Thaumaturgy Rituals
1 - Blood Rush (Sabbat)
The vampire may make herself feel as though she has fed, even is she hasn’t. This may be used for pleasure, or to curb thirst-related frenzy. Lasts one hour.
1 - Communicate with Kindred Sire
This ritual involves possessing an object belonging to the Sire, and takes five minutes. The vampire may speak with her sire, telepathically (this does not facilitate mindreading). Variations of this ritual exist to allow telepathic communication between one’s thralls, progeny, or those who have tasted the caster’s blood.
1 - Defense of the Sacred Haven
This ritual takes an hour to perform, and uses up one blood point. The vampire may put a drop of her blood on each window in an area, up to twenty feet away from the ritual site. All sunlight that would go in through these windows is instead reflected by them. This ritual lasts as long as the vampire is in the area.
1 - Deflection of Wooden Doom
This ritual involves standing in a circle of wood, and putting a splinter in one’s mouth. One wooden melee weapon that is about to penetrate the vampire’s heart will instead disintegrate. A weapon that is only held threateningly, without the intent to stab the vampire, will not be affected. Lasts until sunset, or until it affects a weapon.
1 - Devil’s Touch
This ritual must be cast in the presence of its victim, and involves putting a coin on her person. The vampire can make all other mortals react to a mortal victim with hostility. Lasts one night.
1 - Dominoe of Life (Sabbat)
The vampire may simulate one human trait. Any trait, from the warmth of human flesh, to tears, can be assumed. Lasts one night.
1 - Engaging the Vessel of Transference
This ritual involves putting blood in a container, sealing it, and engraving a rune on it, and takes three hours. This container will take some blood from, and empty its current load into, anyone who touches it, who will only feel a shiver. If the rune is not covered, a roll of Intelligence + Occult, difficulty 8, will reveal it to read "change blood". This container will act as described, again and again, until broken open.
1 - Illuminate Trail of the Prey (Sabbat)
The vampire may make the trail of a specific victim glow in such a way that only she can see it. All paths, from an airplane’s vapor trails to footprints, will be shown. A starting point is required, as is an initial sighting of the victim, and the spell is nullified if the vampire wades in or is immersed in water.
1 - Incantation of the Shepherd
This ritual involves holding glass over each of one’s eyes, and turning slowly, for fifteen minutes. The vampire may locate each vessel of her herd, starting with the closest and working outward. She must have tasted a vessel at least once for this to work.
1 - Preserve Blood (Sabbat)
This ritual involves burying an earthenware container for three nights. Blood may be preserved in such a container by putting in a little burdock, reciting a few incantations, and sealing it with wax. This blood will be preserved until the container is broken or opened. This continer can not be used twice with the same blood.
1 - Preserve Corpse (Black Hand)
The vampire may create, from a mixture of decaying organic matter and herbs, a liquid that, once poured on a corpse, will preserve it. This ritual produces enough of this material to cover a large corpse. The liquid will last indefinitely once applied, but will lose its potency within a week if not used before then.
1 - Purity of Flesh
This ritual involves concentrating for ten minutes in a lotus position, surrounded by thirteen sharp stones, and then spending a blood point. This ritual will remove all foreign matter from the vampire, good or bad. (This includes fake limbs, breast implants, surgical appliances, poisons, drugs, wooden splinters, etc.) This also affects matter touching her, and those performing this ritual would be advised to do it in the nude.
1 - Rebirth of Mortal Vanity
This ritual requires strands of hair from mortal children, and involves gesturing in front of a mirror for an hour. This ritual causes the vampire’s hair to grow one inch for each child from whom hair was taken and used. This hair will remain until cut. If the vampire wishes to perform this ritual for another, she must also be in front of the mirror.
1 - Rite of Introduction
This ritual involves reciting a half-hour incantation, and then speaking into water vapor. The vampire may contact the Regent of the nearest Tremere Chantry first, and then others, descending the hierarchy. By tradition, only the Regent is bound to answer, and a brief dialogue with each person is possible. Used often to announce one’s presence, or to call for help.
1 - Wake with Evening’s Freshness
This ritual takes a half-hour to perform, and involves burning feathers, and spreading the ashes over the sleeping area. The vampire who performs this ritual may awaken at the slightest sign of danger, and the rules involving Humanity, regarding the ability to awaken and remain awake, are waived for the first few turns. Lasts until sunset.
1 - Will o’ the Wisp (Sabbat)
The vampire may turn a small branch from a willow tree into a floating ball of light that is under her mental command, that will continue to glow if within sight of the vampire.
2 - Blood Call (Clanbook:Assamite)
This ritual requires a point of blood from each of its participants, and takes a half-hour to cast, though only one participant need know the ritual. Two willing vampires may be made to share an empathic bond with each other. Lasts until one of the vampires is destroyed, at which point the other will receive insight into how it happened.
2 - Blood Walk
Roll: Perception + Empathy, difficulty 6
This ritual involves a point of the target’s vitae, which is tasted, and three hours of meditation. The vampire will learn the true name of the target, her personality, any and all blood bonds, etc. Each success reveals the next step of the vampire’s lineage.
2 - Craft Bloodstone (Sabbat)
This ritual involves allowing a stone to soak for three nights in three points of one’s own vitae. By the third night, the result will be a bloodstone sitting in clear fluid. The vampire will always know the exact location of a bloodstone created with her own vitae.
2 - Donning the Mask of Shadows
Roll: Willpower, difficulty 6
Resist: Intelligence + Alertness, difficulty Wits + Stealth
This ritual takes twenty minutes to cast. The vampire may make herself unnoticeable to others, for one hour per success. Those with Auspex make the resistance roll above with a difficulty reduced by three. Animals will automatically sense the vampire.
2 - Eyes of the Night Hawk (Sabbat)
This ritual involves soaking birdseed in a solution of bizarre ingredients, and feeding it to a bird. What the bird hears, the vampire will hear. What the bird sees, the vampire will see if she closes her eyes. The bird may be commanded where to travel, but no other commands may be made. Lasts one night.
2 - Impassable Trail (Sabbat)
This ritual involves rubbing one’s feet on deerskin. The vampire may pass through even a dense forest, leaving only olfactory evidence of her passing. Lasts one night.
2 - Machine Blitz (Sabbat)
By concentrating on a machine, the vampire can make machines go haywire in the manner of her choosing, but within reasonable behavior for the machine.
2 - Mourning Life Curse
This one-hour ritual involves the ingestion of crocodile blood. The vampire may whisper a magic word in a victim’s ear, which will cause the victim to cry blood until the vampire removes her gaze from her, at a rate of one blood point per five minutes. The effects of this are slightly swollen capillaries around the eyes, and the usual effects of blood loss.
2 - Power of the Invisible Flame (Sabbat)
This ritual must be cast around a fire at least the size of a torch, and the vampire must know the Thaumaturgy Path Lure of Flames. The vampire can make flames made by the Thaumaturgy Path Lure of Flames invisible. Lasts one night.
2 - Principle Focus of Vitae Infusion
This four-hour ritual requires an object that can be held in both hands. A blood point belonging to the vampire may be stored in this object, and if the enchantment is dispelled, the object will disintegrate, releasing the blood. This ritual may be done for another vampire, but the blood must still belong to the caster.
2 - Recure of the Homeland (Sabbat)
This ritual puts an enchantment on any amount of dirt from the place of the vampire’s birth. A handful of dirt so prepared may be used to heal one aggravated wound per night. This ritual may only be cast once per night. This dirt can only be so used once.
2 - Steps of the Terrified (Sabbat)
This ritual requires a perfect cube of dried mud. The vampire may slow down a specific foe. The faster that foe tries to run, the slower she moves.
2 - Summon Guardian Spirit (Sabbat)
The vampire may summon a spirit to alert her to danger should it arise, but this spirit is only visible in time of danger, and is mute. It must warn the vampire by creating physical disturbances, IE Embody or Outrage. The spirit remains for twenty-four hours.
2 - Ward Versus Ghouls
This ten-hour ritual requires a point of mortal blood, in addition to the object being made into a ward. This object, when touching a ghoul, will do three dice of damage, difficulty Stamina + Fortitude of the ghoul, and the ghoul must spend a willpower point to touch it again. If this ward is placed on a door or an unbroken circle, the ghoul will be unable to pass it. If a bullet is warded, then five successes are required on the Firearms roll to leave the bullet in the body where it will continue doing damage. (This only works on smaller calibers.)
3 - Eldritch Glimmer (Sabbat)
This ritual requires a piece of vinegar-soaked sandstone. The vampire may, for the cost of one blood point each, shoot one energy bolt per turn. To hit someone, roll Perception + Firearms, difficulty 6, and these bolts do three dice of damage. The vampire glows in green light for the duration of this ritual.
3 - Fire in the Blood (Sabbat)
The vampire may heat a target’s blood. The result is not only painful, but unless vampire makes a Wits + Medicine roll of difficulty 7 first, every action she takes requiring a physical attribute roll causes an aggravated wound.
3 - Flesh of Fiery Touch
This ritual involves swallowing a small burning coal, taking one die of aggravated damage. (The vampire must spend one willpower point to bring herself to do this.) Any vampire who touches the caster will take one die of aggravated damage for each turn that she is touching the caster. This ritual lasts until the next dusk, and for the effective time of the ritual, the vampire’s skin is slightly tanned, which may be noticed with a roll of Perception, difficulty 8. This is only a defensive ritual; the caster can not do aggravated damage by touching another vampire.
3 - Friend of the Trees (Sabbat)
This ritual involves planting an acorn. In woods, those following the vampire will only be able to move half-speed, due to an unusual tendency of the trees, vines, and roots to get in their way.
3 - Gentle Mind (Milwaukee by Night)
This ritual involves sharing a blood point with the target, and therefore can not be cast on one’s self. The target is considered to have four extra dots in Willpower, but only as applicable to stopping a frenzy.
3 - Illusion of Peaceful Death (Milwaukee by Night)
This ritual involves dusting a corpse with a white feather, and has the effect of hiding all signs of unnatural death on a corpse, making the deceased appear to have died of natural causes. This will not hide exsanguination; only obvious signs.
3 - Moonlight Dancers (Black Hand)
The vampire may create illusions of persons and music from a period of history of her choice, which will then dance. These illusions will be mistaken for ghosts by those unfamiliar, but are not real or even sentient -- just figments of everyone’s imaginations created to put on an entertaining show. Lasts until sunrise, though the vampire may end it before then.
3 - Noncorporeal Passage
Roll: Wits + Survival, difficulty 6
This one-hour ritual requires a fragment of a mirror, and makes the vampire incorporeal for one hour per success, as long as she can see herself in the mirror. In this state, she may move through solid objects (in a straight line only), and is impervious to physical attack.
3 - Pavis of Foul Presence
This ritual requires a blue silk cord, tied around the neck. All powers of Presence used on the vampire are instead turned on the user. Lasts one night, as long as the cord remains tied.
3 - Rotten Wood (Sabbat)
This ritual must be set up in advance. The vampire may, by use of a word and a touch, turn any wooden object to dust.
3 - Shaft of Belated Quiescence
This five-hour ritual involves carving symbols on a stake of ash, coating it with one’s own blood, and blackening it in an oak wood wire. The resulting stake’s tip will break off in a victim, and travel towards the heart, with predictable results. It will reach the heart in 1d10 days, and can only be removed by cutting the target open... and the stake point will try to dodge anyone who tries to do this.
3 - Summon Mischievous Spirit (Sabbat)
Roll: Charisma + Spirit Lore, difficulty 7
The vampire may summon a poltergeist. This spirit will not usually intentionally injure a victim; it just wants to drive her bat-shit. However... accidents happen. How the spirit annoys the victim is up to the Storyteller. This spirit remains for the following periods of time:
1 suc. one hour.
2 suc. one night.
3 suc. one week.
4 suc. one month.
5 suc. one year.
3 - Touch of Nightshade (Sabbat)
Resist: Stamina + Fortitude, difficulty 6
This ritual involves rubbing a little nightshade juice on one’s hand, and touching a victim. The victim rolls as above. On failure, if mortal, she dies. Otherwise, the victim suffers a +1 difficulty modifier for each success less than three, for the remainder of the night.
3 - Ward Versus Lupines
This ten-hour ritual requires some silver dust, in addition to the object being made into a ward. If this ward is placed on a door or an unbroken circle, the lupine will be unable to pass it. If a bullet is warded, then five successes are required on the appropriate Firearms roll to leave the bullet in the body where it will continue doing damage. (This only works on smaller calibers.) This object, when touching a lupine, does three dice of damage, difficulty Stamina + Survival of the lupine, and the lupine must spend a willpower point to touch it again.
4 - Bone of Lies
This one-day ritual involves soaking a bone of a mortal who has been dead for two hundred years, in ten points of kindred blood. The resulting red bone will force anyone who is holding it to tell the truth. Each time that they intended to lie, it forces them to tell the truth, and darkens, until it has absorbed ten lies, at which time it will be pitch black. The spirit of the mortal whose bone was used forces the holder to tell the truth, and is thereby corrupted by each lie. If summoned later, it will be appropriately malevolent.
4 - Bottled Voice (Sabbat)
This ritual involves reciting an incantation, and sealing a specially prepared bottle with wax. The vampire may steal a target’s capacity to speak, and put it into a bottle, where it will remain until it is opened or broken.
4 - Drawing upon the Bound (Sabbat)
When carrying a vial of the blood of one’s thrall, the vampire may use any disciplines possessed by her thrall, who may not use them if the vampire is using them. The thrall must be bound directly to the vampire; the Vinculum does not count.
4 - Fire Walker (Sabbat)
This ritual involves rubbing a prepared salve on one’s bare feet, and gives the vampire twice her normal soak against fire.
4 - Haunting (Sabbat)
Roll: Charisma + Spirit Lore, difficulty 7
The vampire may summon a spirit, who will try to scare a mortal. How long the spirit stays, and continues to try to scare the mortal, is determined as follows:
1 suc. one hour.
2 suc. one night.
3 suc. one week.
4 suc. one month.
5 suc. one year.
The spirit will try to scare her victim with effects of Pandemonium, Phantasm, or Outrage, of levels between 3 and 5. Standard rules for Fog are applied as the Storyteller sees fit.
If only Vampire rules are available, the spirit rolls Charisma + Intimidation + a few extra dice (Storyteller’s discretion), difficulty Stamina + Courage, with effects determined as follows:
1 suc. The victim is scared.
2 suc. The victim is scared beyond any capacity for action for minutes to hours.
3 suc. The victim faints.
4 suc. The victim goes into shock, and really needs to see a shrink.
5 suc. The victim rolls Stamina + Self-Control, difficulty 8. If the roll is failed, she dies of heart failure. If she survives, having her hair turn white is a distinct possibility.
4 - Heart of Stone
This seven-hour ritual involves laying naked on one’s back in a three-inch high circle of dirt made on a stone surface, lighting a candle directly above one’s heart, and waiting until the candle has gone down all the way, and has extinguished itself in its own wax. (This ritual inflicts one die of aggravated damage.) This ritual turns the vampire’s heart to stone. This spell will last as long as the vampire wishes, as long as she doesn’t use willpower points. The vampire’s Conscience drops to one, or zero if it was already one, and she loses half her dice pool on Empathy rolls, and other rolls where feelings are important.
4 - Innocence of the Child’s Heart (Milwaukee by Night)
This ritual requires that the vampire who casts it be carrying a child’s toy, and for as long as she is carrying it on her person, her aura will be bright white.
4 - Invisible Chains of Binding (Sabbat)
The vampire may, with a few gestures, immobilize up to four victims in invisible restraints, and these victims may not move unless they roll Strength, and get two successes in a turn. If this occurs, the restraints cease to work.
4 - Keening of the Banshee (Sabbat)
This ritual requires a pendant carved from a tombstone. The vampire makes a loud, frightening noise. Whomever is closest at the time ages one to ten years (roll a die), and her hair may turn white. This ritual has no effect on vampires.
4 - Mirror Walk (Sabbat)
This ritual requires a ring with an emerald in it. The vampire may use any sufficiently large mirror as a portal to the nearest other sufficiently large mirror, and may take one person with her. The mirror ripples, and the emerald glows, as this ritual is performed. Once the mirror stops rippling, the vampire can not be followed. If the mirror stops rippling with a pursuer halfway in, she is cut in two, though she may be allowed to escape with a roll of Dexterity + Dodge, difficulty 7.
4 - Protean Curse (Milwaukee by Night)
This ritual involves having the target drink the blood of a rabid vampire bat, and it turns her into a bat. If the target has already been turned into a bat, repeating this ritual will transform her back into her original shape.
4 - Rending Sweet Earth (Milwaukee by Night)
This ritual involves repeatedly thrashing a section of ground with a leather whip. When it is performed, a 10' × 10' section of earth will disappear. If a vampire happens to be earth-melded in that section of earth, she will be awakened as the earth around her disappears, unless she is in torpor.
4 - Respect of Animals (Sabbat)
The vampire will not be considered as a meal, sprayed, mutilated, or otherwise outraged by any animal she meets. Lasts four hours.
4 - Shadowgate (Black Hand)
This ritual involves a powder made from coal and human ashes (which can be made ahead of time), with which the vampire draws an X over each of her eyes, and stepping into a shadow. By performing it, the vampire can enter and exit the Shadowlands, and any objects she can carry are taken across the Shroud with her.
4 - Splinter Servant
This two-day ritual involves reciting incantations over a stake from a tree that grew in a graveyard, wrapping it in nightshade twine, and sealing it with wax. The resulting object may be peeled, and commanded to attack a target, at which point it will splinter to make appendages to propel itself toward its target. It will continue pursuit until destroyed, or reduced to so many splinters that they are inanimate. This stake will always go for the heart, and will often continue to splinter once in the heart.
4 - Ward Versus Kindred
This ten-hour ritual requires a point of vampire blood, in addition to the object being made into a ward. This object, when touching a vampire, will do three dice of damage, difficulty Stamina + Fortitude of the vampire, and the vampire must spend a willpower point to touch it again. If this ward is placed on a door or an unbroken circle, the vampire will be unable to pass it. If a bullet is warded, then five successes are required on the appropriate Firearms roll to leave the bullet in the body where it will continue doing damage. (This only works on smaller calibers.)