Piscomancy (A Minor Adept School for Unknown Armies 3e)

Piscomancy 

Or Ichthyurgy 
AKA Ahabs, Aquamen, Casters, Ickies 

Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he'll eat forever.

You fish because you are master of a domain which is not your own; by deceit and pain, you admire the beauty of another world. Fish to eat, and you're no better than the fish. Just another mouth with a tail going for the lure, not knowing the difference between the real thing and the simulacrum even when the hook pierces its lip.

Make a man a fish, and you'll catch him any day.

There's no telling how old this school is, but it's never quite had the strength behind it to match its cousin, Agrimancy. Nobody ever ruined their life sport fishing. When it comes to altering the environment, commercial fishing wins every time, but there's nothing personal or magickal about hauling up a thousand cod in a net that could swallow a house.

Regardless, some Casters see an opportunity to reach greater heights (or depths,) and you know what happens when Adepts get ideas.

Generate a Minor Charge: Catch a fish on rod and reel, on a spear, or with your bare hands. Nets don't count, they're not personal enough. It's about the one-on-one struggle between you and the fish. It's that simple.

Of course, it isn't actually that simple. Fishing is a wildly variable activity based on the whims of animals and environmental conditions. To make it that simple, you have a 25% chance to catch a fish for each half-hour of fishing. If you have an identity relevant to your method of fishing, roll that instead. If you're in a really good spot like a special secret fishing hole, or a really shitty one like a stagnant drainage pond, take a +20% or -20% shift accordingly.

Piscomancy doesn't have ways of generating significant or major charges, yet.

Taboo: You can't eat fish. You can't eat any animal that lives in water for a significant amount of time, like amphibians and beavers, as a matter of fact. Thankfully, single-celled microorganisms like bacteria and amoebas don't count. You still shouldn't drink pond water, though. It's full of creatures. Did you know NYC's tap water is full of tiny crustaceans called copepods? Now you do.

Ω: 1. Charges are easy to come by, but tabooing is as easy as having someone slip a shred of tuna in your cheeseburger. You may want to invest in a water filter.

Random Magick Effects: Piscomancy is about drawing in, making people want what they otherwise wouldn't. A fish doesn't know the difference between a spinner lure and the glitter of scales, and neither will your targets. Inversely, in being a master over fish, you are made more like them: swift and free, yet tied to the water.

Minor Formula Spells:

Piscispicy
Cost: 1 minor charge.
This one's easy. Catch a fish, gut it, and look through the entrails. Gain a hunch about your next roll of any type. If you carry the entrails in your hand, you can instead give the hunch to someone else by throwing the fish guts at them.

Thiiiiis Big
Cost: 1 minor charge.
There's a reason the phrase "fish story" is synonymous with "bullshit". For a number of minutes equal to the casting roll, you gain a +20% boost to Lie checks. If you're telling an exaggerated story meant to entertain, gain a +20% to Connect, too.

Don't Scare the Fish 
Cost: 2 minor charges.
Fish don't like loud noises. Neither do you, or most people. When casting this spell you must audibly say to the target, "don't scare the fish," even if it's inanimate. The target of this spell is rendered completely silent for a number of minutes equal to the casting roll, or equal to the ones place if the target is larger than a hand. 

Foul Hook
Cost: 2 minor charges.
A foul hook is when a fish gets hooked anywhere but the mouth, a suboptimal outcome that usually tends to harm the fish more than necessary. Piscomancy's minor blast inflicts this on purpose. One target within a number of feet equal to your Piscomancy identity takes hand-to-hand damage and is unable to move further away from you for a round. On subsequent rounds, you can spend an additional charge to drag the target a number of feet equal to the sum of the casting roll. The target can choose to break free, and take an equal amount of damage instead.


Jonah's Wallet
Cost: 2 minor charges.
Fish swallow a lot of things, and only some of them are food. When you cast this spell, slit open the belly of a fish: inside is one object with a value in dollars up to the sum of the casting roll. You get to choose what it is, as long as it's something that you could buy secondhand at a pawn shop and could actually fit inside the fish.

If you spend just one minor charge, you can instead feed an object to a fish you catch and throw back, where it will be kept inexplicably free from water and acid damage until you cast the normal version of the spell again. It doesn't even have to be on the same fish, as long as it's the right size.

Lure 
Cost: 2 minor charges.
A fish doesn't know a lure is just a piece of plastic, rubber, or metal. It just sees food. Designate an object and designate a target both in your line of sight. For an amount of minutes equal to the casting roll, the target really, really wants to put the object in their mouth. Ignoring this compulsion is a rank 4 Self check.

The One That Got Away
Cost: 2 minor charges.
Fish are pursuers, but also pursued. They chase the lure, then desperately flail until the hook comes free. When cast, all attempts to catch you, such as by grappling or Pursuit, fail on any roll under or equal to a 20 or over a 1 for a number of hours equal to the casting roll.

Special thanks to Spears and Spreadsheets.

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