“Who can know all of the secrets of the world beyond? Many have now come to know of it but few and far between are those who may bring others to that place or watch over them whilst they are there.”

Wielders of a strange new power, Spirit Guides are those who have gained additional insights into Vision Quests and as such can blur the boundaries between the physical and spiritual planes, including going so far as to bring themselves and others between the two. In battle, by making the right motions Spirit Guides can manipulate the boundaries between planes to produce a variety of effects, usually offensive, whilst in Vision Quests they provide various forms of support to their allies. Through understanding that the new powers the Enlightened manifest are due to reserves of spiritual power they accrue during Vision Quests, they are also capable of restoring those reserves to grant others additional power.

The resource used by Spirit Guides is the Linkage. Spirit Guides have a pool of Linkages which are used to perform acts which blur the boundary between planes.

At baseline, a Spirit Guide has the following (above what is provided by general abilities):

• 3 Linkages
• The ability to spend 1 Linkage in the Physical plane to enter Linkage State for the duration of the encounter
• The ability to spend 1 Linkage anywhere to call EFFECT “Refresh your Resource” at a target, taking this effect restores 1 of whatever their class Resource is. For Warriors, this allows them to recover from a single stack of one Exhaustion.

By temporarily creating a link between their spiritual and physical self, a Spirit Guide can produce a variety of effects by manipulating things on the other side or drawing spiritual energies through. Having such a link open is known as the Linkage State, and allows the Spirit Guide to freely enter a Flow whilst in the Physical plane.

Katas are a series of motions which manipulate the spiritual plane which may be performed as part of a Flow. By performing the correct Steps to produce the Kata, the appropriate call for that Kata may be made. A Flow is entered by taking a stance with one leg forward (this becomes your leading side) with your hands meeting palm to palm in front of your chest, this is the rest position. A Flow may usually only be entered during Linkage State. After entering a flow there is a second of pause before you can begin working on Katas. The effects of Katas may be directed at any target within a stripe 3 meters wide and 10 meters long parallel to the line between your following and leading leg and starting from your shoulders.

Each Kata has a number of seconds of moves which must be done to perform it followed by bringing both hands together and a second of pause before beginning the next kata. At a baseline you can treat this as being 4 for all Katas if you cannot remember its duration. You cannot perform the same Kata twice in a row. The kata you are performing is selected at the start of the series of actions not the end.

Those who want to delve more deeply into Katas may be interested in Hard Mode Katas, the glyphs in the skill list relate entirely to hard mode Katas and may be ignored in normal use.

Various Spirit Guide skills provide abilities which may be used on a Vision Quest and have an associated cooldown. These may be used instantly on targets within 5 meters, though a Spirit Guide may only use one at once. During the subsequent cooldown none of these abilities may be used.

Most Spirit Guide skills have two parts: a power which may be invoked on a Vision Quest subject to the cooldowns as described above, and an associated Kata which may be performed as part of a Flow as above.

Katas are listed below with a set of symbols - these are associated with use of these Katas in Hard Mode, and may usually be ignored.

• Vision Quest Power: BUFF, 10 second cooldown triggered
• Kata: PUSH (3 seconds)(⇓↑♻)

• Vision Quest Power: GAIN GONE, 10 second cooldown triggered.
• Kata: DOUBLE (1 second)(↑)

• Vision Quest: +2 Spirit hits
• Kata: DOUBLE BE DRAWN (3 seconds)(↑◉⇟)

• Vision Quest: Your vision quest weapon can take the form of your attuned weapon
• Kata: LOCK (3 seconds)(↿↾⇟↓)

• Vision Quest: You may spend a Linkage to instantly end your current cooldown between Spirit Guide abilities.
• Kata: DOUBLE LOCK 5 (3 seconds)(◉↑↬)

• Vision Quest Power: EFFECT “You count as armoured” ONGOING, 20 seconds cooldown triggered
• Kata: MASS BE PUSHED (3 seconds)(↓⇟◉)

• Physical World or Vision Quest: You can spend a Linkage for a repeat of your last Lesser Vision Quest or Greater Vision Quest milestone, this can only be used to repeat a given spirit quest once for a given individual no matter how many Spirit Guides have the skill.

This Vision Quest or Milestone will Refresh those who complete it as usual except for the Spirit Guide who triggers this effect. Before the first Vision Quest this may at GM discretion lead to the first Vision Quest of the adventure or another Vision Quest of GM choice.

Using this skill requires arranging for everyone who will enter the Vision Quest to gather together and partake undisturbed in a 5 minutes ceremony appropriate to your methods as a Spirit Guide.

• Vision Quest Power: STABILISE 60, 10 second cooldown triggered

Once per encounter you may either during Linkage State perform a Kata with any single gesture without needing to enter a Flow or outside of Linkage State (including in a Vision Quest) enter a Flow to perform a single Kata.

• Vision Quest Power: GAIN APPEARING, 10 second cooldown triggered
• Kata: GONE and Gain APPEARING ONGOING (3 seconds)(↓♻◉)

• Vision Quest: +2 Spirit hits
• Kata: BE SAPPED (3 seconds)(◉↬⇟)

• Vision Quest Power: GAIN VOID MENTAL, 10 second cooldown triggered
• Kata: BE DISARMED (3 seconds)(↬⇟⇓)

• Vision Quest Power: HEAL, 10 second cooldown triggered, triggered cooldown is doubled each time this ability is used
• Kata: ARC PUSH hands must be brought together for this arc making it a beam (3 seconds)(↿↾◉⇑)

• Vision Quest Power: SAP, 10 second cooldown triggered
• Kata: BUFF (3 seconds)(⇃⇂↑↬)

You may channel the power of the Spirit Guide into your works. For each instance of this skill you gain 1 Act of Power per adventure.

Once per encounter you may either during Linkage State perform a Kata with any single gesture without needing to enter a Flow or outside of Linkage State (including in a Vision Quest) enter a Flow to perform a single Kata.

• Vision Quest Power: MASS GAIN GONE, to use Spirit Guide must immediately after call GONE and cannot choose to re-enter the encounter, you should immediately make your way out of the encounter area (cooldown irrelevant).
• Kata: DOUBLE (1 second)(⇞)

• Vision Quest: +2 Spirit hits
• Kata: STUN 5 (3 seconds)(↬◉↓)

• Physical World or Vision Quest: Can spend Linkage to enter a different, hostile-feeling Vision Quest. Using this skill requires arranging for everyone who will enter the Vision Quest to gather together and partake undisturbed in a 5 minutes ceremony appropriate to your methods as a Spirit Guide. The stats for this will be provided by the metaphysic GM and will in no way be tailored to the capacity of the party undertaking it. Using this does not necessarily imply a winnable encounter and a Spirit Guide using it should be well advised to be ready evacuate the party to avoid a TPK.
• Kata: BE STUNNED (4 seconds)(↿↾⇟♻♻)

• Vision Quest: The starting cooldown of Invigorate is halved, this stacks with Spirit Invigoration
• Kata: ARC LOCK hands must be brought together for this arc making it a beam (4 seconds)(↑◉↑⇑)

• Vision Quest: The starting cooldown of Invigorate is halved, this stacks with Body Invigoration
• Kata: ARC BE LOCKED hands must be brought together for this arc making it a beam (4 seconds)(⇞◉⇞⇑)

• Physical World or Vision Quest: Step out no longer requires a 5 minute ceremony and can be performed instantly even mid combat. Call TIME STOP, you can then announce to your party that they are invited on a Vision Quest, there is no opportunity to discuss decisions to follow at that point. Ideally this is resolved by players all closing their eyes and any who follow raising a hand. Those who stay behind may learn something interesting if they survive the situation that others had wanted to leave with great haste, what they see will be briefed by the metaphysic GM (once the effects of this become common knowledge they will be placed here for general reference)
• Vision Quest Power: STABILISE ONGOING, 10 second cooldown triggered

Once per encounter you may either during Linkage State perform a Kata with any single gesture without needing to enter a Flow or outside of Linkage State (including in a Vision Quest) enter a Flow to perform a single Kata.

• Vision Quest Power: MASS BUFF 30 second cooldown triggered
• Kata: ARC FALL (3 seconds)(⇑⇃⇂◉)

• Vision Quest: +2 Spirit hits
• Kata: DISARM (3 seconds)(⇓↿↾↓)

You have developed your own special spiritual effect, this will take the form of either a Kata, a Vision Quest Power or a special type of Vision Quest. Discuss with the organisers what you would like this to do.

You may channel the power of the Spirit Guide into your works. For each instance of this skill you gain 1 Act of Power per adventure. Having the second rank of this skill allows you to gain 2 levels from self sacrifice, though note that there is no such thing as a level 4 Act of Power.

Once per encounter you may either during Linkage State perform a Kata with any single gesture without needing to enter a Flow or outside of Linkage State (including in a Vision Quest) enter a Flow to perform a single Kata.