Post by Phsycodelic on Nov 10, 2016 0:31:41 GMT
Hacktivist Thaumaturgy Rituals
Anarchs
Anarchs
For several years, the Anarchs did indeed have superior access to Technomancy relative to the Tremere, although in recent nights, the two have achieved a rough parity. As astonishing as the defection and accompanying theft was, Camarilla insiders were even more surprised when Clan Tremere declined to seek the defectors' inclusion on the Red List even after the defectors made low level Technomancy rituals readily available to other Kindred through occult "shareware" programs. The apparent leniency with which the parent Clan has treated these defectors is a continuing source of mystery.
Freed from the constraints of Tremere hierarchy and backed financially by a mysterious cabal of Anarch venture capitalists known as "The Red Question," the defectors (who took the cheeky name "Digital Draculas" as a collective nom de guerre) set up shop in Northern California and started a campaign to disseminate information about Technomancy (and other Thaumaturgy paths) to affiliated Anarchs around the globe. Their mode of instruction was twofold: For broad consumption, the Digital Draculas provided a series of shareware computer programs which incorporated powerful thaumaturgic rituals which had been magically inscribed into the very fabric of the Internet itself. By activating these programs, the user could access the Internet in special ways. For example, the Fangbook ritual allows any vampire to hide secret messages and even videos within mortal social media apps, messages that appear mundane to humans but which are obvious to other Kindred.
The second avenue was more direct. By monitoring the Internet habits of Fangbook users, the Digital Draculas can identify Cainites who are both supporters of the Anarch cause and devotees of the occult. The group carefully weeds out the posers, the incompetents, and the Camarilla infiltrators before indirectly contacting those who are serious about learning blood magic that can be used to advance the Anarch cause. Once the target has satisfied the Digital Draculas as to her worthiness, one or more of the coterie will provide instruction into Technomancy and even other facets of "true" (i.e. Tremere-style) Thaumaturgy in exchange for services rendered to the Movement. Invariably, one service required is that the student voluntarily submits to Dominate effects incorporated into the Internet transmissions that make the student incapable of revealing what she has learned under interrogation. Those who complete their training are inducted into an elite world - the world of Hacktivist Thaumaturgy.
Or at least, most Hacktivists will happily claim that they represent an elite culture. Of the four main schools of Anarch occultism, the Hacktivists are the only ones who claim an institutional connection to Tremere Thaumaturgy, and most of them aren't shy about letting members of the other schools know it. There have, of course, been Tremere who self-identify as "Anarchs" almost since Thorns, but very few of them have ever willingly shared their knowledge of Thaumaturgy to those outside their Clan, certainly never to the extent that the Digital Draculas have with their arts. Indeed, Anarch conspiracy theorists often claim that for every genuine Tremere Anarch, there are probably three who have infiltrated the Movement to fulfill some Clan goal, and any Tremere who freely teaches his art to others is probably doing so as part of some baleful scheme that a wise Anarch should avoid. Even tonight, as the Digital Draculas happily offer their lore (or selected bits of it, at least) across the Movement, they find that less than a tenth of the Anarchs they observe are worthy of even being offered the chance to learn, and half of those turn down the offer out of sheer anti-Tremere paranoia.
While the paths available to the Hacktivists represent a decent cross-section of the Tremere library, not all paths are readily available. In fact, selections are largely limited to those which had been mastered by the various members of the Digital Draculas at the time of their defection. The coterie has an almost obsessive interest in Technomancy and usually (but not always) requires new initiates to study that as a primary path in lieu of the Path of Blood. The coterie is also inordinately proud of its development of new computer-based rituals, many of which are modernist revamps of traditional Tremere rituals which the coterie aggressively "markets" in place of the original versions.
The Digital Draculas proudly state that they do not discriminate on the basis of Clan or Sect. They're lying. In practice, they are extremely reluctant to train Malkavians and Gangrel in Technomancy, the former because they're either too incoherent or too unpredictable even for Hacktivists, and the latter because they are perceived as being too rustic to properly master a technology-based occult style. Tremere Anarchs rarely receive contact from other hackers prior to an exhaustive examination of their loyalty to the Cause. Ventrue, Toreador, and Nosferatu, however, are all prized as potential students of the art, especially Nosferatu, who are admired by the founding coterie for their Clan's great work in the creation of the original Shrecknet.
The paths pursued by Hacktivists represent a cross-section of the Tremere repertoire. Technomancy is, of course, standard, but many of the Digital Draculas had been devotees of obscure or archaic paths prior to their defection, and these minor paths gain greater currency when they're one of the few things on the menu.
[ 1 ] CCTV ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 67 )
Normally, Thaumaturgy requires either direct line of sight or a sympathetic effect. The Hacktivists pride themselves on eschewing normality. This ritual allows the thaumaturge to use a CCTV camera or even a web camera as a "third eye." The thaumaturge must disassemble the camera, inscribe every inch of it with a mixture of occult sigils and mathematical formulae, and then put it back together (Intelligence + Technology, difficulty 8). Then, she must cut her thumb and hold it against the camera lens until a full blood point has been absorbed by the camera.
System: The ritual lasts for one night per success, and it can be renewed for the same interval indefinitely so long as the vampire can feed additional points of blood to the lens. While the ritual lasts, the thaumaturge can treat the video feed from the camera as if she were experiencing it directly for purposes of targeting people or places with either paths or rituals. If the camera takes the form of a spy camera that is smuggled into an enemy's haven, this can allow for devastating effects. However, the ritual is not without risk. So long as the ritual is active, any other blood magician who obtains the enchanted camera can use it as a sympathetic link back to the thaumaturge as if it were a sample of his own vitae. Even after the ritual ends, a lesser sympathetic link persists (equivalent to a personal possession of the thaumaturge) until the camera is destroyed.
[ 2 ] Self-Executing File ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 68 )
The Hacktivist coterie known as the Digital Draculas invented this ritual, and it is the backbone of their agenda for the Anarch community. For centuries, the Tremere have had a ritual called "Inscription" which allows a thaumaturge to reduce a simple ritual to a written format which can then be unlocked and activated by a non-thaumaturge at a later date. The Self-Executing File ritual functions according to the same principles, but instead of allowing someone outside the Clan to cast a "borrowed" ritual at a time of her choosing, this ritual allows her to install a Technomancy-based ritual directly into a computer. To date, the Digital Draculas have carefully limited the number of techno-rituals which they have widely disseminated to two: "Fangbook" and "Bloodspot." A third techno-ritual - FangChat - is currently being beta tested and is exclusively available to the coterie's closest allies.
System: To use Self-Executing File, the thaumaturge must first prepare the Technomancy ritual she wishes to disseminate into a computer file format. The Hacktivists and the Tremere technomancers alike use a special programming code that integrates a mixture of defunct computer languages and dead written languages. Using this language, the thaumaturge codes a complete description of the ritual to be transmitted and then reduces it to a .zip file. She then emails the file to the intended recipient. When the recipient clicks on the file to open it, a text box appears that informs the recipient that he has sixty seconds to activate the program by smearing some of his blood onto his right thumb and then placing it over the white box below the text. If the recipient does so before time runs out, the blood dissipates harmlessly, and the program automatically opens and downloads itself into the computer's hard drive. An icon for the associated program appears on the desktop that is visible only to the recipient, and the program itself is an invisible file that cannot be detected on the hard drive by any means other than Technomancy. Every success after the first allows for one additional recipient, should the thaumaturge wish to send out more than one copy of the file.
[ 3 ] Telecommunication ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 68 )
Telecommunication is one of the earliest rituals associated with Technomancy. In fact, the insights gained from the creation of this ritual were the very signposts that proved that Technomancy was possible. The thaumaturge must trace a sigil on the screen of a television or a computer monitor. While the ritual lasts, the thaumaturge can see and hear what is near the screen as if he were looking out of it. More importantly, with a thought, he can change what appears on the screen, whether to create a fake news story to deceive others or simply to make his own face appear so that he can converse with watchers.
System: The successes rolled create a dice pool which the thaumaturge can use to either observe through or control the screen at any point over the next seven nights. The player must roll this dice pool either to see and hear through the screen (difficulty 4) or to control what the screen plays for others (difficulty 7). A botch on either of those rolls ends the ritual's effect immediately.
[ 4 ] Non-Disclosure Clause ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 69 )
Since their defection to the Anarchs, the Hacktivists have committed themselves to furthering the Movement in the manner that best fits their skills, principally in the spreading of information. In particular, the Hacktivist members of the mysterious Red Question faction (see Anarchs Unbound for more information) have spent considerable effort on spreading the philosophy of the Anarch Movement, to say nothing of specific tactical information that aids Anarchs struggling in Camarilla territories. This ritual allows them to do so without fear of exposure or betrayal.
The ritual enchants a text file, which is then encrypted and emailed to another person. When the recipient opens the emails, she receives an offer of secret information that may be of assistance in the spread of Anarch ideals. However, to acquire the information, the recipient must agree to the Non-Disclosure Clause by spreading some of her blood onto her thumb and placing it on a square that appears on her screen (similar to the Self-Executing File ritual). If she complies, the blood is absorbed into the computer, and the entire contents of the text file (which might be hundreds of pages of text) instantly download into her mind.
Only raw data can be conveyed in this way. The ritual cannot be used to help a Kindred learn a Discipline or a ritual, nor improve an Ability. However, the recipient does gain an eidetic recollection of the information that she downloaded. The "non-disclosure" aspect of the ritual comes into play if she is captured or interrogated by someone hostile to the Anarch Movement. The moment that she believes she is in danger of revealing Anarch secrets (regardless of her personal desire to betray the Movement or stay loyal), all of the downloaded information vanishes from her mind. Depending on the wishes of the sender, she may remember nothing of the information at all, she may remember a few details, or she may even remember copious amounts of disinformation that she honestly believes to be true.
System: One success is sufficient to prepare the information to be downloaded by the recipient. Three successes are needed to prepare backup misinformation that the recipient will believe to be true once she is captured and the failsafe is triggered.
[ 5 ] Ghost In The System ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 69 )
In these modern times, when the Internet remembers all and government-backed identification is needed for nearly every transaction, it is no longer enough for a newly arrived Kindred to simply dominate the local city clerk into providing him with papers. This exhaustive ritual can takes a week or more to perform (when used to create false identities for Kindred or other supernatural beings), though simple uses directed against mortals may take only a single night. At the conclusion, though, the results can be most impressive. For Kindred, the ritual creates not just a fake ID but an entire paper trail for the target all the way back to his "date of birth."
The false records, to the extent they exist on the Internet, are perfect, and show whatever history the thaumaturge desires. Only personal examination of the actual hard copies contained in dusty filing cabinets will reveal the truth of the target's life. When this ritual is turned against mortals, it can achieve such effects as giving an innocent man a criminal record or cleaning the slate for a wanted criminal, stealing away the ownership of someone's home, or even sabotaging someone's medical records so that a well-meaning nurse actually gives her an unnecessary and lethal injection.
System: The ritual requires an extended Intelligence + Occult roll, with each roll representing one full night spent reshaping the Internet and doing nothing else except devoting an hour or two to feeding. The Storyteller determines how many successes are needed based on the number of "Internet facts" that must be changed in order to achieve the desired results. Changing a single mortal's medical diagnosis or reporting all her credit cards as stolen might require only one or two successes, while creating an entirely new identity for a vampire on the run might require five to ten, depending on how complicated and important the new identity is. Particularly successful uses of this ritual may lead to dots in the Alternate Identity Background.
