Custom Blood Magic: Ritual

Circle of Balance
Advanced Ritual- (Available to Geomancy, Mortis, Abyssal Mysticism, Sadhanna, Bacaban, Wanga, Koldunism, Dur An ki, and Rom Sorcery.)

Flavor- When faced with an impossible problem, nine paradigms of magic were levied by nine different magicians to make the impossible possible. This ritual is nothing short of a grandstand, as the casters themselves place themselves between what is and what should be and attempt to make reality blink. It is a dangerous undertaking, made easier by each magician who shares in the circle and the strain. Ultimately the ritual only needs two people identified as the Lead and the Anchor, one to begin and one to hold it down. If the ritual is completed in its entirety with at least the Lead and the Anchor remaining, it is possible for them to close gateways, portals, rifts, tears, and holes on the prime/material plane that otherwise could not be closed. This requires that each magician maintain in their mind for the duration of the cast a single desire to seal the object in question, and any deviation to that end could have unforeseen and wild consequences.

Mechanics-
Preparation: Each caster participating in the ritual will draw a ritual circle, similar to warding circle rituals, unique to their type of magic. This becomes their place of power and the caster should feel free to include trappings of their magic in the work. Only one caster per paradigm of magic can take part. The total space taken up most form a full circle around the target of the ritual to be affected. This translates to 1 Blood per foot measured as a diameter within the area that ritual will need to be cast in. While not required, materials and items produced or built with the concept of making the cooperative nature of the ritual more successful may impart bonuses to the casting. Everything from reduction in cost on the Backlash Events, to retests, and even lowered difficulty. This is done at ST discretion and up to player ingenuity.

Casing: This ritual takes one hour to complete, and is done in 6 waves each lasting ten minutes where challenges are made at the end of each 10 minute interval resulting in a total of 6 challenges over the course of the ritual. At each challenge there will be a Backlash and or a Breech event (described below) up to ST discretion, sometimes both depending on the complexity of the rift. Each challenge is a mental test done at a difficulty of 14 traits, increasing in difficulty by +1 per challenge. Only one challenge is thrown at each interval with the Lead starting the ritual and the Anchor ending it, however either one can choose to throw the 4 inbetween. If a challenge is failed 10 more minutes is added to the timer of the ritual and the difficulty continues to increase. This will continue until the Lead or the Anchor falls, or the ritual achieves 6 successes.

Backlash Event: Manifest's as taxation on the casters and damage to the casters. Each backlash event will cause the following- 15 Blood, 15 Named Mentals, 5 WP, 5 Agg bypassing all armor and abilities to negate or soak, or add Health levels. (IE: Extra health levels gained from other powers or added to the caster, do not count towards this damage, only the base health levels on the character sheet from character creation) This is a lump sum that is split evenly and applied to the Lead and the Anchor, who can then choose to divide it among the other casters of the group in whatever value they desire. (The Lead and Anchor would both take half of the totals, someone having to take the odd number, and could then divide that further out among the other casters) The Lead and the Anchor choose who takes what, if they pass a value onto a caster who is reduced to 0 in that category they fail their part of the cast and are no longer participants, suffering whatever consequences they would normally suffer for running out of that trait/resource.

Breech Event: Manifest's as the rift/tear/target of the ritual itself rebelling against the spell. Different from Backlash which is the result of the target being forced to bend back into place and the taxation of magic, this is a concerted effort by whatever is being cast upon to remain open. What this means is up to ST interpretation, as a rift to the Umbra is quite different from a Rift to the Abyss or Shadowlands. However such tears in reality, of subsequent power to require this ritual, usually have little desire to be closed. This could manifest as physical combat with creatures from the other side, spirits or nearby entities being corrupted and controlled, or any number of other more physical manifestations playing out in the area and world around the target of the ritual.

Final Step: Once the sixth chop is completed all remaining casters must commit to the end result of the portal being closed. If any of the casters deviates from this plan they must inform the ST as it may impact the end result of the ritual itself. Once this ritual is used at a site, it can not be used there again, as reality itself grows wise to what was done, and forever blocks the use of such magic from that site. Indeed so great is the end result that any gauntlet/shroud/barriers within one mile of the cast are permanently forced 2 higher, and magic cast in the area is at a +2 difficulty, assuming of course the spell is met with success.