Below is the beginnings of an attempt to convert my D&D home setting into the GLoG, which has become my recent obsession;
Few places inspire as much mixed feelings as Gnostastra in the mind of the public. On one hand, it is the isle’s greatest institution of higher education, a beacon of progress and enlightenment, where even the common man, be they clever and studious, can become a peer of the realm. On the other, it is a den of madness and a pathway to knowledge that, perhaps, ought best be forbidden.
When night falls and people look out over the inland sea, most are glad that the university is safely separated from the mainland, especially when the towertops flicker with multi-hued coronal fire and hideous shrieks echo out over the water. This reputation is not enhanced by the fact that Gnostastra’s history was originally as a bedlam, a place to dump the multitudes struck with madness where they could do no harm.
This changed when the astromancer Heironymus Stodtt successfully divined that a mind that has been stripped of sanity could potentially lay bare the truths of the universe that the human mind’s perceptual filters protected it from - and that furthermore these truths could, once properly transcribed, be used by more rational minds to grasp the levers of reality itself.
He established his research facility right next to the island asylum, so as to have easy access to a large supply of lunatics, and as his research bore fruit and attracted more and more scholars so too did the facility expand, eventually consuming the asylum whole and expanding its purpose from pure research to education, becoming the University as it is today.
The tall towers and wide rooftops of the university still bear many telescopes, a mark of its founding in astromancy, but today much of its work is done in the cells far closer to the ground, where the new science of alienism - literally the study of the disconnect or “alienation” between body and mind believed to be at the root of insanity - is the hot topic of discussion.
Tradition: Astromancer Wizard
Starting Equipment: A telescope, a well-thumbed almanac, a penknife, upper-middle class conceit.
Perk: You may add +1MD to a spell when targeting someone whose birthday you know, down to the hour. This MD does not return to your pool or risk triggering Mishaps or Dooms. You can learn spells from observing unique astrological events. You get invited to a lot of black-tie parties.
Drawback: Your Magic Dice only come back at night, under an unrestricted view of the sky. You still have to sleep to regain them or roll to save as normal, but they don't come back until you have seen the first star of the evening. Most astromancers are night-owls.
Cantrips
- Touch a surface with your fingertip to leave behind a tiny glowing speck, touching twice or more will leave hair-thin connecting lines. Not particularly bright but oddly visible for miles away at night. Lasts until scrubbed off.
- Make conductor-like gestures to summon a beautiful but oddly unnerving music from any point you can see for as long as you continue to stand and gesture.
- See through clouds and fog as if it was transparent, only works on water vapor.
Astromancer Mishaps D6
- MD only return on a 1-2 for the day.
- Take 1d6 damage.
- Random mutation for 1d6 rounds, then Save. Permanent on a fail.
- Blind for 1d6 rounds.
- Save vs Fear or flee when in sight of the sky for 24hrs.
- Reroll the next 1d6 successful saves.
Astromancer Dooms
- You are rendered blind and deaf for 24hrs, unable to perceive anything beyond a baffling melange of conflicting visions about distant times and places. All of the things you see during this time are real, but most will be things you will never interact with in the course of your life.
- Your range of critical failure becomes 18-20
- You are hurled through time and space to a random but always thoroughly inhospitable place; the world during its Hadean phase, the irradiated wastelands of the far future, an alien Deathworld, etc.
Astromancer Wizard Spell List
Astromancy is mostly limited to safe, respectable divinations and apotropaic effects, but not a lot that directly affects the world of matter.
1. Horoscope
R: 50' T: [dice] creatures D: [sum] rounds
You call out cryptic advice to the creatures targeted by the spell. Once each, during the duration of the spell, those creatures may roll twice and take the best result on any roll they make.
2. Magic Circle
R: 50' T: [dice] x 5' diameter circular area D: [sum] hours
Your pointing finger, wand or chalk describes a circular area of ground which becomes ringed with a luminous band of bluish-white starlight. Any creature not native to your currently occupied plane of existence takes [sum] damage any turn it enters or starts occupying the circle. Spells that were cast with fewer dice than your Magic Circle cannot cross its boundary, though any mundane effects resulting from it (natural fires, falling masonry, etc.) might.
3. Astral Projection
R: 0 T: Self D: [dice] hours
You leave your body behind and walk the world as an astral spirit. Your astral form is unaffected by gravity, can instantaneously move to any point in your field of vision and pass through physical matter at your normal walking pace. You can still perceive the material world though in a silvery monochrome. Your astral form is invisible to normal sight, creatures that see infra-red or whose physical body intersects with your astral form may perceive a chill in the air you occupy, and you are clearly visible as a silvery spectre to anyone with Wizard Vision. Physical matter and energy doesn't affect you at all, but magic does - you can't walk through a magical force field and a magic missile hurts you just as much as normal. You also can't engage your right hemisphere when astrally projecting, and so cannot remember or make sense of proper nouns or recognize faces - you can still try to recognise people by their attire or distinguishing features.
4. A Fixed Point in Space
R: Touch T: Object D: [sum] minutes or until ended
One object touched that is no larger than that which can be lifted with one hand, becomes fixed in place relative to the nearest celestial body, it is indestructible for as long as the spell lasts. The caster may choose to end this spell at any time within the duration.
5. Identify
R: Touch T: Object D: 0
This spell takes 10 minutes to cast. You touch an object and learn [dice] significant things about it, starting with any magical properties it has and then its mundane utilities, then its provenance and owners, then its approximate value, in order. If you invested at least 2 dice into this spell you also learn how to activate any of the item's properties, if you invested 4 dice you also learn if it carries any curses.
6. Scry
R: [dice]x100' T: point in space D: concentration
You conjure an invisible, intangible, floating eyeball to a point in space that you designate. Unlike most spells, you do not have to have line of sight to cast it. As long as you maintain concentration, you can see through this sensor with your normal senses. This spell requires something to scry on, usually a mirror, quiet pool, clouds, or bonfire. If you invest 2 or more [dice], you can also hear through the sensor (it grows an ear). If you invest at 3 or more [dice], you can also speak through the sensor (it grows a dribbly little mouth). If you use an actual crystal ball when casting this spell, the range is instead [dice] miles. Crystal balls are rare enough that they are never offered for sale, but are worth upwards of 3,000gp. Most are ancestral relics.
7. Consultation
R: Touch T: One willing creature D: 0
This spell takes 10 minutes to cast. The affected creature must tell you of one curse, illness, crime or social humiliation they have become afflicted by. Over the course of the consultation you can divine a way to allow them to overcome the affliction, see themselves redeemed in the public eye or otherwise escape their fate. For 1 die the answer is immensely difficult, ruinously expensive or perilously dangerous, like personally funding and mounting an expedition for some remote and unexplored area of the world or saving the life of the Pope. For 2 dice the burden is divided between two, more manageable steps, like catching a notorious serial killer and funding a new orphanage. For 3 dice the answer is given as three steps that are more manageable still, "befriend this duchess, convince her to gift you this rare vintage of sherry, use it to bribe this judge.". For 4 dice, the four steps are often barely difficult and may seem unconnected to the desired outcome; "Buy a limited edition osmium-knibbed pen from this boutique, balance it on the edge of the waste paper bin at the corner of Bergamot Street at 3pm and take a right down Ha'penny Way while whistling the refrain to "Throw Out the Life-line!" and tip your hat good-morning to Admiral Bancroft coming the other way."
8. Magic Missile
R: 200' T: creature D: 0
Target takes [sum] + [dice] damage, no save. As an astromancer your magic missile is a pencil-thin beam of white light that moves at geometric angles to strike its target.
9. Banishment
R: 50', T: creature D: concentration or permanent (see below)
With a warding gesture and a word that warps light you push the targeted creature of up to [dice] * 2 HD out of existence. If the targeted creature was native to your current plane of reality they are pushed into a lightless, timeless cavitation, and pops back as soon as you release your concentration, with no time having passed from its perspective. If the target was native to another plane, it is returned to its plane of origin permanently - it may be summoned back again or cross under its own power if it has the ability, but not until [sum] days have passed.
10. Fold Space
R: Special T: self and 1+[dice] people or objects D: 0
When you cast this spell, pick a star you can see, you may instantaneously teleport yourself the the other targets to any point in the world where that star is also visible. There is a 1% chance something goes awry during the teleportation.
Emblem Spells
11. Geas
Range: Touch; Target: One creature; Duration: Permanent
Can only be cast with 4MD. Your control over the astral strands of fate is absolute. You compel the target of this spell to perform a service to you, whether they like it or not. Once the spell takes effect the target must devote their absolute attention to furthering this goal and once it is complete they are freed of the spell. The target can Save to resist the effects of the spell, but failure allows you to inflict a curse upon them.
12. The Stars Come Right
R: 0 T: Self, D: [sum] rounds
You attain brief but flawless omniscience of all events through time and space within a light-cone centered on a point relative to your pineal gland. It's a bit much to process all at once, but the upshot is that you roll a number of d20's equal to [dice] and record the scores. Within the duration you may replace any d20 roll made by anyone in eyeshot with one of these results, after which you discard that result and may not use it again.
