Maho

Rank 1

Accursed Summoning

The mahō-tsukai spills blood and recites a foul prayer to summon a chosen oni and bind it to their will. The oni appears caught in an invisible prison, unable to act except at the summoner’s direction.
Activation: As a downtime activity action, you may spend 3XP to make a Theology (Void) check with a TN equal to the selected Oni’s Intrigue rank.
Effects: If you succeed, you summon the desired oni and bind it to your will, unable to act without your consent. If you fail, you summon the desired oni (or a different one, at the GM’s discretion) but it breaks free of your control and curses you, causing you to suffer the Afflicted condition. If you have 3 or more kept Strife results, the summoned oni scries and learns your name.
Opportunity;

• 1+ Opportunity - The sight of the oni instills primal terror in any onlookers. Each character who can see the oni and is within range 3 suffers a number of strife equal to the Opportunity spent this way.
• 2 Opportunity - The oni instills a Shadowlands Taint disadvantage of your choice upon anyone within a range equal to the number of your rings you have a Shadowlands Taint disadvantage attatched to.

Commune with Evil

The practitioner detects any malevolent supernatural entities in the area, senses their desires, and makes a bargain for an unholy blessing.
Activation: As a downtime activity action, you may make a TN 1 Theology check. . Effects: If you succeed, you scry for the presence of any Otherworldly or Tainted beings at range 0–6.
Opportunity;

• 1 Opportunity - If there are any such beings, they accept you offering and augment you with an Unholy Blessing that increases the value of the Ring you used for the check by 1. You can only have one Unholy Blessing at a time, and it persists until the end of the Scene.
• 3+ Opportunity - If you recieve an Unholy blessing, it temporarily increases the ring's value by an additional 1 per 3 Opportunity spent this way.
• 1+ Opportunity - If you recieve an Unholy Blessing, and the next scene is a Skirmish or Intrigue, the effect of the Unholy Blessing perists into the next scene for a number of rounds equal to the Opportunity spent this way.

Dark Reflection

The mahō-tsukai must btain an obsidian mirror, pool of tainted water, or other corrupted, reflective surface. By appealing to the Kansen, the practitioner makes the object become a divinatory tool for a time. The practitioner can reveal visual answers to questions, or spy on a person or area. Kansen are wilkling to play this 'game', but the accuracy of the images they provide may not be entirely reliable.
Activation: As a support Action, you may make a TN2 Theology (Water) check targeting a person, object, or location you have encountered before.
Effects: if you succeed, you scry upon the chosen target, however, the image is distorted. One minor detail of the GM's choosing is always incorrect, reflecting instead the fears or desires of the mahō-tsukai.
Opportunity;

• 3 Opportunity - You bind the Kansen within the object permenantly. The object gains the Unholy quality and retains it's divinatory properties after the initail use. As a Support action, a charcter may give the object an offering of blood to show the chosen target again.

Spiritual Shackles

Mahō-tsukai deal constantly with powerful, dangerous beings, and those who live long enough learn that Kansen can only be trusted to be untrustworthy - but deceit can be repaid in kind. Other spirits might also seek to wreak vengeance upon a mahō-tsukai, from the hungering ghosts known as Gaki, to wrathful ancestor spirits, and it pays to have protection against such beings. The mahō-tsukai uses a combination of trickery and sheer will on a Kansen or other spirit, sealing it within an object.
Activation: As an Attack and Intrigue action, you may make a Theology (Air) check targeting one Otherworldy being at range 0-1. The TN of this check is equal the btargets vigilance, and is reduced by 2 if the target is also a Tainted being.
Effects: If you succeed, you bind the spirit inside an object of sihouette 1 or less at a range of 0-2. If the being you bound is Tainted, the object gains the Unholy quality. If you fail, the spirit curses you, and you suffer the Afflicted condition.
Opportunity;

• 1 Opportunity - The object gains one other quality of your choice from the following list; Concealable, Durable, resplendant, Subtle.
• 1 Opportunity - In the future, the holder of the object may release the bound being to Importune a Maho (Or invocation if the being is an Elemental Spirit) without paying the usual costs or making the usual TN adjustments to Importune.

Rank 2

Bind the Undead

The mahō-tsukai draws on the power of Jigoku to extend their will over the animated dead (such as skeletons or zombies). These undead then act as the mahō-tsukai commands, mimicking gestures or following simple instructions. They can attack a target or follow the mahō-tsukai like a squad of troops follows their leader. A smaller number of undead allows the practitioner greater control, and a single undead being can act naturally enough to infiltrate a town or castle, if the practitioner remains nearby and sustains the necessary concentration.

Activation: As a Scheme action, you may make a TN2 Theology (Fire) check targeting a number of undead creatures up to your Earth Ring at range 0–4. You can only choose undead creatures with combat rank 3 or lower this way.
Effects: If you succeed, you bind each target to your will. They can now act only under your control, via simple voice commands. You can issue straightforward commands with your allocated five words per turn, or you can issue more complex commands if you dedicate your action to giving a command. If you are killed or become Unconscious due to a critical strike, all bound undead under your control cease to function, slumping to the ground as inanimate corpses. Whether you succeed or fail, an area encompassing 1 range band around each target’s position gains the Defiled terrain quality.
Opportunity:

• 2 Opportunity - One undead creature you choose becomes a revenant in addition to becoming bound.
• 1+ Opportunity - Treat the maximum range of the technique as 1 higher per Opportunity spent this way.
• 1+ Opportunity - Treat the maximum combat rank of an undead creature you can bind as 1 higher per Opportunity spent this way. If you bind an intelligent undead creature this way and later lose control of it, it reverts to its own goals instead of becoming inanimate.

Entreat the Shadow Steed

The mahō-tsukai comples the Kansen to fetch them a suitable mount. The Onikage rises from the ground as a skeletal mount, or an undead horse with decaying flesh comes galloping across the shadowlands.
Activation: As a support action, you may make a TN2 Theology (Earth) check. This technique can only be used in the shadowlands, or near where the corpse of a horse can be found.
Effects: If you succeed, you summon an Onikage and bind it to your will. It obeys your commands, allowing you to ride it as per Mounts and Riding rules. It reacts violently if others try to ride it.
Opportunity;

• 2 opportunity - The equine creature retains enough flesh to pass as a living horse. Characters with vigilance 3 or lower do not notice it's undead status.
• 3 Opportunity - Other charcters whom you designate during the summoning can safely ride the Onikage.
• 2+ Opportunity - Summon one additional Onikage per 2 opportunity spent this way.

Spread Corruption

the mahō-tsukai channels their uinner corruption into ttheir skin, so that their touch becomes contagious. Anyone or anything they touch is assailed by the foul influence of the Shadowlands, which seeks any gap in their spiritual fortitude that it can grasp.
Activation: As a support action, you may make a TN2 Theology (Fire) check.
Effects: If you succeed, you augment your touch with a Corrupting influence. Anyone whose skin touches yours (such as with an unarmed attack) is cursed, and they must resist with a TN4 Fitness or Meditation check (Earth 2, Fire 5), or suffer fatigue equal to their shortfall and gian the Afflicted condition. This effect persists until the end of the Scene.
Opportunities;

• 2 Opportunity - After you touch someone, the effect is delayed for three rounds, or one minute in narrative time.
• 1 Opportunity - While this effect persists, any ground yoou walk on becomes defiled terrain.
• 2 Opportunity - Increase the severity of any critical strike you inflict with your unarmed attack profiles by 2 for each of your rings with the Shadowlands Taint disadvantage.

Sword of Blood

The mahō-tsukai draws blood from an open wound, the vital fluid swirling up to their outstretched palm and congealing into a deadly weapon.
Activation: As a support action, you may make a TN2 Theology (Water) check. Performing this check requires a source of blood at range 0, such as a corpse, or a foe with the Bleeding condition. Otherwise, the mahō-tsukai can use their own blood, receiving 3 Fatigue for doing so.
Effects: if you succeed, you summon a weapon of choosing made of blood. It has the Unholy quality.
Opportunity;

• 1 Opportunity - You may summon a pair of identical weapons instead of a single weapon.
• 1 Opportunity - At the end of each of your turns, you may transform the weapon into a different weapon.
• 2 Opportunity - You may immediately perform a Strike Action with the summoned weapon.
• 2 Opportunity - After you inflict a critical strike on another charcter with this weapon, you remove Fatigue from yourself equal to the severity of the critical strike (after the check to resist)

Rank 3

Fiend's Retreat

This technique allows it's user to exhange positions with an unsuspecting charcter, leaving them to meet a miserable end. The blade descends, but the sorcerer's flesh twists like wax and turns to muck, revaling some poor unfortunate whom the mahō-tsukai left to meet the judgement that they so richly deserve.
Activation: Once per scene, as an Attack and Movement action, or as an Our-Of-Turn Action when you are targeted by an attack, you may make a Theology (Air) check targeting one character at range 2-3. The target must be Incapacitated, or be a minion NPC, and the TN of the check is equal to the Target's vigilance.
Effects: If you succeed, you curse the target, forcing them to exchange physical locations with you. The target becomes the target of any attacks that were targeting you.
Opportunity;

• 1+ Opportunity - Choose one additional character at range 0-1 of you, and one additional target at range 2-3 of them, whose Vigilance is not higher than your initial targets. They exchange places. You can do this once per additional Opportunity spent this way.
• 1+ Opportunity - Increase the maximum range band of this ability by 1 per Opportunity spent this way.

Twisted Summons

The mahō-tsukai calls forth an abomination from Jigoku, giving it a temporary cage of flesh from which to wreak carnage upon the Mortal Realm. The being that comes forth is a fused horror, an agglomeration of multiple corpses twisted into unnatural form.
Activation: As an Intrigue and Support Action you may make a TN3 Theology (Earth) check to call upon a foul spirit to target a number of corpses at range 0-2, reshaping them into an abominable body for it to use.
Effects: if you succeed, you summon an undead Horror and bind it to your will. However, the summoned creature is not easily kept shackled; If you become Compromised or Incapacitated, it breaks the binding and sets off on it's own to devour the living and absorb the dead. Wheteher you succeed or fail, an area at range 0-2 around your target becomes Defiled terrain.
Opportunity;

• 1+ Opportunity - The undead horror absorbs up to 2 additional corpses  at range 0-2 for each Opportunity spent this way. Increrase it's endurance by 2 for each corpse it absorbs. For every 5 corpses it absobs, its silhouette increases by 1.

Rank 4

Shape the Flesh

The mahō-tsukai transforms their body, taking on a demonic aspect. Ragged wings or a glistening carapace sprouts from their flesh, or their form flows like befouled water, extending unnaturally. They might even fade into living shadow, becoming a creature of pure obscurity that shrugs off even the holiest of talismans and prayers.
Activation: As a support action, you may make a TN4 Theology check.
Effect: If you succeed, you augment and curse yourslef in one of the following ways until the end of the Scene, depending on which Ring you used to make the check;

• Talons and Fangs (Fire) - The damage and Deadliness of your unarmed profiles become 6, and gain the Unholy quality.
• Thick Hide (Earth) - your physical resistance becomes 7
• Wings (Air) - You gain flight; you can move vertically and ignore the negative effects of terrain.
• Malleable Form (Water) - The maximum range of your unarmed and Melee attacks becomes 3.
• Shadowy Form (Void) - Your Supernatural resistance becomes 7. You count as an Otherworldly being.

Opportunity;

• 2 Opportunity - Once, before the end of the scene, as an action, you may perform this technique again using a different Ring and maintain both effects. This Opportunity can only be used once per scene.

Rank 5