Pyretics (Art)

Every changeling’s soul burns with the power of the Dreaming, but not all learn to harness that flame with the magic of Pyretics. Fire consumes, purifies, protects, and makes new. Kithain from both courts, commoners and nobles, members of all houses, respect the power of the flame and seek knowledge of its secrets.

## Unleashing Pyretics

Unleashing Glamour through Pyretics can burn away impurity or illusions, cause terrible destruction, or make something new again. The character may invoke the Art to create a protective circle of fire, burn away phantoms cast to distract or haunt her, or transform her sweat and tears into molten Glamour, setting everything they touch on fire.

## Pyretics Bunks

Unsurprisingly, Pyretics bunks most often involve fire and destruction, but also include removing impurities, cooking, and new life. Example bunks: Burn something, or burn everything, make something broken like new, hold a match under your hand until it blisters, tell a story around a campfire, create a glass sculpture and then smash it, walk on hot coals, or sing a ballad and end just as the runs rises.

## Pyretics Cantrips

### Kindle

A basic but eminently useful cantrip, Kindle heats the focus of the Glamour enough to cause discomfort but not injure. Kindle can cook food, help start a fire, make someone sweat and appear feverish, or heat a gun enough to burn someone touching it.

Tired of the grind at school, a childling pooka stays home sick with a fever created with Glamour. A boggan ensures her victory at a culinary competition by overcooking the competition’s food. A sidhe uses Kindle to distract his rival in a war council and convince the duke to pursue negotiations instead of battle.

**System:** The cantrip’s Realm determines the target(s). When used on something inanimate or non-sentient, the Storyteller should arbitrate the effects of the heat (plants may wilt, metal becomes dangerous to touch, food cooks without a visible source of heat). When cast on a person, animal, or creature, the target incurs a +1 difficulty to all rolls due to the distraction and discomfort. The number of successes determines the number of turns the target remains overheated.

**Type:** Wyrd

### Illuminate

Countless creation myths from the mortals begin with a divine light piercing the darkness. Changelings adept in Pyretics wield the power at the heart of such stories. By channeling Glamour into this cantrip, the Kithain can create a light which dispels darkness, illusion, and petty subterfuge.

The motley turns away from the blinding light, but turns back to see their mentor replaced by an impostor. All who enter the piskey’s home must first stand in front of a glowing stone and be revealed.

**System:** The Realm determines the source of the light. Illuminate’s glow reveals anything hidden or obscured. Supernatural illusions, physical disguises, and even base dishonesty become easier to see through while the cantrip’s light shines. The light normally extends out only a few feet in each direction, but can be extended substantially with Scene, and if the cantrip is Wyrd anyone can see clearly in the light. Any supernatural illusion or disguise with a lower power level than the number of successes rolled for the cantrip is revealed. All attempts to lie or hide within the area of the magical light incur a dice pool penalty equal to the number of successes rolled for the cantrip. The effects of Illuminate last for one scene, but may be ended earlier by the caster.

**Type:** Wyrd or Chimerical

### Purify

No impurity withstands sufficient heat, but the student of Pyretics can burn away contaminants with chimerical fire that does not damage or consume the target. Purify makes water and food safe to consume, can destroy infection or poison, and even temporarily cure disease. By coupling the cantrip with the Fae Realm, the caster can even burn away curses and effects from other cantrips.

A traitor’s attempt to poison the motley fails because of the nocker’s cantrip. In the troll’s forge, any metal becomes pure and strong in his furnace. With a hopeful song, the clurichaun cleans a river from the pollutants dumped in by a nearby factory.

**System:** The cantrip’s Realm dictates what can be purified. Objects and inanimate material have all impurities and contaminants removed. The effects on changelings, mortals, and other creatures depend on the circumstances. The Storyteller should determine what qualifies as an impurity (a curse causing delusion may be temporarily abated, but an illness naturally occurring within the body may not). The number of successes can be compared to the strength of any poison, curse, disease, or ill effect. If the Purify cantrip does not match or exceed the ailment in successes, it returns to the target after the current scene.

**Type:** Wyrd

### Engulf

Sometimes a changeling just needs to set something on fire. A simple and powerful cantrip, Engulf makes the target combust. The changeling can choose whether the focus of the magic burns from the flame or remains protected from the wreath of magical fire. Once the flame catches to anything else nearby, it burns and spreads as a normal fire, outside the changeling’s control.

A clurichaun made the rain catch fire and burn the factory where he toiled before his Chrysalis. Inspired by the superheroes, a childling wreathed her body in flames to scare a neighborhood bully. Word spread quickly of the tall, blue vigilante with the axe wrapped in flame.

**System:** The Realm determines what combusts or becomes wreathed in flame. The number of successes determines the intensity and duration of the fire, but if it catches anything else alight, that mundane fire will persist and spread. Each success represents the number of turns the target of the cantrip burns or is surrounded with the Pyretic flame. If the cantrip is used to burn the target, they suffer one aggravated damage per turn. If the cantrip surrounded a protected target with the flame, anyone or anything other than the caster or the target touching the flame suffers one aggravated damage per round of contact.

**Type:** Wyrd

### Phoenix Song

The phoenix burns to ash, and from the destruction of the flames rises again as new. Mastery of Pyretics grants the changeling the power of new life in the face of destruction. After the changeling invokes the Phoenix Song, if the recipient of this blessing dies or is otherwise destroyed, she or it will burn to ash and rise as new a short time later.

**System:** The Realm used in the cantrip decides what or who will return if killed or destroyed during the current scene. As soon as the focus of this powerful magic takes fatal damage or is broken beyond repair, the Phoenix Song begins and the subject bursts into flame. The number of successes on the cantrip determines how long the target remains inert and on fire, after which she or it rises like new, fully restored in body and mind. The Phoenix Song restores all of the target’s Health levels, Willpower, Glamour, and any other relevant resource or aspect of the subject.

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**Type:** Wyrd