Custom Blood Magic: Ritual
Some chronicles allow for their players to develop customized powers for their characters. The following is a compilation of player created custom content in OWBN. At this time, custom content that is created and/or used by vampire PC's is required to be listed.
Epistula Phasma ("Ghost Letter")
This is a simple ritual, made for sending a written message to an acquaintance.
System: Asingle sheet of parchment is magically pre‐prepared using a trait of the caster's blood. It will not be possible by any means to determine who sent the letter, apart from recognizing the handwriting, etc. When activated, the note will travel through the ether to its intended recipient where it will hover in front of them in an incorporeal form which only they (or someone with active Thaumaturgical Sight) can see. The target will know the letter is intended for them, and may choose to pluck it out of thin air. The note will wait for an opportune moment to manifest, rather than when the recipient is occupied, distracted, or traveling. Should they choose to not accept the note within a reasonable amount of time (10 minutes) or if they move away from it the effect will end and the message will be forever lost between planes.
The caster can only send notes to people they are acquainted with, and have actually met in person. Encrypt missive can be used in conjunction with this casting, but any other rituals are subject to ST discretion as to if they will work combined with epistula phasma. This is designed as little more than a glorified cantrip, intended for passing notes.
Advanced Ritual
This ritual was designed by Santino to create a mask that will increase the wearer's Courage Rating as well as intimidate others while it is being worn.
Mechanics:
In order to create this mask the necromancer must subdue between 1 and 3 wraith and, with the assistance of one of his own wraiths, forge the unfortunate souls into a mask which he will wear in the skinlands.
System: Subdue (via any means appropriate to the character) a wraith and have another wraith with Soulforging or Moliate craft the victims into a wearable mask for the necromancer, along with a trait of the caster's blood and a hair from a lion (or some other "courage" related animal). The caster then recites the short blessing of battle over the mask, completing the enchantment (and making the ritual challenge at this point - failures means he must start over). The mask can be worn in the shadowlands at this point, granting the caster a a permanent bonus to his courage and additional "Intimidating" social traits usable only against creatures in the shadowlands, or it can be removed from the shadowlands (by some means not related to this ritual) where the caster can then use it as he pleases and gain the benefits against anyone in the shadowlands or the skinlands. If removed from the shadowlands the mask deteriorates over time and fades completely from existence after a year and a day have passed from the time it was brought into the skinlands. The mask grants a bonus courage trait and a bonus social trait as described above for each wraith used in it's creation, up to three. So a mask created with three souls would grant +3 courage and +3 Intimidating social traits to the wearer. The caster may only have one such mask in existence at a time, and no drones may be used in the creation of a mask - they must be wraiths with at least 3 permanent willpower
Storytellers are strongly recommended to run a scene where the necromancer or his minions must actively attempt to subdue the wraiths to be used for the mask in a manner fitting with your game's house rules. This shouldn't be an easy task.
Ex Libris (formerly “Fire Trap”)
This ritual is simply a ward cast and scribed on the inside cover of a bound book where, after casting the book cannot be opened without intoning the power phrase (set during the casting). If the correct phrase is not uttered before opening the book, it combusts and burns to ashes (causing no damage to the person holding the book).
System: As a Basic Ritual this takes a casting time of 15 min., and one blood trait (used as the ink of the ward).
Extreme Care
This ritual allows for the creation of enchanted elixirs. These elixirs have the ability to miraculous heal mortal creatures of disease and wounds.
System: This ritual, usable only on mortal living creatures (humans, ghouls, Garou, etc.), requires that one trait of Vampiric Blood be injected, or ingested, into a subject's body. This has the usual effects ‐ the subject moves a step closer to becoming blood bound to the vampire whose blood is used, and temporarily becomes a Ghoul. In addition, the mortal automatically heals one Wound Level of damage and the Thaumaturge, if in the presence of the use of the elixir, may spend one Medical Ability to cure the patient of one viral or bacterial illness (Not cancers or hereditary diseases. AIDS, Ebola, and other such particularly nasty things should be immune to healing, but the life span of the infected person could be extended).
Mortals drinking this elixir may be brought back from the threshold of death, without being made into a vampire. The blood leaves no trace in the patient's system, and all but the partial Blood Bond fades completely within 3 days. Once the Thaumaturge’s blood is transformed into the elixir it loses most of its connections to the Thaumaturge. Thus, it may not be used for Discipline or rituals against the Thaumaturge. Rituals such as Blood Walk or Disciplines such as taste of Vitae merely reveal that it is altered Kindred vitae and little else.
The elixir will only retain its potency for 72 hours after casting.
The Heavens see all and judge all. With this ritual, the Masters of Heaven and Earth may tap into a fraction of that power. With knowledge of the ritual Eyes of the Past, this ritual, and the knowledge of Ascension, the Ashipu may take advantage of the Ascended state to gather more information than Eyes of the Past alone. The Ashipu does whatever they do normally to enter an Ascended state for the Ladder of Heaven, where their mind enters a dreamlike state and may view a past time of the area they are in at their leisure.
The Ashipu must already know Eyes of the Past and have this ritual on their sheet to learn this ritual. It works as per Eyes of the Past with the following differences:
The Ashipu must spend a Willpower along with the two Mental Traits required.
The Ashipu views a moment in time in which they may interact with the environment. No living beings (undead, spiritual, or otherwise) that were there at that time are visible, but the Ashipu may inspect and use powers of the blood on objects in the area.
The Heavens see all and are not limited to enclosed spaces. If this ritual is cast outside or in an incomplete room, the effects of the ritual work and the Ashipu may view the past of an area within a ten foot radius that his body is in reality.
Instead of a five minute time frame, the ritual may last as long as an entire scene unless their body is disturbed, in which case they snap back into consciousness.
An example use of this power would be the Ashipu going to the location of a burned down home and reading books or notes that existed at the time they selected before fire consumed them.
For reference, this is the write up for Eyes of the Past, Laws of Elysium page 83:
Eyes of the Past (Intermediate)
By expending two Mental Traits and casting this ritual, you are able to view events at the location of the casting, up to five years prior. A specific time and date must be chosen. Up to a five-minute time span can be watched, and during this full sensory enchantment, you will be unaware of your physical surroundings. This ritual may only affect one room.
This only functions on those with the Tal'Mahe'Ra Crescent Moon Tattoo. Each individual to be linked (to a maximum of the Caster's Occult rating) donates two traits of blood, which are collected in a wooden bowl. The caster need not be part of the link. Over the next hour, they bring the blood to a boil over an open flame, around which the participants sit and meditate on their relationships with each other. When the last of the blood has boiled away, the ritual is complete. This forms a subtle psychic bond between the participants - it is undetectable by most methods. Should a participant die, all those linked are immediately struck by a vision of their death and gain a flash of their emotional state. There is no limit to the number of circles to which one individual may be bound.
Based on Eyes of the Past, this ritual was developed by a Malkavian Archon with the aid of the Tremere Justicar’s office.
The castrr recites an incantation which allows them to scrutinize the patterns that occurred at a specific time in the past, up to five years ago. Wisdom can be found within the cracks of the past reality, allowing the caster to find insight in the seemingly random patterns, uncovering the motives and secrets of those who were present at that time in the past. This ritual allows the castor to use Eyes of Chaos on any actions/scenes they can view while using Eyes of the Past.
Name: Face of the Father
Level: Intermediate
Casting/Creation Time: 1 week
Casting Difficulty: 6 Traits
Description: The Church of Seth believe that Set is the figurative and possibly literal father of humanity. This Ritual calls upon that primordial source to enhance and manipulate the caster's appearance for a short time by combining the heritage of the Dark Father from lineages other than the caster's own. The sorcerer mixes the blood of people from at least three ethnic groups not represented in his own mortal heritage with milk, honey, ground ochre, ground stibnite (kohl), and myrrh, then allows them to age before applying this salve. This mixing of positive and attractive qualities from Seth's varied offspring allows the target to benefit from some minor cosmetic changes to their appearance.
Mechanics: This ointment, which takes five uninterrupted turns to apply, allows the caster to superficially change the facial appearance of the person it is applied to. These changes will last for three days, which can be increased to eleven days if a Willpower is spent during the casting. These superficial changes are otherwise real and semi-permanent - they cannot be detected with Auspex, negated by Stone of the True Form, or removed by the recipient or the caster until the duration has ended. This face can be concealed with Mask of a Thousand Faces, but is otherwise the recipient's real face until the duration ends. This allows for significant structural changes to the face (jaw shape, chin, nose, eye color, hairline, ears, etc.) but only relatively minor adjustments to a character's skin pigmentation. A character of European ancestry might be able to seem like they have roots closer to or further from the Mediterranean, but they could not change their pigment to match the peoples of Asia or north Africa. When the caster applies this ointment to a target, including themselves, they may change up to three specific Appearance-related Traits to any other Appearance-related Traits for the duration of the ritual, although these changes must remain in the same category (regular Social Traits can only be changed to regular, Negative Social Traits can only be changed to Negative).
- Requires Rickard Argentis' Homunculus
- This Ritual may not be used on a PC
The mystic meditates within a ritual circle for an hour while bloodletting. As the mystic allows their blood to be collected in a prepared vessel they place a pure white feather that becomes stained in the ichor of the abyss hardened into glass.
Once completed, at any one point for the remainder of the night should the mystic crush this obsidian feather over the remains of the deceased, they may bind their spiritual echo to the abyss. The deceased arises as an abyssal spirit under command of the mystic for which you must represent on sheet as a retainer. This abyssal spirit is merely an echo of the dead and the life they lived but does retain the knowledges and skills they had in life.