Tai’s Magical Goodies is the home of magical items of all sorts, from Spells to adept Powers to Totems to other magical items. Tai’s Magical Goodies is open to submissions from anyone—the Submission Guidelines are available at http://tss.dumpshock.com/guidelines.html.

The contributors this issue are Robert Blaylock [dragonlord@networld.com], David Lott [david.lott@worldnet.att.net], and Dave Post [caelric@home.com].

Totems
Junk
Junk is the embodiment of the cast-off refuse of metahumanity. It thrives in places where the unwanted or unusable accumulates. Junk shamans are usually packrats, and tend to enchant the strangest things for foci and fetishes. They also have an uncanny knack for finding and actually fixing the broken-down, worn-out scrap they admire so much.
Environment: Urban (Preferably scrapyard)
Advantages: +2 dice for Detection Spells, +2 dice for Spirits of Man, +1 die for Build/Repair skills. (When improving, count this die for determining the Karma cost.)
Disadvantages: -1 die for Combat Spells, -1 die for Spirits of Water. Junk shamans can only use Magic skills when unkempt or surrounded by junk.

Spells
“Yep, them new-fangled mages jest don’t know,” said Murk, my graying talismonger. He often rambled on and on about how things were in the “first days.” Most times, I would not stick around and listen to his ramblings, but since he was harmless and I really did need that focus, I decided to hear him out.

“Take that Fireball spell—most mages don’t have a clue where it came from.” Knowing he had a captive audience, Murk started talking faster. “Heck, in the first days, most mages could only manage a little spark or flame.” After looking down his nose, he continued. “Yep, Zip turned out to be a most useful spell.” In the dark streets, having serious artillery is an absolute must for most runners. However, brute force is often too much. Besides, it’s rather difficult to light a two-inch timed burn fuse attached to a few kilos of C12 when the closest spell you have is Powerbolt.

Here are a few spells that tend to be more useful. They are Force 1 spells, and as a general rule, should not be able to materially affect the game or be useful in combat. However, applied correctly, these spells can make a magician's life just a little easier. The basic construct is a Force 1 spell with L drain.

Breeze
Type: P • Target: 2 • Duration: S • Drain: L
Breeze creates a small amount of airflow that blows away from the caster. It can be used to reduce the force of airborne contaminants 1 force per minute. Though not strong enough to put out a candle, it could also be used to keep light cigarette smoke and other nuisances out of your eyes.

Chill
Type: P • Target: 2 • Duration: I • Drain: L
Chill cools up to 1 cubic meter of material by 5° C. The excess heat is moved into the surrounding area, raising the ambient temperature slightly. This spell may be cast multiple times, but the target number increases by 2 for each casting to represent the increased difficulty of removing more heat from the air. The target number decreases by 1 for every five minutes between castings. This spell can be used to freeze water if cast enough times, although Freeze Water (p. 147, Magic in the Shadows) will do so more efficiently. With this spell, a magician can always get a cold glass of water.

Clean
Type: P • Target: 2 • Duration: I • Drain: L
Clean removes soil, blood, dirt and contaminants from an item one square meter in volume. Combined with Dry, this can be used to quickly make a set of clothing more presentable. Cleaning will not remove microscopic traces or contaminants. Though Clean will remove obvious blood traces, a forensic examination will reveal the blood.

Dry
Type: P • Target: 2 • Duration: I • Drain: L
Dry removes the excess moisture from an item up to 1 square meter in volume. The moisture is moved into the air, which becomes humid. Multiple castings on the same object will have no effect. A jacket with blood on it would still have dried blood stains on it. Those stains would still need to be brushed off or otherwise cleaned.

Flavor
Type: P • Target: 2 • Duration: I • Drain: L
Flavor changes the taste of up to one cubic meter of food for an hour. It can provide any spice the magician knows first hand. A Cooking test is required to decide the correct amount of spice to apply. This spell is often used to make soy more palatable or to disguise the taste of certain substances.

Glue Stick
Type: P • Target: 2 • Duration: S • Drain: L
Glue Stick attaches two objects together with the same force as a person with a Strength rating of 1—any metahuman attempting to pull the two objects apart will be sucessful without need for a Strength test. While not useful for holding a door shut, it can be used on the lock to keep a dead bolt in place.

Soak
Type: P • Target: 2 • Duration: I • Drain: L
Soak is the opposite of Dry and puts the maximum amount of moisture (water) into an item that the item can sustain without dripping. The moisture is taken from the air, which becomes arid. Extremely dry climates may not provide enough moisture to fully soak the item. Once fully wet, additional castings have no effect.

Warm
Type: P • Target: 2 • Duration: I • Drain: L
Warm heats up to one cubic meter of material by 5° C. The heat is supplied from the surrounding area, lowering the ambient temperature slightly. This spell may be cast multiple times, but the target number increases by 2 for each casting to represent the increased difficulty in pulling more heat from colder air. The target number decreases by 1 for every five minutes between castings. This spell can be used to raise water to boiling if cast enough times. With this spell, magicians never need to take a cold bath or drink cold javasoy.

Zip
Type: P • Target: 2 • Duration: S • Drain: L
Zip creates a one-inch flame at the end of the casters' chosen finger. The flame is identical to the flame created by a lighter and provides the same illumination and heat. Useful for lighting other items like cigars, paper, fuses, etc.

Banishing Focus
By Louie ‘Da Cross’ Lecroix

Believed to be originally developed by Catholic priests, under the official sanction of the Pope in Rome, these devices were crafted to aid in ridding the world of malicious spirits. Extremely rare, they are most often in the form of Catholic religious trappings: ornate silver crosses, prayer beads, vials of holy water that never seems to run out, and other things typical of a Catholic exorcism. Despite the Church’s official view that magic is an accepted part of a Godly world, there are many within the Church that believe magic, especially as it relates to spirits and elementals, is not of God. Thus, the Awakened of the Church, most often priests of arcane orders, have developed the banishing focus.
This focus, unlike the typical spirit focus prevalent among Awakened conjurers, works on any type of spirit—from a nature spirit, to a fire elemental, to manifestations of the Voudoun loa, to the true form of insect sprits. However, unlike a spirit focus, it does not aid in the conjuring, but only in the banishing of a spirit.

> I’ve heard the Jesuit warriors in Aztlan have their own version of this, which works for controlling spirits. They use them to send the Azzies’ blood spirits back to the Azzies, ‘looking for blood.’
>The California Conjurer

> And I’ve heard the Jesuits can call upon the fire of God to smite down their enemies. Just because you hear drek doesn’t make it shine!
> Voice of Reason

Most of these foci are Catholic in design, since that is how the first versions of them were made, but other enchanters are learning how to make them and are putting their own spin on the design. They are especially popular with Lone Star and other law enforcement mages who often have to fight rogue elementals and spirits conjured by law-breakers.

Game Information
A banishing focus adds its Force in dice to the banishing tests, refreshing every combat turn just like a power focus. It also adds its Force to a mage’s Magic attribute specifically for any banishing related test, only. It is useful against all types of spirits (elementals, loas, etc.) and can not be used for any other Conjuring related test, only banishing.
These foci have an availability of 10/1 week, as they are still very rare and cost accordingly at Force x 75,000 nuyen. The street index is 2, like all other foci, and the bonding cost is Force x 2.5 (round up). This is slightly more than a spirit focus and less than a spell category focus. The first bonding cost, for enchanters, is 5 x Force and every other number for enchanting is the same as for a spirit focus.