unknown armies

Gourmancy
 
a small, secretive school of magick dedicated to fine cuisine, the gourmands infuse their banquets with magickal energy. only thirty living sorcerers are known to practice this style of ritual food magick but this art has existed for close to two-thousand years. the majority of these chefs are male and hail from china. the rest represent a cross-section of world cuisine (most non-asian gourmands are from france and italy).
 
gourmancy was first developed in the far east. chinese mages, long versed in the medicinal applications of edible foodstuffs, discovered that the very act of cooking could generate chi. this chi could be stored and used for a variety of purposes, all channeled into the meals that they prepared.
 
gourmancy, like the older school of mechanomancy, stresses both the artistic expression and personal sacrifice of magick. gourmands are obsessive about the culinary arts, training for decades to learn every nuance, every technique. in fact, many of the most powerful magickal tomes in existence are gouramnd-penned cookbooks. because of this fanaticism, gourmands can only acquire charges by creating unique, delicious and skillfully prepared and presented dishes.
 
gourmancy blast style: gourmancers have no blast spell.
 
generate a minor charge: prepare a gourmet meal (popping a chilli dog into the mcrowave won't do it). one minor charge can be gained per course of the meal. note that "course" means a complete dish, not individual servings (creating a four course meal for 30 people will grant the gourmand 4 minor charges). because of their creative natures and because gainign charges in this fashion is relatively easy, gourmands spend inordinate amounts of time preparing even the simplest dishes (something to remember the next time you ask your cabal's gourmancer for a quick breakfast).
 
generate a significant charge: prepare unique dish from an artifact cookbook. these dishes are extraordinarily difficult to prepare, requiring exact measurement and preparation of ingredients. as with the above example, each course yields one significant charge. although many magickal cookbooks are known to exist, most are in the possession of a select few mages (alex abel is rumored to have one in his private library, although it is unclear whether or not he would be able to utilize it).
 
alternately, using magickal cooking implements to prepare a gourmet meal will allow the gourmand to gain charges. these rare and sought-after items do not yield cumulative charges (preparing sushi with two different artifact blades will not double your charges). these items, like the dipsomancer's bottles, must belong to the gourmand. magickal cooking implements are usually very old (at least two-hundred years old) and have some kind of historical significance (a porcelain banquet platter from the tokugawa shoganate).
 
generate a major charge: to gain a major charge, the gourmand must prepare a dish from one of the lost tomes of the shiih-tan, named after a fabled group of chinese gourmancers from the qin dynasty. the dishes described within the blood-inked pages of the shih-tan are so difficult to prepare that there are legends of mages going insane from the effort of reading them. of course, this has never been proven as the nine volumes of the shih-tan have never been found. rumor has it that the shih-tan recipes use human flesh as a main ingredient and that the books were actually created by a beings from the netherworld.
 
taboo: Gourmancers must devote all their energy in preparing food and must fast while in pursuit of arcane knowledge. as a result, gourmands lose all of their charges if they eat any food (including their own).
 
random magick domain: gourmancers channel their magick through food and can only affect dishes that they have prepared themselves. various spheres of influence include spells that affect the mind and body. because of their taboo, gourmands can only affect others.
 
starting charges: after his apprenticeship ends, the gourmand will have to face the world without any charges.
 
Gourmancy minor formula spells
 
preserve
cost: 1 minor charge
effect: food prepared with this spell will not spoil, melt, attract insects or otherwise suffer from the effects of entropy from sunrise to sunset.
 
chicken soup for the soul
cost: 1 minor charge
effect: this spell yields the same result as the epideromancy spell, "regeneration."
 
ferment
cost: 1 minor charge
effect: when this spell is cast on a beverage, that liquid turns alcoholic. this effect remains for as long as the target beverage does. it can be used on any vessel the size of a wine cask or smaller. many speculate that this spell was the source of the "water to wine" miracle from the new testament.
 
pestilence
cost: 2 minor charges
effect: casting this spell on food or drink causes it to become mildly poisonous. the victim will experience debilitating nausea, vomitting and other similar distress for an hour plus a number of hours equal to their body score subtracted from the gourmand's magick score.
 
like water for chocolate
cost: 2 minor charges
effect: the chef is able to project his emotional state into his cuisine. whatever emotion the gourmand is experiencing while preparing this dish affects anyone who partakes of the meal. the gourmand must literally pour his heart out to the food...crying into soup to produce sadness, yelling at the roast chicken to provoke anger or thinking lascivious thoughts to encourage lust. this effects everyone who eats the meal and lasts until the next sunrise.
 
Gourmancy significant formula spells
 
transcribe
cost: 5 significant charges
effect: this spell allows the gourmancer to create his own book of occult recipes. although each recipe only takes one day to transcribe, the recipes themselves can take years to perfect. crafting a personal culinary grimoire is considered the pinnacle of gourmantic artistry. the books of dead gourmands are highly prized items that are quite rare and expensive to attain.
 
feast or famine?
cost: 3 significant charges
effect: the vengeful gourmand can exact a painful vengeance with this spell. when cast, the gourmand's target will begin to lose weight at an alarming rate. no matter how much they eat, the victim gradually get thinner and thinner until they eventually die from malnutrition. the only way to halt this process is with a fear or famine? counterspell (cast by the original caster or by another gourmancer) or through epideromantic spells. magickal examination of the victim will reveal that a kind of segmented tapeworm-like creature has affixed itself to the victim. physically removing the worm is a difficult task, even with magickal assistance.
 
ambrosia
cost: 2 significant charge
effect: anyone consuming food or drink tainted with this spell will feel confident, energetic and clear-minded until they go to sleep. the subject cannot fail any stress checks while under the influence of this spell and cannot suffer the effects of drugs, poisons or alcohol for its duration (this includes getting or keeping dipsomantic charges!).
 
divination
cost: 2 significant charges
effect:by posing a question and then examining the entrails of an animal (chicken, fish, pig, etc.) used in preparing a dish, the gourmancer can forsee the future. the question must be answerable in the "magic 8-ball style" (yes, no, maybe).
 
cornocopia
cost: 1 significant charge
effect: a more powerful version of preserve, this spell enables ingredients or prepared dishes to last indefinitely, without salting, refrigeration or dehydrating.
 
gourmancy major effects
 
major charges in gourmancy only exist in ancient legends. still, if one were to acquire a major charge, one could produce virtually any mental or physiological change through the smell or taste of food. the boundry between life and death could even be surmounted with the right dish...
 

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