Hyperborean Choirs

The Hyperboreans were mighty wizards individually, but their real strength lay when working — singing — together as a choir. In this way, they created a paradise for themselves, manipulating the seen and unseen forces of creation like so many musical notes and harmonies. Furthermore, singing hymns in a choir is the only way to use more than one Hyperborean hymn at once. To do so requires the use of a special Supernatural Ability, Ceremony (see box).

Minor, Supernatural

This Virtue grants your character the Supernatural Ability Ceremony, with a score of 1. Ceremony allows your character to lead or participate with a group of people in a supernatural activity, thus allowing great effects.

This Virtue first appeared in Realms of Power: The Divine, page 34.

The group of hymnists must first determine what effect they wish to achieve and choose a focus character

Minor, Supernatural

This Virtue grants your character the Supernatural Ability Ceremony, with a score of 1. Ceremony allows your character to lead or participate with a group of people in a supernatural activity, thus allowing great effects.

This Virtue first appeared in Realms of Power: The Divine, page 34.

Time Spe nt	Modifier
1 day	+0
3 days	+1
7 days	+2
14 days	+3
21 days	+4
28 days	+5*

* This is the maximum bonus

possible.

to guide the hymn. The storyguide must set an Ease Factor and determine which hymns are appropriate. If the effect calls on more than one hymn, increase the level of the Power by 5 for every extra hymn it requires. Only the focus character must possess all the hymns used in the choir. Unlike normal hymns, the effect for a choir is not infused and may only be performed once. Additionally, choirsung hymns come at a greater cost, requiring as many pawns of vis as the final Ease Factor of the power being invoked. (The Technique or Form of the vis should roughly accord with the effect of the power.)

Each member of the choir then adds his Communication + Hymn Ability to the focus character's recitation total.

Ceremony is an Ability used in conjunction with another Ability, generally a Supernatural Ability, and with other participants, to produce a greater effect. To use Ceremony, your character must gather together a group and agree on a common effect to produce; at least one of the participants (generally the focus character) must possess the Ability or Power being used.

All participants add their totals of the appropriate Characteristic + Ability to the focus character's total. If a participant doesn't have the relevant Ability, then only his Characteristic is added.

Ceremony Bonus: Characteristic + Ability total of each participant

After this bonus is determined, the focus character rolls as normal, adding the Ceremony Bonus to his total.

The group may appoint a leader (who must be the focus character), who then uses her Ceremony score to determine how many other characters may contribute to the effort; others may still take part, but their assistance gives no additional benefit. Alternatively, the group may chose to participate without a leader, but doing so results in a penalty to the Ceremony Bonus equal to the number of participants.

Ceremony may also be used for seasonal activities, adding the Ceremony Bonus to the seasonal total. Seasonal ceremonial work, however, must be done with a leader. Assistants gain Exposure XP during that season, typically in the Ceremony Ability or the relevant seasonal Ability (if they possess it).

Specialties: with a certain Ability, in particular circumstances, with a specific group or leader. (Supernatural)

This Ability first appeared in Realms of Power: The Divine, page 36, although this version is slightly different, as it derives from the Magic, rather than Divine, realm.

When reciting the hymns in a group, the Hyperboreans were able to invoke free-form magical effects, rather like spontaneous Hermetic magic (although such invocations take days rather than seconds).

Unlike infusing hymns, this process takes a minimum of a single day of meditation and trance from all of the participants. The choir may spend more than one day performing the hymn, and gain a bonus doing so. Likewise, all of the normal modifiers affect the focus character's recitation total.

A group of six hymnists gather to perform a consecration to punish a nearby city for their hubris by inflicting it with a deadly plague. The storyguide decides that this is a level 60 effect (as per Curse of the Unportended Plague, with Range Arcane Connection), which makes the Ease Factor 20 (and thus requires 20 pawns of Perdo or Corpus vis). They decide on the hymn Iaó (and the principle of disease), which they all possess, and choose a focus character with a Communication of +2, a Hymn Iaó score of 6, and a Ceremony of 5. All the other participants have a Communication of +1 and Hymn Iaó scores of 4. The focus character's recitation total is 8 (Communication 2 + Hymn Iaó 6) with a Ceremony Bonus of 25

(five participants, each with Communication 1 + Hymn Iaó 4), for a grand total of 33. Over a day of meditation and prayer, the hymnists successfully call down the wrath of Apollo upon the unsuspecting city.