Level Four Rituals

Ancestral Memory
Binding the Beast	[PGII,p89]
Bond of the Rose
Bone of Lies	[PGII,p90]
Bottled Voice	[PGtS]
Curse of the Modern Age	Deird'Re Brooks
Death Wrath	[The Anarch Cookbook]
Drawing upon the Bound	[PGtS]
Fire Walker	[PGtS]
Geas	[HH]
Gregor's Animation of Plants
Heart of Stone	[PGII,p90]
Impressive Aura	Deird'Re Brooks
Innocence of the Child's Heart	[CbN]
Invigorate Vitæ	[HH]
Invisible Chains of Binding	[PGtS]
Keening of the Banshee	[PGtS]
Mirror Walk	[PGtS]
Protean Curse	[CbN]
Puissant Shield	[D:Mex]
Rending Sweet Earth	[CbN]
Respect of the Animals	[PGtS]
Shaping of Kine
Shining Dust of Luna
Soul Mate	Deird'Re Brooks
Soul of Homunculi	[Cl:Tremere]
Spirit Search
Splinter Servant	[PGII,p90]
The Binding of Demons
The Creation of Zombies
The Haunting	[PGtS]
The Promethean Sphere
The Protective Grasp of Grans Bwa
The Rose Homunculi
Ward versus Kindred	[PGII,p89]

Ancestral Memory
Courtesy of: Alejandro Melchor ()

Level: 3
Time Required:
Duration:
Components:

For the Mictlan bloodline.

If this ritual succeeds, the vampire will lower her generation by 1. Requires the sacrifice of a living animal. A human sacrifice will lower the generation by 2. All Disciplines and Arcanoi are available for the duration of the effect. This enhancement lasts as many days as the vampire's Stamina score.

Bond of the Rose
Courtesy of: Aimee Cohen (mbkqc@qcunix.acc.qc.edu)
Modified By: Darrell Benvenuto (benvenut@qcunix.acc.qc.edu)

Level: 3
Time Required:
Duration:
Components:

See the Path of the Blood Rose

Create a Rose Gem, using the third level ritual, using only the petals of three blood roses and one pint (point) of your own vitae. This gem must be set into a bracelet of platinum or gold that has been carefully inscribed in Latin with the names of the major Archangels and the words, "For the Rose Bond" and enchanted using an intricate series of incantations over the course of an evening. A full four blood points of the caster's vitae must be spilled and absorbed into the material of the bracelet during this enchantment. When it is complete, the vitae appears as a beautiful, translucent, cherry-red enamel on both sides of the bracelet, shot through with veins of gold or platinum from the engravings beneath.

When this bracelet is placed upon the wrist or arm of a Kindred, it will extrude thin spikes of metal down, into the flesh of its wearer, and rapidly pump in the altered and enchanted blood contained within the bracelet, using the energy in the Gem to power the spell. If the hapless victim of this attack is of lower Generation than the caster, he will be instantly blood bound to the caster. The bracelet will lose it's enamelled appearance, becoming a simple band of platinum or gold, set with a gem. Odds are the Blood Rose Gem will have been completely discharged by the activation of the bracelet, but there may be some energy still left in it.
Curse of the Modern Age
Courtesy of: Deird'Re Brooks ()

Level: 3
Time Required:
Duration:
Components:

When cast upon a target, the Kindred makes a Manipulation + Occult roll against the target's Willpower. Each success adds one to the victim's target numbers for using technological devices of any sort. The victim is effectively cursed with a form of anachronism. The ritual lasts until the first dawn after it is cast.

Gregor's Animation of Plants
Courtesy of: Darrell Benvenuto (benvenut@qcunix.acc.qc.edu)

Level: 3
Time Required:
Duration:
Components:

This is a potent and complex ritual, requiring the resources of either a well-equipped personal laboratory or that of a mid-sized Chantry to cast. Numerous objects and instruments are required, and the casting itself requires several hours of exhaustive concentration and the expenditure of five blood points of life essence. The Magus must make a roll of (Thaumaturgy + Science) against a base difficulty of 6 for a small plant, increasing by 1 (and costing an extra blood point) for each step upwards in size of the animated plant to a difficulty of 9 for the very largest. A failure indicates that the entire ritual must be recast, as it failed to take properly with the plant. A botch indicates that the plant either dies or animates, and refuses to obey commands. It may attack the caster(s), attempt to flee, or do nothing.

With this ritual, the Magus can enchant and alter the very essence of nearly any plant up to ten feet tall and ten feet wide, including small trees, hedges, etc. The plant becomes capable of motion -- it can laboriously trundle along by shifting its wide-spread roots (the smallest moving around 3 mph/6 kph, the largest half that). Its limbs, on the other hand, are much quicker -- it can snap out and strike or wrap around targets in an eyeblink. The limbs usually grow sharp, thorny spikes. The largest ones have a reach of ten feet or more, and can deliver four dice of normal damage with a brutal slash of them or three continuous dice of damage if it grapples, entangles and squeezes. The plant becomes carnivorous -- in effect, vampiric. It no longer requires sunlight to nourish and sustain itself, but rather blood. Indeed, it will shrivel rapidly and die if exposed to sunlight. Its intelligence is limited, but it obeys mental commands exactly, with no disobedience. It will normally limit itself to birds, squirrels, dogs, cats, racoons, opossums... i.e., small animals, but unless commanded otherwise, it will attack and obtain larger prey, including humans. It flushes pinkly after having fed, and leaves drained carcasses where they fall, unless commanded to bury them. It makes a terrifying and effective guard, for despite its inability to Dodge, it is difficult to destroy except by fire or sunlight, both of which are anathema to Cainites. It will quite willingly drain a Cainite intruder dry, forcing him into an Incapacitated state, but since it does not inflict aggravated wounds, it cannot kill him. Unlike a Cainite, the plant can exist for an entire week on a single blood point.

While these plants cannot reproduce, they can grow; assuming a steady supply of blood, over the course of hundreds of years, small plants will eventually grow to medium, large, huge and beyond...

It is rumored that over the course of centuries, these plants actually begin to develop intelligence on the level of that of human, but it has never been demonstrated. The very largest and oldest ones are barely as cogent as a moron. Their reserves of blood are dependent on the size of the animated plant -- the largest have a blood pool of 15, and the smallest sort have a reserve of only 1. Unused blood in a victim that is not absorbed by the plant (blood pool is temporarily full) will be run out into the ground around the struggling victim so that it can be retrieved by the plant's roots later, or, if instructed, the plant will release them, still bleeding, to make his escape. In this manner, the plant can maintain a full blood pool and only feed once a week or so, allowing the injured animal to escape, to either heal or die elsewhere. The plant can soak normal damage, and the largest ones are reputed to be able to soak some aggravated wounds, in addition to being sheathed in a thick, tough bark that acts like armor. Note that this plant can cause trouble unless it is set to guard a remote or thinly inhabited area. Neighbors get very upset when their pets turn up missing or limp back home, bleeding. And when small children start vanishing...

It is easy to see why plant guardians of this type are not permitted (Council Edict) to be placed within Cities or in areas nearby where Kine reside. The danger to the Masquerade is simply too great. If a botanist were to get his or her hands on one of these plants...

These plants exude an extremely powerful Wyrm taint, and look/smell horribly wrong to Garou. Keeping them in outdoor areas will only lead to their rapid destruction as well as bringing packs of Garou sniffing around to see if there are any more Wyrm-tainted things in the area -- and Cainites fall admirably well into this category.
Plant Stats (small -- 2' in height) Strength 1 Stamina 1 Brawl 1
Dexterity 1 Wits 1 Alertness 1
Blood Pool 1 Slash Dmg 2 Squeeze Dmg 1

Plant Stats (medium -- 5' in height) Strength 2 Stamina 2 Brawl 2
Dexterity 2 Wits 2 Alertness 2
Blood Pool 5 Slash Dmg 3 Squeeze Dmg 2

Plant Stats (large -- 10' in height) Strength 3 Stamina 3 Brawl 3
Dexterity 3 Wits 3 Alertness 2
Blood Pool 10 Slash Dmg 3 Squeeze Dmg 2
Fortitude 1 Armor 1

Plant Stats (huge -- 15' in height) Strength 4 Stamina 4 Brawl 4
Dexterity 3 Wits 3 Alertness 2
Blood Pool 15 Slash Dmg 4 Squeeze Dmg 3
Fortitude 2 Armor 2 Intelligence 1

Impressive Aura
Courtesy of: Deird'Re Brooks ()

Level: 3
Time Required:
Duration:
Components:

This 1 hour ritual causes the Caster's aura to become incredibly attractive; roll Perception + Empathy against a success to determine how many hours this ritual lasts. The Ritual adds 1 die to each Social Attribute and doubles Humanity for the purposes of Empathy Tests. Combined with Presence, the user of this Ritual is irresistible.

Shaping of Kine
Courtesy of: Darrell Benvenuto (benvenut@qcunix.acc.qc.edu)

Level: 3
Time Required:
Duration:
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Magii who possess this ritual require Medicine at rank 5 to be able to use it to its fullest potential. With this ritual, a Magus can take a pregnant human female and slowly alter the growing child within her in a variety of ways. Deformities can be added or taken away, gender changed, bone structure enhanced or atrophied. A Magus can thus bless or curse Kine under her domain by ensuring healthy, strong children, or weak, stricken ones. While it only takes one moment to curse, or damage the child, a Magus who takes the careful time to bless and gently develop a growing child to its fullest potential (requiring five hours a week of examination and physical contact with the pregnant Kine, every month, until term, beginning in the first three months of pregnancy) will result in the birth of a mortal who will have a natural base of 3 or even 4 dots in every Attribute, as opposed to the 2 dots comprising a "normal" level of ability. Unfortunately, despite being strong, handsome, smart and healthy, such mortals can never have a Humanity higher than 7 at the utmost. They are usually predisposed to be cruel, arrogant and domineering, and will naturally become so unless raised in a very gentle, pleasant environment (i.e., Buddhist Monk). It is reputed that a number of Ventrue have been raised from birth in this fashion, destined to be embraced, but that the practice rapidly died out when the false rumor was circulated that the Tremere could magically manipulate these altered mortals or Kindred from afar, as their puppets. Mortals who have been shaped in this fashion have a life expectancy of approximately 100-120 years, barring disease or accident. Some of these traits are passed on to their children, but gradually die out and revert to the dominant, natural traits of the line.

Shining Dust of Luna
Courtesy of: Deird'Re Brooks ()

Level: 3
Time Required:
Duration:
Components:

Requires a quantity of silver dust. When this 1 hour ritual is used to prepare the dust, anything it is sprinkled on takes on the same characteristics of silver. It also tends to stick to Lupines and others vulnerable to silver, causing aggravated wounds until washed off.

Soul Mate
Courtesy of: Deird'Re Brooks ()

Level: 3
Time Required:
Duration:
Components:

The caster and the subject must sacrifice one Blood Point each into two items during a 1 hour ritual, each of which must have emotional meaning to one of the two. When the ritual is done, the two can communicate telepathically, regardless of their relative locations so long as both possess the items. For the price of 1 Willpower point, either one may send her consciousness to the other for one hour. She appears as a ghostly form to the other, although the two can communicate freely, the projected consciousness can only use Auspex or Psychic Numina; otherwise treat as Astral Projection.

Spirit Search
Courtesy of: THE little MAN from ANOTHER place (ymg@ukc.ac.uk)

Level: 3
Time Required: 2 hours
Duration: Until next evening.
Components: Hair/ nail clipping/ personal item belonging to the target, 2BP. Pt's. of the casters blood and ground hazelnuts.
During this ritual the caster burns the item belonging to the terget and mixes the ashes with the ground hazelnuts and his blood. The runic name of the target is then repeated in a interlocking pattern over the casters' shaven head (not including the ears but over the eyelids). The final half an hour is spent in a meditative trance.

Once the ritual is completed the caster will be aware of the direction and distance of the target to him if the target is within 100 miles. Within this distance the caster can easily lead himself to the target. If the target is staked then the spirit is dormant and a perception+Auspex roll is req'd every 1/2 hour to keep track of it.

If the target dies during the duration of the ritual the caster will be aware of this and a wits+Auspex roll is req'd to place the body before the spirit leaves it.

If the target is dead before the ritual is operative then no information as to the spirits whereabout can be obtained. If the target is staked before the ritual is completed the it can be found in the normal way.

If the target is further away than 100 miles but within 1000 then only hazy information as to its whereabouts can be otained.If the target is more than 1000 miles away a perception+Auspex roll (diff. 8) can be made to discover if the target is alive or dead but no other info. can be obtained.

The Binding of Demons
Courtesy of: Darrell Benvenuto (benvenut@qcunix.acc.qc.edu)

Level: 3
Time Required:
Duration:
Components:

At times, it is required that Masters of Thaumaturgy make use of Spirits from the Deep Umbra. These creatures are often known better as "demons". While the Tremere Oath forbids trafficking with them, or making pacts, it does not forbid ruthlessly bending them to one's will, and forcing them to do your bidding.

Through the use of this ritual, which involves the expenditure of four Blood Points of Vitae, and the invoking of most of the Major Arcanum of Spirits for the creation and empowerment of a number of interlocking Circles of Protection, the Magus can enter into a Willpower Contest (as per the normal rules) with a Summoned Entity (Summoned using the path of Spirit Thaumaturgy) with a bonus of +1 die to his overall roll. This is dangerous! If the Magus wins the contest, he will have control over the demon and can force it to obey a number of commands. If the Magus loses -- the Demon can actually begin to attempt to break free, and forceful measures must be taken to banish it lest it get free and wreak havoc on the caster and any others nearby before departing back to the Deep Umbra. Even after it has been successfully mastered, after obeying a number of commands, it will attempt to once again break the Magus's hold on it. Another Willpower Contest will be required.

Countless spirits from the Deep Umbra are weak, and easily bent to one's will... but there are others, vast creatures whose names are best left unspoken, entities from before the dawn of Man, or the coming of Caine... some that are said to predate worlds; if one was so foolish enough to seek one out and summon it, woe betide him. Never again would he be seen again... but his hellish shrieks of agony would resound for millenia across the nameless gulfs of the Abyss that is the Deep Umbra.

This ritual is best used after one has found a number of weak demons, and is familiar in their summoning. It is advised that the Magus return them to their own plane as soon as possible, as they are dangerous not only to the Magus, but to the Masquerade as well.

The Creation of Zombies
Courtesy of: Thomas Jensen (tj@hum.auc.dk)
Modified By: Darrell Benvenuto (benvenut@qcunix.acc.qc.edu)

Level: 3
Time Required:
Duration:
Components:

See the Path of Voodoo

The dreaded undead servants of the Voodoo Priests, the Zombies (aka Corpse Minions) can be created through this tightly-kept ritual. The caster must have available to him or her a body, dead no longer than seven days. The body must be placed inside a circle drawn with a mixture of blood from a goat, dust from a cemetery and the powdered body of a special poisonous tropical fish. The ritual also requires three hours of chanting and hand movements, during which Guede and his servant Baron Samedi are called upon to favor the caster with success, and to grant the caster control over one of their subjects. While chanting, the caster must inscribe the corpse with the Veves of the two Loa and the dreaded runes of Black Magick, as well as spray the blood mixture out towards all four corners of the world -- in honor of Papa Legba, the Lord of the Ways.

Once this ritual is completed and the Path of Voodoo's level four Measure, the Creation of Zombies, is excercised, the eyes of the corpse should open, and it will rise to do the bidding of the caster. The Zombie will have all its traits halved from what they were when it was alive -- except the physical attributes of Strength and Stamina, which are doubled. A Zombie will only be able to do what it is told to do by the caster. It will function until it rots to pieces or is damaged beyond the ability to move. For even though the forces of Black Magick animate the corpse, it will still decay at the normal rate of a dead body. It fears nothing, never tires, and only dismemberment or utter destruction will stop it. It can soak normal wounds with its Doubled Stamina.

The caster may destroy the Zombie through the simple expedient of throwing a handful of bone dust upon it and shouting out the names of Baron Samedi and Guede backwards. This will only work for the caster.

The Promethean Sphere
Courtesy of: Darrell Benvenuto (benvenut@qcunix.acc.qc.edu)

Level: 3
Time Required:
Duration:
Components:

This fifty-minute-long ritual allows the Magus to maintain a sphere of very warm (80 degrees) air around her person, in the coldest of temperatures. Thus, a Magus may traverse icy wastes that would otherwise have rendered her body immobile. The sphere also works in water, but it takes a good deal longer to warm its contents as opposed to air; furthermore, the Magus will be hindered considerably by the presence of the Sphere in water -- it will cause a good deal of drag, slowing all purposeful directional movement (forward, back, etc) by the Magus to 1/2 normal underwater rate. Currents, on the other hand, will have a much greater effect, as they will push against the larger volume of water contained within the Sphere, and will drag the Magus pell-mell at 2x the normal rate s/he would otherwise be affected. Note that the Magus will not feel these currents in the water about her. Physically, in air, the Sphere is invisible. It is visible underwater as a slightly luminescent bubble about the Magus. To objects and persons passing through the Sphere towards or away from the Magus, it feels like a gossamer membrane that presents slight resistance, then allows passage. It provides no protection against attacks, only cold. The Sphere costs one blood point of energy for every two hours in air, and two blood points for every hour under water. The Magus must possess and keep upon her person a small crystal sphere with a bubble of air at its very center.

The Protective Grasp of Grans Bwa
Courtesy of: Thomas Jensen (tj@hum.auc.dk)
Modified By: Darrell Benvenuto (benvenut@qcunix.acc.qc.edu)

Level: 3
Time Required:
Duration:
Components:

See the Path of Voodoo

This ritual allows the Magus to call upon the help of Grans Bwa -- the Loa of the Forest. Many wielders of Voodoo have used this ritual to escape from their enemies. The Magus must take green, living branches, leaves, straw, berries and similar things from the forest, braiding them in the shape of the Veve of Grans Bwa. While braiding, the Magus must chant for a full two hours, and at the end of the braiding and chant, he must wash the Veve in two points' worth of his Cainite Vitae. With this done properly, the braid will remain fresh and usable for an indefinite period of time, perhaps centuries (which is why some Houngans and Mambos carry several seemingly fresh braids of this type on their person all the time). When the time of need is at hand, the braid is thrown to the ground in the Forest (it is useless anywhere else) by the caster (and only by the caster) and the name of Grans Bwa is invoked. The forest around the Cainite will seem to awaken -- wherever she goes, branches, roots and undergrowth will move out of the way, allowing the Cainite to run at full speed through a fairly dense forest, in near-complete darkness. Pursuers are not quite so lucky. Branches seem to almost lower themselves to obstruct movement, roots place themselves in the path to be tripped over, thorny bushes seem to drag more tightly at their flesh and both the ground and the grass fail to properly hold the footprints of the caster. The ritual Severance of Thaumaturgy must be used to stop this. Alternately, if the pursuers possess one of these braids, they can make a similar use of it, in which case neither party would be hindered by the forest they were charging through.

The Rose Homunculi
Courtesy of: Aimee Cohen (mbkqc@qcunix.acc.qc.edu)
Modified By: Darrell Benvenuto (benvenut@qcunix.acc.qc.edu)

Level: 3
Time Required:
Duration:
Components:

See the Path of the Blood Rose

With this complicated and exhausting ritual, a Rose Gem is created, as per the third level ritual, and further enchanted in a several-hour-long process which requires seven blood points and seven crushed roses of a type specified in the path of the Blood Rose. The caster must know the ritual for creating Homunculi (Soul of the Homunculus), as several key facets of it are incorporated into this ritual. When this ritual is finally complete, the Rose Gem will have been transformed into a crystal that superficially resembles the type produced through the ritual Principal Focus of Vitae Infusion. However, when a Kindred places it in his mouth, the blood that bursts from it will collect at the back of the throat. The mass of blood will begin bubbling as its protoplasmic form takes on the shape and form that the spell extracts from the mind of the Kindred. After about a minute, the Kindred's mouth involuntarily opens wide, and the Homunculi plops forth, coated with blood and mucus. As is illustrated in the Tremere Clanbook, the Homunculi are usually anthropomorphic; that is, while they superficially resemble tiny animals, they have human-like aspects, such as features, arms, legs, etc. Homunculi created with this ritual are the same as, and are subject to, all the rules governing the keeping and aspects of Homunculi, except that neither the caster nor the Creator in this instance requires the permanent loss of a digit.

Created and Maintained by Lance W. Larsen
(lance@iit.edu)
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