[UA] Fwd: Husbandomancy

[Allison Onken]

This is from one of the players in my UA game.  It seemed to be a new enough 
idea to share with you all.

Allison


>From: "Ted Prodromou" <tedprodromou at hotmail.com>
>Subject: Husbandomancy - I don't know why I'm sharing this with you
>Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 05:45:57
>
>Husbandomancy
>
>Nickname: Cat ladies
>
>Gain a Minor Charge:  Acquire a new pet.  The pet must be a living 
>domesticated animal (one kept as a pet or work animal by a human culture) 
>and must spend a majority of its time in the husbandomancer's home.  
>Acquiring more than one pet at once does not give any more charges.
>
>Gain a Significant Charge:  Acquire a new species of pet.  The 
>husbandomancer gains a significant charge when first adopting a new animal 
>as a pet.  The animal must be substantially different from any pet the 
>husbandomancer has ever owned - otherwise only a minor charge is gained.  
>Acquiring more than one pet at once does not give any more charges.
>
>Gain a Major Charge:  Discover a new species of animal, either alive or 
>extinct.
>
>Taboo:  If a pet of the husbandomancer dies or spends more than 12 hours in 
>a day outside the husbandomancer's home (whatever building or small outdoor 
>area the husbandomancer sleeps in), the husbandomancer loses all charges.  
>The death or loss of multiple pets has no further effect - the death of a 
>pet is a sensible time to get rid of the rest of them.
>
>Random Magic:  A husbandomancer's magic deals with the animal world, but 
>even more so with the interaction between humans and animals.  
>Husbandomancy blurs the distinctions between humans and domesticated 
>animals.
>
>A note about sympathetic animals:  Many effects of Husbandomancy relate to 
>an adept's "Sympathetic Animal".  This is any animal which a Husbandomancer 
>currently keeps as a pet.  Similar animals (wolf and dog, bobcat and 
>housecat, parrot and canary, all insects, all normal fish) count as the 
>same kind of animal.
>
>Husbandomancy Blast:  A person attacked by a husbandomancy blast will be 
>attacked the next time they come into contact with a sympathetic animal.  
>The delay can be up to days, and even loyal animals will attack.
>
>Starting Charges: Decide how many animals your husbandomancer has, and of 
>which types.   Gain half that many minor charges, and one significant 
>charge for every species after the third, with a maximum of six minor 
>charges and three significant charges.
>
>Minor Effects:
>
>Pets and their Masters Grow Alike
>3 minor charges
>
>The adept gains a +10% shift to a trait appropriate to a sympathetic animal 
>within the culture.  A good test of this would be whether an expression or 
>idiom exists connecting the animal to the trait.  Examples might be 
>"catlike grace", "puppydog eyes", "hungry like a wolf" and so on.
>
>One of the Herd
>1 minor charge
>
>Pick a single type of sympathetic animal.  Any animal of that type will 
>assume that the adept is of that species.  The animal won't actually 
>perceive things differently, but will process you as a member of the 
>species.  This may not, however, mean that the animal will react in a 
>friendly manner to him or her - a ram, for example, would charge a male 
>adept as a rival during mating season - but this will often allow an adept 
>to affect the actions of an animal in appropriate ways.  This lasts an 
>hour.
>
>Doctor Doolittle
>1 minor charge
>
>The adept can say one simple sentence to a sympathetic animal, and the 
>animal will understand it to the full extent of its ability to understand 
>the idea.  If the husbandomancer ask the animal a question, he or she can 
>also understand its response as if it were human words.  No actual noise 
>needs to be made on either side - the communication is strictly telepathic.
>
>Soothe the Savage Breast
>2 minor charges
>
>A single sympathetic animal will become calm, happy, and friendly towards 
>the adept.  This lasts until that animal has reasons to feel otherwise.
>
>They Can Smell Fear
>
>This is the husbandomancy minor blast.  The subject is attacked by the next 
>sympathetic animal of any type which comes into range - this can wait up to 
>a week.  Damage done is the sum of the digits, as per a hand-to-hand 
>attack.
>
>Significant Effects:
>
>Taskmaster
>2 significant charges
>
>A sympathetic animal obeys a single simple command of the adept's choice.  
>If the animal is harmed by obeying this command, the adept loses all 
>charges as if violating taboo.
>
>Tiny Eyes Everywhere
>3 significant charges
>
>Select a sympathetic animal which the adept has met and can remember.  If 
>the animal is still alive, the adept can perceive everything the animal 
>perceives, but cannot perceive what is happening around his or herself, nor 
>move.  The husbandomancer cannot control or influence the animals actions 
>in any way, even with magick, during the course of the effect.  This lasts 
>until the adept ends the effect.  If the animal is harmed during this time, 
>the adept does not lose any charges.
>
>Curse of Artemis
>1 significant charge
>
>The adept causes a single individual to gain a +20% or -20% shift on any 
>single trait associated with a sympathetic animal.  Positive traits might 
>be those listed under Pets and Their Masters Grow Alike.  Negative traits 
>might include "stinky as a pigsty", "stubborn as a mule", "crazy like a 
>fox" or "tired as a dog".
>
>Animal's Skin
>4 significant charges
>
>This ability works only at night, and ends at dawn.  The adept takes on the 
>real physical form of a sympathetic animal.  It is up to the GM to 
>determine exact statistics.  This effect cannot be ended before dawn - if 
>the husbandomancer needs to make a phone call after turning into a 
>parakeet, too bad.
>
>The Wild Hunt
>
>The husbandomancy significant blast.  Must be used in the presence of a 
>large number of dangerous sympathetic animals of a single type.  The 
>animals charge toward the target at their top speed (if the target is too 
>far away, the animals might die of exhaustion before they can reach the 
>target), gathering any nearby animals of the same type as well.  Damage is 
>the value of the die roll - the animals will continue attacking in mass 
>until that amount of damage is inflicted or a day passes.  Animals dying as 
>a result of this will only violate the husbandomancer's taboo if they were 
>pets before the effect was used - sending your neighbors dogs to kill 
>someone is okay, but sending your own can be risky.
>
>Major Charges:
>
>A major charge might permanently change a person into an animal, change or 
>exaggerate the traits of an animal, cause the adept to become a hybrid, or 
>create a large number of loyal sympathetic animals from scratch.
>

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