Vampire/Blood Sorcery

Note & Credits

Please note: ALL of these rites are subject to change in case of problems or abuse. Technically this is true of everything, but even more so of custom material such as this.

These are courtesy of user NeoTiamat in this thread, with some modification.

Hanging Spells

Certain Rites and Miracles, once cast, do not immediately activate. Rather, they lie dormant on the ritualist, their effect 'hanging' until activated by some specific action (most attack spells are of this sort). All unused Hanging Spells go away at sunrise, unless the ritualist pays a lesser sacrifice to keep them going. A user of Theban Sorcery may spend 1 willpower to extend all of his Hanging Spells for a further 24 hours, while a Crúac ritualist must spend 1 vitae per Hanging Spell.

Crúac

Rank 1 Rites

Lilith's Whisper

Target Number of Successes: 5

The ritualist is able to hear into the Twilight, and be heard there in turn, until sunrise.

Favor of the Horned King

Target Number of Successes: 5

This simply ritual allows the ritualist to ignore up to (Potency) penalties from weather-based environmental effects (Extreme Cold, Heavy Rain, Heavy Wind, etc), regardless of whether they are of natural or supernatural origin. It lasts until sunrise.

Pythian Renewal

Target Number of Successes: 8

This extremely painful ritual involves the ritualist literally cutting either themselves or a target free of their skin (inflicting 1L per roll). The target's visual age is reduced by (Potency x5) years, to a minimum age of 20, and they gain Striking Looks (Beauty or similar) 1, or increase Striking Looks 1 to 2. The ritual wears off gradually, the target aging by 1 year per day until they return to their normal age.

Heightened Vitae

Target Number of Successes: 5

This ritual allows the vampire to store more of that essential quality of Vitae in their blood. Until sunrise, the Kindred's maximum Vitae is increased by (Potency). This doesn't actually let them store more blood, physically, in their body, but rather allows them to get a Vitae's worth of supernatural charge out of a smaller amount.

Rank 2 Rites

Lair of the Great Beast

Target Number of Successes: 10

The ritualist draws something of the Great Beast's immortal madness and hunger into the world, infecting an area of about a city block or a square mile of rural land (the vampire can infect a smaller area). Any uninvited individual who enters the area must roll Resolve+Composure. If they gain successes greater to or equal to the spell's (Potency), then the character feels a sense of unease, but no more, and is immune to Lair of the Great Beast for the next 24 hours. If they gain fewer successes than (Potency), however, they take their choice of the Shaken or Spooked Condition. This spell lasts for one week.

Breath of the Horned King

Target Number of Successes: 6

The ritualist draws into his dead lungs the power of the Horned King, master of the night hunt, master of winter and death. This is a Hanging Spell. As an Instant, the ritualist can exhale out the Horned King's breath, covering an area of about 10,000 square feet (an area of about 100 feet to a side). This immediately applies the Extreme Cold tilt to the area, plus one of the following Tilts for every two additional dots of Potency (selected randomly): Heavy Rain, Grade 1 Heavy Wind, Ice, or Heavy Fog (treat as the visual/ranged penalties from Blizzard, without the snow). All of these Tilts are in GMC, beginning on pg. 206.

Thorned Snare

Target Number of Successes: 6

This is a Hanging Spell, which can only be activated on soil. As an Instant, the ritualist causes thick rope-like vines to burst from the ground and wrap around the target, sprouting long, wicked thorns that pierce the subject’s flesh as the vines constrict. Treat the vines as a creature making a Grapple attack with a Strength equal to the ritualist's Crúac and Brawl equal to (Potency). The vines always Grapple the target and then either attempt to Damage them, dealing Lethal damage, or else Hold and then Immobilize the target -- the ritualist determines this when the spell is triggered and can change it with a verbal command.

Conscripting the Weavers

Target Number of Successes: 10

The ritualist calls upon hundreds of small spiders to spin her a temporary suit of clothing -- requiring the ritualist to hold quite still while they work. The clothing can be of any sort that the sorceress can imagine, so long as it can be made out of silk, does not have pictures or writing upon it, and is colorless (though these restrictions can be gotten around if the vampire provides proper materials). The clothing, made of spider-silk, is quite tough and counts as non-magical armor with a rating equal to half the user's Cruac, rounded up, against both normal and Firearms attacks. The clothing lasts for one month.

Taste of Knowledge

Target Number of Successes: 8

For the rest of the night, whenever the ritualist feeds, she can choose to drain knowledge and skill from the target instead of the life-energy of Vitae. For each two damage inflicted on the target over the course of the feeding, the ritualist gains one skill dot that she can use to raise her own skills -- though she cannot raise her skills in this fashion higher than the victim's. The ritualist can gain up to (Potency) skill dots in this fashion, and they persist until sunrise.

Mandrake

Target Number of Successes: 8

Over the course of this ritual, the vampire drizzles blood onto some manner of small plant (traditionally mandrake or belladonna) and imbues it with a portion of the Kindred's Damned soul, spending 1 WP to do so. The plant survives for one lunar month before wilting, but during that month the vampire may consume the plant to regain the spent willpower point (essentially, this ritual allows the vampire to store Willpower in a plant).

Rank 3 Rites

Lilith's Garden

Target Number of Successes: 6

The ritualist corrupts a small area with her Beast, turning all of the local plant life into grotesque parodies of nature (no more than about 10,000 square feet, or an area a 100 feet to a side). Trees and shrubs grow long, barbed thorns, flowers and weeds turn poisonous, grass becomes like razors, and noxious insects take up residence. Anyone foolish enough to blunder into the plant-life immediately takes (Potency) Bashing damage from being stabbed, stung, and lightly poisoned, and continues to take (Potency) Bashing damage for each minute they spend moving through the plants. Needless to say, this spell is far more effective where there is plentiful plant-life. The ritual lasts for one month.

Join the Wild Hunt

Target Number of Successes: 8

The ritualist calls upon the Horned King, becoming one of his Hunters for the space of one night. Until sunrise, the ritualist gains a (Potency) boost to all Stealth rolls and all movement-, and tracking-related rolls. The ritualist may also gain this boost to certain Feeding rolls, which is a good thing as until sunrise, they also lose 1 Vitae each hour -- they are the hunter, and so had best hunt.

Lilith's Beckoning

Target Number of Successes: 8

This ritual allows the ritualist to call forth to a single ephemeral entity within one mile, asking it to come to the ritualist and hear out a single request. If the ephemeral entity does so and completes the request, it gains (Potency) Essence as a reward -- the ritual in no way compels the entity, though most will perceive this as a very polite request.

If the ritualist knows the name of a specific entity, he may call it specifically, otherwise he summons the nearest ephemeral entity of a given type ('poltergeist', 'fire spirit', 'demon of lust'). While this ritual may be used to call any ephemeral entity, usually only ghosts, spirits, and demons bother to answer -- if an angel or abyssal entity does so, this is usually a very bad sign.

Rank 4 Rites

Call the Horned King

Target Number of Successes: 12

The ritualist calls forth the Horned King, who arrives at the head of a thundercloud, with lightning for spears and the thunder the baying of his hounds. In practice, this ritual calls up extreme weather effects, with a Rating of 1, +1 for every three additional dots of Potency (max Rating of 4), the weather being appropriate to the local conditions. Note that the ritualist may also choose to inflict less extreme weather, in case they would rather not destroy too much of the local area. The weather hits at full force for the rest of the scene, and then loses one level of Rating per hour afterwards. See GMC pg. 213 for more on extreme weather.

Lilith's Voice

Target Number of Successes: 12

Until sunrise, the ritualist is considered to have an honorary Rank of (Potency, to a maximum of the ritualist's Crúac ), as if he were an ephemeral entity of their own type, if perhaps of an unusually sanguine variety. This has two effects. First, ephemeral entities will be wary of tangling with someone they perceive as being of greater or equal Rank to them, and will treat the ritualist with great respect. Secondly, the ritualist's fangs and claws count as the Bane of any ephemeral entity of lesser Rank than them.

Rank 5 Rites

Mother of Demons

Target Number of Successes: 12

Contested By: Resistance

Where before the ritualist asked in Lilith's name, now she commands. This ritual forces a single ephemeral entity within one mile to come before the ritualist, and then to accept up to (Potency/2) commands, rounded up, which it must obey. A single command is a single action -- "Go to #42 Hereford St., kill the old man there, and bring back his copy of Der Garten to me," would be three commands (going someplace, killing someone there, and bringing back the book).

Such entities are not happy to be used in such a way, and it's common for the final command given to be something which prevents the entity from retaliating.

Balance of Life and Death

Target Number of Successes: 12

Calling upon Lilith, the Lady of Fertility and Death and Rebirth, to rebalance the thickness of his blood, the ritualist is able to shift his Blood Potency up or down by up to (Potency) dots. With this ritual, young ritualists are able to shrug off great and terrible spells and to call upon more power of the blood than ever before, while elder ritualists benefit from a feeding pool that's 50,000 times larger than it was the night before. The effects of this ritual end at sunrise.

Heart's Curse

Target Number of Successes: 10

Resisted By: Stamina + Blood Potency

The victim of this ritual must be within one mile of the ritualist, and the ritualist must have a physical tie to the victim such as a hair or fingernail clipping. The ritual also involves the sacrifice of a living being, as at the climax of the spell, the ritualist tears out the sacrifice's heart with either a knife or her bare hands (using a human sacrifice counts as an elaborate ritual for a +3 bonus). Upon completion of the spell, the target instantly takes (Potency, capped at their Cruac rating) Lethal damage as their heart tries to burst from their chest -- if the target is killed by the ritual, then their heart literally explodes.

Theban Sorcery

Rank 1 Miracles

Lift the Scales

Target Number of Successes: 6

Sacrifice: The ritualist anoints his eyes with incense and honey

The ritualist is able to see and hear into the Twilight, and be seen and heard there in turn, until sunrise.

Blessed Medallion

Target Number of Successes: 5

Sacrifice: A small trinket with a holy symbol (crucifix, hamsa hand, medallion, etc), which turns to ash after use.

The ritualist imbues the object with a prayer, gaining the ability to draw it out in times of danger. This is a Hanging spell. Afterwards, provided the object is on the ritualist's body, the vampire can activate it as a Reflexive Action by saying "Lord protect me!" or "God please help me" or the like, and gain a +3 bonus to a single roll.

The basic advantage of Blessed Medallion is that it allows the ritualist to gain both a Medallion bonus and a Willpower bonus to a truly important roll, effectively adding two willpower points to a roll. If they have more than one such Medallion on them at the time that they activate the Hanging Spell all of them are activated and turn to dust, but they still receive only the +3 bonus on the roll.

Celibacy

Target Number of Successes: 8

Contested by: Composure+Blood Potency

Sacrifice: A red cloth

This pointed ritual, given in a vision to an English Bishop in the 18th Century, is used on a vampire within one mile of the ritualist. Until sunrise, the vampire cannot activate the Blush of Life, and his bite does not convey the Kiss.

Menetekel

Target Number of Successes: 5

Sacrifice: A clay tablet, on which the vampire writes the Hebrew words Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin in blood.

Used for both intimidation and communication purposes, this ritual allows the sorcerer to inscribe a message from a great distance. Unlike most rituals, this has unlimited range, but the sorcerer must have seen what he is writing on, and it must still be there (thus, this tends to be used on walls or other architectural features). The message can be no longer than (Potency x2) words, and appears to be written in blood, the words fading in one by one and lasting until sunrise.

Menetekel can be used to transmit a Theban Inscription, provided it's textual and short enough.

Theban Inscription

Target Number of Successes: 9

Sacrifice: The inscription must be physically inscribed onto the surface.

In the earliest nights of the covenant, when Theban Sorcery was barely understood and the Sanctified were surrounded by enemies both living and undead, this simple ritual saved many vampires from Final Death by leading them to secret havens beneath the sun-bleached stones of Egypt.

Immediately before or during the ritual, the ritualist inscribes a mark of no more than about a foot across onto the surface (painted, carved, drawn in chalk, it doesn't matter). The mark can be anything the ritualist cares to put down, whether a symbol or text or what-not. This mark can only be seen by those who have at least 1 dot of Theban Sorcery, or who succeed in a Clash of Wills vs (Potency) successes. The ritual is permanent once cast, though this does not make the inscription itself any more durable than it would otherwise be.

The Lancea et Sanctum sometimes uses this ritual on excommunicates as well, branding their flesh with hot irons so as to make them forever marked and anathema to Sanctified wherever they go.

Rank 2 Miracles

Legionnaire's Blessing

Target Number of Successes: 8

Sacrifice: Several expensive oils

Calling to mind the blessing of the Theban Legion by St. Daniel, the ritualist kisses a single melee weapon, firearm with a single magazine loaded into it, or set of armor before anointing it with oils. Until sunrise, the damage or armor bonus of the weapon is increased by (Potency), though to no greater than double the original damage or armor rating of the weapon. Using any of the traditional arms or armor of the Lancea et Sanctum (the gladius, the spear, the lorica segmentata) counts as an elaborate ritual for a +3 bonus.

Gift of Tongues

Target Number of Successes: 6

Sacrifice: Holy water that must be dabbed on recipients’ ears, eyes, and lips.

This ritual allows up to (Potency) subjects to be able to speak, read, and comprehend any non-supernatural language for the rest of the night.

Bird of Sin

Target Number of Successes: 8

Sacrifice: A feather at least four inches long.

This is a Hanging spell. As an Instant action, the ritualist calls forth the bird, which proceeds to attack the target for (Potency) turns. The bird has a dice pool of (10 - Target's Integrity), ignores all defense or armor, and deals Bashing damage. A target can will the bird out of existence by taking a Resolve+Composure roll as an Instant action -- each success reduces the remaining duration by 1, and if the remaining duration is reduced to 0, then the bird vanishes. This roll can be repeated.

Dust to Dust

Target Number of Successes: 10

Sacrifice: Ashes, grave-dirt, and a drop of blood

Commonly used to protect the Masquerade by destroying evidence, this ritual can be used in two ways. Used in a concentrated fashion, this ritual causes a single non-magical object of no greater than Size 5 (or part of a larger object) to age with incredible speed, taking (Potency x2) Structure damage -- most often, this reduces dead bodies to skeletons, if not outright dust. Used broadly, the ritual causes all non-living, non-magical material within 25 feet to age (Potency) years, which renders most trace evidence useless.

This ritual is occasionally used creatively, to knock down doors or to spoil food, but the fact that the spell must be cast on the scene limits its usefulness in these ways.

Resistance of Discipline

Target Number of Successes: 8

Sacrifice: A rosary or meditation beads

An old and venerable ritual, this power has been often used to preserve the sanctity of the covenant. This is a Hanging spell, and is verbally activated by the ritualist as an Instant action. By activating this ritual, the sorcerer grants himself, or a subject who can hear the sound of his voice, a renewed attempt to resist any supernatural power power resisted with a contested action that is currently affecting the subject or his immediate surroundings, whether he initially resisted the power or not.

The original dice pool for the supernatural power to be resisted should not be re-rolled. The subject is pitted against the successes rolled on the initial use of the power being resisted.

Rank 3 Miracles

Dark Blessing

Target Number of Successes: 13

Sacrifice: A cup of mixed wine and blood, drunk during the ritual

The ritualist blesses either herself or a target in her presence with regard to a specific action. The next time the victim engages in that action, he gains a +(Potency) dice bonus. This occurs only once.The effect of the ritual ends if not used after a lunar month.

Shield of Righteousness

Target Number of Successes: 10

Sacrifice: A large religious medallion or St. Christopher medal, worn prominently for the duration of the ritual.

The ritualist blesses either himself or another individual with protection from witchcraft and dark magics. The next (Potency) hostile supernatural effects that seek to affect the protected individual are penalized by the ritualist's Theban Sorcery dots, over and above any normal penalties. Any left-over protections vanish at sunrise. Note: This does not protect against hostile Theban Sorcery spells.

Exorcism

Target Number of Successes: 8

Sacrifice: A holy book, from which the ritualist reads during the ritual

This ritual grants the ritualist a +(Potency) bonus to the next Abjuration roll made to cast out or banish an ephemeral entity, made before sunrise. For more on Abjuration, see GMC pg. 231.

Rigor Mortis

Target Number of Successes: 8

Contested by: Stamina + Blood Potency

Sacrifice: A human bone

The victim, who must be within a mile of the ritual, has a sudden and forcible premonition of what it is like to be dead. He takes a -3 penalty to all physical rolls as his body grows stiff, and if a Kindred he loses the ability to use Physical Intensity. This lasts for (Potency) hours.

Rank 4 Miracles

Inscribe the Name of God

Target Number of Successes: 12

Sacrifice: The Sanctified inscribes the Chi Rho symbol of Constantine I onto the object

Though the Sanctified are Damned, they have no truck with those damned spirits and demons who disobey God's will. With this ritual, the ritualist transforms an object of no more than Size 5 into a universal Bane (see GMC pg. 221) against ephemeral beings for the next (Potency) nights. This ritual is most often used either to craft weapons, or to create spirit-proof vaults.

Rank 5 Miracles

Fires of Vengeance

Target Number of Successes: 12

Sacrifice: The ritualist burns his hand with a blazing candle, taking at least one point of damage.

This is a Hanging spell, and is activated as an Instant Action when the sorcerer names a group of sinners; the sin must be something that would cause a Breaking Point for a Integrity 7 mortal. If a character can be seen by the sorcerer and has committed that sin within the last week, they are struck by the Fires of Vengeance.

The flames cause 1L damage for every success scored on a roll with a dice pool equal to (10 minus the victim’s Integrity equivalent) and last for (Potency) turns. A target can will the flames out of existence by taking a Resolve+Composure roll as an Instant action -- each success reduces the remaining duration by 1, and if the remaining duration is reduced to 0, then the flames vanish. This roll can be repeated.