Custom Blood Magic: Ritual

The Hard Journey (Basic - 2)

The group gathers and a Lilin prepares by stripping nude, she is lashed by whips, burned by brands and made to walk over stones and glass.  When she falls the first time someone, usually in a cat mask comes forward and lays an offering of food at her feet (usually a dead animal, on rare occasions cooked meat).  She rises up again and walks more, sometimes through the woods.  When she falls again someone in a snake mask comes and gives her a drink, sometimes cold water, sometimes wine, but often blood.  The third time she falls someone in an owl mask wraps her in a warm cloak and then the participants create a garden around her with plants shelter and food.  She rises and feeds herself as the participants sing and chant. She is ministered to and at the end of the ritual a tree is planted in that place. It is regularly watered with the cults blood and regular gatherings held around that place.  The ground under its branches is always considered consecrated space for Ba’ham.

The Master's Return
Advanced Thaumaturgical Ritual
Approved October, 2011

This ritual requires the caster to possess at least the second
Intermediate of The Hearth Path, Temportal.

The caster must first establish a Haven, warded with Temportal, within
no more than a single night's travel on foot from the intended
location for use of The Master's Return (a trip the caster must walk
during the night of the ritual's casting).  The Haven can be any sort
of structure, so long as it is warded by the caster's Hearth Path.

Once a Haven has been established, the caster must locate a door
within the structure of her Haven as well as a door within the
location she wishes to cast The Master's Return.  It doesn't matter
what doors are chosen, so long as they are the same type of door;
interior, vs. exterior as well as being located in reasonably similar
places within the structure's architecture.

The caster must etch arcane symbols along the doorjamb of both doors
from floor all the way around to floor again, on both sides of the
wall.  While the symbols are small and can be carved anywhere on the
doorjamb, an observer can possibly locate them if they inspect the
door closely.  After inscribing the symbols, she must run her finger
across them, painting a thin coat of blood into each symbol, which
also may be noticed by an observer looking closely.  Painting both
doors requires a total of two blood traits.

Finally the caster must whisper a command word or phrase into the
locking mechanism of both doors, where she invests a portion of her
power into the door, costing her one permanent Mental trait.  This
investment causes a small glyph to mystically appear upon the lock of
the door, which may be noted by an observer inspecting the door
closely.

So long as the etchings remain intact, the glyphs remain unscathed,
the blood remains untouched and the doors remain in one piece, the
caster may speak the command word or phrase and pass through one of
the doors to the other... once, taking with her all her belongings,
but no other beings.  Once the caster has made use of either of the
doors to pass through to the other, the etchings and glyph fade to
nothing, taking the caster's blood with them as they go.
The caster may have in existence as many passages via The Master's
Return as one-quarter her total permanent Mental traits.

Description
This ritual opens a metaphysical channel and issues a formal Hermetic call across supernatural boundaries. It does not bind, compel, negotiate with, or protect the caster. The working establishes contact through presence alone, forcing reality to answer the call without guaranteeing the quality, temperament, or usefulness of the response.

When this ritual is completed, something will answer.

Requirements
At least one Thaumaturgy Path at Advanced (Level Five)

Lore 3 in the creature type being summoned

A prepared ritual space marked with appropriate symbolic correspondences

One invocation method: a general categorical call, a True Name, or a strong sympathetic link

Casting Time
Thirty minutes of uninterrupted, non-combat casting.

System
Ritual Resolution
Resolve a Static Mental Challenge vs. 8 Traits. Success completes the summoning. Failure still produces an answer, but under adverse or uncontrolled conditions.

Targeted Summoning Caveat
If the ritual is used to summon a specific entity via a True Name or strong sympathetic link, resolve a Static Social Challenge instead. The caster uses Social Traits plus their Path of Binding rating; the target resists with Willpower +3. On success, the intended entity answers the call. On failure, a proxy, fragment, subordinate, or thematically related entity answers instead, and the intended target becomes aware of the attempt.

On Success — Always Something
A supernatural entity manifests within the ritual space. The entity will be of the declared creature type or a closely related metaphysical category. It arrives aware, autonomous, and entirely unbound, and may immediately speak, deceive, depart, threaten, or attack as it chooses.

Manifestation State
Absent other effects, manifestation is uncontrolled. Incorporeal entities may appear partially, indirectly, or through possession or environmental influence. Physical entities may arrive unstable, incomplete, or immediately mobile.

On Failure — Still Something
Failure does not negate the summoning. An entity still manifests, but under adverse or uncontrolled conditions, such as hostile arrival, corrupted manifestation, metaphysical backlash, or the wrong entity answering the call. Failure is never silent, and always at ST Discretion.

Limits
This ritual does not bind, restrain, compel, or protect. It does not prevent immediate departure, guarantee stability, or enforce compliance. All precision, containment, leverage, and obligation must be established through additional rituals, Path powers, or explicit negotiation.

The Profane's Passing
Custom Ritual

Mechanics
Range: 100 yards/meter radius per point of temporary Willpower spent during casting.

Casting Time: Variable -- The ritual is arduous, and requires six hours of casting under the light of a full moon, and will last for a full week. However, if the ashipu casts this on a holy day (as fitting the caster's faith, examples include the first day of Ramadan, Easter Sunday, the Last day of Chinese New Year), the ritual will last for a lunar month beginning on that date (29 days).

Effects: Once successfully cast, the ritual will cloak an area with an effect that subtly targets infernalists, demons, or anyone/thing carrying demonic corruption or curses that passes through the effected area. The area will trigger the 3pt Flaw: Echoes (book/page reference, and/or description) affecting the area enhanced by the ritual for 12 hours after the infernalist, demons, or corrupted individual or items pass through the enchanted area. This ritual does not bypass investments that conceal the infernals true nature.

A Roman emperor named Constantine once during a military dispute with his rival Magentius, also emperor of Rome, was struck by a vision. This vision would be a cross over the heads of your enemies, where it said IN RHOC SIGNO VINCES (At the first sign you will attack). The next morning, Emperor Constantine ordered him to paint a cross on his army's shields, and imbued with conviction he won the battle.

Seeking to replicate Constantine's example, the magicians who created this ritual aim to locate the enemies they have to march on. In this sense, we can use the components that contain the symbolism of that occasion. The wine would be the symbol of faith (not religious), the earth would be the symbol of victory for intelligence (the construction) and the vitae as a magical operator in the connection of the ritual.

By making this preparation and applying it in such a way as to use a glyph under his eyes, the magus' vision will notice a white cross on top of the tarnished target or object.

NOTE: To make the preparation, a container that reflects the magus (silver bowl), wine and vitae of the operator is needed.

System - In addition to the normal Challenge to activate the ritual, the caster must spend 1 willpower and 1 blood point to prepare the material.  The ritual execution time is 5 minutes, instead of the normal casting time for a basic ritual.  Once the Ritual has been performed, for the next Scene or Hour, the caster may ask a Storyteller to secretly throw a Mental Challenge (retest Occult) against any infernalist who comes within the caster's line of sight.  If the caster wins, the they detect the infernalist for what they are.  Note that Investments such as Masque of Innocence will prevent this ritual from detecting the Infernalist.