TEXT:  
   
  by Dylan Craig 
  Gustomancy: The Art of Eating 
  Gustomancers like to eat. Like their fellow adepts, this is more than a simple craving for tasty food; 
  it's a spiritual obsession with the process of eating, digesting, and drawing nourishment from edible 
  material. Many gustomancers are superb chefs; others are food critics, and others do nothing more 
  than keep the frozen meal shelves at their local supermarket empty. 
  Because their magic involves the consumption of large amounts of food, many gustomancers are 
  grossly overweight. However, this is not always the case. Gustomancers blessed with a high 
  metabolism, or who spend most of their day at the gym, will not conform to this stereotype. In fact, 
  the diet of a muscle-packed powerlifter is perfectly appropriate for the lifestyle of a gustomancer. 
  It's not what you do with the calories that counts; it's getting them in in the first place that holds the 
  magic. Gustomancers are known as gobblers in the Occult Underground. 
  Enjoy a hearty meal? Well, grab a spoon, the fun's just starting. 
  Gustomancy Blast Style: Gustomancers inflict damage through cramping their victim's digestive 
  system. A minor blast feels like acute gas pains; a significant blast can rupture the stomach, kink an 
  intestine, or induce crippling bouts of nausea. A major blast would literally cause a victim (or, 
  several victims) to explode in a shower of methane and internal organs. Gustomancers can only 
  target entities with a physical digestion system with this spell; ghosts, cars, and clockworks are 
  unaffected, but zombies, animals, and bloodsucking specters are.  
  Generate a Minor Charge: Eat enough food to last a normal human a full day, at one sitting. In 
  calorie terms, this amounts to around 2000 calories; in serving terms, this is roughly the same as 
  eating three full meals. The food can be of any type, from raw steak to breakfast cereal to fast food, 
  but it must be consumed all at once, without interruption. Nibbling away over the course of an 
  afternoon is no good. 
  Generate a Significant Charge: Eat a similar amount as would be required to generate a minor 
  charge, and in the same conditions, but this food must be of superlative quality, as would only be 
  available at a gourmet restaurant. In addition, the meal must include all the normal side-options 
  (fine wine, hors d'ouevres, wafer-thin mints, etc.). Such a meal might cost in excess of $300; 
  alternately, it may be cooked by the gustomancer themselves for a mere $100 in ingredients, but 
  this would require a Gourmet Cooking skill roll in excess of 30%.
  
  Generate a Major Charge: Eat a meal which has never been prepared before, or will never be 
  prepared again. The easy combinations (like peanut butter and caviar chili, or narwhal steak) have 
  all been done by gustomancers in ages past, but of course there's no way of knowing that without 
  trying. Alternately, a dish prepared by a chef with a skill in excess of 80% who retires immediately 
  after cooking it would qualify; if the chef ever cooks a gourmet meal again, the gustomancer 
  immediately loses a major charge, or 10 significant charges if they do not hold a major charge. 
  Taboos: While gustomancers may have dietary restrictions (vegan, kosher, halal, or salt-free, for 
  instance), diet foodstuffs are anathema to them. Should a gustomancer ever eat food which is has 
  had any portion of its natural nutritive content removed, he or she immediately loses all stored 
  charges. Note that gustomancers may still prepare food in a healthy manner by cooking with olive 
  oil rather than butter, avoiding fatty spreads, and so on; they may just not take the 'easy option' of 
  diet food. 
  In addition, underfed people, those with eating disorders (bulimia, anorexia) or dietary syndromes 
  (kwashiorkor, lactose-intolerance) leech charges away from gustomancers by skin contact. Each 
  such contact removes a minor charge from the gustomancer; when he or she has no more minor 
  charges, a significant change is lost instead, and so on. These charges are transferred directly to the 
  leeching party as the same amount of nutrition they initially provided to the gustomancer. A 
  gustomancer takes 5 Wound Points for every charge lost in this manner, but these points may be 
  regained at a rate of 10 points per normal meal portion or 5 points per sugary drink. A gustomancer 
  who is killed by wounds of this type dies of malnutrition! Gustomancers can never drain each other 
  in this manner. 
  A gustomancer also loses one charge (starting with his or her highest) for every day in which they 
  eat less than 4000 calories (six full meals). 
  Random Magick Domains: If it concerns food, can be eaten, or is capable of eating, a 
  gustomancer can affect it. Even billboards carrying food ads can be targeted. 
  Starting Charges: A gustomancer starts with five minor charges, but a significant charge is only a 
  gourmet restaurant away. A gobbler can accumulate 5-7 minor charges per week with little effort, 
  but accumulating multiple significant charges will be tricky unless (a) they can prepare their own 
  food, or (b) have enough status that they can get away with ordering a table-full of food at high-
  class restaurants without being asked to leave. 
  Becoming a big lard-butt:  
  Yup, if a gustomancer isn't careful, they'll have more than flabby thighs or a spare tyre to worry 
  about. Every day that a gobbler exceeds normal consumption, he or she gains a point in a Body 
  skill called Overweight. A character cannot gain more than 3 Overweight points per week. This 
  skill can be applied as a threshold, at the GMs discretion, to any skill except Mind skills. In other 
  words, if your roll for a skill falls under your Overweight total, it fails -- your physical state 
  somehow got in the way. The Overweight skill tops out at 2/3 of the Body score. Each point of 
  Overweight represents about 2-3% additional mass. 
  Overweight can be worked off; for every day of light exercise (1-2 hours), the Overweight skill can 
  be dropped by 1 point. For every day of intensive exercise (2-3 hours), usually involving a personal 
  trainer, Overweight drops by 2; however, a character may only perform such high-burn exercise 
  once per week for every 15 points they have in Body, or twice per 15 points if they have a Body-
  related Obsession skill. All modifications to the Overweight skill are applied at the end of a week; 
  barring magical effects, nobody gains or loses weight overnight.  
  Diets drop the Overweight total by 5 to 10 points a month -- any "cheating" during this month 
  starts the month over from scratch. Starvation diets -- during which the dieter eats, literally, 
  nothing -- drop Overweight by 5 points a week, but also inflict 1d10 Wound Points per day after 
  
  the second, and drop the dieter's Body by 1d10 points per week. Half of the Body points lost in this 
  way are lost permanently, the other half can be regained at a rate of 1 per week of normal eating (or 
  overeating). 
  Gustomancy Minor Formula Skills 
  Savory Outlook 
  Cost: 1 minor charge 
  By using this spell, a gustomancer can change a single property of a portion of food to whatever he 
  or she desires. A steak could be changed from rare to well done; a crumbed chicken breast could be 
  changed to a crumbed pork chop. 
  Bloat 
  Cost: 1 minor charge 
  This is the gustomancer's minor blast spell. 
  Iron Stomach Lining 
  Cost: 2 minor charges 
  While this spell is in effect (it lasts until the end of the target's next meal), the target may flip-flop 
  any rolls to resist the effects of a consumed substance, be it poison, hallucinogens, alcohol, or just 
  throat-searing chili powder. 
  I'm Thin Inside 
  Cost: 2 minor charges, +1 per 10 minutes of operation 
  This spell allows the target to avoid any effects of being Overweight for its duration. The character 
  physically shrinks; this, of course, has repercussions for clothing size or the state of any restraints 
  currently affecting the character.  
  Fat Power 
  Cost: 3 minor charges 
  This spell allows a character to add his or her Overweight skill to one of their Body or Soul skills 
  for one roll only. If you've ever seen a 350 lb. man long-jump like an Olympic athlete or sing like 
  Pavarotti (hey... wait a minute), you will appreciate this spell's startling power. 
  Food Detective 
  Cost: 4 minor charges 
  By eating a small portion of the remains of a meal, the gustomancer can zero in on the current 
  location and activities of any person(s) who originally ate it. This impression lasts a few seconds 
  only, and can only be performed once per given meal. The morsels eaten can be no more than a 
  shred of garnish or ketchup drip stuck to the inside of a fast-food container; the spell still works. 
  Gustomancy Significant Formula Skills 
  Eat This 
  Cost: 1 significant charge 
  This is the gustomancer's significant blast.
  
  I Could Eat A Horse 
  Cost: 2 significant charges 
  You could also eat a car tyre. Or a handful of iron filings. The gobbler gains the ability to derive 
  nutrition from any physical substance as if it were an equal weight of oatmeal porridge. This spell 
  doesn't render the substance more malleable, but it makes it tasty (car tyres, according to gobblers, 
  taste like licorice), and protects the consumer from any ill-effects associated with eating it. So: iron 
  filings won't scratch the gustomancer's throat; a turpentine-paint cocktail won't poison them. This 
  spell applies to the gobbler and a companion, if he or she wishes (hey, eating's a social pastime). 
  For every extra significant charge expended, the gobbler can double the number of people it 
  effects. Hence, for 2 additional charges, 8 people can chow down. Watching such a meal is an 
  Unnatural-3 stress; participating is closer to level 5 or 7, depending on the 'foodstuff' being eaten. 
  The substances eaten do not count towards accumulating charges. 
  Eat Your Heart Out 
  Cost: 3 significant charges 
  By casting this spell, the gustomancer 'eats' a target's appetite. He or she no longer feels hungry; in 
  fact, eating any meal makes him or her feel bloated and unwell (-10 to all skills). This penalty lasts 
  24 hours, and is cumulative. If they don't eat, or eat too little, they begin starving, as detailed 
  above. On the other hand, the gustomancer's appetite doubles; he or she must eat an additional 
  person's worth of food every day, or suffer the penalties of starvation themselves. Extra food eaten 
  as the result of this spell does not count towards accumulating charges. If the target can maintain a 
  normal diet for a week, the spell ends. 
  Slim Jim 
  Cost: 4 significant charges 
  Who needs Weight Watchers? This spell lasts until the gustomancer next accumulates a charge, 
  and triples the number of Overweight points lost through exercise or dieting. Even if the 
  gustomancer does nothing but sit on their butt and watch TV, he or she will still shed 2 points of 
  Overweight every week. 
  Appetite for Life 
  Cost: 5 significant charges 
  Powerful gustomancers can use stored fat to heal injuries. This spell can be cast on a receptive 
  target or the gustomancer him- or herself; either way, the recipient of the spell must be able to eat, 
  and must do so while the spell is in effect. For every dice roll of Overweight points that are burned, 
  one target's can be completely healed of any damage suffered since their last meal. This spell may 
  also be used to cure diseases or reverse poisons; the effects in such cases are left to the GMs 
  discretion. If the results of a dice roll ever cause the gobbler to lose more Overweight points than 
  he or she has, the excess is taken from their Body stat. If a gobbler casts this spell on him- or 
  herself, the spell only requires minor charges rather than significant ones. 
  Gustomancy Major Effects 
  Completely alter (spoil, re-garnish, animate) all foodstuffs in a supermarket; render someone 
  unable to ever eat again, or free them from the need for nourishment; raise someone from the dead 
  by throwing a massive banquet and harvesting the vital energies thus released.  
  Sample Gustomancer: Bern Ridgeway 
  Bern was a quiet kid who lived with his parents in the Midwest until a tragic road accident claimed 
  
  their lives when he was eight. He grew up lonely and unhappy under the sometime care of an aunt 
  in Boulder. When Bern was eighteen, having dropped out of school, he took a job at the local 
  diner, where he met Salvatore Pelli. Salvatore worked as a cook, but more importantly, he was a 
  childless man from a long line of gustomancers, and he was looking for someone to pass his 
  knowledge on to. Bern learned quickly, and when he had learned everyhing Salvatore knew, he set 
  off looking for some way to put his arcane skills to use. Bern is now a consulting counsellor at a 
  home for emotionally troubled teens, and heads the eating-disorder unit. In his capacity as a 
  therapist, he often uses his ability to bleed nutrition into others to bring malnutritioned kids back 
  from the brink of death without having to resort to drip feeds or force-feeding. Between his 
  magickal skills and his ability to provide therapy, his unit has one of the highest success rates in the 
  world. Bern is happy in his work, but has yet to learn to deal with the anxiety associated with 
  releasing kids back into the destructive environments that created their disorders; this stress is the 
  factor behind the failed and hardened notches in his Helplessness gauge. Bern's lifelong love is 
  modern dance; he often teaches dancing techniques to his patients to assist their development of 
  higher self-esteem. 
  Personality: Two parts William Dafoe, one part the older brother you never had 
  Obsession: Building a better society, piece by piece, by working with damaged kids 
  Wound Points: 55 
  Passions 
  Rage Stimulus: Parents who neglect or abuse their children 
  Fear Stimulus: (Helplessness) Losing a patient 
  Noble Stimulus: Helping unhappy kids lead better lives 
  Stats 
  Body: 55 (Comfortable) Speed: 60 (Like the Wind) Mind: 50 (Quick thinker) Soul: 55 (Humble) 
  Skills 
  Body Skills: Frontier Metabolism 35, Wrestling 20, General Athletics 15, Keep Fit 15 Mind 
  Skills: Notice 30, General Education 20, Teach 15 Speed Skills: Dance 50, Driving 15, Dodge 15, 
  Do Two Things at Once 15 Soul Skills: Lie 15, Charm 15, Repair Tortured Psyche 30, Magick: 
  Gustomancy 40  
  Frontier Metabolism: Bern heals at twice the normal rate, and gains twice the normal benefit for 
  exercise or dieting. Also, Whenever Bern receives medical treatment, he may flip-flop a successful 
  result to determine how many Wound Points are restored, if the original medical aid roll is also 
  under his Frontier Metabolism skill. 
  Charges: Bern rarely has more than 3-4 minor charges and 1-2 significant charges at any time 
  Madness Meter 
  Equipment 
  Palmtop computer, credit cards, cell phone, digital camera 
  * * * 
  Violence Unnatural Helplessness Isolation Self 
  0 Hard 
  0 Hard 
  0 Hard 
  2 Hard 
  1 Hard 
  0 Failed 0 Failed 
  0 Failed 
  2 Failed 1 Failed
  
  Conspiromancy: The Power of Rumor 
  The human race is a funny thing. Most of the calamities, genocides, and mysterious events it 
  experiences are terrifying enough on a mundane level, yet it insists on creating illogical and 
  ethereal beliefs to explain them, some of which do little but add terror value to the event. 
  Conspiromancy grew out of the paranoia and conspiracy mentality of the 1950s and 60s, and the 
  media environment which has propagated it. Conspiromancy operates like a hybrid of 
  Cryptomancy and Iconomancy; by harvesting the power generated by urban legends and rumors, 
  the Conspiromancer gains the power to make them real. Conspiromancers are known as whisperers 
  in the Occult Underground. 
  Whisperers gain charges by spreading ideas which may be true or untrue, but are not independently 
  verifiable by their recipients. In other words, the people who are to believe in the idea (rumor, 
  conspiracy theory, etc.) must not have the immediate means of discovering whether what they have 
  just heard or read is true. "Immediate," in this case, means, "attainable within a few minutes;" in 
  other words, a phone call or a moment's collected thought away. Spreading a rumor about a new 
  political party is no good, unless the conspiromancer can also furnish an explanation as to why the 
  event has not made the papers; starting a rumor that the Post Office is compiling a DNA database 
  by culturing saliva traces from envelope seams, with some paper-thin evidence to support this (like 
  "anonymous testimonies" from postal employees), is far more powerful. Urban legends, of course, 
  are the cash cows of the whisperer framework, and supermarket tabloids and forwarded e-mails are 
  their bread and butter. 
  That's what I heard, anyway. 
  Blast Style: Conspiromancers have a blast spell, all right, and it's a doozy. However, their blast 
  formula spell (Black Book Bioweapon), while requiring significant charges to cast, only does 
  minor-blast damage if the target makes a successful Mind roll to resist the effect. 
  Generate a Minor Charge: Start a rumor that is believed by more than a dozen people. As a 
  general rule, anywhere between 10 and 75 percent of people exposed to a rumor will believe in it 
  strongly enough to be useful in terms of supplying power for the charge; the exact percentage 
  depends on the target group. The charge gained only lasts 24 hours, which is the rumor's effective 
  life span as far as siphoning energy from the collective unconscious goes. 
  Generate a Significant Charge: Start a rumor that is believed by more than a hundred people, 
  with the same parameters as those outlined for the minor charge. This charge only lasts a week. 
  However, rumors generated within a "snowballing media" (such as e-mail or gossipy manicurists) 
  may instead be used to deliver one minor charge per calendar month (for 2d10 months) instead of 
  one significant charge straight away; these minor charges do not dissipate after 24 hours. 
  Generate a Major Charge: Start a rumor which has a literally global effect. The growth of central 
  news agencies and the growing exposure of gullible members of the public to high concentrations 
  of information have made this a more attainable goal, but generating a major charge should still be 
  a major project involving a great deal of luck or forward planning. Major charges only last one 
  month; however, they can be broken down into a steady "drip" of one significant charge per month 
  for 2d10 months, or one minor charge per month for 2d100 months as detailed above. 
  Taboos: Have a rumor you started be conclusively debunked in the national media or subculture 
  you started it in. Not only does this lose you all your charges, it also means that all conspiromantic 
  magic worked anywhere in the world for the next 24 hours requires 1 extra charge, of whatever 
  type, to cast. Sloppy or implausible conspiromancers are often hunted down and iced by their own 
  kind. 
  Random Magick Domains: While their formula spells have fairly physical effects, 
  
  conspiromancers can only affect people's perceptions, memories, and reactions with their random 
  magick. 
  Starting Charges: A conspiromancer starts off with six minor charges, and can easily gain three 
  or four more per week, or a significant charge if they are willing to spend a whole week working 
  full-time to set it up. 
  Conspiromancy Minor Formula Skills 
  Well, Can You Disprove It? 
  Cost: 1 minor charge 
  After all, it might be true. When a conspiromancer lays this spell on someone, the target has to roll 
  three dice instead of two, and put together the worst possible result as their total, when making 
  rolls to detect lies or notice deceptions. The effect lasts as many minutes as the sum of the dice the 
  conspiromancer rolled to cast the spell. This spell may be cast to 'prep' a target for Black Book 
  Bioweapon (described below). 
  Aren't You . . . 
  Cost: 2 minor charges 
  . . . alive and flipping burgers in a golden arches in Idaho? By casting this spell, the adept can alter 
  a target's appearance so that it almost, but not quite, matches the appearance of another person -- 
  whom the caster must have a photo of or be familiar with. The match isn't close enough to defeat 
  close scrutiny, but it will fool far-off or cursory examination, or provide a "family resemblance." 
  Don't Accept Drinks from Strangers 
  Cost: 3 minor charges 
  After all, you never know what they might be slipping you. If an adept can dip his or her finger 
  into a substance which is to be consumed and cast this spell, the substance gains strong sedative 
  powers. Roll the dice; if the total is lower than the target's Body characteristic, he or she gains a 
  shift equal to the sum of the two dice, rounded down to the nearest ten, for a period of an hour. If 
  the roll is a match, or greater than the target's Body stat, they will gain a -20% shift every minute 
  (that's 1% a round, if you need to break it down), until their penalty exceeds their Body stat, at 
  which point they will pass out for an hour or so. 
  Asbestos Lining 
  Cost: 4 minor charges 
  It's all about making you bleed faster. Casting this spell on someone who is bleeding or wounded 
  greatly increases the rate at which they are losing blood. Characters with minor wounds (cuts, 
  nosebleeds, menstruation) begin losing a mugful of blood every minute (that's about 1 Wound 
  Point every second round); characters with serious wounds (knife slashes, bullet wounds) lose 
  slightly more (1 Wound Point every round). Nastier still, for an extra minor charge, the spell can be 
  cast the round before a wound is inflicted; this lets adepts "prep" a target before laying a hurting on 
  them, which really gets the gore flowing. The bleeding lasts until first aid is applied; rest, icepacks, 
  and so on halve the rate of loss. 
  It's In The Tapwater 
  Cost: 5 minor charges 
  Or fresh air. Or fabric softener. Or your favorite brand of fast food. Or the radiation from your TV. 
  When casting this spell, the conspiromancer must nominate a medium, such as one of those listed 
  
  above, and a target. If the spell is successful, the conspiromancer becomes aware every time the 
  target comes into contact with the medium, and may cast spells directly on the target at no penalty. 
  The link lasts a week, or until a spell is sent through it, and must be cast in the presence of the 
  target and medium. Countermeasures such as turning off the TV, avoiding fast food, drinking only 
  boiled or bottled water, etc., are effective in postponing the effects of the spell, but do not break the 
  link; in addition, the conspiromancer may keeping the link active until the target makes his or her 
  fateful slip-up by simply expending another 5 minor charges at the end of the week. 
  Conspiromancy Significant Formula Skills 
  Men In Black 
  Cost: 1 significant charge, plus 1 significant charge per agent created 
  And not the rapping kind, either. This spell causes uses the power of the collective unconscious to 
  create simulacra which walk, talk, and pack heat just like the shadowy government agents they 
  represent. These figures appear as nondescript men and women in dark suits, with earpiece 
  communicators, Glock automatics, and whatever other equipment is appropriate for their presence 
  -- if two or more agents are created, they will have a black sedan; four or more would have a panel-
  van, or maybe even a helicopter. The agents can only exist when witnesses to their existence are 
  around; if no-one can see them, or pays attention to them, they disappear. Otherwise, they have 
  standard stats for police officers (UA, pg.211), and will obey a single command-phrase given 
  during their summoning -- "Shoot those guys," "Stop that car," or "Protect me" are some examples 
  -- until they disappear (which will happen in ten minutes, if not before). 
  Just Because You're Paranoid 
  Cost: 2 significant charges 
  . . . doesn't mean they're not after you. For the next 24 hours, everyone the target encounters will 
  act one grade worse towards him. People who used to like him now come across fairly cool; people 
  who used to dislike him now bubble with rage when he approaches and will go out of their way to 
  make his life difficult. This antipathy is fairly subtle; if those affected are questioned, they will 
  brush off any mention of their altered behavior with words to the effect of "I'm just not in the mood 
  for his crap today." Any initiatives on the part of the characters' new enemies will remain in 
  character; in other words, an angry colleague might fire off a rant to the target's boss, a neighbor 
  might engage in a yelling session over the back fence, and so on. Only a capo would be likely to 
  tell one of his boys to "take care of dis little problem;" regular Joes, unless provoked, will not 
  exceed what they consider to be justifiable levels of violence or aggression. 
  CIA Mind Control 
  Cost: 3 significant charges 
  Look what it did to Mark Chapman. More importantly, look what it did to John Lennon. This spell 
  plants a powerful command into the target's subconscious, which can be activated at any time 
  during the next year by a spoken phrase or visual cue of the caster's choice. The command may be 
  of high complexity; the target will deal with any such complexities to the best of their abilities. For 
  instance, a command such as "kill the President" would result in the target planning the hit, getting 
  a weapon, buying a ticket to Washington, and so on. If the command is completely against the 
  target's own interests, he or she may struggle against the urge by making a Mind roll; failure means 
  that the target performs the actions required by the command, success means that the target can 
  hold off the impulse to obey the command for 24 hours, and a matched success means that the 
  target has thrown off the command and is once again in charge of their own actions. 
  Black Book Bioweapon 
  Cost: 4 significant charges 
  
  They say the Russians developed it. Or maybe it was the gays. Or it came from lab monkeys. 
  Whatever the case, it's here, now, in the collective unconscious, and a conspiromancer can make it 
  hatch right out of your cells and turn your body to soup -- if you believe. When a target is hit with 
  this spell, they have to make a Mind check. If they pass -- no problem. They take damage as if 
  they'd been hit with a minor blast, and apart from a high fever and some joint pains, they'll be fine. 
  If they fail their Mind check, they're in trouble. They take major-blast damage every day until they 
  die, the spell is broken, or the conspiromancer breaks taboo or ends the spell. Hospitalization 
  allows each day's damage to be reduced through triage, but the victim will still lose 1 point from 
  their Body stat each day, until the spell ends or they die. The disease, while completely 
  noninfectious, looks like the worst kind of Technicolor bastard child of Ebola, AIDS, and cancer 
  you could imagine. 
  We Have The Technology 
  Cost: 5 significant charges 
  Jet engines that run on water, handkerchiefs that stop bullets, laser guns -- this spell turns the 
  conspiromancer into a veritable catalogue of Hangar 18 goodies. The spell has to be cast separately 
  for each machine whose operation is "modified," but apart from that, there are few parameters -- 
  except that the effect must be presented in such a way that is plausible to any onlookers. If a 
  conspiromancer has been driving around in his Fiat all day, and now needs it to fly, he might 
  choose to back the spell up by popping the hood, fiddling with the engine out of sight of his 
  passengers, and then triumphantly explaining that he's "reset the hidden antigravity module" that 
  "comes standard with all engines these days, but they don't want ordinary folk to know about it so 
  the airlines can keep their monopoly." Justifications of this sort are what should stop 
  conspiromancers relying on this spell to grant outlandish powers to mundane items; remember that 
  should anyone debunk the conspiromancer's explanation of how the item does what it is doing -- 
  say, by dismantling the engine afterwards, or pointing out some flaw in the conspiromancer's 
  reasoning -- the conspiromancer loses all his or her charges, and any active spells he or she has up. 
  Conversely, characters who suspect that the conspiromancer is feeding them a line of bull, but keep 
  quiet to benefit from the effects of this spell, should be making checks on their Self and The 
  Unnatural gauges -- self-deception coming, as it does, with a price tag. 
  Conspiromancy Major Effects 
  Add a new entry into the set of what most people in a given society consider as to be 
  "incontrovertible fact;" create a real, permanent instance of an existing phenomenon (such as a 
  flying saucer, stuffed with Greys bent on human experimentation). 
  Sample Conspiromancer: Orpheus Brown 
  People who know Orpheus claim that he got into chauffeuring just so he could have a captive 
  audience to share his conspiracy theories with, but Orpheus himself claims that it was the other 
  way around; that he got interested in the Truth after eavesdropping on some of the conversations he 
  heard in the back of his limo, when various important passengers had a few too many drinks under 
  their belts. Orph wasn't formally trained as an adept, and has little idea of the Occult Underground; 
  his powers were awakened through a year-long correspondence with a hooded figure known only 
  as 'King Daddy', who claimed to live in the sewers under the city. Orph's natural curiosity did the 
  rest, and what he wasn't taught came naturally; he was soon a full-fledged conspiromancer, one of 
  a mere handful across the country. He still receives occasional messages from his mentor, and his 
  limo has carried King Daddy through the darkened streets on several occasions. 
  Personality: Libra -- "The race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself" 
  Obsession: Discovering, and spreading, the Truth 
  Wound Points: 35. 
  
  Passions 
  Rage Stimulus: Faceless bureaucracy 
  Fear Stimulus: (Violence) Vicious dogs 
  Noble Stimulus: Orpheus is a pacifist, and won't raise a hand in anger except to save a life. 
  Stats 
  Body: 35 (Potato with Limbs) 
  Speed: 60 (P.D.Q.) 
  Mind: 65 (Lots of Potential) 
  Soul: 70 (Humble) 
  Body Skills: Smoke, Drink, and Stay Alive 30, Struggle 20, General Athletics 15 
  Speed Skills: High Pressure Driving 55, Dodge 35 
  Mind Skills: Notice 25, General Education 15, Tabloid Trivia 35, Sports Trivia 20 
  Soul Skills: Outrageous Lie 25, Charm 25, Conspiromancy 50 
  Charges: Orpheus has lots of long-term rumors circulating, and can count on 5-7 minor charges 
  and at least one significant charge per week. 
  Madness Meter Violence Isolation Self Helplessness The Unnatural 0 Hard 1 Hard 0 Hard 0 Hard 
  1 Hard 1 Failed 0 Failed 0 Failed 0 Failed 1 Failed  
  Madness Meter 
  Equipment 
  Limo, pepper spray, copy of the Fortean Times, several disposable cameras, Dictaphone 
   
  Article publication date: July 6, 2001 
  138 Pyramid subscribers rated this article 3.39 on a scale of 1 to 5. Visit the ratings page for more 
  info. 
  Copyright © 2001 by Steve Jackson Games. All rights reserved. Pyramid subscribers are permitted to read this article 
  online, or download it and print out a single hardcopy for personal use. Copying this text to any other online system or 
  BBS, or making more than one hardcopy, is strictly prohibited. So please don't. And if you encounter copies of this 
  article elsewhere on the web, please report it to webmaster@sjgames.com.  
   
  Home - Subscribe! - Current Issue - Playtesting - Chat - - - Feedback  
  Violence Unnatural Helplessness Isolation Self 
  0 Hard 
  1 Hard 
  0 Hard 
  0 Hard 
  1 Hard 
  1 Failed 0 Failed 
  0 Failed 
  0 Failed 1 Failed
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Unknown Armies [multi]/Unknown Armies [1st & 2nd ed]/Unknown Armies Gustomancy and Conspiromancy.pdf