Custom Blood Magic: Ritual

SUMMARY
No one knows exactly how the Shadowlands is shaped, only that it is affected by the intense emotions of the mortal world. Talented necromancers harness this power to shape small pockets of the Shadowlands into Stygian Fortresses. These locations offer heightened privacy and security, even if they come with an added bit of danger.

OWBN MET MECHANICS
While in the Shadowlands, you must combine 1 point of your Blood with the ashes of white heather, gladiola, and churchyard dirt in a copper bowl, and then paint the exterior of a door with the mixture. As you do, the Shadowlands surrounding you ripple and shift, mutating and changing. This continues for 15 minutes at which time she can open a door directly into a Stygian Fortress; a structure that exists in the Shadowlands.

Although each Stygian Fortress differs aesthetically, they are nearly mechanically identical. Each Stygian Fortress Has the Following Backgrounds to it and is up to the Staff how potent each one is. (Lore of the Clans pg 221) Guardians, Library, Research, Sanctity and Stores. You may expand upon a Stygian Fortress through downtime actions for higher rating at ST discretion. It is also suggested that none of these background ratings may be higher than your current Background in Haven.

A necromancer may only have one Stygian Fortress in existence at any given time. The door to the Stygian Fortress can only be opened by the necromancer who cast this ritual, though others may attempt to gain access to the fortress through a difficult series of quests into the Shadowlands but it is advised that these should be regulated to normal Haven raid mechanics. Should anyone exit the fortress, rather than exiting to the Shadowlands, they will return to the last location this ritual was cast. The door and the fortress will retain its potency for 30 days, though the ritual may be refreshed once per month through a downtime action. If the ritual lapses, you may cast it again to gain access to the same fortress with all its previous belongings. Others may attempt to find a lapsed Stygian Fortress as described above.

Stygian Fortress The massive estate juts out of the twisting ephemera of the Shadowlands, offering a safe haven to those who dare enter the land of the dead. Though the aesthetics are always slightly different, the heart of the building is the same — a sprawling villa reminiscent of Ancient Rome. Ivy and turrets might be added by the necromancer, but the building is always recognizable.