Brass Grimoire

Cogs - Summon [sum] gears, arranged in any way you choose so long as they are interlocking. Gears can be up to [dice] feet across and can be connected by a total of [dice]+1 shafts or pins. Attaching a gear to something producing rotational force turns the whole arrangement. 

Machine Pieces - Summon [sum] pieces of broken machinery, each [dice] slots big, anywhere you can see within 60’. It is believed this spell once summoned functional machines. 

Aerodyne - Summon a strange winged device with [sum] inventory slots and [dice] seats. It is constructed from brass, canvas and balsa wood. If provided a 100ft piece of flat ground, it can run up and take flight, unless overloaded - it requires the same for landing. The Aerodyne moves at about 80mph and handles strong winds poorly. Nobody alive remembers how to repair or even dismantle the complex clockwork engines of these devices. If you break three Aerodynes, this spell no longer functions - apparently, you are put on the blacklist of whoever is sending them out. 

Machine Gremlins - Conjure [sum] tiny mechanical assholes that run around messing with machinery, ripping paper, farting little clouds of coal dust and insulting people in the language which they think in. They have 1HP and, if killed, explode in a cloud of shrapnel for 1d6 damage to the surroundings, save to negate. 

Coronation Decision Machine - Summon a towering machine with a brass keyboard and a “screen” made of engraved overlapping wheels. The machine picks the better of two candidates for rule based on [dice] qualifiers you plug into the machine, such as “ability to deal with the giant spider infestation” or “projected ≤3 heirs” or “highest fighter level”. This can also be used to pick the better of two candidates for anything, if a qualifier is set as, for example, “best qualified to run a bakery”.

Maintenance Mode - For [sum]*10 minutes you are invisible to mechanical devices and creatures. Your skin takes on a pearly blue sheen. Traps you trigger don’t fire, and constructs can’t perceive you.

Call the Clockmaker - With a metallic clang and a cloud of red smoke, you conjure up a 20HD construct made of gleaming brass and silvery gears. It resembles a giant brass man with a fanciful moustache and leetle round spectacles. It has 30 Strength or your system’s equivalent, and has 18AC. It is a supernaturally skilled mechanic and much lighter and more agile than it looks. However, it only ever fights in self defence. It rolls reaction with a [dice] bonus. If it rolls a “hostile” result (2-4), it charges off to start fixing the locality. Otherwise, it will listen to your requests - if the reaction roll was 10 or higher, it’ll even consider fulfilling them for free. 

Imperial Candles - You conjure [dice + highest] sticks of black dynamite, capped with little mechanical devices you can use to light the dynamite’s fuse with a thought. You can set the delay between activation and detonation for up to [sum] rounds. Dynamite does 1d6 damage per stick, with +6 damage per stick if used in an enclosed space (such as a dungeon room). 

Summon Rust Monsters - Summon [sum] 1HD rust monsters. They are each silly little guys who can each consume up to a cubic metre of metal before dozing off with a full stomach. If [sum] is 20 or over, you can choose instead to summon a single rust dragon, the extremely rare imago form of the common dungeon pest. It has 20HD, flies with a horrifying buzz, and can eat however much metal it

feels like. It breathes acid, hence “dragon” - and has a stinger-tail. It’s also sapient, hungry and cunning. 

Antifire Sludge - Summon [sum] cubic feet of a grey-brown, freezing-cold and totally non-flammable sludge that slowly slithers towards active fires and smothers them out. The sludge smells terrible. The cubic feet can be anywhere in your line of sight and need not be contiguous. The sludge dries to a brittle mass that cracks into brown carcinogenic powder. 

Disassemble - Target object is disassembled into its constituent parts, or into [dice]+2 pieces if its constituents are not clearly distinct. If it is intended to be disassemblable, it reassembles after [sum] minutes. Otherwise, it is broken. 

Water to Oil - Turn [sum] litres of water into clear, flammable mineral oil. 

Dead Man’s Switch - Summon a device which will send a magical, electrical or mechanical signal if you die. The spell is active for [sum] days, then the Switch vanishes without sending the signal. It can detect your death at any distance on any plane of existence. 

Windmills - With a 10 minute ritual, summon a clockwork windmill on a marked spot. It’s 10ft around the base, 20ft tall, and anchors into any solid surface. A windmill converts the force of the wind into mechanical force. Comes with a wide variety of gears to interface with a wide variety of machines. Windmills are permanent once summoned, though a given caster can only support up to [level] windmills at once. If trying to go over the limit, the oldest windmill rusts and collapses overnight. 

Brass Cross Sword - Summon an impressive +[dice] magical heavy greatsword, with a gigantic metallic crossguard. The sword is covered in moving gears of no apparent purpose, which would allow it to interface with a larger machine. 

Fraction of the Heavenly Spear - Summon [dice] sixths of the sky-scraper-height flying weapon once called the Heavenly Spear. The sixths float overhead, disobeying gravity and surrounded by a magnetic storm cloud. This spell used to summon the whole thing, but someone broke it. You’d need a very good mechanic and 100,000g worth of components to repair it. If you did, you would have access to an electrical flying fortress with an on-board lighting cannon WMD - then all that would be left is figuring out how to fire it.  

Grimoire, and Custom Fireballs

Bandwagon! 

Bandwagon!

1. Visitor - Summon a ghostly entity. It resembles a human shape made of black fog. It has [sum]HP and can only be harmed by lightning. It has three physical hands which can be destroyed by weapons or fire, that have the same strength as your arms. It can fly at 300mph, enter any space smoke can, cannot enter water, and can scream.
   
   
2. Smoke Reading - Smelling smoke, answer [dice] questions about the thing being burned to produce it.
   
   
3. Dream Lotus - You create a multicoloured lotus containing [dice]+1 doses. Anyone who consumes a dose will have powerful, vivid dreams containing up to [sum] elements of your choice.
   
   
4. Joint - Add [dice] single-axis joints to metal, wooden or stone object you can touch.
   
   
5. Cup of Theophany - With a golden cup worth at least a thousand gold, perform an hour-long ritual to conjure a dose of mirror-shell liquid theophany. The manifestations of a god of your choice occur as soon as you drink it.
   
   
6. Creation Machine - With an hour’s ritual, summon a 20’ tall mechanical device, mostly made of living parts resembling complicated vegetable matter. It can produce up to [dice] tons of cheap copper crafts, and nothing else, because it’s broken. There’s only one. It breathes.
   
   
7. Scyphozoa - You are enshrouded in the tentacles of a great spiritual jellyfish. It exists above your head for [sum] rounds. You can make attacks at +[dice] to sting others, dealing 1d8/1d10/1d12/2d6 damage and forcing a save vs. mental paralysis. You can control the bodies of mentally paralysed creatures as long as the Scyphozoa’s tentacles remain in contact with them. Creatures attempting to physically approach you must also save against damage and mental paralysis, as they walk through the Scyphozoa’s tentacles. The Scyphozoa can also touch ghosts.
   
   
8. Witchwords - Choose [sum] words. Target is unable to speak them or sentences containing them, until they fulfil a condition set by you, or [dice] years pass.
   
   
9. Summon the Green Grimoire - In a puff of marijuana and a crack of white light, you summon a green-covered grimoire once owned by an ancient sage. It has [sum] points. You can spend a point to identify a herb, summon a dose of a herb you have previously identified with the grimoire, turn a dose of herb into a tincture instantly, turn a dose of herb into a decoction instantly, or spend 10 points to create fucked up hybrid fusion herbs from two living herbs you can see.
   
   
10. Combat Origami - Target creature you can strike with some force is folded along up to [sum] creases. Unwilling creatures may save. If folded into a creature with an ability inherent to its form, the creature can use it - origami fish can swim, origami birds can fly, origami hippos can go absolutely feral on a motherfucker. Origami creatures take [dice] extra damage from weapons and max+[dice] damage from fire.

MORE HOTROD FIREBALLS

Here’s a little minigame for regular readers of the blog: can you guess which settings these are all from?

This minigame is explicitly unfair for a number of reasons, but I’ll give you hints:

• No repeats.
• Two of them are from someone else’s setting.
• One of them is really, really obscure

First person to get 9 out of 10 gets to pick my next post.


1 Mirembe’s Fireball
R: Theoretically Infinite T: A point visible to the caster. D: Instant.
A thin beam of light connects the caster’s hand and the target point, bending up to [dice] times at an obtuse or reflex angle. A catastrophic explosion occurs at the target point, consuming everything within 30’ in glittery purple fire that deals [sum]+[dice]+[dice] damage, save for half - multiplanar creatures may not save. The explosion stops dead at 30’ due to spatial warping.


2 Kemuel’s Fireball
R: 120’ T: A Point of Choice. D: [sum] minutes.
A snake-shaped bolt of searing orange fire spits from the caster’s hand to the target point and coils there, forming a shape like an eagle with its wings drawn in, roughly a sphere 10’ across. Anything flammable that passes through the sphere is rendered into ash over the course of seconds. At any time during the duration, the caster can command the sphere to explode for [sum + dice] damage to everyone within 100’, save for half.


3 Aifric’s Fireball
R: 50’ T: A Living Creature D: Instant
A thin line of red light lances from the caster’s outstretched finger into the stomach of a target creature. Target creature of [dice] or less HD must save or painfully explode in a spray of hot bone, guts and burning gas, killing them and dealing [sum] damage to creatures within ~15’. Creatures with non-flesh biology are immune.


4 Cadwgan’s Fireball
R: 50’ T: Any visible point. D: [sum] hours.
A will-o-wisp, sickly green and giving off [sum]*500 lumens, appears in the target point with a faint clicking sound. It follows the caster as closely as they desire, silent but bright. At any time during the duration, the caster may choose to have the fireball fly to any point within 100’ and explode into a 100’ tall, 10’ wide cylindrical pillar of green fire, dealing [sum] damage and obliterating all wood it contacts instantly.


5 Skåll’s Fireball
R: Infinite until Stopped T: Any point along a straight line from the caster. D: [sum] years.
A ball of fire shaped like a flaming skull with a pair of reaching hands launches from the caster’s outstretched hand with a meaty whump and goes shrieking off at 100’ per round. It will fly until it is stopped by something stronger than a pane of glass, or until the duration passes, upon which it explodes into a 100' radius cloud of dull-red flame laced with negative energy. The flames resemble dancing skeletons. This deals [sum]+[dice] damage to all non-undead creatures, no save.


6 Arundel’s Fireball
R: 1000’ in England, 50’ elsewhere.. T: Any 1000 cubic feet of air. D: Instant.
A red sphere forms in the caster’s hand, then vanishes with a loud cracking noise. The targeted air is instantly filled with white fire that deals [sum + dice] damage, save for half, and ignites without a save. The fireball does double damage to witches, Frenchmen, freemasons, demons and the Irish.


7 Venoch’s Fireball
R: 1 Mile T: An area the caster has personally been to. D: [dice] days.
A flaming sphere leaps upwards from the top of the caster’s head and rises into the sky, slamming down [sum] rounds later onto the targeted area. It splashes into a 50’ radius sphere of fire and smoke, igniting everything in the area and producing a huge cloud of choking smoke. The fire spreads as normal, but cannot be extinguished by any means except divine intervention until the end of the duration.


8 Senator Cardvire’s Fireball
R: 300’ T: A point visible to the caster. D: Instant.
A bead of green light flies from the caster’s outstretched hand and slowly rolls to the target point, expanding as it goes and igniting everything in a widening cone between caster and target. Upon reaching the target point, it explodes with a low whump, spraying the surroundings with sticky green fire that burns for [sum] rounds even if immersed in water. Only sand or foam can extinguish the flames.


9 Myrsen’s Fireball
R: 50 Paces. T: A point on the ground visible to the caster. D: Instant.
A streak of yellow light corkscrews from the fingertip of the caster and buries into the target point like a glowing worm. A second later, it explodes. Everyone nearby to the targeted point takes [sum + dice] damage, no save, and the ground is torn up in a massive upheaval, toppling walls, hurling automobiles and shattering ankles. The blast punches a hole into the Fog - the crater rapidly fills with it, serving as a crude gateway beyond. It may allow Foglings to enter the world.


10 Burning Crown Detonation
His personal name is Jajador, which he howls when invoked.

He resembles an immense, muscular man with orange-red skin and thick thighs, who wears nothing but an extravagantly patterned cloth-of-gold loin-cloth. His face is a set of tall golden teeth, which he gnashes and bites with often. His tongue is large, blackened, and covered in glowing cracks. He has shiny gold fingernails. The top of his hollow head burns with a painfully bright golden flame. He is howling, maniacal, and destructive.

Detonation makes things explode, quite simply. Choose [dice] objects in your line of sight – they violently detonate, dealing [sum + dice] damage to everything and everyone near them, save for half.

Detonation likes it if you do something flashy like snapping your fingers or shouting his name when you invoke him.