The rituals connected with Necromancy are a hodgepodgelot. Some have direct relations to the paths; others seem to have been taught by wraiths themselves, for whatever twisted reason. Necromantic rituals are otherwise identical to Thaumaturgy rituals and are learned in similar fashion, though the two are by no means compatible.
Level 1 •
Call of the Hungry Dead (V)
Call of the Hungry Dead takes
only 10 minutes to cast and requires a hair from the target’s head. The
ritual climaxes with the burning of that hair in the flame of a black
candle, after which the victim becomes able to hear snatches of
conversation from across the Shroud. If the target is not prepared, the
voices come as a confusing welter of howls and unearthly demands; he is
unable to make out anything intelligible, and might well go briefly mad.
Eldritch Beacon (GS)
Eldritch Beacon takes 15 minutes to
cast. The material component is a green candle, the melted wax from
which must be collected and molded into a half-inch sphere. Whoever
carries this sphere, whether in his hand or in a pocket, is highlighted
in the Shadowlands with a sickly-glowing green-white aura. All wraithly
powers affect this individual with greater ease and severity. The
sphere retains its power for one hour per success.
Circle of Cerberus (BMST)
The necromancer bathes, fasts and
abstains from all physical comforts and pleasures for a night. Then she
dons well-maintained, high quality robes or other clothing. She draws a
circle on the floor in a place of safety. She may then proceed to use
other necromantic powers, confident that her protection against ghosts
and spirits has been enhanced. Necromancer must remain within the
circle.
Rape of Persephone (BMST)
A team of surgeons trained in the unpleasant ways of Necromancy
performs an elaborate operation on a freshly dead or well-preserved
corpse. From the cadaver's dead tissues, they create up to seven new
penises, vaginas or other sexual apparatuses. The necromancer engages
in intercourse with the corpse's new genitalia. He may then subtract 2
from the difficulty of all necromantic magic--except those targeting
ghosts, Spectres, or spirits--for the remainder of the night. If a
number of necromancers perform the ritual together, they may freely
trade Willpower points between one another for the rest of the night.
During this time, one participant may experience the tactile sensations
of another by concentrating for a few seconds and spending a point of
Willpower, regardless of the distance separating them. No more than
seven necromancers can perform the ritual together.
Level 2 •
Eyes of the Grave (V)
This ritual, which takes two hours to
cast, causes the target to experience intermittent visions of her death
over the period of a week. The visions come without warning and can
last up to a minute. The caster of the ritual has no idea what the
visions contain — only the victim sees them, after all. The visions,
which come randomly, can also interfere with activities such as
driving, shooting and so on. Eyes of the Grave requires a pinch of soil
from a fresh grave.
Puppet (GS)
Used primarily to facilitate conversations with
the recently departed, though also applied as a method of psychological
torture. Puppet prepares a subject (willing or unwilling) as a suitable
receptacle for ghostly possession. Over the course of one hour, the
necromancer smears grave soil across the subject’s eyes, lips, and
forehead. For the remainder of the night, any wraith can attempting to
take control of the subject. The ritual’s effects remain even if the
soil is washed off.
Spirit Deacon (ClB Giovanni)
This ritual is designed to draw wraiths to a particular area. It
requires the head of a man forsaken by God; this acts as a beacon to
all wraiths with the region. It is said that an unholy radiance pours
forth from the eyes, mouth and ears of the head by those who see it in
the Shadowlands.
Judgment of Rhadamanthus (BMST)
The necromancer chooses a wraith she will later summon, using the
Summon Soul power of the Sepulchre Path. In a cleansed bronze brazier,
she burns several pages of a law book and a religious text matching the
faith the wraith held in life. She mixes the ashes of the books with
silver powder and uses the mixture to make her Circle of Cerberus. When
the wraith appears, the necromancer tells him that she has the power to
send him to the real afterlife, the one he believed in when he was
alive. If the ritual works, the wraith believes her. If the wraith
fears judgment and hellfire, she can induce him to do what she wants by
threatening to use her power. If he yearns for Heaven and escape from
the bizarre existence of the underworld, she can secure his cooperation
by promising to use it. Since she can't make good on the promise,
Judgment of Rhadamanthus won't work twice on the same Heaven-seeking
wraith. Wraiths who were atheists while alive, or didn't believe in
life after death, automatically resist this ritual.
Level 3 •
Ritual of the Unearthed Fetter (V)
This ritual requires that a necromancer have a fingerbone from the
skeleton of the particular wraith he’s interested in. ‘When the ritual
is cast, the fingerbone becomes attuned to something vitally important
to the wraith, the possession of which by the necromancer makes the
casting of Sepulchre Path powers much easier. Most necromancers take
the attuned fingerbone and suspend it from a thread, allowing it to act
as a sort of supernatural compass and following it to the special item
in question. Ritual of the Unearthed Fetter takes three hours to cast
properly. It requires both the name of the wraith targeted and the
fingerbone already mentioned, as well as a chip knocked off a
gravestone or other marker (not necessarily the marker of the bone’s
former owner). During the course of the ritual the stone crumbles to
dust, which is then sprinkled over the fingerbone.
Din of the Damned (GS)
This ritual is similar to the Level One Ritual Call of the Hungry Dead
in that it makes the sounds of the underworld audible in the physical
realm. However, Din of the Damned is an area-effect ritual used to ward
a room against eavesdropping. Over the course of half an hour, the
necromancer draws an unbroken line of ash from a crematorium along the
room’s walls (this line may pass over doorframes to allow entrance and
egress). For the rest of the night, any attempt to listen in on events
inside the room, be it simple (a glass to the wall), electronic (a
laser microphone), or mystic (Heightened Senses), gives the listener an
earful of ghostly wailing and moaning and the sound of howling winds.
Drink of Styx's Water (BMST)
The necromancer robs a grave and steals the corpse's skull. He saws off
the top of the skull; the sawn-off piece, flipped over, forms a cup
shaped piece of bone. He covers this with clay, making a bowl, which he
proceeds to fire in a kiln. If any blood descendants of the corpse eats
from the bowl during a meal with the necromancer, any promises the
subject makes to the necromancer gains otherworldy enforcement. If the
subject fails to live up to them, he is visited by a Spectre, which
torments him relentlessly unless he makes good on them or offers the
necromancer acceptable compensation. In addition to robbing the grave,
the modeling and firing of the bowl takes at least 4 hours, depending
on how fancy the necromancer wants it to be look. It may be reused
until destroyed.
Level 4 •
Cadaver's Touch (V)
By chanting for three hours and melting
a wax doll in the shape of the target, the necromancer turns a mortal
target into a corpselike mockery of himself. As the doll loses the last
of its form, the target becomes cold and clammy. His pulse becomes weak
and thready, his flesh pale and chalky. For all intents and purposes,
he becomes a reasonable facsimile of the walking dead. The effects of
the ritual wear off only when the wax of the doll is permitted to
resolidify. If the wax is allowed to boil off, the spell is broken.
Peek Past the Shroud (GS)
This hour-long ritual enchants a
handful of ergot (a mold that grows on grains prior to harvest in cold,
damp weather) to act as a catalyst for second sight. By eating a pinch
of the magical mold, a subject gains the benefits of Shroudsight (Ash
Path Necromancy Level One) for a several hours. Three doses of the
enchanted ergot are created for every success. Ergot is normally
poisonous to some degree; this ritual removes its toxic properties.
However, a botch renders the ergot highly and instantaneously toxic,
inflicting eight dice of lethal damage on any subject who ingests it
including vampires.
Call Upon the Shadow's Grace (ClB Giovanni)
Use of this invasive ritual allows the Giovanni to peer into the aura
of death that surrounds all living things. This ritual temporarily
opens a channel for speaking with the Shadow of its subject. Not as
powerful as the Shadow of a Wraith, it can reveal damning aspects of
the person's actions and can drive the person to acts of desperation.
Drink of Lethe's Waters (BMST)
The necromancer acquires an object once owned by, or symbolic of, a
particular wraith. The object must be able to be damaged by water; the
necromancer leaves destroys it by leaving it to soak in water. During
the soaking, her periodically spits in the water. After the object has
been destroyed, the necromancer conjures up the wraith or otherwise
arranges to be in her presence. The wraith loses all memory of her
identity, becoming highly susceptible to suggestion on the part of the
necromancer. The wraith's memory loss continues for one night per
success. It may not use Pathos point to counter any action from the
necromancer. Its Willpower drops by the number of successes scored; it
may not replenish its Willpower pool while the effect lingers.
Level 5 •
Grasp the Ghostly (V)
Requiring a full six hours of chanting, this ritual allows a
necromancer to bring an object from the Underworld into the real world.
It’s not as simple as all that, however — a wraith might well object to
having his possessions stolen and fight back. Furthermore, the object
taken must be replaced by a material item of roughly equal mass,
otherwise the target of the ritual snaps back to its previous, ghostly
existence. Objects taken from the Underworld tend to fade away after
about a year. Only items recently destroyed in the real world (called
“relics” by wraiths) may be recaptured in this manner.
Chill of Oblivion (GS)
Performed over the course of 12 hours,
this ritual infuses the Necromancer or a willing subject with the very
cold of the grave. The ritual’s material component is a one-foot cube
of ice, which is slowly melted on the subject’s chest (inflicting three
health levels of bashing damage on mortal subjects). The subject must
lie naked on bare earth for the entire duration of the ritual. Once the
ritual is completed, its effects remain for a night per success. An
individual affected by the Chill of Oblivion treats aggravated damage
from fire and high temperatures as if it were lethal damage.
Furthermore, he may attempt to extinguish any fire. The subject’s aura
is laced with writhing black veins that resemble those left by
diablerie and may well be mistaken for such by any observer who is not
familiar with this ritual. The subject also radiates a palpable aura of
cold that extends to about arm’s length from him; this can be extremely
disconcerting to mortals, though it causes no damage, and its game
effects minor those of the Flaws: Touch of Frost and Eerie Presence.
Finally, the mystical nimbus of the ritual draws hostile ghosts to the
subject, who may plague him, with unwholesome acts.
Chair of Hades (BMST)
The necromancer acquires a corpse's
femur and tibia bones--decreasing the difficulty of the casting if he
robs the grave himself. He wraps the bones in coarse cloth and then
encases them in wood or metal so the their lengths match and they
become capable of bearing weight. He then builds a chair, each encased
bone forms one of its legs. If a blood descendant of the corpse sits in
the chair, she loses all desire to do anything but sit in the chair.
She leaves the chair only to quickly fulfill basic bodily needs. Even
if the victim is forcibly removed from the chair, she does everything
she can to sit in it once more. Lasts until the chair is destroyed. In
addition to the time it takes to acquire the bones, the construction of
the chair takes at least 8 hours.