Shadowcasting (Hedge Magic)

Hedge Magic

Introduction: With mastery of this Path, the shadows become your tools, the darkness your ally, and the night your friend. Despite the accusations of those who claim that the Path is, if not actively infernal, at least tinged with an ineffable darkness that can corrupt the unwary, the Path of Shadows is no more inherently evil than most other Paths. Whatever evil a sorcerer finds on the Path of Shadows, he brought himself.

A shadow caster learns to manipulate and conjure shadowstuff - at first, merely a simple shade but, with experience, near-tangible blackness or total nightfall. Colour and light are absorbed and extinguished by these shadows, which dance and caper at the sorcerer’s beck and call. Needless to say, such displays can be quite unnerving; even a novice sorcerer can conjure effects that will frighten the wits out of most normal humans.

• The caster can deepen and darken shadows and darkness in a room or area. The overall lighting doesn’t alter, but those shadows that do exist will be much darker than they ought to be. If you desire, those shadows can carry with them a feeling of unease and spookiness. Exact effects depend on the situation (using this ability in a brightly lit office will have little effect, whilst doing it in a shadowy warehouse would give a sorcerer (and others) a bonus in any stealth attempts)

• • By shaping the shadows in his area and muffling the sounds he makes, the sorcerer can become almost impossible to discover. He can make his appearance indistinct, his voice eerie and creepy and the shadows deep and dark around himself. If the sorcerer casts the shadows on another, the victim will begin to see things out of the corner of his eyes, horrible shadowy forms that dissolve when the head turns. Strange creaks, ominous footsteps and hollow laughter will inhabit his hearing, and a rising sense of dread will occupy every spare thought.

• • • The shadows rile and coil about the shadow caster. Colour fades from the area, and sounds become mere whispers and murmurs… or sudden piercing laughs, screams and other sounds of terror. Panic rises in all but the most stout hearted.

• • • • The shadows are the sorcerer’s allies in all ways. Those who oppose him must be strong of heart or be struck down in near-terror (may cause Frenzy). Cameras and other electronic recording devices will fail unless the operators are able to adjust as necessary.

• • • • • The shadows reach out and engulf the caster’s opponents; what they see there is enough to reduce even the greatest to shivering wrecks. Naturally, the caster can see in his own darkness. Any recording device brought into the darkness fails immediately; any pointed at the darkness see only roiling masses of… nothing. Inky blackness. Shadows.

Known Paths: Prominence of Shade