Al‑Khalid al‑Ghaybiyya

Stats

• Cost: 12 MP, 1d6 POW, 2d4 Sanity
• Casting Time: 1 minute (10 rounds)

Effect

The caster draws a fine line of chalk, flint dust and thin upland soil across the inside of the left forearm. As the mixture dries, a faint, warm glow outlines a perfect eight‑pointed compass rose that never fades. While the sigil persists, the caster’s innate sense of direction is exchanged for the absolute certainty of another creature the caster names, allowing the caster to navigate as that creature would while the chosen creature loses its own inner bearing.

Consequences

**Sanity Loss.** Each activation drains the caster’s mind, inflicting 1d6 sanity loss that compounds with each subsequent use, and the lingering warmth of the sigil grows colder to the touch as the caster’s own sense of place erodes, eventually leaving them permanently disoriented regardless of external cues.

Deeper Magic

The spell has begun to echo in a second, distant location where an identical sigil appears on a stranger’s wrist, warm in a way that defies the ambient air. Scholars suspect the spell creates a hidden conduit between the two sites, allowing the exchange of directional certainty to ripple across unknown distances, binding the fates of those who bear the mark.

Cards to read next

• The Quiet Keeper — Locksmith · 1920s
• Net of Unseen Tides — Device · 1920s New England
• The Unerring Compass — Mythos spell – Binding of Certainty
• The Sigh of the False North — <illusion>
• The Unmet Vows Ring — Artifact · 1920s New England
• Al-Ghaffar of the Tide — Linguistic Auditor · 1920s