Icelandic Magical Staves

Here are a few Icelandic magical staves used for folk magic.

The sigils can be used by anyone, but they are not common knowledge and will more often than not be kept secret by those who wish to retain the advantage such magic offers. Some are carved on actual staves, but others are inscribed on any item you would like to to enchant, or on small wooden talismans or coins for ease of use. One item can only bear a single magical sigil, and the effects of multiple talismans do not stack.

Also don't forget that while the sigils are generally not illegal, the local government might not take it kindly when you're abusing magic.

by Anne Mathiasz

 
d20 Magical Sigils

1. Að unni: Must be carved on a talisman along with your name and the name of a person you wish to charm. Then slip the talisman in your target's pocket and you'll get +4 bonus to all Charisma checks against them.
2. Angurgapi: This sigil wards off liquids. It is often carved on the ends of barrels to prevent leaking. A room covered in Angurgapi could make water float like in zero g.
3. Brýnslustafir: When carved on a whetstone, any blade sharpened with it gains +1 damage for a day.
4. Draugstafur: Any item bearing this sigil acts as a lure for undead. They will sense it from several hundred feet away and get pulled in, though intelligent undead may recognize what's going on.
5. Draumstafir: If you draw this sigil on your forehead before going to sleep, you will enter the Dreamlands.
6. Dreprún: All bovine, cervid and similar animals must Save vs fear or be unable to approach the sigil. Carved into boundary stones, it is often used in place of a pen fence.
7. Feingur: A sigil ensuring fertility, easy birth and healthy offspring. Can be used both on animals and humans, but has to be either branded or tattooed.
8. Gapaldur & Ginfaxi: Two sigils carved into the soles of shoes taken by force or deception from a great warrior. Gapaldur is placed under the heel of the right foot and protects from being pushed or knocked back. Ginfaxi is placed under the toes of the left foot and grants advantage on attempts to bullrush or knock down your foes.
9. Hólastafur: This sigil must be inscribed on a coin taken from a buried treasure. When placed on its edge, it will start rolling towards the nearest path leading deeper, such as shafts or stairs down in a dungeon.
10. Kaupaloki: Grants +4 bonus when haggling. Even a rumour of using this sigil is enough for the merchants to stop doing any business with you and maybe send a thug or few to have a little talk.
11. Lásabrjótur: Touching this talisman to a lock will shatter both the lock and the talisman with a loud crack, though magic locks get a Save.
12. Lukkustafir: A weapon inscribed with this sigil can store critical hits for later. Only one critical hit can be stored at a time, and only actual attacks can be stored, no swinging at air.
13. Máladeilan: Grants +4 bonus in legal and bureaucratic interactions if carved on a gold coin and carried in your left pocket.
14. Skelkunarstafur: Anyone who carries a talisman with this sigil on their person will automatically fail all Saves vs fear.
15. Stafur gegn galdri: This sigil cannot be crossed by magic (supernatural creatures, enchanted items, spellcasters) unless they succeed on a Save. Must be anointed with innocent blood before taking effect.
16. Tóustefna: All canines must Save vs fear or be unable to approach the sigil. Often carved into travelling staves as a protection from wolves and wild dogs.
17. Vatnahlífir: Grants +4 bonus to Save vs drowning if a talisman with the sigil is held under your tongue.
18. Vegvísir: When carved on a lit lantern, it will guide you through rough weather or darkness of the night. You cannot get lost unless your lantern goes out.
19. Veiðistafur: When carved on a fishing rod, it allows you to always catch at least 1d4 rations worth of fish in any river or pond.
20. Þjófastafur: Carved on a dowsing rod, it will detect stolen items, but only if used by an (ex-)thief.

 
And finally a bonus magic item:

Nábrók
The "corpse breeches" are trousers made from the flayed skin of a dead man inscribed with Nábrókarstafur. They can only be created from the skin of a man who agreed to this before his death. The wearer of nábrók can reach into the scrotum of the trousers at any time and pull out a handful of coins. The coins seem normal, but wizards will sense faint magic in them and if ever touched by sunlight, they will crumble to dust.

Once put on, the nábrók cannot be taken off unless someone else agrees to wear them. If the wearer dies while still wearing the trousers, their soul will be unable to leave their body and they will slowly transform into a draugr. Their mind will be overcome with greed, and they will spend the nights looking for treasures and hoarding them in their burial mound.

Rules Worth Stealing

Reading through the rulebook of Encounter Critical, I happened upon several rules that I wouldn't mind in the least to see adapted in other games.

 

Low Attributes, High Skills
Rolling low for attributes is infuriating. Sure, such character is still playable, but it's hard to shake the feeling they are bad because of the low scores.

In Encounter Critical, low attribute scores boost some of your skills - low Strength gives bonus to Logic and Scholarship, low Robotic Nature increases your chances of Seduction, etc. As you'll be rolling your skills much more often than attributes, low stats don't make your character worse, just specialised in different direction.
 

Adventuring party as should be!

Class Quests
Every class in Encounter Critical has its own inbuilt mini-quest that must be finished before you can increase in level. Quoth the rules:

• A warrior cannot go up a level until he defeats an equal or more powerful foe using a new kind of weapon.
• A criminal cannot go up a level until he commits a new kind of crime.
• A pioneer cannot go up a level until he discovers a new locale or secret of the wild.
• A psi witch cannot go up a level until she wins a battle blind.

There is even a place on the character sheet to write the deeds down, so the player can later review what helped them achieve their levels. Not only does this add a layer of flavour and personality, it also doubles as easy back story if you make your players come up with the deeds that raised them from 0th level NPCs to level 1 adventurers.

 

Cyaborg planetary ape.

 
Great Companion

Every warrior eventually attracts a great companion. This will be a monster mount such as griffin or space monster (25%), an equestrian mount of great endurance and intelligence (50%) or a shield mate, a warrior or like mind and half the warrior's own level, who is absolutely loyal (25%). This occurs when the warrior gains a level, but the exact time is uncertain. There is 15% odds each new level; those odds do not accumulate. Roll every time the warrior goes up in one level. The warrior's great companion is once in a lifetime.

For any swords & sorcery game, this rule is pure gold.

Amazon warrior and her great companion,
from High Couch of Silistra.

On Carcosan Magic

NSFW warning.

When I think about sword & sorcery spellcasters, I imagine evil high priests invoking their incomprehensible gods, or mad sorcerers working their cruel rituals. What I don't see is a wizard casting a certain number of fireballs per day. But RPG systems that fashion themselves sword & sorcery, even if they try to emulate that feel of "forbidden knowledge" by making magic more scarce and dangerous, still end up with some variation on wizards casting fireballs.

The only book I can think of (and any recommendations are very much welcome!) that does magic really differently is Carcosa. The system of rituals presented therein is dark, horrible, and really hammers home how unnatural magic is. Even better, the rituals don't need any artificial restrictions on how many you can cast per day, or on which character level. Just getting the necessary resources together is a nice limit on the amount of magic any sorcerer can use.

Carcosa still falls short of what I would think of as an ideal sword & sorcery magic system, though, because of the very limited diversity of presented rituals. I'd like to find a middle ground between only summoning, binding, contacting or banishing otherworldly entities and casting the traditional, simple, boring D&D spells.

Here is an attempt at that, with several nasty but useful rituals.

Once again, there is no limit on how often the sorcerer can use these rituals, the inherent cost and peril should be enough. A ritual is botched if some of its steps are followed incorrectly, or if it's interrupted before completion.

 

Mother's Daughter
This ritual can only be cast by a female sorceress in the ruins of a destroyed temple, on her birthday. She must kill a male and a female siblings in a sacrifice to Os and Oa, the conjoined demon-gods. If they accept the offering, they will possess the corpses and lie with the sorceress. Nine month later, the sorceress will give birth to a clone of herself, who will grow to a perfect copy of the sorceress in a year and a day, including all knowledge and abilities. A botched ritual will strike the sorceress permanently sterile.

Infallible Messenger
The sorceress must carve the runes of bondage and journeys into the flesh of a child no older than twelve years. She shall then sew their mouth shut and whisper a message into their ear. The child will immediately seek out the recipient, never loosing the path no matter the distance. Until the message is delivered, the child will run faster than a horse and never rest, unable to die from exhaustion, starvation, exposure or injury. The recipient, and only him, may cut the thread sealing the child's lips, hearing the message in the sorceress' own voice. A child enchanted with a botched ritual will, once its lips are parted, scream until it drops dead and everyone nearby lies unconscious and bleeding from their ears.

Slavery of Slime
The target of this ritual must be stripped naked, painted with holy symbols of Juiblex and bound with ropes of Bone Men intestines. They shall then be buried alive in the sands of Nogg, with only a straw for breathing and sustenance. The sorcerer shall feed them with seven types of oozes, slimes and puddings, each for a different day of the week, until two full moons pass. The target may then be dug out, transformed into an utterly loyal sludge vampire. If the ritual is botched, though, the vampire will only feign its loyalty and strike at the sorcerer when he is most vulnerable.

I know I said there are enough summoning rituals already. Oh well.

Blood of the Lamb
The sorcerer shall rape a virgin until they beg for help and mercy, then slit their throat with an obsidian knife while chanting prayers to the Leprous Dweller Below. The victim's blood will be consecrated through agony, despair and lost purity. A single person should then lap up the gushing blood before it stops its flow, healing from all diseases and maladies. A botched ritual will see the victim bleed putrescence instead of blood, transforming into a hostile diseased guardian.

 

 

Keel Cleaves the Clouds
The sorceress must mix her own tears with a droplet from the Watery Death and fresh rainwater, then make an Ulfire Woman drink the concoction. After that, the woman may be crucified on the bow of a ship. Until the woman dies, the ship will sail on fog or clouds as if they were water. The woman needs not necessarily die during the ritual, and various invigorating drugs are often provided both to help her survive the ordeal and to extend the effect of the magic. On a botched ritual, the woman will start to vomit prodigious amounts of water immediately after taking the concoction, until she drowns herself.

Invulnerable Hero's Skin
The sorcerer shall flay alive a man of the same race as himself with a severed claw of a byakhee, then wear the skin on his naked body. Care must be taken so that the victim doesn't die, or the spell will end. Any damage that the sorcerer would suffer while he wears the stolen skin is transferred to the victim instead. Obviously, sturdier victims are preferable for this ritual, especially barbarians and fighting-men. A botched ritual will simply result in the death of the flayed man.

Sheathe of Broken Love
The sorceress must plunge a weapon into the heart of a person she truly loves while shouting insults to Yog-Sothoth. Afterwards, for as long as the weapon remain in the corpse and the corpse does not completely rot away, the sorceress may instantly summon the weapon to her hand. It will return back to the corpse once she lets go of it, or once it strikes its target if thrown. If the ritual is botched, it seems to work normally but the sorceress also becomes pregnant* with a spawn of Yog-Sothoth.

Hundred Tongues
This ritual must be performed with a knife blessed by a priest of Nyarlathotep and requires the sorceress to cut out her own tongue, though it may be preserved for later use. She should then cut out the tongue of any human or creature and place it into her mouth. She will be able to speak the native language of the victim. Many sorcerers store hundreds of jars with preserved tongues in their lairs, thus the name of this ritual. A botched ritual will bring permanent muteness to the sorceress.

 

Witches from Penny Dreadful are the perfect
example of a terrifying spellcaster.

*) Male sorcerers will be impregnated as well.