Necromancy

[Hematite]

Necromancy Rituals - 1st Level

Animal Kingdom {A} [ECC Custom]

This is a simple ritual designed to allow the Necromancer to animate animals. By simply burying an animal and pouring some of his own Vitae on the grave, the caster allows the animal to be animated by the Bone Path. This ritual only takes 10 minutes to perform.

System: By pouring out one blood point and succeeding on the ritual test, the Necromancer can now animate animals. These animals behave as normal animals of their type, but are immune to wound penalties and mental disciplines.

This ritual now allows animals to be animated either with Bone Path or Cadaverous Animation. These animals use the same statistics as appropriate to the type of zombie used to animate them.

This ritual must be cast on the animal corpse to be animated before the power to animate it is cast. This must be done each time the corpse is to be animated.


Approaching the Shroud [ECC Custom]

This disturbing ritual brings a vampire closer to the grave, making her body unfeeling and pale, like that of a bloodless corpse. It takes an hour to cast, and requires a handful of soil from the grave. When the ritual is activated, the caster will feel her body grow cold and numb. During the ritual, the caster's difficulty on non-intimidate based social interactions increase by one, and the caster loses one point of Stamina for the duration of the ritual. However, because the Vampire can feel no pain, she suffers no wound penalties. The effects of the ritual last for one night.

The loss of Stamina also decreases the Generation cap, both for maximum Stamina that can be maintained for a turn and for maximum stamina that can be acquired at all while this power persists.


Bestowing the Kaimyo {Eg} [ECC Custom]

Upon death a wraith will return when his name is called. To prevent this, the deceased's relatives select a name and have a priest carve or write this new name on an appropriate medium. Done correctly, this ritual prevents the wraith’s name from being used to compel or control him after death.

System: This ritual can be done only once to a particular wraith, and only within one lunar month of the actual death of the individual. An eight-hour ritual of chanting sutra and carving the name into the ancestral shrine culminates giving the wraith a new name. Only using the new name can a wraith be summoned or controlled.

This ritual changes both the wraiths real name and his True Name, should any have known that before. Discovering both the old and new Real Name are worthy of a Perception + Investigation roll to gain more successes on True Name research.


Black Blood [ECC Custom]

This ritual allows the Necromancer to enchant his own Blood, or the blood of a recently dead person, and turn it into the legendary Black Blood of fables. If done on the Necromancer himself, this ritual 'consumes' Blood but remains in the system, waiting for a fool to try to drink it. Should someone taste this Black Blood it will cause terrible pains and may even damage them. The Black Blood created from a corpse's blood may be used to make the casting of rituals easier. By dipping his hands in the Black Blood and absorbing this into his hands (which turn black until a ritual has been performed) he connects to the Shadowlands much easier.

System: The Necromancer may spend as many points of Blood as he wants to when casting this ritual. These are turned into the Black Blood. Anyone that drinks the necromancer’s blood while there is Black Blood in his system will consume the Black Blood first. For each point of Black Blood drunk, the drinker will suffer a one die penalty to all physical actions as terrible pains wrack his system. These penalties will last as long as the Black Blood remains in his system (remember that Blood points are spent in the order of first in, first out), though the Black Blood may be spent normally when it cycles around. He will also take one level of unsoakable lethal damage per point drunk, though this may be healed normally. While it remains in the necromancer’s body, the Black Blood points cannot be spent for anything and simply occupies dead space in the necromancer’s blood pool. The Black Blood fades from the necromancer’s system at dawn, all points disappearing, possibly leaving the necromancer to wake the next night quite hungry.

If this ritual is enacted on the blood of a corpse, it reduces the difficulty of the next Necromancy ritual cast by one to a minimum of difficulty 4.

Call of the Hungry Dead [V20 177]

For the prepared, this ritual can facilitate a séance environment where the Necromancer allows the assembled group to hear the voices of the dead in the room, since even with Shroudsight provided by Peek Past the Shroud, the dead are not audible. For the unprepared, the howling of ghostly storms and the wailing of the dead suddenly audible provokes a Willpower test, difficulty 8. Failure yields the Phasmophobia derangement to the victim.


Casting of Bones {Mgv} [PGttHC 197]

Use a single World of Darkness check instead of a die roll. If the Necromancer tests up or even, the result is good. If she tests down, the result is bad.

The Necromancer needs to test up on any subsequent check, and after that Necromancer needs one additional “up” test each time this power is used in a given night, to a maximum of 3. So a Necromancer who is using this ritual for the second time in a night needs to test up for a good result, and using it for the third time in a night needs to test up twice, and so on to a maximum of requiring 3 up tests to gain the favourable result.

There is no maximum to the number of times this ritual can be used in a night.

This ritual requires dice made from the knucklebones of executed criminals. This is getting harder and harder in the modern nights as fewer and fewer criminals are being executed. A criminal who was simply killed does not suffice, the criminal must have been found guilty under the law of the land (whatever that may be) and executed in accordance with that law.


Circle of Cerberus {G} [BM:SoT 105]

This ritual cannot be cast on the fly because it requires that the Necromancer bathe, fast (not feed that night) and other preparations. Because of this, without prior notification of this preparedness, this ritual cannot be cast at game.

Casting this ritual is considered to take a single downtime action which must be spent and registered as normal. The roll for the ritual can be thrown at game after the downtime action was spent.


Eldritch Beacon [V20 177]

Whoever carries the sphere can be seen across the Shroud with a bright green aura around her. There is no need to peek to see this individual, and all attempts to use Obfuscate or Stealth automatically fail in regards to those looking from across the Shroud.

All Arcanoi targeted at the one holding the sphere are cast at -2 difficulty.


Feed the Angry Ghost {E} [ECC Custom]

Chopsticks are never stuck into food except at funerals, so that the dead wraiths may feed. With this ritual, the Necromancer can give nourishment to a wounded ghost, allowing it to heal itself.

System: The Necromancer can restore an injured wraith by preparing a bowl of rice mixed with his blood and the ashes of a sutra. The wraith then consumes the rice causing it to putrefy. The Necromancer rolls Intelligence + Occult at difficulty 4 and spends up to 3 blood points which must be mixed with the rice. For each blood point spent in casting this ritual, the wraith may heal one Corpus. This ritual may not be used to heal aggravated damage to a wraith.

This ritual must be targeted to heal a specific wraith, whose name must be written as part of the burned sutra that is mixed with the rice. No other wraith may gain sustenance from this ritual.

A given wraith may only benefit from this ritual once per night.


Final Sight {Mg} [DAV 196]

This is an earlier printing of the ritual Insight. Emerald Coven Chronicles uses that version of the ritual. See below for its clarifications.


From a Sow’s Ear {G} [ECC Custom]

For all the effort Giovanni have done: dug for fetters, mastered paths of necromancy, and researched elaborate rituals all to control wraiths, there are still doors in the land of the dead that cash can open faster and better. One Giovanni, tired of having a wraith hold his funds for bargaining developed a way to handle his own wallet for oboli.

System: The ritual needs a small piece of leather; this should be sewn into a small pocket by the necromancer using a thread woven from his own hair. The necromancer then must find the corpse of an individual that became a wraith. The necromancer then fills the pouch with a mixture of herbs, salt, and a pound of the flesh gleaned from the corpse, and then must leave it with the body for a period of 30 days and nights. After that time has passed the pouch has solidified within the shadowlands and as such can be used to carry and manipulate small objects, primarily used to carry oboli. Nothing larger than a cell phone can be carried in the pouch, equating to roughly a fifteen oboli maximum.

Any item of small enough size may be placed within the pouch. However such items are still only accessible on the proper side of the Shroud. So oboli and small relics or soulforged items carried in the pouch cannot be extracted while the Necromancer is in the Skinlands. While the Necromancer is in the Skinlands, the pouch simply appears empty, its contents only revealing themselves when he crosses the Shroud.

The pouch itself however exists on both sides of the Shroud wherever it goes, making it a tempting target for wraith pickpockets.

If the pouch is taken deeper into the Underworld it vanishes from the Skinlands and the ritual is broken.


Howl From Beyond {mg} [PGttHC 198]

This is an earlier printing of the ritual Call of the Hungry Dead. Emerald Coven Chronicles uses that version of the ritual. See above for its clarifications.


Incense of Purification {Eg} [ECC Custom]

Certain herbs have long been believed to have the power to ward off evil spirits, or the malevolent dead. With this ritual, the Necromancer prepares a concoction of such herbs into an incense stick which when burned, weakens wraiths in its vicinity.

System: The necromancer spends an hour grinding, soaking and preparing herbs. After which the herbs are sprinkled with the casters blood and dried, creating 1 stick of incense per success on the ritual, and the sticks last for one season. When lit this incense smells salty and leaves a white smoke in the air. While in a room affected by the Incense of Purification, all wraiths suffer +2 difficulty to all actions. 1 stick will last for one hour and can fill a medium sized room or 2 smaller rooms.

This ritual costs a blood point per casting (not per stick).


Insight {G} [V20 177]

This ritual does not take 5 minutes. It may be cast instantly, taking only one full turn as the necromancer stares into the eyes of his target.

This ritual may be used on Cainites or wraiths. If so, this shows the scene of their mortal death (and for Cainites, likely their embrace).

This ritual does not actually require the subject have eyes, though as a potent focus, the difficulty is increased by two if using it upon a subject without at least one intact eye, and by 3 if the subject doesn’t even have intact eye sockets (such as a pile of ash from a deceased Cainite).


Knell of Doom {M} [PGttHC 198]

If a significant amount of death occurs in the Emerald Domain, the Staff or a Narrator in charge will make an attempt to notify the Necromancer’s player, understanding that this process is imperfect because of the limitations of LARP play.

Furthermore, as a downtime action, the Necromancer can locate a number of dead individuals equal to the successes on a single Perception + Occult roll (difficulty 6, modified by Auspex) during downtime. If they have some means to retrieve these bodies, they may have them as item cards. Perform this action when activating the ritual at the start of game.


Knowing Stone {V} [V20 177]

The information imparted by this ritual is done verbally through a ghost or a Loa, and that creature can only report what would be visible in the person’s presence and nearby area. In an urban setting, street addresses and other clues are easy to find, but targets in the wilderness yield a much more vague answer.

As the information comes via passing wraiths or loa, this ritual cannot give the location of anyone contained within a Circle Ward versus Ghosts at the time it is cast.

This ritual can reveal the location of anyone in the Skinlands, Shadowlands or deeper in the Underworld. It cannot reveal the location of anyone in the Umbra or other realms to which wraiths do not have access.

This ritual tracks the subject’s mind and soul, not their body. Therefore, it will reveal a possessed host as the sought-after individual.


Minestra di Morte {G} [V20 177]

The soup can be made from as many pieces of corpses as desired to make the concoction, and the ritual will give the results for each in an intelligible way.

Spirit’s Touch can still be used on the soup to determine the identity of the individuals with 4 successes as normal.


Preserve Corpse [V20 RotB 103]

This ritual may be applied to any solid organic matter and preserves it indefinitely as long as the dried liquid is not scraped off.

The preservative liquid must be scraped off completely in order to use the preserved body parts for any necromantic or medical purpose.

This ritual cannot preserve blood or any other liquid as the poultice will not dry.

This ritual can be used to preserve the bodies and body parts of Cainites past when they would usually crumble to dust with the rising sun.


Rape of Persephone {G} [BM:SoT 105]

The difficulty reduction counts for most uses of Necromancy outside of the Sepulchre or Nigrimancy Paths, as well as any ritual that does not target a Wraith for its effect, like Judgment of Rhadamanthus.

This ritual provokes a Humanity check at level 2. (Casual Violation)

The users may trade Willpower points from their pool, not combine their Willpower for the purposes of Willpower rolls. Effects that increase your Willpower over its maximum such as Draught of Dust and Ashes set that as the new “maximum” for that evening for the purposes of taking and replenishing Willpower using Rape of Persephone.

Users may take as many Willpower as they like from other characters that participated in the ritual as a Reflexive Action, and they themselves can take that Willpower back. This happens on the character’s initiative, if timing is an issue.

Participants cannot take more Willpower from another participant than they have room to store. Thus a participant who currently has 4 out of 7 Willpower could not drain more than 3 Willpower points from any other participants.


Reveal the Mortal Coil [ECC Custom]

When the assembled Cainites of a city find a mysterious pile of ash, it is not always easy to determine who the deceased individual was, particularly if the ash is old enough that The Spirit’s Touch is difficult if not impossible, or if the ashes of multiple Cainites have mixed together. This ritual reveals the identities of the deceased from piles of ash.

System: The Necromancer must first mix a point of his own blood with the pile of ashes to be identified. The ashes are then consumed and subsequently spat out in a bloody mass. Upon being spat out, the ashes will congeal and harden into an exact likeness of the face of the deceased. The ashes will remain in that new form indefinitely thereafter, a perfect funeral mask. Should the ashes of multiple individuals be mixed together, multiple masks will form, one for each individual to a maximum of the number of successes scored on this ritual.

Should the Necromancer mistakenly consume ash that is not from a deceased Cainite, the ritual simply will not work. If the consumed ash is from a severed extremity of a Cainite, but the Cainite did not meet final death, an image of the severed extremity will appear instead of a death mask.

Should the Necromancer consume a Samedi or any other Cainite in Ash form he will immediately regurgitate the ashes and know beyond a doubt that something is very wrong with those ashes (though he will need the appropriate lores to identify Ashes to Ashes).

Revivify the Cold Vitae {Mg} [DAV 196]

This ritual, if used for feeding, allows a Necromancer to feed “Brutally” from corpses. However, this COSTS a corpse per week. Furthermore, this renders the corpse useless for the purposes of any other Necromancy power.

This ritual does not magically create new blood in the corpse. As such it cannot be used on a corpse that has already been exsanguinated.


Ritual of the Smoking Mirror {P} [V20 178]

This ritual must be cast for either Lifesight or Deathsight and cannot be changed thereafter, though it may be cast again using the same mirror.

If cast for Lifesight, the necromancer may use Aura Perception as per Auspex 2, viewing the auras of others in the mirror.

If cast for Deathsight, treat it as though the Necromancer had access to Vitreous Path 1 for the reflections he sees in the mirror.

This ritual does not work on those without reflections.


Soup’s On {G} [ECC Custom]

This dark art first developed by a couple of Dunsirn bully boys to take advantage of their natural habits. They found, through epicurean experimentation, that the flavor of the food was more nutritious, the otherworldly screaming made for enjoyable dinner entertainment and the teeth marks you could see on their ghostly forms was always good for a giggle.

System: While concentrating on flavor and the meat, the necromancer consumes a small amount of the flesh of someone who has become a wraith. The strength of the flesh adds a point of Strength to the necromancer for the remainder of the evening; the wraith however endures severe pain during the casting and the loss of a corpus. No more than 1 point of Strength can be gained a night through use of this ritual, but it can exceed Generation limits.

This may be cast multiple times on a given wraith, though eventually the necromancer will run out of meat from that particular wraith.

As this ritual is about taking the strength of another by eating them, it has no benefit for those who do not have the Eat Food merit or the Conspicuous Consumption flaw (or the Nagaraja bloodline).

The Corpus lost is not considered aggravated and may be healed by spending Pathos normally.


Tongues of their Fathers {Ag} [ECC Custom]

The animal origin of wraiths on the Dark Continent is the most startling piece of necromancy that has been noticed of the Ghiberti’s homeland, and their mastery of them has long been attributed to their skill in this strange environment. While there is truth in the assertion the learning of the speech of the honored animal death endears then to the spirits greatly often making the issuing of demands unnecessary.

System: The character makes a sacrifice of blood from themselves or an animal, chanting the names of the wraith with whom you wish to entreat with. Think of it as being enabled to talk to the animal side of the wraith. To those watching the player do this it will appear as if that is exactly what they are doing using feral whispers to an unseen entity. The player should make the appropriate animal noises in the act of communication. For the duration of the night, the Ghiberti gains -2 difficulty to all rolls related to dealing with animal wraiths.

Warding the Family {G} [ECC Custom]

This ritual was designed to alert the Necromancer as to the state of the more vulnerable ghoul members of the Family. Cast properly, this ritual will instantly alert the caster if the attuned ghoul should die.

System: This ritual takes an entire night to cast and its effects last for a year and a day. The Giovanni must anoint herself with the fluids from a human eyeball, and then drink at least two points of blood from the recipient of this ritual. Then the recipient drinks a bit of blood from the Giovanni to complete the ritual. For the duration of this ritual's effect, if the recipient of this ritual should die, the caster will sense the death.

Whispers from the Other Side {MNA} [ECC Custom]

The issue of communication across the Shroud has always been a bother for necromancers, particularly practitioners of the Ash Path. This ritual allows a Necromancer to whisper across the Shroud when he has crossed over via Ex Nihilo or similar means.

System: This simple ritual demands only that the caster chant for fifteen minutes, often telling a story about someone who came back from the dead to warn his or her descendants. Upon success, the vampire may whisper across the Shroud for the rest of the evening, without expending Willpower.

The necromancer may whisper across the Shroud from the Shadowlands to the Skinlands. This ritual does not work in reverse allowing the necromancer to communicate from the Skinlands to the Shadowlands.

This ritual only allows communication no louder than a whisper.


Word of Insight [V20 RotB 93]

This ritual must be performed either in a known Haunt or in an area where the Shroud Rating is 4 or lower.

The roll to be rerolled does not necessarily need to have failed outright. This ritual allows the necromancer to reroll any one roll connected with the subject of her divination later that same night. However she must take the results of the second roll, even if they are worse than the original.

[Hematite]

Necromancy Rituals - 2nd Level

Corpsefire Blade {M} [ECC Custom]

This ritual, once the province of Cappadocian Knights and Lamia warriors, infused a weapon with the last flickers of life energy of a dying mortal killed with it. This energy flickers around the weapon as a pale blue flame that burns any unfortunate enough to be stuck with such a weapon.

System: This ritual requires the necromancer to ritually kill a mortal victim with the weapon to be enchanted. He must scribe certain runes upon the weapon, preparing it to receive the energy then complete the ritual by a single death blow (traditionally used on a sword by a thrust through either the heart or throat). The Necromancer then rolls Intelligence + Occult at difficulty 5. For a number of strikes equal to the successes scored on this ritual, the blade will deal aggravated damage. This ritual can only enchant melee weapons.

This ritual does not cause actual fire. As such there is no need for Rotschreck rolls and is not considered fire for other effects such as Skin of the Adder, Tenebrous Form, or any other power that talks about fire damage. It does aggravated damage to every kind of supernatural creature.

This ritual, if the blade is unsheathed, automatically breaks the concealment of Obfuscate and Donning the Mask of Shadows.

Strikes that completely miss the target (0 net accuracy not 0 net damage) do not consume a charge. This does not apply if a strike missed due to a successful block or parry action, but does if it missed due to a successful dodge action.

Cast on a stake, the stake does 2 levels of Aggravated damage for as many turns as charges that remain until the magic is depleted. This also applies to any other impaling weapon left in the victim, though the extra damage stops if the weapon is pulled out.

This ritual only affects melee weapons, though they can be thrown and still do aggravated damage.

This ritual does not need to be cast on a weapon with an edge or a sheath or any other requirement of the weapon save that it is not a projectile.

This Ritual does not have a ability to recharge in Emerald coven chronicles 

Consecrate the Tomb {G} [ECC Custom]

This is a simple ritual that allows the Necromancer to aid his allies in the Shadowlands by making sure that they go to the Afterlife with a few more items than normally. It is also highly useful in a pinch for sending items across the Shroud that would be cumbersome or difficult to carry in with Ex Nihilo.

System: This ritual is cast as part of a funeral service where the deceased is buried. The Necromancer must be present when the person is buried and there he must chant for 3 hours. If the ritual succeeds, all of the things with which the person was buried will enter the Shadowlands once the burial is complete. Every success on the ritual test is one item that can be transformed into a Relic in the Shadowlands.

Note that these items need not be intended for the person buried. The necromancer may have other wraiths in attendance to retrieve the items upon arrival in the Shadowlands. This ritual can only be used once per interred corpse.

The person being buried does not necessarily have to become a wraith. The ritual uses the passage of the deceased as a focus to send the items across the Shroud.


Dead Men’s Tales {G} [ECC Custom]

The problem in a family of necromancers is that a 'final solution' may not keep a problem quiet. Sure you can pluck out the eyes or wear a disguise to fool a fellow necromancer's inquiries into a murder; but if you’re unlucky enough and the sap crosses over and tips off a necromancer about attempted 'friendly competition', you can catch the foul end of a shit storm. When this ritual was developed remains a mystery, though there are records of murders of the family where analyzing the remains showed missing tongues. The true confirmation of this rituals existence has never occurred to the rest of the family, though the rumors fly when another family corpse pops up 'sans tongue'.

System: The necromancer whispers the single secret he wants hidden into the ear of the corpse, fresh or otherwise. Then the tongue is removed and pierced with three iron nails, and the employer of the art expends a willpower point, making it impossible for the wraith to relay anything to anyone about the secret, through an inner prohibition. The tongue is then secreted away by the necromancer for if the nails are removed the necromantic effect is nullified.

While this ritual lasts, the wraith cannot speak, write or otherwise attempt to communicate in any way about the secret. She may not even communicate about the fact that there is a secret, or about this ritual’s enactment upon her. This does not modify the wraith’s memory. This is a compulsion effect that simply prevents the wraith from referring to anything remotely related to the secret, even in a roundabout manner.

The wraith still has whatever knowledge he had before.

The secret may be as narrow or as broad a topic as the Necromancer wishes. However the broader the topic, the more awkward it will be when the wraith simply cannot speak on the subjects asked of it and the more likely the secret is to be discovered.

The compulsion functions on the wraith such that she will be compelled to either change the subject or extricate herself from the conversation as soon as possible should a subject involving the prohibited secret come up.


Death of the Written Word {Gn} [ECC Custom]

Looking for a way to protect the Family secrets besides leaving out vital information or adding in mistakes that those who knew Necromancy could find, Malic Dunsirn found a way to bind the energies of the Shadowlands to a book in a ward, keeping them suspended until the ward was broken and releasing the forces of decay onto the book.

System: This ritual is simply a ward cast and scribed on the inside cover of a bound book where, after casting the book cannot be opened without intoning a phrase (set during the casting). If the correct phrase is not uttered before opening the book, it decays to ashes in seconds.

This ritual can only key the ward to a specific phrase that must be spoken aloud. No other trigger will work.

The ward is on the inside cover, and as such is not visible or noticeable while the book is closed.

If the book is left open, the ward will not activate if another reader begins to read it. The ward only takes effect upon the book being opened.


Draining the Well of Life {GNVP} [V20 RotB 93]

This ritual requires that the victim be killed, though not necessarily drained dry by the necromancer alone.

This ritual may be used as part of Brutal Feeding, each action granting 10 Pathos to all of the necromancer’s Spirit Slaves as well as 10 blood to himself.

The Necromancer may use this rite to benefit any wraith whose name he knows, which must be carved into the flesh of the victim as part of the sigils. The wraith must be present for the feeding to gain the benefits.


Eyes of Despondent Revelation {M} [PGttHC 198]

The effects of this ritual are identical to the first level of the Vitreous Path, Eyes of the Dead.


Eyes of the Grave [V20 179]

Completely resisting the visions’ effects requires 3 successes on the Courage roll at difficulty 7. With 2 successes, the victim is shaken and suffers +1 difficulty to all actions for the remainder of the scene. With 1 success, the victim is traumatized and half out of it for the remainder of the scene, suffering +2 difficulty for all actions. If the roll fails, the victim is reduced to a quivering mess, unable to take any action for the remainder of the scene unless directly attacked, in which case he snaps out of it enough to defend himself normally (and does not sink back into a quivering mess), but thereafter suffers half dice pools (rounded up) for all actions for the remainder of the scene. If the roll botches, the victim is stuck in a state of quivering panic, blind to the world for the remainder of the night.

Willpower may be spent on these Courage rolls.

The victim will suffer at least as many visions (though there may well be more) as the successes scored on this ritual over the course of a week, and they come more often at especially dangerous or stressful times. Any time the character is in a particularly stressful situation, the Courage test should be made. Any time the victim is in combat rounds while under this effect, a World of Darkness test should be made every round. If the subject tests down, the Courage test is provoked, no matter what else occurs.


The Hand of Glory [V20 179]

It is notable that condemned murderers are getting more difficult to find to donate their hands. This requires a murderer to have been caught and condemned to death under the law of the land for his hand to function as a focus for this ritual.

While the Hand of Glory itself is reusable, it requires a consumable component in the fat of a hanged man, and a dose of this component will be used each time. Depending on how much fat is on the hanged man, one man will produce between 5 and 10 doses of sufficient tallow to coat the fingers of the hand.

Ghouls are affected by this ritual normally. So are kinfolk, sorcerers, and other “lesser” templates.

It does not require milk for the Necromancer who *created* the Hand to douse the fires or end the its power, but anyone else borrowing the item does require it.


Haunting Breeze [V20 RotB 103]

The difficulty modification applies to all rolls including reflexive and resistance rolls, not only actions.

The necromancer is immune to the effect of his own ritual, but no one else is.


Hungry Mold {M} [PGttHC 198]

Each casting (not each dose) of this ritual requires a blood point be spent in the process.

The attack roll to deliver the Hungry Mold does not benefit from carryover dice.

Once the mold has made contact, it will continue to ravage its victim until it has run its course. It cannot be scraped off. The only way to remove the mold before it has run its full course is to burn it off, requiring the afflicted be subject to sufficient fire to fully engulf him in the blaze. Each round he is burning, removes half of the dice of the mold (rounded up). So a person currently suffering 7 dice of aggravated damage from the mold who ignites himself will instead that round suffer 3 dice from the mold. If he allows himself to keep burning, the next round he will only suffer 1 die from the mold. The fire deals its normal damage (3 levels per round at difficulty 9 to soak) and is soaked separately from the mold.

The mold only seeks out and devours organic matter. Armour will not assist in soaking the damage from the mold unless it has the all-encompassing feature, in which case the victim is immune to all damage from the mold as it cannot penetrate the armour to get at the organic material underneath.

The mold is extremely volatile and if stored in too great a concentration will simply devour itself. If more than 10 cups of mold are contained together, or more than 10 cups target the same person, any excess is rendered inert as it devours itself.


In Memoriam {EG} [ECC Custom]

Good necromancers understand that sometimes you get further with honey than with vinegar. It is sometimes best to "befriend" the wraith that you are trying to control rather than force him to your will. That is where this handy ritual comes in. It is known that wraiths need to draw upon a reserve of power in order to use their mystical abilities, a power they refer to as Pathos. Normally, a wraith's Pathos is restored by the energies created when those in the living world invoke the wraith's memory. This ritual invokes the memory and enhances the power given; giving your bodily challenged friend the extra reserves he needs to carry out your requests.

System: By building a small shrine to the memory of the target wraith, the necromancer can confer upon him a certain amount of Pathos. In order to build the shrine, the Necromancer needs to know the details of the Wraith's life. The necromancer must spend at least one hour at the shrine built for the wraith, contemplating on the wraith in question in order to cast this ritual again.

Once this ritual is performed, the necromancer may invoke the Pathos gain at any time by performing a Willpower challenge, difficulty 6, to remember the life and spirit of the Wraith. Every success on this roll restores one Pathos to the Wraith. This ability may only be used once per week, and having an intimate or important item that once belong to the wraith as part of the shrine lowers the difficulty of the Willpower test by two.

If a fetter of the wraith in question is worked into the shrine, the necromancer adds a number of dice equal to the fetter rating on the Willpower roll. This is in addition to the -2 difficulty for a personal item.


Judgment of Rhadamanthus {G} [BM:SoT 105]

This ritual requires the necromancer know the faith the wraith followed in life.

This ritual only works if the wraith in question was genuinely religious, and if the religion in question has an afterlife concept that can be appropriately manipulated.

This ritual requires the Circle of Cerberus ritual to function, and thus has all of the same requirements.

The power of the ritual causes the Wraith to absolutely believe that the Necromancer can send him to the real afterlife, either Heaven or Hell, but does not explicitly compel any other kind of action from him directly.


Kiss of Ages (Grave’s Decay 1) {M} [PGttHC 198]

This ritual requires the Grave’s Decay Necromancy path at level 1 to learn.

The Necromancer may not end this ritual early.

This ritual has no effect upon a vampire – it only works on an actual corpse. Neither does it have any effect on animated corpses such as zombies or corpses possessed by the ritual Garb of Hades.


Occhio d’Uomo Morto {G} [V20 179]

This ritual can only be performed at midnight on the night of the new moon.

Attempting to listen in to the Spectre Hive Mind is an active action that must be done by the Necromancer. He is not entitled to automatic hints and warnings from the Hive Mind.

The previous soul of the body must have become a full wraith permanently, whether naturally or by some power that allows such. A body upon which Soul Stealing was used is not sufficient.

The wraith whose eye was used in this ritual may unerringly track the Necromancer as if he was holding a Bloodstone.

If the eye is covered, the Necromancer suffers as if he possesses the One Eye Flaw. If uncovered, he is considered at -1 Appearance (minimum 0). The Appearance penalty may be undone with Vicissitude, but it is the same as if treating the appearance of a Nosferatu and resets at dawn.


Part the Veil [BS:TTC 85]

A vampire may theoretically pluck out their own eye for this ritual, at the cost of a point of Willpower (unless they possess Fleshcraft).

The subject of the ritual need not be present to be affected.

This ritual grants full Shroudsight, not only the ability to see wraiths.

This ritual lasts for hours per success if used on a Cainite. Ignore references to multiple scene duration.


Puppet {V} [V20 179]

The ghost still must possess sufficient mastery of Puppetry to allow it to possess the vessel.

This does not remove the requirement for Attunement.

This ritual generically prepares a vessel for possession. It does not attune a specific wraith to the benefits.


Ritual of Pochtli {Pg} [V20 180]

Although this ritual is Pisanob in origin, it is widely used among the rest of the Giovanni. It does not require Pisanob or Ghiberti style Necromancy to function.

All must know both this Ritual and the Ritual or Path to be used.

As a level 2 ritual this ritual takes 10 minutes to cast. The Path or Ritual power to be enacted by the group must be used within that same scene, though need not be used the instant this ritual is complete. If used for a Path power, the Path power in question must be heavily ritualized and takes a minimum of 5 minutes per level of the power to cast.

Anything cast via the Ritual of Pochtli counts all participants as the caster for purposes of attunement (such as with Wards).


Sepulchral Beacon {G} [ECC Custom]

This ritual allows the caster to sense the last place the Shroud has been breached within his vicinity. It reaches about 500 meters, and will reveal someone's death or the use of Arcanoi or Necromancy Paths, as well as any other effect that may have disturbed the barrier between living and dead. Once located, to the necromancer the location of the breach glows with the black light of Oblivion. The more time has passed since the event, the weaker the light glows, indicating the approximate hour. The ritual requires the caster to inhale bone dust into his withered lungs. This ritual can be performed in both the Shadowlands and Skinlands.

This ritual only reveals that the Shroud was breached, not the method by which it was breached.


Skull of Warning {M} [PGttHC 199]

As long as this skull is still screaming, it will continue to awaken sleeping Kindred, even if they fail their Path test and fall back asleep. The skull will awaken them the next round.

The skull needs to “see” the intruders, so at least the eye sockets need to be exposed for the skull to do its job. It does, however, ignore such things as Obfuscate, and can also detect creatures in the Shadowlands (but not the Umbra).

“Undead minions” includes both corporeal undead and Wraiths. Wraiths to be attuned must be present when the ritual is cast. The skull can recognize those zombies created by the necromancer and will automatically ignore them.

The necromancer cannot attune other guests to the skull.

This ritual lasts until the next sunset after it was cast. The same skull may be used as a focus over and over again however.


Speed of the Cheetah {AE} [ECC Custom]

This ritual was the byproduct of the long necromantic cooperation between the Ghiberti and the Della Passaglia. The success of this mutual collaboration has cemented an exchange of ideas that continue between the families to this day. Through channeling the essence of the cheetah’s spirit through its abombo, and then making it more potent though the inclusion of the mercury, the concoction created allows the imbiber to move as fast as death itself, if only for a time.

System: The caster must imbibe a concoction of a Cheetah’s blood prepared for 10 minutes. Successfully downing the mixture and proper casting opens up the spirits of the animal's abombo, infusing it into the caster. Until sunrise, the caster doubles their running speed when sprinting. This power is in effect the entire night, requiring no blood expenditures for its use.

This speed increase in combat does not affect the free movement gained each round. However, if spending an action to move, the effects of this ritual kick in and double the usual speed from 20 + 3x Dexterity yards per round to 40 + 6x Dexterity yards per round.


Spirit Beacon {G} [Cb-Gi 44]

The things that qualify for “A man forsaken by God” are infernalists, people with the flaws “Repulsed by Crosses” or “Beacon of the Unholy.” A vampire’s head will work for this ritual, provided that it is young enough not to decay away.

Finding the remains of such a person through research requires a downtime action and a difficulty 10 Intelligence + Investigation check, at least 3 successes required to find undisturbed remains. A Giovanni ally level 4 or higher may also be able to provide such a thing from the relics of Venice.

The same head may be used repeatedly as a focus for this ritual.

This ritual only affects those wraiths who actually see the beacon.

A wraith who is attacked while enthralled to the Beacon instantly has the spell broken and may leave, though he will be enthralled again if he sees the Beacon again before leaving the area.


Stained Sight {GV} [ECC Custom]

This ritual, like so many others, is designed to curse someone. By invoking the powers of Necromancy, the caster forces the Wraiths Deathsight upon a single victim. This victim will see everything as decaying, rotting and dying. Even though the ritual takes three hours to perform, it only affects a victim for a single day. Those that have been affected by this ritual are often terrified of their surroundings or become depressed very quickly.

System: For the next day after this ritual is successfully cast, he gains the Deathsight flaw. This ritual lasts until the next sunset after the casting.

Tasting the Secrets of the Dead {MGA} [ECC Custom]

Necromancers have long been frustrated by just how few individuals actually become wraiths. It often follows that those who have information a Giovanni really needs simply transcend or obliviate without ever becoming wraiths. While this ritual cannot change that fact, it does allow some comfort as the Necromancer can extract some residual information from the corpse left behind, even if the subject did not become a wraith.

System: In order to use this ritual the caster must whisper the 13 secret names of this ritual into the mouth of the corpse and then French kiss the corpse so deeply that they can taste the sickening rot and sour taste of death on their tongue and in the depths of their being. This requires a Willpower expenditure. Once this is done the caster may ask one question of the corpse and have it answered to the best of its knowledge in life. The corpse speaks the answer aloud. The corpse must have a jaw bone in order for this ritual to work. This ritual may only be performed once on a given corpse.

The question can be anything, and the subject corpse will answer any question put to it to the best of its ability from the knowledge it had in life. It answers in a blank monotone without any semblance of its old personality or feelings on the matter, giving the pure facts requested only.

Storytellers should watch out for double questions.


Thanatos’ Caress {G} [V20 RotB 90]

This ritual is the first success in the fumbling attempts of the Giovanni to mimic the Path of Thanatos without undergoing the Vodoun rite necessary to learn it and seeking the Baron’s favour.

See Path of Thanatos for clarifications on the power in question. The use of this ritual grants one use of the power Putrefaction.

This ritual cannot be performed multiple times to “build up charges”, though if the charge is used early in a night, the ritual can be performed again to gain another charge.


Two Centimes {V} [V20 180]

This ritual does not only work on mortals, though it does require the subject be living and thus does not work on Cainites.

While in the Underworld, treat the subject as though using Astral Projection, save that he has no access to any of his supernatural powers (if any).


Voodoo Economics {G} [ECC Custom]

While the mundane matters that the Vault deal with are often looked upon as the antithesis to family occult efforts, the Vault is always in pursuit of the almighty dollar, and no avenue will be ignored. Through the use of this ritual the occultist connects himself to the underlying metaphysical provincials involved with resource allocation and finances.

System: The caster inhales the fumes from a stick of burning myrrh as he slips into his earlobe a sliver of bone from a victim of death by starvation. The caster then makes a Willpower challenge, difficulty 5, and spends a number of Willpower. If successful, the occultist becomes aware of the supernatural ebb and flow of the financial system, an awareness that last till the bone is removed or the next full moon. This awareness correlates to an awareness of any Finance Influence action performed within the general domain of the caster, as well as any other large financial actions.

This ritual does not grant precognitive knowledge of such events, only knowledge as they occur. This is often however before the general public becomes aware of such actions.

[Hematite]

Necromancy Rituals - 3rd Level

Arrange the Remains {Eg} [ECC Custom]

Eastern Necromancers have long understood the importance of the cardinal directions in the manipulation of the soul. This ritual allows the Necromancer to manipulate a wraith by modifying the direction in which its remains are facing.

System: In a traditional urn in which the remains of the deceased are placed the skull bones face North. By placing them in another direction the Necromancer can cause the wraith discomfort. The remains are removed and then placed facing another direction while a sutra is chanted.

South: Wraith is at +2 difficulty to resist Summoning or Compulsion.
East: Wraith loses a point of Pathos.
West: Wraith gains a point of Angst.

This ritual may be performed only once per night on a given wraith.

If this ritual is used to face the remains South, the effects last for the remainder of the night.


Blood Dance {V} [V20 180]

As a side effect of this ritual, all Wraiths beyond the one asked for are forced to leave the area. For the remainder of the hour, any wraith who wishes to enter the area must score more successes on a Willpower roll than the Necromancer scored on the casting of this ritual.

For those interested, the “precise design” indicated here is the veve for Papa Legba.


Cerberus [ECC Custom]

Cerberus was the 'guardian dog' of Greek myths, and with this ritual, the Necromancer may guard his own haven with a guardian reminiscent of the Greek myth. He must slay three large hounds and cut off their heads, then bury one corpse with three heads in the same grave. Then he must pray and chant on the grave for three nights, while spilling his Blood before the sun rises. On the fourth night, the earth will move away when the Necromancer approaches, and a ghostly image will appear. It is a ghost-hound with three heads, each with glowing eyes. This monstrosity is visible in the Skinlands but is real in the Shadowlands. It can terrify people not used to it and physically attack Wraiths that get too close. It is loyal to its creators Blood but will try to scare or attack all other people, even those that are the Necromancer's friends.

Three blood points must be spent each week to maintain the Cerberus, and the Necromancer must spill his own Blood, not the blood of others. Once it rises from its grave, the guardian hound will try to terrify anyone that doesn't have the casters Blood (Ghouls count, as well as the person who diablerizes the Necromancer) or attack those Wraiths that try to approach the inner sanctum of the haven (where the vampire sleeps). The creature makes an opposed Charisma + Intimidate roll against the Intruder’s Willpower, both at difficulty 6. Each net success lowers their Courage by a point for the scene. If it reaches zero, they won't enter the place the hound guards.

In the Shadowlands it has the following stats:

Attributes: Strength 5, Dexterity 4, Stamina 3, Charisma 4, Manipulation 1, Appearance 0, Perception 5, Intelligence 2, Wits 5
Abilities: Alertness 2, Brawl 3, Intimidate 5
Willpower: 5
Corpus: 10

A Cerberus can claw for Strength +1 aggravated damage and Bite for Strength +2 aggravated damage. It may take up to 3 actions per turn without the need to split its dice pools.

The Cerberus is only able to take actions in the Shadowlands. It is made of Corpus and cannot physically exist in the Skinlands.

The Cerberus may recover Corpus lost to non-aggravated injuries by slumbering in its grave as if Slumbering in a fetter (rest for 8 hours then roll Stamina at difficulty 6, recovering a number of Corpus equal to successes). Aggravated damage can only be healed by the Necromancer who must spend 3 blood points per aggravated wound to be healed while the Cerberus slumbers. A Cerberus who loses all 10 Corpus is completely destroyed. It does not enter a Harrowing.

A Cerberus is intelligent, but is unable to speak.


Compel the Ghostly Guardian {Mg} [RoP 76]

This ritual can be used to guard a number of buildings equal to the Necromancer’s permanent Willpower.

The ghost can only create frightening effects – it cannot actually harm the intruders in any way.

Strangely, the individual for the ritual need not have become a Wraith for this ritual to work. This ritual uses the connection to the dead to use this place as a Haunt. If the subject of the ritual did become a Wraith, it will call him there, but otherwise some other restless ghost will come to serve. If this ritual calls an actual wraith, it may use any of its own Arcanoi in addition to the effects listed.


Craft the Keystone {Ag} [ECC Custom]

The need to have the home protected is no more necessary than it is in the hostile Ivory Kingdoms. To enact a rather formidable defense, the necromancer must convince a willing wraith to entomb all their remaining fetters to the safety of the Ghiberti's home, in exchange for their surveillance over the area.

System: This Ghiberti ritual is done to a useful and willing wraith with a small number of fetters left. The fetters are taken and must be literally built into the building in some way. The fetters are often inlaid into the wall, framed as art, or hidden behind a floorboard in a shoe box. Through the appropriate sealing chants and dances of the ritual the wraith is then able to commune with their fetter(s) as needed without needing to inhabit them. This is generally viewed as a positive thing by the wraiths as they can heal and maintain this connection without the downtime one would normally experience. Wraiths that are being stalked or hunted may even look to the Ghiberti to do this for them, though this is less common outside of Africa than they would like.

The major drawback of this ritual is that the range of travel for the wraith is then limited to the size of the structure. For a wraith to leave the structure while this ritual persists requires it to spend a Willpower for each hour it remains outside. The largest benefit comes from the fact the wraith may sense and manipulate themselves in reaction to the structure as if it were their own fetter though arcanoi. While some curse the fact the ritual requires a voluntary wraith, in truth being locked in a building with a hostile ghost is fate only wished on one's enemies.

Storytellers Note: It should be obvious that convincing a wraith to enact this ritual is difficult and it is important that the happiness of any wraith thusly entombed is of paramount importance to the resident. An unhappy wraith can end up as a combination of many unpleasant effects.

Dark Assistant {MG} [ECC Custom]

This ritual animates a hand or a head, returning it to the physical world. The hand acts as an assistant, moving to fetch things for the Necromancer or by turning the pages on a book or something equally simple. The head can be told things which it will later recount to the word. To create this Dark Assistant the Necromancer must prior to the ritual bathe the intended part in his own blood and chant for almost nine hours.

System: The caster spends three blood points and bathes the hand or head in it. During this time he must chant as the hand or head absorbs the Necromancers blood. After the nine hours the hand or head will be animated and ready to receive orders. The hand only understands simple orders like 'fetch that book' or 'close the door' and cannot cause any real damage. The head will look like it's a severed man’s head, but once it begins to speak it has an eerie resemblance to whomever it belonged to from the beginning.

If statistics become necessary for a hand, use those from Craft the Homuncular Servant (Cadaverous Animation 2). The head is immobile and thus does not need statistics.


Death’s Head {N} [V20 RotB 103]

This ritual requires 2 downtime actions to cast.

This ritual causes the necromancer to appear as a wraith in all ways, but does not otherwise change his appearance.

The ruse may be given away if another wraith attempts to use Arcanoi upon him that only work on other wraiths, such as attempting to use Moliate to manipulate the Necromancer’s nonexistent Corpus.

Even in the Shadowlands, the Death Mask gives no ability to pass through solid objects, nor does it allow him to use a wraith’s Incorporeality or the “rule of ouch”.


uDin of the Damned {G} [V20 180]

The line of ash used for this ritual can be reused if left in place, negating the time requirement for this ritual so it can be reactivated at will with a successful ritual roll.

This ritual blocks electronic recordings as well as attempts to listen in person. Any attempts to passively record sound from within the room hears only the wailing of the dead.


Divine Sign {PE} [V20 180]

Used on a Wraith, you are always assumed to hold that Wraith’s Fetter thereafter for the purposes of other powers.

Used on a creature that is not a Wraith, such as a Vampire or mortal, this ritual causes you to be able to predict their actions, and you may take a -2 difficulty modification on the next contested check with that individual. This effect lasts one time, and you must recast the ritual once you have used the difficulty bonus to get a new one. Instead, the caster may also ask the Storytellers for information on the target’s next course of action, though the Storytellers can only answer to the best of their ability. This will only reveal the general course of action, not any specific tactics used.

This ritual requires that either the subject’s birth date or embrace date (if a vampire) be known to the Necromancer.


Drink of Styx’s Waters [BM:SoT 105]

This ritual can be used on Kindred if they can be convinced to drink blood from the bowl.

Discovering the corpse of an ancestor of the individual requires the following tasks:

-You must know the subject’s true identity, defeating any Alt ID you may know them by with an Investigation check exceeding the successes of the Alt ID.

-You need to score at least one success for every hundred years the subject has been dead on an Intelligence + Academics challenge (difficulty 6 base, difficulty 8 if the subject died without written records such as a death certificate or church records).

-You need to retrieve the corpse, possibly requiring a scene or travel checks.

If the user does not have at least one dot of Crafts, this ritual is performed at +1 Difficulty.

This ritual requires a downtime action to perform.

Treat the compulsion effect as the Dominate 6 power Fealty, save that the promises do not need to be made consciously.


Expel [ECC Custom]

A power common to exorcists, this power lets a necromancer banish any and all wraiths from a particular building.

System: The casting time for this is 30 minutes. The wraiths stay out for a variable period of time, depending on the necromancer’s desire. If a house is a Fetter for a wraith, chances are it will stick around the house and try to get back in when the spell ends, and it won’t like the caster too much either. This spell affects a large area or structure, but it has limits. A mansion might be able to be fully affected, the Sears Tower will not; it’s simply too big. On large buildings, the Necromancer may cast the ritual on two or three floors at a time.

The necromancer must find the exact center of the household prior to beginning this ritual. She then draws a circle on the ground with chalk and fills it with sigils of faith, pain, placation or threat (depending on the caster), then sits down and begins chanting. Any ghosts in the house immediately realize the chanting for what it is, and will do anything in their power to stop the necromancer (unless they want to be expelled). The caster must make the ritual roll, Difficulty 7+1 for every Wraith present. On a successful casting, the wraiths in the house are expelled for two days per success on the casting. Immediately after the ritual, any wraith within the affected area may spend a temporary willpower to ignore the effects of the ritual for one hour. This gives these wraiths one hour, and one hour only within the structure, after which time they are compelled to leave and remain out for the duration of this ritual.

This ritual also affects wraiths that were forced to stay in the house through necromantic means, and breaks such effects as Haunting. The expulsion may be increased by three months with the expenditure of a temporary Willpower point, or by a year and a day with the expenditure of a permanent Willpower point. If the caster fails the test, nothing happens (although wraiths in the area may not be pleased with him), but he may try again at +2 difficulty.

Exterminate [ECC Custom]

Plague bearing pests have long been seen as harbingers of death, and Necromancers have often used such creatures in their rituals. This rather common adaptation came about when such pests were proving too virulent or disruptive to the careful experiments of the necromancers. This ritual allows the necromancer to rid himself of pests quite efficiently, also gathering intact samples of the corpses of such creatures for later experiments.

System:The Necromancer gathers a host of insects, spiders, rats, birds, or other small animals and leads them to drink from a pool of his vitae. Whatever the animals used, there must be at least four of them, and they must total at least a pound of body weight. The necromancer then kills the animals, either draining their blood (and thus his own) back into the pool, or smashing the smaller creatures into a pulp within the liquid. After this is done, he drinks the remaining concoction back down. Once the ritual is complete, at any time during the night he gains the ability to spend a blood point and instantly kill all small animals within 5 yards of him. Rats, snakes, vermin, even cats and small dogs, but nothing much larger than that, are instantly killed by this power. The Necromancer may use this ability as often as he wishes for the remainder of the evening.

This ritual costs a blood point.

This ritual destroys only mundane examples of all animals smaller than a small dog (terrier size). Any supernaturally empowered animals such as ghouls are not affected.


Eyes of the Dead [BS:TTC 85]

A corpse that is newer than 3 months will still have enough of its brain and ear material to use this ritual for auditory purposes.

This ritual does not require true line of sight to cast on a corpse if the necromancer has a sympathetic item. The necromancer must be able to see the corpse, but this can be through mystical or technological means that normally do not allow the necromancer to cast through them.

The duration of the ritual does not decrease if cast on an animate corpse.

This ritual cannot be cast on another Cainite.


Fettered Minion (Cadaverous Animation 3) {Gm} [PGttHC 199]

This ritual requires the ashes of a destroyed and burned Athanatos which must have been created with either the 4th or 5th level of Cadaverous Animation.

The Athanatos created by this ritual is “safe”. It is not required to remain within 100 yards of the necromancer to avoid going on a killing spree.

Additional tainted blood cannot be fed to the Athanatos once the ghoul has died.

The Athanatos gains additional traits based on the successes scored on this ritual in the same way as it normally does based on the casting of Call the Athanatos. See Cadaverous Animation 4 for details.


Gates of Hell {E} [ECC Custom]

Based on ancient legends of the Gates through which most spirits must enter into the afterlife, this ritual is devised to protect the Necromancers haven.

System: Anyone trying to enter through a portal (door, opening, window) protected by this ritual will meet his darkest fears before he can enter. If he can overcome these horrors, requiring a Courage roll at a difficulty of 3 + the number of successes scored on this ritual, then he can enter freely. Failure on this roll causes the intruder to flee the scene and not return for the remainder of the night. Botching the roll causes the intruder to flee the scene and compels him not to return for a full month thereafter, as well as suffering the Nightmares flaw for that same month. The Necromancer must place a bone over the portal to be guarded and chant for nine hours. Once the invocation is complete, he must steal the dreams of a mortal sacrificed at the end of the ritual. The Necromancer is immune to this effect, as are any whose blood he paints the frame of the portal with.

This ritual requires 2 downtime actions to cast. It lasts indefinitely until the bone is removed.

This ritual must be cast separately for each portal.

This ritual requires the necromancer to sacrifice a mortal.

The necromancer may attune wraiths to this effect as well, but any such wraiths must be present at the time of casting.

This ritual has no effect on attempts to enter by means other than the warded portal.

This ritual may be added to all portals in a given house as a special feature of the Security System.


Graveyard Mists (Nigrimancy 3) {Mg} [PGttHC 200]

This ritual requires either Nigrimancy or Sepulchre Path at 3.

This ritual can be cast indoors, and the fog spreads to its full radius immediately.

Despite its necromantic applications, the fog also acts as a blanket of thick fog for the purposes of cover (+1 difficulty on Perception rolls and attack rolls).


Implacable Vigor {M} [PGttHC 200]

This ritual can be cast as a standard mental action once the ashes are swallowed.

This ritual lasts the night, and requires a stamped item card of the full ashes of an Athanatos to cast.

The bonus attribute levels can exceed generational limits and stack with blood expenditures.


Incense of the Welcoming Dead {Eg} [ECC Custom]

Eastern Necromancers’ relationship with wraiths is far more one of service for service rather than outright slavery. This ritual is a fashionable way to pay wraiths for their services, creating an area in which they can relax and recover without expending effort.

System: The necromancer spends an hour grinding soaking and preparing herbs. After which the herbs are sprinkled with the casters blood and dried. When lit, this incense a dark smoke streams out and burnt smell fills the room. The Shroud immediately drops to 4 in the area of the smoke and Wraiths will seek the area where it is burned. The burner is seen more favorably by the Wraiths, and the restless dead can recover 1 Pathos or Willpower per minute while relaxing in the room. Each success on the ritual creates one stick, and each stick will last for one hour, filling a medium sized room. These sticks last one season.

One season equals 3 months for the purposes of Emerald Coven Chronicles.

While theoretically this ritual does make it easier for wraiths to get up to mischief or even attack the Skinlands in such an area, at least throughout the Middle Kingdom and the Dark Kingdom of Jade, such areas are seen as neutral grounds and most wraiths present will act to stop any troublemakers.


Luck of Actaeon {MN} [ECC Custom]

The energy of oblivion and entropy are antithetical to all creation and as such those marked by its taint suffer fates in compare to that of mythic figures. The world around them seems to bend to twist and corrupt all their efforts.

The caster must mark his victim with a mixture of a drop of vitae with the blood of a stag and the ashes of a hound. Once the target is marked with a drop of the mixture the Necromancer may make an Intelligence + Occult roll at a difficulty of the target’s current Willpower. For each success scored on the roll, the victim is cursed with a number of bad luck rerolls that may be called on the target by either the STs or other players. Only one bad luck reroll may be called per roll, and the victim takes the worse result, whether from the original roll or the reroll. Any rerolls that have not been used within a lunar month are lost.

The victim must wear a card noting that he is under this effect for the duration.

The victim may not make a check to know he is under this effect when the curse is triggered. However, each time a Bad Luck reroll is called, he may make a Perception + Awareness roll at difficulty 10. 3 successes on this roll positively identifies that he is under a curse.


Malediction of Fetid Veins {M} [PGttHC 200]

Treat the Intelligence + Occult roll (difficulty 6) to cast this ritual as an attack roll which may be dodged at difficulty 7, but not parried or blocked. This gives carryover successes to the Necromancy roll as if it were a damage roll.

This ritual takes only a single mental action and the expenditure of a blood point to activate, coupled by the spitting.


Moldering Presence (Vitreous Path 2) {N} [ECC Custom]

By casting this ritual, which demands that he concentrates for a full hour and then devours fetid blood that has turned sour and disgusting, the vampire's very aura emanates waves of decay and entropy. Any unliving matter that comes near him falls prey to the decay that affects all things, though extremely hastened and premature. Wood and paper will rot, metal will rust, and even plastic and glass will slowly taint and then erode. Even people (and Kindred) will feel a strong sense of decay emanating from the caster, though they are not otherwise affected.

System: The Necromancer spends two points of Willpower to keep his concentration (unless he has the Concentration Merit) and must then consume four points of fetid blood. He must then make a Self-Control roll at difficulty 7 to keep this blood down. If he fails this roll and retches, the ritual is considered a botch. For the rest of the night all material within one foot of the vampire will corrode and become useless in varying amounts of time based on the number of blood spent during the casting of this ritual. The vampire may spend between 3 and 15 blood points. For every 3 blood points spent, treat the effect as 1 blood point spent to activate Vitreous Path 2, Aura of Decay for the purposes of how long it takes nearby items to corrode to nothing. This is a dangerous ritual to perform, as it lasts for the full night, and requires the Necromancer to be naked, or at least causes him to be naked soon after the ritual is complete.

Treat the effects of this ritual as Vitreous Path 2 with all clarifications save that it remains in effect for the remainder of the night.

The Necromancer may not end this effect early.

Unlike Vitreous Path 2, the Necromancer may not make his own equipment immune to the effect.


Nightmare Drums {V} [V20 180]

This power creates a Relic, and can actually be used only for that purpose if the Necromancer wishes.

The pounding of the drums is audible to all wraiths who bear the Arcanos mark for Phantasm, as well as those who actually bear the Guildmark of the Sandmen within approximately a 30 mile radius from the point it is cast.

This ritual also provokes a favor in return for the services of the Wraiths, and they may grow angry with the Necromancer if he doesn’t pay up in a reasonable time frame.

The actual negotiation must be worked out as a scene.

Any actual haunting of the victim’s dreams should be handled as per the usual system for the Arcanos Phantasm and rules out of Wraith the Oblivion.


Patch Job {MVG} [ECC Custom]

Over the centuries in the service to the family much pain and suffering has been endured. It is a sad fact that at times a family member's services are needed regardless how damaged they may be at the time. In those moments, a short term substitution a limb or eye and a return to service may suffice turning the tide for the family at a crucial moment. While the ability is known to many necromancers throughout the family its use is infrequent due to both effort in creation and the negative long term effects.

System: The necromancer must 'trim' away any rough edges on both the subject and the replacement part to ensure an approximate fit between the wound and new flesh. Some of these trimmings are set aside at this point. The new flesh is placed appropriately with the mated ends anointed with the necromancer’s blood, then the piece or appendage is secured typically through sewing, though surgical staples have been used effectively as well. This requires 3 successes on a Dexterity + Medicine roll at difficulty 8 for a limb or difficulty 10 for an eye or other complex organ. If the user has access to Vicissitude of at least 3, this reduces the difficulty by 2. At this point the necromancer rolls Intelligence + Occult at difficulty 7 and places a pulped mixture of the pieces from both the donor and the subject within the halves of a broken egg shell with both haves mated and sealed with wax. The egg is then symbolically resealed with black wax and cracked open, and the poultice within smeared over the point where the new limb joins the subject.

The subject then may will the flesh to work and it will respond as if it were his own, though it is awkward and clunky to use causing a +2 difficulty to all uses of the donor limb. In the case of an eye or other sensory organ, all Perception rolls are made at +1 difficulty. In addition the flesh has no feeling and causes no pain no matter how mangled. The donor flesh also cannot be healed of any damage to it and continues to rot unless mystically preserved, becoming useless within a week. Upon each night that the recipient wishes to use his new appendage, he must spend one Willpower point for it to function. While attached, the undead cannot regenerate the wound, and if the subject is living, great care must be taken to ensure gangrene does not set in.

The recipient is not damaged by attacks specifically targeting the donated flesh. If a limb, it has 3 health levels of its own and for each health level lost imposes a cumulative further +1 difficulty on physical actions taken with it. If an eye or other sensory organ, it has only one health level.


Punishment from Below {VGM} [ECC Custom]

This ritual was created to punish those that did not keep their end of a bargain or for some misdeed done against the Necromancer. The victim’s flesh simply appears to rot and fall off, and does not easily regenerate.

System: The caster must get blood, sweat or urine from the person to be punished (this works against vampires as well, but only with Vitae) or a part of the person himself (a finger, a tuft of hair, a bone). He must then perform a ritual over a corpse during which he smears himself with the coagulated blood of a corpse at least a week dead and unpreserved. He must then continue with dripping the liquid (blood, sweat or urine) on the corpse or placing the 'part of the person' inside the mouth of the corpse. After this he raises a ritual sword and cuts off the corpses hand. At this moment the victim senses a strong pain in his right hand and over the course of three days it begins to shrivel, rot and will eventually fall off. This ritual takes two hours to perform.

In addition to getting the liquid or part of the person himself, the Necromancer must also spend a point of Willpower if this ritual is used against another Cainite. This ritual inflicts one level of unsoakable aggravated damage as the hand rots off. A mortal may never heal the damage done by Punishment from Below, but a vampire may heal it as aggravated wounds. The Necromancer may also spend between one and three additional Willpower points to cause a number of phantom levels of aggravated damage that must be healed before any other aggravated damage, including that from the hand can be healed. These phantom levels are not actual damage and do not inflict wound penalties, but must be healed before the hand may be regenerated.

Ritual of the Stygian Coin {G} [ECC Custom]

To protect the spread of certain Necromancy, elders of the Clan developed this ritual to curb the teaching of guarded rituals. When a power, ritual or other piece of information is being taught that the Necromancer finds necessary to protect, the Necromancer casts this ritual over the student before he teaches the ritual in question.

System: During the ritual, the caster takes a coin and places it on the forehead of the student. He then curses the knowledge he is about to grant with entropy. The coin warms a bit and then vanishes into a random location, deep within the Shadowlands or Underworld. After the teaching of the guarded secret, if this ritual was a success, the individual who learned it is unable to write down or teach the secret to others. If the student begins writing the secret, the words vanish as soon as they are written, sinking into the page like disappearing ink, consumed by Oblivion itself. It may not be recorded on any device however mundane or supernatural, vanishing as soon as the words appear. Additionally, the individual who attempts to teach finds he cannot, as his words and thoughts regarding it have escaped him, as though swallowed by Oblivion as he just cannot seem to find the words to express it.

If the student is able to somehow recover the coin, this ritual does not affect him while he holds it. If the coin is destroyed, the effects of this ritual end.

Ritual of the Unearthed Fetter {G} [V20 181]

This ritual is used for Wraiths who cannot be made to surrender their Fetters by other means, but only works on Wraiths who possess Fetters.

This ritual cannot determine distance or exact location of a fetter, only direction. As such, tracking down a fetter through this ritual cannot be done in simple downtime and will require scenes.


Stay the Zombu {GVA} [ECC Custom]

With this ritual, a Necromancer may place a ward of protection on a corpse, preventing it from arising as a Zombu and being used in another Necromancer's schemes. This power is commonly used on Giovanni family members who died without receiving the Embrace. It is also used by independent Necromancers on mortal loved ones that have died.

System: This spell must be cast within a week of the death of the subject or it will never work. The Necromancer places a small gold ring inlaid with sigils of barren, protection and warding on the corpse's right index finger and crosses their arms over their chest. The ring used parallels the Ashanti practice of giving a ring young children as a symbol of protection. This means that the Necromancer must have access to the body, so if it's buried it has to be exhumed. The caster must then chant wards of protection for five minutes while walking slowly around the body. If successful, then the body may not be resurrected using the or animated through the use of the Bone Path, Cadaverous Animation, or any other method of animating a corpse, nor may it be possessed and made to animate from within. These powers fizzle out when used on the corpse. The brass ring subsumes into the cadaver's finger and stays there permanently; it may not be removed. Cutting off the finger does not negate this ritual.

This ritual may not be used on a vampire or other animate corpse.


Tempest Prison {G} [V20 RotB 94]

The ritual does not require the grave of someone who actually became a wraith, only someone who had a premature or violent death.

This ritual requires the necromancer spend a blood point.

Only actual wraiths made of corpus may be sucked into the Tempest Prison. Necromancers traveling the Shadowlands cannot be so compressed.

Trapping a wraith in a Tempest Prison requires that the necromancer target a specific wraith and make a Willpower roll at a difficulty of the wraith’s current Corpus. Each success absorbs one Corpus from the wraith in question. If the wraith escapes the scene before all his corpus is trapped, he treats the missing Corpus as aggravated wounds. If all of his corpus is absorbed, he does not enter a harrowing as normal, but instead is trapped in the Tempest Prison until released by the Necromancer.

Each round the Prison is open, all currently trapped wraiths may attempt to escape by making an extended Strength roll at difficulty 8 minus the number of currently trapped wraiths, requiring 10 successes. If a trapped wraith gains the requisite number of successes while the prison is open it escapes and appears next to the Prison in the same state as it was when first absorbed. If the wraith fails to escape completely, closing the Prison retraps all remaining Corpus back in the Prison.


Tempesta Scudo {G} [V20 181]

This ritual requires only a single action to perform.

The effects last for the scene.

The damage is not bashing, since 1 bashing damage would automatically halve to 0 for a vampire.


Warping the Morbid Vision {GMV} [ECC Custom]

This ritual is highly useful when combined with arts that either animate a corpse or allow for its possession for practice of deception. This ritual allows the necromancer to cause a corpse to mimic his own appearance exactly.

System: The Necromancer invoking this ritual is able to change a corpse's facial features to correspond with that of his own. The caster has to remove the body's tongue, and keep it on his person for as long as he wants the ritual to be in effect. Following the invocation, after letting his hand glide over its features and closing its eyes, the face of the corpse warps to mimic the face of the Necromancer. The process of invocation takes fifteen minutes. Any change to the caster's face while the ritual is in effect will affect the corpse also. This ritual lasts for the remainder of the night, though may be performed on the same corpse again as long as the necromancer still has the tongue.

The corpse’s face will continue to change to mimic any actual physical changes to the Necromancer’s face such as from Vicissitude or other transformation disciplines, but not illusory ones such as from Mask of a Thousand Faces.


Weaving the Ascetic Pattern {Eg} [ECC Custom]

The Necromancer has enough understanding of the essential natural of the give and flow of the dragon-lines all around him that he can carefully arrange his surroundings in order to bend those flows in such a manner as is his desire.

System: The Necromancer spends an hour preparing a room in accordance with the principles of Feng Shui which requires approximately $5000 in materials. Upon successfully casting the ritual the Shroud rating is raised or lowered by the number of successes on the ritual roll within the room, according to the inclination of the caster and how he arranged the room. The change lasts until the room is significantly disturbed such as furniture being rearranged, added, broken or things being spilled. Simply using the room for its intended purpose does not count. The Shroud adjustment from this ritual fades after an hour once the room is so disturbed. The Shroud rating may not be raised above 10 or lowered below 2 as a result of this ritual.

[Hematite]

Necromancy Rituals - 4th Level

Awaken the Quiet Heart {M} [RoH 71]

The penalties of this ritual apply to all rolls, not only actions.

This ritual requires no sending beyond knowledge of the subject’s real name.


Baleful Doll {V} [V20 181]

Destroying the doll for six dice of lethal can be done only once. Injuring the doll with candle flame, pins, or other implements for six bashing can be done a functionally unlimited amount of times, no more than once a minute, however.

You can only destroy the doll once, but more than one doll can be made simultaneously with enough of the necessary materials.


Bastone Diabolico {G} [V20 181]

The tibia club is Concealment: J Strength +1 Damage.

The femur club is Concealment: N Strength + 3 Damage

The patella “club” is Concealment: P Strength + 0 Damage, but can be incorporated into a Brawling weapon to do the same damage as that weapon with an appropriate Crafts roll.

Only one Bastone Diabolico may be made per victim per necromancer. If multiple necromancers wish to make Bastone Diabolicos from the same victim, all must score 3 successes on a Dexterity + Medicine roll at difficulty 6 to strike the death blow simultaneously. If not all of them score the necessary successes, the necromancer with the most successes on the ritual roll succeeds and all others fail.

Bastone Diabolicos do not overcome a wraith’s incorporeal nature and are still subject to the rule of ouch. In addition, all attacks on a wraith drain one point of Pathos.

The Walking Dead are defined as any and all zombie creations of the Bone Path or Cadaverous Animation, possessed corpses due to Puppetry or Garb of Hades, or even Risen.


Cadaver’s Touch {Vg} [V20 182]

The social penalties from this curse affect all targets, even Kindred and include Intimidation rolls. This ritual can be maintained indefinitely with the right equipment to keep the wax semi-molten.


Call Upon the Shadow’s Grace {GE} [Cb-Gi 44]

This ritual must be cast with a specific person in mind, and triggers the next time you converse with that person for a few moments that night.

This ritual causes the target to divulge her plots, treacheries and lies she has told within the last month or so. The victim remembers doing this, albeit in a fit of devil-may-care attitude. They are entitled to a Difficulty 10 Perception + Awareness roll, 3 successes required, to know that they were compelled to speak out of turn.

A botch by the victim causes depression, but not suicide.


Caul the Living Mind {G} [GC-IV 120]

In combat, touching the target’s face or neck requires a successful Dexterity + Brawl roll at difficulty 8. This may be dodged, blocked or parried.

If subjected to this ritual, the victim is completely immobilized and in sensory deprivation for the remainder of the scene. If the victim is damaged, the Caul is broken and he may act normally thereafter, but may not defend himself from incoming attacks before the Caul is broken.


Cloak of Shades {GmA} [ECC Custom]

The ritual makes an image of the caster for others to be able to interact with while he stays in the Shadowlands, allowing for communication and deception.

System: By spending two blood points and one Willpower the ritual creates an incorporeal image of the caster. The image cannot touch anything around it, and the caster must be in the Shadowlands where the image would be in the physical world. If anything passes through the image with any significant force, the image disperses at once.

The effects of this ritual last for the remainder of the night and may be triggered at any point with the expenditure of a Willpower point and a mental action. Similarly it may be dismissed with another mental action.

The illusion appears real and solid when viewed normally. It may be pierced with the usual rules for Seeing the Unseen with the Necromancer comparing his rating in Necromancy.

The illusion mimics the movements and position of the Necromancer exactly. It cannot be directed to perform other actions. This can sometimes be an issue when used in areas where the Shadowlands and Skinlands don’t match up precisely.


Consumption of Life {GP} [ECC Custom]

There is no flesh as filling nor any that tastes as sweet as that of your fellow man. This ritual allows the necromancer to take advantage of this inhuman potency in healing even the most grievous wounds. Through the willful murder of his fellow man and careful butchering of their vitality, the very essence of life is preserved and made ready for consumption. This meat can be either prepared in fine cuisine or consumed tartar. It has notable restorative properties and a flavor of hauntingly good taste. While the health of those who consume the flesh always improves, the use of this rite is reserved only for times of severe strife, as Mama Dunsirn has noted a correlation in frequency of this disturbing dining and madness amongst her brood.

System: The necromancer murders his victim spending a Willpower point in the process. After the deed the 'dressing' of the kill is done in a prescribed manner. Those who consume the meat from this gruesome meal will immediately heal 2 levels of lethal damage per success scored on the ritual roll, or 1 level of aggravated damage per success will be healed as the meal digests the next time the diner sleeps.

It should also be noted this is a wantonly evil act and even the Dunsirn, habitual cannibals that they are, participate in only in time of illness and war. Down this road lays path checks, addiction, derangements, and Wyrm taint, much more so than usual.

This ritual, though known outside the Dunsirn and Pisanob families has been officially outlawed by the Giovanni family for fear of a growing addiction. It is known that the Dunsirn and Pisanob still practice this rite occasionally, but as long as that fact is not publicized, Venice turns a blind eye.


Cry of Death and Blood {GM} [ECC Custom]

This ritual links two or more willing participants to death through the Blood used in the ritual. If one of those connected through this ritual (called a Blood Circle, or Circle for short) dies, the others will instantly be struck by a vision of the participant's death as well as a flash of the circumstance in which the person died. To enact this ritual, the skull of a priest must be taken from his grave and opened over the top of the skull. Upon this skull, a brand has to be carved for every Blood Circle bound through this ritual. The participants have to pour their Blood into this skull, which will begin to pulsate with a dim red glow while the ritual takes place and the Blood boils away over the open fire. This was first and foremost created for the Necromancer to make sure that he knew how his Ghouls died, but it is as easily applicable to Kindred. The ritual takes seven hours to cast.

Each participant (up to the number of twice the Necromancer's Occult ability rating) to be linked to each other and to death must donate two points of Blood to the skull-chalice. Over the course of the seven hours the Necromancer boils the Blood away over an open fire. Once the Blood has boiled away, the ritual test is made. If successful, all participants will be permanently linked to each other in the manner described above. There's no limit to the amount of people one person can be bound to. (Note: By drinking this Blood the participants become one point blood bound to each other, or more if blood bonds already exist among them).

The priest can be of any religion or denomination but must have been ordained by the laws of that religion.

This ritual requires 2 downtime actions to cast.

The vision of death consists of a view of approximately the last minute of the subject’s life. It is viewed from above, not through the victim’s eyes.

This ritual may be combined with a Vaulderie to avoid causing a traditional blood bond.


Drink of Lethe’s Waters [BM:SoT 106]

The component of this ritual need not be an actual Fetter.

The memory loss is not triggered until the targeted wraith is in the presence of the necromancer.

This memory loss can not be corrected through use of Dominate, Mnemosynis or other arts that can normally recover lost memories.

If a wraith is reduced to zero Willpower by use of this ritual, treat it as though under the effects of Quell the Beast until at least one Willpower has been recovered.


Embrace the Kaimyo {E} [ECC Custom]

No matter what the style of magic, every magical practitioner understands the power of names. Particularly in necromancy, one’s name is a great source of power. Though there are many rites that can allow one to take a new name, this ritual allows the necromancer to risk his very soul to change himself to the core, altering his True Name.

System: This ritual can only be cast on two important anniversary dates per year: 7 days after his birthday or 7 days after the date of his embrace. Prior to this date, the necromancer must petition the head of his clan in the area for the right to take a new name. If there is no formal head of his clan, any higher ranking member of his clan will do. Once permission is given, he must spend the 3 days prior to the auspicious date fasting in ritual purification and contemplation of the new name. The necromancer then goes before an assemblage of her clan, minimum 7 members at least 3 of which must be higher ranking than the necromancer himself, respectfully bows to each and requests permission formally to take a new name. The necromancer then tells his name to the heavens, hells and the four cardinal directions seven times each. After this is done, the necromancer formally introduces himself to each of the assembled members of his clan and each must acknowledge the new name and introduce himself in turn. If even one of the assemblage refuses to acknowledge the new name, the entire process fails and cannot be attempted again until the next auspicious date. After the final member of the assembly has greeted the necromancer with his new name, he spends a Permanent point of Willpower to seal the effects in place and complete the ritual.

There are two ways to perform this ritual. The first and simpler way changes the necromancer’s real name. This is the name he considers himself to be and is the focus for any magics that use the name as an identity principle. Changing one’s real name uses exactly the system written above and has minimal side effects. This ritual reassigns the necromancer’s sense of identity such that he will not respond to his old name anymore. While intellectually he still understands that it was his name, he has no sense of attachment to it and will not instinctively respond if he hears it called. At the conclusion of the ritual, he must make a Willpower roll at difficulty 9. If he fails to get at least 3 successes on this roll, he acquires at least one derangement around the nature of identity (usually Dissociative Identity Disorder or Fugue).

If the necromancer wishes to change his True Name, the process is much harder. First and foremost, he must know his old True Name. This involves a complex research process described under Hermetic Thaumaturgy where such things are most prevalent. Second, in order to seal a new True Name in place, he must still speak it aloud to each of the assembled clan members. Due to the fact that they are sealing this new True Name in place will mean that each of those assembled will now know the new True Name. In addition, sealing a new True Name in place is far more difficult than simply changing one’s real name and requires that each member of the assembly also spend a Permanent Willpower. Once one’s True Name is changed, everything with any kind of magical connection to him (Talisman, Hand of Mastery, etc.) cease to function, and any blood samples currently out in the world no longer provide a sympathetic connection. He is in essence an entirely new person.

The real danger of changing one’s True Name however is that it risks the necromancer’s whole identity. The mind was never meant to take the shock of change on such a fundamental level. The identity is represented here by all that the necromancer has learned, namely his Ability dots. Upon successful completion of the ritual, the necromancer must risk all of his Ability dots on a single roll of Intelligence + Conscience/Conviction, representing his sense of self and his own memory. If he has any rating in Art of Memory he may add those dice to the roll as well, though those dots are risked as well. In addition, a great deal of self-affirmation is gained by the recognition of others, and the necromancer may add one die for each of the Assembly who spent a Permanent Willpower to acknowledge his new name. The roll is made at a difficulty based on the number of Ability dots he has; the more he knows, the more difficult it is to keep it all straight. The difficulty is 3 + 1 for every 10 Ability dots the necromancer possesses, including any Secondaries, rounded down. For each success the necromancer scores on this roll, he may keep 10% of his Ability dots, thus requiring him to score 10 or more successes not to lose anything. The highest ratings of any Abilities are lost first, then in the order of the least used as adjudicated by the Storyteller.

In clans with a formal rank system it is easy to identify what constitutes a higher ranking member. In those clans with a more informal system of prestige, any criteria will suffice to denote superiority. What is important is that the individuals are ones that the necromancer himself truly considers to be his superiors.

This ritual can only be cast by the necromancer for himself. The actual casting takes place during the 3 days of purification. This whole process requires 4 days and a total of 8 downtime actions.


Eternal Servant {AV} [ECC Custom]

Some servants never stop serving their masters. This powerful ritual allows a Necromancer to bind his Ghouls souls when they die and enter the Underworld. The Blood Bond will hold as strong in the Shadowlands as it will in the Skinlands when the Ghoul was alive. Even though this ritual is powerful, the Necromancer must either hope for luck that the Ghoul will indeed become a Wraith once he dies or make the servant drink the liquid created through 'Grip of Hades'. As well as being powerful, it also puts the Necromancer in some danger. He must sit on his knees completely naked and bathed before the Ghoul, who lies on his back. Once the chanting begins, nothing except the Ghoul exists before the Necromancers eyes and if attacked the vampire is hard-pressed to return his mind to this world before he dies.

System: The chanting, which takes two hours, indeed puts the vampire in a trance that makes it exceedingly easy to attack him. All attacks automatically hit and the vampire will only awaken if he succeeds on a Willpower check (difficulty 10). If the ritual is successful, the Ghoul will, if he becomes a Wraith, still be blood bound to the Necromancer and try to serve him as well as he can on the other side.

This ritual does not ensure that the ghoul will become a wraith if he dies, only that if he does become a wraith, he will remain blood bound. However, the close connection to death does grant the ghoul an additional up test on the check to become a wraith. This ritual is often combined with Grip of Hades if the Necromancer wants a new and particularly loyal servant.

During the trance, the Necromancer is considered completely immobile and unaware as though staked. Any attacks hit automatically with the attacker’s full dice pool as successes. Only if the necromancer is actually damaged and survives may he then even attempt a Willpower roll (difficulty 10) to break out of the trance.


Fruit of the Poisoned Tree {G} [ECC Custom]

There was a point when the ritual Fruit of the Poisonous Tree was common knowledge in the libraries of Europe. Many credited it with success in the early years of the families warding off plotters and players in the Jyhad, an incident in Milan resulting of 31 family, proxies and loyal retainers lead to the family destroying all known copies of the ritual, in the late 1700s, though some still practice this art in secret.

System: As the necromancer sets himself in a quiet location, into a pool or shallow bowl, the necromancer bleeds a point of his blood and he lights a candle and places it so its reflection can be viewed in the vitae. Then a piece of flesh or ash from a Giovanni murdered by his own kin is dipped into the blood and consumed. The taint of treachery and the knowledge that death opens allows the necromancer to the threats to the blood of the family. Though the information can be helpful the truth about the enemies arrayed against the family have lead to nightmares and in some cases paranoid delusions.

In the casting of this ritual, the necromancer spends a point of his blood, makes the ritual challenge and spends a point of Willpower as he consumes the betrayed flesh and opens his mind to oracular foresight of those that wish him harm. The images are often jumbled and difficult to understand, and storytellers are encouraged to use symbolism in the flashes. The insight gained is also represented by a one time bonus of a number of dice equal to the successes scored on the ritual that may be employed when attempting to save his life or help with the survival of his family. After the initial ritual test, a difficulty 10 Willpower challenge is made, with a failure resulting in the necromancer being plagued by nightmares for a month and unable to repeat the ritual during that time. This works like a directed oracular ability.

The necromancer has no direct control over the visions and cannot direct what information he receives. The information will always concern direct threats either to himself, to his clan, or to his mortal family if any exist. The nature of the Jyhad usually ensures that there will be at least some threat in progress towards any given Cainite, so this ritual is seldom lacking in information to give.

The information given should always be in vague symbolism and flashes. No direct information should be given, either in the form of identities or details of any plots. The most detailed this ritual should ever get is to describe the general type of threat and possible direction of attack. It should never reveal any identities, whether of threats or targets directly.

The bonus dice last indefinitely and represent a floating pool, any or all of which may be applied to any action taken in defence of himself, his clan or his mortal family. Once applied, these bonus dice are gone. This ritual may not be cast a second time while the necromancer still has bonus dice remaining in his pool.

This ritual may only be cast once per betrayed and slain Giovanni.

This ritual is extremely hard to get, as it has now been officially banned and purged by the Senate of Venice, and no respectable Giovanni will admit to its existence anymore. However, those who remember, particularly the Premascines, remember how useful this ritual can be, and it is whispered they still use it sometimes, slaying the “less useful” members of the family to power the spell. Some even whisper this ritual is how Augustus Giovanni discovered Cappadocius’ plot at the monastery of St. Timothy and formed his plan to purge the Cappadocians based on that information.

The Giovanni used for the component must have been slain by either another of the Giovanni clan, or one related to the Giovanni family by mortal blood. Either definition of kin is acceptable.


Halls of the Damned {GME} [ECC Custom]

The Necromancer who invokes this terrifying ritual will effectively make it impossible to speak in his haven without his permission. The ritual summons an unearthly wailing and screaming which assaults the hearing like a blizzard rends trees apart. The Necromancer must slay three young females in a ritual, slitting their throats, cutting of their ears and taking out their tongues. This is symbolic for the ritual, which allows the Necromancer to give his blessing to up to two other people at the same time who will not hear the wailing. The ritual during which he slays these three girls takes almost six hours. The ritual does not make any actual sound, and recordings and other devices will not pick up any noise - only the living (and undead) are affected by this spell which creates the disturbance within the victim's very soul.

System: First the character must perform the ritual as above. If the ritual test is successful, the room will be warded for a year. For every year that he wants to ward it after the first, he must sacrifice another three girls to keep the power intact. The caster may exempt two people by placing a mark on their foreheads created by his own Blood (usually made by opening the thumb and pressing it against the person's forehead). These two will not be affected by the ritual until they leave the room again and returns without the Necromancers blessing. Anyone that has not been blessed will suffer a +4 difficulty penalty to all perception tests that involve hearing, and a +2 difficulty to all other actions from the distraction. Those that enter the room and haven't become used to the howling must roll Courage (difficulty 10 for mortals, 7 for Cainites) or flee the room.

Performing this ritual requires a downtime action.

The necromancer may attune up to 2 people at a time to the effects of this ritual by marking their foreheads.

This ritual has no effect on electronic recording.


Impregnable Soul [V20 RotB 104]

This ritual is activated by rolling Manipulation + Occult at difficulty 7. If done against the subject’s will, the subject may resist with a Willpower roll at difficulty 7. This ritual always requires a strand of the subject’s hair and that the necromancer spend a Willpower point.

This ritual affects all attempts at Possession from effects such as Dominate, Animalism or the Puppetry Arcanos or anything that would remove the soul from the body such as Soul Stealing or Unburdening the Bestial Soul. This includes powers from the subject himself, thus preventing him from using powers such as Possession or Subsume the Spirit. It has no effect on purely physical control of the body achieved through effects such as Movement of the Mind or Mastery of the Mortal Shell.

The necromancer who cast this effect may cancel it at any time as a mental action.


Judgment of Aiakos {G} [ECC Custom]

This ritual can make a Wraith believe he has been dragged down into Hell itself (whatever that Wraiths thoughts are about his Hell, this will correspond to it) and that the Necromancer can offer freedom from this terrible place. The ritual demands that the caster crushes a skull and scatters the powder in a burning fire while chanting. This takes no more than 30 minutes, but the Wraith that is going to be targeted must be present. Part of the ritual is making sure the Wraith doesn't understand what the ritual has done (at least not until its effects are over). This makes Wraiths very susceptible to doing favors for the Necromancer.

System: The caster makes his ritual test. If successful, the Wraith will believe that he has somehow been dragged into Hell itself and that the Necromancer is the only one that can save him from this horrible place (which is very real to the Wraith). The Necromancer may return the Wraith to his normal perceptions at any time. Unfortunately this ritual can only be used once on a Wraith, and only on a Wraith who believes in Hells (whatever shape they might take).

This ritual will take the form of whatever form of eternal punishment the wraith believes in. The necromancer will not be aware of precisely what the wraith is experiencing while this ritual is in effect (the process takes place entirely in the wraith’s own head) and as such is wise to learn as much as possible about the wraith in question before using this ritual.

The wraith will experience whatever horrors can be conjured from his own mind, unaware of anything but these false experiences and the image and voice of the necromancer himself.

Though the wraith believes the horror will go on forever, the effects of this ritual will fade at dawn, so the necromancer must gain as much benefit as possible out of the situation as he can within that night.

If a wraith is truly atheist, this ritual will have no effect.

This ritual is often combined with Judgment of Rhadamanthus if a wraith who has been subjected to that ritual fails in a task. This ritual makes an excellent showing of proof.

A wraith will gain a minimum of one point of Angst from the experience, and depending on the specific visions will almost certainly gain more (a rough estimate of one point per hour in hell is appropriate).


La Sed Inquieta {Pg} [ECC Custom]

Before the family came to the new world the Pisanob knew the value of blood and pain. Their tortuous inflictions and human sacrifices fed the dark passions of their servants strengthen them for the task at hand. The necromancer slices open the victim and collects the blood which is offered to the waiting wraiths. The pain, excitement, anguish, religious reverie, and terror flows as freely as the offered vitae, the passions overwhelms the restless dead filling them with the vibrancy of the quick now lost to them. It should be noted that the dark nature of the source has an unpleasant effect upon the occasional wraith.

System: The Necromancer expends a willpower while murdering a human by slicing open the belly, removing the viscera and draining the vitae into arranged bowls while chanting a litany about the pleasures of life and exaltation to the gods. Those wraiths nearby the Shadowlands that are able to hear the litany are suffused by the passion of the event filling any emptiness within them. This passion is overpowering, causing any wraiths who hear the litany to regain all of their Pathos and Angst. Wraiths who are not Spectres must immediately then test for Catharsis, as the invigorated Shadow attempts to seize control.

This ritual affects any wraiths who are close enough to witness the murder.


Lion’s Pride {Agv} [ECC Custom]

The animal fathers of Africa honor the king of cats and mankind too heeds their presence. The caster makes an offering to the ghost of the lions and then braids into his or her own hair a lock of a lion's mane that they have removed themselves for this ritual. Displaying it openly and sacrificing their blood to the spirit, the caster is granted the lion’s favor of the noble beast’s commanding presence.

System: This ritual allows the Necromancer a primal connection to the abombo of the Lion for the rest of the evening. The components are the hair from a lion's mane that you harvested and your own hair braided together. This could be a braid in your hair or hung around your neck, but this must be visible for the favor of the spirits to be granted. The ritual requires a trait of blood to be sacrificed in respect of the spirits; the blood need not be kindred, indeed wildebeest is preferred. Also note that the lion providing the hair need not be alive at the time of casting, but the beast must be respected and as such not kept in storage or as a captive. This allows the Necromancer to burn blood into their Charisma Attribute exactly as they would for their Physical Attributes, the blood being mystically sacrificed to the Lion's abombo which returns the favor with its power of command and authority.

Note that this ritual requires a lock of hair from a lion’s mane that the necromancer must have harvested himself. The same lock may be used repeatedly in the casting of this ritual.

If the necromancer himself does not have hair, the lion’s mane may be soaked in his blood before being braided to provide the necessary sympathetic connection to himself.

If the sacrificed blood comes from a natural prey animal of the lion such as a gazelle or wildebeest, the difficulty of this ritual decreases by 1.


Mark of Despair {Mg} [PGttHC 200]

“Innocent” in this case refers to a mortal with Humanity 8 or higher.

One blood point creates enough salve for about 100 feet of perimeter.


Numb the Restless Soul {G} [ECC Custom]

Passions, of all kinds, keep the Wraiths tied to the Shadowlands. By enacting this ritual, the Necromancer can begin to corrode these passions, numb the Wraith's feelings for them and eventually destroy them. The Necromancer must first find out about a Wraith's Passion, then write it down in a book to be burnt later in the ritual. He must then make seven people experiencing this particular feeling write down something in this book. Once the ritual begins in earnest, he burns the book and chants. As the smoke dissipates, the Wraith will begin to feel his Passions being lost to the numbness of Oblivion.

System: Once the book has been completely burned, the necromancer rolls Manipulation + Occult at a difficulty of the wraith’s permanent willpower. For each success on this roll, the Passion targeted decreases in value by 1. If the Passion is reduced to 0, the wraith completely loses that Passion and takes unsoakable damage equal to the rating of that Passion.

This ritual requires the necromancer know both the specifics of the Passion in question, not just the emotion, and the name of the wraith in question.

This ritual does not strip memories from the wraith, only the emotion imbued in those memories.

Though the wraith may clinically know that he has lost something, the real insidious nature of this ritual lies in the fact that he simply won’t care anymore, since what was lost was the very fact that he cared about the subject in question. As such, this ritual is unlikely to make enemies for the necromancer, at least not enemies of the targeted wraiths themselves. Their friends and allies however may be another story.


Peek Past the Shroud {GMv} [V20 182]

The Necromancer may purposefully “botch” this ritual to create poison ergot instead if they wish.

The ergot remains potent indefinitely after being enchanted.

The duration of the Shroudsight is equal to the necromancer’s Stamina score at the time the ritual is cast, no the time it is ingested. This number should be recorded on the card for the ergot.

See Ash Path clarifications for details on Shroudsight.


Point of the Needle {G} [V20 RotB 90]

This ritual is the first success in the fumbling attempts of the Giovanni to mimic the Path of Thanatos without undergoing the Vodoun rite necessary to learn it and seeking the Baron’s favour.

See Path of Thanatos for clarifications on the power in question. The use of this ritual grants one use of the power Withering.

This ritual cannot be performed multiple times to “build up charges”, though if the charge is used early in a night, the ritual can be performed again to gain another charge.


Reaper’s Passing {GN} [ECC Custom]

The power of this ritual renders the casters flesh into Corpora for a tiny moment, allowing him to pass through walls and any other solid matter by shedding some of his 'flesh'. The grinning skull the Necromancer must hold makes this look like a grim coming indeed, passing through walls and doors without a problem. So long as he is holding the skull in his hand, he can invoke the power of this ritual at any time during the night as a mental action.

System: The Necromancer must have a human skull, completely free from flesh and other tissue, and hold it forward in his hand in front of himself. He concentrates and squeezes the skull and it will then become incorporeal together with the caster. This costs the Necromancer a health level, and he will stay incorporeal for his Stamina in turns. The ability to invoke this effect lasts for the remainder of the night. The skull turns to dust once dawn comes and this ritual’s time elapses.

This ritual enchants the skull. For the remainder of the night, anyone holding the skull may activate the effect. The necromancer may only have one skull so enchanted at a time. Enchanting a second skull immediately causes the first one to turn to dust.


Replace the Tattered Flesh {MG} [ECC Custom]

Necromantic surgeons, through the use of this ritual, may "heal" grievous wounds brought upon themselves and others. This ritual is primarily used to help during extended combat situations, when a Kindred has little blood to spare on healing.

System: The Necromancer must have strips of treated flesh from a corpse. One adult size corpse will generally provide up to ten such Strips of Flesh. First, each piece of flesh must be cured in a solution of brine, iodine, and blood for 24 hours. This blood need not be from the necromancer, any type of blood will work. One point of blood is required for every strip of flesh. After the curing process, the strips must be kept in the solution. The necromancer may then heal bashing, lethal, or aggravated wounds by grafting the treated flesh onto the recipient. Each strip may heal one level of bashing or lethal damage, and the application of 3 strips may heal one point of aggravated damage.

The process of grafting a strip of flesh requires 10 minutes and the necromancer must make an Intelligence + Medicine roll at difficulty 8. If the one applying the strip uses Vicissitude 2, the process takes only a single turn rather than the 10 minutes normally required for the surgery involved, though this raises the difficulty of the Intelligence + Medicine roll to 10 if done so quickly. If Vicissitude is used and the surgeon still takes the necessary 10 minutes for surgery, the difficulty is reduced to 6. The wound is then healed immediately, but the individual now has an unsightly patch of dead skin (different from his own) on his person. For each strip of flesh grafted to a person, they lose a point of Appearance. This may not be corrected with Vicissitude, the dead flesh stubbornly resisting any attempts to alter its appearance and always showing on the surface regardless of attempts to cover it. If a subject’s Appearance is already 0 and gets additional strips applied, the negative effects increase dramatically. For each strip applied to a subject with an Appearance of 0, he loses one die on all Social rolls.

Luckily the penalties of this ritual are not permanent. Each strip may be absorbed into the body, its effects rendered null by an effort of healing. Each strip may be “healed” as a phantom level of aggravated damage. Once a strip has been “healed” it will slowly absorb into the body over the next week. Once that week has passed, the strip will be absorbed into the body, and all negative effects associated with it will be removed. Only one strip may be healed per week, and doing so counts as healing a level of aggravated damage for the day.

The strips will last indefinitely until used.

Anyone may apply the strips, though the one applying them must make the Intelligence + Medicine roll to do so. Botching this roll will inflict an additional level of unsoakable damage of the same type as the wound the user is attempting to heal with the strip, and still counts as an application of that strip.

Each application of this ritual produces one strip. Though the strips must cure in the brine solution for 24 hours, the necromancer does not need to constantly attend them for that entire time. The actual ritual takes only the usual 20 minutes for a 4th level ritual.


Resurrection of Stirred Blood {MGv} [PGttHC 201]

The self-targeted version of this ritual only works on voluntary torpor, not damage or blood torpor, or any other kind. The use that targets another vampire may be any kind of torpor.


Ritual of Xipe Totec {P} [V20 182]

Flaying the victim alive with nothing but an obsidian dagger requires 3 successes on a Dexterity + Medicine roll at difficulty 9. As the Necromancer must use only an obsidian dagger for this process, this roll cannot benefit from a Medicine Laboratory background.

This ritual only works on mortals, but that does include ghouls and mages, but not werewolves.

This ritual requires the expenditure of an extra blood nightly to keep it working, which can be added to a character’s Blood Debt.

Under all physical scrutiny, even Auspex, the guise is flawless.


The Servant Undying {GM} [ECC Custom]

By performing this ritual the Necromancer can assure that his Ghouls are not so easily dismissed as those of other Cainites are. Once this ritual has been performed, a Ghoul that has been killed will rise to serve the Necromancer as a zombie.

System: The ritual requires that the Necromancer empower some of his own Blood by ritual chants and sprinkling it with the bone-powder of a nocturnal creature (owl, wolf or bat are good examples). The chanting takes two hours. This ritual was created to make sure that the Necromancer had some more 'hitting-power' if he was attacked or needed an easy escape. Obviously, this ritual breaks the Masquerade thoroughly.

The caster may extend the ritual by two hours for every point of Blood beyond the first he wishes to empower. Then he must succeed on the test for a power of either the Bone Path or Cadaverous Animation that would normally create a zombie. Once this is done, a Ghoul may be fed with the Blood, each point of which consumed by the ghoul will extend the effects of this ritual for seven nights. A Ghoul who dies during this time will then rise as a zombie to serve the Necromancer.

The ghoul will arise as a zombie of a kind depending on the power used to animate it. The animation and statistics for the risen ghoul will be exactly as if the power was used normally.

If the necromancer wishes the ghoul to rise as an Athanatos, the Athanatos will immediately be considered uncontrolled unless the ghoul dies within 100 yards of the necromancer.

If the duration on the enchanted blood expires, this ritual ends with no ill effect to the ghoul.


Shadowlands Passage {N} [ECC Custom]

This ritual is based from Second Edition Thaumaturgy from Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand and was updated in the ritual Enochian Passage in Rites of the Blood. Emerald Coven Chronicles does not use this ritual in either Thaumaturgy or Necromancy.


Skeleton’s Kiss {MVg} [ECC Custom]

This ritual involves a potent curse that causes a victim to experience the horror of being an animate corpse, namely the inability to heal correctly. After enough time under this curse, if the victim suffers any degree of maladies, he will be left as little more than an animate skeleton.

System: This ritual takes an hour during which the necromancer must meditate alone while burning a personal object of his target along with a symbolic image. After the ritual is complete, the necromancer has seven days in which he must deliver the curse by means of a kiss. After the victim has been kissed, he will immediately suffer the effects of the curse, though may not be aware of it right away. While the curse persists, the victim suffers the effects of the Flesh of the Corpse flaw. In addition, all healing is only half as effective (natural healing times are halved, blood costs are doubled, and the potency of any healing power is reduced by half, rounded down). The effects of the curse last for one week per success scored on the ritual roll.

Multiple applications of the curse on one victim do not stack.

The Necromancer may only carry one charge of this ritual at once, even if they are meant for different targets.


Soulcrafting {G} [VAC 70]

This ritual requires 2 downtime actions to cast.

The machine used in this ritual need not be created by the Necromancer. After the joining, it will be vaguely supernatural in nature, such as the headlights of a car projecting an eerie pale light, the exhaust emitting swirling smoke that seems to form shapes, and other spooky effects.

The machine thus created can be commanded with Compel Soul if one meets the requirements to do so. It will perform its work to the best of the machine’s capabilities.

The roll to resist Rotschreck each hour is a Courage roll, not a Willpower roll.

A group of enterprising Milliners in the 1920s hit on the idea of using this ritual to create electrical power plants that have no need of fuel. This is now one of the most profitable enterprises of that family, with plants all over the world. The effectiveness of these plants is only hampered by their need for appropriate mortal cover to explain the power generated.


Strength of the Rotten Flesh {MGV} [ECC Custom]

Favored by the Giovanni, this grisly ritual increases the power of the Necromancer's undead servants.

System: Preparation for the ritual, which takes three hours, requires the caster to remove the skeleton from an initially living human. The flesh and tissue must be burned within a circle made from the bones, as the right incantations are uttered over the funeral pyre. The rite itself takes an additional hour, and can only be performed in the Necromancer's haven (somewhere he has slept at least three days in a row). All zombies created by the Necromancer temporarily gain a point of Potence and two points of Fortitude. The ritual lasts one week.

This ritual requires a downtime action to cast.

This ritual grants all zombies created by the Bone Path or Cadaverous Animation within the duration of the ritual one level of Potence and 2 levels of Fortitude.

Zombies do not need to spend blood points to activate the Potence.

These discipline levels last until either the zombie is destroyed (or the animating power ends) or until one week has passed. After a week, all created zombies with these discipline levels lose them.


Summon the Ethereal Horde [V20 RotB 89]

See the clarifications for Path of the Shadow World in the Thaumaturgy page for details on Drones.


Un Eco Entre Ojos {Pgm} [ECC Custom]

The ever presence of the Pisanobs’ wraith minions is respected thought Mexico, but there are times when one cannot wait for word of mouth, or one needs to observe something directly. Through use of the natural connection between two eyes the necromancers of Mexico can view a location remotely. The eyes are sometimes hidden in nooks, lodged in the heads of zombies or even the eyes of fellow necromancers practicing Occhio d'Uomo Morto.

System: The Necromancer must remove his own eye, and replace it with the mate of the eye he wishes to look through. The when he wishes to view through the paired eye he must paint his obsidian mirror with a point of his blood and gaze within and he may see through that eye as if he were there. Healing the eye ends the ritual and causes the scrying eye to instantly turn to ash.

This is not considered a true scrying ritual and as such is not blocked by anti-scrying effects (see the Scrying clarification page for details).

This ritual can only allow the necromancer to look through eyes of the dead. Eyes of other vampires are not usable for this ritual.

This ritual grants no ability to hear events at the location he is viewing.

As the magic is tied to the donor eye, only the necromancer himself may see anything in the mirror.

The necromancer may not use any powers through the sight granted by this ritual, though the passive abilities of Heightened Senses still applies.

The necromancer may only have one eye attuned to this ritual at a time.


Veil that Bars Eternity [PGttHC 201]

Without this ritual, or some kind of embalming, corpses decay to rotting uselessness in about two weeks. With refrigeration, a corpse can be kept for a few months, but this requires a very large and very cold fridge, such as a meat locker.

This ritual will also preserve the remains of a vampire from turning to ash, if used quickly enough.

This ritual can be used to preserve any organic matter (including liquids unlike Preserve Corpse), not only corpses.

[Hematite]

Necromancy Rituals - 5th Level

Bestow Death [ECC Custom]

The number four is bad luck as it is associated with death. Four necromancers who know this ritual and have a personal item from the intended victim, 5 points of blood and the True Name of a target can conduct a 2 hour long ritual in which she performs the burial rights for the individual.

System: This ritual must be cast at the beginning of the night. The item is soaked in blood and passed with chopsticks among the four. The item cannot be dropped or all necromancers suffer 5 dice of aggravated damage, though the ritual may continue. This requires a Dexterity + Athletics test, (difficulty 4) once every ten minutes by each of the four Necromancers. The target can feel death coming for him and sees flashes of the ceremony as his soul is ripped towards it. The target knows that by running far enough away they, can escape their fate this is defined the same as Night of the Red Heart. This ritual may also be avoided by successfully meditating from midnight to dawn. Note this requires the ability and successful tests each hour until dawn, which may require the target to burn willpower to stay awake until dawn. Finally, this ritual may be avoided by killing the casters and performing burial rights for them. A target of this ritual dies at dawn if the ritual is successfully cast and not somehow avoided.

See Night of the Red Heart for additional clarifications. This ritual functions in the same way in terms of distance and knowledge of the effect.

If the participants are killed during the effect, burial rites must be performed for each of them in order to end the effect.

Unlike Night of the Red Heart, the four casters do not need to continue chanting to maintain this effect.


Blood of the World Beyond {N} [ECC Custom]/

This ritual was created to bridge the gaps between the Shadowlands and the Skinlands in a more macabre way. Through this ritual, the Necromancer can empower his own Vitae with mystical power, which allows a Wraith to drink the vampire's blood and gain strength from it. Some claim that this ritual was only created to blood bind Wraiths, but it has been used to aid allies as well. The Necromancer must chant for 30 minutes while in the Shadowlands while holding a chain in both of his hands.

System: Every temporary Willpower spent (up to 3 maximum per casting of the ritual) makes one point of Blood worthless to the caster, but empowered for a Wraith. The Wraith can drink this Blood and gain one point of Pathos per point of Vitae drunk. Wraiths can be blood bound by this Blood, but any Blood which wasn't consumed after three hours or bled out will expend its energy and cause one level of damage to the vampire per unused and changed point of Blood in his system.

Furthermore, this ritual actually causes the wraith to become a sort of ghoul to the necromancer, gaining a level of Potence and one other discipline of the necromancer as well. Any blood costs for such disciplines may be paid with Pathos.

The necromancer may thereafter maintain the wraith as a ghoul through repeated use of this ritual. The ghouled wraith functions as a ghoul, under the full effects of the blood bond.

The Shadow is equally blood bound by this ritual, though will interpret the bond in sick and twisted ways as per its nature.

This ritual is unknown outside the Nagaraja.


Bone of Soulfeasting [ECC Custom]

This ritual enchants a bone with mystical properties. The Necromancer must personally rob a grave of a human femur bone, which has to be at least 300 years old. The bone may be shaped or carved before this ritual is used, shaping it into the desired form or weapon. After this, he must chant for seven consecutive nights while channeling his own power into the bone. At the end of these seven nights, the bone must be dipped in the Necromancer's Vitae until it absorbs it. Once this is done, the bone must be buried with the ashes of a heretic for a week. When it is dug up it will be as black as night, as hard as steel, and hold the power to feast on the souls of others.

System: If the ritual is successful, the caster must spend ten points of Blood, which the bone will absorb. The bone absorbs this Blood at a rate of two points of Blood absorbed per night. Once the ritual is complete, the caster may use the bone to drain someone of Willpower. He must touch the target with the bone and spend at least one of its Blood points, though he may spend any amount of Blood remaining in the bone. Each point spent in this way drains one point of Willpower from the target, and there is no limit to the amount of blood that may be spent at once. Note that the bone cannot be used against the caster since it was his Blood that once empowered the item from the beginning. This ritual may be soaked in blood over the course of a day again to restore its potency, up to its maximum of 10 blood points.

If the bone would drain a victim of his last Willpower point, the victim may make a Willpower roll at difficulty 9 to summon the last reserves of will from within himself. For a number of turns equal to his successes he may continue to function as if he still had Willpower. After that time has passed, he will become lethargic and listless as anyone else who had spent their last Willpower point.


Chair of Hades [BM:SoT 106]

Discovering the corpse of an ancestor of the individual requires the following tasks:

-You must know the subject’s true identity, defeating any Alt ID you may know them by with an Investigation check exceeding the successes of the Alt ID.

-You need to score at least one success for every hundred years the subject has been dead on an Intelligence + Academics challenge.

-You need to retrieve the corpse, possibly requiring a scene or travel checks.

“Fulfill basic bodily needs” does include feeding, for a vampire, as well as basic safety. A vampire will not sit and watch the sun rise to kill them, and will leave briefly to feed if they are able to, but they are unable to take any other action that cannot be done while sitting in the chair.

Victims of this ritual may take no downtime actions save for a maximum of 2 actions per week spent feeding.

Furthermore, they do not immediately realize that their will is not their own, and it requires 3 successes on a Difficulty 10 Perception + Awareness roll to realize that they are under a compulsion. Even then, under no circumstances save perhaps Dominate will the victim willingly break the chair to end the spell, even if they know that breaking it will do so.


Chill of Oblivion [V20 183]

The minimum casting time for this roll is 1 hour, requiring 11 successes on the casting roll.

Since this ritual lasts a number of nights, it can be cast “midweek” and need not detract from a Necromancer’s allotted time for ritual performance at game.

The “diablerie lines” created by this ritual appear at 5 successes, like normal diablerie lines.

Extinguishing a fire requires that the necromancer be within an arm’s length of the blaze, requiring a Rotschreck roll based on the fire’s size for getting that close.


Compress (Path of Thanatos 5) (Originally Thanatosis 6) {V} [PG2 144])

This ritual can cause the skin of an opponent to shrink until it ruptures and explodes off the target. The Samedi must ritually prepare a patch of human skin which must be alchemically shrunk over the course of 3 nights in a solution of the Samedi’s own blood (requiring 3 points) and other acids and chemicals.

System:To activate the effects of this ritual, the patch of enchanted skin must be applied to the skin of an opponent. This causes four levels of aggravated damage and reduces the victim’s Appearance to 0 as the victim’s skin contracts and rips apart. Targets with Fortitude may resist this power with a soak roll, though partial success still rips off large portions of the victim’s skin, reducing his Appearance to 1. The Appearance loss will persist until all of the aggravated damage is healed.

If the victim suffers at least one level of aggravated damage from this effect, the contracted skin retains a degree of magic within it, that can be tapped by the Samedi. If he collects a sample of the skin, he may at any point later in the night spend a blood point to absorb the contracted skin within his own putrid form. The Samedi adds three dots to his Stamina score for the remainder of the night. This is considered an Attribute bonus and can exceed generational limits.

If the shrunken skin is not used within one lunar month of the completed casting, it loses its magic and becomes useless.

Needless to say, Samedi who overtly display this ability are not popular with others.

This ritual takes a total of 6 downtime actions to prepare.



Corporo {GVE} [ECC Custom]

This ritual can be used as a great tool for dealing with the dead. It allows a Necromancer to make a wraith material in the skinlands for a long period of time again (relative to how long a wraith can become material on its own). The ghost can touch (and feel!) things, and is considered a physical being for the duration of the ritual. It is not biological, though, so it can't eat, drink, copulate, use the restroom, etc. The wraith may speak with loved ones, tie up loose ends, take a hot shower, etc. Staying material for longer periods of time may be dangerous for a wraith; however, it takes a sort of "Flowers for Algernon" realization that it will eventually be a ghost again. Necromancers have to be careful of what wraiths they cast the ritual on; while it may be an excellent reward for wraithly servants, the wraiths may thereafter pester the Necromancer to make them corporeal again. Or, worse, they might tell their dead friends. Necromancers generally only use this ritual on their most favored wraiths, and they usually consider it a rather large boon.

System: The Necromancer must be in the immediate vicinity of the wraith and the subject must be willing (hardly a problem). The caster then pricks his hand repeatedly with a sharpened human jawbone (losing two blood points in the process). Then, he places the hand on a stone surface (it may be a wall, a large enough rock, a statue, whatever) and murmurs some arcane chants. The handprint of blood remains behind, and rolls Manipulation + Occult at a difficulty of the Wraith’s permanent Angst. If the ritual roll is successful, the print begins glowing a bright orange-red (which may be seen in the Underworld). If the ghost then places his hand on the bloody print, he becomes corporeal. This lasts for 10 minutes per success on the casting roll unless the Necromancer chooses to make it longer. A temporary point of willpower makes it last the rest of the night, while a permanent point extends it by one week. Neither expenditure may be used more than once during a single casting. When the time is up, the handprint fades, and so does the wraith. The Necromancer must make a different handprint every time the ritual is used, and each handprint can accommodate only one wraith.

A wraith made corporeal by this power is treated as if using the Embody 5 power Materialize, save for the duration.

When this power ends, the wraith must immediately test for Catharsis, as a vengeful shadow hits it with everything it has lost.


Creeping Infection (Path of Thanatos 5) (Originally Thanatosis 6) {V} [ECC Custom]

This ritual allows the Samedi to delay the effect of a previously cast power of the Path of Thanatos so that it takes effect in its victim long after the Samedi has left. This ritual has led to many rumours that Samedi are infectious, and that their mere presence can cause terrible disease in those around them. Samedi who hear these rumours just smile and pat the rumourmonger on the back.

System: This ritual requires the Samedi consume the blood (at least one point) from a source infected with a virulent disease. The power of this ritual protects the Samedi from suffering any effects of the diseased blood, the power of it consumed in the casting of this ritual.

For the remainder of the night, the Samedi may choose to activate Putrefaction, Withering, or Necrosis on a target, and choose to delay the effect, to activate later at his will. All rolls necessary for the Path of Thanatos power must be made as normal when the power is applied. The delayed effect may remain dormant in the victim’s system for up to one month per success in casting this ritual. At any point during that duration, the Samedi may choose to spend a Blood Point and a mental action to cause the full effects of the dormant power to take effect. The Samedi does not need to be within line of sight of his victim to activate the dormant effect. The Samedi may delay a maximum number of effects at a time equal to his Natural Stamina + Fortitude.

If the duration on a delayed effect runs out, the magic fades from the victim with no ill effect.

Dead Man’s Hand [V20 183]

This power only requires enough blood, sweat or tears to cause a stain – not necessarily a full blood point or pint.

This power does not do damage. It literally removes Health Levels from the character’s health track, reducing their maximum health levels, thus, they cannot spend blood or other means to heal the damage or recover. The entire process takes only 46.5 hours.

The Necromancer cannot use her own hand or the hand of a vampire for this ritual to accelerate the decay.

For victims with more than the usual 7 health levels, each additional level takes 12 hours to remove.


Draught of Dust and Ashes {Mg} [PGttHC 201]

Remember that the portion of the ritual that gives Willpower, the Courage roll, is not Necromancy and doesn’t benefit from such things as Rape of Persephone.

The power that this ritual draws upon is the ability to feed upon Angst, the same power used for the Vitreous power Soul Feasting. Use of either power in a given location eats the same resource for the same reason, and renders the other power unusable there until it recharges.


Dust to Dust (Path of Thanatos 3) (Originally Thanatosis 7) {V} [ECC Custom]

This ritual allows the Samedi to modify his next use of Ashes to Ashes, letting him retain his awareness and mobility in his discorporate state. This ritual requires the Samedi cut off his own left hand, then consume the ashes mixed with cold blood from a week old corpse.

System: Cutting off the hand deals a level of unsoakable lethal damage. For the remainder of the night, while in ash form, the Samedi may spend a Blood and Willpower point to reanimate that form. In the animated form, the Samedi may move as though drifting along air currents, though not necessarily in the direction of the prevailing breeze. The character cannot be blown apart by high winds, and any deliberate attempt to separate the pile of ash may be resisted with a die pool equaling the character’s combined Strength, Stamina, Potence, and Fortitude. He may also use any discipline that does not require physical movement or speech, though sometimes to odd effect (for instance, Majesty will make the pile of dust very impressive, and no maid in her right mind would dare sweep it up).

Each casting of this ritual only allows the Samedi to assume the sentient Ash state once, and only in the same night as the ritual was cast. The Samedi may not cast this ritual multiple times to build up charges.

See the clarifications for Vicissitude 5 to note how this form may move.

Other than what is mentioned in this ritual, the mobile and sentient Ash form functions exactly as normal for Ashes to Ashes.


Empowering the Shadow’s Mantle {G} [ECC Custom]

Through this ritual the Necromancer punishes those Wraiths that have not followed his will by empowering their Shadows. The Necromancer must hold the physical hand of the Wraith he wishes to condemn (even if it's only a bunch of bones) and rotate for three hours while chanting. He then spills his blood, which pools into a throbbing red pentagram which then slowly fades and is absorbed by the Wraith's Shadow. This empowers the Shadow which can then gain control over the Wraith or turn her into a Spectre.

System: The necromancer may spend any amount of blood as part of the casting of this ritual. For every success on the casting roll the wraith gains one point of Angst, to a maximum of the blood spent. The blood must be spent before the ritual roll is made and any blood in excess of the successes scored is wasted.

This grants temporary Angst and may result in the Shadow attempting an immediate Catharsis if it feels powerful enough.

The Shadow may immediately convert this temporary Angst into permanent if it gains enough as normal.


Enochian Passage {N} [V20 RotB 104]

This ritual is attuned to the plane of Enoch and can only go to that one place. Since the city’s second destruction in 1999, this ritual still functions, but only takes the necromancer to the field of glass that is all that remains of the legendary city.

This ritual is the sole province of the Talmahe’Ra and no other necromancers know of its secrets.


Esilio {G} [V20 183]

Use of Esilio is a single mental action.

The Clinch or Tackle maneuver that this ritual requires to destroy a ghost can be done without the aid of powers such as Dead Hand or Torment.

The Necromancer takes the lethal damage as soon as the portal opens.

This ritual instantly sends a wraith into a destruction Harrowing. Weaker ghosts may be destroyed outright at ST discretion.


Garb of Hades [BS:TTC 85]

When casting this ritual, which requires a human body dead no more than 30 minutes, you will need to explain to the Storyteller where you are getting such a corpse and how, and make any appropriate Path checks associated with it.

Unlike most kinds of possession, this power does not force the Necromancer to take sympathetic damage if the body takes damage.

The corpse has 10 Health levels and soaks damage as an object using only the body’s natural Stamina.

The Necromancer retains full access to all non-physical disciplines while in the corpse.

This ritual lasts for a number of hours equal to the successes scored, not scenes.


Grasp the Ghostly [V20 184]

To qualify for this ritual, an item must become a Relic, which means the item had to be of great emotional significance to someone, then become destroyed. Relics tend to appear where they were destroyed, but are valuable to Wraiths who will take them if they find them.

The item you replace it with will exist as a relic in its stead in the Shadowlands for a year.

Soulforged items, or other items made from plasm by Wraiths, are destroyed if you attempt this ritual upon them.


The Grip of Hades {G} [ECC Custom]

This ritual, created to be either gift or curse, creates a potion that once ingested will bind the person to this world long enough for him to become a wraith upon his death. The potion that this ritual creates is deadly to humans, and they will die within a half hour of drinking it. The potion itself contains no true power - the power of this ritual comes with the symbolic acceptance that comes with drinking it. For the mystical portion of this ritual to function, the drinker must know and accept the purpose of the potion - to damn them to an eternity of unrest as one of the restless dead, at the mercy of the Necromancers who gave him such a potion. Drinking the potion under these circumstances constitutes a full acceptance of this fate, and the drinker must spend a point of permanent willpower while drinking it. If the drinker dies before dawn, the power of the potion causes him to become a Wraith without fail. If dawn comes without the reaper's kiss, the potion's effects end and the Willpower is wasted.

System: To create this potion, the Necromancer must pour up two points of his own blood in a container that can be sealed. He must then spice it with belladonna and crush three black spiders in it to be complete. He must then seal the container and chant for three hours before the potion is completed. It will have a sickly sweet smell and taste. Those that have come upon corpses well into decay will immediately recognize the smell as just that. If a character drinks the Grip of Hades without knowing what it does or choosing to accept its effects, it's mystical power does nothing, but it is still fatal to mortals.

Creating a dose of this potion requires a downtime action.

The potion will last indefinitely until used.


Hand of Mastery {G} [ECC Custom]

This ritual is taught to Giovanni Necromancers after they learn the Torment ability of the Sepulchre path and begin their advanced Necromantic studies. Hand of Mastery allows the caster to enchant a magical glove or gauntlet to act as an amplifier for her will and necromantic might. Many Necromancers inscribe their gauntlet with beautiful and elaborate designs, or have them forged as cruel weaponry to use against their foes. Many also bear additional enchantments from other powers and rituals. The physical appearance of the Hand of Mastery varies, but it must cover the left hand in some fashion, usually in the form of some kind of glove, but it can be made of any material.

System: This ritual requires six hours per night for one complete cycle of the moon, beginning and ending on the new moon. Over this time the Necromancer carefully prepares her Hand of Mastery, carving it with necromantic glyphs that signify her own true name and bless her with the power of authority and taboo. The player spends one blood point per night and makes an extended roll of Intelligence + Occult (difficulty 8), one roll per week. If a night's work is missed or if the four rolls do not accumulate at least 20 net successes, the Hand is ruined and the process must be begun again.

A completed Hand of Mastery gives the caster several advantages. When the character is wearing the Hand, the difficulty of all magic that targets her is increased by one. The player receives two extra dice when using any power of Necromancy that does not target ghosts, and one extra die for the character's ritual castings. If the Hand is used as a weapon, it gives the player an additional die to roll to hit. The Necromancer may also gain the benefits of the Potence discipline for her uses of Torment, which adds extra dice or extra successes if the Necromancer spends a blood. If the Necromancer is separated from her Hand of Mastery, a successful Perception + Occult roll (difficulty 7) gives her its location.

If the Hand is in the possession of another individual, it gives that individual three additional dice to roll when using any form of magic against the Hand's owner. Rituals that target the caster and use her talisman as a physical component automatically receive 3 extra successes.

A Necromancer may only have one Hand of Mastery at a time. Ownership of the Hand may not be transferred - each individual must create their own.

This ritual takes 7 downtime actions each week for a full lunar month to complete.

This ritual must begin during the week of the New Moon.

The extra dice stack for Necromancy rituals that do not target wraiths.

The bonus to Torment applies only to the 5th level of Sepulchre Path, not to the 5th level of the Path of Haunting, also called Torment.

The Perception + Occult roll to find a lost Hand of Mastery functions as a bloodstone (see Craft Bloodstone) and does not give precise location.

The difficulty increase only applies to magical effects that specifically target the necromancer. If they are caught in an area effect, the Hand of Mastery has no effect. This applies to all forms of blood magic as well as True Magick and Hedge Magic, including Psychic Numina.


Jade Surrogate {E} [ECC Custom]

This ritual creates a jade figurine representing the caster, which he may use to travel to the shadowlands.

System: A bronze bowl must be acquired along with savory herbs, a bronze knife and white or red jade. Clean water is placed in the bronze bowl. This is then infused with the savory herbs and left in moonlight for an 8 hours. During this time the caster uses the bronze knife to carve the jade into an approximation of a human figure. The jade is then placed in the bowl. Any color of Jade can be used for this ritual.

Once placed in the bowl and the caster spends 2 blood points and the figurine takes on a much nicer worked appearance. The Necromancer may only have as many Jade Surrogates at one time as half of his permanent willpower (rounded down). At any time thereafter, the necromancer or anyone else holding the Jade Surrogate may spend a blood point, drop the statue and roll Manipulation + Occult at a difficulty of the local Shroud rating. Upon success the he immediately jumps into the shadowlands. The Jade Surrogate remains in the Skinlands, falling to the ground. The traveler may only return from the Shadowlands if he can get back to the spot where the Jade Surrogate now lies. If the Jade Surrogate has been moved the traveler must either find it or find another way back. If the Jade surrogate is destroyed, the effect immediately ends and the traveler is forcibly pulled back across the Shroud appearing back in the Skinlands at the point where the Surrogate was destroyed, immediately taking a number of dice of lethal damage equal to the Shroud rating at the place where the Surrogate was destroyed.

This ritual was converted from the Jade Boat ritual practiced by the Kuei-Jin and is one of the first examples of the fact that rituals may be exchanged. Unfortunately, the Kuei-Jin are not aware that this ritual has made its way into Cainite hands and undoubtedly would be rather upset to discover this fact.


Mass Grave {N} [ECC Custom]

This ritual is based from Second Edition Thaumaturgy from Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand and was updated in the ritual Enochian Passage in Rites of the Blood. Emerald Coven Chronicles does not use this ritual in either Thaumaturgy or Necromancy.


Piccolo Tempesta [ECC Custom]

This ritual appears to be the logical next step from Din of the Damned. It protects the room it wards from visual as well as auditory spies. Its true advancement though, seems to be the ease with which it is cast.

System: The necromancer simply stands in the center of the room, chants a few brief syllables, and indicates the extreme of the effect by either anointing the walls with his vitae or simply flinging it in a rough circle around himself. The whole procedure can take as little as 20 seconds. Until the caster leaves the area, any attempt to spy on the happenings inside must score more successes on a Perception + Occult roll (difficulty 9) than the necromancer scored on Piccolo Tempesta. If they fail, they hear and see nothing but the howling of hurricane winds, flinging ghostly shapes.

The ghost storm is real, of course. The true nature of this ritual is far closer to that of Esilio than Din of the Damned. Instead of opening a portal to Oblivion within himself, the necromancer draws a tiny section of the Great Maelstrom and sends it to dance around him and the area he designates. Wraiths and other ghostly things may be caught up in the viciously spinning winds if they get too close to the storm bubble's surface, and this ritual can cause immense damage if used offensively against the inhabitants of the Underworld, since it is essentially the power to summon localized hurricanes in mere moments. Any wraiths in the room take 1 point of Aggravated damage per round from the wracking power of the storm.

This ritual takes one round to cast per 2 yards radius of the effect.

Though this ritual can be cast while in the Shadowlands, it is not advisable as the Necromancer is also susceptible to the effects of the Maelstrom.

This ritual does block scrying attempts as well as any other attempt to look or listen in to the warded area.


Preparing the Ancestor’s House {Eg} [ECC Custom]

Asian houses traditionally have small family shrines to the ancestors. The Necromancer can prepare one for one of his servants and maintain any number of shrines up to his occult score.

System: The necromancer builds, and decorates the shrine over the course of the month avoiding work on inauspicious days. When he has completed the task he carves the wraiths name and if possible places a photo in the shrine with offerings. From then on the Necromancer gains -2 difficulty on all attempts to Summon or Compel the Wraith but the wraith gains one pathos or loses one Angst every day as long as the shrine is maintained.

This ritual requires a total of 10 downtime actions be spent in creating the shrine and casting the ritual. Maintaining a shrine requires 1 downtime action be spent per month.


Preparing the Spirit’s Vessel {G} [ECC Custom]

The Necromancers have ways of binding a Wraith for eternity, and this is the way to do it. First, a vessel has to be prepared. The Necromancer must be in possession of at least two Fetters for a particular wraith and have a splinter from the lid of its coffin (or other internment device, such as stone from a sarcophagus or a chip from the urn containing its ashes). The vessel must then have the splinter crushed over it and one of the Fetters must be physically chained to the vessel for an entire night. The ritual takes an entire night from sunset to sunrise.

System: After the vessel has been created, any time after that the necromancer can perform the level four power of the Sepulcher Path: Haunting and expend a Permanent Willpower point. If the Haunting is successful the wraith is bound to the object or place for all eternity. The wraith may only escape this prison if the vessel is destroyed.

The temporary fetters created by the Cenotaph path will not work for this ritual.


Prison of Meticulous Harmony {E} [ECC Custom]

This Ritual allows the necromancer to trap other kindred or Kuei-jin in their own haven. By using mirrors, screens and other appropriate items the caster makes a prison of the local Chi lines preventing anyone inside from leaving. The devices used in the construction are generally carefully hidden so the targets servants can’t easily remove them.

System: This ritual may only be performed in the victim’s own haven. The Necromancer must place a minimum of 3 personal objects of the owner of the haven within 500 yards of the haven to seal him inside. Once the arrangements are in place, the Necromancer rolls Manipulation + Occult at a difficulty of the Permanent Willpower of the target +1 difficulty per personal item beyond the necessary 3 used in casting. Success creates a prison that lasts for one day per success, although the Necromancer can spend a Willpower point to increase its effects to last one week per success.

During the time the prison is active, it is very difficult to leave. Those wishing to do so must spend two Willpower points and succeed in a difficulty 9 Willpower roll. Success on this roll means that a character can leave the prison for up to one hour, time that is typically spent searching out the objects generating the prison and removing them. If the victim cannot find all the imprisoning objects in that one hour, she must return to the prison. Prisoners of this effect may only try to escape once per night.

Ritual of Teyolia {P} [CbR-Gi 73]

This ritual is unknown to anyone except Pochtli himself and his most trusted Priests. As this ritual requires that it be performed at the temple of Pochtli, it is highly unlikely it will ever come up in this game.

Furthermore, as this ritual requires 4 Camozotz ghouls (an all but extinct line of werebats), and there are only a handful of these left alive anywhere in the world, this ritual is all but impossible to perform.


Sanctuary of Living Death (Cadaverous Animation 5) {Mg} [PGttHC 201]

It is notable that a human has 32 teeth (unless missing some), and the teeth must be sown no more than a foot apart.

This ritual does not magically produce corpses. The corpses must actually rest inside the enchanted area.

The teeth may be reused in subsequent castings of this ritual.

See Cadaverous Animation for statistics for Corpse Servants.


Severing the Ties of Death (Sepulchre Path 5) {G} [ECC Custom]

This ritual allows the Necromancer to remove a Wraith wholly from the Shadowlands against the spirit's will. In essence, the Necromancer pierces the Shroud, pulls the Wraith from the other side and places her in a holding vessel. A Wraith thus removed is no longer affected by events occurring in the Underworld; she no longer exists there. This ritual takes seven hours of continuous chanting and the destruction of an urn holding the ashes of a slain vampire. Once the chanting is over he must slit his arms and let his blood drip onto the ashes, which burn away with a black fire. Through this ritual, the Necromancer prevents the Wraith from being rescued by other Wraiths, carried away by the Tempest or other inconvenient eventualities.

System: The vampire must spend a point of Blood by dripping it over the ashes as well as making a Rotschreck test at difficulty 3 against the black flames. If the ritual is successful, the Necromancer then activates Sepulchre Path 4, Haunting, which extracts the Wraith utterly from the Underworld, and may place her in a vessel for as long as he wishes. While contained within the vessel, the Wraith is unaffected by any environmental factors; she is essentially trapped, part of neither the physical world nor the Underworld. Once per night, she may attempt escape by spending a point of Willpower and making a Willpower roll at a difficulty of the Shroud rating in the place where the object is stored. Escape back to the Shadowlands requires that the wraith score more successes than the Necromancer scored on the ritual roll. Success indicates that the Wraith flees from the vessel and returns to the Shadowlands.

Each set of ashes from a slain vampire may only be used for this ritual once. The ashes are burned away to nothing by the ritual process, their death energy fed to Oblivion.

While trapped in the vessel, the wraith is completely unaware of its surroundings and may not use any Arcanoi that do not target itself or its Shadow.


Spirit Bringer {Agv} [ECC Custom]

This ritual allows a Necromancer to imbue an item with the ability to create a fetter with any Wraith that is created in its presence. This means that if someone dies in the presence of the item and they become a wraith, the item will be counted amongst the Wraith's Fetters.

To create the ritual the Necromancer prepares an appropriate item and then bathes the item in their blood along with three destroyed Fetters for 16 hours (minus 2 hours for every level of Occult he possesses and an additional hour if he possesses the Wraith Lore specialty). The Necromancer involved in the ritual must expend one permanent willpower trait to charge the item with spiritual power. Thereafter, when a mortal dies in the presence of the item, if the mortal becomes a Wraith, the Wraith is Fettered to the object and may be Summoned with it like normal. If someone besides the Necromancer who created the item holds it or carries it, they are highlighted in the Shadowlands with a pale red aura and all wraiths Fettered to the item will attack the person by any means available to them until the item is out of their possession. All Arcanoi affect an individual holding the item who is not its rightful owner are cast at -2 difficulty.

An Item with this enchantment has no additional strength or powers but any Wraith Fettered to it will be sure to protect it any way they can.

This new fetter is in addition to the 10 points of fetters new wraiths begin with.

This fetter holds a rating to the wraith in question equal to the successes scored on the ritual.

Note that this ritual is meant to work upon the strange wraiths of the Bush of Ghosts, and as such does not work as well on normal wraiths. The fetter is considered 2 levels less if attached to any ghost other than one from Africa.


Walk Through the Shroud {Mg} [DAV 197]

This power functions just as Auspex 5: Psychic Projection for all mechanics, save that the necromancer has traveled to the Shadowlands rather than the Penumbra. This includes the silver cord which can be severed.

If the necromancer’s silver cord is severed, his body immediately meets final death and his soul instantly enters a harrowing. If he survives the harrowing, he emerges as a wraith without the need to make the usual roll.

[Hematite]

Necromancy Rituals - Elder

Orpheus’ Descent {GMv} [PGttHC 202]

The actual location this ritual takes you to is called the Labyrinth. See Wraith: The Oblivion or the supplement Doomslayers for more information on this place. It is an incredibly dangerous place and infested with the most powerful of Spectres and creatures tied to the Black Spiral and the Wyrm.

This ritual opens the door directly to the Labyrinth, bypassing the Veinous Stair. The necromancer who casts this ritual does not necessarily need to be the one who enters the Labyrinth.