Level 2 Rituals

Level 2 Rituals

Black Water (Black Hand)

The vampire may create a liquid that, once poured into a body of water the size of a large swimming pool, will turn it opaque black. The liquid will lose its potency in a week, but once used, it lasts until dispelled, diluted, or evaporated.

Blood Mead

It was thought by the cults of Dionysus that super-natural powers could be procured while under the effects of oinos, or any intoxication for that matter. During the Dionysian rites, a special drink combining vitae and mead (a fermented honey drink) might be prepared for favored supplicants. The drink was thought to pass on a powerful resilience, though only under intoxication. Similarily, a thaumaturge casting this ritual will be able to withstand a greater amount of damage than he would normally tolerate.

System: The thaumatruge must ingest this concoction to trigger it's effect. By mingling two points of his own vitae with a honey brew, the magus creates a potent aneshetic and intoxicant. While under this effect, the caster gains an extra bruised health level. However, he suffers the effects of intoxication and, as such, loses one die to all dexterity and intelligence dice pools. The effects from Blood Mead last a number of hours equal to the successes scored after the blood mead is imbibed. At night's end, the vitae within the blood mead dilutes and loses it's mystical properties and, as a result, cannot refill a vampire's blood pool. The mead may, however, continue to act as an intoxicant, depending on how much the vampire consumed.

Blood Walk

This ritual allows the caster to trace the lineage of another Cainite.
System: Successful casting requires three hours and a blood point from the subject being traced. While the caster is in a deep trance, the blood must be tasted. This gives the caster knowledge not only of the subject’s immediate sire, but of successively older generations. A perception + Empathy roll (Diff 6) is required; each success discovers a lower generation. Also, the caster automatically becomes aware of any blood oaths the subject has, in either capacity. Specific knowledge of each oath bonded vampire is also obtained; including the vampires true name, personality and relation to the subject.

Bureaucratic Condemnation

Developed as the antithesis of Expedient Paperwork, this ritual causes forms, letters or other paperwork tendered by the target to become lost in red tape. Use of this ritual has created many apocryphal tales among the Tremere, who boast of rivals' havens foreclosed upon, cares repossessed and building permits revoked. The earliest recorded use of this ritual seems to have been during the Renaissance, when a Tremere had a Lasombra rival excommunicated for failling to submit a writ to the Inquisition. A thaumaturge must sketch an effigy (however crude) of her fubject in squid ink when casting this ritual

System: The time any single bureaucratic action takes to complete is tripled, including mailing, documents, applying for licenses, etc. Characters with sufficient Influence or the like should still be able to "push things through," however, though they are likely to experience additional difficulty.

Burning Blade (Guide to the Camarilla)

Caster can temporarily enchant a melee weapon to inflict unhealable wounds on supernatural creatures. While this ritual is in effect, the weapon flickers with an unholy emerald flame.

SYSTEM: Caster must cut the palm of weapon hand during ritual, with the weapon if edged, otherwise with a sharp stone. Caster takes 1 level of lethal damage, unsoakable. Caster spends 3 blood points that are absorbed by the weapon. Once cast weapon inflicts aggravated damage on ALL supernatural creatures. Duration of attacks is equal to the number of successes rolled. Multiple castings cannot be stacked for longer durations nor can aggravated strikes be saved up.

Craft Bloodstone (Sabbat)

This ritual involves allowing a stone to soak for three nights in three points of one’s own vitae. By the third night, the result will be a bloodstone sitting in clear fluid. The vampire will always know the exact location of a bloodstone created with her own vitae.

Deny the Intruder

To protect chantries from unwanted observation, tremere rely not only upon mystic wards, but also upon mortal bureaucracy. An enemy can hardly drop in if the chantry isn't listed in any directories or real estate paperwork, afterall. Better still, a little judicious paper-shuffling can "lose" records for electrical payments, telephone calls and other incriminating evidence.

To set up a chantry's bureaucratic defense, the Tremere simply scrawls a series of mystic characters on a piece of paper. This page goes out by mail (some modern Tremere even scan the page and use e-mail> and promptly becomes lost in the system. For the next year, the chantry becomes difficult to track via the usual paperwork routes.

System: There's no special cost for the paperwork involved in this ritual, though the Tremere must scrawl out the characters with charcoal. Once the paper makes it into "the system" - by the hands of the mailman, by e-mail to some server, or what have you - it vanishes without a trace. So, too, do the records of the chantry. Attempts to investigate the chantry or unearth records of it's existence increase in difficulty by one fore each success scored on the ritual roll. This doesn't hinder the chantry's normal functions; the telephones still work and the electricity still runs. It's just that nobody ever sends the bills directly to the chantry or writes anything in the credit memos that reveals the buildings location.

Detect Authority

This is a testing ritual, usually performed on new neonate members to make sure they are not working for the prince. The caster cuts his palm, and does the same to the young neonate. They then clasp hands, mixing their blood while the caster stares into the eyes of the neonate, searching for any mystical sign of the prince's blood or power.

System: The caster rolls Perception + intimidation (difficulty of the neonates willpower.) Any successes reveal if the neonate is blood bound or under the control of a vampire's Discipilne. The Anarchs will ususally refuse to accept anyone who tests positive to this ritual, unless she has a damn good explanation.

Donning the Mask of Shadows

This Ritual renders its subject translucent, her form appearing dark and Smokey and the sounds of her footsteps muffled. While it does not create true invisibility, the mask of shadows makes the subject much less likely to be detected by sight or hearing.
System: This ritual may be simultaneously cast on a number of subjects equal to the casters Occult rating; each individual past the first adds 5 min to the base casting time. Individuals under the mask of shadows can only be detected if the observer succeeds in a perception+Awareness roll (difficulty = casters wits + Occult) or if the observer possesses a power (i.e. Auspex) to penetrate level 3 Obfuscate. The mask of shadows lasts a number of hours equal to the number of successes rolled when it is cast or until the caster lowers it.

Enhancing the curse

Ghouls can survive almost indefinately, with the stipulation that they have vampiric blood within their bodies. A thaumaturge casting this ritual on a ghoul enhances the strength of the vampiric vitae in his body but causes him to suffer similar adverse effects to sunlight exposure as vampires would suffer. Every moment the subject spends exposed to the daylight will generate third-degree burns over the ghoul's body. This proves fatal if the ghoul is unable to find shelter from the sun's rays. The vampire must scratch the subject and draw blood, though some variants of this ritual require the thaumaturge to strike the ghoul. Obviously , this is not a pleasant ritual, and is used by thaumaturges to discipline or test their ghouls.

System: This ritual requires physical contact between thaumaturge and ghoul for it to take effect. So long as the victim retains vampiric blood in his body, he will suffer one health level of aggravated damage per two turns while in direct exposure to sunlight. Once the vampiric blood is spent from his system, the victim will cease to suffer damage from sunlight. For the next month, anytime the ghoul ingests and retains vampiric blood in his body, he will suffer damage in direct sunlight.

Eyes of the Night Hawk

This ritual allows a vampire to see through the eyes of a bird, and to hear through its ears. The bird chosen must be touched by the vampire when the ritual is initiated, and it must be a predatory bird. At the end of this ritual, the caster must put out the bird’s eyes, les she suffer blindness herself.

System: The vampire is able to mentally control where the bird travels for the duration of the ritual. The bird will not necessarily perform any other action than flight – the thaumaturge cannot command it to fight, pick up and return and object or scratch a target. The bird returns to the vampire after finishing its flight. If the vampire does not put out the bird’s eyes, she suffers a three-night period of blindness. This ritual ceases effect at sunrise; if the bird has not reached its destination or is too far from the vampire for the final step to be taken, too bad, Dracula.

Extinguish

This ritual eliminates the threat that fire poses to kindred. The caster is able to douse dangerous flames, leaving vampire hunters quite surprised when their torches and brands are no longer effective tools. To enact this ritual, the caster pinches out a candles flame while spitting on the floor.
System: The ritual is set up in advance, but for the entire night the caster has but to speak a single magical syllable to extinguish one fire up to the size of a bonfire. For the duration of one night, the caster can use this power a number of times equal to the number of successes on the initial ritual roll. Pinching out the candles flame in preparation is likely to require a Rotschreck check, as well.

Impassable Trail

The vampire can travel through even the densest woods without leaving any sign of his passing. He will still leave a trail for creatures with powerful olfactory senses, but that will be all. the thaumaturge must carry an owl's feather steeped in Kindred vitae or burn the legs of a dead toad and carry the ashes with him while this ritual is in effect.

System: The vampire will leave no evidence behind, save for a faint odor that takes three successes on a perception + altertness roll (difficulty Cool to detect. the ritual lasts for one night.

Inscription

Not everyone can be proficient with Thaumaturgy. Some Tremere build mystic items specifically to aid their subordinates or allies. A neonate with only the rudiments of skill may have need of a specific riutal, or another kindred might desire to purchase the special services of Thaumaturgy but need them for his own later use. Instead of taking the time and risk to instruct someone else in the fine points of the working in question, a proficient thaumaturge can build an annotated version of a ritual, fueled with his blood, to make the formula accessible to someone else.

The inscription ritual allows the thaumaturge to place any other first or second level ritual in a written form. This generally requires the equivalent of a full page of paper. A reader can then unlock the power of that ritual by reading the inscription and following it's instructions. The scribe uses his blood as a base for the ink, and his vitae's power remains in the mixture to help fuel the ritual. An inscribed ritual is in imperfect form - it cannot be used to learn thaumaturgy. It's a simplified set of instructions, with the scribe's vitae empowering the rite so that it overcomes any omissions or sloppiness on part of the practicioner.

System: A thaumaturge who knows the techniques of Inscription can write an abbreviated form for any first or second level ritual that he knows, at a cost of two blood points. Anyone who can read the language may then use the ritual notes later. Actually casting the ritual from the notes requires the use of the usual components and time, as well as the standard intelligence + occult roll, but the caster need not have any knowledge of Thaumaturgy. Once an inscription is complete, the power of the writer's vitae is trapped in the object; his maximum blood pool is effectively reduced by one until the inscription is used. After use, the inscription dries into a fine, illegible ash, with all the power expelled from the vitae-based ink. The scribe can use the scroll himself (which is rather pointless) or give it to someone else. To prevent an inscription from reaching the wrong subject many scribes also use Encrypt Missive with this ritual.

Jinx

This ritual concerns itself with using the blood of other Kindred to afflict them with vairous minor banes at the thaumaturge's whim. Relying largely on the Principle of Identity, this ritual consumes the blood of the subject instead of the blood of the caster. The thaumaturge must have in his possession one point of his victims's blood, which vanishes once a sending his attempted. The horrors visited upon subjects as a result of this ritual have given the Tremere quite a reputation. Indeed, many Kindred have reasonable fears of allowing the Warlocks to harvest any of their precious vitae, as the powers of this ritual can attest. Most fearsome of all, a thaumaturge need not even be in her victim's company, so strong is the connection of Identity. All the thaumaturge needs to do is sacrifice the suject's blood....

The Thaumaturge briefly vvexes his victim with bad luck, causing her to fail in a mundane task. This can cause everything from minor typograhpical errosrs, to automobile accidents and everything in between, depending upon how the magus jinxes his mark.

System: The next roll a jinxed character makes automatically fails, regardless of the outcome. This does not cause a botch, just a simple failure. If applied to a contested or extended action, the roll simply yields no successes for the current turn - the victim may garner other successes on subsequent turns ( provided the failure doesn't make all the difference.

Machine Blitz

Machines go haywire when this ritual is cast. It takes effect instantly and lasts as long as the vampire concentrates on it. This ritual may be used to kill car engines, erase computer media, stop life support machines, ect. Essentially, machine blitz ceases any machine more complex than a rope and pulley. The caster must have a scrap of rusted metal in his possession for the ritual to work.
System: This ritual only stops machines; it does not grant any control over them. The effects of this ritual are invisible and not necessarily obvious – these things just seem to happen by coincidence.

Mourning Life Curse

Although this ritual causes no physical damage to it's subject, it can be psychologically traumatizing. It allows the caster to coax blood from a mortal without injuring her. The Tremere must drink a dram of thrice-distilled crocodile blood and make a paste from copal oil, ground eyebright and dates. He carries this paste until he finds a suitable victim. He then dabs the paste onto her eyes and whispers a two-line invocation into the mortal's ear. themortal then begins weeping uncontrollably, and bloody tears slowly ooze down her cheeks. The effect continues until the caster stops staring at the victim. The only after-efffect is a slight swelling of the capillaries around the subject's eyes, along with the normal effects of blood loss.

System: The victim will bleed slowly. It takes about five minutes to collect a single blood point. There is no active defense against this ritual, but the mortal must be able to hear the invocation that the caster whispers. Some thaumaturges use this power on sleeping victims, to spare them the unpleasantness of seeing the act.

Principle Focus of Vitae Infusion

This ritual imbues a quantity of blood within the object upon which the ritual is cast. The object must be small enough for the vampire to carry in both hands, and it may be as small as a dime. After the ritual is conducted, the object takes on a reddish hue and becomes slick to the touch. At a mental command, the caster may release the object from its enchantment, causing it to break down into a pool of blood. This blood may serve whatever purpose the vampire desires; Many Tremere wear enchanted baubles to ensure they have emergency supplies of vitae.
System: An object may only store one point of vitae. If a kindred wishes to make an infused focus for an ally, she may do so but the blood contained within must be her own (and if the ally drinks the blood, they are one step closer to the blood bond). The ally must be present at the creation of the focus.

The Open Passage

Walls, locked doors and even sealed vaults cannot stop a thaumaturge with the Open Passage ritual. The caster smears snake or vermin excrement over the surface in an intricate pattern, which takes an hour to complete. Once finished, the caster becomes insubstantial with respect to that surface - she can walk through a wall or door, yet can touch and interact with anything attached to it (like a mirror or wooden shelf).

System: The open passage lasts for one turn, so the caster must be quick in stepping through the barrier.

Recure of the Homeland

The vampire calls on the power of the earth to heal grave wounds she may have received. The Thaumaturge must use at least a handful of dirt from the city or town of her mortal birth and recite a litany of her family tree as she casts this ritual.

System: The Cainite must mix the earth with two points of her own blood to make a healing paste. One handful will heal one aggravated wound, and only one handful can be used per night.

Ritual's Recognition

Some thaumaturgical rituals don't have an immediately visible effect. A ritual's success or failure may not be immediately apparent; cautious thaumaturges need a way to tell if their rituals work. Even a competent thaumaturge's rituals fail from time to time. Most would consider a few extra minutes of work worth the trouble to make sure that, say, a Deflection of wooden doom ritual functions properly, instead of finding out the hard way.

To set up Ritual's Recognition, the caster must sever the last eighth of an inch of his nose or an earlobe and crush the fleshy bit in an ivory mortar and pestle. He then dusts his face with the resulting paste. Immediately afterward, the thaumaturge casts another ritual; upon completion, the caster can tell whether the ritual succeeded or failed.

System: Casting Ritual's Recognition causes one level of unsoakable bashing damage as the caster removes a gobbet of skin. Once complete, the thaumaturge must immediately begin his next ritual. When that ritual is finished, the caster automatically knows whether or not it succeeded, even if it would normally have no visible effect. By design, the caster can automatically tell if Ritual's Recognition succeeded, and can regrow the lost bit and recast it if it failed. In either case, the caster feels a warm flush upon completion of a successful rite.

Steps of the Terrified

This power lets the caster put the brake on a fleeing enemy. The harder the subject tries to run, the slower he becomes. Eventually, he slows to the point that he can barely move at all. The vampire is often able to take her time and still catch up with her target. The vampire must cast a handfull of poplar buds at the target and then douse her hands in oil while repeating a short incantation seven times. She then wrings the oil from her hands before following the target.

System: The first turn after the tirual is completed, the subject moves at half his normal speed. If he tries to speed up, he slows to one-quarter his normal speed. Each time he tries to go faster, his speed is halved. The ritual lasts until the following sunrise.

Trima

This type of oinos is made with spices and herbs, serving to heat up the blood in a body and, therefore, cause drowsiness in a victim. A magus will sometimes serve this drink to many mortals, possibly at a party or other social gathering. this serves to better protect the Masquerade before Kindred guests drink their share from drowsy mortals. Kindred taking vitae from mortals under the effects of trima feel a slight buzz of the aftereffects, though not strong enough to be considered intoxicated.

System: The caster mixes at least one point of his vitae with the desired wine and spices. Once completed, the trima must be ingested to take effect. After imbibingtrima, a victim must make a successful Willpower roll (difficulty Cool to take any action, as he is overcome by an artificially induced lethargy. This effect lasts a number of hours equal to the number of blood points the caster uses to create the ritual. Subjects may resist this effect by scoring at least three successes on a stamina roll (difficulty Cool. Cainites and other supernatural creatures are unaffected by trima as their blood is too potent to be overpowered by this concoction.

Ward Versus Ghouls

By evoking this ritual, the Tremere creates a glyph that causes great pain to any ghoul who comes in contact with it. The caster pours a points worth of blood over the object he wishes to ward (a piece of parchment, a doorknob etc.) and recites the incantation which takes ten minutes. In 10 hours, the magical ward is complete, and will inflict excruciating pain on any ghoul unfortunate to touch it.
System: Ghouls touching warded objects suffer 3 dice of lethal damage. This damage occurs again if the ghoul touches the object further; A ghoul who consciously wishes to touch a warded object must spend a point of will to do so. This ritual wards only one object – if inscribed on the side of a car it only affects the door or fender not the whole car. Wards may also be placed on weapons.

Whispers of the Ghost

Using this strange ritual, the vampire may communicate from his Psychic Projection form into the material world. While employing this ritual, the Kindred can speak with anyone he encounters, but his words come as ghostly whispering. People who hear these whisperings often mistake them for the words of ghosts or spirits. When this ritual is performed, the thaumaturge must have the ear of a still-living creature in his left hand.

System: This ritual applies only to vampires using the Auspex power of Psychic Projection. after weaving the spell, the cainite can speak for one scene or until sunrise, whichever comes first. The thaumaturge may only speak to the physical world; he may not be seen, touched, ect.