[UA] Gustomancy - a new school of magick

[Kevin Peden]

Hey guys. First time poster. I've been fiddling around with a new magick 
school, and thought I would post it for some criticism or ideas. This is my 
first attempt, so be gentle! 8) I also have some rituals for the school, but 
I haven't quite fleshed them out yet.

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Gustomancy (Food-Based Magic)



Gustomancers (or Gutters, as they are often derisively nick-named) are a 
sub-sect of unnatural who acquire their power from food. Just as one can be 
moved by the quality of a fine meal, so gustomancers are able to turn the 
exquisite tastes of fine chefs into magick power. The school of magick is 
similar to that of dipsomancy. Gustomancers can acquire charges not only 
from the creation, but also the consumption of fine foods. And in a world 
full of gluttony, what better way than to control the world?



Blast style: Remember Mr. Creosote from MONTY PYTHON AND THE MEANING OF 
LIFE? Imagine if someone was filled with so much food, they literally burst 
at the seams. You get the (messy) idea.



Generate a minor charge: consume a homemade item - soup, bread... anything 
that requires something more then opening a can or package and microwaving 
(however, you can only gain a charge from home-made cooking in this way once 
every two months. in other words, you can only get a charge from your 
home-made bread every two months. This encourages gustomancers to develop a 
varied cooking repertoire). Eat a gourmet meal of at least 4 courses (but 
you can only acquire charges from the same chef once every 4 months). Try a 
food you've never eaten before.



Generate a significant charge: consume something that is usually considered 
inedible - broken light bulbs, a handful of nails, or the like. Consume 
something that would normally be considered poisonous - improperly prepared 
fugu blowfish, maggoty meat, fried worms, or the like.



Generate a major charge: consume a food of some significance - a piece of 
preserved cake from JFK's wedding, a meat pie made from a small child, 
something of the like. The grosser, or more historically significant, the 
snack, the better.



Taboo: To keep your charges, you have to keep eating. If you ever get less 
than three squares a day, you lose your charges. TO keep significant and 
major charges, you have to eat more - 4, 5,6 even 7 meals a day. Needless to 
say, gustomancers are often "big-boned".



Random Magick Domain: Gustomancers are all about the sensory experience that 
a good meal can provide them. It's almost a sensory overload. It's also 
about gluttony. how one can revel in the power of a good meal, when millions 
in the world are starving.



Starting Charges: Gustomancers start with 4 minor charges.



Minor Formula Spells



Gas Panic

Cost: 1 minor charge

Effect: This is the Gustomancy minor blast. It causes the target to be 
wracked with painful gas pains, rendering them incapacitated for 3 to 5 
minutes. They will be unable to do anything other than double over in pain.



Hot Sauce

Cost: 1 minor charge

Effect: When a gustomancer casts this spell, they gain the ability to 
breathe fire as an offensive attack. This blast of flame has a 10' radius, 
and a To Hit roll must be made as if the user were shooting a gun (use their 
Body stat as their skill level).



Comfort Food

Cost: 1 minor charge

Effect: Chicken soup may heal what ails you, but comfort food will heal 
everything else. If a person consumes a meal that has had Comfort Food cast 
upon it, they will heal at double the normal rate for the next 24 hours. It 
will also cause any minor diseases (flu, cold, measles, etc.) that the 
consumer may have to be healed completely. If they consumer suffers from a 
painful physical condition, or incurable disease, then Comfort food will 
instead allow that person 24 hours of pain-free existence. Consuming Comfort 
Food will also negate any magick-based physical effects of a non-permanent 
nature that the consumer may be suffering from (confusion, etc.). Comfort 
Food will also sober a person up right away, so use with care around any 
dipsomancers.



Iron Guts

Cost: 2 minor charges

Effect: by expending 2 minor charges, the gustomancer becomes immune to any 
non-magical poison for a 24-hour period.



Loaves and Fishes Trick

Cost: 2 minor charges

Effect: By using minor charges, the gustomancer can make a little go a long 
way. The gustomancer can make a meal or snack designed for 1 person feed a 
group of up to 10. For every minor charge expended beyond the initial 2, 
they can feed another 10 people.



Significant Formula spells



Hollow Leg

Cost: 1 significant charge

Effect: By eating an item, you can store it within your body, to be 
withdrawn at a later date. As long as the item will fit in your mouth, a 
gustomancer can swallow an item, and store it in a netherspace within their 
body. To retrieve this item, the gustomancers simply reaches into their 
throat, and extracts it. The item is removed in the exact same condition 
that it was swallowed in. For each item stored in this way, a significant 
charge must be expended. A gustomancer can store a number of items in this 
manner equal to their Body score, divided by 10 (rounded down), as long as 
each individual item can fit within the gustomancer's mouth. These items 
will be held within the body indefinitely, but if a gustomancer ever breaks 
taboo with objects hidden in a Hollow Leg, they must make a BODY check (with 
a -10% for every consecutive day after the first that they break taboo) to 
keep them down, or they will be rather painfully expelled, doing damage 
equal to the sum of their body roll for every item within the gustomancer.



Transubstantiation

Cost: 1 significant

Effect: For every significant charge expended on this spell, the gustomancer 
can create a delicious, edible meal out of completely inedible items for one 
person. Food created in this manner can be used to prevent a gustomancer 
from breaking taboo, but cannot be used to acquire charges.



Thinner

Cost: 2 significant

Effect: When the caster uses this magick on a target, they immediately begin 
to wither away as if starving. Their body score is halved for the next two 
hours, and any skills which use Body are at -30% for the duration of the 
spell.



Ravenous

Cost: 2 significant charges

Effect: By expending 2 significant charges, the gustomancer can induce a 
ravenous hunger in a target. The target will immediately drop whatever they 
are doing and start eating anything they can lay their hands. If there is no 
food in the room, they will start consuming whatever organic material they 
can find - plants, small pets, cockroaches, even comrades. If that cannot 
satisfy their hunger, they will start to literally chew through the 
countertops, eating whatever they can get their hands on to satisfy their 
hunger. This hunger continues for one hour.



Bring Me A Bucket

Cost: 3 significant charges

Effect: This is the Gustomancer significant blast. This spell causes the 
target to begin to vomit violently, leaving them incapacitated for 
approximately 1 hour. The subject will vomit continuously, suffering through 
dry heaves after their system has been emptied, and eventually vomiting up 
blood, as they regurgitate stomach acid. The target will also suffer damage 
consistent with being beaten (as their body's muscles are wracked by 
convulsions from vomiting).



Eat Of My Flesh

Cost: 4 significant

Effect: When a gustomancer casts this spell on a corpse, then consumes a 
small portion of their body (ick!), they are able to access that person's 
memories for a period of 6 hours. The gustomancer would only be able to 
learn information that the corpse possessed at the time of death (if the 
corpse was murdered by an unseen foe, then Eat of my Flesh would not reveal 
that person's identity), and will have any gaps in memory that the person 
may have had. If they Eat of the Flesh of someone who suffered from a mental 
disorder (psychosis, Alzheimer's, etc), then the gustomancer must make a 
Body roll, or begin exhibiting those same symptoms for the 6 hours that they 
possess that person's memories. At the end of those 6 hours, the gustomancer 
must make another Body roll, or the symptoms will become permanent.



Gustomancy Major Effects

Cause a person's body to bloat and explode like a balloon. Cause a person to 
waste away, no matter how much food they consume. Give a target a fatal food 
allergy.