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The SoulWind in Caleon By Jeffery Keown

When a person dies in Caleon, their soul drifts, potentially forever, on a magical river girding the planet. It blows everywhere, as no place is shielded from its effects.

Its effects, however, are invisible, inaudible and intangible. Only with the power of Channelling can one hope to catch a glimpse of the billions of disembodied minds drifting past. Some souls are great and powerful, they are the most easily sensed, almost enough to allow them to be sensed by ordinary people.

The presence of Nurannan fills this place… I can feel her here…It’s almost like Father is still with us…

The SoulWind exists apart from the Magical Flows that swath the planet. They are out of tune with one another, neither energy impinging on the other.

At a precious moment in time, when love or lust brings two creatures together to create a new life, a soul can be attracted by the mental storm created by the mating pair. At the moment of conception, instead of generating a new soul, the new life is possessed by a mind on the SoulWind. Such a person will grow up normally, but have skills or spells “hard-wired” into him. These skills or spells are used like any other, except they are inborn abilities left over from their previous existence. They are called the Reawakened, the Returned, or as the Dharzooni knew them, the Djaari.

Djaari do not constitute a race, nor can a package deal be credibly written for them. It is a form of origin allowing players to purchase skills and abilities their past selves possessed. Need an obscure, dead language? Does your wizard know the layout of a long-buried city? They may be Djaari, if the GM allows such creatures.

Channellers, however can feel this SoulWind, see the drifting souls and even peer into their lives via the memories that drift along with them. The most skilled Channellers can do the impossible, reaching into the SoulWind, plucking a hapless spirit from the current and set it anew in a body. They can resurrect the dead.

Items can be constructed to aid the Channeller in harnessing souls for spell power. What little scholars know about the ‘Wind suggests that souls cannot be destroyed by mere mortals, though it is considered that the process of being fragmented by a SoulShards spell is hardly pleasant to them. Most Channellers use, at the very least, an amulet or staff that acts as a trap for souls, storing them for use. Again, what effect this has on the mind of a stored spirit is unknown, but presumed disturbing.

The souls, once trapped, can be used for a variety of purposes. They can be bound to a living person to increase their characteristics, fired like cannon balls or made to rain down on an area like a storm of power.

As mentioned above, the Channeller can create a new body for a soul to inhabit. Often, this is not the body that originally housed the soul, and so might be alien to the newly reawakened being. They retain the thoughts and memories of their old self, while filtering the world through new eyes and ears. The result is a creature that only vaguely recalls its previous life. As discussed above, this can happen naturally, with the strange creatures known as the Returned.

All Souldwind spells require an END Reserve. They never use the Caster's own END. As suggested above, SoulWind Channels are closely guarded secrets.

Using the astral buoyancy of the SoulWind, the caster flies as if blown by real currents. Drift with the SoulWind: Flight 8“, x4 Noncombat (21 Active Points); OAF (-1), Requires A Channelling Roll (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) END: 2 Real Cost 2 === Feel the SoulWind ===

By focusing his senses, the Channeller can sense the presence of the SoulWind. This spell is required before any other SoulWind Channel is cast. Feel The SoulWind: Detect SoulWind 13- (Mental Group) (5 Active Points); OAF (-1), Requires A Channelling Roll (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) END:0 Real Cost 1

Like Lesser Healing, below, the trapped soul-energy is used to stitch a wounded person back together. Greater Healing: Healing BODY 3d6 (30 Active Points); OAF (-1), Requires A Channelling Roll (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) END:3 Real Cost 3

As Greater Healing, above, but only heals 1d6 BODY Lesser Healing: Healing BODY 1d6 (10 Active Points); OAF (-1), Requires A Channelling Roll (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) END:1 Real Cost 1

The caster can use this spell to cause a soul to assume a coherent, visible form. This can be anything from a wisp of vapor, to a full-blown simulacrum of the creature’s form it held in life. Manifest Soul: Summon 300-point Spirit (60 Active Points); Increased Endurance Cost (x4 END; -1 1/2), OAF (-1), Requires A Channelling Roll (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) END: 24 Real Cost 4

Seeing through the eyes of trapped soul, the caster can see where the soul has been, and if they have passed by his target location, he will see memories relating to that place. Memories of the Past: Retrocognitive Clairsentience (Sight Group), +1 to PER Roll, Related Group of Dimensions (61 Active Points); Limited Power Power loses about half of its effectiveness (Restricted to Bound Soul's Memories.; -1), OAF (-1), Requires A Channelling Roll (-1/2), Extra Time (Full Phase, Only to Activate, -1/4), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) END:6 Real Cost 5

Fragmenting a trapped soul, the Channeller infuses the shards with his own energy and sends it cascading down on his enemies. Rain of Souls: Energy Blast 8d6, Area Of Effect (4” Radius; +1) (80 Active Points); OAF (-1), Requires A Channelling Roll (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) END:8 Real Cost 9

One of the most precious of the SoulWind channels, this spell creates a Djaari, a Returned creature. The Healing BODY is applied to -20 BODY to see if the new life takes hold. Returning: Healing BODY 8d6, Can Heal Limbs, Resurrection (105 Active Points); Side Effects, Side Effect occurs automatically whenever Power is used (Side Effect only affects the recipient of the benefits of the Power; New Body and Personality - Retain Memories; -1 1/2), OAF (-1), Requires A Channelling Roll (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) END:10 Real Cost 8

The Channeller applies Healing BODY to -20 BODY, and recreates the person completely, often an idealized version of the person, as the form is based on memories and self-mythology. Returning True: Healing BODY 8d6, Can Heal Limbs, Resurrection (105 Active Points); OAF (-1), Requires A Channelling Roll (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) END:10 Real Cost 12

Having mastered the manipulation of the SoulWind’s free souls the caster can now affect souls inhabiting living bodies. Soul Burn: Drain BODY 3d6, Delayed Return Rate (points return at the rate of 5 per Day; +1 1/2) (75 Active Points); OAF (-1), Requires A Channelling Roll (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) END:7 Real Cost 7

Girding his mind with a trapped soul, the caster gains defense against mental powers. It is thought the powers that do not affect the caster somehow affect the trapped soul. Soul Fortress: Mental Defense (12 points total) (10 Active Points); OAF (-1), Side Effects, Side Effect occurs automatically whenever Power is used (Acquire 15 points of Melded Soul's Mental Disads; -1/2), Requires A Channelling Roll (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) END:0 Real Cost 1

Similar to Soul Shard, above, but the trapped soul is divided into several pieces, some of which might miss the target. Soul Shards: Killing Attack - Ranged 1 1/2d6, Autofire (2 shots; +1/4) (31 Active Points); OAF (-1), Requires A Channelling Roll (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) END:3 Real Cost 3

Constructing a shimmering field of SoulWind, the caster defends himself while incoming attacks blow bits of trapped souls off his shield. Soul Shield: Armor (9 PD/8 ED) (26 Active Points); Ablative BODY or STUN (-1), OAF (-1), Costs Endurance (-1/2), Requires A Channelling Roll (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) END:2 Real Cost 2

Concentrating a single trapped soul into an almost-physical shard of crystal that he then sends downrange at his target. Soul Shard: Killing Attack - Ranged 2d6 (30 Active Points); OAF (-1), Requires A Channelling Roll (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) END:3 Real Cost 3

Binding a soul to his own, the caster assumes a hybrid shape, slightly resembling his own, but also resembling that of the trapped soul. Soul Shift: Shape Shift (Sight, Smell/Taste, Touch and Hearing Groups), Imitation (29 Active Points); OAF (-1), Requires A Channelling Roll (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) END:3 Real Cost 3

Binding a Soul to his own, the caster assumes some of the trapped soul’s abilities, augmenting his own. Each spell is a separate ability, bought as a new power. Option: Side Effects (Caster takes on Soul's Pych Lims?)

Soulbinding - Body: Aid BODY 3d6 (30 Active Points); OAF (-1), Requires A Channelling Roll (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) END: 0 Real Cost 3

Soulbinding - Constitution: Aid CON 3d6 (30 Active Points); OAF (-1), Requires A Channelling Roll (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) END: 0 Real Cost 3

Soulbinding - Dexterity: Aid DEX 3d6 (30 Active Points); OAF (-1), Requires A Channelling Roll (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) END:0 Real Cost 3

Soulbinding - Strength: Aid STR 3d6 (30 Active Points); OAF (-1), Requires A Channelling Roll (-1/2), Gestures (-1/4), Incantations (-1/4) END: 0 Real Cost 3

Taking the form of a Staff, amulet or Orb, the Channeller must have this focus to store souls for his use. All spells are powered from this reserve. Soul Reserve: Endurance Reserve (50 END, 0 REC) Reserve: (5 Active Points); Independent (-2), OAF (-1), 4 clips of 4 Continuing Fuel Charges lasting 1 Extra Phase each (Increased Reloading Time; -1/4) [4 cc]

Just as a smith alloys elements and metals to produce fine steel, the master of a Soul Forge alloys spirits to produce Visions.

A Vision is a ideal being, perfection varying with each channeller who uses a given forge. Do you like redheads? Fine swordsmanship? Deadly magical ability? Fix the Vision in your mind, take up the tools and after much laboring the ideal soul is ready.

Cast Returning True quickly, before the soul escapes on the wind! At its climax, the Vision becomes the person you imagined. Hope you don't regret it.

The only known Soul Forge in Caleon is the one that gives Soul Forge Keep its name. Hidden beneath the ogre-infested castle, somewhere within miles of teleport-shielding tunnels and trap filled rooms, lay the most wondrous of treasures. Soul Forge Keep entered my game is 1986, but the name only made sense this afternoon, when I had to come up with more SoulWind stuff

It so happens that you can make the Channelling Roll for the Player. Don't tell him the result. If he blows it, one of the souls that swarms around the forge inhabits the Returned body! This of course, will not be immediately obvious. Given what souls go through on the Wind, this creature may be of any disposition…

Soul Forge: Summon 150-point Vision, Friendly (+1/4), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Specific Being (+1) (82 Active Points); Extra Time (1 Hour, -3), Independent (-2), OIF Immobile (-1 1/2), Requires A Channelling Roll (-1/2), Concentration (1/2 DCV; -1/4), Side Effects (-1/4) Real Cost: 10

Wraiths, Ghosts and other incorporeal creatures have cause to fear. The secret of the soul cleaver has been revealed to Woonley Aroon. The half-Sadi SoulWind Channeller has made two of these ghost-slicing weapons for the Grand Hardiel (Sad: King) of Saduria. He, in turn, has awarded them to his greatest undead-hunting champions. The blades are wicked, curved monstrosities, rune-carved and steaming ecto-vapors. They pass through flesh harmlessly, but bite deep into spirits of any kind.

Soul Cleaver: Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 1 1/2d6, Affects Desolidified One Special Effect of Desolidification (Soulwind-Borne; +1/4), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2) (44 Active Points); OAF (-1), STR Minimum 12 (-1/2), Required Hands One-And-A-Half-Handed (-1/4), Real Weapon (-1/4) (Real Cost: 15) plus +2 with HTH Combat (10 Active Points); Independent (-2), OAF (-1) (Real Cost: 2) Total Real Cost: 17

During the Scattering, undead were a plague. At certain dark times, the Dust Lords would rouse themselves from their millenia-long slumber and make war upon the living. So it came that the Soul Cleavers were first forged deep beneath the soft green hills of Serrule. Many of the blades were weilded with fantastic zeal, their blades thrust deeply into immaterial bodies of the Dead. When a Soul Cleaver breaks (a mighty deed in itself) a negative pressure zone springs up, sucking souls down into its black depths where they are consumed, their vital Essence twisted into the vile power of the unlight.

Careful with that blade, son.

The Maw: (Total: 397 Active Cost, 76 Real Cost) Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 4d6, Affects Desolidified One Special Effect of Desolidification (SoulWind-Borne; +1/4), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2), No Normal Defense (Being Alive; +1/2), Area Of Effect (23“ Radius; +1), Does BODY (+1) (285 Active Points); OAF Immobile (-2), Independent (-2) (Real Cost: 57) plus Telekinesis (20 STR), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Area Of Effect (160” Radius; +2 1/4) (112 Active Points); OAF Immobile (-2), Independent (-2), Only Vs Spirits (-3/4) Real Cost: 19

Mostly Dead! A known Maw has become a source of trouble after several of your nation's VIPs are killed and their souls trapped by evil channellers! Recover the vessels they're held in before the Bad Guys™ get to the Maw and kill them permanently!

And Stay Dead this Time! The Dark Lord is dead for now, but he's been known to survive that before. Take his captured soul to a Maw and throw it in! Beware, for his loyal minions (who include both a SoulWind Channeller and a power warrior, as well as plenty of cannon fodder) are hot on your tail, seeking to return their master to life.