Magical Style: Veneficium

For most of human history, it was impossible to distinguish between disease, poisoning, and supernatural threats. All of them were considered to be mysterious dangers which might affect anyone without an obvious cause. Naturally, this led to a great deal of paranoia (see Poisoning Phobias, GURPS Horror, p. 59).

The ancient Mesopotamians and Hebrews blamed illnesses on witches who put unclean material into food or water. From them, the belief seems to have spread to the Greeks and Romans, and hence throughout Europe by the medieval period.

 Veneficium

9 Points

Prerequisites: None.

Veneficium is a secret folk style which uses standard prerequisites. Most practitioners are simply malicious, using it to terrorize anyone who offends them, although some use it for more practical means, such as assassination or extortion. Either way, stylists often have to worry about being poisoned by each other, so they learn some methods to defend against such threats. As well as detecting poisons, they can use the mystical process of Mithridatism to build up universal resistance to them by repeated exposure, eventually becoming entirely immune to all toxins (as Mithridates VI of Pontus was said to be).

Once the basics of the style are mastered, there are several ways to develop more dangerous methods. The most common is to learn spells which make mundane poisoning easier. Seek Poison, Extract Poison, Slow Poison, and Increase Potency are all useful for this. Gathering ingredients is aided by Seek Plant (or Fungus) and Identify Plant (or Fungus), while growing them is assisted by Heal Plant (or Fungus) and Plant (or Fungus) Growth. Locating food to poison is obviously helped by Seek Food, while No-Smell and Obscure Poison make it harder to detect. A subtle casting of Hunger can encourage a target to be less cautious about eating suspicious food.

Those who want deadly poisoning of food and drink without having to acquire or carry poison need Death’s Banquet. This requires Magery 3 and learning Ignite Fire, Create Fire, Cook, Seek Food, Create Food, and Essential Food. Those spells are almost never studied by those who aren’t trying to learn Death’s Banquet eventually.

Malefice and Ensorcelment are highly desirable for venefici, since they allow long-term torture of a victim without having to stay close to them. Learning them requires IQ 12, Magery 2, and knowing at least one spell from ten different colleges; the style’s required spells give Food, Poison, and Water. Detect Poison adds Healing and Protection and Warning. Any three of Foolishness (Mind Control), Ignite Fire (Fire), Purify Air (Air), and either Debility or Itch (Body Control) bring the total to eight. Seek Plant (Plant) and Seeker (Knowledge) then finish the set of ten, allowing the mage to learn Enchant, followed by Malefice.

Although it isn’t a martial style, veneficium has many spells which are useful in a fight. Stench is an area-effect attack which only needs Purify Air to learn and leads to the faster-acting Poison Cloud for those with Magery 2. Spore Cloud offers a less-lethal alternative for anyone who has already learned Fungus Growth. Sting is the only missile spell taught by the style, but is made somewhat flexible by spell variation, allowing it to benefit from enhancements like Accurate, Armor Divisor, Guided, or Homing.

Deathtouch is a potent melee spell with a long chain of prerequisites, which requires Magery 1. The typical route to learning it starts with Itch, Spasm, Clumsiness, Debility, and Hunger, but the last two can be substituted with Perfume and Nauseate (if Purify Air, No-Smell, and Odor are known) or Drunkenness and Sickness (requiring Foolishness). From there Paralyze and Wither Limb lead to Deathtouch. Choke and Total Paralysis are often added to this. Poison Touch is a weaker but simpler alternative for those with Magery 2, requiring only one poison spell beyond the five required by the style (Detect or Seek Poison being the usual choice).

Required Skills: Herb Lore; Poisons.

Required Spells: Decay; Foul Water; Poison Food; Purify Food; Purify Water; Seek Water; Test Food.

Perks: Convenience Casting (Fungus Growth or Plant Growth); Elixir Resistance (Death); Gut of the Dragon; Improvised Magic (Veneficium); Secret Mage; Special Exercises (Immunity to Poison); Spell Enhancement (Low Signature); Spell Resistance (Poison Food); Spell Variation (Sting); Stabilizing Skill (Herb Lore for Plant or Poisons for Poison).

 

Optional Traits

Attributes and Secondary Characteristics: Increased HT.

Advantages: Resistant to Poison.

Disadvantages: Callous; Paranoia; Sadism; Secret (Witch).

Skills: Alchemy; Animal Handling (Amphibians or Snakes); Cooking; Gardening; Hazardous Materials (Magical); Holdout; Innate Attack (Projectile); Intimidation; Naturalist; Sleight of Hand.

 

Spell List

Alter Poison*; Analyze Poison*; Apply Poison*; Blight; Choke; Clumsiness; Cook; Create Fire; Create Food; Curse; Death’s Banquet†; Deathtouch; Debility; Decay; Detect Poison; Drunkenness; Enchant; Ensorcel; Essential Food; Extract Poison*; Foolishness; Foul Water; Fungus Growth‡; Heal Fungus‡; Heal Plant; Hunger; Identify Fungus‡; Identify Plant; Ignite Fire; Increase Potency*; Itch; Madness; Malefice; Nauseate; No-Smell; Obscure Poison*; Odor; Paralyze Limb; Perfume; Plant Growth; Poison Cloud; Poison Food; Poison Touch*; Poisoning*; Purify Air; Purify Food; Purify Water; Retch; Seek Food; Seek Fungus‡; Seek Plant; Seek Poison*; Seek Water; Seeker; Sickness; Slow Poison; Spasm; Spore Cloud‡; Stench; Sting*; Test Food; Total Paralysis; Weaken Blood; Wither Limb.

* from the Toxic Grimoire (Pyramid, Volume 4, Issue 1).

† from GURPS Magic: Death Spells.

‡ from GURPS Magic: Plant Spells.

Here's a chart showing the prerequisites for the style's spells. Spells with a thick outline are required. Those with rounded corners have no spell prerequisites and so act as starting points for prerequisite chains.

 

Magical Style: Treasure Dowsing

 

People have probably been using magic to search for valuables since shortly after the concept of valuables was invented, but Renaissance Europe had an especially rich tradition of magical treasure hunting.

Although people in the war-torn early modern period often buried their valuables to avoid having them looted, magical treasure hunting was about more than just finding material goods in mundane hiding places. Treasure was associated with otherworldly beings and monsters, such as demons, fairies, and (most of all) ghosts, and could have magical properties such as being able to move of its own accord.

… pieces of good money, of ancient coin; which halving betwixt them, they sold in dish-fulls for dish-fulls of meal to the country people. Very many of undoubted credit saw, and had of the coin to this day. But whither it was a good or bad angel, one of the subterranean people, or the restless soul of him who hid it, that discovered it, and to what end it was done, I leave to the examination of others.

Robert Kirk

The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns & Fairies

Dwarfs, fairies, elemental spirits, giants and similar beings might manufacture their own treasures, steal them from humans, or simply locate those hidden by others. In some places, people even asked fairies (such as their household brownie) to look after their valuables when they hid them. In any event, they could either guard treasure or give it as a reward to those who had pleased them. Fairy illusions could disguise real treasure as worthless trash such as nuts, pebbles, and snail shells, or make such things look like coins and jewelry.

These spirits likewise have the power to show

Treasure that have been buried long below

Thomas Heywood

The Hierarchie of the Blessed Angels

If someone hid treasure and died before they could collect it, their soul was thought to be bound to it as a ghost (despite this being considered impossible by most theologians), unable to move on due to unfinished business and still guilty of the sin of avarice. While some ghosts tried to deter the living from taking their property, most were said to want it put back into circulation so that it would have no hold over them. It was common for a ghost to relinquish treasure on the condition that some of it was used to pay for masses to be said for their soul. Of course, demons would object to such souls being delivered from their grasp, so they would do everything in their power to make sure that treasure remained lost. However, their ability to act directly in the material world was limited, so they often had to resort to illusions and trickery to drive off those who came to claim it.

Angels and saints (especially Saint Anthony and Saint Corona) were also said to help treasure hunters, either to reward their piety or to thwart the plans of demons.

... I beg you with all of my humble heart, oh virgin and martyr Corona relief me from my needs and my poverty by giving me 50,000 florins… for the salvation of my soul through the redemption of the needy body.

Treasure hunter’s prayer to St. Corona

With all these spirits competing to decide the fate of the valuables and the wide variety of magic they used to mislead people, it took an expert magician to retrieve treasure. Like other magical specialists of the time, they came from a variety of backgrounds and claimed to get their powers from a variety of sources. In central Europe, it was said that Venetian wizards studied the art of treasure finding in books. In Britain it was more common for them to claim to have learned the art from fairies, in return for some service such as acting as a nursemaid for the fairy queen. Others said they had been chosen by God, or been born into the trade. They had no general name for themselves but were sometimes referred to as ‘mound diggers’ (from their habit of digging up prehistoric burial mounds) or ‘cross diggers’ (because they overturned cross-shaped way markers). Dowsing was a common term for searching for hidden things in magical ways, either using sticks or other methods, and many treasure hunters also claimed to be able to locate all kinds of stuff.

Treasure Dowsing

4 points

Style Prerequisites: None.

The main focus of this simple folk style is locating hidden treasure, overcoming its supernatural guardians or magical protection, and seeing through any illusions disguising valuable (or worthless) items. Practitioners are often called on to find other things, from lost property to ore veins, so a few spells (like Seek Water) are included for general dowsing. Occasionally treasure may be hidden in other worlds, only accessible via magic gates, so Seek and Control Gate can be useful.

Treasure hunters frequently claim to be inspired by visions, dreams, and omens. These can come from Oneiromancy or advantaged like Blessed and Oracle, interpreted with the aid of Dreaming and Fortune Telling (Dream Interpretation).

Identifying which spirits or monsters are linked to a hoard and how they are likely to react to someone trying to take it can be extremely important, so spells like Sense Foes and skills such as Hidden Lore and Occultism are usually learned quickly (often from practical experience).

Even if spirits associated with the treasure are potentially friendly, communicating with them may require Mind Reading. Since some of them may not share a language with the magician, Lend Language is included to make negotiating easier. Advantages like Spirit Empathy help too.

Combat spells are psychological rather than physical, using the same tricks that many spirits use to protect their treasure. In fact, the main reason for studying these spells is so that Amulets and Counterspells can be used to defend against them.

Dowsers often summon demons, fairies, or saints for assistance. They can reveal the location of treasure, retrieve it, help battle (or negotiate with) other spirits, or teach spells.

Required Skills: Hidden Lore (Demon Lore, Fairy Lore, Spirit Lore, or Undead Lore*); Occultism.

Required Spells: Seek Earth.

Perks: Astrological Ceremonies; Attribute Substitution (any ‘Seek’ spell based on Per); Fool’s Wisdom†; Intuitive Illusionist; Magical Analysis; Magical Lawyer; Secret Material (Sprengwurzel); Secret Spell (Seek Treasure); Shaman’s Trance; Spell Resistance (Panic or Terror); Spirit Contract.

Secret Spells: Seek Treasure.

* depending on setting, this list may need to be modified to reflect the specialties available.

† see below.

Optional Traits

Advantages: Blessed; Cultural Familiarity (Fairy); Detect (Precious Metals); Fearlessness; Intuition (Aspected, Treasure); Languages; Medium; Oracle (Aspected, Treasure); See Invisible (Magical or Spirit); Spirit Empathy; Spirit Talker*.

Disadvantages: Broad-Minded; Greed; Gullibility; Sense of Duty (Ghosts); Vow (Donate treasure to good causes).

Skills: Archaeology; Cartography; Connoisseur (Jewelry); Diplomacy; Dreaming; Exorcism; Fast-Talk; Fortune-Telling (Dream Interpretation); Herb Lore; Merchant; Search.

* see Power-Ups 3.

Spell List

Amulet; Analyze Magic; Aura; Avoid; Banish; Bravery; Command Spirit (Fairy); Complex Illusion; Control Gate; Control Illusion; Counterspell; Death Vision; Detect Magic; Dispel Illusion; Dispel Magic; Divination (Crystal Gazing, Geomancy, or Oneiromancy); Earth Vision; Enchant; Fear; Foolishness; Forgetfulness; Hide; History; Identify Metal; Identify Spell; Know Illusion; Lend Language; Mage Sight; Mind Reading; Panic; Pathfinder; Pentagram; Perfect Illusion; Planar Summons (Fairy or Heaven); Scroll; Scryguard; Scrywall; See Secrets; Seek Earth; Seek Gate; Seek Magic; Seek Pass; Seek Water; Seeker; Sense Emotion; Sense Foes; Sense Life; Sense Spirit; Shape Earth; Simple Illusion; Sound; Spell Shield; Summon Demon; Summon Spirit; Suspend Spell; Talisman; Terror; Trace; Truthsayer; Turn Spirit.

 

New Perk

Fool’s Wisdom

You are able to intuitively grasp advanced magical concepts without the deep understanding usually needed. You may ignore IQ score spell prerequisites.

Example: Seeker normally requires IQ 12 or higher, but with this perk you may ignore that prerequisite and learn it regardless of your IQ. The other prerequisites are unchanged; you must have Magery 1 and know two ‘Seek’ spells.

 

Secret Material

Sprengwurzel

Dowsers make use of a variety of magical herbs, but the ‘bursting-open root’ is especially potent for their work. It allows the user to cast Lockmaster or a variant of Purify Earth which causes everything except natural soil and rocks to float out of the ground. The root must be rubbed over the lock or ground and effective skill is equal to the Herb Lore skill of whoever prepared it. There is no FP cost, but the root can only be used once.

One annoying property of the root is that it sometimes causes containers it is stored in to open spontaneously and it may slowly dismantle objects it comes into contact with. It can even make horses shed their shoes when they walk on it!

 

Secret Spell

Seek Treasure

Information

Determines the direction and approximate distance to the nearest collection of valuable items. Only detects items manufactured by sentient beings, not natural ore deposits, rare plants, and the like (but once such things have been gathered, they count). The caster can exclude any known valuables, seek only treasure over a certain total value (although it doesn’t identify who is willing to pay that price), or specify a certain type of treasure (such as rare books, gems, magic swords, or even an item like ‘the duke’s signet ring’).

Cost: 6.

Time to cast: 10 seconds.

Prerequisite: Three other ‘Seek’ spells.

Revised quick-and-dirty enchantment costs for GURPS

GURPS Magic makes some assumptions about enchanters and their wages which I find questionable, resulting in a rather sudden leap from cheap enchantments to expensive ones. Enchanters are assumed to either be skill-15 journeymen who earn average wages or masters who earn comfortable wages, typically with skill 20. All of them have Recover Energy at 15.

While an average wage might be just about reasonable for a journeyman, I find the idea of skill-20 masters only earning a comfortable wage hard to swallow. It seems to me that there would probably be a range of skill levels among masters, providing a range of enchantments at different prices per energy point. After a few hours messing around with spreadsheets, I came up with a few numbers which seem a bit more plausible to me and smooth off the price curve.

A skill-16 comfortable master with one (average wealth) assistant, both with Recover Energy-15, can enchant items up to 20 power, for a price per point of 0.0016 times typical monthly pay at his TL.

A skill-18 wealthy master with three assistants, all with Recover Energy-15, can enchant items up to 40 power, for a price per point of 0.0022 times typical monthly pay at his TL.

A skill-21 very wealthy master with Recover Energy-20, and two shifts of six assistants can enchant items up to 70 power, for a price per point of 0.0036 times typical monthly pay at his TL.

A skill-25 filthy rich master with Recover Energy-20, and two shifts of ten assistants can enchant items up to 110 power, for a price per point of 0.0151 times typical monthly pay at his TL.

All those numbers include the usual assumption of every mage being able to spend 10 energy per casting. I tried messing around with things like not having the master use his energy and using paut to recover faster, but none of them resulted in savings. I also assume that there is no practical way to exploit Raise Cone of Power or other tricks to draw massive amounts of energy from unskilled mundane assistants.