POWER PROFILE: MAGIC POWERS Comic book magicians frequently invoke the names and Scrying uses various “windows” to view distant places, titles of mystic entities, calling upon them for power from a magic mirror or crystal to a pool of still water. and assistance with their spells. These magical-sounding names and incantations can add flavor to a Magic power Scrying: Remote Sensing (Visual, Auditory, Mental) • 4 points array (Hero’s Handbook, page 116). per rank. STANDARD SPELLS The following invocations and entreaties are fairly ad- vanced magic. Feel free to use the spells presented here There are some standard spells every novice in the mystic as-is or adapt them to your own M&M setting as desired, arts learns, simple enchantments and manifestations of perhaps using them as inspiration for your own. the magical power permeating the cosmos. The following should be in most magicians’ repertoires: ABBRIDON Mystic Bolt is a raw blast of arcane power, manifested as a glowing light and striking with considerable force. (Ah-brey-don) The Lantern of Heaven, Light of Righteousness Mystic Bolt: Ranged Damage (magic) • 2 points per rank. Abbridon is an angelic higher being associated with order and truth, called Mystic Passage allows the caster to step from one point upon for magic associated with reveal- in space to another as easily as crossing a room. It’s sister- ing the truth or banishing darkness spell, Mystic Portal, allows others to do so as well (adding and deception. He is often depicted the Portal modifier). as a beautiful androgynous figure in Mystic Passage: Teleport • 2 points per rank. flowing robes, with peacock feathered wings (the “eyes” being his symbol) and Mystic Shield protects the caster with an aura or a flat carrying a torch or lantern. Sometimes geometric shield of glowing magical force. addressed as “The Abbridon,” some mystics have suggested Abbridon may Mystic Shield: Protection, Sustained • 1 point per rank. be a multifaceted entity or collective class of higher angelic beings, perhaps even an office held by one of them. Ab- Levitation allows a magician to float through the air, or at bridon is also one of the three entities making up the mystic least hover while composed in meditation. trinity of the Modrossus, along with Heshem and Lamal. Levitation: Flight • 2 points per rank. Abjurations of Abbridon counteract darkness, bindings, and malevolent summoned creatures. POWER PROFILE: MAGIC POWERS 1 Abjurations of Abbridon: Nullify Binding, Darkness, and Evil Ahgrazul’s Compass: Remote Sensing (Visual), Simultaneous, Summon effects, Simultaneous • 2 points per rank. Limited to Extended Searches (see Search, Hero’s Handbook, page 70) • 2 points per rank. Aegis of Abbridon calls forth a magical shield to protect the caster. The Aegis is one of the most commonly Airts of Ahgrazul guide travelers on the winding coils wielded defensive spells; even a novice mystic knows how between worlds. to conjure one. Airts of Ahgrazul: Movement 2 (Dimension Travel 2, Mystic Dimensions) • 4 points +1 point per rank of Increased Mass. Aegis of Abbridon: Impervious Protection, Sustained • 2 points per rank. Auspicious Augury of Ahgrazul is a potent ritual involv- ing omens of the future. It offers an effect similar to an All-Revealing Light of Abbridon banishes all conceal- enhanced Second Chance: after the spell is cast (taking ing, obscuring, or illusory effects. a full-round action), the magician can thereafter spend a hero point to “undo” a single event, treating that event as All-Revealing Light of Abbridon: Burst Area Nullify a precognitive warning or vision rather than something Concealing or Illusory Effects, Simultaneous, Close Range • 2 points per rank. that “actually” happened. Auspicious Augury of Ahgrazul: Enhanced Advantage 1 All-Seeing Eyes of Abbridon creates mystic “sensors” for (Second Chance), Senses 4 (Precognition, Limited to Second the caster to scry. Chance) • 3 points. All-Seening Eyes of Abbridon: Remote Sensing (Visual, Auditory, Mental) • 4 points per rank. BAL’HEMOTH Illumination of Abbridon is a simple spell for creating (bal-HAY-moth) The Binder, Lord of Chains light as bright as normal daylight, although such light can also affect creatures specifically vulnerable to it. The sinister Bal’Hemoth was worshipped in ancient Illumination of Abbridon: Environment (Bright Light), Feature 1 Lemuria as the iron-fisted (equal to daylight) • 1 point + 2 points per rank. master of order and enslave- ment. He taught dominance AHGRAZUL and the power of the strong over the weak, although (ah-GRAH-zool) Archmage of Atlantis, The Explorer Bal’Hemoth’s ways were over- thrown through generations Ahgrazul was a mighty arch- of slave rebellions against mage in ancient Atlantis, best the Serpent People of Lemuria and their inheritors. known as a seer and diviner. He first explored the Cosmic Baleful Bindings of Bal’Hemoth are dark metallic chains Coil and blazed paths for the that appear around the target of the spell. The Bindings mystics who would follow him. are able to trap astral forms and spirits as well. Legend says Ahgrazul foretold Baleful Bindings of Bal’Hemoth: Ranged Affliction Atlantis’s fall, but he departed (Resisted by Dodge, Overcome by Will; Hindered and for worlds beyond before the Vulnerable, Defenseless and Immobilized), Affects island-continent sank beneath Insubstantial 2, Extra Condition, Limited Degree • 2 points the waves. + 2 points per rank. Ahgrazul’s Compass is a pathfinding spell, able to guide Beast of Bal’Hemoth summons a demon warrior (M&M the caster to a desired destination. Gamemaster’s Guide, page 137) or a monstrous spider (giant POWER STUNTS AND IMPROVISED SPELLS An additional use for the various spells described in this profile is as a catalog of magical power stunts. Although each character has a set of “rote” or “mastered” spells—established Alternate Effects of a Magic array—any magician can attempt to improvise an entreaty to any of the various arcane powers. Indeed, many of the spells used by comic book ma- gicians are one-time things: if they require preparation and ceremony, they’re rituals (Magical Rituals, Hero’s Handbook, page 160), but if they’re done on the spur of the moment, then they’re best considered Magic power stunts. In keeping with the theme of magic carrying a price, the GM may, from time to time, choose to waive the fatigue caused by the extra effort of an improvised spell, instead imposing a future complication from calling upon that particular entity (for which the magician will not gain a hero point, since it was effectively “cashed in” for the spell itself). Likewise, the GM can use entreaties and characters’ relationships with the various Powers of Magic as a source of future complications in the game, as magicians encounter omens, unusual “luck,” and the like. 2 POWER PROFILE: MAGIC POWERS POWER PROFILE: MAGIC POWERS insect, M&M Gamemaster’s Guide, 140) to do the magician’s Storm of Ghorummaz: Ranged Damage (lightning), Indirect 2 • bidding. 2 points +2 points per rank. Beast of Bal’Hemoth: Summon Minion 5 • 10 points. Thunderous Tread of Ghorummaz creates a localized earthquake around where the magician stomps the Bidding of Bal’Hemoth ensnares the victim’s will as ground. surely as the Baleful Bindings ensnare the body. Thunderous Tread: Burst Area Affliction (Resisted and Bidding of Bal’Hemoth: Perception Ranged Cumulative Overcome by Fortitude; Vulnerable, Defenseless), Instant Affliction (Resisted and Overcome by Will; Entranced, Recover, Limited Degree, Limited: caster and target much Compelled, Controlled) • 4 points per rank. touch the ground • 1 point per rank. Bitter Lash of Bal’Hemoth creates a crackling whip of dark energy in the caster’s grasp. Its touch inflicts no HESHEM physical harm, but rather it fills the target with a terrible feeling of hopelessness and indecision. (heh-SHEM) She Who Is Three, The Hooded One, Triformus Heshem is the dark goddess of the Bitter Lash: Cumulative Affliction (Resisted and Overcome by Will; Dazed, Stunned, Paralyzed), Reach 2 • 2 points +2 points between places, usually an ancient crone, per rank. robed and hooded, bearing a staff or cane and a glowing lantern (often suspended at the end of her crooked staff). Cats are as- GHORUMMAZ sociated with her for their night vision and glowing eyes. Although stern and fierce, (go-ROO-maz) The Dragon Within the Earth, she can be a power for good, bringing light Lord of Storms, The Earth-Binder into the darkness. Heshem is one of the Ghorummaz is a primal, elemental Three Powers of the Modrossus. force, often depicted as a serpen- Hand of Heshem (sometimes known tine dragon of stone and fire, spitting as Heshem’s Shadowy Hand) creates a molten magma. It is strongly connect- shadowy ectoplasmic extension to the magician’s grasp. ed with “dragon lines” of force within the Earth and with the elements. Gho- Hand of Heshem: Move Object • 2 points per rank. rummaz is Lord of Earthquakes and Storms, and a binder of what is un- Heshem’s Holy Hearth summons a golden light or an natural. actual mystic flame whose light wards off creatures of evil Ghorummaz’s Dictum is a powerful and darkness. abjuration of the unnatural that hedges out unnatural creatures (including those from other planes) in a 30-foot Holy Hearth: Burst Area Progressive Affliction (Resisted and Overcome by Will; Entranced, Compelled, Controlled), Limited radius around the caster. to Evil Creatures, Limited to Holding at Bay • 2 points per rank. Ghorummaz’s Dictum: Burst Area Progressive Affliction (Entranced, Compelled), Limited Degree, Limited to Unnatural Heshem’s Way conjures a dark mist that acts as a gateway Creatures, Limited to Holding at Bay • 1 point per rank. into the astral plane or dream dimension. It’s traditionally cast as a crossroads, but it can actually be used anywhere.