GLOG Week: Ritual Magic

GLOG WEEK is here and my subject is ritual magic, a subject which I've been interested in for a while. I'm fairly happy with this system, and hopefully it's to your liking too.

 

Who Can Do Rituals?

 

This depends on how you want to use ritual magic in your game. Maybe everyone can do them if they know how. Maybe you have to be a witch. Maybe it's a religious ceremony. After all, many though certainly not all Wiccans practice magic. You can also use this either with or without other forms of magic in your game. It might make sense to have it unrestricted in games with other magic and class-restricted otherwise, but you do you.

 

How Do Rituals Work?

 

Every ritual has five components: the materials consumed to cast it at 1 MD, the other requirements to cast it at 1 MD (ritual implements, participants, etc.), the casting time, the various ways to boost the MD of the spell (each of which provides +1 MD to the spell if fulfilled), and the effect. Even if you fulfill some of the boosts, you can cast the spell at less MD than the maximum possible in the situation. For Mishaps (doubles on MD), the players can choose between a random complication which must be fixed before the spell can successfully be cast or a random mishap along with the successful completion of the spell. For a Doom (triples on MD), you have an immediate mishap and a complication to resolve before continuing the spell. You could also Doom all the casters, as it is for normal GLOG magic, but that doesn't feel quite right. Complications can either be permanent, required every time the ritual is performed in the future, or temporary, only applying to the next time the spell is cast. Up to you, probably on a case-by-case basis. Some of the rituals mention trained casters, which may be someone who has general knowledge of magic, or may be a full witch, or may be something else you determine for your setting. Just knowing the ritual does not make you a trained caster. If a spell requires the caster to Save for any reason, only the most experienced caster rolls the Save if there are multiple participants.

Learning Rituals:

 

The process for learning rituals will vary from game to game and ritual to ritual, but it could include studying for some days or weeks with someone who knows the ritual, simply learning it quickly from someone who already knows it, reading an ancient scroll or standing stone which details the ritual, or being initiated into the mysteries of a cult (in the classical or the modern sense). If you have a class who's purview is rituals, they might start knowing one or two at A template, and learn or invent one at each further template. Every character might even start with a ritual.

Complications and Mishaps:

 

Mishaps (1d6):

1. All casters take 1d4 damage.
2. All casters are weakened and take +1 damage from all damage sources for the next day.
3. All casters are struck blind for the next day.
4. All casters are unconscious for the next hour.
5. All small animals within 100 feet die and all water within 1000 feet is poisoned.
6. A [dice] * 3 HD shadow crawls into the world, seeking vengeance on the casters.

Complications (1d6):

1. A rare animal part is required.
2. A rare plant is required.
3. The ritual will take an extra day, or an extra week if the duration is already longer than a day.
4. A specific phase of the moon or a specific hour of the day is required.
5. Specific weather is required.
6. The ritual must be performed in a specific and magical location.

 

Rituals

 

Blight Crops

Casting Time: [dice] days

Consumed: 3 types of poisonous herbs (e.g. water hemlock, deadly nightshade, poison ivy), spindle tree wood, 10 locusts, [dice] * 10 sp of salt, [dice] * 10 sp of lead ingots, a spider.

Required: 3 casters, a night of strong wind, a rowan wand.

Boost: 7 trained casters, a poisonous snake sacrifice, an emerald worth at least 100 gp.

Effect: The area within [dice] miles grows waste and barren. Until the next season, harvests yield [dice] * 20% less food. Plants and animals in the wilderness die at a similar rate.

 

Circle of Protection

Casting Time: 10 minutes

Consumed: [dice] * 5 sp of salt

Required: 1 caster, a holly wand

Boost: The ash of ash or yew wood, [dice] * 5 sp of silver dust, 5 candles worth 1 gp each, a human sacrifice.

Effect: You create a circle of magic protection no more than [dice] * 5 feet in diameter. Supernatural beings of [sum] * 2 HD or lower cannot cross into or out of the circle without permission, and supernatural creatures of greater than that HD must Save vs Magic in order to cross without permission. This circle lasts indefinitely, and cannot be damaged by supernatural creatures.

 

Control Rain

Casting Time: [dice] days

Consumed: A chicken or animal of similar worth sacrificed, 3 water plants (e.g. waterlily, yellow flag, liverwort), 5 sp of salt, 5 * [dice] sp of incense.

Required: 1 caster, a rowan wand.

Boost: 3 trained casters, cast in a grove of willows, a copper rod that has been struck by lightning.

Effect: For [sum] days, you can make the weather within [dice] miles one of the following: 1. Clear, 2. Overcast, 3. Drizzling, 3. Gently Raining, 4. Raining, 5. Pouring, 6. Severe storm. If the area is in the grip of a particularly severe drought or period of inundation, you only have a [dice]-in-6 chance of successfully changing the weather. 

Curse of Swapping

Casting Time: [dice] hours

Consumed: Hawthorn ash, [dice] * 5 gp worth of quicksilver, 5 sp of salt, a piece of the first target's body.

Required: 3 trained casters, the first target (who's name you must know), and the second target (who's name you must know, and who you must have restrained and with you), a rowan wand. Neither target needs to be human.

Boost: 7 trained casters, a cloud-pine branch, a unicorn's horn

Effect: The two targets' minds swap bodies. The target with better saves gets a Save vs Magic to negate. The effect lasts for [sum] days/weeks/months/years (as [dice]) or until either body dies. If the spell is cast with 4 MD, it has a 3-in-6 chance of lasting indefinitely.

 

Darken

Casting Time: [dice] days

Consumed: A large amount of green wood, 5 sp of salt, lavender, rosemary, sage, 5 sp of iron filings, a goat or animal of similar worth.

Required: 3 trained casters, a carved electrum tablet worth 100 gp, a ritual dagger, a rowan wand.

Boost: 21 trained casters, a ruby worth at least 1000 gp, a dragon or similarly powerful supernatural creature as sacrifice.

Effect: The area within 1 mile/10 miles/100 miles/the whole earth (as per [dice]) is thrown into a starless, moonless night for [sum] days.

 

Heal

Casting Time: [dice] hours

Consumed: Boiling water, 3 healing herbs (e.g. willow bark, yarrow, ginseng, aloe, chamomile), [dice] bandages.

Required: 1 caster, up to [dice] injured targets.

Boost: An additional 2 healing herbs, a trained caster, 10 sp of copper dust.

Effect: [dice] wounds affecting the targets have their healing time reduced by [sum] days, and are instantly healed if their healing time is reduced to 0. No wounds can be affected by this spell more than once.

Hex of Withering

Casting Time: 1 hour

Consumed: An ugly small animal (i.e. a toad), 5 sp of salt, a piece of the target's body

Required: 1 caster, a target who's name you know, a rowan wand.

Boost: 7 casters, a rare and magical ugly creature, a secret the target doesn't want you to know.

Effect: A target is afflicted with cosmetic ill effects of old age (hair falling out, wrinkled skin, clouded eyes) for [sum] days/weeks/months/years (as [dice]). If the spell is cast with 4 MD, it has a 3-in-6 chance of lasting indefinitely.

 

Ritual of Lichdom

Casting Time: 1 lunar month

Consumed: Sycamore ash, cypress ash, 100 sp of salt, 100 gp of silver dust, 100 human sacrifices, 441 candles worth 10 sp each.

Required: 1 trained caster, 21 casters, a stone altar, a soul container worth at least 5000 gp, a ritual dagger worth at least 1000 gp, a new moon on the night the ritual is complete and the night it begins.

Effect: This spell is automatically cast with 4 MD. You (the trained caster) take [sum] damage and automatically trigger a Necromancer Doom. When you trigger the final Necromancer Doom, instead of dying as you normally would, you become a lich. In addition, for the final casting of this spell to be successful, someone must let your blood with the dagger upon the altar as you cast the spell.

 

Scrying

Casting Time: 10 minutes

Consumed: [dice] * 10 sp of silver dust if you lack moonlight, Queen Anne's Lace.

Required: 1 caster, a reflective surface, a yew wand. 

Boost: A sacred or otherwise magical body of water as your surface, a special moon (Harvest, blue, etc.), a unicorn's hair.

Effect: You pick a creature or location who's name you know within [dice] * 100 miles. You create an invisible sensor watching them for the duration. You must cast the spell with at least 3 dice in order to hear through the sensor as well. If you don't have a body part (at least a fingernail clipping or strand of hair) from the target, you only have a [dice]-in-6 chance of successfully scrying on them. You can end the spell at any time.

Summon

Casting Time: [dice] hours

Consumed: A chicken or an animal of similar worth sacrificed, 5 sp of wine, 5 sp of charcoal.

Required: 1 trained caster, a cup or chalice, a ritual dagger, a bronze rod.

Boost: 7 trained casters, a chalice worth 100 gp, a cow or animal of similar worth sacrificed, a human sacrifice, an ostentatious altar.

Effect: You summon a random supernatural creature: 1d3 for 1. Demon, 2. Fey, 3. Starspawn. The creature has HD determined by dice invested: 1 die for 1d4 HD, 2 dice for 1d6 + 1 HD, 3 dice for 1d8 + 3 HD, and four or more dice for 1d10 + [dice] HD. If you know the true name of a specific creature, you can instead summon it directly, as long as the dice you invested allow a creature of that HD to be summoned. The creature makes a reaction roll to determine its feeling about being summoned, unless it would clearly feel a specific way about it already. You may banish the summoned creature at any time while you can see it, although if it is unwilling to be banished you must first Save vs Magic. If you fail the save, you cannot banish the creature.

Teleport

Casting Time: [sum] hours

Consumed: A golden eagle sacrifice, [dice] * 10 gp of charcoal, a rowan sapling, maple seeds, 5 sp of salt.

Required: 3 trained casters, 7 bronze rods, a brazier, a rowan wand, a yew wand, and an oak wand.

Boost: A fairy's hair, a dragon's scale, 7 trained casters, a circle of protection at the destination.

Effect: [sum] + [dice] creatures at the location of casting are teleported to a destination within [sum] * 100 miles. Unless there is a circle of protection at the destination, the caster must Save vs Magic to arrive at the correct destination rather than some mistaken location. They have a +4 bonus to the Save if they have previously been to the destination personally.