Occult Basics

Art of Alchemy

• Alchemical Touchstone
  • Perception + Occult, dif 1, one action
  • When expertise at Lore isn’t enough to identify a substance, an occultist can rub it against a specially treated ceramic plate—a touchstone—and glean clues from the streak left behind. Other “touchstones” are fluids dripped on an unknown substance. Each alchemical touchstone detects the presence or absence of a single substance or property, such as jade alloys, Wyld-taint or snake venoms. Compounding a touchstone may take days, but once made it can be used quickly. A touchstone stays usable for a season.

Art of Astrology

• Compile Astrological Chart
  • Wits + Occult, dif 2, one hour
  • This ritual requires access to star charts (Resources 2) and detailed personal information about the subject, or it automatically fails. Pertinent information may be obtained freely or uncovered through investigation. Success creates an astrological profile necessary for greater astrological rituals.

Art of the Dead

• Pierce Shadowland
  • Wits + Occult, dif 2, one minute
  • This quick ritual involves intense concentration and perfect timing while dripping a bit of blood on a shadowland’s border. The ritual enables the thaumaturge to pass through the shadowland’s border into either Creation or the Underworld at any time of the day or night. Each additional entity brought through the border adds one minute to the ritual.
• Summon Ghost
  • Charisma + Occult, dif 2, 15 minutes
  • Ghosts are frightfully easy to summon, as virtually any apprentice of the occult can tell you. At a location important to the deceased, a thaumaturge may call a ghost through offerings of grave goods and fresh blood. The roll’s difficulty decreases by 1 if performed in a shadowland or the Underworld; increase it by 1 for each 100 years the person has been dead and if summoning a ghost by its qualities rather than its name. When performing this ritual in a shadowland, failure means that five (usually unwelcome) ghosts show up for each success by which the attempt falls short. Ghost summoned by this ritual manifest visibly and audibly but remain immaterial unless the ghost can materialize on its own or the summoning takes place in a shadowland.

Art of Enchantment

• Analyze Talisman
  • Perception + Occult, dif 1, five minutes
  • These simple tests reveal whether an object is enchanted. With at least three successes, the caster gets some basic idea about the enchanted object’s nature, while five successes pinpoint its purpose.
• Alloyed Essence Indicator
  • Intelligence + Occult, dif 5, five minutes
  • This simple ritual identifies an object as an artifact, a hearthstone or otherwise imbued with magical powers. It tells nothing about the nature of those powers.

Art of Geomancy

• Dragon Line Compass
  • Perception + Occult, dif 1, five minutes
  • The motions of a compass plate or a jade-and crystal pendulum reveal when the thaumaturge stands within (successes x 10) yards of a dragon line. Once the character locates a dragon line, he can follow it for one hour before needing to perform this ritual again.
• Essence Sense
  • Perception + Occult, dif 1, one minute
  • Needing no materials, nor required to spend Willpower, the thaumaturge handles or stares at a target object or being in rapt concentration. If the successes equal (11 – [the number of motes spent on Charms and/or spells currently affecting the target]), the thaumaturge senses the presence of Essence, but not its strength or source. Three or more successes also detect the presence of any thaumaturgical effects on the target.
• Magical Attunement
  • Wits + Occult, dif 3, 20 minutes
  • By handling and practicing with an item, an enlightened mortal may duplicate an Exalt’s innate ability to attune to an artifact by committing the requisite amount of Essence. Mortals never gain the magical material bonus of the item. Enlightened mortals do not require this ritual to use their Essence pool to activate artifacts with an Essence cost but no commitment required.

Art of Husbandry

• Judge the Pure Beast
  • Perception + Occult, dif 1, one minute
  • Observing an animal carefully, and whispering a prayer to the god most appropriate to the beast, the thaumaturge analyzes its behavior. With a success, the thaumaturge can determine whether an animal is a normal specimen, without magical properties, Wyld taint or the like. If the beast is not normal, the thaumaturge learns this, but the rite does not reveal what precisely makes the animal unnatural. This ritual has no Resources cost.
• Warding the Crops
  • Intelligence + Occult, dif 1, five minutes
  • The thaumaturge forbids one kind of pest from attacking selected plants, plus one additional pest per Degree in the Art. The ritual protects one acre of grain, vegetables or other small plants, or five trees, grapevines or other large plants. The protection lasts one week per success.

Art of Spirit Beckoning

These are all very basic prayers, generally usable by anyone, though typically only used by those who worship the god invoked.

Siakal

• Sublime Frenzy
  • Charisma + Performance, dif [7–Resources of sacrifice], one action
  • This prayer suffuses an adherent with the dauntless ferocity of Siakal, the slaughter-hungry War God of the West. For the rest of the scene, all Valor rolls for that character and the character ignores wound penalties. However, the character drops to Compassion 1 and feels an unnatural mental influence compulsion preventing him from showing the slightest mercy to anyone: this cannot be resisted because the character asked for it. Each use of this prayer also counts as a scene weakening all Intimacies based on love, kindness or anything else that opposes Siakal’s nature.
• Scent of Shark Within
  • Charisma + Performance, dif [7–Resources of sacrifice], one action
  • This prayer begs Siakal to spare a worshipper from the jaws of her children. Although the Slaughter Goddess has no mercy, she recognizes that devout followers can wreak more carnage if they are not eaten. If the supplicant has not offended Siakal in any way, no shark, siaka or War Shark will attack him unless directly provoked or magically compelled. Even in the middle of a feeding frenzy, the character remains untouched. This immunity lasts one day per success rolled. A character has no way to know whether Siakal has given or revoked this blessing without testing it; cults sometimes use the prayer as a rite of passage to test the faith of new members.

Art of Warding & Exorcism

• Sensing the Barrier
  • Perception + Occult, dif 3, one minute
  • This simple ritual reveals the presence of every mystic barrier within sight, even if it would not affect the thaumaturge. This ritual merely reveals the existence of a ward; it does not reveal what the ward protects against, its strength or any other details.
• Thrice-Warded Gateway
  • Dexterity + Occult, dif 2, one minute
  • Repeating a short prayer to a god of locks and wards seven times, and wrapping the handle with a bit of twine, the magician causes a door to act as if it were stoutly barred for the next hour. This rite does not strengthen the door’s structure, so it might still be forced.

Art of Weather Working

• Foretell Weather
  • Perception + Occult, dif 2, one minute
  • Whispering to the winds, offering incense and listening for its answers, a thaumaturge uses this ritual to predict the weather, with each success representing one day in the future. Subsequent events of which the Council of Winds was unaware at the time of the ritual may change the Council’s course and render this rite’s results irrelevant.