In the course of creating adventures, you’ll often need to create special effects: magical or divine powers that were used in the past or will now be used to initiate the adventure or by the villains against the party.
It’s a good idea to write down the actual spell or spirit manifestation that was used to create the special effect. If it’s a spell, some clues to the spell’s origin might still be lurking somewhere in the dungeon, or on the person of the sorceror who used it.
Even if they never find the original spell, the groups’ sorceror can research it; they can spend mojo to get that spell for themselves. Spirit manifestations are even easier: if the spirit manifestation falls under one of the player character prophet’s spirit types, that prophet can have their appropriate spirit use the effect immediately. You’ll need to be fair: if you create a Rock the Boat spirit manifestation for your Trickster-wielding evil prophet, that’s going to fall under the Water spirit type as well.
Think about new spells and spirits with the players in mind: what happens when they gain access to this new power? What is the appropriate level, and what are the appropriate restrictions? Your NPC will follow the same restrictions and use the same foci or ingredients. That makes the world more fun and more immersive.
Within places of power you have more leeway to do weird things, but even then players may choose to engage in a similar ritual, either to recreate the effect or to counter it. You’ll need to know the level of sacrifice required to engage in the ritual, and, again, the non-player character must similarly sacrifice. That sacrifice will probably even be a part of the adventure.
