Lure of Flaming

(Creo Internettium Ignem)

By Alik S. Widge (alik.s.widge@dartmouth.edu)

Description

This path was discovered during experiments with CyberThaumaturgy, a new twist on the magical arts which replaces arcane incantations with even more arcane programming languages. It's not stronger than the traditional Thaumaturgy, but it is easier, quicker, and more seductive. For example, the ritual to remove all instances of the letter c from a given area would take about five minutes to perform. Area of effect depends on how big the network is. (No, Dyer, I am not telling you the incantation.)

The Lure of Flaming allows the user to become a master of all forms of network. At lower levels, it provides only minimal power, but masters of the art can easily gain dominion over whole realms of cyberspace with simple words. The power of the magic woven into their messages achieves the effect they desire.

* Irritation

The caster may ignore minor bylaws of netiquette, and annoy people without fear that they will get pissed and come to his house and throw firebombs and sacrifice his housepets to Cthulhu and kidnap his children and sell them to cannibals in Darkest Africa and... OK, I'll stop now. Not like you should find someone who's not me and do all this to him, or anything.

System: The caster ignores one rule per success.

** Spark

The caster has the power to begin and end disputes. Threads may die at his command, and new ones spring to life. Biting insults may be hurled, and mighty egos bashed.

System: See the rituals below. One scathing insult per success.

*** Flame

The character may now control others' minds with his postings. The target of an angry rebuke will automatically feel worthless and useless, and will slink off, never to return. Extremely powerful Flamers can cause their targets to sink into deep and lasting depression at their rejection. Very extreme cases can cause suicide, if the flame was truly devastating.

System: Target sinks into depression for days equal to successes. More than three days' depression drives the target away from the group for good.

**** Inferno

A blistering torrent of abuse and vitriol. The target of the message can be caused to ignite into flames by the power of the magic therein. These flames are as a normal fire, but cannot be extinguished until the message is replied to. A particularly powerful casting will cause other readers to also heat up for a short time. This level of power requires the use of two Willpower points, not one.

System: Damage from the flame is equal to successes gained, in Aggravated Health Levels.

***** Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Fire!

This is the ultimate in abusive posting. Other posts will actually be destroyed by the sheer power radiating from the data packets of this flame. More specifically, any response the opponent makes is automatically cancelled from all servers. This leaves the poor victim totally defenseless against the use of any of the lesser power levels. Being hit with this flame is likely to cause Final Death for most Kindred. Even if the victim lives, the psychological trauma is horrible. He will be despised and reviled by everyone for the rest of his life, which is usually very short. Cost is two Willpower points.

System: One post is destroyed per success. Also, use of this level for damage does 3 x Successes in Health Levels.

Rituals

These are rituals which may only be used by a Flamer who has the Lure of Flaming at a level equal to that of the ritual. Systems are below. All rituals have the component of a post to some electronic data network.

* Knowledge of the Foe: This allows the flamer to know everything about his target, especially the target's inferior intelligence, obvious inferior sexuality, and service to the Commie hordes. Even if the target is perfectly innocent of such accusations, the ritual twists them and makes them true.

** Slay Thread: The flamer may, by his irrational ranting, remove all semblance of rational discussion from a thread, so that nobody posts to it and it dies. Each success drives away one of the posters involved.

** Generate Thread: The flamer may post a "troll" message, which will be responded to immediately by hordes of clueless yahoos. A huge thread of useless screaming back and forth will balloon, mucking up the target group completely before it finally peters out. The thread may later resurface, like a malignant cancer. Three idiots are drawn to reply for each success gained. This ritual requires the material component of a n00d GIF of Sandra Bullock or some kewl warez, d00d.

*** Skin of Teflon: The flamer may ignore one logical fallacy his opponent points out per success on the roll. The fallacy will be forgotten by all, and the flamer may proceed to bash his opponent at will.

*** Ego Inflation: The flamer may create fictitious achievements to improve his standing in a dispute. All who see the claims will believe them to be true, and will believe the flamer to be incredibly smart. Readers will believe the flamer to have Intelligence equal to the number of successes gained.

**** Perfect Stupidity: The flamer may contradict any and all natural laws in an assumption, and nobody will challenge him. It will be seen as perfectly logical, and the flamer will be deemed very smart for pointing it out. Successes are applied to a sliding scale based on ST judgement. One success to contradict some obscure quantum physics fact; five for something like "The sky is orange." "Cthulhu does not exist" is a three.

***** Pompous Popeosity: The flamer may declare himself Pope of a newsgroup or mailing list. All other authorities are rendered null and void. The flamer is now the ultimate law. This ritual involves ridiculing everyone and anyone who posted to the group before the switch, forcibly ejecting them from their space. The Pope and his friends can now take over. The new order will be recognized by all, and cannot be overthrown except by a casting of Popeosity which gains more successes than the previous takeover. Other than this, successes on the casting roll are not counted. One is sufficient to become Pope. Five will pretty much ensure Popedom until the Pope gets sick of it.

Path System

The rolls are not Willpower-based, but based instead on the Path Rating. The player must expend a Willpower point to use any power, two for the higher levels. Rituals do not require this.

The casting roll is (5 - Int) + Path Rating. The dumber you are, the better a flamer you make. And the more experience, the better you are. Difficulty is 6, modified if the ST feels like it. Petulance rules (whine if your roll sucks) apply.