Earth Study

"Endurance is strength. Stillness is power."
“Fire flickers. Air forgets. Water flows. Only stone remembers.”
From a fragment of the lost treatise De Profunda Silentia, attributed to Mael Conor, Stonewright of the First Circle.

Hermetic earthwork is not just the magic of stone, soil, and stability. It is the discipline of the deep mind, the magic of structures, burdens, and unyielding. It is said that before there were spells, there were foundations, and before there were words, there were marks carved in rock.

This branch of the Art descends from a pre-Roman, pre-Celtic proto-Hermetic order, one not of druids something rumoured to be earlier, something of Stonewrights and Earthspeakers who carved their wisdom into dolmens, barrows, and standing stones. These were not simple animists. They were geomancers of authority, builders of fate, and keepers of memory etched in granite.

Originally passed on only by word of mouth the first time it was carved down was on the spiral runed Germanic Rhyolith Table (missing 1,000 years). The Scál grán Éremón is the tomb of choice or its 14 Century transcription The Dolman Accord. These are never seen on the open market and have been carefully handed down through ancestral lines for generations. Now in the modern era the adulterated teachings have become so much easier no longer a lifetimes work to master the basic principles but a few years instead.

1. Stone’s Touch

• Difficulty: 1
• Q Cost: 1
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Ritual: Press both palms against bare earth or stone while breathing a steady 4-count.
• Effect: Transforms a small object (stone or metal) to become solid and immovable for 1 initiative per success . Cannot be picked up, pulled, or pushed without tools or magic.
• Unique Use: Stop doors from opening, secure objects in place, bar paths.

2. Claybind

• Difficulty: 2
• Q Cost: 2
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Ritual: Wet a lump of clay, mark it with a sigil, and throw it toward your target.
• Effect: Ranged attack (Earth Study + Athletics) if a hit is managed the clay coats a creature’s feet in thick magical clay. Movement is halved for 2 initiatives. Dexterity test to resist vs Casting successes.
• Unique Use: Battlefield control, pursuit slowing.

3. Earthen Grasp

• Difficulty: 2
• Q Cost: 2
• Casting Time: 2 actions
• Ritual: Draw a spiral in the dirt while repeating the your name, then snap fingers to “call the grasp.”
• Effect: A hand of soil or stone rises from the ground.
  • This can be used to grapple a creature within 10yards. The grapple is counted as having a (Str+ Fisticuffs) dice pool of gross Successes.
  • The hand is static and can be used for other actions for two full initiatives as if it was your own. You must have line of sight to the location. The hand gives you a rough sense of touch. It has the same reach as your arm.
• Unique Use: Grapple, disrupt, or a remote control arm.

4. Skin of Stone

• Difficulty: 3
• Q Cost: 3
• Casting Time: 1 minute
• Ritual: Paint sigils across your limbs using ochre or charcoal.
• Effect: You gain a basic armour rating of 6 to physical damage for 5 minutes. Your movement speed is halved. This is added to any other armour worn.

5. Rune of Locking

• Difficulty: 3
• Q Cost: 3
• Casting Time: 5 minutes
• Ritual: Etch a locking rune into stone, metal, or doorframe using a ritual chisel or stylus.
• Effect: Locks an object magically. Can only be opened by magic or the caster’s voice giving the decided command. A lock cannot be picked, the door will not open. The armour value of the item is multiplied by net successes.
• Unique Use: Arcane vaults, tomb-sealing, top notch security.

6. Tremor Pulse

• Difficulty: 4
• Q Cost: 4
• Casting Time: 1 action
• Ritual: Slam a stone rod into the ground and shout the “Crack-Syllable.”
• Effect: Creates a shockwave in a 5-30 yard radius (casters choice). All standing creatures make an Dexterity test or fall prone and take 1 bashing damage per net success.
• This can be used to crack stone/ foundations or break objects. Anything hand held is automatically broken on being slammed by the stone rod. Anything larger is cracked rather than destroyed.
• Can be used to disturb the soft ground to hide footprints or the like.
• Unique Use: Crowd control, break formations, or create panic.

7. Sense the Bones of the Earth

• Difficulty: 3
• Q Cost: 3
• Casting Time: 2 actions
• Ritual: Place bare hand to the ground and close your eyes, breathing slowly.
• Effect: Detects hollows, tunnels or buried structures or treasure anything out of place under the earth in a 30 yard radius.
• Notes: Grave hunting or just finding the new underground railway.

8. Shaping Hand

• Difficulty: 4
• Q Cost: 5
• Casting Time: 1 minute
• Ritual: Mold a handful of soil while chanting the shaping litany.
• Effect: Reshapes up to a 3 yard per success cube of stone, earth, or clay. Can form walls, stairs, doors, or collapse tunnels. Permanent change.
• Unique Use: Tactical terrain control, sabotage, quick repairs.

9. Weigh Down the Soul

• Difficulty: 5
• Q Cost: 6
• Casting Time: 3 actions
• Ritual: Burn black salt and shale on a person’s footprint while chanting the Binding of Burdens.
• Effect: Target within 30 yards feels the gravity of earth intensify. They suffer –2 to initiative and Dexterity, movement is halved and they cannot jump, fly, or climb for 1 minute.
• Unique Use: Grounding spell. Stops a Pixie escaping.

10. Colossus Form

• Difficulty: 5
• Q Cost: 6
• Casting Time: 1 minute
• Ritual: Stand in a chalk circle surrounded by granite chunks. Inhale powdered marble. Speak the Names of Weight.
• Effect: For 20 minutes:
  • Your body becomes massive and dense.
  • +2 Strength
  • Armour 8 to physical damage
  • Cannot be moved, pushed, or knocked prone
  • Stomping with feet as part of move action deals 3 bashing damage to adjacent enemies max one action per initiative. Ignores armour.
• Unique Use: Battlefield anchor, crowd-clearer, ultimate defence.