Hexing in the late-mid-1800s

[HobbitGuy1420]

So, I know that the form hexes take has changed over the years, from witch marks to curdled milk to technology fritzing. 

What would folks say should be the effects of a Hex in the 1800s, specifically in a mostly-lawless western setting?

Edit:  Ooooh.  How about this?  Magic-users spook animals.  Low-level talents make cats skittish and horses nervous.  High talent powers can cause stampedes just by walking by a farm.

[narphoenix]

Ooooh.  How about this?  Magic-users spook animals.  Low-level talents make cats skittish and horses nervous.  High talent powers can cause stampedes just by walking by a farm.

I like this.

[Taran]

I've run a campaign where it was 1750's Japan and this is what I've basically done.  Animals get spooked, milk curdles, bad omens like crows/vultures circling over-head, people develop boils...although that last one seems more like medieval than Victorian (Victorian? Elizabethan?)

Also, muskets, guns, steam power are pretty easily hexed.

[Quantus]

In Cold Days he said that: 

"300 years ago it made cream turn sour, disturbed animals, and tended to encourage minor skin infections in wizards. Gave them  blemishes and moles and pockmarks.  Then sometime between then and now it segued into triggering off flashes of hallucination in people who hung around in in close proximity to us.  Now it mucks around where machines are concerned." 

And in a WOJ on the subject:

As technology advances, will wizards become marginalized?
It sort of depends on where magic goes.  Magic wasn’t always screwing up post WW2 tech.  Before WW2 magic had other effects.  It sorta changes slowly over time, and about every 3 centuries it rolls over into something else.  At one time, instead of magic making machines flip out it made cream go bad.  Before that magic made weird molls on your skin and fire would burn slightly different colors when you were around it.  I do mention this in Ghost story (in passing).  It’s not really aware or something like that, but it is something that changes along with the people who use it. 

[Taran]

The fire changing color is definitely a cool one.

[Haru]

Maybe gunpowder could flash in strange colors as well? Would be a cool effect in gun fights.

And I like the "triggering halucinations" bit. There's all kinds of crazy you can do with that.

[HobbitGuy1420]

My thoughts right now are that magic:

Spooks animals (way too many fun potential Compels, there),
Causes odd patterns to appear randomly around the practitioner (a cloud bank appears to have a herd of cattle stampeding through it, a tumbleweed's path almost looks like writing from the right angle, a spilled glass of whiskey forms into a face shape),
Causes premature graying of the hair (not 100% tied to this one, but it sounds cool)