Rituals 2

Level Two Rituals

-Level 2-

Blood Mead

It was thought by the cults of Dionysus that supernatural powers could procured while under the effects of oinos, or any intoxication for that matter. During the Dionysian rites, a special drink combining vitae and mead (a fermented honey drink) might be prepared for favored supplicants. the drink was thought to pass on a powerful resilience, though only under intoxication. Similarly, a thaumaturge casting this ritual will be able to withstand a greater amount of damage than he would normally tolerate.

System:

The thaumaturge must ingest this concoction to trigger its effect. By mingling two points of his own vitae with a honey brew, the magus creates a potent anesthetic and intoxicant. while under this effect, the caster gains an extra Bruised health level. However, he suffers the effects of intoxication and, as such, loses one die to all Dexterity and Intelligence dice pools. The effects from Blood Mead last a number of hours equal to the successes scored after the blood mead is imbibed. At night’s end, the vitae within Blood Mead dilutes and loses its mystical properties and, as a result, cannot refill a vampire's blood pool. The mead may. however, continue to act as an intoxicant, depending on how much the vampire consumed.

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Bureaucratic Condemnation

Developed as the antithesis of Expedient Paperwork, this ritual causes forms, letters or other paperwork tendered by the target to become lost in red tape. Use of this ritual has created many apocryphal tales among the Tremere, who boast of rivals' havens foreclosed upon, cars repossessed and buildings permits revoked. The earliest record use of this rituals seems to have been during the Renaissance, when a Tremere had a Lasombra rival excommunicated for failing to submit a writ to the Inquisition. A thaumaturge must sketch an effigy (however crude) of her subject in squid ink when casting this ritual.

System:

The time any single bureaucratic action takes to complete is tripled, including mailing documents, applying for licenses, ect. Characters with sufficient Influence or the like should still be able to "push things through," however, though they are likely to experience additional difficulty.

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Craft Bloodstone

This ritual creates a small stone used as a tracking device. The caster must place a small pebble into a vial filled with three points of blood from any source. This blood need not be human. Every night for three nights, the thaumaturge recites an invocation over the vial. The bloodstone absorbs a single point of blood each night, and the liquid becomes slightly clearer, until one the third night it becomes transparent water. The vampire then has a mystical connection to the stone, and knows its relative position at all times.

System:

A thaumaturge who creates a bloodstone instinctively knows where it is at all times. this is not so much knowledge of its precise location as it is an understanding of its direction and distance from the caster.

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Enhancing the Curse

Ghouls can survive almost indefinitely, with the stipulation that they have vampiric blood within their bodies. A thaumaturge casting this ritual on a ghoul enhances the strength of the vampiric vitae in his body but causes him to suffer similar adverse effects to sunlight exposure as vampires would suffer. Every moment the subject spends exposed to daylight will generate third-degree burns over the ghoul's body. This proves fatal if the ghoul is unable to find shelter from the sun's rays. The vampire must scratch the subject and draw blood, though some variants of this ritual require the thaumaturge to strike the ghoul. Obviously, this is not a pleasant ritual, and is used by thaumaturges to discipline or test their ghouls.

System:

This ritual requires physical contact between thaumaturge and ghoul for it to take effect. So long as the victim retains vampiric blood in his body, he will suffer one health level of aggravated damage per two turns while in direct exposure to sunlight. Once the vampiric blood is spent from his system, the victim will cease to suffer damage from sunlight. For the next month. anytime the ghoul ingests and retains vampiric blood in his body, he will suffer damage in direct sunlight.
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Extinguish

This ritual eliminates the threat that fire poses to Kindred. The caster is able to douse dangerous flames, leaving vampire hunters quite surprised when their torches and brands are no longer effective tools. To enact this ritual, the caster pinches out a candle's flame while spitting on the floor.

System:

The ritual is set up in advance, but for the entire night the vampire has but to speak a single magical syllable to extinguish one fire up to the size of a bonfire. For the duration of one night, the thaumaturge can use this power a number of times equal to the number of successes on the initial ritual roll. Pinching a candle’s flame in preparation is likely to require a Rotschreck check, as well.

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Impassable Trail

The vampire can travel through even the densest woods without leaving any sign of his passing. He will still leave a trail for creatures with powerful olfactory senses, but that will be all. The thaumaturge must carry an owl's feather steeped in Kindred vitae or burn the legs of a dead toad and carry the ashes with him while this ritual is in effect.

System:

The vampire will leave no evidence behind, save for a faint odor that takes three successes on a Perception + Alertness roll (dif 8) to detect. The ritual lasts for one night.

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Jinx

This ritual concerns itself with using the blood of other Kindred to afflict them with various minor banes at the thaumaturge's whim. Relying largely on the Principle of Identity (see chapter 2), this ritual consumes the blood of the subject instead of the blood of the caster. The thaumaturge must have in his possession one point of his victim's blood, which vanishes once a sending is attempted. The horrors visited upon subjects as a result of this path have given the Tremere quite a reputation. Indeed, many Kindred have reasonable fears of allowing the Warlocks to harvest any of their precious vitae, as the powers of this ritual can attest. Most fearsome of all, a thaumaturge need not even be in her victim's company, so strong is the connection of Identity. All the thaumaturge needs to do is sacrifice the subject's blood....
The thaumaturge briefly vexes his victim with bad luck, causing her to fail in a mundane task. This can cause everything from minor typographical errors to automobile accidents and everything in between, depending upon how the magus jinxes his mark.

System:

The next roll a jinxed character makes automatically fails, regardless of the outcome. This does not cause a botch, just simply failure. If applied to a contested or extended action, the roll simply yields no successes for the current turn -- the victim may garner other successes on subsequent turns (provided the failure doesn’t make all the difference..)

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Mourning Life Curse


Although this ritual causes no physical damage to its subject, it can be psychologically traumatizing. It allows the caster to coax blood from a mortal without injuring her. The Tremere must drink a dram of thrice-distilled crocodile blood and make a paste from copal oil. ground eyebright and dates. He carries this paste until he finds a suitable victim. He then dabs the paste onto her eyes and whispers a two- line invocation into the mortal's ear. The mortal then begins weeping uncontrollably, and bloody tears slowly ooze down her cheeks. The effect continues until the caster stops staring at the victim. the only after-effect is a slight swelling of the capillaries around the subject's eyes, along with the normal effects of blood loss.

System:

The victim will bleed slowly. It takes about five minutes to collect a single blood point. there is no active defense against this ritual, but the mortal must be able to hear the invocation that the caster whispers. Some thaumaturges use this power on sleeping victims, to spare them the unpleasantness of seeing the act.

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Steps Of The Terrified

This power lets the caster put the brake on a fleeing enemy. the harder the subject tries to run, the slower he becomes. Eventually, he slows to the point that he can barely move at all. the vampire is often able to take her time and still catch up with her target. The vampire must cast a handful of polar buds at the target and then douse her hands in the oil while repeating a short incantation seven times. She then wrings the oil from her Hands before following the target.

System:

The first turn after the ritual is completed, the subject moves at half his normal speed. If he tries to speed p, he slows to one-quarter his normal speed. Each time he tried to go faster, his speed is halved. The ritual lasts until the following sunrise.

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Trima

This type of oinos is made with spices and herbs, serving to heat up the blood in a body and, therefore cause drowsiness in a victim. A magus will sometimes serve this drink to many mortals, possibly at a party or other social gathering. This serves to better protect the Masquerade before Kindred guests drink their share from drowsy mortals. Kindred taking vitae from mortals under the effect of trima feel a slight buzz of the after- effects, though not strong enough to be considered intoxicated.

System:

The caster mixes at least one point of his vitae with the desired wine and spices. Once completed the trim must be ingested to take effect. After Imbibing trima, a victim must make a successful Willpower roll (dif 8) to take any action, as he is overcome by an artificially induced lethargy. this effect lasts a number of hours equal to the number of blood points the caster uses to create the ritual. Subjects may resist this effect by scoring at least three successes on a Stamina roll (dif 8). Cainites and other supernatural creatures are unaffected by trima as their blood is too potent to be overpowered by this concoction.

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Whispers Of The Ghost

Using this strange ritual, the vampire may communicate from his Psychic Projection form into the material world. while employing this ritual, the Kindred can speak with anyone he encounters, but his words come as ghostly whisperings. People who hear these whisperings often mistake them for the words of ghosts or spirits. When this ritual is performed, the thaumaturge must have the ear of a still-living creature in his left hand.

System:

This ritual applies only to vampires using the Auspex power of Psychic Projection. after weaving the spell, the Cainite can speak for one scene or until sunrise, whichever comes first. The thaumaturge may only speak to the physical world; he may not be seen, touched, ect.

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Iron Body

This ritual imbues the subject with supernatural endurance, allowing the kindred to withstand the Biblical anathema of this kind. The subject must carry a spent shell casing with him while this ritual is in effect.

Subject:
The subject may soak aggravated damage for as long as this ritual lasts, which is one hour per point of the caster's stamina. it does not grant the subject any additional soak dice, though it merely allows him to withstand the traditional banes of the Kindred.

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Ward Versus Ghouls

Wary Tremere created this ritual to protect themselves from the minions of vengeful rivals. By invoking this ritual, the Tremere creates a glyph that causes great pain to any ghouls who come in contact with it. The Kindred pours a point's worth of blood over the object he wishes to ward (a piece of parchment, a coin, a doorknob, etc.), and recites the incantation, which takes 10 minutes. In 10 hours, the magical ward is complete, and will inflict excruciating pain on any ghoul unfortunate enough to touch the warded object.

System:
Ghouls who touch warded objects suffer three dice of lethal damage. This damage occurs again if the ghoul touches the object further; indeed, a ghoul who consciously wishes to touch a warded object must spend a point of Willpower to do so. This ritual wards only one object - if inscribed on the side of a car, the ward affects only that door or fender, not the whole car. Wards may be placed on weapons, even bullets, though this usually works best on small-caliber weapons. Bullets often warp upon firing, however, and for a ward to remain intact on a fired round, the player needs five successes on the Firearms roll.

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Principal Focus of Vitae Infusion

This ritual imbues a quantity of blood within the object upon which the ritual is cast. The object must be small enough for the vampire to carry in both hands, and it may be as small as a dime. After the ritual is conducted, the object takes on a reddish hue and becomes slick to the touch. At a mental command, the thaumaturge may release the object from its enchantment, causing it to break down into a pool of blood. This blood may serve whatever purpose the vampire desires; many Tremere wear enchanted baubles to ensure they have emergency supplies of vitae.

System:
An object may store only one blood point of vitae. If a Kindred wishes to make an infused focus for an ally, she may do so, but the blood contained within must be her own (and if the ally then drinks the blood, he is one step closer to the blood bond). The ally must be present at the creation of the focus.

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Blood Walk

A thaumaturge casts this ritual on a blood sample from another vampire. Blood Walk is used to trace the subject's Kindred lineage and the blood bonds in which the subject is involved.

System:
This ritual requires three hours to cast, reduced by 15 minutes for each success on the roll. It requires one blood point from the subject. Each success allows the caster to "see back" one generation, giving the caster both the True Name of the ancestor and an image of his face. The caster also learns the generation and clan or bloodline from which the subject is descended. With three successes, the caster also learns the identities of all parties with whom the subject shares a blood bond, either as regnant or thrall.

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Burning Blade

Developed during Clan Tremere's troubled inception, Burning Blade allows a thaumaturge to temporarily enchant a melee weapon to inflict unhealable wounds on supernatural creatures. While this ritual is in effect, the weapon flickers with an unholy greenish flame.

System:
This ritual can only be cast on melee weapons. The caster must cut the palm of her weapon hand during the ritual - with the weapon if it is edged, otherwise with a sharp stone. This inflicts a single health level of lethal damage which cannot be soaked but may be healed normally. The player spends three blood points which are absorbed by the weapon. Once the ritual is cast, the weapon inflicts aggravated damage on all supernatural creatures for the next few successful attacks, one per success rolled. Multiple castings of Burning Blade cannot be "stacked" for longer durations. Furthermore, the wielder of the weapon cannot choose to do normal damage and "save up" aggravated strikes – each successful attack uses one aggravated strike until there are none left, at which point the weapon reverts to inflicting normal damage.

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Donning the Mask of Shadows

This ritual renders its subject translucent, her form appearing dark and smoky and the sounds of her footsteps muffled. While it does not create true invisibility, the Mask of Shadows makes the subject much less likely to be detected by sight or hearing.

System:
This ritual may be simultaneously cast on a number of subjects equal to the thaumaturge's Occult rating; each individual past the first adds five minutes to the base casting time. Individuals under the Mask of Shadows can only be detected if the observer succeeds in a Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty of the caster's Wits + Occult) or if the observer possesses a power (such as Auspex) sufficient to penetrate Level Three Obfuscate. The Mask of Shadows lasts a number of hours equal to the number of successes rolled when it is cast or until the caster voluntarily lowers it.

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Warding Circle versus Ghouls

This ritual is enacted in a manner similar to that of Ward versus Ghouls (see Vampire: The Masquerade, p. 184), but creates a circle centered on the caster into which a ghoul cannot pass without being burned. The circle can be made as large and as permanent as the caster desires, as long as she is willing to pay the necessary price. Many Tremere chantries and havens are protected by this and other Warding Circle rituals.

System:
The ritual requires three blood points of mortal blood. The caster determines the size of the warding circle when it is cast; the default radius is 10 feet, and every 10-foot increase raises the difficulty by one, to a maximum of 9 (one additional success is required for every 10-foot increase past the number necessary to raise the difficulty to 9). The player spends one blood point for every 10 feet of radius and rolls. The ritual takes the normal casting time if it is to be temporary (lasting for the rest of the night) or one night if it is to be permanent (lasting a year and a day).

Once the warding circle is established, any ghoul who attempts to cross its boundary feels a tingle on his skin and a slight breeze on his face - a successful Intelligence + Occult roll (difficulty 8) identifies this as a warding circle. If the ghoul attempts to press on, he must roll more successes on a Willpower roll (difficulty of the caster's Thaumaturgy rating + 3) than the caster rolled when establishing the ward. Failure indicates that the ward blocks his passage and inflicts
three dice of bashing damage on him, and his next roll to attempt to enter the circle is at +1 difficulty. If the ghoul leaves the circle and attempts to enter it again, he must repeat the roll. Attempts to leave the circle are not blocked.

The Tremere have access to several other Warding Circle rituals: Warding Circle versus Lupines (Level Three), Warding Circle versus Kindred (Level Four), and Warding Circles versus Spirits, Ghosts, and Demons (Level Five). Each Warding Circle ritual must be learned separately. The material components required for each warding circle are the same as those needed for the corresponding ward, but in larger amounts. The effects against the targeted beings are the same as for Warding Circle versus Ghouls.

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Deny the Intruder (Level 2 ritual)

To protect chantries from unwanted observation, Tremere rely not only upon mystic wards but also upon mortal bureaucracy. An enemy can hardly drop in if the chantry isn't listed in any directories or real estate paperwork, after all. Better still, a little judicious paper-shuffling can "lose" records for electrical payments, telephone calls and other incriminating evidence. To se up a chantry's bureaucratic defense, the Tremere simply scrawls a series of mystic characters on a piece of paper. This page goes out by mail (some modern Tremere even scan the page and use e-mail) and promptly becomes lost in the system. For the next year, the chantry becomes difficult to track via the usual paperwork routes.

SYSTEM:
There's no special cost for the paperwork involved in this ritual, though the Tremere must scrawl out the characters with charcoal. Once the paper makes it into "the system" -- by hand of the mailman, by e-mail to some server, or what have you --it vanishes without a trace. So, too, do the records of the chantry. Attempts to investigate the chantry or unearth records of its existence increase in difficulty by one for each success scored on the ritual roll. This doesn't hinder the chantry's normal functions; the telephons still work and the electricity still runs. It's just that nobody ever sends the bills directly to the chantry or writes anything in the credit memos that reveals the building's location.

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Inscription (level 2 ritual)

Not everyone can be proficient with Thaumatrugy. Some Tremere build mystic items specifically to aid their subordinates or allies. A neonate with only the rudiments of skill may have need of a specific ritual, or another Kindred might desire to purchase the special services of Thaumaturgy but need them for his own later use. Instead of taking the time and risk to instruct someone else in the fine points of the working in question, a proficient thaumatruge can build an annotated version of a ritual, fueled with his blood, to make the formula accessible to someone else.

The inscription ritual allows the thaumaturge to place any other first or second level ritual in a written form. This generally requires the equivalent of a full page of paper. A reader can then unlock the power of that ritual by reading the Inscription and following its instructions. The scribe uses his blood as a base for the ink, and his vitae's power remains in the mixture to help fuel the ritual. An inscribed ritual is in imperfect form -- it cannot be used to learn Thaumaturgy. It's a simplified set of instructions, with the scribe's vitae empowering the rite so that it overcomes any omission or sloppiness on the part of the practitioner.

SYSTEM:
A thaumaturge who knows the techniques of Inscription can write an abbreviated from for any first or second level that he knows, at a coast of two blood points. Anyone wo can read the language may then use the ritual notes later. Actually casting the ritual from the notes requires the use of the usual components and time, as well as the standard Intelligence + Occult roll, but the caster need not have any knowledge of Thaumatrugy. Once an inscription is complete, the power of the writter's vitae is trapped in the objct; his maximum blood pool is effectively reduced by one until the inscription is used. After use, the inscription dries into a fine, illegible ash, with all the power expelled from the
vitae-based ink.

The scribe can use the scroll himself (which is rather pointless) or give it to someone else. To prevent an inscription from reaching the wrong subjects, many scribes also use Encrypt Missive with this ritual. Rumor holds that more powerful forms of inscription can create annotations for higher-level rituals, but only elders would know for certain. It is known that the blood powering Inscription can be used for links of Sympathy and Identity -- an incautious Tremere could find his blood in the hands of an enemy who can use it against him.

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The Open Passage (level 2 ritual)

Walls, locked doors and even sealed vaults cannot stop a thaumaturge with the Open Passage ritual. The caster smears snake or vermin excrement over the surface in an intricate pattern, wich takes an hour to complete. Once finished, the caster becomes insubstantial with respect to that surface -- she can walk through a wall or door, yet can still interact with anything attached to it (like a mirror or wooden shelf).

SYSTEM:
The Open Passage lasts for one turn, so the caster must be quick in stepping through the barrier.

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Ritual's recognition (Level 2 ritual)

Some thaumaturgical rituals don't have an immediately visible effect. A ritual's success of failure may not be immediately apparent; cautious thaumaturges need a way to tell if their rituals work. Even a competent thaumatturge's rituals fail from time to time. Most would consider a few extra minutes of work worth the trouble to make sure that, say, a Deflection of Wooden Doom ritual functions properly, instead of finding out the hard way.

To set up Ritual's Recognition, the caster must sever the last eigth of an inch of his nose or an earlobe and crush the fleshy bit in an ivory mortal and pestle. He then dusts his face with the resulting paste. Immediately afterward, the thaumaturge casts another ritual; upon completion, the thaumaturge can tell whether the ritual succeeded or failed.

SYSTEM:
Casting Ritual's Recognition causes on level of unsoakable bashing damage as the caster removes a gobbet of skin. Once complete, the thaumaturge must Immediately begin his next ritual. When That ritual is finished, the caster automatically knows whether or not it succeeded, even if it would normally have no visible effect. By design, the caster can automatically tell if Ritual's Recognition succeeded, and can regrow the lost bit and recast it if it failed. In either case, the caster feels a warm flush upon completion of a successful rite.