The Celestial Hekau are the magic arts of ancient Egypt focusing on fate, weather and astrology. It is the preferred magic of the Mesektet mummies.
Overview[]
Just as the sky encircles the Earth, the Celestial Hekau covers a vast array of diverse abilities. However, these powers do not come cheaply, as they usually require an elaborate ritual. In game terms, a Celestial ritual takes an hour per level. Effects that manipulate the weather may also have unintended side effects, as weather systems take time to build and dissipate and affect areas far wider than where the mummy happens to be standing. Players and Storytellers should work together to decide how particularly dramatic or destructive weather effects work and what the collateral damage may be.
Powers[]
Level One Powers[]
Becalm: The mummy negates adverse weather effects within an arm's length of herself.
Grip the Water: The mummy can raise or lower the level of a body of water.
Hanging the Stars: The mummy may delay the effect of a hekau until such time as she calls on it.
Hiding the Stars: the mummy is masked from divination or location spells.
Simple Weather Magic: The mummy effects a small, non-damaging change in the local environment.
Weather Sight: the mummy can predict the weather with a great deal of accuracy.
Level Two Powers[]
Book of Thoth: By muttering an incantation, the mummy can gain awareness of secrets in their immediate surroundings.
Lesser Weather Magic: As Simple Weather Magic, but the mummy is able to effect a larger change.
Read the Stars: the mummy can attune their magic to circumstances, adding to their dice pool for a subsequent ritual.
Sahu-Ra: the mummy glows with the power of sunlight.
Weather Whispers: the mummy is able to hear conversations happening upwind of her present location.
Level Three Powers[]
Call the Stars: by invoking Nuit, the mummy summons a destructive rain of meteors.
Divine Forms: by invoking one of the gods, the mummy can temporarily raise one of her Attributes.
Major Weather Magic: As Simpel Weather Magic, but with even more powerful effects.
Level Four Powers[]
Greater Weather Magic: As Simple Weather Magic, but with even more powerful effects. At this level the astrologer can call down bolts of lightening.
Ra's Awakening: the mummy channels the power of Ra into up to five targets. This is generally beneficial for mortals but cause vampires to feel an overwhelming urge to sleep.
Read the Tree of Life: the mummy may read the fate of any one being, peering into their past or future.
Sandstorm: the mummy summons a destructive whirlwind of sand.
Wisdom of Isis: by appealing to Isis, the mummy can counter enemy magic.
Level Five Powers[]
Divine Greatness: As Divine Forms, but the mummy can raise one Attribute by three points or two Attributes by two points.
Plague of Ma'at: the mummy can invoke one of the Seven Plagues of Egypt.
Potent Weather Magic: the most powerful level of weather magic available.
Rousing Apophis: the mummy causes an earthquake.
Level Six Powers[]
Call of the North Star: The mummy gains power over magnetism.
Geb's Grasp: The mummy may empower gravity's effect on a subject.
Festival of Ma'at: The mummy may hold a celebration which will aid the mortal celebrants in maintaining Ma'at.
Inundation of the Nile: Raise or lower the waters of a river for miles.
Level Seven Powers[]
Arch of Nuit: Weaken and inhibit all evil spiritual entities (not just Spirits) over an area.
Cycle of Ra: Accelerate time over an area, for the benefit of life and to the detriment of death.
Star of the Messiah: Create temporary Backgrounds.
Level Eight Powers[]
Crossed by the Stars: Create a powerful curse to cause the target to fail everything they attempt.
Whispers of the Tree of Life: Grant yourself or another a large pool of bonus dice which they may spend to aid themselves.
Scope of Weather Magic[]
The five different Weather Magic powers vary both in how great an effect they can cause and how much Sekhem must be spent to do so. This is calculated using a table found on page 100 of Mummy: The Resurrection Rulebook. The player or Storyteller determines the difficulty of achieving a particular effect by adding the listed values for the desired effect, the area affected and the duration. If the difficulty would be greater than 10, the number of successes required is increased instead. Effects with a difficulty of five or lower cost one Sekhem, difficulty of 6-9 cost two, and difficulty 10 cost three.
Example: using Lesser Weather Magic, the mummy attempts to raise the ambient temperature by 20F (Difficulty: 2) across a large city (Difficulty: 2) for 24 hours (Difficulty: 3). They must succeed on an Occult + Celestial roll of difficulty 7 and spend two Sekhem. To achieve the same effect with Potent Weather Magic, however, the difficulty drops to 3 and the Sekhem cost drops to one.
References[]
- VTM/WOD: Mummy, p. 35-38
- MTR: Mummy: The Resurrection Rulebook
- MTR: Mummy: The Resurrection Players Guide
Alchemy · Amulets · Celestial · Effigy · Necromancy · Nomenclature · Ra-Hekau | |