The mercurial rain of the Deep Maya has an origin that few can even speculate upon. But whether The Dreamlands represent an intrusion of our subconscious minds into the realm of the physical or the intrusion of an alien realm into our sleeping thoughts, the fact remains that it is a source of power that those who delve deeply into its mysteries can tap. Astral Sorceries are spells and powers that tap into that strange reality. Magic from Maya has a tendency to be as untamed and inhuman as the implacable beasts and plants that inhabit it.

Astral Sorcery disturbs magnetic fields, including that of the Earth itself (at least on a local level), and a skilled augur can track and judge the strength of the magics of the dreamlands by carefully observing a lodestone. Astral magic "feels wet" to those who feel its wrath, and indeed it can be countered by judiciously throwing clean salt on it. Salt used in this manner becomes caked and discolored like it had absorbed dirty water.

"Be what you want to be until you don't any more."

Call of the Wild is the sorcerous path of attuning one's self to wild animals, hence the name. This attunement provides great benefits when dealing with animals even in a nonmagical manner. The character gains a +2 bonus on Animal Ken. This bonus increases to +4 with Advanced, and +6 with Elder Call of the Wild. These bonuses are increased by 50% when dealing with creatures that the character can personally transform into with Beast Form (so for example a character with Beast Form (Bat) would gain a +3, +6, or +9 bonus on Animal Ken checks to train bats).

Beast Form The character can transform into an animal by spending a power point and taking a Complex Action. The type of animal transformed into is chosen when the ability is learned. When Beast Form is gained as a fixed ability from a character's supernatural type, the form of the beast is often predefined (for example, a Nezumi becomes a rat). This ability can be learned multiple times, and each time the character can choose one more new form than the time before (two new forms with the second learning, for a total of 3). No beast form can be much larger than a human, or smaller than a mouse. Some animals are stronger or more agile than a human, but the total bonus to these attributes never exceeds +2. Many animals are much weaker than a human. For example: a Rat Form always has a strength reduced to 1 regardless of the original character's Strength score, and gains a +2 bonus to Agility. This ability is a Protean power. For purposes of being countered, Beast Form has 3 hits.

Tongue of Beasts The character can speak to and understand the speech of beasts. This is invaluable in training and information gathering. But remember that animals do not gain any special understanding of their environment even though they are able to convey their thoughts to the character. Honestly, dogs speak kind of like the dogs from [u]Up![/u] and rats and cats are no better. Most non-mammalian beasts are downright disappointing conversationalists (with exceptions made for some wicked smart non-mammals like crows and octopuses). Tongue of Beasts is passive and covert, and cannot be dispelled.

The Beckoning The character emits some suitably animalistic noise and calls all creatures of a specific type to their location. The character can only choose one type of animal at a time, and the power reaches out to 100 meters per point of Potency. Using The Beckoning requires three power points and a Complex Action. The number of beasts that come is dependent upon how many of the type of creature that are within the area, and the urgency with which they come and the degree of control the character has over their actions upon their arrival is based on the number of hits achieved on a Strength + Survival or Charisma + Empathy test. When dealing with large or predatory animals, the range of The Beckoning increases to 500 meters per potency. When calling large predatory animals, the range extends to 5 kilometers per point of potency.

Transformation The character can transform a victim into a beast by spending a power point and a complex action. This is a humiliating ordeal, and as the target doubtless has little familiarity with their new form is generally quite awkward and difficult for the victim (over and above being transformed into a frog or pig). The character makes a Strength + Empathy or Willpower + Survival test against the target's Intuition. The victim becomes a beast of the character's choice until the next sunrise or sunset. Net hits increase the time frame of a victim's transformation. This ability is a Protean power. A character can't be transformed into an animal much larger than their original size, but they can be transformed into something much smaller.

Songs in the Dark The character can create horrible monsters out of ordinary animals. By spending six power points, any mundane beast can be invested with enough astral power as to be transformed into a monster. The investment takes an hour and the transformation itself takes a day. The character makes a Charisma + Survival or Willpower + Medicine test. Making a Behemoth is hard (Threshold 3), while making a Chimera is crazy extreme (Threshold 5). The Giant Animal is created under the character's loose control. A character can control a number of such animals equal to their Willpower.

Soul Investment The character can place a portion of their soul into another being, and subsequently take the target's body over when the investing character's current body goes unconscious or dies. The character must touch the target for a Complex Action, spend two power points, and make an opposed Willpower + Empathy or Strength + Survival test against the target's Willpower. A character can have portions of their soul hidden in a number of creatures equal to their Intuition, and they must choose only one of their victims to hop to when the time comes. While controlling a body, use the Strength and Agility of the host, but all other attributes and all skills of the character. The character does not lose control of a host by sleeping, but they do automatically hop again (losing their soul investment in that victim) if they are actually knocked unconscious. The character never loses their effective Soul Investment in their original body, but if they are ever forced to hop and there are no living bodies with remaining Soul Investment, the character dies.

Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves,
And ye that on the sands with printless foot
Do chase the ebbing Neptune and do fly him
When he comes back.

Chasing the Storm is the astral sorcery dedicated to understanding and controlling the weather. A character with Chasing the Storm knows what the weather should be for a week in advance (which means that they likewise know when weather sorcery is employed), and they gain a +1 dicepool bonus on Survival tests. With Advanced Chasing the Storm, a character knows the upcoming weather a month in advance and gains a +2 bonus. With Elder Chasing the Storm, the character's predictive capabilities extend for a year and a day and they gain a +3 dicepool bonus on Survival.

Howling Winds The character can make winds rise or soften and blow in a direction of their choice. The character can spend a complex action to make an Agility + Rigging or Logic + Operations test to increase or decrease the Strength of the winds by the number of hits.

Rising Mists The character can fill areas with thickening fog that obscures vision and makes things seem really spooky. By spending a Complex Action, the character can fill up their immediate vicinity with mists, extending up to 3 meters per Potency from their person. By spending two power points, they can create an actual weather pattern, with mists creeping in out to a kilometer per Potency from their person. The character makes an Agility + Rigging or Logic + Operations test to decrease visibility through the mists:

Lightning Strike A cloudy sky can be split by a lightning bolt crashing to Earth. By spending a complex action, the character can direct a lightning bolt to strike an individual or object. The lightning bolt cannot be dodged, its threshold to hit the target at any range is 2, and it is a Damage 5 weapon. It is powered by an Agility + Rigging or Logic + Electronics test. Once unleashed, the bolt of lightning is real electricity, and can be defended against with conductive materials in classic Franklin or Tesla fashion.

Tumultuous Rain The character can pull clouds into a clear sky and rain from clouds. It takes a base amount of time of an hour to bring rain from a clear sky, and net hits on an Agility + Rigging or Logic + Operations test can reduce the timeframe. The more it is "naturally" clouded, the easier this is, and the character gains a +2 bonus if there are already clouds somewhere in the sky, raising to a +6 bonus if there is already some tiny amount of rain coming down. The weather can be affected out to 5 kilometers per Potency of the character. Once established, a weather pattern persists until natural forces blow it away. This costs 3 power points.

Form of Mist The character can transform themselves into a fine mist as a Free action by spending a power point. This is a Protean ability. While in mist form, a character's body is essentially impervious to physical attacks, save those that are made with a weapon that the character is vulnerable to. Everything the character is carrying when they transform transforms with them, and other creatures thus transformed are essentially helpless until the character becomes solid again. While in mist form the character can fly, but they move no faster than a normal walk. For purposes of being dispelled, Form of Mist has 3 hits.

Victory of Typhon By spending eight power points, the character can create a "tropical depression" at their location; and subsequently direct its progress. This requires an hour and a power point. The character makes an Agility + Rigging or Logic + Operations test, and the massive storm takes form and is unleashed in a direction of the character's choosing. Creating a Tropical Storm is a Professional Task (threshold 2), creating a Category 2 Hurricane is Crazy Extreme (threshold 4), and creating a Category 4 Hurricane is threshold 6. Remember that your storm may in fact be called a Typhoon or a Cyclone, depending upon its ocean of origin.

Leaves drop in Autumn not because of the shortening of the day, but because of the lengthening of the night.

The Coil of Thorns is the Astral Sorcery dedicated to understanding and manipulating plant life. Characters who practice this magic are able to do much with practically any plant matter. The character's Artisan and Expression skills gain a +2 bonus when working in primarily plant matter media. This bonus increases to +4 with knowledge of Advanced Col of Thorns, and to +6 with Elder Coil of Thorns. Characters with Coil of Thorns can also make something edible and even delicious out of literally any plant matter. It's not at all obvious how it's done, but their redwood pasta is not bad at all. This magic is inextricably linked in the minds of many supernaturals with the Evil Plants, and indeed any practitioner can speak with Evil Plants of any kind. It has even been suggested that Dryad Witches are actually Pod spies. Most Coil spells are quite powerful but quite time consuming to use. A Coil of Thorns laboratory is called a "Kitchen" and can indeed be created with materials purchasable at a farmer's market.

Bitter Fruit The character can make powerful medicines and poisons out of ordinary fruits and roots. By spending a power point and an hour working in a kitchen, the character's result can be a balm or a curse to those who consume it with a strength equal to the number of hits on a Logic + Medicine or Intuition + Survival test. Such products can be made into clearly medicinal pastes and the like, or covertly disguised as fresh foods such as shiny apples. Doses with other effects can also be produced, but if the requisite number of hits is not achieved the resulting product is merely a standard damaging poison with a strength equal to the actual hits achieved. With Advanced and Elder Coil of Thorns comes the learning of additional recipes such as making powerful acids, paralytics, or explosives. The seed that transforms a Luminary into a Dryad has a threshold of 6 to brew.

Grass Rope The character can have plant matter grow at tremendous speed according to their will and grasp their enemies with wooden fastness. The character spends a Complex Action and makes a Logic + Rigging or Intuition + Survival test, and the leafy strands lash out with a Strength and Agility equal to the number of hits.

Mind Root The character plants a seed in a victim that slowly roots into the unfortunate's brain and leaves them an emotionless pawn. Creating the Mind Root takes four power points and an hour in the kitchen, and it takes an hour or two for the tendrils to work their way into the victim (making it essentially worthless against a target that is not willing, bound, or sleeping). The Mind Root uses the character's Logic + Medicine or Intuition + Survival against the victim's Strength.

Puppetry The character can command plants to perform actions and have the plants actually perform them at a reasonable speed. By spending a Complex action, the character's plant minions will move about with distinctly non-plantlike mobility for one round - attaining an effective Agility equal to the character's Intuition or Logic. The character can also give long term commands to plants, which they will go about performing at their normal speeds (often centimeters a day). Commanding sapient (and presumably evil) plants is more difficult, and requires the character to best them in Logic + Medicine or Logic + Rigging against their Willpower to control one of them for a number of rounds equal to the number of net hits. Otherwise Puppetry extends to any number of plants within 10 meters of the character per point of Potency.

Abomination The character can work in a kitchen for an hour and spend seven power points to grow an Evil Plant from inert plant material and evil magic. The product is a harmless if strange looking potted plant that will grow into a horror over the following night. The character makes a Logic + Medicine or Intuition + Survival test to get the process started. Making a Man Trap is threshold 3, making a Triffid is threshold 5, and making a Pod is threshold 7. Creating these abominations bestows no special ability to control them.

Seeds of Destruction Time destroys all things according to mortals, but even amongst supernaturals it is known that the work of your hands will eventually be claimed by the legacy of nature. Using this ability, the character accelerates this process, causing the progression of seasons and flora to rip things to shreds. Roots shatter stone and flesh alike and tiny pieces blow away in pollen laden dust. This is a damage 3 attack that assaults each target in a cone that is up to 100 meters in length per point of Potency. No inanimate object is treated as larger than small, as bigger things are torn apart from every direction and even the inside. Targets are attacked from inside themselves, so the range is considered Adjacent regardless of physical distance. The character must spend a Complex Action and a power point, and uses Logic + Rigging or Intuition + Survival, increasing damage with hits. This power can be used on a much smaller scale without spending a power point, but it only projects 2 meters per point of Potency.

Bitterest of all is not the sorrow but to have one's sorrows ignored.

The Trail of Tears is a magical discipline which harvests the power of misery. In the Deep Astral there is a liquid that is literally created by the fact that sadness exists. This material is called the Tears of Maya, even though in a very real way it is the psychic residue of human sorrow from the Material World. Those who follow the Trail are incredibly good at finding the clouds in life. They gain a +2 bonus to argue against any proposal, fact, or course of action. At Advanced, this negativity increases to +4, and at Elder the ability to speak against things rises to a full +6 bonus.

Curse of Failure Using astral sorcery, the character curses a victim to have luck abandon them at a later date. If the character succeeds on an opposed Willpower + Sabotage or Willpower + Rigging check that takes a Simple Action, evil magic hangs like a dark cloud of misery over the target's head. At any later date, the character may reactively end this curse to force the victim to reroll all hits on a test. The Curse of Failure is totally covert, all the character actually does is look at the victim funny and the sorcery has no overt special effects (although it can be detected as normal Astral magic).

Pain Drops Tiny drops fall at the target, dampening not their skin but their pride. The character spends a Simple Action to direct Tears of Maya to fall at a target, and makes an Agility + Combat or Willpower + Rigging test to make a standard ranged attack. Pain Drops have a damage rating equal to the character's Willpower, and are soaked with Willpower rather than Strength. Pain Drops cause only illusory damage, and while they cause wound penalties and even incapacitation, they do not actually kill or wrap around into lethal damage. Virtual damage from Pain Drops fades in an hour.

Dark Night of the Soul By spending a Complex Action belittling the target, the character can provoke a Despair Frenzy in them. The character makes an opposed Willpower + Sabotage or Willpower + Intimidate test against the target's Willpower, and if successful the victim enters an immediate Despair Frenzy (regardless of their Master Passion, if any). This ability is largely covert, as it does not appear that the character did anything other than behave in a rude and perhaps senselessly cruel fashion towards the victim.

Water Prison With a Complex Action and a power point, water can be manipulated into three dimensional shapes that hold their form and are strong as steel. Actually capturing someone with the titular prison made of water requires a ranged combat test using Agility + Combat or Willpower + Rigging. Grasping water has a Strength equal to the character's Willpower.

Astral Projection Activating Astral Projection sends a character and possibly their friends into the deep or shallow Dreamlands or back to the material world. Anything the character carries as well as a circle of hand holding creatures up to the character's Willpower in number (and everything they are carrying as well) shifts across the worlds with the character. Astral Projection requires a Complex Action and a power point. For purposes of dispelling, Astral Projection has 3 hits.

Object of Envy The character can reach into a target's mind and create some physical thing that the target deeply desires. This can be something as simple as a sandwich or as complex as a whole person. This costs seven power points regardless of how elaborate or abstractly valuable it is. Electronics created in this way don't function super well because they are made out of evil magic even more so than a modern operating system normally is. A person created in this way is always an Extra with no edge stat or supernatural powers. They are otherwise able to pass as the actual person they are based upon (if any), though they are preternaturally disposed towards evil and cruelty and are under the control of the character who made them. The character makes a Charisma + Expression test to set the quality of the mimicry of a person; a Logic + Electronics test to set the quality of created electronics; and an Intuition + Artisan test to set the quality of most other things. An Object of Envy so exactly duplicates a desired thing that it can set off a Greed or Loneliness frenzy in the target from whom the desire was plucked (in general, the number of hits on the ability generates the threshold to resist the frenzy). A targeted creature can try to keep their desires to themselves, making a Willpower + Sabotage test as a reactive action - if the target gets at least as many hits as the character, the Object of Envy never takes form. When an Object of Envy is destroyed, it reverts into tears. Creating an Object of Envy takes a minute.

When you dream, dream of me.

The veil between the waking world and the world of sleep is both vast and unfathomable. And yet to those who scry deeply into Maya can see past it, and in time they learn to reach across and pull things from one side to the other. A character who practices the Veil of Morpheus is able to perceive objects and creatures in the Shallow Dreamlands, though not to touch them and is in no danger from them physically. With Advanced Veil of Morpheus, the character can perceive their own surroundings while they are asleep, and are able to wake themselves at will. And when a character has Elder Veil of Morpheus, they know inherently when creatures are dreaming within a kilometer of themselves. Note that in a city, they will often be aware of a lot of sleepers.

Enchanted Slumber Using astral sorceries the character makes people supernaturally sleepy. The compulsion to sleep is virtually impossible to overcome for people who are already asleep, and is at best a minor inconvenience for those whose adrenaline is pumping. Activating it is potentially covert, in that the target is not especially aware of anything other than a feeling of sleepiness. The character however produces faintly glowing dust from their hands when used, and expends a Complex Action doing it. Using Enchanted Slumber requires an opposed Charisma + Expression or Logic + Medicine vs. Intuition test. An affected target that is already asleep will not awaken for at least an hour (longer with net hits) even in the face of loud noises or shaking. An affected target who is not asleep will go to sleep at the first opportunity and then stay asleep for at least an hour (longer with net hits).

Dream Vision The character can send messages and images into the dreams of another creature. The dream visions can go an unlimited distance. The character must know the name of the intended recipients, the targets must all be asleep and the character needs to meditate on the sending. The base timeframe to send visions is an hour, but net hits on a Charisma + Expression or Logic + Research test can reduce that.

Denial of Privacy The character views into the dreams of a sleeping target. The character spends a Complex Action attuning themselves to the dreams of a target. The target must be asleep and within 100 meters per hit on a Charisma + Empathy or Logic + Medicine test. While so attuned, the character can make themselves appear in the dream or simply voyeuristicly watch the proceedings.

Horrid Reality The stuff of dreams becomes the stuff of reality. The character spends a Complex Action and suddenly the physical effects of events that take place within a dreamer's dream reality draw their toll on their body. While the effects of a sexy or merely surreal dream may not even be immediately obvious upon waking, the effects of a nightmare can be catastrophically fatal. The character need only know the name of a potential victim and their location while dreaming, the ability works at any distance. The victim can fight back against the invader with whatever is in their dream, but unless they also have Horrid Reality, the only thing they will get from defeating their attacker is to knock them out of their dream until the following sunset. For purposes of dispelling, Horrid Reality has 3 hits.

Dreamscape The character shapes the Deep Dreamlands to be as they want it to be. The character spends an Edge and the dreamlands of Maya begin to adjust themselves to the substance and reality that the character wishes them to contain. This transformation takes a base amount of time of one day, but they can make a Charisma + Expression or Logic + Operations test, and reduce the timeframe with net hits. Things created in the dreamlands are like Hollywood sets. While an object might glitter like gold, it's just a prop.

Dreamstep The character can move seamlessly between the Shallow Dreamlands and the Material World at will. Crossing the threshold between the Shallow Maya and the physical world is a Simple Action and the character can take anything they can carry with them. For purposes of dispelling, Dreamstep has 3 hits.