Enchantment nature: Telepathy
Magical skill used: Air, Darkness, Death, Earth, Fire, Life, Light, Projection, Water; Projection magic is best.
Description: A telepathy enchantment is one that allows the caster to communicate with others and/or read their thoughts through magic. The range of the enchantment determines how far away the target entity/entities can be from the caster without the enchantment failing. The area of effect determines how many targets the caster can communicate with or scan the thoughts of at once. Depending on the degree of concealment, an onlooker may observe a telepathy enchantment in progress as a faint glow connecting the caster with the target, or in the form of unusual sounds passing between the caster and target.
Power: The power of telepathy enchantment determines the strength of the telepathy. The target must make a dice roll using his/her WP + Trance (including any resisting magic specialism) + any Mental Resistance at a difficulty equal to the Power of the telepathy, if they want to block the communication out of their minds and/or prevent it from reading their thoughts.
The minimum Power of a telepathy enchantment is 1.
Finesse: The finesse of a telepathy enchantment determines how much information the caster can send to and/or read from the target's mind, as follows:
| Finesse | Telepathy can send: | Telepathy can read: |
| 0 | Broken communication in single words or images (e.g. "Cat", "Door", "No") | Nothing |
| 1 | A sense of emotion or sentiment associated with the communication (e.g. anger, fear, well-being, love, friendship, danger) | Single words or images that the target concentrates on sending (e.g. "Cat", "Door", "No") |
| 2 | Broken communication in short phrases of common words (e.g. "Down now!", "Through door") | A sense of emotion or sentiment that the target concentrates on sending (e.g. anger, fear, well-being, love, friendship, danger) |
| 3 | Broken communication in simple sentences (e.g. "Where is the castle?", "Where will you be tomorrow?") | Short phrases of common words that the target concentrates on sending (e.g. "Down now!", "Through door") |
| 4 | Fluent communication of normal concepts (e.g. "When you get to the end of the road, you need to turn right in front of the well and then it is the third on the left") | Simple sentences that the target concentrates on sending (e.g. "Where is the castle?", "Where will you be tomorrow?") |
| 5 | Fluent communication of unusual concepts (e.g. explaining different kinds of snow to a desert nomad) | Fluent communication of any normal concepts that the target concentrates on sending (e.g. "When you get to the end of the road, you need to turn right in front of the well and then it is the third on the left") |
| 6 | Fluent communication of unusual concepts that the target concentrates on sending (e.g. explaining different kinds of snow to a desert nomad) | |
| 7 | Detailed images covering one sense (e.g. the target can see or hear or smell or feel what the caster does) | Target's current emotional state regardless of whether the target wishes this to be known |
| 8 | Surface thoughts regardless of whether the target wishes to send them | |
| 9 | Detailed sensations covering all senses (e.g. target can see, hear, smell and feel what the caster does) | Recent memories that the target is not currently thinking about |
| 10 | Old or suppressed memories (e.g. that the target has forgotten) |
Limitations: The magical skill used limits what kind of creatures the caster can communicate with using telepathy. The referee should apply discretion, but the following list may help.
| Skill | Telepathy can establish communication with: |
| Air | Speak with air-aligned beings. Air-aligned beings (e.g. birds, air magicians, air elementals). |
| Darkness | Speak with darkness-aligned beings. Darkness-aligned beings (e.g. bats, darkness magicians, dark elementals). |
| Death | Speak with death-aligned beings. Death-aligned beings (e.g. undead, death magicians, demons). |
| Earth | Speak with earth-aligned beings. Intelligent plants, Earth-aligned beings (e.g. moles, earth magicians, earth elementals). |
| Fire | Speak with fire-aligned beings. Fire-aligned beings (e.g. dragons, fire magicians, fire elementals). |
| Life | Speak with animals. Animals, People, Life-aligned beings (e.g. angels, life magicians). |
| Light | Speak with light-aligned beings. Light-aligned beings (e.g. fireflies, light magicians, light elementals). |
| Projection | Telepathy. Any being with intelligence. |
| Water | Speak with water-aligned beings. Water-aligned beings (e.g. fish, dolphins, water magicians, water elementals). |
Examples:
Oriel, a healer, has a Life magic skill of 5 (with no specialism in telepathy) and a WP score of +1. She comes across a wounded lion and wants to tell him that she is his friend and will help him. The lion is within 3 metres of her. She, therefore, seeks to cast a Telepathy enchantment with Power 1 (because her message is non-threatening, she hopes that the lion will not try to block her signal), Finesse 4 (Sufficient to send fluent communication and receive simple communication back), Range Close (i.e. 2), Concealment 0 (Oriel will make lion noises as she communicates), Duration 1 Minute (i.e. 2), Area of effect Single target (i.e. 0), Investment 0 = Difficulty 9 in total. Her basic value is 5 + 1 = 6. She decides to use hand gestures and words when casting to give a modifier of +2, giving a basic value of 8. She risks 6 points to get a dice roll of 2D+2 and rolls a 4 and a 2, giving a dice roll result of 8. The enchantment does not succeed, but because it failed by less than or equal to three points, Oriel suffers no ill effects. The lion growls angrily at Oriel, but fortunately for her does not immediately pounce. Oriel tries again, and this time rolls a 5 and a 2, giving a dice roll result of 9. The enchantment succeeds. Oriel sends a sense of friendship to the lion together with the message "Greetings, mighty lion. You appear to be hurt. I am a healer. Would you like me to heal your wound?". Because of the accompanying sense of friendship, the lion chooses not to attempt to block the message. The lion growls a reply and Oriel understands from it "I am in pain. Can you really heal me? You may approach. I will not harm you". Because Oriel's telepathy is only Finesse 4, she cannot tell what the lion is thinking and hence whether the lion is deceiving her, but she decides to take the risk and approach the lion to heal him.
A group of soldiers that Oriel is accompanying has captured an enemy agent, who is refusing to divulge the location of the enemy base. The soldiers ask Oriel to read the location from the agent's mind. Oriel explains that this will be difficult and potentially dangerous, but the soldiers insist. Oriel decides to attempt a Power 7 (enough to give a good chance against an agent with some training in counter-interrogation techniques), Finesse 9 (read recent memories), Range Touch (i.e. 1), Concealment 0 (the magic will be obvious), Duration enough time to ask some questions and read the answers, say 1 Minute (i.e. 2), Area of effect Single target (i.e. 0), Investment 0 = Difficulty 19 in total. Her basic value is 5 + 1 = 6. Fortunately, the group is in a remote magic-rich area of wilderness, giving a +1 situational modifier. She decides to use hand gestures and words when casting to give a modifier of +2 and spends an hour preparing the enchantment (+4 modifier), giving a basic value of 6 + 1 + 2 + 4 = 13. To maximise her chance of success, she risks 12 points to get a dice roll of 4D+1. She rolls a 2, 4, 2 and 5, giving a dice roll result of 14, i.e. a failure by 5 points. Given the importance of the information, Oriel chooses the magical effect to materialise as desired, and suffers a scratch wound and loses two tiredness levels as a consequence. Unknown to Oriel, the agent has a WP of +1 and Trance skill of 2 (and a +1 specialism in resisting magic), but no magical mental resistance. The agent attempts to block out the telepathy - his basic value is 2 + 1 + 1 = 4, he chooses to risk 6 points giving a dice roll of 2D-2. He rolls a 4 and a 4, giving a dice roll result of 6. The telepathy enchantment is Power 7, so Oriel just manages to break through his defences and read from his mind the location of the enemy base. She then retires to rest, while the soldiers work out a strategy for attacking the base.