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.
Require a tree that is grown around and over a kindred. Magic may be used to grow the tree around the kindred.
A blasphemous ritual is performed from midnight to just before dawn. At dawn the sun destroys the vampire as it normally would. The next morning, and every morning after this will cause a ghostly reenactment of the kindred burning to death.
From this point forward the dead tree is a haunt of a level equal to the dots in generation of the sacrificed Kindred. Each casting of this ritual causes the kindred to sacrifice a number of social traits equal to the level of the haunt created. These social traits may be rebought. You may not have more Haunts active than half your path rating rounded down
Require a tree that is grown around and over a kindred. Magic may be used to grow the tree around the kindred.
A blasphemous ritual is performed from midnight to just before dawn. At dawn the sun destroys the vampire as it normally would. The next morning, and every morning after this will cause a ghostly reenactment of the kindred burning to death.
From this point forward the dead tree is a haunt of a level equal to the dots in generation of the sacrificed Kindred. Each casting of this ritual causes the kindred to sacrifice a number of social traits equal to the level of the haunt created. These social traits may be rebought. You may not have more Haunts active than half your path rating rounded down
The Curses of the Rom are both devastating and virulent. The removal of such curses is often impossible to downright maddening for the afflicted. This has lead the Jati of the Ravnos to seek extreme measures for how to clear these curses from themselves and their allies. Partnering with the Sadhu of the Sabbat, one connived a way to trick the Romany of the world, to take on the curse of their own. By combining the arts of misdirection, Sadhanna, trickery, and some good old fashion drugs, the Sadhu will spend night after night convincing the sacrifice that they are here to save their one true love. Once broken, the sacrafice will offer up their own life willingly to the one afflicted by the curse, and in doing so, take the curse into themselves and onto their next life.
Mechanics:
The ritual will require the following items and space. An area equal to 10ftx10ft must be secured. The location needs to be clear of sunlight and facilitated at least one story underground for the duration of the ritual. A poultice will need to be created from the blood of the caster, the afflicted, and mixed with hallucinogenic drugs, chief among them is Soma. A single poultice will need to be created each night until the cast is complete. Finally the sacrificial target must be a True Blooded Rom.
Each night the caster will engage with the sacrifice by making them drink the poultice and weaving the magic.
After 3 nights the caster engages in a contested mental challenge with the afflicted, retest with occult. If the ritual succeeds, the curse is then taken from the afflicted and transferred to the sacrifice. The curse lingers and follows the sacrifice into their next life, particularly powerful curses may linger along the family line of the sacrifice at ST discretion.
If the ritual fails, the sacrifice dies without taking on the curse and the caster must throw two simple tests. If they fail both simple tests, the curse spreads to the caster. The caster suffers full effects and duration of the original curse.
Components: A container to hold the offered blood (a small clay bowl or a silver cup) and a single strand of your hair.
Casting Time: One turn
Basic Description: This ritual is a clever bit of Tremere sorcery designed to ensnare a spirit through a seemingly harmless exchange. The wizard intentionally offers their own blood to the spirit as a "payment" or a "gift." By performing the ritual beforehand, the wizard ensures that this blood carries a specific magical resonance—a subtle curse. Once the spirit accepts and consumes the blood, it unknowingly binds itself to the wizard's will, giving the wizard an automatic success in any social or mental challenge against it.
Mechanics:
The Tremere must first perform the ritual over the blood to be offered. Once enchanted, Tremere can pay the spirit any number of blood up to three. Each blood consumed by the spirit grants the caster an automatic success on a challenge against the spirit. These automatic successes are consumed when used.
Example:
Bob the Tremere casts this ritual and pays a spirit 3 blood for a job the spirit did for Bob. Then Bob tries to bind the spirit into a fetish. Good for you Bob! Turn on your friends.
Anyway, Bob gets an automatic success on the binding challenge, and the spirit uses three retests. The first two Bob cancels with his automatic wins. The third retest Bob is out of automatic wins and has to throw. Sadly, Bob loses and has to spend an Occult for a second retest, which he also loses. So now the spirit is mad at Bob, and he has no more advantages. Silly Bob.
The caster must place the book to be copied on a flat surface. A tray must be placed on top of the book and filled with a mixture of one trait of vitae and 200ml of black ink per hundred pages to be copied. A blank book of the same size or larger (length, width, and page count) must then be placed into the ink.
The caster then chants the incantation for ten minutes, drawing a copy of the knowledge from the first book up into the second and awakening the blood in the ink, causing it to bind the ink on the pages into a perfect replica of the first book.
The entire contents of the first book are copied over exactly. Nothing can be omitted, added, or changed. Any text with a magical effect active upon it will fail to be copied.
A hero and reputedly a god himself, Hermoor was commanded by the Odin to carry a message to Hel that Baldur was to be released. Enduring all else, Hermoor delivered his message, no matter how many he had to slay. He is a patron of both heroes and messengers.
System: The Koldun takes a rock -approximately the size of a softball-and carves runes asking Hermoor to carry his message and message of one other, in a perfect line around the rock. The Koldun then, at a difficulty of 6 traits, twists each half of the rock and it comes apart completely smooth. Each end that is held may be listened to and spoken into and each carrier may speak to another no matter the language or distance. Each language is understood by the bearer of each half, though those listening will hear nothing. The ritual lasts one night and the two halves may be rejoined for use in casting again, or they crumble to broken frost at dawn, as Hel bars Hermoor his message.
Advanced Ritual
Time Required: Thirty minutes.
Duration: One Night
Components: Possession of item from ‘mirror’.
Prerequisites:
Thaumaturgy: Path of Blood – Potency of Blood
Disciplines: Obfuscate: Mask of 1000 Faces; Presence: Entrancement
Ability: Occult – 3; Subterfuge – 2
Drawing on the hermetic teachings of sympathetic magic and constructive reality, this ritual creates a mirrored image to envelop the caster and cause her to appear as someone else entirely. Unlike the powers of Mask of 1000 Faces, this ritual allows the caster to ‘mask’ completely as the mirrored person – regardless of size, shape, sex, or distance from the caster.
The caster must collect an item from a person who will then act as a ‘mirror’ for their ritual. The caster must discover and take into possession an intimate object of the ‘mirror’ or a piece of their body, such as a large lock of hair or a removed finger. After the ritual is cast with the item, the caster uses this ‘mirror’ as their default mask when using the Mask of 1000 discipline. They must continue to spend a mental trait to assume a different mask, and they will no longer have the option of choosing the usual unidentifiable visage that comes free with the power.
When the mask is activated, the caster will appear exactly as the ‘mirror’ appears at that same point in time. They will have the same clothing, same five o’clock shadow, same ketchup stain on their chin, etc. Once the image is captured, the caster may then carry on as she would and the image matches her own actions and words. At this point, the image is no longer dependent on the ‘mirror,’ so that if the ‘mirror’ suddenly takes his clothes off, the caster will not be unexpectedly standing in Elysium in the buff. If the mask is dropped for any reason, the image is recaptured when the power is reactivated and a new image is gained based on that new time.
For example, Ivan the Thaumaturgical takes a lock of Susie’s hair while she is sleeping. Susie is a twelve-year-old girl from Sheboygan. Ivan casts the ritual three nights later in his chambers while holding the lock of hair. Later that evening, he goes to the area pinball arcade where foul dealings are suspected in the back alley. When he activates his Mask of 1000 Faces, his default mask is Susie. He now looks like a 5’3” 12 year old girl wearing jeans and a Brittany Spears t-shirt. He camouflages well in the crowd of teenagers and spies on the group that is congregating in the alley. Half an hour later, Ivan has to drop his Mask to report to his allies. After reporting, he masks again as Susie to return to his observations. Unfortunately, it is a little late by now, and Susie is in pink pajamas and has toothpaste on her chin. Ivan captures the image and finds himself suddenly very conspicuous and has to retreat.
A Tremere may have a stock of items useful in creating numerous ‘mirrors’ though she may only activate one ‘mirror’ at a time and must recast the thirty-minute ritual again to change to another ‘mirror.’
This ritual has never been known to work with non-sentient creatures or items, though it has been tested successfully on other vampires and garou.
In Gematria, all things are seen to have a numerical value. It is by this basis that this ritual was
created by members of Subhouse Hashem and Subhouse Wards and Measures in order to reduce the
cost of expensive and rare componants while also making the use of Thaumaturgical Rituals much less
obvious by replacing material components used in Thaumaturgical Rituals with their corresponding
gematria numerical values. These Hebrew numbers should be applied directly to the object or person
the ritual is intended to be cast upon using kosher sofer ink mixed with the casters blood at a ratio of
one drop of blood per ounce of ink. The ink should be applied by a shaped turkey feather or reed known
as a kulmus. The caster spends a blood and applies the gematria sigil onto the recipient object or
person (including oneself) while chanting. The blood in the ink is absorbed by the ritual as the spell is
cast, leaving just the ink sigils. If the numerical sequence is correct, the next ritual applied may be cast
without the need for the componant dictated by the gematria sequence used before casting the
intended ritual. If the gematria numerical value is incorrect in any way when the next ritual is applied, the
ritual will backlash at both the caster and object/person the script is applied to. This ritual Cannot
replace sympathetic links or true name components.
System:
The caster of this ritual must specify the ritual and which specific componant they wish to substitute
before casting.They must then spend one blood and apply the gematria characters with a kulmus and
the prepared sofer ink to a person or object to be enchanted while chanting. The caster must succeed in
a static mental challenge versus ten traits (retest with Kabbalah). If the static succeeds, the blood in the
ink is mystically absorbed by the ritual and the caster may then proceed with the intended ritual minus
the specified material componant substituted with gematria. If the static fails due to the gematria
pattern being wrong, the magic backlashes aggressively and immediately, dealing two aggrevated
damage (can be soaked normally) to both the caster and the recipient of the ritual (if there is one in the
case of the caster enchanting themselves). This ritual may only be used as a substitute for a single
componant per casting. It takes ten minutes per level of the ritual augmented in this way (10 minutes
for a basic, twenty for intermediate, and thirty minutes for an advanced ritual).
This ritual was developed by the ritualist isolating the changes in a Kindred after nightly uses of Blood Potency and comparing it to their blood normally. After numerous nights, a small portion of the change was isolated. This ritual requires two components. These are the blood of a thaumaturge and the blood of a healthy mortal. Those two are combined into a tonic and mixed together while the Thaumaturge intones cleansing chants to create a higher purity of blood, with it being drunk at the end of the ritual. This tonic cannot be preserved and drank at a later time. It must be consumed at the end of the ritual.
Mechanics: Lasts an evening. The user may spend 1 additional blood per turn. They also gain the flaw: Addictive Blood for the evening.
Sanctity of the Garden (Basic - 2)
By seeding the ground with her blood, the Baharist consecrates the garden. Any character or creature that moves within the garden that is not a Baharist or has the Baharist blessing becomes the subject of an immediate attack from the garden. The attack comes from phantom thorns and brambles that slice like razor blades and pierce like syringes (Static Mentals vs Static Willpower) once per turn. If the garden is successful the intruder takes 2 lethal per attack. Attempts to leave the garden are not blocked.
This rituals effects last for a year and a day however the garden must be fed blood weekly by the local Baharist to maintain the ritual.
Sanguine Lure
Advanced Thaumaturgical Ritual
Approved April, 2011
The ritual must be cast in a Sanctum or some area of intense magical
power. In order for this ritual to take effect, it requires a number
of sacrifices in order to accurately key itself to its caster.
The caster must place a single trait of blood within a stone basin in
order to begin its casting. Over the course of one full night, she
must speak words of power over this basin and her blood as she works
the power of the ritual. The caster must also give an offering of
body, mind and soul in order to create the Lure. This requires a
sacrifice of a health level, a Mental trait and a Willpower trait.
The caster must then sacrifice someone of her own creature type, IE:
Kindred for Kindred, Mortal for Mortal, Ghoul for Ghoul, etc. As the
soul passes through the basin on its way to damnation or salvation, it
stains the blood used in the ritual, causing it to congeal into a
pebble. This act will also take with it a loss to the caster's
Humanity/Path rating. Characters reduced to 0 Humanity/Path Wassail
as per normal.
So long as the Lure is active the maximum values of the five traits
given (blood trait, health level, Mental trait, Willpower trait and
Humanity/Path trait) are reduced by one. Once the Lure is deactivated
all lost traits return except for the Humanity trait, which is
permanently lost (although may be repurchased).
From the moment the Sanguine Lure is created, all attempts to
supernaturally track/watch the caster automatically succeed but are
misdirected to the Lure instead. The Lure instantly erodes and
crumbles to ash under the touch of any being other than its caster,
who immediately knows of its destruction. The Lure may be deactivated
at any time by its caster. Only one Lure may be attuned to the caster
at any given point, additional castings result in failure though the
caster still loses a permanent Humanity trait for making the attempt.
A Sanguine Lure may only misdirect supernatural powers less than or
equal to its power, IE: Advanced or lower, this ritual has no effect
on Elder powers or greater no matter what it is augmented by.