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.
Mechanics: This ritual functions off a principle similar to that of Tamimah - the Ashipu must create an amulet as the focus for the ritual. The amulet itself takes one week of work, and must possess a crafts rating of at least 3. As with Tamimah, the Sorcerer must consume the soul of another through diablerie, gaining all of the drawbacks but none of the benefits for the act. Provided the ritual is successfully cast, the amulet will function for a lunar cycle (28 days). It costs a temporary willpower to be attuned to the Warrior, and once attuned cannot be passed to another. It extracts a cost of one blood per week that it is in use to keep it active. While worn, the Baali curse is wholly suppressed in the Warrior.
Taming Caine (Advanced - 5)
This rare ritual brings an outsider into the Ba’ham’s circle. The setup is important and the space prepared ahead of time. The “victim” rarely understands what is happening and either arrives as a surprise, or bound and gagged. Cain (the victim) then is divested of his clothes through force or trickery and walks down a path followed by an officiant dressed as a serpent. Lilith greets him and offers him food and drink then shows him a demonstration of her power (often just a flogging). Variations have Cain visited by three or up to six “angels” each offering a different torture. When the last angel leaves he is bathed in ice water then given blood to drink. Cain then is left alone for a short time before a path out of the garden is shown to him, then he is hounded and attacked by serpents cats and owls (sometimes actual, other times cultists in masks) until he flees the ritual.
Mechanics: The victim gains the derangement masochism for the next cycle of the moon and also the additional mental traits Insightful x2. He is also unable to hide from or lie to any of the cultists who participated in the ritual, though they are forbidden from harming him for that same amount of time. If he should successfully flee the ritual before it is completed, but after he is greeted by Lilith he only gains the derangement and no other effects take place.
Advanced
Those who engage in espionage against the various sects are hard pressed to defeat the myriad of supernatural techniques employed by their targets. Amethyst agents have developed this rote to give them an edge in evading some of those methods, however taxing it may be.
System: This ritual allows the thaumaturge to spend up to three mental traits at the time of casting to choose answers to a specific question that will show to be true under both mundane and supernatural investigation. Each trait spent allows the Amethyst agent to designate one question and answer as the truth. These questions and answers must be written out when the ritual is cast and must be specific.
These traits cannot be refreshed for the evening.
Example: If the Amethyst agent is infiltrating the Sabbat, the ritual could make it seem as though he’s telling the truth that he is a member of the sect. However, if someone asks him if he’s been through the creation ritae, an affirmative answer would be detected as a lie.
Tapestry of Mysteries is a ritual that requires an initial dedication for making the base item that is a carpet woven by the thaumaturgist, where the wool must be washed by 7 days and 7 nights in 5 points of his vitae. Absorbing all in the end creating a connection with the all mystical effects that will be added to the carpet.
The carpet may have any appearance, but must have at least 2m x 1.5m.
Once done the Regent should sew pyramids where he desire, and for each pyramid should dump 1 point of blood from a different Tremere(at maximum 7) and mystically in the exactly place will reform with the face of the blood owner. The tapestry will have 8 faces in maximum, the Sorcerer and seven more.
The sorcerer must start by adding your face to the carpet before following with others. He will be able to change the place of faces and reshape the look of the carpet as and when desired.
After entering all the desired members the Regent will know if his apprentices are safe, because when one of them is destroyed, his face will be undone mystically at the exact moment, leaving a hole at the site that can not be repaired, only moved.
The wizard can use the undone lines spending one Willpower in a brief moment of concentration and see and hear the last 5 minutes the scene where his apprentice was killed, and know exactly where it happened.The use of other powers during the vision will not be possible.
Taste of Knowledge (Basic - 2)
By drinking the blood of a target a Lillin can learn some of the important memories the victim cherishes. First the Baharist must establish the kiss upon their target. Thereafter, for each blood trait they drain from the target, the Baharist gains one memory of importance to the target. This ritual takes 10 minutes to cast, lasts for one target only, and costs 1 willpower.
This ritual developed by the brotherhood of purity allows them to take the blood of a victim and consume it. While doing so in a ritually prepared circle with incense the Black Hand member may attempt to learn secrets from a targets blood that they themselves may not even know.
System: In order to cast this ritual you must first drink a blood trait from your target. After you perform this ritual you may engage your target in a contested mental challenge retested with occult. If you succeed you may ask one question about the character whose blood you have drank and gain an honest answer from a storyteller. This ritual will reveal any knowledge the person whose blood it is they may have, even if they are unaware that they know it.
Ritual of the Tell Tale Heart (Intermediate Ritual)
The dangers of the more subtle of Kindred powers are arguably more than the Speed of the Toreador, Strength of the Brujah, Claws of the Gangrel or Physical Resistance of the Ventrue. The creator, being more into the subtle than the direct, wishes to create a substance that will detect the use of Kindred powers when used on a creature. His theory is that by embuing an object with vitae that has an affinity toward a certain discipline, any use of that power directed at it (meaning the person carrying the object) will cause it to react. This reaction could be caused to become apparent to the victim.
This ritual requires the heart of a mammal (of any size), the vitae of a Kindred who has at least a basic understanding of the discipline to be targeted and a specially created vial to contain the above two.
When completed, the heart will have magically soaked up all of the blood and appear to be in perfect condition. It is placed in the vial to complete the ritual. The vial need be carried on one's person to provide a connection to the vial and heart. The first time the bearer is targeted with the discipline that the heart is keyed to, it turns black and begins to decay at about a rate of an hour to completely turn to ash. Multiple vials will all react at the same time so carrying more than 1 per power will be fairly useless.
While this may not actually protect the bearer in anyway, it may allow future investigations some measure of insight on certain situations. The ritual when it is active is not keyed to any particular person, just a certain power. Thus it could be given to a ghoul or loyal retainer for checking after they have gone to have a meeting with one's rival and so forth. It is found that a lead shielding of at least 1/4 inch thick will prevent these from activating, so a small lead-lined box would allow for multiple vials to be carried, just not active. Once the heart has "told" it of course needs to be discarded while the vial itself is reusable.
When created, a heart is soaked in a blood point from a kindred who has at least one level of the chosen discipline that the creator wished to be warned against. The heart is placed in a specially created vial which may be reused after the heart has been used up. The first time that the chosen discipline is used on the bearer of the heart/vial, the heart will turn from normal looking to black and it will start to decay at a fairly rapid rate. At the end of about an hour it will have dissolved completely. This allows the bearer to know somewhat how long ago they were affected. The discipline in question must be one that is directly targeting the bearer and require a contested challenge. Example: Aura Perception would not set it off, but telepathy would. Entrancement would but Magisty would not since it is a defensive power. Thaumatergy paths would need to be "keyed" individually. As stated in the previous section, all of the vials that are keyed to a certain discipline will all activate if multiple are carried.
# Tempus Edax Rerum (Advanced Koldunic Sorcery Ritual)
Possessors of this ritual believe that even forever isn't long enough.
By pouring a blood trait upon a 20lb or larger stone from their
homeland during the last light of day, they summon the power of earth
to create a gravity disturbance in a localized area. This disturbance
creates a swirling bubble of increased gravity in this area causing
time to pass more slowly within it. The ritual can be ended by the
caster at any time but it can only be cast at sunset, either requiring
a Willpower to awaken earlier than normal or the Merit "Early Riser".
It ends automatically at sunrise.
The gravity bubble extends 20 feet in every direction centering on the
rock. Anyone viewing the bubble immediately becomes aware of the
danger as an uneasy feeling that gets worse as they approach the
disturbance. Aegis must be expended to even attempt to pass through
the gravitational bubble as the extreme gravity attempts to rip apart
anything not supernaturally resilient.
Everything inside the bubble experiences time at a slower rate. One
minute outside the bubble is a variable amount of time inside it,
between two and twenty-four minutes, selected at casting time. Mundane
signals can transmit into or outside of the bubble, but experience lag
or compression depending on the direction. Inbound signals experience
extreme lag, and outbound signals are extremely compressed. This makes
watching television or making phone calls nearly impossible without
specially designed equipment to compensate for the shifted time.
Magical effects can pass through the bubble as normal but are affected
by the same temporal shift. For example, using Scry on someone from
the inside would make the person on the outside appear as if they were
standing still, whereas someone whom was using Scry on the individual
inside the bubble would see blurs of motion due to the compressed
time.
Vampires inside of the bubble must expend a blood trait every 24 hours
of percieved time, as if they were awaking for the evening. They are
also unable to regain spent Abilities or refresh Attributes more than
once. Anything that is usable only once per evening or game session
does not refresh until the character rests normally during the day.
Terraportation (Advanced - 5)
With this ritual, you are able to enter a tree of a size big enough to crawl through. This allows the Lilin to use the tree as a gate to their Garden. You may safely take one person with you through the tree. The tree seems to break apart, as if spreading apart by sap, forming a doorway big enough for the Lilin to enter, returning to normal after the Lilin has gone through. You must be wearing a ring made from twigs from the tree in the Lilin’s garden when this ritual is in effect. If you are being chased, this ritual may be used as a Fair Escape. However, the pursuers, or anyone within five feet of the mirror when this is cast, may immediately state their intention to follow you through the mirror; otherwise the opportunity to follow is lost.
If the person does not come through the tree willingly, they must win a Static Physical Challenge against a difficulty of 6 or be killed, one half of her lying in front of the entrance tree and the other half lying in front of the tree in the Garden. You must expend three Mental Traits to enact this ritual.
(Thaumaturgic Ritual - Intermediary)
Through this complex ritual, the thaumaturge may change his appearance, creating an alternative visage for himself, which will even fool recording devices (such as surveillance cameras). The ritual needs three material components: an artificial diamond (zircon), a wax figurine sculpted to resemble the desired visage, and a bottomless pyramidal structure between the two.
The process of sculpting the wax must be done by the thaumaturge itself, and is both physical and metaphysical in nature, and must include a mix of the melted wax with the user's blood. The diamond also needs to be attuned to the thaumaturge through a bath on his own boiling blood (which gives It a red tint). The pyramid must be regular, have a slot for the diamond at its top, and be made entirely of glass.
The components must be arranged in a specific way: the pyramid should be placed on a clear surface (like a table), the figurine inside of it, and the diamond on top of it. When the ritual is activated, the wax sculpture will float some centimeters in the air, and then start to move in the place, mimicking the thaumaturge moviments. Such stress eventually wears out the sculpture, which will need to be replaced.
System:
To attune the diamond the thaumaturge needs to spend a blood trait, which will be used to boil It into. This process gives the diamond a red tint. To sculpt the figurine the thaumaturge needs to mix a trait of his blood with the melted wax, and then use any methods he likes to sculpt It (including molds, carving, etc...).
With the material settled, once per night, the user may spend one trait of blood to activate the ritual, which will last for a scene, for up to one hour. Once activated there is no need for further concentration, and the thaumaturge may even fight without breaking the visage.
The ritual may be activated a number of times equal to one plus the user's level in "Crafts: Sculpture", after which the figurine will dissolve, and will need to be replaced.
While the ritual is active the user appears just like the intended visage, even being registered as such by recording devices (such as surveillance systems or cellphone cameras).
The visage may not differ too much from the user's general body type and silhouette. Skin texture, colors, and appendages (like horns, scales and feathers) may be altered (or hidden) but someone bulky may not look like someone skinny, etc. Clothes and accessories are not affected in any way.
Users with Basic Auspex may see through the illusion, automatically identifying a wax texture on the user skin, they may try to see behind the wax with a Mental Challenge against the user, success means they see entirely through It and discern the true appearance of the thaumaturge. The supernatural senses of other creatures may work the same way, at the ST's discretion. While the user wears his Thaumaturgic Visage, he may not be affected by Mask of a Thousand Faces (Obfuscation 3) from any sources.