062 - The Faustian Times

Unnatural Phenomenon: The Faustian Times

You don't really see them much anymore, those newspaper vending machine boxes that were once a ubiquitous sight on sidewalks everywhere. Today the New York Times operates 39 in the entire United States. Like the phonebooth they are a vanishing sign of an older era. Magick gathers in forgotten corners like these, seemingly attracted by the obfuscation of rarity and inattention. Part of this is the protection of obscurity, fruit trees on the path less travelled are less picked over. Part of it is down to the quiet kinds of human madness that are left alone to fester long enough to bend the universe with creation.

The Faustian Times is a newspaper, always found wedged in between copies of another newspaper inside one of these boxes. There are no records of such a paper ever having existed and any contact information or investigation leads to dead ends and endless loops. It is a smaller publication, printed on yellowing paper stock and written in a typeset that at first seems readable but eventually makes your eyes swim. One such copy appears in a box somewhere in the world every day. It will tell you the paths to what you want most. And the paths of its other readership.

Whenever someone retrieves a copy of the Faustian Times from a box one of the articles will personally address the reader: it could point out an unknown factor in an upcoming milestone (an additional +1d10% towards your objective for completing it), the personal troubles of one of your relationships (+1d10% towards improving the connection if acted upon ...or an opportunity for coercion with +1 rank to the stress check) or tell you who has that ritual formula or magickal artifact you've been pining after. It will also tell you which box tomorrow's paper will be in. This information alone won't do you any benefit unless you act on it, but it will exact a price after 24 hours.

One of your relationships hits a rough patch (-5% unless you fix things), your enemies find out where you are, you pop a flat on the way to something important - little things, bits of synchronicity and bad fortune that are unpleasant enough to offset the good fortune made possible by the news in the first place. There aren't any free lunches, but you can put off paying the piper a while if you're quick and dedicated. If you're able to obtain the paper on consecutive days it has several compounding effects: firstly paying the price is put off for another 24 hours, secondly you can benefit an additional time and to greater effect and lastly the price to eventually be paid grows by the same amount. Over a long enough period the benefits become truly staggering, as does the potential downfall.

So there are a few options: use the paper for a short term benefit and take the cost, use it for a longer term benefit and then try to cash out the dividends before the backlash hits or constantly chase the next printing, obtaining greater and greater rewards at the risk of disaster. There are other kinds of value that can be drawn from it for the faint of heart, the location of the next paper is highly sought after as are old editions detailing the secret desires of previous readers. Even the least interesting old printing is considered highly collectable in the right circles.

There are rumours of secret ways off the treadmill, like selling your soul to buy your way out with one of the little subscription cards in the back. If anyone's actually done it nobody has talked. The stories about secret kings and queens of the world, made both royalty and slaves to the need to jet across the Earth chasing after the power of the next edition and forestalling catastrophe are just as unverified.