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Compact — Arts Draft

Compact has no spells; it's all Arts. See Magic Systems → Compact.

How Compact Works

A Compact practitioner doesn't summon whatever answers. They know particular beings, by name, and each one is an Art. Learning an Art means making a compact with one specific being, its Signatory: not "a gnome," but a gnome with a name, who knows the practitioner and comes when called.

Signatories never fight. Combat isn't among the services any of them provide, at any tier. That's the heart of every compact: you don't make them fight, and they'll work for you.

Summoning

  • Time: summoning takes 10 minutes (one turn).
  • Cost: 1 Effort per tier — 1 for First Tier, 2 for Second, and 3 for Third.
  • Duration: a Signatory works for you for each scene that your Effort stays committed to it.
  • Distance: a Signatory doesn't have to stay with you. It goes wherever its work takes it — delivering a message, watching a place, or fetching something.
  • Release: your Effort stays committed for an hour after you release the Signatory.

Sunrise and Sunset

Signatories automatically return home at sunrise and at sunset. You can commit 1 more Effort to keep a Signatory past a sunrise or sunset, and it costs another Effort for each one that passes.

Tools and Materials

Signatories bring their own tools, but not the materials for their work.

GM note: if a player gives a Signatory better tools, the Signatory keeps them — they come back with it the next time it's summoned.

Tier and Level

A practitioner must be high enough level to make a compact with a higher-tier Signatory:

  • First Tier: any level
  • Second Tier: 3rd level
  • Third Tier: 6th level

Losing a Signatory

If your Signatory dies, you lose that Art.

GM note: finding a replacement isn't impossible, but it should be difficult, especially depending on the circumstances.

Breaking the Compact

Asking a Signatory to fight, or to channel harm, revokes the compact, and you lose that Art. There are no second chances with a contract. The Signatory is still alive, though: to get the Art back, you have to go to it and set things right.

Empowering Arts

A few Arts don't bring a new Signatory. Instead they're an investment of the practitioner's own power that makes every Signatory they know more potent. An Empowering Art applies to all of the practitioner's Signatories, including ones they make compacts with later.

  • Lasting Favors: a Signatory's abilities last twice as long. An ability that lasts until the next sunrise or sunset instead lasts through one more.
  • Potent Favors: a Signatory's abilities are 50% stronger, wherever that's possible.
  • Shared Senses: you can see and hear through a Signatory while it works, wherever it is.
  • Personal Avatar: you can speak through a Signatory while it works, wherever it is. Requires Shared Senses — you have to perceive what's around the Signatory to know what to say. A practitioner who can also cast spells from another school — a Partial Compact mage paired with another Partial Mage — can cast those spells through the Signatory as well, but never damaging, attack, or debuff spells. Harming someone is combat, and using a Signatory as a channel for it breaks the compact (see Breaking the Compact).
  • Versatility: a Signatory can apply its specialty to related work beyond what's listed for it. What counts as related is worked out between the player and the GM, for each Signatory.

Empowering Arts never make a Signatory cheaper to summon, keep it around longer, or help it fight.

First Tier — Physical Laborers

Small fae and outsiders: Gnomes, Brownies, Imps, Grigs, Sprites, Nixies, and Quicklings. 1 Effort to summon.

First Tier Signatories do physical labor, such as:

  • Digging a hole or a grave
  • Building or repairing something
  • Entertainment
  • Delivering a message
  • Watching a place or person
  • Personal service, like cutting your hair or fetching water
  • Cooking and cleaning
  • Carrying things for you
  • Assisting with a skill or task

Each kind of being has a specialty or a quirk:

  • Gnomes are particularly good at making and repairing clothes, and they do it at double speed.
  • Brownies are exceptional cooks, but they're vegetarian. Their food is excellent, but they don't cook meat.
  • Imps can fly and turn invisible, and they're willing to put both to work.
  • Grigs are exceptional musicians and entertainers.
  • Sprites can light up an area with their natural light. They can also give you sprite dust, a temporary light source that lasts about a turn.
  • Nixies are aquatic, and they help with anything involving water, including catching fish to eat.
  • Quicklings make excellent messengers, thanks to their speed.

Second Tier — Minor Magics

Hesperids, Huldras, Kelpies, and Satyrs. 2 Effort to summon.

Second Tier Signatories can do anything a First Tier Signatory can, and they also have lesser magic to help with.

  • Hesperids are exceptional artists. They can also create semi-permanent light sources that last a year and a day.
  • Huldras can carry far more than you'd expect. They can also charm animals and speak with them.
  • Kelpies can grant the ability to breathe water, until the next sunrise or sunset.
  • Satyrs are excellent entertainers. Their magic wine fortifies whoever drinks it, and their magic pipes can help charm or question enemies.

Third Tier — Significant Magics

Devils, Angels, greater Fae, and Jinn. 3 Effort to summon.

Third Tier Signatories can do anything the lower tiers can, and the magic they offer is very significant, such as:

  • Healing, along the lines of the Healer Sigil — maybe even regrowing lost limbs
  • Resistance or immunity
  • Buffs
  • Temporary enchantments
  • Answering questions

Third Tier Signatories aren't pre-built. When a practitioner is ready for a Third Tier compact, the player and GM work out the Signatory together: who it is, what it grants, and what it's like to deal with. The examples below show the scale, not a menu.

Example: An Angel of Mending

  • Healing: heals wounds, cures disease, and, given a full day and night, regrows a lost limb.
  • Blessing: grants a bonus on saving throws against one named threat, until the next sunrise or sunset.
  • Quirk: it won't take part in a deception, and it won't heal anyone in the middle of doing harm.

Example: A Jann of the Desert Wind

The Jann are the jinn-kind most open-minded toward mortals. See Nasrin → Jinn Domains.

  • Answering questions: answers questions about any place the wind has passed over.
  • Resistance: protects against wind and lightning, until the next sunrise or sunset.
  • Temporary enchantment: fills a sail that always catches wind, or lets a cloak carry its wearer gliding down from a height.
  • Quirk: it's curious, and it expects a story it hasn't heard before as part of the bargain.

GM note: Jinn treat Nasrin practitioners as distant cousins, so a Nasrin's compact with a Jinn may come easier, or on different terms. See Magic Systems → Compact.