Level Three

Blood of the Weary Spirit §

Potion which, when mixed with blood, becomes a powerful vampiric soporific. When administered the Kindred must make a Willpower roll, Diff 6+ 1 for every point of potioned blood drunk. The result is her remaining maximum Willpower for that night! If failed, the subject falls asleep immediately, to awake the following sunset. If Botched, she enters into torpor.

Three-hour ritual creates the potion, made of vervain, mandrake and hemlock, with Int+Herblore/Medicine diff 7. The potion can be administered in the blood of a Vessel (esp. a member of a Kindred herd), or mixed with stored blood. If given to a mortal, they will within an hour slip into drowsiness, sleep and eventually a coma, and even death depending on their general health.

Cloak of the Dragon §

Wreathes the caster in a blue fire which will only burn Kindred and other supernatural beings.

System: complex three-hour ritual, requires two points of kindred blood which is not the caster's own. One point is mixed with blue opal powder and burned in a cauldron, the residue mixed with the remaining blood and ingested. Lasts for [Int+Occult Diff 7] hours (to a max of 3), mixture can be kept and ingested at will.

Curse of Lupine Shadow §

This hour-long ritual requires a tuft of Garou fur or hair, which is burned during the ritual. The smoke must pass over the subject or be inhaled to have its effect. Thereafter, the subject will have a swirling bright Garou aura for Int+Occult (Diff 7) plus Willpower of subject hours. This might be useful for encounters with Garou, but if the subject is Kindred she will still bear Wyrm taint - and might be seen as an accursed Black Spiral Dancer!

Also, any Kindred with sufficient Auspex will think the subject is a Lupine!

Daemon Summoning §

Used to summon a demon. (See Discussion of Demons)

System: caster must sacrifice a warm-blooded creature, the larger and more sentient the creature, the more powerful the demon is likely to be. The demon is trapped within a circle - thereafter it is up to the caster. To summon a specific daemon or spirit, their true runic name must be known, and inscribed in the circle with sigils of warding.

Fashionably Unlimited Wardrobe †

This 30 minute ritual, requiring a needle and spool of thread, will transform any clothing into any other clothing. If the clothing is damaged, it will be mended. Fit will be as specified by the Caster.

[Without spending a blood-point, the change will revert at dawn. Amusing as a rather fairytale gift to humans, which vanishes at dawn leaving them naked! -RH]

Fast the Loosened Tongue §

Nasty ritual which prevents the subject from speaking about a certain subject, either generalised (medicine, the supernatural) or specific (particular incident, piece of information).

System: Requires a drop of the victim's blood, and a cow's tongue, studded with nails headed with occult symbols for silence. (The nails must be made or prepared in advance.) The ritual begins to work as soon as it is complete, no matter in the world the victim might be.

Each point of blood used gives one night of silence, up to seven nights. To resist temporarily, the victim must make a willpower roll, Diff 9, but speech is extraordinarily painful. With each success, she may speak one word, spending a willpower point per word. With three or more successes she may say as many words as she has willpower points. Note: Dissembling or euphemism still counts - it is the conscious intent of the communication which matters. Writing in any form also counts, but sign language, or any other form which does not involve words, is acceptable.

Illumine the Mask of Shadows §

Three-hour ritual, requires a large full oil lamp. (The Grand Master is experimenting with electric lamps, so far with limited success.) The ritual produces a lamp which is capable of piercing Obfuscate, by effectively raising the Auspex level of anyone viewing an Obfuscated area or person, on which the lamplight falls.

System: The ritual requires infusing three blood-points into the oil, and spending a willpower point.

During the ritual a Percep+Occult Diff 8 roll must be made. Number of successes is the number of levels any viewer is raised in Auspex whilst viewing an Obfuscated object or person. (Example: a Tremere gains three successes, and so with an Auspex of two can see a Nosferatu using an Obfuscate of five, when the lamp's light falls on her. However, another user with no Auspex sees only up to level three, and in this case sees nothing.)

Once lit, the lamp stays alight for (Int+Occult Diff 7) hours, and has a distinctive dull red glow. When this time elapses, the lamp extinguishes and will not work again, unless it is filled with plain oil, or the ritual is performed again. If at any time the lamp is extinguished before this time, it has the same effect.

Milk the Foul Seed §

Disturbing ritual invented by the notorious Grand Master Guido Alvarez, which enables Kindred to have a mortal offspring - of a particularly abhorrent kind. The night-long ritual must be begun at sunrise and completed at the first rays of the sun, during which the spawn of a frog is mixed with the Caster's Vitae. It must then - before full dawn of the same day - be implanted in a fertile human female, who has not yet born a child (traditionally a Virgin, but experimentation has proved this to be unnecessary).

Male Kindred may engage in ritual intercourse, but for female Kindred, the Foul Seed must be inserted using a syringe or phallus. (The traditional turkey baster is also good, but doesn't create the right air of menace.)

Effect: The child grows normally over nine months, but the mother gradually loses blood and becomes listless and anaemic, and without transfusions will die by the time of the birth. Births are always violent and bloody - the resulting infants are born large, strong and aware, with sharp teeth and strong arms which tear apart the mother during the birth. All Children of Foul Seed bear some sort of crescent mark on their body, and grow unnaturally quickly, becoming sexually mature at eight years. They are also ghouls - blood-bound to their vampiric parent, a permanent bond which does not need to be maintained by blood. (More information on Children of Foul Seed.)

Historical Note: All copies of the Thaumaturgicum Draconi containing this ritual were collected and destroyed by the Tremere Justicar in 1744, as its use was ruled to potentially breach the Masquerade.

Rune of Vigilance *

During this 45-minute ritual the caster inscribes a rune on any surface with 1 Bp of his blood. Should anyone except the caster pass within a metre (3 feet) of the rune, the rune will activate alerting the caster of this. As the rune has no mind it will be activated by a kindred using Obfuscate [but unless viewer has a higher Auspex however, the Obfuscate will mask the rune's activation, too. The Rune only activates by something passing in front of its line of sight, so that if its view is hidden - by a painting, wall, or by being inside a box etc. - it will not activate].

The rune is not blood red in colour but is a shade lighter or darker than the surrounding paint/wallpaper etc. and can be seen if it is in a place that is visible (ie not inside a drawer). The difficulty of spotting the rune depends on where it is placed - a rune in the middle of the wall is easier to spot than one in a corner affected by mildew. The caster can have up to his Thaumaturgy level of runes in operation, he/she will instinctively know which rune has been activated.

Singing Harp †

This ritual causes any musical instrument to play until commanded to stop. Roll Int+Music (Diff 6) to determine the success of the music. This ritual is useful at parties, but is particularly effective with instruments imbued with Toreador's Bane - Toreador Lev 6 Presence.

Shield the Dazzled Eyes †

This 15 minute ritual requires a pair of sunglasses, which need not be worn, simply carried. While the Kindred has these sunglasses, she is not subject to increased sensitivity to sensory overload from Auspex. [This includes aural overload, from loud noises.]

Unearthly Comeliness †

This 30 minute ritual gives the Kindred a complete makeover which remains until [dawn, or until] "Purity of Flesh" or "Unearthly Comeliness" are used. [Manip+Occult, diff 8 rolled, each success alters a feature, or increases Appearance by one. The person is still recognisable, though her appearance has greatly improved. Ritual can be performed upon another, but if at any time the subject uses willpower, the effect will vanish.]

Vitriolic Vitae †

This Ritual takes half an hour to complete and requires her to drink a small amount of a powerful acid, taking one aggravated wound in the process. This causes her blood to become poisonous to other Kindred until the next Sunset. Any who drink her blood take three levels of normal wounds per blood point taken, and the blood point is destroyed in the process.

Wield of Divine Hands §

Used similarly to "Movement of the Mind" to levitate objects. However with this ritual, the object must be prepared in advance, but the object can then be moved by the caster from anywhere in the world - eg. weapons to guard a sanctuary, doors, windows etc. Pretentious Draconi use this ritual to open doors in their haven, though the handle, lock and door must be treated as separate objects, being different moving parts.

System: four-hour ritual. Caster prepares a wax seal with bat blood and a hare's eye, and slowly infuses it with 2 points of her own Vitae. Before use, the caster must feel the whole object with her hands, and fix the seal to it.

Each time she wishes to move it, she must roll Wits+Occult, results being the same for moving an object physically, difficulty modified by weight, action etc. However, she must take one initial turn to make a connection with the object.

Using [Perception+Occult Diff 8] she can also gain a limited impression of its surroundings, each success giving more detail. The object must be regularly maintained with fresh vitae, depending on the amount of use. (Typically 1 point for every 10 days of use, decided by the ST.)

 

§ - Order of Draco Ritual, by (c) Robert D How, 1998-9

† - by Deird're Brookes

* - by Cameron Blackwood