Memory Tables for Magic-Users
Magic-Users begin with a lesser devil bound to their 1. Wand 2. Staff 3. Robe 4. Hat. In binding they align themselves to a greater devil. The devil's Aspect determines what types of spells may be cast.
Roll for peril every time a spell is cast then mark off the leftmost result.
Add new spells and bind new aspects through magical research.
Aspect: Jealousy of the secondborn. A coin unseen. The tremble of an assassin's blade. Examples: cause paranoia, hide in shadow, malediction: make a death look like an accident
| d6 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A fingernail falls to the floor | Each of your nails sloughs off | Grow soft-fleshed hoof-hands and feet |
| 2 | Malodor of sulphur upon your breath | Orifices leak molten brimstone | Cough up an imp, your wretched servant. |
| 3 | Bleating laughter | From your throat this time | A wicked jest, your spell turns upon you |
| 4 | Candles, lamps and lanterns extinguish | Surroundings plunge into unnatural darkness | See in the dark. Sensitivity to the bright |
| 5 | Good fortune on matters of luck | A stranger that was kind to you dies | Again and again |
| 7 | Arms blacken with soot | Footsteps leave traces of ash | The last town that you visited burnsburnsburns |
If all three boxes in a single row are marked off, a malignant shadow emerges to claim your life. Increasingly deadly for each row filled.
Aspect: She who waits. The rot which always is. The price of life eternal. Examples: Spread miasma, healing touch, commune with vermin
| d6 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | An awful toothache | Your teeth dance away | New ones grow as venomous needles |
| 2 | Animals shy from your presence | A three-headed calf is born | Ewes, hens and heifers birth toads |
| 3 | An incomprehensible thought, not your own | A bleeding hunger | Satiate it or be deprived |
| 4 | Flesh bloats, blisters and boils | Blood oozes like mud | A gift, resilience to poisons and disease |
| 5 | A rat in your pack | Thirty this time | Vermin are never far from you |
| 6 | Saccharine scent of death, fleeting | Fleeting no more | Your rations always rot, your swords always rust |
If all three boxes in a row are marked off, the next time the number is rolled a new plague seed spawns.
Notes
Rule #2. This definitely has implications on how society treats magic-users. Secret practitioners might want to inscribe runes of infernal power into their smallclothes for one.
Tumbling around in the OSR somewhere is the idea that whenever dice are rolled something should happen. So too with perilous magic. A side effect is that every casting of a spell is consequential. It's probably not a good idea to use magic for lighting a frivolous fire if by doing so you could lose your teeth.
I mixed some character growth/boons into the tables.
I like the idea of occultish Spell-Circles and rituals for this too.
See also Encounter Tables that Remember and The Memory of the Meatgrinder. There's probably something that can be done with magical peril and Hex Flowers too.
More magic stuff:
Rise Up Comus Truespeaker | Skerples Class: Wizards | Bommyknocker Press Anti-Spells | Tim B A short history of magic |