Magic Flow Example

Acquiring Materials

Fiera needed iron rods. Iron holds Fire energy — the material–energy tie is non-negotiable — and iron is the cheapest metal in the market district. She bought a handful from a vendor who had clearly been storing them poorly. Pitted, slightly bent, priced accordingly. She bought them anyway. Iron does not care who neglects it.

Before spending time enchanting something, it is worth knowing what it can hold. Fiera used Channeling + Sense Magica to probe one of the rods — a standard read on an unenchanted item to feel its structural capacity. The result: the rod had room for a level 4 spell at most. That is four slots of energy, the ceiling imposed by the material’s quality. A fine-crafted iron rod from a reputable metalsmith might hold level 6 or level 8. These rods were not that.

Item capacity: 4. The rod will hold a spell up to level 4. Whatever she channels in cannot exceed that ceiling, regardless of how well she rolls.

Enchanting the Rod

First Attempt — Fumble

Enchanting requires focus. Fiera had focus. She also had a cup of wine she had not quite finished, and the vendor’s stall was positioned downwind of something. Neither of these should have affected her concentration. Probably they did not.

She rolled Channeling + Enchant Item . Both dice came up sixes.

Both dice showing 6 is the fumble condition — every die in the pool came up 6. That counts as one fumble, regardless of how many dice it took. The rod discharged uncontrolled energy back into her hands and came apart in a brief, emphatic flash. Flat 20 points of damage . The rod was destroyed. The wine was now spilled. The vendor watched this with the practiced calm of someone who has seen things go wrong before and no longer finds it surprising.

Had she rolled only one six, that die would have contributed 0 successes and the roll would have failed — but it would not have been a fumble. A lone 6 in a two-die pool is a bad roll, not a catastrophe. The rod would have survived. See Dice Mechanics: Fumbles.

Fiera noted, without particular feeling, that she still had four rods.

Second Attempt — Success

After a replacement cup of wine and a brief inventory of her opinion of iron as a material, Fiera tried again with the next rod.

This time, she rolled 5 successes on Channeling + Enchant Item. The roll result would allow a level 5 spell — but the rod’s capacity is 4, and the spell she knew was tier 2 Searing, which sits at spell level 3. The effective level is the lowest of: roll result, enchant ceiling, and item capacity . Here, that means spell level 3: tier 2 Searing fits, using three of the four available slots.

Had the rod been better quality — capacity 5 or higher — she could have seated a tier 3 Searing instead. Tier 3 sits at spell level 5. These rods could not hold it. The material sets the ceiling the roll cannot cross.

Deciding what goes in and whether it fits is one step. Pushing the energy in is the next.

Channeling the Energy

With the rod prepared for tier 2 Searing, Fiera rolled Channeling + Fire to push the actual energy into the item.

She got 7 successes . Tier 2 Searing requires 3 energy points — three successes is the threshold to fully seat the spell. Seven is more than enough. The extra successes do not make the spell stronger; the tier is already set by the enchant step. They confirm the channeling was clean.

Had she rolled only 2 successes , the spell would have seated as tier 1 Searing instead — a flash of heat, some scorch marks, 15 points of damage. Useful. Not what she was going for. Tier 2 needs 3 successes in the channeling step. Two gets you tier 1.

Sealed

Channeling ends. The rod seals. It now holds a tier 2 Searing spell at spell level 3 — 80 points of fire damage to a single target, with the target’s clothing and gear at risk of catching fire for an additional 10 points of damage at the end of each of the next 2 rounds unless extinguished with 1 AP.

The item is a single-use consumable. Releasing the spell destroys the rod. No energy can be added or removed. Whatever is in there now stays in there until it fires.

Fiera pocketed the rod. She had a route home through the market district. She had taken that route every night this week. She was aware someone had been watching it.

The Confrontation

The alley between the market district and her preferred route home had been quiet all week. It was not quiet now. A bully with a dagger and apparently poor judgment stepped out of a doorway and made his intentions clear.

Fiera had good Wits . She also had a sealed iron rod in her coat pocket. She pulled it out. Her eyes had gone very dark. She was not frightened.

Releasing a spell costs 1 AP per spell level. This rod holds a level 3 spell. That is 3 AP — spent in a single round of combat, leaving her 3 AP for other actions. She committed all of it to the release, standing still and pointing a charged rod at a man with a dagger.

At the end of that round, she rolled Wits + Release\u00a0Magic . The release roll requires successes equal to or greater than the spell level. Spell level 3 means she needed 3 successes . She rolled 4 .

The rod crumbled. The spell fired. The bully caught fire. Fiera watched this with calm interest.

Damage Resolution

Tier 2 Searing deals 80 points of magical damage . Magical damage bypasses armor — his coat and whatever he had under it were irrelevant. The only reduction came from his Physical Toughness , which sat at 1 dot: 5 flat points absorbed. Net damage: 75. He went from upright and threatening to stop-drop-and-run in a single exchange.

He fled. Fiera adjusted her coat. She had three rods left.

When Things Go Wrong

Two moments in that alley could have gone differently.

The Release Roll Fails

Had Fiera rolled only 2 successes — one short of the spell level 3 threshold — nothing would have happened. The spell would not have fired. The rod would still be sealed, still loaded, still in her hand. The AP is spent; the spell is not. She could try again next round.

A failed release is not a fumble . The energy stays sealed. The item survives. The only cost is time — and in an alley, time has a man-with-a-dagger denominator.

Interrupted Mid-Release

The release cost 3 AP in a single round. During that round, if the bully had landed a hit before Fiera finished, the release would have been interrupted .

An interrupted release does not fail cleanly. The item explodes . The damage is spell level × 20 points — magical damage, no armor reduction, only Physical Toughness applies.

This rod: spell level 3. Explosion damage: 3 × 20 = 60 points of magical damage . To Fiera. From her own pocket. The bully would have been fine.

This is not a hypothetical risk. Standing still in melee range while holding a charged rod is a gamble. The payout for losing is a spell-level-scaled explosion from inside your coat.

For Sense Magica, item capacity, and the full enchanting process, see Channeling . For spell tier tables and full damage values, see Spells . For AP costs, multi-round release rules, and interruption mechanics, see Combat Magic . For how magical damage interacts with Physical Toughness and the broader damage pipeline, see Combat .