(D12 MM-open) The Spirit of Learning

[Asahina Hoshiko]

Hoshiko finally found time to return to the library, deferring to those who knew the collection, she asks for scrolls...then chases down more based on references in the first ones. It's a never-ending cycle, or could be. Though eventually you need to know when you're too tired to continue pulling useful information out of the ink in front of you.

Given the strange things going on, she first digs into the question of how one even goes about identifying a given spirit. There had been many met and cataloged over the years, and many more still barely known.

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D12 MM: Library time Etiquette (Bureaucracy)/Awareness | 7k4 ⇒ 46 (TN: 25) Retains Sage for the duration.

D12 MM: Lore: Theology (?)/int VP for +1k1 1 raise. Spirit ID-how to? | 7k4 ⇒ 44 (TN: 25) (wrong TN for the noted raise in roll..edited here). How are spirits and ghosts identified (if Lore: spirit realms is more appropriate...same pool)

Additional question per the raise: Moving to Spellcraft. Given her experience binding minor spirits, or at least their attention, to Tsangasuri, what might be needed to increase the power level of such a binding? D12 MM Library: Spellcraft/Int VP | 5k4 ⇒ 32 (TN: 20)

[Cearnach]

Generally, spirits are identified either on trust or by observation. The trust method involves accepting what the spirit tells you--sometimes a dangerous path to walk. The observation method requires understanding the attributes of spirits and applying one's experience of phenomena caused by a spirit to assign a particular spirit to a familiar category. With the spirits of the dead, their lives may often offer clues for their identification, as the personality and deeds of the spirit are often a reflection of the life that they left behind.


Spirits are generally attracted to sites by offerings. Most benevolent spirits respond well to prayer, but some prefer gifts of a material kind, usually consumable. As for bindings, sacred materials are often stronger than other kinds, though occasionally the material in question can be affected by the spirit, particularly if the spirit is quite strong. To help it along, other further application of elemental kami (particularly those of earth) can reinforce the sacred material such that it can contain a spirit.

[In a mechanical sense, you'd be looking at Spellcraft checks and Importuning for bespoke effects, I would think]