Examples of Rituals In Play
Leon completed the incantation. "Come on!" he shouted in heavily accented Creole. "Come here, Rupert! By Baron Samedi, I command you. By Baron Cimetie, I call you to my side. By Legba, I open the doorways for you. "
A tingling feeling over Leon's scalp presaged the arrival of the ghost. His supernatural senses soon allowed him to see Rupert's translucent form standing before him. The ghost was angry at being summoned, angrier still to see that his summoner was an old enemy. He coiled to strike at the houngan, but Leon had been preparing for this moment for quite some time. "By Baron Samedi, I bind you!" Leon yelled. Rupert screamed in rage when he found himself unable to attack. "You now owe me six services, Rupert," Leon said with a nasty smile. He found it very poetic, using the ghost of a drug dealer against other drug dealers...
Leon is a Fourth Level Initiate with Path of the Spirit-17, Beckon-17 and Mastery-16. His target is the ghost of Rupert Molina, a recently-dead crack dealer with a Will of 14.
Leon casts the ritual over a period of an hour (no modifiers). He is on consecrated ground (the apartment is his "temple," but not long enough to grant any bonuses). His asson counts as a spiritual symbol. Before conducting the ritual, Leon acquired the blood-stained shirt Rupert was wearing when he was killed; since this object is intimately related to Rupert, the GM rules the shirt gives Leon a +3 bonus to the ritual roll. No other modifiers apply.
Leon calls on Baron Samedi and other loas of the dead to help him summon the ghost, and on Legba to allow it passage between the lands of the living and the lands of the dead. Leon rolls against his modified Command skill (a 20), and makes the roll by 9 points. Rupert resists at Will-3 (a total of 11); he rolls an 8 and loses. The ghost comes to Leon's presence.
Leon then completes the Mastery ritual he had combined with the summoning. His modified skill is 19, against Rupert's Will of 14. Leon rolls a 10; Rupert rolls an 11: Leon wins the contest by 6 points, which means Rupert must perform six tasks for the houngan.
Leon plans to use Rupert to produce minor poltergeist effects to terrify some small-time dealers plaguing his neighborhood.
Continued on next page.
Even if the ritual succeeds, it may not affect everyone in the group. Groups of 10 people or fewer will always be affected. In groups between 10 and 100, the total number of people affected is equal to 10 people or half the total (75% on a critical success), whichever is greater, plus one person per point by which the ritual roll was made. Only 20% of groups bigger than 100 are affected (40% on a critical success), plus 2% per point by which the ritual roll was made (round up).
Example: Claudius the Adept, Seventh Level Initiate of the demiurges, curses a small Middle American town that dared offend his magnificence. He decides to send a Malaise curse down on them; his Path of Health skill is 24, and he has specialized in Malaise so that his skill level in that ritual is 23. He takes his time and uses a number of ritual aids, multiple castings and a number of animal sacrifices (mutilating locally-owned cattle), for a total bonus of + 12; that gives him a base roll of 35. Since this is a small place, he casts the curse on all males aged 20-40 in the town. There are 89 such people, so the penalty is -18, which reduces the base roll to 17. The GM rules that there are enough minor spontaneous Initiates in town to give the group a resistance roll of 14. Claudius wins the Quick Contest by 6 points (a roll of 8 versus an 11), so half of the 89 adults, plus 6, a total of 50 people, fall prey to a nasty disease that strikes all of them within the week. The mystery plague sabotages the local economy as the town grinds to a halt. Only a handful of the victims die, but damage to the town's finances and morale is severe.
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