Necromancy Rituals
By Alexander Marzec (marzec@tony.bc.edu)
Author's note
Do not put this submission into any compendiums!
Description
Because Necromancy is a ritual that uses static magic, rather like Thaumaturgy, it stands to reason that the Giovanni would have developed a few rituals for this Discipline. Although many Cainites suspect this, the actual details of these rituals are kept very secret -- so secret, in fact, that no Necromancy rituals are actually printed in any WOD books! This submission should amend the error. The Storyteller should recall that Necromancy and Thaumaturgy are completely different and their rituals are non-compatible; Necromancy cannot be used to cast Thaumaturgic rituals, or vice versa. Although it is theoretically possible for the Giovanni to develop Necromantic Paths (similar to Thaumaturgic Paths), their magical knowledge is not equal to that of the Tremere, making this extremely difficult. If any Necromantic Paths have been developed, they are doubtless of lower power than Paths of Thaumaturgy, and are kept highly secret.
Level 1 Rituals
Wisdom of Bone
By obtaining a fragment of bone from an individual, as well as some of that person's blood, the caster can gain supernatural knowledge of that person's thoughts. The ritual takes an hour, and the bone must be crushed into a powder and mixed with at least one blood point from the target until it becomes a paste, which the caster swallows at the end of the ritual. For the rest of the night, the target may use the Auspex 4 power of Telepathy upon the subject from which the blood and bone were taken, even if the caster does not possess that power. Note that if the subject is a Cainite, the caster is one step towards becoming Blood Bound to her when he drinks the bloody paste.
Warding the Family
This ritual is frequently used by the Giovanni to ensure the well-being of those family members that are ghouls rather than Cainites. The ritual takes a whole night to cast, but its effects last for a year. The Giovanni must anoint herself with the juices from a human eyeball, and then drink at least two points of blood from the recipient of this ritual. Then the recipient drinks a bit of blood from the Giovanni to complete the ritual. For the duration of this ritual's effects, whenever the recipient of this ritual believes that he is in mortal danger, the caster will sense this, and get a sudden mental image of whatever the ritual's subject sees at that moment (for instance, the face of the vampire about to put a bullet into the subject's head). Of course, if the victim dies suddenly and is taken by surprise (such as from a knife in the back), he will not know that he is in mortal danger, and the ritual will not activate.
Level 2 Rituals
Approaching the Shroud
This disturbing ritual brings a vampire closer to the grave, making her body unfeeling and pale, like that of a bloodless corpse. It takes an hour to cast, and requires a handful of soil from the grave. When the ritual is activated, the caster will feel her body grow cold and numb. This increases the difficulties of all appearance and dexterity-based rolls by one. However, because the vampire can feel no pain, she suffers no wound penalties to dice pools. The effects of the ritual last for one night.
Skull Sentry
This old ritual was allegedly developed by the Giovanni during the dark ages, to protect them from spies using Obfuscate (although some say that the ritual was actually taught to a Giovanni by a Celtic necromancer). The ritual is also effective against Kindred using Vicissitude to change their appearance so that they can infiltrate the Giovanni. To cast this ritual, the Giovanni must cut the head from a living creature using a special knife that is engraved with runic symbols and lightly powdered with gold dust. Then the severed head must be completely drenched in blood. Any blood may be used, but typically the caster uses her own blood as well as that of a few trusted ghouls (because the ritual activates when an individual whose blood was not used in the casting approaches the head). The head is then buried underground until all the flesh has decayed from it. At this point, the skull is extracted, polished, and placed near an item or area that the caster wishes it to guard. Thereafter, any individual whose blood was not used in the casting of the ritual will, when approaching within twenty feet of the skull, activate a disturbing effect. Blood will drip from the eye sockets of the skull, which starts to glow with a ruddy hue. This effect ends when the person that has triggered it leaves the area.
Level 3 Rituals
Bottled Death
To cast this ritual, the caster needs a small bit of flesh from a Cainite. The flesh (preferably fresh), must be mixed with at least two blood points from either a lupine or a changeling (ingredients which are both difficult to obtain, due to the ferocity of the first, and the elusiveness of the second). The mixture of flesh and blood is then placed in a small glass vial that is engraved with a mystical symbol. After chanting the words of the ritual, the vial is stoppered and left in absolute darkness for a week. After this period, the flesh gobbets have liquified and become absorbed into the blood, which has become a deadly poison to Kindred. If the blood from the vial is subsequently drank or injected into a vampire, it inflicts three health levels of damage for each point drank or injected (this is only soakable with Fortitude). The blood is especially lethal to the Cainite whose flesh was used in the ritual, for if he so much as touches the blood, it is instantly absorbed into his skin, and he takes damage as though he had drank the blood.
Thirst of the Beast
This ritual is very useful for Giovanni that are trying to locate Kindred that are attempting to lose pursuit by blending into a crowd of Kine. However, it does have some drawbacks, and is best used only by those Kindred with a high rating in Self-Control. The 30-minute long ritual requires some fetid water be drunk with at least one blood point of Kine vitae. At this point, the caster will be unable to gain any nourishment at all from human vitae for the rest of the night; only the blood of vampires will provide any nourishment whatsoever. The advantage is that should the caster's blood pool fall to 5 or less during that night, he will be able to identify all vampires within fifty feet by making a Perception + Occult roll (difficulty 6). He senses the vampires by the distinctive odor of their blood. Unfortunately, the caster must make a frenzy check (difficulty 4) in order to avoid exsanguinating the Kindred whose blood he smells. It is rumored that if this ritual is used overmuch, its effects become permanent, especially upon vampires that are already quite old and beginning to experience the thinning of the blood.
Level 4 Rituals
Echoed Sacrifice
To begin this ritual, the caster must have at least a drop of blood from the individual that she wishes to subject to this gruesome torture. She then must cut off the limb of a living Kine, and draw mystical symbols upon one of her own limbs. That limb will suddenly shrivel and become unusable. The caster will experience no pain from this self-mutilation; however, the target of this ritual will be subjected to hellish agony, and must subtract two dice from all dice pools while this ritual is in effect. The caster may end the ritual at any time by severing her shriveled limb (this may be regrown in a week through the expenditure of blood). It should be noted that this ritual is used only to torture an enemy, and almost never to weaken them in preparation for an attack upon them. Should the tormented subject die or drop into torpor before the caster ends the ritual, all effects of this ritual become permanent (ie, the caster's limb is permanently shriveled and unusable, and the subject will suffer a permanent loss of two dice from all dice pools due to severe pain).
Level 5 Rituals
Torment the Shattered Spirit
This powerful ritual helps the necromancer hide all evidence of diablerie. It requires a living kine to serve as a vessel for the remnants of the spirit that the necromancer has diablerized. Although other beings such as Garou, Kindred, or Changelings may also serve as a vessel, this is inadvisable since the being will be hostile once the remnants of the diablerized victim have been channeled into it. The mannerism, speech patterns, and facial expressions of the diablerized being are evident in the vessel. The vessel is then sacrificed in another elaborate ritual lasting an hour. This eliminates all black veins that were gained by the diablerie of that Kindred (but not black veins gained from other diablerizations) from the aura of that caster. Soul shards are not removed, however, and in fact the caster will be cursed with one or two additional soul shards after the ritual is complete. Precautions must also be taken to ensure that the vessel does not escape. In the one documented incident when this occurred, the vessel allegedly developed strange supernatural powers and evinced an obsession with getting vengeance upon the caster. Storytellers should see The Risen (a supplement for Wraith) for ideas about what would happen should this unlikely event occur.