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.
Adapted from the mythology of the guardian lions in Chinese culture.
System: Upon the death of a trusted human or animal retainer the caster must beseech the spirit of the departed retainer to watch over his/her sanctum, and paint traditional Chinese characters upon the severed head using one Trait of the caster's Blood. The caster must then bury the retainer's head in the ground, facing the head toward the most plausible direction an intruder may take to gain entry. Once buried, anyone who approaches the area with ill intent toward either the caster or the caster's possessions must make a Self Control test to continue advancing the final 10' toward the protected perimeter. If the intruder wins the Self Control test, he/she may advance as normal. If the intruder fails the Self Control test, he/she flees from the area in fear and must make an additional Self Control test to avoid Rötschreck. The caster may possess only one Guardian at a time, and the Guardian will only protect an area corresponding to the head's "peripheral vision." This ritual must be reapplied every year and a day or the severed head will disintegrate and return to the earth, to finally continue its journey within the Cycle.
Meditation, insight, and balance are three of the most important foundations of House ab Flaidd's teachings. Particularly accomplished House Members are capable of great feats of will, using their spiritual and mental ties to the Cycle to alter their bodies into other animal forms.
System: The caster must focus upon the image (or eidetic recollection) of an animal and spend two Blood Traits to enact the transformation. While in animal form, the caster assumes the physical attributes and skills of the chosen animal, but may not access any disciplines except Heightened Senses. To revert to vampire form, the caster must win a Static Mental Challenge against a Difficulty equal to his/her Self Control Rating. All attempts to transform to or from animal form are instantaneous, and cost one action while in combat.
Balance, however, is necessary in all things and the caster must eventually return to their human form and once more assume their rightful place in the Cycle. Every hour the caster spends in animal form beyond the first increases the difficulty to revert by one. If the caster remains in animal form after the sun rises, they are forever locked in that form.
It is said that some Elders of the Society have mastered the art of shifting others into animals (and even shifting hapless Tremere back into their human forms), however reports of these Elders using such magics are so rare as to almost be classified as myth themselves.
This ritual creates a magical ball made of gutta-percha sap and finger-bone dust. A ball created with this ritual is a 1-use magical item that follows all local standards of Stone of the True Form (such as requiring skin to skin contact or being only usable by the caster). When this item touches a person (requiring a Physical Challenge unless the target is willing), the ball temporarily adds strength to the target's finger bones for 1 scene or hour. When the one use is expended, the ball is completely mundane. This ritual does not prevent damage from being taken to the fingers nor does it provide a health level, it simply makes them magically elastic and rubbery when stressed beyond their normal range of motion, thus unable to be broken by any means for the length of the effect. A necromancer affected by this power may be unable to break his fingerbone for activation of the custom Leap Into The Shadowlands ritual.
Advanced
This ritual has a component: A hemp rope that has been steeped in Kleren (a strong rum that has had hot peppers steeped in it) and then left on an altar dedicated to the Guede for a week (Saturday to Saturday). After being prepared, the rope can be re-used until destroyed.
This ritual takes 30 minutes to cast. During the casting, you draw a circle using the veves for Papa Legba and the Baron LaCroix on a concrete floor using charcoal. You then place a chair draped in purple into the middle of the circle, underneath the prepared rope. Tie the rope into a hangmans knot and place it around your neck while standing on the chair. Ask Papa Legba to open the gate, ask the Baron LaCroix to watch over you, take a drink of Kleren, spit it out in a mist, tell a dirty joke, and then leap with a grin. If you succeed in pleasing the Loa, you will enter the Shadowlands.
System: The ritual takes 30 minutes to cast. As you hang yourself, cast the ritual. If successful, the caster will enter the Shadowlands and may spend a willpower to return at any time. Failure will result in a broken neck and will send the caster into torpor. Also, regardless of success, throw two simple challenges. If the caster looses both, the rope snaps and is rendered inert.
Haqims Blessing: Intermediate
We have for to long sent our own blood into situations that have caused them death. This hasnt always been needed. What if we have allies that we can lean on to do the work of Haqim? In the recent days I have found just that in several individuals. They can be trusted to do what needs to be done and can even at times be called Our friend. With this let us utilize them to their fullest.
System: Just like Touch the Earth this power in the sense that it lasts for the night. The casting is the same as well except for the exception that you can cast on someone equal generation or higher then yourself but never lower then you. As far as the rest of the effects it mimics that of Pebble of the Mountain. When casting said ritual both the caster and the receiver needs to add a point of blood on a object symbol of some form of religion. The object must remain sitting between the two of them until the ritual is finished. At the end of the ritual the blood soaks into the object establishing the link. The receiver of the magic must have this object on their person in order to receive any magic or communication. If the object is broken it shatters the link ending any and all magic cast through said link. The Caster must possess both Touch the Earth and Pebble of the Mountain in order to understand and utilize this ritual. While this ritual is active the individual receiving the benefit of this ritual is down 2 permanent blood traits.
Harkness’ Orb of Ocular Enhancement : Advanced Ritual
The Thaumaturge prepares a stone or crystal orb which may then be used to increase the effectiveness of the Scry Ritual. In the Day and the Hour of Mercury, KVKB, the Thaumaturge invokes the Angels Michael and Raphael within the Fourth Pentacle of Mercury, drawn in powdered Amethyst. The Angels are then urged to empower the orb, which is bathed in blood drawn from the Thaumaturge's own wrist with a white hilted Knife, previously prepared as specified in the Clavicula Salomonis. The Orb remains thus prepared until destroyed or un-enchanted in some way. A prepared Orb may be used in place of a pool of water, by the Thaumaturge who prepared the Orb alone, for the Scry Ritual. Furthermore, the Thaumaturge receives the following additional benefits:
1. They may whisper to the Orb, and be heard by a chosen target within the Scry Ritual.
2. They may use the Auspex powers of Heightened Senses, Aura Perception, and Telepathy through the Scry as if they were physically present.
In a handmade jar (glass, clay, something natural and not metallic), while performing this ritual, you etch the required runes for the respective ward cast upon it into the jar, painting the sigils carved in your own vitae
Upon the completion, the car is to be filled with the vitae of a willing subject after being stewed with a concoction of Thyme, Lemongrass, and Marigolds, to be immediately sealed shut with a cork stopper and made air tight with a seal of beeswax and rendered animal tallow.
The sealed wards only last as long as the tallow has not gone rancid, if let spoil, the blood purifies into a useless black ichor that is foul to the olfactories of those with even the most hardened stomach.
The quick ward may be applied to rigid objects (One round to apply) by smearing the tincture upon it or creating a temporary warding circle, both operate as expected; the application cannot be stacked with permanent wards of the same type.
The wards last at maximum an hour or scene before degrading into a foul black ichor with no value but making those reel in disgust.
The caster can pull one piece of information from a computer per challenge won even if they haven't broken that systems firewall. Once cast, the caster may continue to pull as much information as they wish until they decide to stop or they lose a single challenge. If the caster looses a challenge, the system they are pulling the information from has the chance to notice the caster was there. Challenges are mental challenges base upon storyteller discretion.
Through using the emotional energy and the Feng Shui of an area the caster of this ritual can reach out to others. Similar to the Tremere's Rite of Introduction, this allows a Geomancer to contact other Geomancers. However, there is no communication between the caster and the receivers. Instead if the caster is successful anyone who has the Geomancy paradigm (Ravnos coord controlled Thaumaturgy) feels a ripple of energy come from the place the caster casts this ritual at. The receivers will know what direction to go but not know where they are going until they arrive. The ripple feeling will remain as long as the caster does not leave the scene or an hour has passed, whichever happens first. Also, the receiver can choose not to go, there is no forced compulsion in the feeling to follow the ripple. Examples of emotional energy places are monuments, the center of a city, a building that gets a very high amount of foot traffic or whatever the storyteller feels is acceptable.
By use of astronomical symbols and the casters blood, they can mark a person's spirit, allowing the caster to see where his subject is at anytime, even after they have died.The Ashipu must create a idol of the person with their known name carved into it, the idol must be a foot tall, made from living wood, and must be their true face, false faces created by any means will not work. The Idol takes a month to create and must be minimum Crafts x3, Higher crafts will prevent the heavens from mistaking faces. The caster must burn the idol, using the ashes and his or her own blood for a period of no less than one full lunar cycle, then uses the blood ash to paint the name of the target on a stone tablet carved with astronomical symbols. If the ritual is successful, he can afterwards learn the target's whereabouts by meditating while holding the stone in a trance like state, till the heavens whisper the desired information into his ear. This tablet will only work if the user is under the open night sky. The stone loses its power during summer solstice and winter solstice as well the spring and autumnal equinox. (Ritual failure requires a new idol and the Ashipu must restart from scratch.)
-Requires Background: Oubliette
With this ritual the mystic creates a link between themselves and their Oubliette. The mystic summons forth an Arm of the Abyss and compresses it down into a small trinket of the Mystic's choosing (possibly requiring a Shadowcrafting roll), after which they may affix this trinket to an object that can fit within the mystic's oubliette. Once completed, the mystic may store and summon objects or items they have marked with this ritual. Storing an object is as simple as dropping it into your shadow. Summoning an object takes an action or the mystic may spend a dot of the Fast Draw ability to have it appear instantly.
Flavor text: After investigating the various applications of Hunter Sight’s it was discovered that the insight obtained was enough to identify the chronological path for such an individual. After identifying the path, it was discovered that by mixing a small amount of vitae into a chalice filled with mineral water and focusing on the target, it is possible to glimpse a near point in time where that path will lead.
System : Static Mental Challenge vs 12 traits.
Successful casting of this ritual allows the magus to glimpse into the future of a person targeted by the Combo Power Hunter’s Sight.
After the caster has defeated a target with Hunter’s Sight, the magus may make an additional test vs double the target’s permanent Willpower plus permanent rating of Subterfuge. If successful, the magus is granted knowledge of where the target will be in the future. In game mechanics, the magus can arrive at any selected scene that the target is participating in. Normal measures of entry to selected scenes apply. (I.E. If the target is in the Prince’s Haven, the magus still has to find a way into that physical location.)
If the target of the Glimpse is successful, the magus is plagued by repeating flashes of the target’s location. The magus is considered 1 mental trait down for the evening and loses all benefits from the merit Concentration.