Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. When something is incinerated, it is not destroyed, but transformed into something greater; transcended into ash and smoke. You are what you burn.

AKA HELL’S CARETAKERS, FLAMERS, TORCHES

We should take a close look at the meaning of the word lurking behind “pyromania.” In a nutshell, it means: “The irresistible urge to start fires.”

The Infernomancer – in contradiction to the meaning behind the word “inferno” (a place of fiery heat and destruction) – does not perceive his pyromaniacal practices as destruction, rather as “transformation into something different”. Something better. Something on fire is developing, changing, improving – better than something that is in an orderly, static state, and subject to atrophy. And anything that is incinerated completely is better than something that is not. The roof is on fire? We don’t need no water, let the motherfucker burn.

At the core of their personalities, Infernomancers resemble Pyromaniacs in the sense that they share that irresistible urge to start fires. That’s about as far as the similarities go, because for the Infernomancer, the burning and complete incineration are practically a paradigm. It’s not just a skewed view and desire for fire. It’s a way of life. A thorough obsession. A looking glass into reality and transcendence. The only looking glass into reality and transcendence.

Rumor has it that there used to be old schools of elemental magicks and thusly means of harnessing the raw element of fire. More than enough works of fiction depict the classical “Pyromancer” or “Wizard of Fire Magicks” – as a classy master or mistress of the flames. A wise or charismatic sorcerer who can hurl mighty fireballs from their fingertips on a judacious whim.

Infernomancers are far, far away from that happy hippie horseshit. The cosmic guts simply can’t stomach any of that Tolkien-esque baloney. The glamour of clichés of whatever old schools people imagine to form the roots of this postmodern school does fade away quickly when you’ve seen the depths of this one’s real abyss. Some half-digested mass formed from the romantic dream of controlling the raw element of fire, paired with a contraversial, nihilistic attitude: some of these adepts don’t even care about controlling fire, they just enjoy burning shit. The fire mage known from fantasy fiction and video games does not exist, and with that the dream dies. Yet, the Infernomancers are reality enough to have been recently considered an actual school of magick, despite their few numbers and rarity. And so the new dream awakens.

People with dreamy misperceptions of the true nature of fire are still incapable of following the Infernomancer’s path. Because humans are fire. Making fire to survive was early man’s invention. Becoming one with fire – transforming matter – this grants man power over the fire in its most extreme and powerful form; and this is the Infernomancer’s invention.

Fire is everywhere – light is cast from the sun – the biggest ball of fire known to us humans. People with near-death experiences say that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, the Infernomancer would say this is fire as well. Maybe Heaven is on fire, maybe it’s a Hell or some other place of purgatorial stasis; it doesn’t really matter what the hell it is. Hardly anybody agrees on those kind of things anyway, but all Infernomancers confess that death is absolute, and eventually comes to us all. Use the fire, but beware of it using you. Embrace the fiery adrenaline that pulses within you, and live life to its fullest. Death on the other hand is the end, if not the end. The ultimate game over? That might be why you set fire – it’s the Infernomancer’s quest to transcend this binary predicament and incinerate any uncertainty for once and for all.

Not one Infernomancer has the same explanation on how their magick works, which is why they all misunderstand eachother, and feel an urge to send eachother to that light at the end of their tunnels. One might argue that it’s an understanding of supernatural chemistry. Another might brabble about hellfire and anger boiling inside of him and occasionally going boom when you piss him off. Or yet another claims the magick to be her mental scars that have become animate and thirst for her vengeance. The only common denominator is that the Infernomancer internalizes and externalizes fire, and wields this force like a magnifying glass over the fabric of reality – gazing upon its smoky facets in minute details or focusing rays of light, causing fire, and burning holes into the asscrack of the cosmos’ underwear.

Symbolic tension of the Torches is that they call, influence, and control fire itself – but while fire itself is a good servant, it’s a terrible master. Sadly enough, people who play with fire get burnt, and being a hothead will eventually make you lose control. And when fire gains control, hell is set and the shit’s going to hit the fan. The central paradox herein is like the question, “what came first? The chicken or the egg?” Human makes fire makes human. The Infernomancer is the merge of human and fire, summoning a raw elemental force and tempering it to perfection; forcing freedom for fire and transcendence is equivalent to giving up your own freedom and eventually killing yourself.

So be it; and beware. When you burn brighter, you burn faster. Most fires don’t burn forever. You, the Infernomancer, are chemistry at its finest, and highly flammable. When the past has turned to ashes and the day has been seized as well, you’ll only have a slight hint of hope for a future left.

INFERNOMANCY BLAST STYLE

Probably a surprise to most, but Infernomancers don’t have any actual blasts. What – were you expecting those panzy fireball-slinging mages from mainstream RPGs? Keep in mind though, that various spell formulae of the Infernomancer deal in the element of fire and its effects on matter, so these adepts certainly have many ways of dealing damage by the means of their magick, although not as directly as you’d expect it in the nature of magickal blasts. Don’t worry – Infernomancers usually know several wicked methods to hurt people, you sick puppy.

Here are suggestions on how to handle fire damage in general:
A fire causes one to three d10 of wound point damage per round, depending on size and intensity. A small campfire might inflict 1d10, while a blowtorch can easily inflict 3d10 (immersion into lava even 4d10). If you get into direct contact with fire, you must succeed on a Speed check to avoid having any worn, flammable objects catch on fire. Most clothing is sufficient to catch fire, and typically begins with inflicting 1d10 damage in the first round. Once aflame, every round, this damage increases by 1d10 (on the second round it would then typically be 2d10 fire damage – half of the victim’s body is aflame in this case), up to a maximum of 3d10, upon which the person has become a living torch. Someone who’s been turned into a living torch suffers a rank-7 Helplessness check – failure only allows panic. Once turned into a living torch, the victim continues burning at a rate of 3d10 fire damage per round.
A fire victim can roll on the ground (but only if they haven’t panicked), quenching one die of damage with a successful Speed check, two dice of damage on a matched success, and three dice of damage on a crit. As long as you’re on fire and are taking less than 3d10 fire damage per round, the damage will increase again at beginning of the subsequent round.
Someone with a blanket or a fire extinguisher can quench the fire in one round with a successful Speed check. Even if she fails, she reduces the fire damage to 1d10 per round, but if she’s too close to the burning victim, she takes 1d10 fire damage herself and must also roll against her Speed to avoid catching on fire. Under certain circumstances, a Struggle check might be necessary to wrestle a burning victim down to the ground to help them at all.
Also note that if you seemed to have suddenly caught fire for no apparent nor logical reason, it’ll probably make you suffer an Unnatural stress check, perhaps also for Violence should you be aware that an Infernomancer is trying to turn you into a living torch.

STATS

The Infernomancer treads over a thin red line over an abyss of pure insanity; all of the methods of gaining charges can make the Infernomancer suffer Self stress checks. Also, there are no free lunches for Infernomancers. You’ve got to feel the fire to wield the fire.
All Infernomancers have the mental disorder “pyromania.”

Generate a Minor Charge: Immerse an exposed limb of yours into an open fire; you must suffer at least three wound point of fire damage total to get a charge out of it. And may God(s) help you if you’re brandishing anything flammable on yourself while doing such…
Another way is to incinerate item(s) of minor value to oneself, but of effective value of between $100 and $1000 – your old baseball card collection, a pile of classical dime novels you grew up reading with, or even just a bundle of dollar bills that “belong” to you (if you stole something yourself, it “belongs” to you; but remember that theft has consequences of its own.) You’ll spend four hours on this ritualistic burning, all the while staring into the fire as if hypnotized by it.
Generate a Significant Charge: Set half of your body on fire; you must suffer at least twelve wound points of fire damage total to get a charge out of it. You may freely pour gasoline, alchohol, or other flammable fluids over yourself for this self-immolation act without breaching your taboo. Putting out this fire to save yourself from death, is another story.
Alternatively; immolate, burn down, or detonate something that is at least as big as a typical car, all the way up to a full building. Any mundane means are allowed for this, and if you include flashy fireworks in order to trivialize the meaning of the destroyed object, you might even spark off an additional minor charge.
Rumor has it that you can gain a significant charge by completely incinerating a friend or relative alive, but not everybody is very sharp on being charged for murder.
Generate a Major Charge: Turn yourself into a living torch by mundane means alone; you must suffer at least forty-eight wound points of fire damage to get a charge out of it. And I really hope you’re ready to hop in the shower, because this might be your last fire, chump.
Instead, completely burn down (to the ground – or blow to smithereens in an enormous explosion) a building or building complex that is important in your life. Errr, was important in your life. You have to level it entirely; the firemen or anybody else cannot have any chance of rescuing the structure(s). This is symbolic to purging your past and making free way into the future. A structure that “was important in your life” must be something you have strong emotional ties to, be they positive or negative bonds. The high school where you got bullied around, the workplace where you made career in, the restaurant your husband proposed to you, or the boxing gym where you fought for the last time and lost the single only match in your life, ever – such is the essence of places with emotional importance. Needless to say, you gotta pull off this stunt by mundane means only. The price of it is your past and – worst case scenario – your life. The prize is a future of freedom and enlightenment – so give it your very best shot.
The only other commonly known (or assumed?) ways to generate a major charge are to level an entire town or city in an infernal fire (or nuclear explosion); or alternatively to incinerate someone you dearly love while she’s still alive. You heartless prick!
Taboo: Swimming or total immersion into water. Taking a shower is alright, but Infernomancers tend to be paranoid about falling asleep in a full bathtub. Going for a swandive in the lake? That’s insane anyway; only fools would want to do that. Ever thought of the germs and waste that’s floating in those murky dumps? Not to mention the ocean – you actually don’t hate water, but rather all the people and crap in it that makes it shit. Stuff like oil and gasoline is more attractive – it’s easily burnable. And only an idiot would go swim in that while toting around a stainless steel Zippo lighter. So the rule remains, showers are okey-dokey, but immersion into liquid is a serious taboo. Breaching it, the adept loses all charges. Needless to say, alot of these adepts smell like shit. Go figure.
You also must start three fires (at least) every week – whether it’s a campfire on a picknick, gleefully vandalizing and torching down your arch-neighbour’s wooden mailbox, or just the weekly BBQ with your pals. The Infernomancer makes fires for the sake of making fire by completely conventional means; and if for some reason, is inable to use mundane means, will resort to magickal attempts. It is pure compulsion and not of ritualistic nature; you could consider this the manifestation of their pyromania. Breaking this behaviour, or making any less than the three random fires per week, is both a breach of their taboos, and result in the adept losing all charges.
Random Magick Domain: Fire, heat, incineration, explosions, ashes and smoke. The Infernomancer only has weak control over fire (“nudging” it, or controlling the less tangible smoke), but has power of summoning (or “re-calling”) the effects of pyre and flame united. Toying with demons seems to be nearly impossible at random; its formulae are assumed to be an anomaly of the school, but this hasn’t stopped any wily Infernomancers from trying it in the past. Perhaps the Torches are simply attractive to demons because they’re so willing to give in to something.
Starting Charges: Three Minor Charges.
Charging Tips: Depending on the adept’s wealth and health, they can typically churn out zero to ten minor charges a week; the low end being a sickly squirt of a street runt living in poverty, the high end being a badass muscle machine with a luxurious invome and regular job. Considering the Infernomancer’s dangerous and highly destructive habits, the high end is probably not feasible on the long run. At any rate, burning away your money and other stuff is probably healthier than setting yourself on fire and ending up in a living torch, screaming bloody murder while you lose your mind and die.
One or two significant charges per week aren’t all out of question, either, but however you go about it, be advised to apply care. The repercussions and consequences might outweigh the efforts made for them.
Major charges are way out there – nobody knows if any Infernomancer has ever tried or survived the generation of major charges because they are insanely hazardous.
Notes: Remember – no free rides. Any formula that causes the fire cannot help farm any mojo. Also keep in mind that when you make fires to avoid breaking taboo (as given in that above section), the Infernomancer does not make those fires out of magickal intent, but just for the hell of setting fires – and thus cannot draw any charges from them.
Also one more time, for the GM’s record: alot of the formula effects and contingent effects, as well as the methods to gain charges, are all very worthy candidates for triggering a plethora of different stress checks.

INFERNOMANCY MINOR FORMULA SPELLS

Burn Baby Burn
Cost: 1 Minor Charge.
Effect: This causes something about the size of a human limb or head to catch fire, with the prerequisite being that there must be something flammable about that something (clothing, for example.) You can cast it on yourself, or on anything/anybody perceivable within your own natural sight. If you targeted a person, then the damage dealt is treated as described above under the blast style section (catching on fire due to something alike a small campfire.) A flame flares up and the target immediately takes 1d10 damage on the round this spell is cast, as if having failed their Speed check to avoid catching fire. On the next round however, the fire damage will grow, but because the fire is by all other means “natural” once burning away, the victim can attempt to put it out on the next round or any subsequent one. Some people consider this spell the Infernomancer’s blast, but it’s far more versatile than that. And it’s pretty nifty to show off with, if someone needs to light their cigarette.

Piss It All Away
Cost: 1 Minor Charge.
Effect: Upon casting this spell, your urine is a highly flammable liquid. You can piss away a liter of it before this spell’s effect wears off. You can urinate at a rate of 0,33 liters per round (so it takes you three to four rounds to “take the full leak”). Any spark or match can cause this liquid to burn, so watch out you don’t piss straight into a fire lest you wanna get burnt badly.

Smoke Sculpture
Cost: 1 Minor Charge.
Effect: In a combat situation, this spell’s effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to the sum of dice on the check. Under less stressful circumstances, the spell’s effect will last for a number of minutes equal to the sum of the dice instead.
While the effect lasts, you can shape and form smoke to your likings. It’s possible to form three-dimensional images or messages in the smoke (you could make them so they are only visible when seen from a certain angle.) Size and length are variable and matter solely on the available bodies of smoke. The only requirement is that you have to be able to see all the smoke you are shaping.
Additionally to this, you can make smoke in a closed area – a room for example – especially thick, toxic, and nauseating for people caught inside its area of influence. Treat these victims as if they were subject to suffocating – holding their breath so they don’t have to inhale the toxic, numbing fumes. If their limit of breath runs out, they have to inhale and start breathing the nauseating smoke (a rank-5 Helplessness check); and this will cause one wound point of toxic damage per round of normal exposure – 1d10 toxic damage per round if they are panicked and coughing their lungs up already.

Frier Amplifier
Cost: 2 Minor Charges (or more.)
Effect: This increases the intensity of a fire. In regards to actual fire damage, it will cause a fire’s damage to deal an additional 1d10 above that what it would normally inflict.
You can spend additional charges to add extra d10’s to a maximum of 4d10 fire damage dealt by the amplified fire, per round.
Example: Jericho’s arch-enemy Mort is on fire – his sleeve and jacket are already on fire, and he would going to be taking 2d10 fire damage this round. Jericho casts Frier Amplifier, and fuels in an extra charge to make sure this really hurts – so instead of 2d10, the fire suddenly burns brighter. Mort turns into a living torch, and suffers 4d10 fire damage this round!

Remote Badaboom
Cost: 2 Minor Charges.
Effect: There are two steps to casting this spell. In the first one, you inscribe an object with your personal icon, rune, glyph, or whatever the hell the symbol is that you use to represent yourself and this specific spell (you can’t change this over time, only allow its appearance to vary slightly.) In the first step, you spend the first of the two required charges. The object you etch this mystical mark into is now ready to be detonated.
The second step of this spell is spending the second charge – and you can do this at any distance. Yes, even when not having any visual contact to the mystically marked item. Upon spending the second charge, you trigger the marked item to detonate in a small explosion. If somebody wears this object on their body, they immediately take 1d10 fire damage and must roll a Speed check in order to prevent catching fire in the next round, as described under the blast style. Anything that is explosive, like a gasoline tank, a barrel of blackpowder, or anything else that can be ignited into explosion by fire (plastic explosives, for instance, do not work – they do not react to heat or fire) will obviously go boom as well when this happens. For this reason, Infernomancers most typically use this spell and its mark to “mystically rig” explosive things.

I Can See You From Hell
Cost: 3 Minor Charges.
Effect: This summons up a demon, as described in UA 2nd Edition. Note though that this spell does not grant you any control over the demon nor any means of getting rid of it. The only known formula spell with which an Infernomancer can attempt to control a demon, is the significant formula known as the Demon Cleaner spell.

Welding Palms
Cost: 4 Minor Charges.
Effect: This causes your hands to excrete condensed fire or heat, whichever is not completely clear, but the effect is unmistakeable. Your palms generate a heat so grand that it can allow you to weld metal parts together, or even bend metal parts (a rifle’s barrel, for instance.) If you touch someone while the effect of this spell still lasts, it will deal them 4d10 wound points of fire damage – as if your hands were the equivalent of a blowtorch. If you actually wrestle with them and get them in a stranglehold like this, you’ll be dealing this damage per round and most likely end up killing them. Don’t forget that you can quickly set flammable materials on fire this way, too.
The effect lasts for an amount of rounds equal to the ten’s die of the check result. You cannot cast this spell on any target other than yourself.

INFERNOMANCY SIGNIFICANT FORMULA SPELLS

Painful Cure
Cost: 1 Significant Charge.
Effect: Under the effect of this spell, you fall into a feverish state for a number of rounds equal to the one’s die of the roll result. You suffer three wound points of damage once this spell takes effect on your, and another point of fire damage for each additional round that this feverish state lasts. Once the feverish state has passed, you are cured from all poisons, toxins, viruses, harmful bacteriae, etc.

Passion Spike
Cost: 1 Significant Charge.
Effect: This spell can trigger one of the target’s passions (they can’t pick which one; such is determined randomly by the GM). If the target attempts to resist the spell’s effect, he is allowed a major Keep Your Damn Cool check. Success means he can hold back his passion from boiling over, yet will still probably result in any sort of stress check along the lines of the Unnatural, Helplessness, or Self. If the target does not resist or fails to resist the Passion Spike, they suffer the effect of their passion being triggered as given in UA 2nd Edition.

Demon Cleaner
Cost: 2 Significant Charges.
Effect: It would probably be more fitting to dub this spell “Human Cleaner”, but double-thinking has come a long way. To cast this spell, you have to burn a still-possessed human in a large oven (where they can fit in, of course, although sticking their head into a microwave might suffice.) Unfortunately, this procedure normally results in the death of the possessed human because some demons can be really twisted bastards and stick around for the hellride until the human is near her death.
The bright side of things is that when the demon escapes the human’s body, you’ve trapped the demon in your oven. You can remove the human if anything lively is left of her, and now whenever you open the oven’s lid, it requires your will for the demon to escape the oven in that instance. If anybody else opens the furnace’s gate, the demon can however flee as if you had allowed it to escape.
Ultimately, this spell gives you means of controlling a demon, because you obviously have gained the upper hand by trapping it. But don’t rest on your laurels, the nasty soul-suckers are going to be damned if they don’t try to get out of there. And this is how they do it: they can speak with anybody who’s in the physical vicinity of the oven’s lid or door. Go figure – they’ll probably assume the voice of a wounded child or woman who needs help, pronto. And whomever they’re talking to, only that person will hear the demon talking, nobody else.

Firewalk
Cost: 2 Significant Charges.
Effect: This spell’s effect will give the target limited fire resilience. Beware that it will not make you completely immune to fire, but it will increase your chances of surviving a walk or run through fire. In a combat situation, the effect will last for rounds equal to the ten’s digit of your skill; in any other situation it will last for minutes equal to the ten’s digit of your skill.
As long as the effect’s duration lasts, any fire damage inflicted to you in those rounds is reduced by 2d10, but you always take a minimum of 1 wound point of fire damage even if the fire damage was reduced to 0d10 or less. Also, you still perform checks for catching fire, quenching fire, etc., and anything you’re wearing is no less flammable than it normally would be.
This may seem like a silly spell, but the pure probability of taking 2d10 fire damage from a blowtorch (or immersion into molten lava) instead of 4d10 is quite attractive to some people.

On Fire! / Dragon’s Caress
Cost: 2 Significant Charges.
Effect: You spend a round to cast this spell, and at the end of the round you suddenly combust into a living torch! In canon to the fire damage rules given under the blast style section, this means you begin taking 3d10 wound points of fire damage per round, starting at the beginning of the subsequent round to the one you cast it in.
What in all hell’s name is this spell good for, you ask? Nothing much, really, unless you combine other spells with it to perform really freaky stuff. We recommend using Firewalk with Dragon’s Caress unless you’re feeling particularly suicidal.
Note that you can’t target anyone else with this spell other than yourself.