Footbind

(• • • Prime,  • • Life,  • • Forces)                                                     The Book of Crafts  119
Usually performed by an a-ma on a mui when the subject is initiated into the Wu-Keng, the caster must have two 10-foot long strips of cotton, prepared by soaking them for a day in a mixture of four-parts salt water and one-part loess, a fine-grained yellow dirt.  The cloths should still be wet from their treatment when wrapped around the subject's feet, and his toes are folded under the flats of his feet.  The process takes 10 minutes to complete, and won't have effect without the cooperation of the subject.  Once the wrapping is complete, the bindings store magickal energy which may be channeled for various purposes.  When this energy is used up, the bindings remain but must be magickly reinvested to channel energy again.

[For every success the a-ma rolls in performing the wrapping Effect, the wearer absorbs one point of Quintessence from his surroundings into the bindings.  The total Quintessence absorbed by the bindings may exceed the caster's Avatar rating.  After the process is complete, the wearer may spend the stored Prime Force in all the usual ways.  The presence of the bound Quintessence is invisible even to masters of Prime.]

[When he wishes to, the wearer of the bindings may also use an additional Forces Effect to warp light around himself, rendering him largely invisible (treat this as a Forces 2 Effect).  This Effect "burns" one Quintessence each time it's used.]

[Unfortunately, the nature of this magick is excruciatingly painful.  When the Wu-Keng taps the Quintessence in his bindings, all difficulties increase by +1.  Botching an Effect that involves tapped Quintessence mangles the subject's feet permanently.  The caster thereafter suffers the same Dexterity and movement penalties as those Wu-Keng who have Demonic Investments.]

[Once all points of Quintessence have been burned up, the wrappings may be reinvested by their wearer through a ceremonial re-wrapping.  The bindings remain on the subject's feet, as the Wu-Keng's deal with infernal powers demands; the wrapping motions are simply feigned by the wearer.  The Effect reinvest the caster's wrappings with Quintessence as if his a-ma had put them on all over again.]