Level Four Rituals

Level Four Rituals

Ward Versus Kindred: This ritual works in a manner similar to Ward versus Ghouls (Level Two Ritual), but affects vampires. The component needed is a Blood Point of Kindred blood.

Binding the Beast: This powerful ritual will pull a fellow Kindred out of frenzy and even separate the vampire from his Beast for a time. The ritual takes only 10 minutes to perform, and the caster does not have to see the subject, but he must imbibe a full Blood Point of the frenzied character’s blood (it can have been drawn earlier) and push an iron spike through his own hand (causing two Health Levels of damage that can’t be soaked). Upon completion of these acts, the subject suddenly emerges from frenzy, and often becomes uncharacteristically passive.

In truth, his bestial side has been separated from his psyche for a number of nights equal to the number of successes the caster scores on a Manipulation + Empathy roll (difficulty of 10 minus the subject’s Humanity). During this time, the subject cannot frenzy, cannot regain Willpower, can only use one Blood Point per turn regardless of generation, and cannot even feed without making a Courage roll. In addition, the vampire must make Willpower roll (difficulty 7) to use any Discipline. Legend states that some Kindred have starved into torpor after having been subjected to this ritual. The subject doesn’t need to be in a frenzy, nor does she need to be willing, but the caster may never use this ritual on himself.

Heart of Stone: This interesting ritual transforms the Thaumaturgist’s heart to solid stone--completely stakeproof. The caster must mold a three-inch-high, two-meter-wide earthen circle on a stone surface (solid stone is preferred, flagstone is okay, concrete is unacceptable) and must then lie naked on her back in the center. A bare candle is placed directly above her heart and allowed to burn until the wick is gone and the flame is smothered by the candles own wax. The wax melts all over the Warlock’s chest, causing one aggravated wound which can be soaked with Fortitude. The ritual takes a full seven to nine hours to complete, but lasts as long as the caster wishes. The effect has the following drawbacks and limitations: the caster cannot use Willpower, and if forced to spend a Willpower point, the spell is immediately canceled; the caster’s Conscience drops to one (or zero if the Trait was already one); and the caster loses half her Dice Pool on all Empathy rolls, most Social rolls, and nearly any roll when she is trying to be compassionate or friendly.

Splinter Servant: This is one of the more horrific and bizarre of the rituals practiced by Thaumaturgists. This ritual creates an anti-Kindred weapon. It involves carving a stake from the wood of a graveyard tree, or at least a tree that has nourished itself on the dead. After a two-night period of incantation and preparation, the shaft is endowed with a form of limited, if dormant, sentience. To finish the ritual, nightshade twine must be wrapped around the stake and sealed with wax to form a brittle sheath. If the sheath is subsequently torn off, the enchantment is activated and the one who released the Servant must command it within one turn to attack someone, or it will attack its wielder. The stake then leaps into action, splitting apart and splintering to from makeshift limbs, which it uses to propel itself toward its target. The little terror is relentless and will stop at nothing to impale it’s targets heart. It will continue trying until it has either succeeded or torn itself to small pieces (which are inanimate--this will occur after three to five minutes). The fragmentary nature of the thing sometimes causes other side effects; often, if it does impale it’s victim, it will continue splintering inside the heart, making it difficult to pull out, or maybe even leaving parts of itself behind (and still leaving the target immobilized). The Splinter Servant cannot be commanded to do anything other than attack, and it always goes for the heart. It will always find its target unless it is stopped.

Bone of Lies: This ritual requires a mortal bone--usually a skull, but even a string of teeth will do. The mortal must have been dead for at least 200 years. The ritual can be performed in a single night, during which the bone must absorb 10 Blood Points of Kindred vitae. This process darkens the bone to a dull red color. Now the bone can be used to make whoever holds the bone to tell the truth. Each time the holder tries to lie, she tells the truth, like it or not. This expends one Blood Point. The bone absorbs each of the holder’s lies, causing it to become blacker and blacker until all 10 Blood Points are used and it is black as sin.

The ritual binds the spirit of the mortal to whom the bone belonged in life, and it is this spirit that forces the holder to tell the truth. Needless to say, this is a very degrading and cruel way to spend eternity. Although this fact is generally unknown , it is the reason that an anonymous bone is usually used; if the spirit of the bone is called forth it will be a most malevolent and devious spirit, corrupted by the vile sins that have been forced upon it. This is also why the blackened bone is traditionally buried after use. The bone can never be reused for this ritual.

Soul of the Homunculi: Magi find that there are few they can trust, and their homunculi often make up the heart of this group. A homunculus is much more than just an animation doing the vampire’s bidding. It is an extension of the vampire, much like his arms and legs. It bears her physical features and does her bidding as though she herself were inhabiting the tiny form. A homunculus takes weeks, if not months, to create, and requires an Intelligence + Occult roll (difficulty of at least 8). There are many different kinds of homunculi, and Storytellers can require characters to learn a separate ritual for each version. Homunculi are further described in the Tremere Clan Handbook.

Innocence of the Child’s Heart: makes the caster appear to have a white aura untainted by any sign of Vampirism. Requires a toy which once belonged to a mortal child be carried with the caster while the spell is in effect. Nicolai invented this ritual and is extremely proud of it. He has not demonstrated it to any other Tremere yet; he hopes to spring it on the clan at a particularly dramatic moment.

Rending Sweet Earth: creates a 10 ft by 10 ft chasm leading to where a Vampire has gone during Earth Meld. A successful ritual automatically wakes the Cainite if she was asleep, but will not do so if she was in torpor. Spell must be cast at the exact spot where the Vampire entered the earth, and caster must repeatedly strike the ground with a leather whip.

Protean Curse: turns the target into a bat as per the fourth level of Protean. Requires a vial of blood from a rabid Vampire Bat be drunk by the target. Can be cast on Kindred or Kine, and the target will only turn back to human form when the spell is cast on her again.

Bottled Voice: The Thaumaturgist draws out an individual’s ability to make any sound with the voice. The victim remains mute for as long as the vampire has the voice in his possession. The voice is removed with a verbal incantation and forced into a bottle with somatic signs. The bottle must then have a wax seal placed upon it. The victim is then unable to speak, but otherwise affected. The vampire employing this ritual can keep the victim’s voice as long as the seal and the bottle itself remain unbroken.

Drawing Upon the Bound (Sabbat): This special ritual allows a vampire to utilize the Disciplines of any individual, Kindred or Kine, who is Blood Bound directly to her. This ritual does not work for the Viniculum created by the Vaulderie, as the individual must be Blood Bound directly to the vampire. This ritual is used most often with ghouls, calling upon their Potence or other Disciplines. The victim cannot use the Traits while the vampire does. This ritual requires the vampire to carry a small vial containing a drop of the Bound individual’s blood.

This ritual was originally employed in Haiti, but has rapidly spread. Unfortunately, it is of much less use to the Sabbat than it is to most other Kindred.

Fire Walker (Sabbat): This ritual protects the vampire from fire for a short period of time. The ritual temporarily toughens the vampire’s skin, and lasts up to one hour. The vampire may still be burned during this time, but gets twice the normal soak against flames. The vampire is by no means invulnerable and would be extremely dumb to walk through a fire, but this ritual can allow the vampire to participate and even show off in the Sabbat rituals involving fire. The material component of this ritual is a specially made salve rubbed on the soles of the vampire’s bare feet.

The Haunting (Sabbat): This ritual summons a spirit to frighten a target tremendously. It will play tricks on the person like a poltergeist, but the Haunting Spirit will try to cause a person to faint or have a heart attack (mortals only). The spirit will not directly harm the victim, but it may have almost the same effect without doing so. To determine if a mortal has a heart attack or faints, the spirit must make a resisted roll using its Fright rating + Intimidation (difficulty equal to the victims Stamina + [Courage or Morale]). This spirit usually has little effect against Kindred.

The victim is severely scared, but no real harm is done.
The victim is so shocked she cannot do a thing for several minutes, possibly hours.
The victim faints.
The victim goes into a state of shock and may suffer long-term psychological trauma.
The spirit causes the victim to have a heart attack, killing the victim (if mortal) unless the victim can make a resisted roll using her own Stamina + Self-Control (difficulty 8). Survivors may very well have their hair turn white.

The spirit will remain for a period of time based on the number of successes the vampire rolls using his Charisma + Spirit Lore (difficulty 7).

One Hour
One Night
One Week
One Month
One Year

Haunting Spirits have Fright ratings between 3 and 5 (each point adds one die to attempts to frighten), and Intimidation ratings between 2 and 5, at the Storyteller’s discretion.

Invisible Chains of Binding (Sabbat): This ritual allows the vampire to create a supernatural force that holds a victim immobile. The victim is actually chained with invisible and intangible chains that force her to remain where she is. The victim may try to move, but the chains are too strong to break unless the victim can make a simple roll using Strength (difficulty 8) and score two successes in one turn (Potence affects this roll normally). Up to four victims may be chained through the use of this ritual. The vampire Thaumaturgist must make bold hand gestures but no material component is required to cast this ritual.

Keening the Banshee (Sabbat): The vampire makes a horrific sound as to be deafening. The person closest to the vampire when this ritual is used suffers the full brunt of the assault. His hair turns white and he ages somewhere between 1-10 years (if mortal). The ritual’s effects are instantaneous. The material component for this ritual is a necklace bearing a pendant carved from an old tombstone. For obvious reasons, this ritual has little effect on Kindred, but Lupines are affected normally.

Mirror Walk (Sabbat): The vampire can step into any mirror large enough for him to crawl through, and use it as a supernatural portal and transport to the closest mirror large enough for him to exit. If no mirror is present, the vampire exits through the closest sheet of glass. The vampire may use this ritual to transport him from place to place, but it is especially useful during escapes. The mirror "liquefies" when the vampire Thaumaturgist steps through, forming ripples. Once the vampire has stepped through, it reverts to its original shape, but the vampire cannot be seen.

The material component is a ring bearing an emerald, which glows when the ritual is in effect. The vampire may transport one additional person, pulling him through by the arm. If anyone tries to enter after the vampire has stepped through, but before the mirror stops rippling, the individual is cut in half. Half ends up in front of one mirror, while the other half ends up in front of the other. The Storyteller may wish to allow the individual a roll using Dexterity + Dodge (difficulty 7) to see if he makes it through without getting killed.

Respect of the Animals (Sabbat): The vampire who casts this ritual may travel through the wilderness without danger from animals. Animals will not be afraid of the vampire, nor will they dislike her. Animals will accept the vampire as an equal and allow her to pass, though they will not aid the vampire in any way. No components are required, and the effects last for four hours.

Shadowgate (Black Hand): This ritual allows the Thaumaturgist to enter or leave the Shadowlands by painting an X over each eye and then stepping into an extremely dark shadow. The shadow will open up into the corresponding Shadowland, and the character can bring anything he can carry. The X must be marked on with a powder made of coal and human ashes.

Raven Watchers: This ritual transforms the caster’s foe into a raven and enslaves him for the rest of his unnaturally short life. A victim so transformed gradually loses his Intelligence (one point per month until he reaches zero). Because the raven was once sentient, those with the Discipline of Animalism cannot sway him until he loses all semblance of human intelligence.

While under the enchantment, the affected watcher will obey the exact mental commands of the caster to the best of its ability. It can also broadcast any visual and aural information gathered to that caster, just as a videocassette recorder might. In order to focus upon this mental information, however, the caster must concentrate, rolling [caster’s Perception + watcher’s Intelligence (difficulty 6)]. The number of successes achieved determines the clarity of the Watcher’s "broadcast" and the caster’s reception of it.

The witch can hear loud noises through the raven’s ears, but can see nothing.
The witch can hear noises of medium intensity, but can see nothing.
The witch can hear with perfect clarity and see patches of light and dark.
The witch can hear perfectly and see fuzzy shapes (in black and white, of course).
The witch can see and hear perfectly through the raven’s faculties.

In order to create a watcher, the witch must feed the victim 13 kernels of Indian corn boiled in raven soup and dried on a corn husk smeared with raven droppings, while chanting the highly-guarded words of the ritual. The Thaumaturgist then rolls Willpower (difficulty of the target’s Humanity). At least three successes are needed. Once enslaved, a watcher will remain under the enchantment until it dies. Witches continually replenish their supply of watchers, however, for the mortality rate of watchers in urban areas is high.

While the victims of this ritual are typically human, it is said that two other versions of this ritual exist; the more potent version (Level Five) allows the caster to transform Kindred into watchers, while the weaker version (Level Two) allows the caster to enslave ordinary ravens. The latter is less desirable but also practiced more frequently, for it is easier to enslave ordinary birds than it is to transform and enslave humans. However, casters do benefit from having human or Kindred subjects, for it easier to communicate with intelligent minds than those of birds.

Peace of the Dead: This ritual causes the victim to fall into a deep slumber, akin to torpor in disadvantages but not in benefits. The area of effect is based on the number of successes obtained with a Manipulation + Occult roll (difficulty 6):

One square yard
10 square yards
100 square yards
1000 square yards
5000 square yards

Each turn that a character (aside from the caster) is within the area of effect, she must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) to remain unaffected. There are three levels of success possible. A complete success or better (three or more successes) means that the character remains completely unaffected that turn. A moderate success (two successes) means that the character feels drowsy and that all her Dice Pools for the turn are reduced by one die. A marginal success (one success) means that the character may perform no actions during the turn. A failure means the character falls asleep for two minutes (longer than combat typically lasts), while a botch means the character falls asleep for two hours.

Soul Yoke: A victim of this ritual finds herself spiritually harnessed to a fetish (usually a doll). Like all sympathetic magic, the victim directly experiences any pain or pleasure inflicted upon the doll. If that which is done to the doll would normally kill a human being or vampire (such as decapitation or incineration), the victim dies. However, the stimulus must be actively caused. Thus, the victim would not feel pain if the doll were in a burning house and caught fire by accident; however, if someone lit the house on fire in order to burn the doll or if the doll were thrown into a fireplace maliciously, the victim would feel all the effects of the fire.

Distance from the fetish makes no difference; the victim can be one foot or a million miles away from the doll. Only those who harbor no ill will toward the victim may destroy the doll and break the enchantment; the victim cannot destroy it unless she is prepared to destroy herself in the process.

The ritual requires an elaborate liturgy lasting two hours and requiring a number of physical components. Witches performing the ritual must place wax candles, chalk, iron chains and hemp ropes around the victim (who must be on a stone altar) in a perfect circle. Then, standing outside the circle on a scrubbed floor, onto which are scattered strands of ox hairs and droplets of diseased horse blood, they must take turns chanting the words of the ritual.

Once that has been accomplished, they must step inside the circle, slit open the victim’s forehead, and touch the doll to the victim’s heart and to her forehead as it bleeds. At this point, part of the victim’s soul enters the doll; one of the witches must then insert a hairpin through the doll’s heart to "pin" the soul to the fetish, and the pin dissolves. When this has been done, the victim and the doll are permanently linked.

Victims of Soul Yoke are not mentally controlled in the magical sense; however, witches frequently use this ritual to enslave victims by threatening them with unbearable pain or death if they disobey. The victim takes damage equivalent to that inflicted upon the doll (thus, a lighter held up to a doll would be the equivalent to holding a torch to the victim).

The victim may make a special soak roll using Willpower instead of Stamina + Fortitude (even when the doll is being burnt or exposed to sunlight). The pain that the victim experiences in such circumstances is so great that she is incapacitated during each round that she takes damage. In order to avoid such incapacitation, the victim must spend a Willpower point.

Invigorate Vitae: Allows caster’s blood to Blood Bond anyone who drinks it, whether mortal, Kindred, or Lupine. The rules are otherwise the same as for Vampiric Blood Bonds. Note: This is a ritual used by Arctos, a mortal magi in Greenwich Village, New York, when he has to deal with Kindred.

Geas: Allows the caster to force the target to perform a deed for him, such as "Rescue the Princess and bring her to me." The bewitched person will be unable to sleep or heal wounds until he heeds the call, and begins to perform it. Only when the deed is accomplished will he be free. This acts like a version of the Dark Fate Flaw also. The bewitched one will be haunted by horrible visions until he performs what he has been commanded to do. The caster rolls Leadership + Manipulation versus the target’s Willpower. If he gains three successes, the target must perform the mission. Note: This is also a ritual created and used by Arctos.

Puissant Shield: This ritual establishes an invisible kinetic sheild around the caster, at a distance of one foot, which blocks all inantimate objects--bullets, thrown knives, etc. Such projectiles visibly deflect from the shield. This sheild cannot stop a character--mortal or Kindred--from closing and meleeing with the caster, nor has it any effect on a melee weapon (a spear, perhaps) in the grip of an attacker. Neither will it stop the effects of Thaumaturgy or other Disciplines. Fire, air, sunlight, water, etc. will all pass unaffected through the shield.

Establishing the shield requires one minute of concentration while the caster blows on a strip of cowhide and it lasts for one hour. Mictulantcuhtli has focused the essence of this ritual on a hollow crystal he wears on a leather thong around his neck. All he (or anyone) has to do is blow on the crystal and the shield will protect him.

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