Draft:Circle of Sorcerors

Omega 0.90.4

The Circle of Sorcerors is a magical guild with a public service in Rampart and a separate otherworldly demesne. Its members gain substantial Power and a fixed sequence of combat spells, ultimately seeking the LawBringer's Crown to become Prime Sorceror. Visitors can also pay to restore mana.

City location	Travel name	Opening hours	Initiation
Fixed, known destination	sorcerors' guild	All hours	Neutral or Chaotic; no College membership

Joining the Circle

Choose a to request initiation. Positive alignment prevents joining; neutral alignment is accepted. No minimum Power is required. Current College membership prevents initiation, while martial guilds, the Thieves' Guild and priesthood are not directly excluded.

The fee starts from 3,000 + 100 x alignment Au, then adds that amount multiplied by (12 - current Power) / 9, with the division rounded toward zero. The final minimum is 100 Au. Examples for the first quotation of a visit:

Alignment	Current Power	Fee
0	12	3,000 Au
-5	12	2,500 Au
-10	15	1,334 Au
-30	12	100 Au
-40	30	1,000 Au

Greater Power and a more Chaotic alignment often reduce the price, but the calculation is not universally monotonic: at extreme values, two negative factors can make the fee rise again. Asking for initiation repeatedly within one visit also recalculates from the previous quotation. For example, a neutral character with Power 3 is quoted 6,000 Au, then 12,000 after declining and asking again. Leave and return to obtain a fresh quotation.

Successful initiation teaches Magic Missiles, raises current and maximum Power by one, and starts Circle experience accumulation. Insufficient funds are refused without confiscating your money.

Restoring mana

Choose c to restore mana up to your normal capacity, current Power x (character level + 1). The price is 100 Au per character level for outsiders and half that for members. It is free at level 0, including for outsiders and College students. The service does not reduce mana already above normal capacity, but can still charge when no restoration is needed.

An active member can use this service even at neutral or Lawful alignment. An expelled member is instead refused the menu and has all current mana drained on entering.

Advancement

Choose b for ordinary promotions. You must be Chaotic: alignment below zero. There is no increasingly negative alignment threshold at later ranks. The XP requirements are cumulative Circle experience, which shares awards with other memberships that accumulate guild experience. Repeated b selections can grant successive qualifying promotions during one visit.

Rank	Requirement	Spell learned	Power gain
Initiate	Join	Magic Missiles	+1
Enchanter	400 Circle XP	Firebolts	+2
Sorceror	1,500 Circle XP	Ball Lightning	+2
High Sorceror	4,000 Circle XP	Disruption	+5
Prime Sorceror	Already High Sorceror; character level above the incumbent's; bring the LawBringer's Crown	Disintegration	+10

Power gains affect current and maximum Power, totaling +20 from initiation through Prime. They raise normal mana capacity but do not themselves fill it. The fixed spell awards teach the spell if missing; they do not reduce the cost of an already-known spell.

The Crown is the remains of the LawBringer on Star Peak, also called the Crown of the Lawgiver in the acceptance text. Final promotion is checked automatically in the menu before your next choice and consumes the Crown. That turn-in has no additional alignment check, although selecting b afterward still invokes the normal alignment rule. The supplied incumbent Blackskull has recorded character level 10, making level 11 sufficient in a fresh-history game.

Blackballing

Requesting promotion with b while neutral or Lawful expels an existing member. It adds disease unless you are immune to infection, attempts to destroy an item, strip an item's magic and curse an item, then inflicts 25 unstoppable damage. Equipment outcomes depend on what you carry and the items selected. The damage can kill a weakened character; the dialogue's death threat is not an unconditional instant-death effect.

Simply visiting, leaving, or using mana restoration does not trigger that punishment. Thus a neutral Initiate can buy restoration but cannot safely request the first promotion without first becoming Chaotic.

Blackballing is permanent at this guild: later visits empty your mana and provide no services. Learned spells and previous Power gains remain. You can enroll at the College afterward, but the old Circle experience pool continues sharing awards, and the College's extra counterspell chance is suppressed until you reach Student rank.

The Circle's demesne

The Rampart service is not the physical hall containing the Prime, the Star Gem and the arcane library. That separate area is reached through a translucent stairway on the fifth level of the Astral Plane. Membership affects the reception there, and the Prime's conversation and guards have their own behavior; being allowed to use the city's mana service does not promise a peaceful visit to the demesne.

Active membership normally provides the same extra chance to counter monster spells described at the College. It consumes mana on success and is not immunity to all magical attacks.

Strategy

The Circle offers predictable offensive spells and large Power gains. If you need broader magic, its active members can still pay for College spell research without enrolling there. That research can also reduce the costs of spells learned through Circle promotions.

Choose a compatible religious and martial route before pursuing the guild. Chaotic worship and the Legion or Arena can fit its advancement requirement. A Lawful Paladin can use the Circle as an outside mana customer; joining it is a different decision, because ordinary Circle promotion and Paladin service require opposite alignment signs.

Do not treat deliberate expulsion as a cost-free school transfer. Beyond the immediate punishment and loss of restoration, its experience and counterspell effects continue into your College career.