More Urbanomancy

[James Palmer]

[BTW, if anybody can tell me the Gk for city, I'd be very happy]

Urbanomancy Minor Formula Spells

Streetwise

Cost: 1 minor charge.  

Effect: You can divine any fact about either the city itself or the groups
within it, but not about individual inhabitants.  For instance, you could
learn where the entrances on a building are, what percentage of the
population would support Jeffrey Archer for mayor, or which gang controls
the area between Fortescue and Montgomery.  You couldn't find out whether
John Appleby would support Jeffrey Archer for mayor, or where he lived -
though if you knew he was a member of, say, the Islington Freemasons, you
could find out where they met and work from there.

Spraypaint

Cost: 1 minor charge

Effect: You can leave a message concealed in any part of the city, which
can only be read by people meeting the qualifications you set when casting
the spell (e.g "Brenda Lawson" or "All members of the New Inquisition").
You must be in the area you intend to leave the message when you cast the
spell. For 3 minor charges, you can have the message find your targets,
which it will, provided they are in a city. (For example: Leo Theophilus,
a noted London Urbanomancer, wishes to contact Dirk Allen.  He casts
Spraypaint, using 3 charges, and the ragged garbage around the park bench
on which Allen is downing a bottle is blown by the wind for a few seconds,
landing in the shape of words.)  

The message may take many forms - sprayed and seemingly illegible
graffiti, chalk marks on the pavement, a song sung by passing children,
the scurrying sound of rats that suddenly resolves itself into words. The
message can be up to twenty words long. The downside to this spell is that
any Urbanomancer passing the area where you left the message knows
Spraypaint has been used there, and can spend a minor charge to read the
message himself.  The message stays present for up to a week.

Day Pass

Cost: 1 minor charge

Effect: This allows the caster to use any public transport system
completely free of charge and as effectively as possible.  Barriers open,
conductors fail to notice her, she makes all her connections, and so on.
It lasts for one journey.  A minor variant of the spell lets the caster
avoid major traffic while driving.

Face in the Crowd

Cost: 2 minor charges

Effect: The caster disappeares into a (preexisting) crowd.  His features
do not change - he just becomes incredibly hard to spot, part of the great
teeming mass of humanity.  All attempts to follow or detect him are at
-50% until he leaves the crowd. 

Vermin's Eyes

Cost: 2 minor charges

Effect: The caster must be holding a rat, pigeon, or similar urban animal
to cast this spell.  He now sees through the eyes of that animal, and
exert control over its actions, as long as they remain natural for that
animal - for instance, he could direct a pigeon to a particular area, but
not have it attack somebody.  This effect lasts until the caster cancels
it - but he can't switch back and forth between his vision and the
animals; as soon as he changes back, it's over.

Break Your Mother's Back

Cost: 3 minor charges.

This is the Urbanomancy minor blast.  As described above, the city,
through whatever normal-seeming means, attacks the target, if they're in
an appropriate situation.  

Urbanomancy Significant Effects

My Turf

Cost: 1 significant charge

Effect: This establishes your magical dominance over a particular area -
this can be up to a square mile of the city, but it must be defined by
clear boundaries, such as "Platt Fields" or "Kingsford."  You
automatically sense any magick cast within that area, and can specify
other events to sense - i.e criminal activity, a member of the Sect of the
Naked Goddess entering, and so on.  This spell has to be renewed once a
week, and can only be cast on one area at a time. 

Wrong Turn

Cost: 2 significant charges

Effect: This ensures that the target of the spell will, next time they
travel in the city, end up where you want them to, provided it's a public
area. This can be just by your house, in the middle of the worst part of
town, whatever.  As usual, crowds, traffic, and coincidence force this
upon them.  The only way it can be avoided is by the casting of a
different travel spell - resisting it otherwise just makes the effects
more obvious, and possibly more painful - being hit by a car and taken by
ambulance to just outside the caster's house, for instance, where the
ambulance then breaks down. 

All Cities Are One City

Cost: 2 significant charges

Effect: This lets you travel instantly from one city to another, without
losing charges.  You must be in the middle of a crowd to cast this spell,
and close your eyes.  When you open them again, you'll be in the middle of
a crowd in a different city.  Obviously, there must be a crowd in the
other city for you to appear in - so be aware of time zones and the like.

Napoleon of Notting Hill

Cost: 3 significant charges

Effect: This causes any individual to rise to a position of power and
respect within his district.  This will happen within three months.  The
exact position cannot be chosen by the caster, but will depend upon the
individual - it could be community spokesperson, gang leader, borough
representative, head of the Neighbourhood Watch.  You can cast this spell
upon yourself.  The target can quite happily go further on her own
merits once given the initial boost, of course.

And the Crowd Goes Wild

Cost: 3 significant charges

Effect: This starts a riot.  There must be pre-existing tension over some
issue - possibly created by Urbanomancy, admittedly - for the riot to
explode around.  You can specify the area in which the riot starts, and
the targets against which the mob will direct their wrath, which must be
appropriate to the tension you drew upon to cast the spell.  The riot will
form within half-an-hour of you casting the spell, after which point it is
completely out of your control.

Traffic Accident

Cost: 3 significant charges

Effect: This is the Urbanomancy significant blast.  

Urbanomancy Major Effects

Cause somebody to become mayor of a city, start riots in several cities
across the world, lower the crime rate across America, form a new building
in the middle of a city which nobody notices wasn't there before ...