Post by Phsycodelic on Oct 11, 2016 21:15:18 GMT
Akhu Rituals
Followers of Set
Followers of Set
A Lector Priest obtains the body of someone who has been buried in accordance with traditional ancient Egyptian practice (which is increasingly difficult in the modern nights) and desecrates the coe, thus plunging the deceased's soul into eternal torment while it resides in Osiris's dominion of the Western Lands. This serves a multitude of puses. The soul in eternal torment disrupts the hold of Osiris on his afterlife dominion by showing the power Set commands in his followers. This blow against his ancient enemy pleases Set, and he channels his power to the Lector Priest. This show of Set's power, furthermore, exposes the lie that is Osiris's promise of eternal life in the Western Lands a little more; these dead shall not find paradise; they find only an eternity of torment.
The Book of Going Forth by Night is an inversion of The Book of Coming Forth by Day, commonly known as the Book of the Dead. Just as the shackles that bind the unbelievers will be corrupted and ultimately destroyed, revealing to them the truth of Set, the structure of Setite rituals are corruptions (or perversions) of ancient Egyptian practices. These rituals make their targets more susceptible to the corruption and manipulation that is ultimately for their own good.
Setite Sorcery botches, regardless of school, cause the sorcerer to acquire an intense photophobia. When exposed to extremely bright lights, the sorcerer must roll for Rötschreck against a difficulty of (4 + the sorcerer's Path rating). Setite lector-priests do not suffer this effect. [Rites Of The Blood - Page 132]
[ VARIABLE ] Milk Of Set ( XXX - Page X )
This entry is a catch-all for a range of rituals too numerous to mention, though many Setites have their own names for concoctions created in this fashion. In each, the Setite creates a salve or unguent with magical properties. The exact details of the ritual and ingredients of the salve vary depending on the desired effect. Each effect must be learned as a separate ritual. When he wants his character to gain a new ritual, the player specifies a desired effect; the Storyteller determines its level, according to her judgment of the unguent’s effectiveness as compared to other ritual effects. She should rule out any effect that too closely resembles an existing path or ritual from any tradition, unless the effect is a common one already available to a number of Disciplines. Effects must change their targets for the worse, or alter them so that they serve a new purpose. It takes one week per level to produce a single dose of salve or unguent. It stays potent for a number of weeks equal to the player’s successes, and then becomes useless.
Here are some common manifestations of the Milk of Set.
| Level | Effect |
| 1 | Alter a lock so that it conforms to a key the Setite owns. |
| 1 | Make drug more addictive. |
| 1 | Seek out a computer and maliciously alter contents of its hard drive. |
| 2 | Burn through steel or concrete. |
| 2 | Salve slithers along the ground in sluglike manner, following trail of specified individual. |
| 3 | Add to gas tank of vehicle, so that it goes where Setite wants, not where driver steers it. |
| 1 per two health levels of damage dealt. | Melt flesh on contact. |
| Varies by object size. | Make hollow replica of object coated in salve. |
[ 1 ] Inscribe The Book Of Set ( XXX - Page X )
Many Akhu rituals involve reading prayers from The Book of Going Forth by Night. For some purposes, the words themselves suffice. Powerful rituals, however, demand the use of a specially consecrated scroll. A sorcerer hand copies the book in hieroglyphic script on a scroll of authentic papyrus, using vampiric vitae for ink. This generally takes a few years. No one else may handle the copy until it is complete, and the copyist must avoid dirt, stains, blots or other impurities. Consecrated copies of The Book of Going Forth by Night are worth large amounts of money or significant boons to a Setite Temple.
A part from their absolute necessity in some powerful rituals, a consecrated Book of Set increases a lector-priest's chance of success at other rituals through its mere presence. As a final magical effect, sunlight burns such scrolls to ash.
A sorcerer may also use this highly extended ritual to inscribe other texts. In this case, the resulting book burns in daylight but has no other magical properties. The Setites use this aspect of the ritual to keep their sacred texts out of mortal hands.
System: Inscribing the Book of Set requires the usual Intelligence + Occult roll (difficulty 4). Failure indicates that the character did not observe some ritual condition while copying the text, or made too many errors. The copyist does not have to use use his own vitae, although this adds prestige to a copy.
[ 1 ] Seal The Gates Of Blood ( XXX - Page X )
Egyptian doctor-priests prescribed an amulet of Set to prevent miscarriage and excessive menstrual bleeding, as the Dark God's brutal Masculinity frightened the womb into shutting tight. Egyptian Setites still vend the charm, though they do not tell clients about one of its powers.
System: The amulet requires no special effort to scribe and consecrate. A woman who wears the amulet does not miscarry, and her menses are greatly reduced. The menstrual blood, however, actually passes to the lector-priest: one blood point, once a month, but never more than that. If the recipient does not wear the amulet through one menstrual cycle, the spell breaks. The spell otherwise lasts one month per success rolled.
[ 1 ] The Word Of The Dark God ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 83 )
Many Sorcerers, upon learning the foundations of Setite Sorcery, wish to appease the Dark God further and bask in even more of his favor. What better way than to fulfill his direct command?
Taking a corpse (perhaps a mummy desecrated in the process of obtaining Akhu or the body of a Nahuallotl sacrifice), the Sorcerer kneels above its head and prays for guidance from the Dark God. The caster offers a point of blood into the mouth of the corpse and, upon the completion of the ritual, the corpse whispers a name from its dead mouth. This is the name of a person Set wishes to be corrupted. If the Setite is successfully in corrupting this individual, the act will earn her further favor from the Dark God.
System: This is purely a narrative device for the Storyteller to take advantage of, with no other mechanical benefit. As an optional rule, Storytellers could employ the tasks set by practicing this ritual as tests to complete before being granted access to higher levels of Setite Sorcery. Otherwise, the favor of Set can manifest itself in any way the Storyteller desires.
[ 1 ] Typhon's Brew ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 84 )
Most preparations of Setite alchemy begin with this magical, vitae-laced beer. A Lector Priest who does not know how to create Typhon's Brew can forget about pursuing further knowledge of alchemy. This beer sustains ghouls as if it were true vampiric vitae. Vampires can drink it, too, with similar results.
By itself, Typhon's Brew has no other properties. It cannot be used to Embrace a mortal, nor to blood bond. The brewing process negates this aspect of vitae.
System: Brewing the Typhon's Brew takes a full lunar month, beginning and ending at the dark of the moon. For every gallon brewed, the alchemist includes one blood point's worth of his own vitae. The brewing process multiplies the vitae, so that a ghoul can gain one blood point per quart of the magic beer. Vampires, however, gain only one blood point per gallon consumed - the same rate as in brewing the beer. For vampires, the beer's magic is limited to the fact that they can drink it at all without heaving it up seconds later. They can even get drunk on it (and may suffer a hangover later).
[ 2 ] Dreams Of Duat ( XXX - Page X )
By invoking Set, the magician curses a victim to suffer terrifying dreams. The magician needs some part of her victim's body, such as hair or nail clippings. She seals them inside a wax figurine that she inscribes with the person's name (as closely as hieroglyphic script can approximate it). While reciting the curse, the magician bathes the figurine in water made bitter with natron and declared to come from the river of Duat. The victim them dreams of Duat's horrors.
System: Unlike most rituals, this one uses the victim's Willpower as the difficulty. For each night in which the magician successfully curses her with nightmares, the victim loses one point of temporary Willpower.
If the magician's player ever rolls a botch, the victim has a different dream. Into the nightmares of darkness, monsters and death sails a shining boat staffed by animal-headed men and women. An ibis-headed man – the god Thoth – tells the dreamer how the magician has cursed him, and gives the magician's name. (Religious magic has the problem that it goes wrong in religious ways. By accepting the reality of one god, Setite magicians also accept the power of other gods to interfere.)
[ 2 ] Opening The Gate ( XXX - Page X )
This ritual prepares a corpse so that it becomes a focus for the Setite’s magic. If the corpse is not already mummified according to ancient Egyptian tradition, it must undergo the procedure before the ritual begins. This process alone can take several nights, and is usually performed by a coven of Setite priests and sorcerers.
Once the body is prepared, the ritualist begins the ceremony by verbally recounting the victory of Set over Osiris, and informing the corpse of Set’s subsequent penetration of the Western Lands and the powerlessness of Osiris to stop his progress. He arranges the canopic jars in reversed order, placing the jar that’s supposed to be positioned to the west of the body to its east, and so on. The ritualist then saws open the corpse’s chest cavity and breaks open the ribcage. He severs the corpse’s spine and drills dozens of hooks into the corpse. Into the hooks he threads catgut strings, which he then attaches to a metal frame around the mummy. The sorcerer pulls the strings tight, forcing the body into a tortured position. The ritual takes 12 hours to complete.
The Storyteller assigns the corpse a rating from 0 to 5, showing the degree to which its funeral arrangements satisfied the requirements of The Egyptian Book of the Dead. Zero represents no similarity whatsoever — which will most often be the case — and 5 signals the greatest adherence to those rituals possible in modern times. The Storyteller keeps his value secret until the ritual’s successful completion.
A successful Setite now possesses a means of siphoning energy from the Western Lands. He may at any time increase his blood or Willpower pools by a number of points equal to the rating the Storyteller assigned the mummy. After the passage of a number of hours equal to his successes on the ritual, he loses the points. He may do this once per night.
If anyone destroys the corpse or unstrings it from the frame, the Setite loses a sum of blood and Willpower points (distributed by the Storyteller) equal to twice his mummy's rating.
[ 2 ] Opening The Mouth ( XXX - Page X )
This magic ritual imitates one of the standard Egyptian rites performed before burial. The funerary rite enabled the deceased to breathe and speak in the Underworld. The Akhu ritual enables a dead person to speak through his own cadaver.
Opening the mouth works only if the body retains an intact head and tongue. The magician sprinkles the cadaver with water and natron (a natural salt used in mummification), places three amulets on the body and recites a funeral prayer. At the end, the magician touches the cadaver's mouth with his ceremonial rod while commanding it to speak.
System: If the priest correctly performs the ritual, the deceased can hear and speak for one minute, but take no other action. The ritual does not compel the deceased to tell the truth; nor does the person know anything he did not know when alive. He cannot speak of the afterlife or Underworld, though. (If asked, he says that Osiris formids him to speak of such things... even if the person never heard of Osiris in life. Magic is mysterious.) Opening the mouth works only once for a particular magician upon a given person.
[ 2 ] To Lace With Hidden Nectar ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 84 )
Many of those that have sampled Typhon's Brew often find themselves coming back for more. The ability to drink as though they were alive once again is something that has a great appeal to some Kindred, and thus it is something that the Followers of Set have been able to exploit to great effect.
System: This ritual relies on the Sorcerer being able to brew Typhon's Brew to begin with. The Sorcerer brews a batch of the drink as per normal for the ritual, and casts To Lace with Hidden Nectar on the last night of the full month of the process. She then invests again the same amount of blood in the mixture as at the start of the process, and spends an equal amount of Willpower points. Any vampire who drinks a gallon of the brew loses the same amount of Willpower points (spread evenly over the following hour) as he becomes rapidly intoxicated. This has proven to be a remarkably useful tool for manipulating inebriated Kindred.
[ 3 ] Linked Soul Elixer ( XXX - Page X )
This magical drug consists of Typhon's Brew mixed with juices and resins from seven herbs, including hashish, opium and mandrake. Before administering the Linked Soul Elixir, the magician pours the brew over a stela bearing a spell-prayer to Anubis and collects the liquid in a basin. The prayer recalls the god's role in judging the dead and demands a similar power to see into the hearts of others.
People who drink the elixir feel each other's sensations and emotions, as long as they remain within line of sight of each other. It also renders the imbiber completely unable to resist any sort of mind control: the drug opens his soul and he can no longer tell which thoughts are his own. Vampires as well as mortals can drink Linked Soul Elixir.
System: Each preparation of the Linked Soul Elixir creates two doses. A person under the elixir's influence feels the pleasure, pain, thoughts and emotions of every other elixir-user within sight. For instance, if one elixir-user suffers a wound penalty, all other elixir users suffer the same wound penalty. If one user's player must roll for the character to resist frenzy or Rötschreck, all the character's players must do so. On the other hand, all the characters joined by Linked Soul Elixir can use each other's Abilities as if they were their own.
An imbiber of Linked Soul Elixir cannot resist Dominate, Presence, or any other sort of mind control magic. Every use of such Discipline or magic on the target receives at least one guaranteed that no number of 1s can cancel out. The target's player cannot expend Willpower to resist the magic. What's more, every linked character receives the effect of the mind control magic. Every hour after drinking the elixir, a subject receives a Stamina roll (difficulty 6) to throw off the effects.
[ 3 ] Prepare Canopic Jars ( XXX - Page X )
The Setite takes bodily tissues of a desired victim and places them in the four canopic jars used in ancient Egyptian funerary practice. He inverts the ritual designed to ensure speedy passage to the Western Lands, gaining advantage over the chosen victim. The jars and their associated tissue types are described fully here.
Samples of other tissues can be used, though they are not so potent. The Setite can still direct a working against a target even if he lacks the requisite bits of flesh; he can use an object stolen from the victim that symbolically resonates with the desired organ. The remaining bits of a meal half-eaten by the target work as substitute contents of south or north jars. Heart pills and asthma inhalers — even breath mints and syringes — make acceptable substitutes for the contents of the east jar. Drugs or alcohol once in the possession of the target can represent the liver and gall bladder in a jar of the west.
The ritual takes four hours to perform. Once completed, the Setite can at any time interfere with any action performed by the victim, provided he is somehow aware of the target’s current activities. Examples of interference include making the victim miss a bus or plane, lose her wallet, become the subject of a random mugging, and any number of other significant yet indirect effects. The Setite may interfere with a number of actions each night equal to the number of successes scored on the ritual roll. He may do this until the jars are moved or destroyed.
[ 3 ] Rings Like Chains ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 84 )
Turquoise was believed by many ancient civilizations to be prophylactic in nature, protecting those that wore it. Perverting this belief, a Setite Sorcerer can craft jewelry that actively does the reverse. The Sorcerer takes a large piece of turquoise and bathes it in a point of his blood for an entire lunar month. At the end of this period, the stone becomes red like jasper. He then cuts the stone in two, and incorporates each half into a separate piece of jewelry, inscribing the name of an intended target upon both stones. This can be any form of jewelry, not just rings as the name of the ritual suggests, although these tend to be the most commonly produced items. One piece is given to the intended target, while the other stays with the Sorcerer.
System: As long as both the Sorcerer and recipient are wearing the items of jewelry, when the intended target next partakes of an addictive substance (drugs, alcohol, Vitae, etc.), the Sorcerer becomes aware of it and has the choice of making them both become automatically addicted to the substance in question. The effects of the ritual fade after this first instance, whether the Sorcerer activates it or not. This provides a Setite Sorcerer an immense amount of leverage over a given target, by creating a new vice for him to exploit.
[ 3 ] Scorpion Sending ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 166 )
The sorcerer crafts a scorpion out of wax, incorporating some material that came from the target's body. She writes the name of Set on the scorpion and recites the story of the poisoning of Horus, leaving out the part where he recovers. Then, she leaves the model in an area where the target will come, at which point it will come to life and attack him.
System: The scorpion has the normal traits for an animal of its size, but if it strikes the target successfully, he is poisoned. The poison inflicts one level of lethal damage every fifteen minutes. The damage ends if the target successfully rolls Stamina (difficulty 7) with one roll every fifteen minutes. The venom attacks mortals and supernaturals alike. The scorpion is small and therefore difficult to see (Perception + Alertness, difficulty 7).
[ 4 ] Dismemberment Of Osiris ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 167 )
The sorcerer ritually dismembers the leader or spokesperson of a group or organization (who must be a male; female-led organizations cannot be affected by this power). Then, after the victim is dead, the sorcerer removes his phallus and drops it into a tank of fish who then devour it. In response, the group or organization suffers an external setback over the next six months.
System: The results are largely a matter of Storyteller discretion, influenced by the success of the ritual. As a general rule, assume that each success on the roll results in a cumulative 10% reduction in the size and resources of the targeted group.
[ 4 ] Severing Sand ( XXX - Page X )
A handful of consecrated Nile sand can force all sorts of spirits to return from whence they came. Indeed, the Severing Sand possesses a limited power over all supernatural creatures. For instance, one magician used Nile sand to prevent a magical giant snake from re-joining its severed halves.
The magician must obtain authentic Egyptian river sand, washed absolutely clean and dried in sunlight. She sprinkles the sand with perfumes, natron and a few drops of her own vitae, and chants a litany of praise to the Nile.
When using the Severing Sand, the magician invokes an appropriate Egyptian god counter to whatever spirit or supernatural creature he faces. Against wraiths, a magician might call on Anubis to pull the ghost back to the Underworld; Ra or Set work equally well to banish the demons of Duat, Seker affects vampires. A wise magician intuitively knows what god works best for particular circumstances.
System: A magician may enchant Severing Sand in advance. The sand retains its power until sunrise. An exorcised spirit returns to its home; the magic sand works against all spirits, not just Egyptian ones. The spirit cannot return to Earth until the next nightfall.
A vampire, werewolf or other supernatural creature temporarily loses whatever healing powers it may possess. This effect lasts one minute.
[ 4 ] Summon Sebau ( XXX - Page X )
A lector-priest can use a clay model to summon sebau - the demons of Duat - and send them to harry her enemies or perform other tasks. The magician must make the model with his own hands, using clay mixed with one blood point of his vitae.
System: If the ritual succeeds, the magician can command one service from the sebau-fiend that the demon can accomplish in one night. If the player rolls a botch, the demon attacks the magician. If the magician wants the sebau-fiend to attack a specific enemy, he needs the victim's True Name or some part of the victim's body.
[ 5 ] Creation Of The Shabti ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 109 )
The practitioner of Ahku casts this ritual upon a perfectly carved statue made of gold, lacquered or petrified wood, marble, or some other expensive material. The thaumaturge recites in ancient Egyptian, "Oh, shabti, if I be called by Set to sleep, or if the sun shine upon my labors, I ask you to bring the sands of the east to the west, and judge me with His eye."
The shabti then awakens, responding, "I will do it, verily, I am here when thou callest."
From there forward, the statue is inhabited by a sentient funerary spirit. It can fight (but cannot fly, even if the statue is carved with wings), but is not capable of further speech or creative behavior. Effectively, the shabti is a golem. A shabti moves extremely slowly, and is not fit for offensive battles, but makes an exceptional defender. This creature is unfailingly loyal to its creator, and will stand guard over the vampire's sleeping form during the day (or through periods of long tor).
System: The statue must be of at least human size (though it may be up to three times as large, and it may be shaped like a biped or like an Egyptian animal), and must be made with at least Crafts 4 (and be commensurably expensive). The thaumaturge's player rolls Charisma + Occult (difficulty 8). Once a shabti is created, the spirit remains until the next time its caster wakes up (whether that is the next sunset, or after a hundred years of tor). At that time, the statue crumbles to dust and the funerary spirit is freed.
Regardless of its size or shape, a shabti has four health levels, four Willpower, six dots in each Physical Attribute, and two dots in all other attributes. These constructs may spend a point of Willpower to move at a walking pace for one turn; otherwise, they are stationary. They cannot be targeted by mental and social powers, with the exception of powers that remove the spirit (such as soul stealing), which immediately destroy a shabti.
[ 5 ] Dismembering The God ( XXX - Page X )
The Setite removes from a canopic jar a tissue sample taken from the chosen victim; the sample must have steeped in the urine of a jackal, hyena or other scavenging predator for at least 24 hours. She brews an unguent in which the tissue sample, vitae and papyrus are ingredients, then covers her genitals with this unguent. The Setite completes the ritual by coming into skin contact with the victim before the next sunrise. The victim may resist the ritual on a Willpower roll (difficulty 9) if he accumulates more successes than the Setite had on the ritual roll. If the ritual succeeds, the victim loses both a number of Willpower points and a number of blood points equal to twice the caster’s number of successes. Further, the victim can’t refresh either pool for one night. Note that a significant blood loss (3 or more points) may very well kill a mortal, or at least require medical attention.
[ 5 ] Warding Cippus ( XXX - Page X )
The ancient Egyptians prized stelae carved with the figure of the infant Horus trampling on crocodiles and strangling serpents or scorions in his fists. Such statues – called cippi – served as amulets to repel these harmful creatures and, more generally, all the malign forces of the world. The Followers of Set still craft these cippi on rare occasions. Setites seldom use figures of Horus in their magic, but the power of an enemy is still power.
This enchanted stela protects against spirits, not material animals. A consecrated cippus bars all but the most powerful or determined demons of Duat from its proximity. The Tremere possess several Warding Cippi, and chantries compete for their possession in regions where Setites are strong. The special cost of manufacturing a Warding Cippus in these latter nights ensures that the Tremere never have enough to go around.
System: Spirits of Duat cannot approach within 100 feet of a Warding Cippus. If they try, they vanish back to Duat.
No special conditions apply to the carving of the cippus. Enchanting the stela requires several hours of prayers, exorcisms with sand and water, incense, and bathing the stela in honey, beer and the blood of a crocodile, an asp and crushed scorpions. At the end, the magician lets the rising sun burn his hand to ash while it rests upon the cippus. Completing the final prayer while burning off one's own hand costs a point of permanent Willpower. Note that this also means taking one health level of aggravated damage. The warding Cippus works by itself from then on, continuously. Some Warding Cippi are thousands of years old.
[ 6 ] Hybrid Mummy ( XXX - Page X )
A magician can stitch together parts of human and animal cadavers, mummify them and invite a spirit to occupy and animate the patchwork khat. Typical hybrid mummy forms include animal-headed men and women in imitation (or parody) of the Egyptian gods, or beasts given human heads and hands.
Creating a hybrid mummy requires suitable human and animal body parts and typical mummification equipment. The physical process takes 40 days, just like a normal, non supernatural mummy, and includes various subsidiary rituals. At the end, the magician conducts an hour-long invocation to Apep and other dreadful, deathly powers of the Underworld while smoking the wrapped, patchwork cadaver over a noxious and stinking fire.
Few normal ghosts consent to occupy such a butchered, composite cadaver. Instead, debased lector-priests call upon evil and insane ghosts called specters who somehow escape judgment and the Eater of Hearts, or demons of Duat that were never human at all. A few powerful Setite magicians employ hybrid mummies as their servants.
System: Although the Hybrid Mummy spell requires the normal Intelligence + Occult roll (difficulty 8) to succeed, the magician's player also spends a variable number of points of Willpower in the final rite. Hybrid mummies are more durable than Necromantic zombies. They can endure thousands of years as long as they remain in subterranean crypts and labyrinths. Mercifully, they decay quickly when exposed to sunlight and an incredulous modern world.
The magician's player defines a hybrid mummy's Traits beforehand. A hybrid mummy starts with one free dot in each Physical and Mental Trait. A lector-priest can make a mummy with up to Dexterity 3, while Strength and Stamina can go as high as the magician wants the sorcerer just uses bigger, stronger parts. Hybrids can also have up to two dots each in Intelligence, Wits and Abilities. (They have no Social Attributes, though.) For every three dots in Attributes or Abilities the hybrid mummy receives, the magician expends one Willpower point. A new hybrid mummy cannot have any Ability that its creator does not, or at a higher rating.
Hybrid mummies can learn through experience, however, and raise their Charisma, Manipulation, Mental Attributes or Abilities Traits. Raising a Trait costs four times as many experience points as it would for a vampire.
The hybrid mummy is a character in its own right. Its creator may bind its will with other spells or Disciplines, but the hybrid has a mind and interests of its own.
