3X3 EYES HERO

NEW SPELLS


Michael's Note: Due to the differences in how GURPS and the HERO System treat magic, this section has been heavily edited. I also recognize the fact that HERO System GMs have many different ways of handling magic powers and spell casting in their games, which is why the spells in this section are fairly generic (just add whatever Limitations are standard for your campaign).


Some of these are so powerful, they would be better used as a plot device rather than something the PCs (or NPCs) might use all the time (this is especially true for Choang-Ling-Ling). The Repel Evil and Pacify Evil spells work on non-evil creatures as well. Their name is a product of the poor understanding of demons most humans have. The Sanjiyan would probably name those spells differently, but the human designation was used to avoid further complications.

Spells listed as "Sanjiyan Unkara only" are not available as beast abilities or paper magic.

SENSE EVIL

This spell will tell the caster if any non-human beings with magic powers (i.e. "demons") are in the local area. As magic powers is a rather broad-based special effect, and it is up to the GM to decide if a specific creature's powers are magical or innate. If the caster gets a good result in his PER Roll, he may uncover further information about the being(s) detected (such as how many, approximate location, or a general idea about what kind of demon was detected). The caster may limit this spell at casting to detect only a certain kind of "demon," or exclude already known "demons" in the spell's area of effect from detection.

Game Information: Detect "Demons" (INT Roll) (no Sense Group), Discriminatory, Range (20 Active Points); Costs Endurance (-1/2). Total cost: 15 points.

REPEL EVIL

Repels any non-human beings with magic powers (i.e. "demons") are in the local area. As magic powers is a rather broad-based special effect, and it is up to the GM to decide if a specific creature's powers are magical or innate. The spell resists attempts by such beings from entering, or staying in the area of effect.

Game Information: FW (10 PD/10 ED/8 Power Defense; 6" long and 2" tall), Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4) (102 Active Points); Only Versus Demons And The Like (-1), No Range (-1/2), Cannot Be Used To Englobe (-1/4), Restricted Shape (2" ring around caster; -1/4) (Real Cost: 34) plus +50 PRE (50 Active Points); Only To Repel Demons (-1), Costs Endurance (-1/2) (Real Cost: 20). Total cost: 54 points.

PACIFY EVIL

Paralyses any non-human beings with magic powers (i.e. "demons"), as long as physical contact between the mage (or paper charm or other item) and the subject is kept. As magic powers is a rather broad-based special effect, and it is up to the GM to decide if a specific creature's powers are magical or innate.

Game Information: Entangle 3d6, 3 DEF, Takes No Damage From Attacks Limited Group (+1/4), Works Against EGO Not STR (+1/4), BOECV (Mental Defense applies; +1) (75 Active Points); Caster Must Retain Contact with Target (-1), Limited Class Of Minds ["demons"] (-1/2), No Range (-1/2), Cannot Form Barriers (-1/4). Total cost: 23 points.

If this spell is created as a paper charm, the spell can be used at range, but the Entangle's effect is negated if the charm is removed.

BEWITCHING ATTACK
[Sanjiyan Unkara Only]

This is a very special form of magic. It's known by every Sanjiyan above a certain age. It will be learned almost by instinct when the Sanjiyan's body has developed enough to tolerate the power strain. A suggestion for this age is around 270 years old, roughly the equivalent of a 13 year old human.

This magic will merge the soul of a living creature with the Sanjiyan's own, trapping it inside the Sanjiyan's body and creating a very special binding between them. The one whose soul isn't in his body anymore will be granted immortality, and through the link shared by him and his Sanjiyan, unmatched self-healing powers and a limited access to the Sanjiyan's magic.

A Sanjiyan can only have one Wu at a time, and the binding between them cannot be severed by anything other than death or the most extremely powerful magic. It's not known if any Sanjiyan ever managed to break this link, but there are a few, very dangerous, ways to extract the Wu's soul from the Sanjiyan's body; the link might also be undone by destroying the Wu's soul.

It takes around 30 seconds to absorb the soul, and 30 seconds to merge and link the Wu's soul with the Sanjiyan's. The Wu's first Recovery will start immediately after the link is made, and the 'Wu' ideogram will appear in his forehead after this Recovery is complete.

Both the Sanjiyan and the Wu will lose consciousness after the link is completed as the Sanjiyan's magical Endurance is completely depleted by the spell, and the Wu's body is adapting itself to the new condition and healing. The newborn Wu and the Sanjiyan's human personality will awake after some hours of rest.

Hero Mechanics: Here is the Sanjiyan Bewitching Attack expressed in HERO terms--

37	Create Wu:  Major Transform 8d6 (human into Wu, reversal of spell by Sanjiyan Unkara 
	via Ningen Statue), Continuous (+1); 1 Continuing Charge lasting 1 Turn which Never 
	Recovers (-3 1/4), Concentration, Must Concentrate throughout use of Constant Power 
	(0 DCV; Character is totally unaware of nearby events; -1 1/2), Costs Endurance (-1/2), 
	Extra Time (Full Phase, Only to Activate, -1/4), END 24

As written, the spell takes One Turn (or about 12 seconds) to perform. Game Masters could rewrite this to take a full Minute as described in the text. The END cost can also be increased, to anywhere from 3x to 5x END to better simulate the complete draining of the Sanjiyan's magical energies. However, since this ability is very much a "plot device" power, the exact set up of Limitations isn't very important.

3X3 EYES POWER BLAST
[Sanjiyan Unkara Only]

This is one of the most powerful attack spells in existence and fortunately only the third-eyed personality of a Sanjiyan Unkara can cast it. Even the more blood-lusting Sanjiyan would not take the usage of this powerful spell lightly. The Power Blast spell always requires the Sanjiyan to make a simple gesture with the hands and speak a very short and harsh mantra (the Devanagari writing for this mantra is read as saz). If the Sanjiyan is unable to do the gestures, or speak the mantra, the spell still might be castable, but at severe penalties and with possible lethal side effects. The Sanjiyan can control the target of this spell with amazing accuracy. It will only hit the intended target, even if other people is very close to it (e.g.: Yakumo at Galga's mouth (manga Volume 8) was not hit by the blast that destroyed Galga). This might indicate a No Range Modifier Advantage, or something like +6 OCV Combat Skill Levels with this specific attack.

The power blast will punch through defenses with ease. It is recommended the blast be larger than the largest spells available to normal mages. In a game where most people had 60 Active Points in vested in their powers, then Power Blast should be 90 to 120 Active Points. Advantages such as Armor Piercing and Penetrating should be considered. Despite the name "Power Blast," it is highly likely this spell works best as a Ranged Killing Attack

The blast can be bought as Continuous, doing damage every Phase as long as the Sanjiyan has END to feed the attack. The blast will burrow though almost anything and will slowly eat though physical armors. It will destroy shields and the like, and can only really be resisted with magical Force Fields and Force Walls. The blast also has the added effect of transferring some kinetic energy to the target, neatly spreading the bloody remains away from the Sanjiyan.

This is a VERY powerful spell by anyone's standards, so the GM has got every right to describe massive destruction if it backfires (a backfire could occur on a bad to-hit roll, or a missed magic Skill Roll for example). This spell can be either Instant or Continuous, and the Sanjiyan can change targets while maintaining it. This will require a new to-hit roll and the beam might hit unwanted targets caught in the blast's way during the shifting of the Sanjiyan's aim.

Most Sanjiyan won't be able to keep themselves awake after the big drain of a Power Blast, and will lose consciousness after using it. Sometimes the drain will be so huge the Sanjiyan will spend normal END on the spell as well. That might also send the human personality to the dreamlands.

Some extremely powerful creatures have access to variants of this spell, none of them as effective END-wise as the Sanjiyan's version. It is recommended that these variants should never be directly available to PCs.

There is one powerful variant of the Banish spell (see Dispel Essence below), often used by the Sanjiyan Unkara, which looks very like the 3x3 Eyes Power Blast although it usually does not leave any remains of the target behind. This fact has caused some non-Sanjiyan Unkara mages to draw mistaken conclusions about the behavior and power of both the Power Blast and the variant Banish spell, causing a number of tragedies due to misinformation, as well as a lot of trouble to those who looked for a way to duplicate the 3x3 Eyes Power Blast spell.

DISPEL ESSENCE

Dispel Essence "homes" in the target's magical essence itself, and will only work on creatures with Magic Skill or inherent magic powers. The effects of Dispel Essence is the ability to correctly "home" on the target regardless of its body state, therefore being able to banish a creature which is possessing another, phased, or even if the creature has mixed its body with another creature's. In the case of mixed bodies, the spell will remove from the target all traces of the banished creature, leaving behind the body in the state it was before the mixing, and physically stunned. The caster cannot banish himself back to his own plane with this spell.

Dispel Essence looks very much alike to the 3x3 Eyes Power Blast. It may also require gestures and the speaking of a short mantra which is very similar, if not the same, as those of the Power Blast.

This was the spell used by Parvati IV to free Natsuko from the "Eye-blob monster" (the Gesu) in Volume 2 of the manga.

Game Information: This is best expressed as two powers. The first is a Major Transform, possessed person or creature into normal person or creature. Limitations such as Gestures, Incantations, and Extra Time (typically a Full or Extra Phase) are appropriate. The second part of the spell is a Linked Extra-Dimensional Movement with the Advantages or Ranged and Usable As Attack. The target of the EDM is a limited set of "magical" dimensions.

CHOANG-LING-LING
(Pierce Spirit Rhombus)
[Beast Magicians Only]

This is a very dangerous form of mind control magic. It allows the caster to wipe out (sometimes permanently) the target's memories, and control it, by replacing the target's memories and mind with another one. This spell requires a third party, which will provide the new memories and mind, and it is extremely difficult to counter once it was successfully cast and applied to the target. The spell will change a chosen beast, demon, or any other creature with magic powers or Magic Skill into a rhombus-shaped biochip with many terminals on one side. This creature's weight must not differ on more than half of the biochip's target's weight, and its INT must not be lower than (biochip's target's INT-5), or 8. The caster must then implant this biochip on the target's forehead (or wherever the brain is if it is a non-human creature) by pressing the biochip there. The biochip will introduce its terminals in the target's brain and block his real personality and memories, substituting it for the creature-turned-biochip's own.

During the casting, the magician must specify a password. If the biochip knows this password, it will be possible to undo the magic and release the target's mind at the biochip's will. Once undone, the biochip will return to his original form.

Choang-Ling-Ling is a very complex spell, and the results may be nasty, even if it was successfully cast by the magician. If the conditions for weight of the creature-turned-biochip are not met, the biochip will either be ineffective if it is too light, or cause permanent brain damage to the target if it is too heavy: the target's INT is permanently reduced by three, and the biochip will be at INT-3 until the magic is undone. If the conditions for minimum INT are not met, the biochip will not take over, but it will still be attached to the target's cortex and may reduce the target's INT by 5 for the duration, by deliberately tampering with his mental processes.

The biochip will look like a rhombus fuuin (seal) on the target's forehead, and cannot be removed except by the password. Surgical removal is impossible at normal technology levels (i.e. 1990's), since the biochip's terminals would remain on the victim, possibly causing severe brain damage. The rhombus may be recognized by someone who doesn't know the spell with a -6 to their KS: Occultism roll.

If Choang-Ling-Ling is applied to someone with split personalities, ONLY the active personality will be severed by the chip, the other ones may lose their memory and will NOT be under the biochip's control. If the personalities are perfectly split, there is one chance in three that the other selves will not even be affected by the spell. Sanjiyan suffering the effects of Choang-Ling-Ling are either asleep or half-awake, and cannot access their full power.

Game Information: This spell is very unusual and complex to define. The simplest way to create this spell is though two separate Major Transforms. The first turns the first creature into the rhombus, the second is a form of Psychic Surgery (see The Ultimate Mentalist). This power is BOECV and works against the target's EGO instead of BODY. Undoing either Transform requires the magician to utter the password. Otherwise, The effect is as described—the creature the rhombus is attached to looses all memories and has them replaced by the one's locked into the rhombus. This spell should have such Limitations as Requires A Skill Roll, Extra Time (probably a Turn or more), Gestures, No Range, Limited Target (magical beings), Concentration, and All Or Nothing. Failure of the Skill Roll can result in a number of problems—permanent memory loss, permanent INT loss, BODY damage, and even death. Game Masters may wish to build this as a Side Effect to the spell.


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