Earth Powers (FiD)

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Earth is the base of all, the solid ground we walk on, dig into, and who ultimately nourishes us all.

The earth can be influenced and used by other powers, yet it remains solid. Earth powers can be slow and imprecise, but are very powerful.

Earth attacks are thrown rocks and weapons made of stone, but more powerful effects can cause tremors and earthquakes. Combines well with other powers, for example earth plus fire can cause a volcano and earth plus air can cause a sandstorm.

Earth creatures are mainly earth elementals, but also creatures that burrow into the earth and monsters and animals with earth powers. Burrowing animals are also covered by the Animal power.

Earth Power Effects Table

Action Basic
No minimum
3 Stress
Advanced
Minimum 2 Dice
5 Stress
Master
Minimum 4 Dice
7 Stress
Apex
Minimum 6 Dice
13 Stress
Attune Gaia's Gaze
Detect Earth creatures and Earth powers.
Gaia's Gauntlet
Dismiss an Earth creature. End a power that affects Earth.
Gaia's Guardian
Summon an earth creature.
Gaia's Gate
Create a portal to and from the plane of earth.
Command Stone Speech
Command earth creatures even if they don't understand you.
Stone Signal
Communicate with Earth over long distances.
Stone Sovereign
Command Earth creatures as if you were their superior.
Stone Slave
Permanently bind Earth creatures to service.
Consort Mud Mask
Imbue clothes and accessories with earth, crystals, and gems.
Mud Manifestation
Assume the form of an earth creature.
Mud Morph
Shapechange a willing or helpless creature into an Earth creature.
Mud Mastery
Transform a number of willing or non-sentient creatures, give a simple instruction.
Finesse Pebble Path
Ride an earth creature mount or a vehicle made of earth.
Stalagmite Strike
Fine and potent close-range attack. Give crew Pebble Path.
Pebble Poke
Manipulate earth to do small and exact things.
Stalactite Storm
A storm of spears, suppressing scale.
Hunt Impressions In Earth
Track over any solid surface.
Pellet Shot
Attack similar to a fine and potent rifle.
Dust Dance
Rearrange terrain, moving hills and boulders.
Gravel Grenade
Attack like a fine and potent grenade.
Prowl Boulder Blend
Hide against bare stone or earth.
Earthglide
Move on and through earth.
Earthwalk
Crew use of Boulder Blend and Earthglide.
Womb of the Earth
Teleport crew from one Earth location to another.
Skirmish Stone Skirmish
Melee attack.
Diamond Daggers
Fine and potent Skirmish Attack.
Labyrinth
Obstructions defeat scale.
Crystal Cascade
Attack all enemies in a area.
Study Crystal Clarity
Identify objects, creatures, and powers of Earth.
Earthly Expertise
Learn specific abilities of Earth.
Earthly Echoes
Experience past events of an object, creature, or power of Earth.
Gaia's Glory
Earthly Expertise in an area then Earthly Echoes on three targets.
Survey Earthly Intuition
Sense manifestations of Earth.
Earth Eyes
Choose a piece of earth, perceive as if you were at that spot.
Earthwatch
Choose a location or creature. Sense from nearest piece of earth.
One with the Earth
Perceive from all Earth at once over a wide area.
Sway Earth Empathy
Understand Earth creatures and learn their objectives.
Terran Talk
Crew can communicate with Earth creatures. Make creatures content and confident
Stone Suggestion
Post suggestions in the mind of an Earth creature.
Carved in Stone
Permanently change the personality and motivations of an Earth creature.
Tinker Chisel
Handle earth and stone as if you had the appropriate tools and protective devices.
Mold
Shape earth and stone as if they were of clay.
Earthforge
Create objects of Earth out of nothing. Transform an object from one material to another.
Earthspawn
Mold on a grand scale. Make something large, such as a vehicle or building.
Wreck Crack
Crack Earth and stone much like a sledgehammer. Noisy.
Stonebreaker
Crack hard Earth as if it was wood. A fine potent sledgehammer in combat.
Disintegrate
Stonebreaker, and destroyed targets are reduced to a fine dust.
Ruinous Rumble
Stonebreaker over a large area. Level a city block, raze a city wall.

Mud Mask
Change your clothes and accessories by imbuing them with earth, including crystals and gems. This can mask your identity or create fabulous outfits.

Pebble Poke
Manipulate of earth to do small and exact manipulations at range. This allows you to open doors, trigger or hinder mechanisms, or perform other minor manipulations, as long as you have a pebble.

Boulder Blend
Hide against bare stone or earth, including stone, brick, and concrete walls. This allows you to hide in impossible places.

Earthglide
Move on and through earth. This allows you to climb on vertical walls, walk through walls and so on, as long as they are made of earth. Rebar can block your path.

Expanded Earth Powers

Earth is the base of all things.

Earth objects include everything solid, but natural sand, clay, earth and stone are the easiest to affect. Masonry, fired clay, and unreinforced concrete is reasonably easy to affect. Solids derived from other powers, such as organic substances (related to Death), living things (related to Life), rebar (related to metal) and so on requires that you have the other power it is related to to have full effect.

Attune

Connect with the power of Earth and harness its elements for various purposes.

Harness the power of Attune Earth to perceive and manipulate supernatural energies, allowing you to detect and interact with beings and phenomena from other planes of existence.

The consequences usually depends on what happens around you when you do it. Having helpers and bodyguards reduces the consequences, and sometimes a creature wants to be dismissed and the consequence might be that it loses control of itself, or that other creatures appear to intervene.

Gaia's Gaze Detect Earth creatures and Earth powers.

This is usually done to spot a disguised summoned creature. However, it can also help identify a creature's connection to powers, providing valuable insights into their nature. Limited effect suffices against a creature you can clearly see. You need greater effect against against a creature that is hidden (standard effect) or behind a wall (great effect).

Gaia's Gauntlet Dismiss an Earth creature or end a power affecting Earth.

Dismissing a creature is hard and usually requires great effect. A creature that has been wounded or otherwise weakened only needs standard effect. A creature that wants to be dismissed requires only limited effect.

You can dispel any power of Earth, as well as powers that affect Earth creatures and things. Dispelling is often used as a setup action to help another character in a situation when the opposition is using powers. This improves the position of the supported action. It can be used as a defense against others' use of power, or it can be used to break the continuing effects of powers.

When used directly, the effect is usually limited unless the opponent is relying on powers for their safety. Against an opponent that uses power to walk trough stone you can have a better effect.

When dramatically appropriate that a power is hard to dispel, often because it is the crux of the situation, this will not negate the power but instead give you a clue to what you need to do to resolve the situation.

Gaia's Guardian Summon an Earth creature.

Summoning can bring you allies to fight or labor for you, giving you scale. They can also give advice and information related to their power. Summons can use simple effects of their power and maintain power effects you have created.

You can summon generic creatures without having to do a flashback. Such a creature is similar to a gang member in ability and are often summoned in groups to add scale. To summon a particular creature, similar to a cohort, you need its unique identity, often called true name in the mystical power traditions. For a technomancer this would be a type id number or block of data. Learning about the right creature to summon is a task in its own right, often requiring a flashback or downtime activity to use Command, Consort, Study, or Sway to gain information.

It might be worth the extra effort to summon a creature of higher tier, but this is also much more demanding, using the usual rules for tiers.

Summoned creatures generally come in three types, elementals, spirits, and creatures with powers.

An Earth elemental is a simple creature made of and totally dominated by Earth. Most elementals have animal intelligence, and often take the shape of animals as well, tough animated chunks of earth or stone and humanoid forms are also common.

Spirits are immaterial, ephemeral, less physically oriented, instead manifesting the emotional and mental manifestations of Earth. Spirits are more intelligent than elementals. They can use sophisticated power effects and usually have an agenda of their own.

Creatures with powers resemble normal creatures, having a biological body, metabolism, and functioning as ordinary living creatures but also have some exceptional abilities related to Earth. An Earth mole is big, can burrow through soft stone, and attacks with earth tremors.

Depending on your degree of effect the creature is willing to do different things. Limited effect allows you to ask questions of an intelligent creature or demand a short period of physical labor from a simple creature. The creature will not fight for you. If forced into a fight due to circumstances, it will resent it.

Standard effect allows you to ask for any service appropriate to the creature. Earth creatures will smash, build, polish, and obstruct. This includes dangerous tasks such as combat if the creature has such abilities, which most of them do.

Great effect allows actions outside the creature's comfort zone, but not things it directly opposes. An Earth creature will not fly or swim. Lengthy service also requires great effect, like summoning the creature to guard a treasure for as long as it can.

Typical consequences include:

  • A bargain of payment in gems and rare earth.
  • The creature strikes out at you once.
  • Having to concentrate to keep the creature under control
  • The creature breaks things around you.
  • Overly literal interpretations of your commands.
  • Demanding not to be summoned again until some time or event has passed.
  • General sulkiness.

Offering a creature gifts or services appropriate to its nature can improve position. This is essentially a devil's bargain, accepting a price in advance. Desperate position usually comes from trading position for effect, but it might come from a difference in ethos. If you are a priest of the sea and summon an Earth elemental, or if the summon is three or more tiers above you the position will be desperate. Desperate consequences include the creature demanding you sell your soul, become its agent in the world, that you come to its home plane to serve it there for a time (usually three scores), that you defeat the creature in a duel or similar dramatic story events.

Gaia's Gate Create a portal to and from the plane of Earth.

Most powers are linked to a different world where that power is dominant, such as the Cavers of Earth. There are things that are possible to do on these planes that are not allowed in the regular world, most Earth effects are reduced one step in difficulty, from advanced to basic, master to advanced, and apex to master. This opens the possibility of new super-apex powers that have to be negotiated with the game master. Such effects rarely reach outside the plane of Earth, but if they affect creatures on that plane, the effect may remain when you return to the mundane world. A gate lasts for a short while, enough for a quick score. If things take a lot of time it might require a separate use of the power to return home again.

Gating can allow access to creatures too powerful to summon, so you instead ask for an audience. The creature may then use the gate to come to you, call you into its presence, or just communicate with you.

The first-time you gate to a certain place the position is at least risky and becomes desperate if there is any kind of disturbance. Once you have established a connection to a certain place or audience with a certain creature, you can usually do so again from a controlled position.

Command

Stone Speech Command Earth creatures, even if they don't understand you.

Stone Signal Communicate with Earth over long distances.

Stone Sovereign Command Earth creatures as if you were their superior.

Stone Slave Permanently bind Earth creatures to service.

Consort

Mud Mask Imbue clothes and accessories with Earth, crystals, and gems.

Mud Manifestation Assume the form of an Earth creature.

Mud Morph Shapechange a willing or helpless creature into an Earth creature.

Mud Mastery Transform a number of willing or non-sentient creatures and give them a simple instruction.

Finesse

Pebble Path Ride an Earth creature mount or a vehicle made of Earth.

Stalagmite Strike A fine and potent close-range attack. Give crew Pebble Path.

Pebble Poke Manipulate Earth to perform small and exact tasks.

Stalactite Storm A storm of spears, suppressing scale.

Hunt

Impressions In Earth Track over any solid surface.

Pellet Shot Attack similar to a fine and potent rifle.

Dust Dance Rearrange terrain, moving hills and boulders.

Gravel Grenade An attack like a fine and potent grenade.

Prowl

Boulder Blend Hide against bare stone or Earth.

Earthglide Move on and through Earth.

Earthwalk Crew use of Boulder Blend and Earthglide.

Womb of the Earth Teleport crew from one Earth location to another.

Skirmish

Stone Skirmish A melee attack.

Diamond Daggers A fine and potent Skirmish attack.

Labyrinth Obstructions defeat scale.

Crystal Cascade Attack all enemies in an area.

Study

Crystal Clarity Identify objects, creatures, and powers of Earth.

Earthly Expertise Learn specific abilities of Earth.

Earthly Echoes Experience past events related to an object, creature, or power of Earth.

Gaia's Glory Earthly Expertise in an area, then Earthly Echoes on three targets.

Survey

Earthly Intuition Sense manifestations of Earth.

Earth Eyes Choose a piece of Earth and perceive as if you were at that spot.

Earthwatch Choose a location or creature and sense from the nearest piece of Earth.

One with the Earth Perceive from all Earth at once over a wide area.

Sway

Earth Empathy Understand Earth creatures and learn their objectives.

Terran Talk Crew can communicate with Earth creatures. Make creatures content and confident.

Stone Suggestion Post suggestions in the mind of an Earth creature.

Carved in Stone Permanently change the personality and motivations of an Earth creature.

Tinker

Chisel Handle Earth and stone as if you had the appropriate tools and protective devices.

Mold Shape Earth and stone as if they were clay.

Earthforge Create objects of Earth out of nothing. Transform an object from one material to another.

Earthspawn Mold on a grand scale. Make something large, such as a vehicle or building.

Wreck

Crack Crack Earth and stone much like a sledgehammer. Noisy.

Stonebreaker Crack hard Earth as if it were wood. A fine potent sledgehammer in combat.

Disintegrate Stonebreaker, and destroyed targets are reduced to a fine dust.

Ruinous Rumble Stonebreaker over a large area. Level a city block or raze a city wall.