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.
Advanced Ritual
This ritual mystically protects an area from magical attempts to spy on those within it. Casting this ritual takes one full night and lasts for a single year. The ritual must completely fade away before it can be recast on a location.
The caster spends one Willpower for every ten by ten by ten foot cube of space to be protected. Any attempts to locate or spy on those within this area that are blood magic based automatically fail (such as Scry, Knowing Stone, etc). This ritual has no effect on powers that are not blood magic (Clairvoyance, Tracker's Mark, etc).
Advanced Ritual
The Way of Spirit is a dangerous weapon in the hands of a skilled Koldun. Through the use of this ritual, however, the caster can shield himself from observation. This ritual requires a steel casting of a St. Georges medal the size of a silver dollar and attached to a brand. The caster slowly heats the steel cast until it glows red and then stamps it to their chest over their heart, leaving a burned imprint of the saint. Until the wound is healed, the caster is shielded from remote viewing.
System: You must win a Courage test against four traits to cast this ritual, and it causes an unsoakable level of Aggravated Damage. The ritual will remain in effect until the damage is healed. If an area that the caster is in comes under observation by Way of Spirit, the observer must best the ritual caster in a static mental challenge against the ritual casters current mental traits. If the observer loses, the ritual caster does not appear in his vision and cannot be directly affected remotely. If the observer wins then they may see and affect the ritual caster as usual for the next scene or hour, after which the observer must best them again
One of the most difficult things about working as a member of a Secret Society is keeping it a secret. This is particularly challenging when taking on dangerous field work. Sometimes even the fates conspire, or are forced to reveal the identity of one taking on this important work. This ritual was created to keep those secrets in an age where there seems to be none left.
The ritualist must first remove their face, peeling it off in one sheet of flesh. The eyes and mouth are then sewn shut, and the “mask” placed on a bronze bust of the caster. The removal of an additional identifying mark is also necessary to complete the ritual. This often takes the form of burning or melting off one’s fingerprints, but could also be the removal of a tattoo, or any other traditional identifier. The caster takes three levels of unsoakable aggravated damage during this process.
While this ritual is active, the caster cannot be viewed remotely by those with an equal or weaker generation than the caster. Further, they are completely obscured from divination of any kind, and they cannot be identified by powers and abilities that peer through time.
This ritual lasts a number of nights equal to the amount of willpower spent during the casting, up to three. In addition to the normal casting challenge, this ritual requires a courage test to cause significant self-harm, as well as a skill test to remove the face in one piece.
This ritual requires a Binding Agreement with the Tremere Coordinator’s office, which may be satisfied by an already existing one.
This ritual allows the practitioner to temporarily suppress poisonous or other abnormal properties of the blood inside of a creature or object. The process takes fifteen minutes, and lasts for one scene or hour. Blood that has been distilled is safe for consumption and provides all of the normal benefits to the drinker. However any extraordinary supernatural properties (dangerous or beneficial) are removed for the duration of the ritual, thus drinking a werewolf’s blood would be no different than drinking a human’s if it had been enchanted by this ritual. If cast on a vampire, it temporarily removes any abnormalities in the blood, but does not impede the use of the blood in their system, it would however prevent the spread of disease, or counter act another ritual that had caused the vampire’s blood to take on poisonous properties temporarily.
Intermediate Sielanic Thaumaturgy Ritual (Requires Blood Walk and Taste of Vitae as a prerequisite)
Building upon the basic understanding of vitae identification, the caster can use blood from a third party to affect the blood of the subject for purposes of identifying their vitae, such as Blood Walk, Taste of Vitae, Blood Sight, Scent of Caine, the Discerning Palate merit, and the like.
System: The caster mixes a drop of the subject’s vitae with a trait of the vitae of another vampire, pouring the mixture through a clean, pure white, spidersilk cloth and into a magnetized iron vial, both well known for their magical resistance qualities. The ritual is complete when the blood all drips through the cloth, leaving it pure white again. For two weeks, the subject’s vitae shows as the clan and childe of the one whose vitae was used, with identical blood ties. When the effect ends, the caster will experience a moment of nausea, letting them realize that the effect has ceased. The completed vial of vitae will only work for the subject that provided the vitae during the casting. Note that the power gives no protection against the blood bond.
Example: Redding is an 11th generation rogue Tremere posing as a Malkavian in a futile attempt to hide from the Pyramid. He is one step Bound to the Council. He casts this ritual with a trait of Malkavian blood he stole using Engaging the Vessel of Transference from Matthias, the 8th generation Malkavian, who is bound to his sire, Aethylward. For two weeks, the results of effects such as Blood Walk will show him as a 9th generation Malkavian with Matthias as his sire with a 3 point blood bond to Aethylward but no council bond.
Level: Intermediate
Materials Required: Sheet of Bronze
Discipline Prerequisites: Hermetic Thaumaturgy
Fluff:
In order to correctly perform this ritual, first the array must be constructed. A sheet of bronze must be acquired and modified. A series of depressions, arranged in a 5x5 grid pattern, must be impressed into the bronze. Any inverted or greater inverted bloodstone, placed within the array will display the direction and distance of where the sympathetic object was when the link was severed (by destruction of the target object/person or its removal from the same plane the bloodstone itself is on.)
If someone wishes to determine the direction/distance to the target of a functioning inverted bloodstone, it must be removed from the array, as the purpose of the array is to record and display the direction/distance at the time of the severing of the link.
System: While enchanting the array, the thaumaturge must invest their strength of will into the array (in the form of temporary WP). The investiture of will determines the length of the enchantment (see below). The array can be re-enchanted before the original enchantment fades (this resets the timer according to the new expenditure). Should the enchantment fade, the original constructed array may be used again; it simply needs to be re-enchanted.
WP Expended
Length of Enchantment
1
1 month
2
1 season (3 months)
3
1 year
Description: This ritual was developed by an Irish Brujah passionate about drinks and bohemian life, such love made him able to send his feelings and sensations to any type of drink.
System: As a Punk sorcerer, there is no standard procedure for performing the ritual, however, regardless of how you perform it, you must be drunk or under the influence of drugs and also spend 1 blood point to perform the ritual. After performing the ritual, the caster can put a feeling or sensation into a drink that is stored in a small gallon (2 liters) that lasts until the liquid is completely ingested/destroyed or for a period of 6 months, after which time the ritual loses its effect.
You need a human skull, and at least bone craft for this ritual.
You write the agreement on the skull using bone craft (which may require a bodycrafts chop)
All parties spend a blood and a will. All parties must be willing.
Anyone breaking the agreement loses access to a will power a night, then a mental trait a night once all their will power is gone. When the target hits zero mentals they fall to torpor. The skull will visibly darken while this happens.
This fate can be avoided by either destroying the skull, or finding a way to 'fix' the agreement (which will not always be possible), at which point all lost traits return the following night.
This ritual was developed as a method of levying punishment of a non-lethal nature on the Children of Seth. By marking the target of this ritual with a mystical brand, the Sadhu ensures that the world will know them for what they are.
System: The Sadhu creates a mystical ink using a mixture of blood and iron dust. Ten minutes must be spent writing an appropriate word on their target - murderer, abuser, jackass, etc. With a static Mental Challenge, the target of this power is considered -1 Social Trait for a period of three days, and more importantly, people will generally treat them as what they have been branded with. The mystical word is not visible to mortals, but all supernaturals will clearly see it.
Advanced Ritual
This difficult but powerful ritual forges a connection between a large hewn stone and the Weeping Stone of the Lost Tribe.
Over the course of 13 nights the caster must bathe the stone in the blood of 13 cainites, each descended from a dfferent antedeluvian, and each must contribute 13 such traits of vitae and at least one of them must have tasted Zillah's Tears. At the culmination of this ritual the caster must murder someone who loves them and annointed the stone with their life's blood. This sacrifice cannot be a willing participant and their love for the caster must be independent of supernatural influences (Presence, blood bond, etc).
Once completed the stone will "weep" 13 traits of vitae slowly over the course of each month. This vitae cannot be identified through magical means, and serves no purpose other than to sustain a cainite. The vitae will pool around the stone and remains fresh until consumed. Drinking this vitae causes the drinker to gain 1 point of Viniculum to Zillah, any other effects the vitae has are at the discretion of the storyteller but it is important to note that while the intention of this ritual is to create something similar to the Weeping Stone, this is a PC-level ritual and so is considerably less potent than the Lost Tribe's sacred fountain.
Those with supernatural senses may percieve distant sobbing and pleading from the stone, often in the voice of the sacrificed victim.