Some people just want to fly away.
Nickname: Birdmen, Aerials, Dust-off Pilots.
Mankind dreams of taking to the air. Not just mechanically, Boeing, Sikorsky and The Wright Brothers have that one pretty much solved. Physically, as in The Flying Nun. Being airborne is pretty easy. if you don’t believe me, chuck yourself out a high window and check it out. It’s that stop at the end though, that’s a real bear.
Some guys just don’t get over the dissonance. They hang out at airports, they hang around bird sanctuaries. They Jones for the next airshow and stare enviously as the birds fly South for the Winter in such seemingly precise formations.
The desire to fly astounds and drives The Birdman. He loves drawing pictures of Davinci-like flying contraptions with scribbled equations for how much air-resistance they are likely to meet. People are a little creeped-out by the birdman.
He may appear smart, but not necessarily from this planet.
It also makes him a really whacked-out individual. The type of guy who gets taken into the backroom and searched for several hours by the TSA.
Birdmen charge up by experiencing, briefly, the miracle of flight.
Generate A Minor Charge: Do something a little bit risky and stupid involving flight or falling. Bunjee-jumping while blind-folded and not wearing protective gear would work. As would tight-rope walking across at least a 20′ fall. The key here is that the Birdman has to have a really good chance of getting whacked hard and damaged.
Generate A Significant Charge: Do something really risky and stupid involving flight or falling. Climbing The Empire State Building without a rope. Doing tricks on the wing of a bi-plane. Parachute blindfolded or hang glide on crack.
Major Charge: Something so stupid it should make a reasonable person begin your funeral arrangements before you even try it. Hitching a ride in the wheel well of a Concorde bound from New York to Paris might be stupid enough, maybe.
Taboo: The Birdman can never fly using mechanical means or engage in an aerial stunt that doesn’t involve a certain degree of severe personal danger.
Symbolic Tension: Mankind’s fascination with flight comes a cropper with his physical inability to do so. No birdman should ever drop acid above the first floor (It’s only a minor charge, not significant).
Blast Style: Birdman blasts involve gravitational force. The victim falls, the anvil lands on Wile E. Coyotee’s head, the conveyance they ride in crashes from a height to the ground. That sort of thing.
Random Magic: Illousion. The birdman believes he’s going to take off and fly South one Winter without calling Delta first. Or, in some cases, Transmutation. Maybe the birdman not only plans on jetting without the JP-8, he’s busily working on the magikal physics as we speak.
Charging Tips: Get a good lawyer and lots of health insurance. Birdmen have legal trouble with more than just Kepler’s and Newton’s Laws. They also tend to get spiked off the pavement and aren’t always able to make a professional stuntman’s fall.
Starting Charges: 3 Minor and a couple of good scars to prove it.
Minor Formulas:
Here’s Bird Poop In Yur Eye!
1 Minor Charge
The birdman can temporarily obscure the vision of up to three people with this simple formula. It causes whatever dust, sand or other junk is nearby to blow into these people’s eyes. They stop what they are doing and spend 30 seconds per expended charge rubbing or clearing their eyes. Double this duration if a target is wearing contacts.
Drifting Feather
1 Minor Charge
The Birdlady can slow her rate of descent from any fall so that it counts 100′ less in height for damage purposes. Also called “THe Soft Landing” or “Stooge’s Parachute”, this formula is a mainstay for anyone who wants to survive long in this school of magic.
Whispering Wind
2 Minor Charges
The Raptomancer can communicate long distance sans cell-phones or roaming charges. She just whispers up to a three sentence message into the next breeze. It will travel up to a mile in the direction of that breeze and be perfectly audible to a specific person targeted to hear it. The message does have to go to a specific person who must be in good enough physical and mental condition to receive it for the spell to function. Otherwise, it’s just two charges up in smoke.
See Ya’ Next Fall
2 Minor Charges
The Raptomancy minor blast. The victim takes a good, hard soil sample. Normal blast damage applies, and for some wierd, cosmic reason, they always look as stupidly clumsy as possible when it happens. Range of up to 50 Feet. Plus, the Raptomancer can delay the effect up to 1 hour if she chooses.
Call Him John Madden
3 Minor Charges
The victim of this spell must make a level 4 Helplessness check or totally panic when facing the risk of flight for the next 24 hours. They will not get on a plane, they will not go near a ledge and will not go above the first floor unless you physically make them.
They Call Her The Breeze.
3 Minor Charges
The recipient of this spell jumps twice as far, runs and climbs twice as fast and makes all dexterity related skill checks at +25% for the next hour.
Significant Formulas
Friendly Skies
1 Significant Charge
The caster of this spell can change one significant feature of the weather to the better, never the worse, for the next 2 hours. They can change the twmperature by 30 degrees Fahrenheit, the wind speed by up to 30 Mph, or they can halt any precipitation. For some reason, they can’t part clouds or forestall flooding. The spell only works on one aspect of a particular weather pattern. He can’t calm a hurricane wind and make it stop raining. Only one or the other.
Luck of The Aviator
1 Significant Charge
The caster can re-roll his next 3 failed dexterity checks with no time limit of when he uses it up.
Meet The Red Baron
2 Significant Charges.
Everyone the caser meets for the next 2 hours holds her in awe and fear. They naturally believe she is smarter, more brave more competant they are and quite frankly, they find her a wee bit scary. Add 20% to the birdlady’s soul stat until it wears off. Make other people check against fear at level 2 to attack her in the first place. The downside, is that they fight her using their fear stimulus.
Blackhawk Down!
2 Significant Charges.
The Raptomancer major blast. The victim takes a very hard fall or impact. They don’t necessarily look stupid in the process, but they sure might look hurt or dead. Major blast damage. A Can of WA result will destroy or badly damage whatever fell on or with the blast victim. This blast happens instantaneously.
That Low Black Cloud, Hanging Down.
2 Significant Charges.
Any dirt, dust or pollution in the area gets hyper-concentrated into a 20ft cubic volume that can be placed anywhere within 100ft of the caster. This cloud will do 1 dice of damage to anyone engulfed by it. Unless they make a body check, they will drop to their knees and crawl towards the nearest cloud boundary at 5′ per round while loudly coughing and gagging. Anyone who stays engulfed for 3 rounds or longer, makes a body check or is incapacitated for 2 rounds while vomiting. Anyone engulfed 7 rounds or longer must save vs body or die each round.
The cloud will also restrict visability. Skills involving vision or aim are performed at -20% while engulfed.
Fly Like An Eagle.
3 Significant Charges.
The castor can take a 15 foot running start and then jump into the air and fly for the next half-hour for each significant charge expended. The flyer has a ceiling of 500 feet, a speed of 100 MPH (deduct 1/2 the velocity of any head wind and add 1/4 the elocity of any tail wind). The caster can use objects of no more than 10 lbs, or she losses concentration and falls at an acceleration of 32 ft per sec.
Major Effects:
Look at a jet plane and crash it into something; killing all passengers aboard. Jump off your roof and fly to Cleveland non-stop. Stop Hurricane Caligula from raping The Outer Banks.