The Twilight Brigade Grimoire

Illusions

Electromagnetic Invisibility

Like the Improved Invisibility spell, this illusion makes the target invisible to cameras as well as living eyes. The invisibility covers the entire electromagnetic spectrum, fooling capacitance wire, thermographic imaging, ultraviolet scopes, and so on.

Manipulations

Extract Surface Contaminants

Extracts contaminants that have spilled on or soaked into a surface. The target number is the Object Resistance of the contaminant or the surface, whichever is higher. The contaminant is removed from the surface and placed in any provided container. This spell can be used for extracting cat urine from furniture, blood from carpets, and so on. It will not remove things that have soaked through an object (such as blood going all the way through a mattress or cushion). The more successes, the more thorough the extraction: 1 success leaves a faint change, 2 will leave traces only a laboratory can detect, and at 4 the contaminant is completely gone. (Minor Physical Manipulation ((F÷2)M), Touch range (((F÷2)–1)L), Permanent (((F÷2)–1)M), Physical ((F÷2)M), useful effect: collects contaminant ((F÷2)S).) Talks-With-Cats created the hermetic formula at force 4.

Magic Forklift

This is an extrapolation upward from Levitate Person and Levitate Object: a spell capable of doing heavy lifting. The target number increases by 1 for every metric ton of mass that needs to be lifted. It can lift any single being or object, and the object can move at the same speed as a Levitate spell would provide (caster’s Magic times number of successes in meters per action). The caster can levitate a vehicle that they are riding in. (Major physical control: (F÷2)S. Physical: ((F÷2)+1)S. Sustained: ((F÷2)+2)S.) Talks-With-Cats created the hermetic formula at force 4.

Slug

This spell is an upgraded version of the Clout manipulation that does (2×Willpower)M Stun damage. Talks-With-Cats created the hermetic formula at force 5 after watching Barry hit things and realized how valuable it was to have a very high strength involved in the attack.

Refinish (Vehicle Makeover)

This is a variant on the Fashion/Makeover type of spell that allows one to change a vehicle’s paint job. One success will clean up chipped paint and permit basic color changes. Two successes are enough to get two-tone jobs or racing stripes. Specific logos, styling, and so on can take quite a number of successes, depending on the complexity. Talks-With-Cats invented this at force 4. (I’m making the drain on this one one code up from Makeover; I can’t recreate Makeover with the spell design system.)

Reshape

This is a variant on the Fashion spell, allowing the caster to change the shape of an object. Its design is primarily for meddling with vehicle designs, but can be applied to nearly any nonliving object. (Most electronics will not survive this sort of molding.) The caster must be able to get his hands onto both sides of the object, and the portion reshaped can be no larger than his outstretched arms. (Thus, it is impossible to reshape a hole in a door unless you already have the door open.) (Major physical changes: (F÷2)S. Physical spell: ((F÷2)+1)S. Permanent: ((F÷2)+1)D. Touch range: ((F÷2)+1)S.) Talks-With-Cats invented the hermetic formula for this spell at force 5.

Insecticide Blast

This spell is similar to Acid Blast, doing a base damage of Serious, but uses the elemental effect of insecticide. As a Sustained spell, you roll the spell’s Force and magic pool dice allocated at the time of casting against the target’s Body; the penalty for sustaining a spell does not affect this. All dice are rerolled for each action; magic pool dice allocated at time of casting are available on subsequent rounds for other purposes.

Get a Clue

This spell insinuates a simple suggestion ((F÷2)L) of a particular logic chain into a person’s mind, making it occur to them as a sudden flash of insight. Because it bypasses their normal filters of worldview, it qualifies as a deep mind interaction (((F÷2)+2)M).

This spell was provided by a Johnson who sent the team on a run to track down the painting that contained the formula. It’s a single-target mental manipulation spell that causes a person to suddenly connect up a chain of logic as if they had a flash of insight. It does not force behavior on them, and a sufficiently determined person can reject such insights. Some rabid Humanis policlubbers may ignore it immediately, though it might cause them to hesitate rather than perform a given action; others might break down in horror and self-loathing in a moment, and some might simply quietly drift away from the policlub. The spell formula was supplied (hermetic and shamanic in one package) at Force 8.

A painting, oil on canvas, 4’×3’, of a teenage girl (human, mixed-race, a riot of curly dark hair escaping from a baseball cap that’s on backwards, wearing a white T-shirt, ripped blue jeans and denim jacket, red high-top sneakers) with delicate insectile wings on her back, shimmering iridescent in the afternoon sun. She is carrying a well-used Louisville Slugger that is dripping glowing sparks from the business end; the bat is gripped in her right hand and its haft is resting in her left. She has a small, streetwise, I-know-more-than-you-do grin, and a challenging gaze. She is posed in a dirty alleyway, garbage strewn everywhere. Behind her on the wall is a set of freshly sprayed graffiti— of arcane symbols— dripping green on the dingy grey cinderblock wall. A shaft of afternoon sunlight illuminates the girl and her writing.

The painting is a shamanic spell formula, rating 8, for Get a Clue; the graffitti in the painting is a hermetic translation of the spell, also at rating 8.

Doppelganger

A spell related to Shape Shift. It shifts a (meta)human’s bodily form to that of any other (meta)human the caster has a biological sample of (skin shaving, toenail clipping, hair from a bathroom drain, blood sample). They acquire the person’s voice prints, finger prints, and retina prints; they do not acquire cyberware, magical ability, distinctive scars, or anything else related to experience rather than natural development. (A variant on the spell could be created that duplicated scars and so on, but that would require contacting the person directly through ritual sorcery or having them immediately present.)

Industrial Spells

Spells used in jobs like industry and firefighting.

Waterhose

A sustained Damaging Manipulation designed for putting out fires, though it has combat uses as well.

Smother

A reversed version of Ignite; extinguishes fires, leaving materials previously at flashpoint cool enough to touch. The caster must score a number of successes equal to the Power of the damage caused by the flames.

Gas Barrier

A Barrier spell that blocks the passage of all free gases. (Gases carried in tanks or the lungs of living beings are unimpeded.) A person left in one of these barriers for a long time will suffocate, though it takes a while to use up all the oxygen; a fire will go out fairly quickly.

Adjust Gravity

Allows the caster to pick an adjustment to local gravitation within the area of effect of the spell; gravity can be adjusted by 0.25g per success. Spells like this are used to create zero-gravity environments for manufacturing, and variable-gravity stages for productions set in outer space, on the Moon, or on Mars. (There are permanent soundstages in Hollywood with Quickened spells attached to environments mimicking the gravity of the Moon and Mars.) The caster must stand at the center of the effect when casting the spell.

Medical Spells

No one has invented these yet, but they’re obvious things that should be invented... and Cats is likely to pick them up at some point. Proper use of the spells requires Biotech (Cosmetic Surgery) rolls, though it is much easier than doing surgery by hand. The Biotech roll is necessary to figure out what to do, and the base time will vary with the magnitude of the project; only one success is necessary. Spellcasting requires more successes for more subtle effects; the successes can be distributed among multiple castings if the caster decides to approach the problem one piece at a time.

These spells can change a person’s appearance to match anyone else in their general range of body type. They cannot perform fundamental changes like sex, fingerprints, or retinal patterns; tweaking the voicebox can change voiceprints, but not to any predetermined result. (It may not be possible to recover a person’s previous voice after meddling with it.) They don’t do anything that can’t be done with technology; magic is simply much better at technology at this sort of task.

Deep Sight

A hypersenses spell related to X-Ray Vision; this one only works on living bodies, and permits extreme close-up views of any spot within a person’s body that the caster can approach. Another good one for spell locking while the caster makes use of other spells to do fine healing of broken bones and internal scars. Requires a voluntary subject.

Reshape Cartilage

An important spell for cosmetic surgery and repairing damaged joints. Requires a voluntary subject.

Reshape Bone

Useful for straightening broken bones that didn’t heal properly... and giving someone a new appearance. Requires a voluntary subject.

Adjust Melanin Content

Usable on skin, eyes, or hair to change a person’s current appearance. The effects will fade in a matter of days. They cannot be used to produce coloration outside the normal range of human variation. Requires a voluntary subject.

Transfer Fat

Disassociates portions of fatty tissue and allows them to be moved under the skin and reattached, or outside the body entirely. Can be used much like modern liposuction to remove fat or move it around to different spots in the body. Requires a voluntary subject.

Manipulate Skin

Renews skin to remove scars, pock-marks, stretch marks, and so on. Removing internal scarring (such as inside reproductive organs, interfering with fertility, or on vocal cords, interfering with speech) is more difficult. Likewise, it can induce scarring, which is popular among the body alteration market; more advanced usages (requiring at least six successes) include vasectomies, tubal ligations, and altering the voice box. (Note that this cannot mimic another person’s voice; it merely gives the subject a new voice print.) It can even take up slack left from fat removal or stretch skin out smoothly to accomodate new shapes. Requires a voluntary subject.

Control Hair Growth

Speed up hair growth for functioning follicles, or cause it to fall out at the follicle. More gentle than plucking; hair will grow back normally after a few weeks. Makeover is required to do styling after the spell is finished. It cannot grow hair beyond the natural length for a given area, nor grow it where none currently can grow. Requires a voluntary subject.

Reshape Cornea

A completely noninvasive way to fix astigmatism, nearsightedness, farsightedness, and cataracts. Requires a voluntary subject and a mage who is very sure of what they are doing (four successes on a Biotech/Optical (6) test and at least four successes on the spell).

Reshape Tooth Enamel

Allows fixing cavities and misaligned teeth; much nicer than getting a root canal or braces, and faster, too. Doesn’t fix gum disease. Requires a voluntary subject and a mage who is very sure of what they are doing (three successes on a Biotech/Oral Surgery (6) test and at least three successes on the spell).

Comfortably Numb

A touch-range Illusion spell that makes a person completely numb. Useful as a substitute for anaesthesia. Requires a voluntary subject.

Medical Grimoires

These writeups of Hermetic spell formulae should be available as collections from the UCAS Medical Assocation.
Injury: Heal, Treat, Diagnose, and Stabilize at 6 each. 15600¥.
Intensive Care: Nutrition and Oxygenate at 6. 900¥.
Disease: Cure X Disease and Prophylaxis X Pathogen at all four degrees of severity, force 6 each. 19,800¥.
Poison: Antidote X Toxin and Detox X Toxin at all four degrees of severity, force 6 each. 19,800¥.
Cosmetic surgery: Deep Sight, Reshape Bone, Reshape Cartilage, Adjust Melanin Content, Transfer Fat, Manipulate Skin, Control Hair Growth, Reshape Cornea, Reshape Tooth Enamel, Comfortably Numb, all at force 6. 7500¥.

New Elemental Effects

Insecticide is very similar to Acid: a high-speed corrosive aerosol derived from the insecticides defensively secreted by ordinary plants and used by ecologically correct gardeners who can afford to get them extracted.
Primary damage: Physical, like acid, resisted with 1/2 impact armor. People in full chemsuits are immune. Beings vulnerable to insecitide take damage at one level greater.
Secondary effects: Anyone hit by the spray will be at +4 to target numbers for the rest of the turn due to stinging in the eyes.