Circles-based Summoning and Spirit Binding

Spirit Binding and Summoning Circles; for standard failure consequences, use the emnity clause.

Spirit Binding allows you to Circle up a spirit to do your bidding. Spirits perform one service for you, then lie dormant. Spirits are invisible and unseen, acting via seemingly random events… Spirit binding acts a lot like Circles for the following tests:

Obstacles (start at 0)

Power of spirit:
Minor (spirit of a pebble) +1 Ob
Weak (spirit of a campfire) +2Ob
Strong (spirit of a tree) +3 Ob
Major (spirit of a river) +5 Ob

Task:
Simple and appropriate +1 Ob (a fire spirit spreading, a pebble rolling)
Gain knowledge +2 Ob
Complex or inappropriate +2 Ob (wind spirits guiding you, fire not harming you)
Complex and inappropriate +3 Ob (fire only harming your foes, lake parting)
Combat +2 Ob (deals damage based on your will and power of spirit (-2/+0/+2/+4)

Timescale:
When it happens +0Ob
Soon +1 Ob
Right here right now +2 Ob

You can pick one type of spirit you can summon per lifepath. You may buy Affiliations and reputations with spirits to allow you to summon them, and give bonuses to your roll.

The rules for timescale mean that Spirit Binding can’t be cast quickly or (patiently). FoRKs, help,and advantage gained by sacrifice are all appropriate.

Summoning allows you to Circle up a powerful entity. Entities are possessed of intelligence and appear bodily, or discorporated. Summoning allows you to conjure up the entity, but you must then bargain with it.

Tiers of entities:
Forgotten Dead (all black shades) Ob 2 to summon, 2 to bargain
Empowered dead (some grey shades) Ob 3 to summon, 3 to bargain.
Lesser corporal (all grey, weak) Ob 3 to summon, 5 to bargain
Corporal (all grey, middling power) Ob 5 to summon, 5 to bargain
Greater corporal (would make humans look weak even if it weren’t all grey shade) Ob 7 to summon, 6 to bargain.
Lesser Deity (special powers, at least all grey) Ob 8 to summon, 7 to bargain.
Deity. Ob 10 to summon, 8 to bargain
Chief deity. Ob 12 to summon, 10 to bargain.

Each entity demands a price for its summoning, often commensurate with the task and the entity’s power. These range from:
Accepting a mark of devotion, tributing Ob 6 Resource test, giving up a limb, building a monument (Ob 10 Resources), performing a dangerous task for the entity, giving an immortal soul to the entity, giving your own soul and several others at once.
In order of severity.

Success on the Bargaining test gives the typical price. Every success over the obstacle decreases the severity of the task by half a step. Failure increases the price by one step per missed success.

Circulation can be rolled to make a powerful circle in which to summon the entity. Each point of Obstacle grants one die to the test (like how Threne of the Chameleon works). Failure gives +1Ob

(Modified) Affiliations and reputations can be acquired within tiers of spirits. Reputations must be earned, they can’t be bought in character creation. You can’t summon a spirit without an affiliation with its tier. Affiliations have an extra level which gives +0D. They all cost 5 more, and this 0th level costs 5.

Help may be appropriate, FoRKs only for Circination and Bargaining, not for Summoning

These are pretty workable- I’m generally of the opinion that summoning obs are higher then they deserve to be (even accounting for bonus dice from order affiliations, reputations, and circination gates), so lowering the obstacles a bit on the bottom end is a pretty solid decision in my opinion.

I think Blossoms has rules for circling up ghosts, if you can track down a copy of it.