Reaper of Cantrips Cheat Sheet

Settings

Scaldigir is a planet with a single continent; home to a species of grey skinned aliens. They are a small group, yet, they possess a fair amount of power in the galaxy, which is possible because they are the only species with magic-like capabilities. Each arcane individual gets one power. Reapers are the exception. They collect powers from the dead and dying, much to the dismay of the Scaldin.

The Soffigen, Scaldigir’s galactic neighbors excel in biotechnology. The Soffigen want to discover how to create Soffigen arcanes and take every opportunity to study the bodies of dead Scaldin.

Prossim is an unclaimed planet, used by many species to study evolution and biology, due to the biodiversity and quick changes in its flora and fauna. Prossim is one place where Soffigen work to make their own arcanes.

Characters

Panphila Ithir

Profession: Ghost seer / Hospice aide / Waypoint Watcher

Background: Last Scaldin reaper, hiding as a ghost seer in the capital city.

Aria Adesso

Profession: Aura reader

Background: Scaldin

Sotir Strand

Profession: Fortune Teller

Background: Scaldin

Gavain Alpian

Profession: Ambassador

Background: Scaldin

Brynn Voun

Profession: Arcane Mentor

Background: Scaldin reaper, hiding as a telekinetic.

Alban Hohl

Profession: Military commander

Background: Scaldin

Irini Feld

Profession: Thread Reader

Background: Scaldin

Era

Profession: Test tube baby and first Soffigen arcane

Background: Soffigen

Volanters – Aliens, that five-hundred years ago, helped to make Scaldin arcanes by intermarrying with the population.

Plot Summary

Panphila is a reaper. When she became arcane, she stole the ghost seer power. Later, she stole telekinesis, but she can’t use it if she wants to remain hidden. So, she works as a ghost seer. She does her job quietly, though she wonders how things would have been different if she came upon a different power first. Mostly, she’s resigned to her fate. She spends her days in the company of the fortune teller Sotir and takes advantage of any time she can get with her old friend Aria.

When Aria returns from a space job, she is disturbed to see Pan and Sotir so close as arcanes are supposed to wed non-arcane people, supposedly because of birth defects that occur between arcane pairings. Pan brushes off Aria’s concerns.

After Sotir’s birthday party, Pan meets him in secret to hear a fortune. He tells her to be careful the next day because her future has dropped out of sight. He suggests that she might die the next day after talking to a spirit – or be dragged into some other plane of existence – or, best of all, find herself in the midst of a life-changing decision.

The next day, Pan gets a job to meet a ghost at the hospital. She goes. She meets two ghosts – one in a regular ward (her intended customer) and one in the ward for sick arcanes. The ghost in the ward is an arcane child who wants to file a complaint against an old arcane for giving him a shot that made him sick. He doesn’t know what his power is and tells Pan he wants to visit his dying friend. Pan thinks he sounds like a reaper. She resolves to find out.

While Aria and Sotir try to figure out what is going on with Pan, Pan visits the hospital again and meets a new ghost, another arcane child. This arcane child is a girl and, for sure, a reaper. Pan comes to believe that someone has murdered the other reapers, and that she shouldn’t be the last.

Pan’s relationship with Sotir gets exposed, and the mentors want to date her around and find her a nice detective or officer to break up her arcane relationship. Pan objects. She concocts a plan that will both cancel her dates and draw out the reapers’ murderer. She sneaks out that night and spray paints messages on three buildings, implying that another reaper is out there.

Pan awakes to find her plan has backfired. The government and arcanes respond with serious action, including a curfew and investigation of the entire arcane establishment. When her turn to meet with a detective comes, she discovers that she possibly has familial ties to the reapers and realizes she could be found out. She also gets dragged into the investigation with the detective. He has her question any arcane’s ghost whose death seems suspicious. He thinks they might have been killed by the reaper in an effort to expand the secret reaper’s power. Meanwhile, he has his team look into her family tree.

Pan believes it is only a matter of time before she gets found. She paints a new message that night, risking a break of curfew. She needs to draw out the murderer. The new message prompts a new plan from the arcane mentors. They pull together a test group, based on a recommendation from Sotir. Pan is part of the group.

The mentors send the group into an abandoned mine, where the mummy of a power sharer lies. Other bodies lay in the mine too, and it’s Pan’s job to find them by questioning the mine’s ghosts. She is especially tasked to find the power sharer. In the presence of the power sharer, anyone would be able to reap from a dead arcane body. Once they take the bodies out of the mines, Pan will be found out. Inside the mine, she gets the group separated. She finds the ghosts. She talks to them alone. Then, she hides all their bodies where they should never be found. The ghosts scare them out, and Pan’s mission is a success.

After the situation with the mine, Brynn, one of Pan’s mentors, approaches Pan and tells her to stop making trouble. Brynn is the reaper murderer. She is also a reaper. She killed the others in an effort to stop future murders. Pan is disgusted but also a bit angry with herself, as she’s spent countless hours with another reaper and didn’t realize. She lets Brynn know that she’s pretty confident the detective will find her out or already has. Now, Brynn is angry and says they both need to get off planet. Pan doesn’t want to go with someone who might murder her, but reluctantly agrees – only to Brynn’s face. Brynn leaves to secure them a ship.

Behind Brynn’s back, Pan sets up a confession to play on the emergency broadcast system (she sneaks access through the detective’s computer). She returns to the mine and reaps two powers – portal making and healing. Sotir and Aria attempt to catch her, along with the detective and a navy officer – Alban.

The chase continues. Pan leads them to a graveyard. She questions the ghosts there because she wants to find more powers to take. The ghosts suggest that she find the grave of one who can control time. Pan will find the body in a church. Sotir and the others try to catch Pan. During the battle, she causes damage to gravestones and a few injuries. She flees to the city. At this point, Sotir realizes she could get very hurt and throws the others off her trail, just until after Pan fights Brynn. He wants Pan to make it out alive and knows she can’t face both the government and Brynn at the same time.

Pan makes it to the church. She reaps the time controller and finds out that the power is merely a time message. She can send messages to her past self and try again. But, that’s it. She works to get it under control.

Then, Brynn arrives, with a plan to get a ship. Brynn failed to do so on her own, due to pursuit caused by Pan’s confession. Now, Brynn needs Pan’s help. Pan refuses. They fight. Pan has to use the time message over and over to choreograph her responses to Brynn. Pan wins and kills Brynn. She flees the planet.

Out in the larger space, Pan gets a job as a waypoint watcher. She makes sure train-like ships stay on track and on schedule. The work is lonely, and Brynn’s ghost shows up. The ghost haunts Pan and forces her to execute plans to destroy Soffigen ships. Pan does so.

Meanwhile, Aria has devised her own plan to catch Pan. A new arcane girl, that can ask a magic thread to lead her anywhere, has just been identified. Aria offers to train Irini. Really, she wants to use Irini to find Pan. They secure a garbage scow and go out into space.

Pan goes out to destroy a Soffigen ship, but a Scaldin ship shows up and attempts to catch her. Sotir is aboard the ship, along with the navy officer (Alban) that almost caught Pan on Scaldigir. Pan escapes, but her ship gets damaged. She waits for Brynn’s ghost to find help. Instead, Aria finds her. Pan takes Aria and Irini captive, steals their ship, and hooks it to her tug ship. She brings them all to an abandoned factory to find parts to fix the tug.

While they try to fix the tug, Aria tries to convince Pan to come home. Pan refuses and counteroffers for Aria to come away. Before they can fix the tug, Alban and Sotir come. They win and take Pan captive.

While in captivity, Alban accuses Pan of destroying a Soffigen space station, an incident that was not mere sabotage but also murder. Pan did not do it. Sotir half-believes her, but he needs to look into it more as he thought it was her too.

On the way back to Scaldigir, a Soffigen arcane shows up. Her name is Era, and she takes credit for destroying the station. She wanted to get free to come after Pan, and her people deemed her not ready. Era fights Pan. Pan manages to get Era off the ship but does not kill her. Alban orders the ship to flee. In the meantime, they search for answers as to how there can be a Soffigen arcane.

They find a planet (Prossim) used primarily for biological research and, on the planet, a Soffigen lab and storehouse. In the storehouse, they find a mysterious book, and Sotir recognizes the book as having each of their powers written inside in the form of a rune circle. They also find the lab that made Era. They are suspicious that a Scaldin arcane helped the Soffigen.

Era arrives on the planet. She disables the ship and traps them there. Alban makes a plan for Pan to fight Era on the planet, using the portal ability for Pan to hop away and out of danger when things get too bad. He sets up his shuttles to ensure that Pan can make long hops that will get her far enough away that Era can’t just fly to catch up. He wants Pan to use the power suppressant on Era, but Pan is reluctant as it is still new. She doesn’t want to kill Era or suppress her.

Pan and Era fight, and Brynn insists that Pan toy with Era. Pan listens to the ghost. She does eventually win but not quickly. A visitor shows up – one of the Volanter. The Volanter helped make the Soffigen arcanes and also the Scaldin arcanes a few centuries ago. Pan fights the Volanter and wins, but she also ends up unbound to her reaper spell. She loses all her powers and has to start over from scratch and learn the circles if she wants to work magic.