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.
Master Ritual
Time Required: One Hour
Duration: One Night
Components: Sharp iron item
Prerequisites:
Thaumaturgy: Path of Blood – Cauldron; Spirit Thaumaturgy – Fetishes
Ability: Occult – 5
This ritual calls for the participation (willing or otherwise) of another vampire. The caster must perform the half of the ritual over the prepared body of the vampire while she is not staked, and the second half of the ritual must be performed while she is staked. Additionally, the caster must include two sharp iron items during the entire casting. These iron items many be as small as a knife or as large as a long sword, but larger and smaller sizes have had limited success. The two pieces of iron do not need to be the same items, though they must still be within the size ratio recommended. During the ritual, the iron items must be bound to each other by a pure fabric – unbleached and no synthetics. The participant does not have to be Tremere, nor does it have any other requirements other than being a vampire that can be staked. This ritual will not work when performed on a heart without a body, such as can be accomplished with Heart of Darkness.
After half of the ritual has been performed, the participant must be successfully staked. At the end of the second half, the caster must expend a temporary Willpower. Then, the iron items must be freed from their bindings by untying the material. Then one of the iron items must be inserted into the participant. It is commonly inserted into the stomach, but that location is not required. The same fabric must then be secured to the second item immediately (within a minute or two), and it must remain secured to the item through the duration of the ritual. The second iron item is often prepared so that removing the material is difficult at best, but the fabric must not come off of the piece.
A bond has now been placed between the two iron items, which will allow the caster to attach a bond between a later target of second iron item and the staked participant. For the rest of the evening, any creature that is successfully hit with the iron weapon will share the fate of the ritual participant. The iron piece must penetrate the body of the target, but the location is not important. The target may be struck through the hand, in the side, through the foot, in the leg, etc. As soon as the iron pierces the flesh, the target will be under the same effect as the staked participant. She will be immediately immobilized and under all conditions that staking brings. This ritual will work even if the target has the ritual Heart of Stone active, Deflection of the Wooden Doom, or even has no heart through Heart of Darkness. The action will not set of any preventative rituals designed to protect from staking, as the target of this ritual is not actually staked but is subject to all of the effects through the sympathetic bond.
If the caster pulls out the iron item, the target will no longer be under the influence of the ritual, and the stake may still be used on a later target until sunrise. The caster may be the target of her own weapon if she is not careful.
Iron Curtain was created by Ruth Tep when she got tired of her enemies escaping into other planes that the rest of her pack couldn’t affect. Of course her mighty Koldunism could reach across any realm, but her pack needed its targets to stay put for them to do their job. It has side effects, but this ritual makes that possible. Iron Curtain locks interdimensional travel, perception, and manipulation within a certain distance from the caster. Unfortunately as a side effect, the casters spirits are just as removed as its enemy’s, but when used correctly, it is hard to deny the strength of Iron Curtain.
The caster takes a handful of the dirt in the Carpathian mountains and mixes a trait of blood with it into a thick red paste. The paste is then pressed into a disk roughly 3” in diameter, and left to dry completely in a place that the sun will back it to a brittle cake. This will take three full days. The ritual requires the ancestral soil as a link to the user, so quite accidentally so non-Tzimisce will not be able to use this ritual. Currently this isn’t known, because it has never come up, and we seriously doubt it even will. The actual ritual begins at this point where the Koldune chants and curses around the disk for the duration of a normal advanced ritual. Once complete the creator can take this disk with him and with a few words of power the caster breaks the disk to create its effect. The activation is a one action casting time, and much in the same vein of Koldunism; it will break Obfuscate and is generally very loud and unsubtle.
In a one hundred foot radius around the caster all barriers between realms are completely locked. This is not a rating of ten, but completely blocked. If a numeric value is needed consider it to be in the hundreds. No power, entity, object, or other noun can cross or affect beyond any of the realms. This means that the caster’s spirits can no longer support her, but it also means that the Necromancer in front of her cannot get aid from his wraithly allies either. The effect moves with the caster and last for an hour or scene, once broken and thus activated. The disks will last indefinitely until used, but can be destroyed by very mundane means accidentally or otherwise. The effect only triggers if the disk is broken only by the caster while calling out words of power, but if it is dissolved in a puddle, snapped by anyone else, or just kept somewhere the brittle disk gets sat on by accident, it will be useless. Powers that this ritual will stop are as included, but not limited to the following… Grasp the Beyond, Ex Nilio, Jump into the Shadowlands, Duality, any form of ‘Stepping Sideways’ whether it came from Mage spheres, Garou gifts, or Vampiric Disciplines, and many more…
Iron Maiden (Intermediate - 3)
As the Iron main closes you feel your skin crawl as the needles press the first point into you. Then they slowly begin to pierce and tear through the flesh, and that’s when you realize what true pain feels like. Every inch of your body is pierced with needles. It’s all your mind can think about. Your mind begins to focus on nothing but the pain. No sound, no sight. Just the pain that the mother has chosen to give you.
Mechanics: Spend a willpower and enter into the chamber. The chamber closes around you and you take 2 lethal which can not be soaked. After the damage has been taken your mind begins to meditate on what you must do. Your senses are dulled all except for the pain. The longer you stay in the worse this ritual becomes. After 1 night your hearing deafens, acquiring the flaw Deaf. After 2 nights your voice becomes hoarse from the screaming and you become mute. After 3 nights you start hallucinating and seeing things that aren’t really there. However this does have a purpose. Once you leave the chamber you may inflict these effects on someone for the evening. You must have line of sight, or a sympathetic link. The Bahari must stab their hand, bleeding two blood traits and throwing them onto the iron maiden and scream out the name of their victim. When you next see this victim a contested Mental Challenge (Retest Torture) risking 1-3 mental traits equal to the effects you wish to invoke, against the victim. If the user wins, all 3 effects happen to the victim. If the user ties, the victim becomes deaf and blind, if the user loses, the victim begins to hallucinate as if under the effects of Haunting, additionally the Lilin begins to suffer the effects instead and the victim is immune to further attempts for one month.
Another ritual that was developed as a means of levying punishment upon the Children of Seth who have committed crimes against others. This allows the Sadhu to afflict their target with terrible nightmares shaped by the carter's imagination.
System: The Sadhu must possess a sympathetic link, which is incorporated into a facsimile of their target, over which a ritual is performed. If successful, the next time their target goes to sleep, they will be afflicted with nightmares in which they suffer the same crimes that they have visited upon others. This should be treated mechanically as per the Nightmares Flaw. Characters attending a game after having been haunted by this ritual should begin down one Willpower point. The Sadhu may continue to cast this ritual on successive nights, with their difficulty increasing by 2 per night to a maximum of 16 Traits. Sleeping on Holy Ground or in a location that has been supernaturally warded against such things will provide protection from this ritual.
A powerful Viking chieftain and naval commander, Björn Ironsides and his brother Hastein conducted many (mostly successful) raids in France in a continuation of the tradition initiated by their father Ragnar Lodbrok. In 860, Björn led a large Viking raid into the Mediterranean. After raiding down the Spanish coast and fighting their way through Gibraltar, Björn and Hastein pillaged the south of France, where his fleet over-wintered, before landing in Italy where they captured the coastal city of Pisa. They proceeded inland to the town of Luna, which they believed to be Rome at the time, but Björn found himself unable to breach the town walls. To gain entry, he sent messengers to the bishop to say that he had died, had a deathbed conversion, and wished to be buried on consecrated ground within their church. He was brought into the chapel with a small honor guard, then amazed the dismayed Italian clerics by leaping from his coffin and hacking his way to the town gates, which he promptly opened, letting his army in.
Mechanics:
Björn was an expert raider and a commanding leader who always seemed to know just where to seek his treasure. By setting a small stone in blood and mead, recounting a successful raid, the Koldun creates a small rock of which he always knows the direction, so that even if hidden inside a coffin, there will be riches to be found and glory to be had.
When cast upon a building, while the caster is within it they are able to manipulate the space inside to expand up to their Permanent Willpower as a multiplier or reduce it down in size to no smaller then its original size. Additionally, with the expenditure of a Mental Trait per room, they can add additional rooms to the space created.
Mental traits can additionally be spent for the following:
1 Trait - very basic room appropriate furniture
2 Traits - modest room appropriate furniture
3 Traits - fancy room appropriate furniture
4 Traits - exceptional room appropriate furniture
If cast on a building that has not been consecrated with Dedicate the Chantry/Haven then these effects last days equal to the casters Permanent Willpower
There are times when a punk sorcerer needs a little pick me up to help them cast or just to take the edge off. A source of blood with the right fix isn't always close at hand. This ritual allows the sorcerer to take infused blood and convert into a refined tablet to consume later.
The punk needs a trait of blood infused with the desired intoxicant and a trait of clean blood to cast the ritual. Once the ritual is complete the traits becomes a dark red tablet about the size large pill. When consumed the person ingesting the tablet gains the effects of the intoxicant , but not the blood used. The tablets expire a month after creation, becoming useless.
The necromancer takes their understanding of the soul and spirit, they can drain wraith energy through their soul gem to create a brutal attack that strikes the core of their victims.
Mechanics:
(Requires 1 soul gem)
Mix 1 trait of Vitae along with the ectoplasm pulled directly from a wraith using your soul gem, and the ashes of a cremated human. The concoction melts down into a small green pearl. When crushed the energy is released into the wielder, enhancing the next action they take that deals fire damage. This damage ignores armor and defensive powers including fortitude. The damage of this fire cannot be increased further with other magics.
The Necromancer can make as many Soul Burn Pearls as they have levels of Thanatology ability.
Description: This ritual was created to take a Cainite across the world of the living and into the realms of the dead and even the Abyss to The Hanged Man, the cursed Brig owned by the Devareaux. The caster of the ritual takes a compass, map or other directional tool and dips them into the waters of the sea of shadows. There, he whispers his incantation so that all of the loas, orishas and lords of the dark places know that the one who carries this be welcomed.
System: The Cainite using the trinket must contemplate The Hanged Man for no less than five minutes and expend a point of vitae, dripping the blood onto the trinket. As the blood touches the trinket, the toll is accepted and the Cainite in question is shrouded and darkness, appearing a moment later aboard the ship, in clear view of its marines. At any point the Cainite under the effects of this ritual may expend another trait of vitae and cast it into the waters to be transported back to The world of the living. They will appear in any public place they have ever been to previously of their choosing. There may be no more than eight of these in existence at a time.
Judgment of the Dragon (Intermediate - 4)
When a Ba’ham crosses the line and betrays her fellows in an unforgivable way the punishment is truly severe. Similar to defiling the garden but all of the betrayers possessions are brought and destroyed, or in rare cases given to other members of the cult, typically those the betrayer hated most. Confidants, friends and family members are brought to the ritual as well and torn apart when Cain’s children descend upon the garden. The betrayer is then dropped alone far from home, the ashes of their former lives tossed to the winds and a heavy curse invoked against them. Often they are laid at their enemies door, or at least in a hostile environment with no help for miles. The participants gain the negative trait Callous and oblivious as they harden their hearts and turn their eyes from the betrayer. The betrayer, other than their injuries gains the negative traits Sickly, Feral, and Violent as well as a permanent derangement and the flaw Erie Presence. The curse lasts for a year and a day and once it ends the betrayer will no longer be recognized by the cult that cast her out, she is free and born again anew, provided she survives.
For centuries the Tremere have gathered and studied knowledge. The members of House Arcanum know this better than anyone. Their libraries are of the utmost importance. This ritual secures the collected knowledge of House and Clan.
System: The caster spends 1 blood trait, mixed with the ink of an octopus to consecrate an amulet to be placed on an outside wall of the chantry. In total, 4 amulets must be consecrated and placed on the 4 corners of the chantry. They must use this same formula to place glyphs (which will fade from view after written on the book) on each individual book in the chantry library. If any of the marked books are removed from the Chantry, the pages of the book become blank immediately with no way to retrieve the content. Once the book is returned to the Chantry Library, the contents immediately return.
This will reinforce the software firewall of any electronic object, similar to a ward. After activated the hacker must WIN all chops against this ward (ward wins all ties on chops). This also doubles the firewalls traits, and may allow it to overbid in challenges against it if applicable. Traits of items affected are subject to the storyteller's discretion. Duration is a number of weeks equal to the caster's willpower at the time of casting.
Required to be cast from within the system: Path of Technomancy - Remote Access is required