Fire. Pure and simple.

Pyromancers
Aka Pyromaniacs, Arsonists, Fire starters, Charlie’s

You know there is a personality behind fire. The way the naked flame weaves and bobs around can tell you its secrets. It is your truest friend; keeping you warm and harming your enemies.

Fire is one of the classics. One of alchemy’s classical elements. One of the first inventions. And it’s versatility makes it priceless. It made the fresh kill of the cavemen edible. It warmed the flesh of peasants and kings alike in winter. It boils water, killing tiny bacteria and making another classic element safe to drink. And it burns paper, wood and flesh with no discrimination. However, the fuel for the fire must be ‘worthy’.

The paradox to Pyromancy is that at it’s heart, it is a creator and a destroyer. Fire was traditionally considered the great purifier, and is used in that respect to this day. And of course fire is a destroyer.

Pyromancy Blast Style

Pyromancy requires more than just a charge for it to work. A flame must exist nearby for ANY of it’s effects to take place, the flame must be on something other that what caused it (a piece of paper will do), and the flame must have been created by the pyromancer in question. Also, the target must be flammable, so at least pyromancers can blast other objects other than people, and be in the line of sight. A minor blast would be able to target some paper, and keep it going, or at the very least cause a flash of heat to flare on someone’s body, while a significant blast would be able to target clothing, hair, etc. There is nothing to say that the fire could not spread onto anything else however. Roll your pyromancy skill. The total of your successful role is the number of feet you have to be for the blast to take effect. Damage wise, for a simple blast, it is the smallest of the dice rolls. If significant, then take the greatest.

For example.
Dante the pyromancer is wanting to spook someone getting takeout from Mak Attak, and smiles as he see’s his victim has got himself a meal in one of those large brown bags. Standing near the door, Dante takes out a cigarette, whips out his trusty Zippo, flicks it, and works his mojo. Spending a small charge, he rolls 34. 7ft it translates as. As Dante was literally just next to the guy, it works a treat. Three points of damage. The paper starts to smoulder and a small flame appears. If he had spent a significant charge, then just four points of damage would have been inflicted.

Stats

Generate a minor charge: Burn a crisp twenty dollar note to ash. Keep a flame active with a variety of fuel in the same space for eight hours. Burn a part of your body for at least thirty seconds. Feel the pain.

Generate a significant charge: Burn vital documentation (your financial records of the past year). Plan and light a fire that will burn down an average building, and stay close to the fire (at least a few metres). Fuel a flame on a cask of expensive whiskey or brandy.

Generate a major charge: Burn every record of paper that has information about you or someone important. Cause a fire that has major impact on everything in the vicinity, or a mass of media attention (such as the oil fires from the Persian Gulf War). Start a fire in a large building (a set of student flats, a major office block etc) and stay in the heart of the building until the fire burns itself out. No outside interference must cause the fire to go out until it burns itself out.

Taboo: Pyromancers can not take comfort from any source of heat than from the heat of a naked flame. Neither can they use any other heat source other than fire. So they cannot wear overcoats of thick jumpers in winter, use central heating (unless it is from a gas heater), or cook meals in a microwave. A gas hob is fine, but electric heaters are not.
Also, they cannot become dependant on any form of drug. The occasional pint or joint is alright, but full blown heroin addiction is not. Fire is the great purifier, and so they must at least stay purish.

Random Magick Domains: Anything you can come think of with fire (and to a lesser degree heat and smoke)

Starting Charges: None. But Zippo’s are fairly cheap. Lighters are a status symbol with them however, and no pyromancer is going to be taken seriously if he’s only using a Bic lighter.

Pyromancy Minor Formula Spells
Do throw around your own ideas. These are just examples and probably would work better as random magicks. I’ve not come up with any real system for them anyway.

Smoke Signals
Cost: 1 Minor Charge
Effect: Cause smoke to act under your control. The effect only lasts for a few seconds until the smoke dissipates, but can spell messages or signals if done well enough. (Think of Bilbo and Gandalf pipe-smoking at the start of Fellowship of the Ring for an example).

Kettle’s On
Cost: 1 Minor Charge
Effect: You can instantly boil a litre’s worth of liquid. This will only heat it to waters boiling point (a 100 degrees Celsius, in case you didn’t know).

This is the science bit, concentrate
Cost: 1 Minor Charge
Effect: You can effectively detoxify yourself. This effect will get rid of hangovers, headaches, etc. Strictly speaking, you can probably get rid of insulin crashes, drug traces, etc. This effect can also target unsightly skin blemishes (who needs Clearasil now?) Note that this will not get rid of anything on the surface of the skin, so it will not clear up paint stains, powder burns, etc. It can clean hair however, if another charge is spent.

Fairy Lights
Cost: 1 Minor Charge
Effect: You can cause your initial flame to leave it’s fuel source (or lighter) briefly and fly around. It will only be as large as a basic candle-flame, but can move around fairly quickly.

Renewable Fossil Fuels
Cost: 2 Minor Charges
Effect: This allows fuels to last longer. Note that the fuel in question must be used for consumption by fire, so no, you can’t go for further with a few litres of petrol in your tank.

Burning Bush
Cost: 3 minor charges.
Effect: You can push demons out of an area for a time. A few minutes at most.

Pyromancy Significant Formula Spells

Fight Fire with Fire
Cost: 1 significant charge.
Effect: You can cause a fire not started by another pyromancer to stay still and not spread to another area.

Distiller
Cost: 1 significant charge.
Effect: You can cause up to a litre of liquid to boil, or at least start the solid-liquid-gas conversion. Unlike Kettle’s On, this will heat anything with a melting point of around the point of water. Sorry, I didn’t do chemistry. But it would be fair to say you could melt wax. Also, it will remove any ‘impurities’, so if you have a suspicion that a cask of wine was poisoned, this effect would remove the poison. Pity you can’t drink it though.

Nice Hot Sunny Day
Cost: 2 significant charges.
Effect: You can keep yourself warm, no matter the environment (space might be pushing it a bit though). You would not freeze to death in a snowstorm for example. As a side note, said snow will melt and evaporate around you.

Fire it Up
Cost: 3 significant charges
Effect: You can inspire a number of people to feel ready to party, or do something in a group effort. The individuals can ignore their first few failed rolls.

Roaring Open Fire
Cost: 3 significant charges.
Effect: There is nothing like the heat from an open coal fire. With this effect, you can either instil that feeling either in yourself, or in others. Part physical, part mental, this effect helps to relax people.

Go to Hell
Cost: 4 significant charges.
Effect: You can throw demons out of other people, at least for a time. This effect can also cause direct harm to demons. Shame that pyromancers don’t have effects to detect demons though…

Hot Stuff
Cost: 4 significant charges.
Effect: You can cause metal to suddenly heat up to the point that it is untouchable. Tools are unusable. Belt buckles start to smoulder. Computer components break down. Guns are dropped (I’m sorry. Was that exploding ammunition you were carrying?)

Keeping Cool
Cost: 4 significant charges.
Effect: You do not suffer the effects of heat exhaustion. You do not dehydrate, and can go in the desert for days without water.

Pyromancy Major Effects

Cure someone of a disease (any that was introduced either accidentally or deliberately. HIV from a dirty needle for example could be cured. Birth defects could not). Utterly destroy an object. Become immune to fire and heat for a time. Consume anything in cleansing fire.

What You Hear:
The fire-fighter strike in the UK has been instigated by a few pyromancers. They are wanting to get some significant charges (and maybe even some major ones), and are up to something.
Asbestos is not harmful. It’s just a rumour from the Charlie’s trying to keep new buildings from being built with it.
The Great Fire of London. The Fires of Chicago. If they were caused by some Fire-starters, what the Hell did they use their major charges on?

As always, the golden rule applies. There are no rules. Use this how you will. Butcher it how you will. It is overpowered, but hopefully the difficulty in getting charges will help balance it out. Or even don’t use it. Hopefully however, it might just work for you. And always remember, the GM is god.