Spells

By calling upon the air kami to whisper suggestions to others, you may cause them to perceive the target of this spell more positively than they otherwise might. The target of this spell gains a bonus of +1k1, plus your Air Ring, to the total of all Social Skill rolls made for the duration of the spell.

While the Crane would go without an organized shugenja family or order until the Asahina would be founded centuries after the clan’s founding, a few of Doji’s followers had a talent for speaking with the kami. They focused on the arts of peace and meditation, and this spell was one of their first attempts to bring the harmony of the Elements to a samurai. While this spell is active, all rolls based on Void and Awareness gain a +1k0 bonus when made within the area of effect, and all hostile actions suffer a -1k0 penalty. Hostile actions based on Awareness (such as threatening someone with Intimidation) suffer a -2k0 penalty instead of the previous, self-negating, effects. The caster of this spell may use the Meditation Skill without breaking the concentration required to maintain it.

The winds can lift and buoy, carrying even the heaviest burden into the skies for short periods. The target of this spell gains a limited form of flight, allowing him to move through the air unimpeded. The target of the spell may make Free Move Actions, but not Simple Move Actions, and never move more than 10' per round. Heavy winds can interfere with this movement or prevent it altogether. At the end of the spell's duration, the target drifts harmlessly to the ground, no matter how high he might be.

Understanding the ways of the Air reveals the indistinct line that exists between language and cipher. A shugenja can cause a piece of writing to be placed under an elemental cipher, enticing the kami to play a small game with those who read the text. The block of text becomes completely unintelligible unless read by the original author or the intended recipient, whose name is whispered as the spell is cast. Normally, an Elemental Cipher is not breakable by traditional decrypting and the kami will only reveal the true text to the intended recipient. However, other shugenja can decipher the kami's game and read the text by making a Spellcraft / Intelligence roll with a TN equal to the total of the original spell-casting roll.

This spell was originally devised by the Shiba Illusionists, and is one of their few significant contributions to the ways of magic in Rokugan. In keeping with the traditions of the Shiba Illusionists, this spell is intended primarily for entertainment, but it can sometimes have more practical applications (such as helping a courier describe his experiences to his lore).

The spell invokes the Air kami to "illustate" a story being recounted by another individual (designated by the caster). The spirits will supply a visual and auditory illusion to accompany the story, drawing the sounds and images from the mind of the storyteller. The resulting blend of story, sound, and imagery can be quite compelling, and Kakita storytellers have been known to seek out masters of this spell to assist their art.

A cleansing ritual used by shugenja when preparing a house or other building for an important even such as a wedding or a festival. The spell entreats the Air kami to raise a soft but carefully controlled wind which sweeps all the dirt, insects, and other filth out of the building. The spell also has a spiritually purifying effect, making evil or malignant spirits reluctant to remain within the dwelling - any kansen, ghosts, or other hostile disembodied spirits within the building will leave for a number of hours equal to the caster's Air. (Evil spirits which are exceptionally strong or which have an extremely strong attachment to the building cannot be banished by this basic spell, however - it is the GM's discretion whether a spirit is strong enough to resist Freedom of the Air.)

The spell was originally devised by the Seppun shugenja, but due to its great usefulness it later spread across the Empire. The Seppun Shugenja School technique may be applied to this spell.

An early attempt to use the magic of Air to gain advantage against the unwary, the Soshi family devised this spell to delay those who had stumbled upon their Clan’s machinations, or to cover their tracks. Once this spell is cast, the next thing the victim sees that seems unusual or out of the ordinary instead appears completely normal to them. This does not change the victim’s reaction, it simply clouds their perceptions such that they believe they are seeing something they expect to see, or at least something not unusual at all. A guard under the influence of this spell, for example, might walk through his regular patrol and see an undisturbed room rather than the ransacked mess a thief had left behind.

This spell only affects vision, so the victim is allowed an Investigation roll against a TN of the caster’s Air x 5 if there are subtle clues betraying the illusion (such as stepping on a bit of spilled sake). Any major clues (such as screaming coming from the changed scene or tripping over an object covered by the illusion) ends the effect immediately.

Air kami are mischievous and capricious, and enjoy anything they perceive as a joke. You may call upon them to create a subtle illusion, altering your facial features just enough that you appear to be a different person. This spell does not allow you to impersonate specific individuals, or even people radically different from you. You appear as a person of the same age, build, race, and gender. The differences are subtle, enough so that you could be mistaken for your own brother or cousin.

With greater fluency with the kami comes the ability to craft increasingly convincing images from the stuff of the wind itself. You may create illusions of any object, individual, or image that you can imagine. These images are stationary, and they must fit within the spell's area of effect, but they can be as simple or complex as desired. These illusions are visual only, with no auditory component, no odors, etc.

Security in communication is of paramount importance in many situations, and shugenja often find themselves in situations where a conversation is intended to be completely private, or when they cannot allow themselves to be interrupted by extraneous sounds. By placating the spirits of the Air, a shugenja can convince them to create a barrier against sounds, a bubble of silence through which sound will not pass. The spherical sound-barrier is normally centered around the caster, although with greater effort it can also be centered on a physical object up to fifty feet way. Once this spell is cast, the kami will not allow any sound to enter or leave this bubble, creating absolute privacy for anyone inside of the space. Once created, the bubble of silence will not move, even if the caster for the target object relocates.

Characters on one side of a Quiescence of Air spell's barrier gain two Free Raises on Stealth Rolls made against characters on the other side.

Ninube shugenja may cast Quiescence of Air as a Nothing Spell.

A specialized variation of Nature's Touch, this spell is a prayer to the Fortunes that is carried by air kami to the ears of a random bird within the spell's range. (If no bird is available, the spell as no effect.) The bird flies down and lands on the caster's hand, and the caster may instruct it to perform a simple task (such as carrying a message or distracting an enemy) for the duration of the spell. With a successful Animal Handling / Awareness roll at TN 20, the caster may persuade the bird to perform a more complex task, such as searching the area for potential enemies and reporting back. This sort of task is subject to the GM's judgement, since if the task is too complex the bird will not be able to comprehend it.

In either case, the bird will not take suicidal actions (such as flying into a fire) and will immediately break off and flee if it is injured.

The kami can carry whispers across an Empire, if properly entreated to do so. This spell requires you to perform a preparation ritual in order to cast it effectively. The ritual requires ten minutes of uninterrupted meditation in the area designated as the spell's area of effect. Any time within the 48 hours immediately following this ritual, you may cast this spell, and overhear anything being said in the prepared area. If your concentration is disrupted, the effect ends and may not be renewed without an additional preparation ritual. Only one area may be prepared via this ritual at one time.

The kami of the wind can carry whispers for great distances, and can even create them if properly entreated. You can petition the kami to create a false sound, either a voice or a natural sound such as an animal's growl or running water, for example. The sound can be no louder than a normal speaking voice, and cannot impersonate a specific person's voice. If used to create the sound of a voice, the spell is limited to twenty words.

The air kami see very little difference between speech and thought, and can perceive both with relative ease. By comparing the two, the kami can determine if what has been spoken is true or a lie. Unfortunately, they have notoriously short attention spans, and thus can only assess extremely recent conversations. By invoking this spell, you may determine if the last thing said by the target was true or false. The kami have no concept of personal opinion, however, and if the target truly believes what he said was true, the kami will believe it as well.

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This spell causes the Air kami to subtly insinuate themselves into the target's body, urging him toward weariness and sleep. A target who is physically and mentally inactive (such as a guard standing post at night, or a samurai meditating in his dojo) will automatically fall asleep when targeted by this spell. (The target will awaken normally if he is touched or hears a loud noise, but otherwise sleeps until the spell's duration expires.) If the target is physically or mentally active, the spell will not put him to sleep, but he will suffer the effects of being Fatigued for the duration of the spell. (If the target is already Fatigued, his Fatigue penalties increases as though he had gone another day without rest.)

This spell, crafted to facilitate initial relations between groups, is easily twisted to nefarious purposes. It calls the kami to create a subtle aura of suggestion around the caster, one that does not disguise the caster but rather causes others to perceive him as slightly more benevolent than perhaps he truly is. For the duration of the spell, your Honor Rank is considered 3 ranks higher for the purposes of any Lore: Bushido rolls made to determine your Honor Rank.