Source: M. A. Lloyd
The Path of Visions is information gathering magic. Sensory enhancements are rare in traditional sources. Scrying and binary detectors are more common, but many supernatural information sources are essentially verbal, providing complete, if not always understandable, solutions or prophecies.
The magician learns if the target is chaste. Some form of this ritual is found in almost every tradition, but the definition varies. In Christian traditions chastity is virginity before marriage, absolute faithfulness in actions and thoughts afterwards, but in others it may be as little as you haven't fucked anything you promised a regular partner you wouldn't. This is a yes/no check, but in most traditions the magician can accept a -2 penalty and get a feeling of how dedicated to chastity and/or how serious a transgressor the target is.
Also universal, and usually a simple binary test, but sometimes accepting a -2 penalty allows the magician to determine how committed the target is to virginity, or how he feels/felt about losing it.
Improves the chances of a search effort. As VO p77, except the casting time is reset to the standard 1 hour, and the default duration is until the object is found or the standard 1 day, not 2d days.
One of the most common divinations, the target sees a brief vision of his true love, often but not necessarily someone he recognizes. There are many variations. Some show future spouses rather than true loves, some reveal signs that can be used to identify the true love rather than provide a vision, some cause the target to have a 'feeling' upon next seeing the true love, and in some the next eligible person encountered will be the one. The target should either meet and recognize the true love in the near future, or be provided with a clear idea of how to identify the proper person.
Like any precognitive vision this requires quite a bit of GM judgment and willingness to finesse the future to pull off.
Answers a question about the future, vaguely. As Vision of Luck, VO p77.
Shows the target a vision of a possible death, as the spell Death Vision (M72).
Unlike some divinations, the forewarned target can use this information to avoid the risk.
Sentient entities can 'dampen' their auras and hide from this sense by winning a quick contest of Alertness vs. Will. If this becomes significant very often, consider introducing a Spiritual Stealth skill (Will/Easy) defaults to Will to be used in place of Will in the contest.
The target always knows which direction to go to reach a specific destination. The effect can manifest as anything from a warm feeling when traveling the right direction to an actual guide, often a small distant light, which may or may not be visible to others. The Guidestar may point anywhere the magician knows well, to any more or less public place he can uniquely name, or to any person or object present at the casting. A pointer to yourself cast on someone elsewhere should cause anyone vaguely curious to come looking.
The target can see without using his eyes. He senses everything within 3 hexes as if he could see it at close range, ignoring light levels, fog, intervening solid barriers and so on. The GM may require PCs that use this regularly to buy down sight related disadvantages.
Any spirit under a sorceror's 'command', be it a willing ally or under the effects of a controlling ritual like Command, Evil Eye, Spirit Searcher or similar magic, can be subjected to this ritual, (It can be 'merged' with a controlling ritual into a single casting (both ritual rolls must be made and casting time is as for two rituals).
If successful the sorcerer can see what the 'servant' spirit sees.
This ritual works for any senses the spirit and the sorcerer share, but each sensing ritual must be cast separately, ie Mary casts Spirit Eyes three times on her Spirit Ally Jake to be able to see, hear and smell what Jake would. Range works for the combined IQ (plus alertness or relevant accute sense) of spirit and sorcerer combined.
Example: Mary has +2 Accute hearing, IQ 13. Jake has IQ 9. She would be able to see or smell what Jake did up to a distance of 22 miles, but hear up to 24 miles from the ghost.
Any severance of the link between caster and spirit ends the ritual. If Jake goes more than 22 miles from Mary, the hearing ritual still is functioning. Even if he gets closer, vision and smell are gone.
Reveals the reasons a ghost has not passed on to the afterlife. Sometimes the reason is something the magician can resolve, though some ghosts remain voluntarily, and some situations are beyond resolution.
Reveals the reasons a ghost has not passed on to the afterlife. Sometimes the reason is something the magician can resolve, though some ghosts remain voluntarily, and some situations are beyond resolution.
The magician obtains a general sense of the history of an object - origins, significant events, flashes of previous users - but no names. Alternately he may ask about one specific detail per point of success margin.
The magician can seek a specific person or object, or by accepting a -2 penalty, a random nearby member of a general class of objects. The usual effect is to draw a pointer (pendulum, dowsing rod, compass needle) toward the target. In the basic form this simply gives a direction, but at -4 the ritual can search a symbolic space (a map, a phone book, a list of possible locations) which can be much more informative. Intentionally hidden targets are found at -1 to -5, depending on how strongly the person concealing it wanted it hidden.
The magician can obtain a vision of a specific person, place or object as it is now, or by taking a -4 penalty, at a moment in the past. The vision covers the immediate surroundings of the target (the room it is in, or a few dozen yards if it is in the open), but provides no special insight about where it is. A success margin of two or more shows the scene in good illumination even if the light there is (was) poor. Many variants use a crystal, but a mirror, reflecting pool, fire, smoke, dancing shadows, sunlight or even purely mental vision can work. A permanent focus remains attuned to the scene for the standard duration, or until the magician dismisses it, but a temporary focus like flames, smoke or sunbeams falls apart as soon as the magician stops concentrating and cannot be recovered without recasting the ritual.
This ritual allows the target to understand any language spoken in his presence, or to read a single language/script combination of which he has a sample. At an additional -5, the target can also speak any language used in his presence like a native.
The gift also allows languages to be learned quickly. Count the entire duration after a sample is heard as study of the language with a teacher, so a duration just over four days provides 0.5 points. If a character begins with points in this ritual, consider giving him the languages and scripts found in his community for free before the game begins. It's less abusive than it sounds, languages are not highly valuable per point, and it will spare the distraction of gaming out fast learning the neighborhood languages, which is likely to happen otherwise.
An enchantment placed on a light source. For the duration anything of great value, or places where such objects are hidden, illuminated by the lamp will be obvious. Traditionally faint blue flames burn above them, in some variants visible only to the person holding the light source. Great value is intentionally left vague. It might mean great value to the magician, the lamp holder, or simply the person who last handled the object. Variants sensitive to something else - secrets, dangers, fateful things, evidence - are also possible.
An enchantment which can be applied to any useful object. Thereafter it works properly for those meeting a condition set by the mage. Typical examples include clothing that only fits the true princess (or the chaste, pure at heart etc.), the sword only the future king (or a fated hero, or its true owner) can draw, and the cup the forsworn cannot drink from without spilling it. Exactly how the item fails can be specified, or it can vary from attempt to attempt, as long as it never works right. A fated sword may cut your hand on the draw one time, twist so it always strikes with the flat the next, and score a maximum damage critical hit to the vitals of your faithful squire in a practice bout the third time.
This Mystery enchants a mirror to reflect the true nature of things. Invisible objects or entities that lack reflections appear in the true mirror, illusions do not and disguises or transformations show both shapes overlaid on each other. There are variants that create lenses or circlets with the same effect when peered through.
Clarify senses, answer a question about the past or present detect sorcerers, life tokens, personality reading, reveal invisible, fortune-telling, determine identity, see auras.