Phobomancy:Fear-Based Magick (the delicate use of terror)

[Carl L. Congdon]

Phobos. Fear. It is the spur driving us onward, and the club which beats
us back. It is the red light that stops us from destroying ourselves and
everything around us, and the ultimate enemy in our skulls. For a few
adepts, it is the key to transcendence and power. The ones that call
themselves PHOBOMANCERS (and others call FEAR-MONGERS or PSYCHOS) seek
to master the enemy within and use it to vault themselves beyond the
confines of ordinary humanity.
    To those who practice this path of magick, it's purpose is similar
to that of extreme confrontational therapy. It is fear, in all it's
guises, that holds us back from achieving our true potential. When we
overcome our fears, we overcome the barriers that stand in our way. The
price to full overcoming (and thus transcendence) is steep and painful,
but one that must be paid. Many of this path's root practices have a
basis in old, "left-hand" Gnostic mystery cults.
    To those outside the path, who know of Phobomancy and what it
entails, announcing you're a Phobomancer is like announcing your NAMBLA
membership: *not* the smartest thing in the world to do. Even the most
hardened individuals in the Occult Underground tend to loathe and
distrust known fear-mongers, and wiht good reason. After all, the
ability to feel fear (and other emotions) is part of what makes us
human. Phobomancers deliberately set out to burn that part of themselves
away. Simple common sense dictates that you steer clear of people like
that! Of course, some phobomancers justify it by choosing to act as
vigilantes, using their abilities to inflict brutal justice on
transgressors that others can't seem to touch. But remember that warning
about gazing into abysses and slaying monsters....

Blast Style: Seizures, apoplexy, blackouts, stigmata, psychic wounds,
the phobomancer blast does all of that and then some. It is similar in
style to the Psychotrauma attack used by pornomancers, although the
victim can dodge the attack by rolling over the fear-monger's Phobomancy
skill but under his or her Mind score. If the victim succeeds, then no
damage is taken, although s/he must spend the next turn making a rank-5
Unnatural check. If the attack succeeds, then damage is determined as
normal, plus the victim must make a rank-6 Stress check, determined by
the victim's Fear Stimulus. (The blast dredges up some *real* nastiness
from the bottom of one's psyche!) If the victim's Mind score is below
the Phobomancy score, oh well...

Stats:
Generate a minor charge: Cause someone, or force yourself to undergo,
something that would cause a rank 1-5 Stress challenge. If the
Phobomancer's Hardened levels are too high, then someone else must be
the victim.
Generate a significant charge: Cause someone familiar to you, or force
yourself to undergo, something that would cause a rank 6+ Stress
Challenge. Rules apply as for minor charges.
Generate a major charge: Cause someone you love and care for dearly to
suffer a rank 8+ Stress challenge.
Taboo: If you stop yourself from doing something out of fear, guilt,
shame, embarassment, etc. all of which you are supposed to transcend,
you lose all of your charges. If you fail any Stress check, you lose all
of your charges and cannot gain any back until the failed check is
removed.
Random Magick Domain: Nightmares, phantasms, tracking down victims,
hiding in shadows, or any other common horror-movie effect. It is
designed to invoke unease and fear, and accelerates entropy in a
negative fashion, unlike the entropomancer who can guide it for either
good or ill. However, it's also useful for banishing fear as well.
Starting charges: Four. No, the starting Failure in the Unnatural Stress
column doesn't take these away, although that Failure must be taken care
of shortly after the Phobomancer comes into play, or s/he won't be able
to gain charges back.

Minor Sample Spells:

I Know What Scares You
Cost: 1 minor
Effect: This allows insight into what someone fears more than anything.
A successful roll gets the general category of the Fear Stimulus, while
a matched success or OWACOWA gets the specific cause. This gives the
Phobomancer a +10% chance at success with Intimidation attempts or
magick that utilizes the victim's fear, +15% if the specific fear is
known.

Dead Eyes
Cost: 1 minor
Effect: Adds 10% to all non-magickal attempts to intimidate or coerce
somone. Using abilities like Charm while this spell is activated causes
a -20% shift. Gives the caster an aura of psychopathic menace, as well
as highlighting/shadowing his face in a creepy manner. Can be cast on
someone else for an additional minor charge, as long as the other person
is known and/or in sight of the caster.

Lull
Cost: 2 minor
Effect: This dampens a person's fear, to the point where even common
sense and caution can be thrown by a wayside. The caster can then use
this to lull the person into doing whatever is necessary, although the
person does not become totally foolhardy, and any overtly violent
actions break the spell. The caster gains +20% to all Charm rolls
towards the victim of this spell, and the victim gets a -10% to any
rolls to notice anything unusual or troublesome about the caster.

Panic Attack
Cost: 2 minor
Effect: Minor blast effect. If the victim can roll over the Phobomancy
skill but under his Mind skill, he loses his next action and must make a
rank-5 Unnatural check the next round. If the victim fails, damage is
treated a a minor blast, and the victim must make a rank-6 check against
his Fear Stimulus. Note that this has *no* effect against someone who
has all 10 Hardened slots filled in his primary (Fear stimulus) Stress
category. But it can do significant damage to people who have all 5
Failed slots in a Stress category if the caster matches. A terminal
heart attack or stroke results from an OWACOWA.


Okay, folks, I stop it here because I tired and must work tomorrow. Two
last things:

I do *not* intend this school for PCs, only GMCs, for obvious reasons.
The Phobomancer ideal, in gamespeak, is to have no Failed stress-checks,
while being Hardened in all of them. Think about what kind of person
that would be in real life. Then ask yourself if you could actually play
someone like that. If you can, seek help.

If a Phobomancer were to encounter a Stress-check of any level that he
could not have reasonably expected and prepared for, then it qualifies
for giving him a magickal charge, provided he/she doesn't fail the
Stress challenge.



--
Poets, priests, and politicians
Have words to spend for their positions
Words that scream for your submission
And no one's jamming their transmission...
And when their eloquence escapes me
Their logic ties me up and rapes me
 -The Police, "De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da"