hey Shawn, glad to hear you like the new stuff.
So, in general, when casting a spell, both a character's hands must be free (unless they have a skill that allows otherwise, such as Staff).
Having said that, if a Warlock is able to wield melee weapons, they can wield a one-handed weapon while throwing packets they previously imbued, such as with Blistering Spheres or The Shriveling. These Dark Truths imbue a character with the ability to throw packets later, so throwing those packets does not count as spell casting.
Now, this exception does not cover Dark Truths that are not Imbues (The Sign of the King and Wail of Oblivion). These are casts, so both the characters hands must be free.
One thing to keep in mind here is that Warlocks suffer a Weakness when any of their Dark Truths are imbued, so any strikes they make with a melee weapon are uncalled damage and no called effect can be delivered with the melee weapon.
when using Blood Pact, you choose the attribute to save, so Sign of the Kings can either cost E or W, its up to you.
[UPDATE: just realized that Sign of the Kings is not an Imbue, so you Gesture for Paralyze as soon as the spell is cast. So while you
can cast it as a ritual, its spent as soon as the ritual is over. The same applies for Wail of Oblivion.]
For histories, Jacob is in charge of all the fluff aspects, so he's the one to talk to (
Jacob@losteidolons.com). While we pride ourselves on replying as fast as we can, life does come up sometimes, so if he doesn't reply in a day or so, feel free to email
GM@losteidolons.com. That address reaches our entire staff, so you're guaranteed a result quickly