 1 Prayer permanently.
3. You channel a terrifying aspect of your deity, unsettling those around you. Lose D3 Shine until you take a night's rest.
4. All creatures nearby are put into a deep slumber.
5. Your body cannot hold the spiritual energy you channeled. You suffer D3 Wounds.
6. Your twisted prayer brings forth a powerful spirit, angel, or demon, intent on your destruction.

Hastening Prayers

If you exert while invoking a prayer you may do one of the following:

• Reduce its contemplation time to 2 actions.
• Skip its required materials.

If you exert with disadvantage, you may do both.

Talents

Selecting the talents below represents a character's growth into their spirituality and connection with the Upper World.

Initiate

Requirements: Prayer 1

You gain two Petitions.

Adept

Requirements: Prayer 3, Initiate

You gain one Petition and one Intercession.

Chosen

Requirements: Prayer 6, Adept

You gain one Intercession and one Decree.

Prayers

Petitions

Blessing

Materials: Holy herbs and a censer or ritual pot.
You bestow a blessing of great inner strength upon an ally. When they exert, they roll a D6 instead of a D10 for stress. You may only have a single ally blessed at a time.

Discern Truth

Materials: Bone dust or ash.
You sprinkle dust into the air as you ask questions of a target. While they speak truthful things, the dust does not stick to them. When they tell a lie or omit an important truth, the dust cakes their face and lips.

Radiant Light

Materials: A candle, torch, or lantern.
You summon forth an otherworldly light, causing a light source you hold to glow brilliantly. The light lasts for 6 hours. While you hold the light, you make Shine tests that rely on your spiritual authority with advantage.

Halt Affliction

Materials: A curse-sucking tube or purging stone.
You stop the ravages of a disease or poison afflicting your patient. The disease or poison will not damage them for the next day, and they may recover HP during that time. Continue to roll the usage die for the disease or poison to see if it ends.

Bounty

Materials: A ration of food.
You transform a humble meal into a delicious feast for one person. If they eat it, they are filled with vigor and resolve. They have advantage on tests against fear, exhaustion, poison, and disease and gain D4 HP for the next day. Only one ally may be so enhanced.

Dream Ally

Materials: A token of the ally's favor such as a bear claw or chain link.
Finding a Dream Ally is a daunting task. This petition, typically accompanied by ritual fasting, sweating, and burning sacred herbs, brings the attentions of a potential ally. While you have the ally's attentions, choose a suitable skill. The next UD4 times you test that skill, you do so with advantage.

Intercessions

• Banish
• Purify

Decrees

• Wrathful Heavens

Conjuring

Sites of power litter the landscape of Kuyama. At midnight, in dark and hidden places, under the watchful eyes of the owls, during a thunderstorm, the Lower World presses close. Skin tingles, hairs twitch. Those learned in the forbidden arts or with deep connections to the power beneath can draw upon it when the worlds overlap to perform great and terrifying magics.

Conjuring requires altering one's mind into a dream-like state, often assisted exhausting fasts, alchemical vapors, or mind-altering plants, as well as appropriate ritual materials - paints, salts, bitter herbs, and tallow.

Requirements

In order to perform a conjuring, you must be trained in the Conjuring skill and know the ritual you are attempting to cast.

Learning Conjurings

You may learn Border Conjurings by selecting them with the Binder talent. To conjure power from deeper within the Lower World requires personal attunement - it cannot be taught, it must be individually discovered.

Whenever you critically succeed or fail at a Conjuring test, your mind becomes attuned. The next night's rest, the Lower World speaks to you in a vision. You or the GM select a conjuring that you meet the skill requirements for. You must complete it's Quest. Once completed, you learn the ritual.

In addition, certain places and beings of great power can attune rituals, triggering a Quest regardless of skill level.

Performing Conjurings

Magic is impossible. And yet...

To perform a conjuring, you must perform a ritual that takes two actions and pass an impossible Conjuring test. Modify the test by your closeness to the Lower World, reducing its difficulty by 1 step for each factor listed below.

• You exert during the ritual.
• You make a sacrifice of a powerful object during the ritual.
• You have altered your consciousness with fasting and sweating, alchemical catalysts, or mind-altering substances.
• You take 1 hour to perform the ritual.
• You are in a site of power or are experiencing a powerful event (an eclipse, midnight during a new moon, watched by a flock of owls).

Torn Veil

1. Shrieking birds claw at you, dealing D10 damage and blinding you until your next night's rest.
2. Slime-dripping rats spew from your mouth, gnawing everyone near you for D8 damage.
3. You are possessed by a feral spirit. You gain D10 additional HP but must attack someone nearby with your hands until they are depleted.
4. Something deep and horrible tugs on your soul. You lose D6 Spirit until you spend a night purifying yourself, which leaves you exhausted.
5. You burst into flames, taking D3 Wounds. D3 of your items are incinerated.
6. You are dragged into the Lower World, where you will remain. Start a new character.

Talents

The talent below represents the first step on a path towards mastery of the powers of conjuring, a journey which takes at least a lifetime.

Binder

Requirements: Conjuring 1

Select one Border Conjuring that you can perform. Mastering it will lead you to deeper mysteries. You may select this talent multiple times.

Conjurings

Border Conjurings

Malady

Quest: Inflict a disease upon someone who has wronged you.
You cast the evil eye on a target and curse them with ill health. They suffer disadvantage on usage die rolls for disease and poison. If they are already cursed, they suffer a disease that does UD4 to a random Attribute.

Lesser Summoning

Quest: In a place of power, commune with a creature from the Lower World.
You find a creature that would ally with you and learn to call it from its home in the Lower World. It has its own motives, but will generally help with reasonable tasks. It is summoned for 10 minutes. Roll 3 times or choose from the list below:

Shape Elements

Quest: Offer your most valuable possession to the elements - burn it, throw it in the ocean, let it blow off a cliff or be struck by lightning.
You develop a bond with a single element and can bring it into being. Each time you invoke this ritual, you imbue yourself with the ability to summon the element once. Casting the ritual multiple times increases the power of the element when you finally unleash it. The element must be unleashed within 24 hours or it unleashes itself upon you.

True speech

Plantcraft

Deep Conjurings

Banish
Weather Work
Curse
Great Summoning
Windwalking

Abyssal Conjurings

Ancient Summoning
Earth Shape
Soul Master
Woodsong
Unravel

Shape-changing

Beast-folk. Skin-wearer. Changeling. Some powerful Kuyamans possess the rare and terrifying ability to alter their flesh, reshaping themselves to resemble birds, beasts, fish, and even other people. Whether through ancient curse, an ancestral bond with animal spirits, or volatile alchemical serums, shape-changing is a heavy gift. Some who use its powers with benevolence are honored, but many are treated with fear and revulsion - how can you trust a creature who's face can change on a whim?

Changing Form

Anything beyond the most minor cosmetic alterations requires one of the talents below. To assume a shape different from your own, you must have a token from the target - a tuft of hair, strip of skin, a feather, or a vial of blood.

Changing your form takes a minute and requires a successful Shape-changing test. Roll with disadvantage if you have not taken a rest since the last time you attempted to change your shape.

Returning to your original form also takes a minute. If you are brought Near Death, you return to your original form.

You may exert to reduce the time spent changing forms to 1 action.

If you succeed your test, your form changes. If you critically succeed, you may roll or choose one of the following benefits:

• You gain an additional aspect of your target animal (see Animal Aspect).
• You do not roll with disadvantage if you change your shape again before resting.
• You heal 1 Wound or D6 HP.

If you fail, you do not change your form (but still roll with disadvantage if you try again before resting). If you critically fail, roll on the Identity Crisis table.

Identity Crisis

You may not return to your original form or do any further shape changing until you take a night's rest, leaving you exhausted. In addition, roll on the table below.

1. You become permanently stuck in your current form.
2. You assume a new form at random from the forms you have available.
3. You are overcome with fury, desiring nothing more than to inflict your curse onto others. If provoked, test Wits or lash out violently until you have tasted blood.
4. Your transformation is horrific to look upon. Lose D6 Shine until you recover.
5. Your transformation is weak and withered. Lose D6 Grit until you recover.
6. Your mind is transformed along with your body - you think and act as an animal until you recover.

Talents

Shapechangers take on new aspects and forms by selecting the talents below.

Animal Aspect

Requirements: Shape-changing 1

You can imbue qualities of an animal that you possess a token from. Select one of the following benefits that you possess a token for. It lasts until you change your form again.

• Claws or fangs (D8 damage)
• Thick hide (2 armor)
• Gills (grants underwater breathing)
• Feathers (glide from heights, suffering no damage)
• Fur or scales (resistant to disease, cold, or poison)
• Hooves (+5 to speed)
• Venomous bite (D4 damage, mild poison)
• Horns (advantage on exert for topple, smash, sweep Gambits)

Critter Shape

Requirements: Shape-changing 3

You can turn into a creature no larger than a housecat that you possess a token from, such as a rat, skunk, crow, otter, or rattlesnake. Your mind is your own, but your stats become those of the creature you have chosen. Your equipment melds with your new form and is inert.

Facechanger

Requirements: Shape-changing 3

You can turn into another person as long as you possess a token of theirs. Your voice does not change but otherwise you are identical. Your clothing and equipment does not change.

Powerful Shape

Requirements: Shape-changing 3

You can turn into a powerful creature that you possess a token from, such as a bear, wolf, mountain lion, coyote, eagle, or shark. Your mind is your own, but your stats become those of the creature you have chosen. Your equipment melds with your new form and is inert.

Monstrous Shape

Requirements: Shape-changing 6

You can turn into a monster that you possess a token from. Your shape-changing skill must be equal to the monster's Difficulty (see xxx). Your mind is your own, but your stats become those of the creature you have chosen. Your equipment melds with your new form and is inert.

Alchemy

Scientific progress takes many forms in Kuyama - improvements in food processing and weapon designs, new ways to build boats, ships, and houses, and advancements in medicine. Some few learned apothecaries, madcap chymists, and experimental doctors take their scientific knowledge to a volatile extreme, combining rare and powerful materials to make potent potions, powders, and oils capable of altering mortal biology. Yet, the land resists being bottled. Every draft carries the risk of terrifying, mutagenic failure.

Requirements

To formulate alchemical concoctions, you must be trained in the Science skill, know the recipe for your desired effects, and have access to alchemical tools. Each concoction consumes one bundle of alchemical reagents and may be improved with prime reagents.

Learning Recipes

Alchemical recipes can be learned from teachers or purchased from the few Sovereign ports large enough to stock such things. It takes the appropriate talent, a day of study and coin to attempt to learn a new recipe. At the end of the day, test Science. On a success, you learn the recipe. On a failure, you do not learn the recipe and lose the materials. On a critical failure, your research is so catastrophic that you must find a new teacher - this one won't work for you.

Recipe costs

• Trifling - ((10 coins))
• Minor - ((50 coins))
• Major - ((250 coins))

Breakthroughs

Recipes can also be discovered through experimentation. During downtime or recovery, each day you may test Science and expend a bundle of alchemical reagents. On a critical success, you make a breakthrough and may learn a recipe of the highest tier you currently know. Roll with advantage if you had observed one or more side effects during the preceding week.

Creating Concoctions

It takes one hour and a bundle of alchemical reagents to create an alchemical concoction. In general, the resulting potion, oil, or powder is stable for a week before its volatility erodes.

When you create a concoction, select up to 3 effects you wish to include, then calculate the complexity.

• No complexity change for trifling effects
• +1 complexity for Minor effects.
• +2 complexity for Major effects.
• -1 complexity if you include the prime reagent for an effect.
• -1 complexity if you have created this exact formula before.

Note the difficulty as you add the concoction to your character sheet.

Volatility Roll

When the concoction is used or consumed, test your Science skill. Roll with advantage if you have created this exact formula before. On a critical success, the concoction has no side effect. On a success, the concoction works, but has a side effect equal to the lowest effect included. On a failure, the concoction does not work, and has a side effect equal to the highest effect included. On a critical failure, the concoction has a catastrophic side effect.

Side Effects

Trifling side-effects

1. It makes you itchy.
2. You have bad breath.
3. Unrestrained flatulence.
4. You get very cold.
5. You can't stop crying.
6. There's a loud ringing in your ears.

Minor side-effects

1. You vomit uncontrollably, suffering D3 damage and losing an action if you are in combat.
2. Your pupils dilate, making bright light painful. Suffer disadvantage to Wits tests while in sunlight for 10 minutes.
3. You get terrible tremors. Suffer disadvantage to Quick and Grit tests for 10 minutes.
4. You're burning up. You're exhausted unless you take off your armor.
5. You feel so stiff you can hardly move. Your speed is 2 for the next minute.
6. Your hands cramp. You drop everything that you're holding.

Major side-effects

1. Blood leaks from your eyes and nose. Take D12 damage.
2. Tiny mushrooms start growing from your skin. You're exhausted until they're cleared off (takes 10 minutes).
3. Your hair grows wildly, making it impossible to see or hear until it is all cut off (takes 10 minutes).
4. You collapse, unconscious. It takes 1 minute to roust you.
5. You see evil spirits everywhere. Each round for one minute test Grit. On a failure, you huddle in place, too scared to move.
6. You spew green fluid and enter a berzerk rage. Gain D6 Grit for the next minute, but you must do nothing but smash everything in sight for the duration.

Catastrophic side-effects

1. A third arm sprouts from your side. You lose D6 Shine permanently, but gain an additional at-hand item.
2. Sores open all over your body and weep purple fluid. You lose 1 Grit per day until you spend a day in recovery.
3. You grow hulking and cruel, gaining D4 Grit at the expense of D3 Wits and D3 Shine.
4. Gills open up along your neck. You can breathe underwater, but become exhausted if you are away from water for more than an hour.
5. Your eyes cloud over. You go blind, but develop an incredible sense of smell.
6. You explode in a ball of bloody flames, dying and dealing 2D10 damage to everyone around you.

Talents

Alchemical Dabbler

Requirements: Science 1

You can learn recipes for trifling and minor effects. Learn one of each.

Trained Alchemist

Requirements: Science 3

You can learn recipes for major effects. Learn a minor and a major effect.

Master Alchemist

Requirements: Science 6

Pick a minor and major effect. You may add them to concoctions as though you have included their prime reagent, even if you do not have it.

Effects

Trivial

Lightness

Prime reagent: A condor feather
Duration: 1 hour
You take half damage from falling.

Hardiness

Prime reagent: Heart of a shovelhorn
Duration: 1 hour
Gain an additional D4 HP.

Keen Eyes

Prime reagent: Eyes of a red-tailed hawk
Duration: 1 hour
You have advantage on tests to notice things at a distance.

Numbing

Prime reagent: Oil of Yerba Santa
Duration: 1 hour
You have advantage on critical injury rolls.

Grease

Prime reagent: Bear fat
Grants you resistance to entanglement.

Minor

Accelerated Healing

Prime reagent: Dried starfish
Duration: 1 hour
You recover your HP in 1 minute instead of the normal 15.

Strength

Prime reagent: Bear's heart
Duration: 1 hour
Grants advantage on the next UD4 Grit tests

Focus

Prime reagent: Tobacco
Duration: 1 hour
Grants advantage on the next UD4 Wits tests

Adrenaline

Prime reagent: Drop of rattlesnake venom
Duration: 1 hour
Grants advantage on Quick tests for initiative.

Disassociation

Prime reagent: Moonflower
Duration: 12 hours
Heightened connection to the Upper and Lower Worlds. Grants advantage on the next UD4 Spirit tests, but disadvantage on all Wits and Quick tests for the duration.

Spirit-sense

Prime reagent: White sage ash
Duration: 1 hour
Can see hidden spirits and ghosts. Seeing a ghost typically requires a test against fear.

Purging
Paralysis
Catalyst

Major

Carapace
Flight
Fire-blood
Allvision
Regeneration
Enlightenment
Contagion

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