When all you need is a little push…
Cost: 2 significant charges
Ritual actions: State a goal you need to accomplish. This can be anything from “get that job instead of the other guy” to “kill that son of a bitch that’s trying to muscle in on my territory” to “fix my car.” Write out this goal and cross out any repeating letters so each letter occurs only once, then create a sigil by linking all the remaining letters together to create an abstract shape. Copy this sigil onto a piece of parchment made from the skin of a goat that died of natural causes, 2 inches wide by 5 inches long. This must be done using ink made from blood from your closest living relative (if you have no living family, the ritual cannot be completed), wine blessed by a blind priest, and pure iron filings, using a quill pen made from the feather of a bird you killed yourself (any bird will do). Burn the parchment at noon on the first day of the month in a fire of cedar wood for 3 hours and 33 minutes, then collect the ashes. Fold the ashes into a piece of paper you made yourself and seal the paper with wax. When you want the ritual to take effect, open the paper and scatter the ashes into the wind.
Effect: If done correctly, the universe provides just a little bit of help in completing whatever goal you originally wrote. Mechanically, this is expressed as follows: roll the dice. For a number of hours equal to half the tens position, rounded down, you receive a positive shift equal to the number in the ones position to any skills used in completing this goal. Pick the skills you plan to use to accomplish what you want to do, and divide up the bonus as you see fit. Only skills relevant to completing your goal can be boosted, and once assigned the bonuses can’t be shifted or reassigned without casting the ritual again. The GM decides what’s relevant and what isn’t.
For example: John the entropomancer has it in for Dirk Allen, and decides to perform Synchronicity with the stated goal “kill Dirk Allen.” He rolls a 79. For the next 3 hours, he has 9 points worth of positive shifts he can distribute to any skills he thinks he’ll use in killing the old boozehound. He decides to put 5 into Back Alley Scrapping and 4 into Run Like Hell, in case things get too hairy. He couldn’t apply any bonuses to his Pick Up Girls At Bars skill, since that has nothing to do with killing Dirk Allen.
It has a confusing name. People may very well mix it up with the power of Synchronicity, the Pornomancy spell Synchronicity, or the varied effects that replicate the Pornomancy spell.
It also seems a little expensive for it’s duration and bonus. It’s useful sure, but it’s also a crapshoot.
Ah, I hadn’t realized there were other things called Synchronicity in play, I just thought it sounded appropriate. Then again, Pornomancy is pretty much my least favorite adept school, so there’s no wonder I missed the spell called that…
As for the expense/benefit ratio, maybe give it a bit of a boost. There’s a bit I forgot to put in- Matched rolls give an extra hour and an extra 1% shift. Rolling a 01 gives the full 10 hours instead of 5, and instead of a tiny +1% shift, makes it a +11%. Maybe even allow the caster to flip-flop the roll, choose between a higher bonus with a shorter span or the reverse.