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.
Intermediate Aljusuri Ritual, Wanga Originally
Using the mastery of the arts of Spirit Thaumaturgy and Spirit Manipulation, the Black Hand member can create a fearsome blade for Caine’s Chosen. The caster calls forth spirits of death and ghosts of those slain by the chosen. A special altar and ornate chalice must be used in performing this ritual. This black altar contains various noddist symbols, blood, and other sacred and ancient herbs used in ritual practice to entice spirits to come forth. Once called forth the caster forces the Ghost and Spirit summoned into the blade before him. Once completed the Blade is then soaked in the blood of the caster and that of the recipient. The blade itself is no larger than a dagger, though it may be any kind of dagger. After the ritual is performed and the blood of the two chosen spilled over the blade, both the caster and recipient must spend 1 permanent Mental Trait to attune the weapon. There after the Blade of the Chosen will respond to its new owner only and the caster will always know the state of the blade itself regardless of distance. Once created the Blade of the Chosen has the following statistics:
Blade of the Chosen
Bonus: 2
Negative Traits: Short
Concealability: Jacket
Damage: 2 Lethal
Special: Spirit Away, Outrage, Chosen
Spirit Away: The owner may reflexively spend 1 Willpower and instantly move to the blade regardless of distance.
Outrage: The Owner may strike Incorporeal beings (aka Mist Form, Tenebrous Form, Blood Form, etc) as if they were solid and in normal material form.
Chosen: This blade may only ever be used by the owner for its above abilities. Additionally, the creator of the blade may spend 1 Willpower and return the blade to his hand from anywhere in the world.
This ritual was based on a passage in the life of São de Bento, where the evil self tried on him, seeking his death. On that occasion, Florencio sent him a poisoned bread, but Bento gave bread to a crow that ate out of his hands every day and ordered the bird to take it away. Florencio, feeling victorious over Bento's death, went out onto the terrace of his house, which collapsed and led to his death.
In this ritual, the magician recreates the story of São Bento by blowing the macula away, depriving the opponent of his evil and victory. A consecrated wafer, a raven's feather and the magus' vitae.
To operate this ritual, the magus chants the exorcism of São Bento (or a banishment otherwise), in addition to drawing the medal of São Bento (or another object with symbolic force that allows this), with the raven feather soaked in his vitae in the wafer (other components can be used with symbolic force), then, once the target has been identified, the Magus must bite into the wafer and blow into the target.
System - The thaumaturge needs a medal of St. Benedict from the Vatican which must have been properly prepared with the exorcism of St. Benedict (A full day of preparation.) The feather must be submerged in 1 blood point, as well as the wafer. When performing the ritual, the thaumaturge must spend 1 willpower, eat the wafer, point the St. Benedict medal at their target, and blow the feather towards the target. Then, the caster makes a Mental Challenge against their target (retest Occult). If successful, the target gains the Negative Traits Distracted x 3, which may be bid against them on any challenge. The number of turns the Negative Traits persist is equal to the caster's occult level, divided by two, rounding down.
Those who serve the Faceless One must honor and empower him. He teaches his followers the secrets and methods to constructing a mystical altar to his glory. Only the must devout to the Path of the Abyss’ teachings are capable of creating the most impressive of altars. These altars contain human sacrifice, bones, blood, black candles and other trinkets to the Faceless One. Unsurprisingly, the most common altars are adorned with the flesh torn faces of mortal victims killed in darkness. These altars are always kept in complete darkness. Sunlight or any light at all causes them to rapidly crumble into dust.
System: This ritual is cast to create a shrine altar to the Faceless One. Once created the character may purchase the Background: Altar presented below. If the Altar of the Mystic is destroyed, they must spend 1 additional blood for all uses of Obtenebration and/or Abyss Mysticism until they can create another.
Altar
This background represents the level of construction, size, and detail of an Abyss Mystic Altar created in dedication to one of the Lord of Shadow. The level of this background that may be purchased has a maximum rating equal to the characters morality rating in the Path of the Abyss. Characters not on the Path of the Abyss may not take this background. This levels of this background represent the size and power of their altar. The character may store blood and willpower into their altar and call upon at any time regardless of the distance from their altar. A character may only ever have one altar at a time.
•A small altar the size of a coffee table. May store 1 blood or 1 Willpower
••An altar roughly the size of a small compact car. May store 2 blood or 2 Willpower
•••An altar the size of a sedan. May store 3 blood or 3 Willpower
••••An altar that takes up a full room. May store 4 blood or 4 Willpower.
•••••An altar that takes up several rooms and is massive in size. May store 5 blood or 5
Willpower.
Blessings of the Hawks Sight (Basic)
Calling upon the blessings of the Hawk and other predatory avians, the Ashipu has learned how to call upon their great perception to grant him their skills. The Ashipu must help Avian creatures whenever possible or face the wrath of those he calls upon.
Mechanics:
The Ashipu must garner Hawk blood, mix a trait of his blood in with it, and smear it across his eyes using a feather from the bird. Upon completion, the Ashipu gains a +2 trait bonus in Perception based line of sight challenges. These traits may not be bid over generational maximums (for example, an 8th generation vampire with 14 Mentals would not be able to bid 16 traits using this ritual). This ritual is usable on others, but the challenge to activate the ritual is increased by 3 traits. This ritual does not stack with itself.
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.