Rite of the Chapel

By Diane Keating (unshetek@best.com)

Level 3 Caern rite

Description

In times of old, building a caern was a dangerous and difficult business. But in these times when we need as many places as possible sanctified, the Rite was too hard to enact and was invariably fraught with danger.

So, I propose a Rite that would create a place-holder and a stepstone to creating a Caern. This Rite will create a Chapel, which can be expanded into a Caern with less difficulty.

First, the location of the Chapel must be watched for. Since the Rite is fairly short to enact, it could be performed "on the fly" by whatever Bete were present.

A lesser quantity of Gnosis Traits are used (floor of 10). Once engaged in the Rite, the Inceptor would still be essentially helpless, so she'd need protection. Since the Rite only lasts an hour, though, and since it's not as intense a Rite, the chance that Wyrm minions coming to disrupt the ritual would be negligible. I estimate we'd only suffer harassment by whatever fomori and stray Banes were wandering by, and not wave after wave of BSDs, Nexus Crawlers, Bane Spiders, and etc.

A number of Simple Tests after every five minutes of chanting, i.e.: 10 Simple Tests (the minutes in which the Tests are done do not count). Traits may be bid to Retest, or Willpower spent to gain successes. This is a less potent Rite and thus Retests should be allowed to reflect that.

Successes	Level
10+	1
15+	2
20+	3, and an Elder Bete can cast a Rite of Caern Building with a cost of 25 Gnosis Traits and create a Level One Caern.

A Pathstone need not be instated in the Chapel, but it should have a physical focus. It will have a Totem, probably along the same power of a Pack Totem or a Totem Avatar.

If fewer than 10 successes are scored, the Rite fails and the Inceptor loses a permanent Gnosis Trait.

ST: If this Rite is roleplayed/performed well, consider giving the player character a break or two. Don't disrupt the performance with a Simple Test every five minutes if they're really into it.

The Rite of the Chapel was first developed and tested in the Krewe Thanatos Caper of Mardi Gras '94. The floats of the parade themselves were chapels and together had enough power to be an unqualified Level One Caern of Humour; the chapels were used to enchant the parade throws into talens of various kinds.