By Jayke Rhyen and Kirstin A. Hargie
"You want it there? and quickly! Right, well, i'm not the mail man you're used to; I can get it there quicker than you ever thought possible, and I don't even ask for your soul as payment!"
This Arcanos is used to move quickly and safely through any kind of terrain. Mercuriality enables a Wraith to move without the hindrances of normal travel.
Storytellers note: Mercuriality governs movement and speed, but does not allow entrance to the Tempest. Difficulties are the local shroud if used outside the Shadowlands or the Tempest
The Couriers Guild was once one of the most highly regarded guilds in Stygia. They were the Hierarchy's messagers, a bizarre offshoot of the Harbingers Guild. Most Couriers still practicing are in the service of the Hierarchy; but there are many Ferrymen who use Mercuriality, and teach it to independents.
One can identify a Courier by her hyperactive nature, rapid speech, and the subtle rippling of her corpus from resistance alterations.
Liquidity: This art is a side effect of a learning that a Wraith's plasm offers less resistance to its surroundings. This allows her to slide and move at greater speeds. Higher friction while utilizing this art will endanger the corpus.
SYSTEM: The player rolls Dexterity + Mercuriality, difficulty of 6. The number of successes are added to successes on a movement roll with a plus one difficulty for every two successes.
Tread: This art allows a Wraith to have greater manipulation over the resistance of her plasm while using Liquidity. She learns to redirect her plasm to give her greater balance and control over her movement.
SYSTEM: The player rolls Dexterity + Mercuriality, difficulty of 6, to gain balance. Every two successes lowers the difficulty of movement by one. The player rolls Dexterity + Mercuriality (Diff. 6) to push herself away from an object of greater weight than herself. Each success pushes her 12 inches away or will hold her 12 inches off the ground one turn per success. This art requires 1 Pathos.
Landscaping: This art allows a Wraith to have greater understanding of the terrian on which she travels. She can sense objects in her immediate vicinity without her common sense, and envision mental maps.
SYSTEM: The player rolls Perception + Mercuriality (Diff. 6). Each success allows her to sense a larger area. Each success extends the art one turn. Note: This art does not allow the Wraith to see through objects such as walls, trees, fences, etc...
* Swiftness: This art allows the Wraith to take extra actions. It is the super quickness that a Courier possesses.
System: The player rolls Dexterity + Mercuriality (Diff. 6). Each success after the first adds one extra action for that turn. This art is the first action for the turn, a botch will prevent the Wraith from taking her next action.
** Instability: This art is the foundation of altering plasm resistance. This art allows the Wraith to shift objects in the Shadowlands and the Tempest into incorporeal states without doing damage to the objects. This art can be used on the Wraith to reduce corpus damage by one.
System: The player rolls Strength + Mercuriality (Diff. 6) to effect an object. The player rolls Stamina + Mercuriality (Diff. 8) to effect herself. Each success allows her to reduce corpus damage by one. This art requires the expenditure of 1 Pathos.
*** Feather Flight: Because ease of movement is of utmost concern, flight is a logical alternative to walking. Flight is a necessary tool to avoid contact with uneven terrain.
System:The player rolls Dexterity + Mercuriality (Diff. 6). Each success allows a Wraith to fly for one turn. This art requires Instability and 1 Pathos.
**** Deflection: Moving at high speeds increases the dangers of hitting objects that are blurred with motion. This art allows the Wraith to deflect objects from her path. Objects such as boxes, bushes, bullets, and other free standing or flying objects may be deflected.
System:The player rolls Strength + Mercuriality (Diff. 6). Each success equals a 5' radius of deflection, and one turn duration. This art is most successfully used with Landscaping, and requires 2 Pathos + 1P/turn.
**** Ripple: This art allows the Wraith to use Instability on another Wraith.
System: The player rolls Strength + Mercuriality (Diff. 7). The Wraiths must be touching to employ this art. Each success reduces corpus damage by one. Note: To travel at the speeds of Mercuriality, Ripple must be activated. This art requires the expenditure of 1 Pathos by each Wraith involved.
**** Phaze: This art allows the Wraith to occupy the same space as another object of equal or greater size, without inflicting corpus damage.
System: The player rolls Stamina + Mercuriality (Diff. 7). Each success allows her to co-locate with the object for one turn. She may only enter and leave one object at a time. She will sense when the rolled successes are running out, and she may revive the power by making another roll. This art requires 2 Pathos.
***** Quicksilver: This art causes the corpus to become freeflowing upon impact. This allows the Wraith to move around objects without taking corpus damage.
System:The player rolls Stamina + Mercuriality (Diff. 7). Success allows corpus damage to be ignored. A botch causes corpus damage to be doubled. This art requires 2 Pathos + 1P/turn past the second turn that is spent in this form.
***** Phaze Shifting: This art allows the Wraith to move through a series of objects, or one large object (a building), and not take corpus damage.
System: The player rolls Dexterity + Mercuriality (Diff. 8). Each success allows her to move one turn at normal speed, unless Swiftness is invoked. This art requires 3 Pathos + 1P/turn past the first turn that is spent in this form.