[UA] Ordo Corpulentus (rough version)

[Chris Cooper]

Here is my take on the foul Ordo Corpulentus.

Suggestions and comments are very welcome.

I know they have the whole Best Predators on Earth
schtick, but that's just background stuff. Here's all
the crunchy bits. A few of them are wobbly and will be
severly redone or removed.

Thanks,

Chris.

---------------------------------------------------

Ordo Corpulentus

Ordo Corpulentus or OC are a strange cult of cannibal
magicians. Their single most notable philosophy is the
ability to gain another’s strength through eating
them. OC are the Occult Underground’s vampires and
werewolves. They’re bogeymen. They won’t just kill
you. You might not even be dead when they start.

Minor Charge: Eat a mouthful of someone’s flesh. This
can be cured flesh like beef jerky (one charge per
stick) or a bite of a sacramental hamburger (up to ten
minor charges).

Significant Charge: Partake in a full meal – at least
ten minor charge’s worth. Taking a bite from a still
living being constitutes as a significant charge.

Major Charge: Take a bite out of someone nationally
famous or powerful – even if they’ve been dead for a
while. Eating a meal of a famous person might give
quite a few major charges. Did anybody find John
Denver? You think all press coverage missing people
get is going to help them. 

How much meat must I eat: Assuming there are ten bites
in a kilogram of human flesh and three-quarters of a
person are made of immediately edible flesh. Do the
math. Elderly people are much more tender and less
stringy the young people. But this is a rump or fillet
argument.

After Chugging down my Meal, I…
Eating human flesh is not good for the body. After
your body struggles to assimilate the meat, it starts
to show – as if nature itself finds this practice
abhorrent and puts up big warning signs to everyone
else.

When people eat human flesh their skin becomes waxy
and yellow and puffy or beefy-looking. And when they
sweat, they release a disgusting stink that only
cannibals give off.

Taboo: Refuse to eat human flesh if it is available.
Oddly enough refusing to eat any sort of meat (if
human flesh is not available) is also a taboo, so
there has to be a little bit of meat in the meal.

Another prominent part of the OC is that they also
have their own sort-of-secret archetype they can
channel, the Discerning Gourmet.

Most of OC channel this secret but obvious archetype
as well as being sorcerers. Unlike most avatar and
sorcerer cross-over types, OC have very little
conflict being adepts and channelling their archetype.

The Discerning Gourmet is known by many, many names.
Sometimes he is the Winnowing Champion; sometimes he
is the He who Feasts on the Flesh of his Own Kind;
sometimes he is the Saviour of Innocents. Others know
this archetype as the Serial Cannibal. No one knows
who the first cannibal was or when it ascended, or if
it was for sport or survival. The Serial Cannibal has
ascended in various forms over the years, habitually
retaking the role of the Serial Cannibal whenever the
survival aspect becomes a lifestyle. 

Every year the strongest contenders of the Discerning
Gourmet gather in the quiet wastes of Texas and do
their battle to be King, the Godwalker of the
Discerning Gourmet. 

OC’s cliques
OC falls into a few preferences – those that eat meat
on the odd occasion, those celebrate the act of eating
human flesh by eating human flesh, those that eat
their prey as is the right of the victorious predator.
Then there are those that eat little pieces in an act
of reverence.

Jerky Boys or Pickers
Only eat cured human meat. Each piece is worth a minor
charge.

Gourmets or Buzzards
Only eat extensively prepared three-course feasts

Butchers or Jointers
These fellows eat the flesh, as hot, raw and bloody as
they can. Two out of three is also acceptable to these
far-from-human creatures.

Religious Orthodoxy 
These worship and eat the sacramental Body of the
Flesh at the Altar of the Serial Cannibal. 

Broken lines
OC are broken up into three groups – the Corn-belt
faction, the North West Coast and the Bible-belt
version. Each practice and use the same formula
spells, but also have formula spells unique to each
group. The only major difference is that the Corn-belt
eaters have

Minor Spells
Bite (one minor charge)
This spell wounds the target as if he had been
savagely bitten. The spell uses a minor charge for
each bite but the charges can be stacked so that a
bite occurs somewhere on the target’s body every round
– one per charge.

Each bite only does the High Pick of the roll in
damage (choose the die with the highest face number).
A matched pair does the sum of the roll in damage.

Each bite is from a different mouth and no matches
will be found on dental records.

Cured (two minor charges)
This spell renders the OC incapable of being poisoned
from eating rotting human flesh. It is still slimy and
foul smelling, but at least it falls off the bone.

Country-fried Goodness (three minor charges)
This spell hides the human meat under scrutiny. If
analysed it is determined to be pork. It doesn’t stop
the OC charging up when he swallows it.

Face Wrap (three minor charges)
By cutting off the unhappy meal’s face and wearing it,
the cannibal psychically becomes the person. Everyone
seeing the cannibal thinks they’re seeing that person
– even adding in extra stimuli which helps fill their
mental picture of that person. 

This spell lasts for two days and cannot be stopped
unless the skin-mask is removed. Anyone with seven or
more hardened notches in Unnatural- or five failed
notches in the Self-gauge will see through the
illusionary mask for what it is.

I Feel like God (five minor charges)
This spell beefs up the OC considerably and it doubles
his Wound points. This spell lasts until the cannibal
eats again.

Significant Spells

Exulted Communion (one significant charge)
When this spell is cast it gives the cannibal’s
experience points equal to the sum of the magick
check. These points can be used to purchase Body,
Speed, Mind and Soul skills possessed by the person
they have just eaten. 

Once the skill reaches 10% it can be rolled as a
normal skill, but it can be raised as a normal skill
with standard experience gained.

Ritual spells can also be gained this way. The cost is
the same as Authentic Thaumaturgists learn new rituals
(UA2 pg101).

Wolf in the Fold (one significant charge)
Wolf in the Fold physically hides the effects of
cannibalism, the particular toxicity from the
cannibal’s metabolism for fourteen days.

House of the Beast (two significant charges)
By urinating at all the entry points of an area, the
magic casts a subtle influence over all that pass
through those marked entrances. They all get jittery
and scared. The longer they stay, the worse it gets,
but in no way they can pin-point this spookiness – it
just has bad vibes. It triggers a Rank-6 isolation
stress check within ten minutes after passing through
the entrance. Roll one die and that is the total of
rounds before the check has to happen.

Once a person rolls the check, they become immune from
that casting. Another casting will trigger a fresh
check.

Example of the Corn-belt spells
Master of my World (one minor charge)
The cannibal gets a +30% on any intimidation-styled
skill. This lasts until the Cannibal urinates.

Tooth and Claw (one minor charge)
The cannibal can grow claws and fangs (charge each)
and any attacks do +6 damage (sharp and hard). Any
failed stress roll results in a frenzy during this
time. The spell lasts until sun rise. 

Example of the Bible-belt spells
Helpfully Obscure (one minor charge)
This spell allows the Flesh-eater to seek out the
person with the lowest Soul stat and the poorest
social interaction. This is fantastic for finding
people who aren’t obviously diseased or homeless.


=====
God frowns on all the little children.

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