Two rituals, discovered by a young Wiccan Priestess

Melissa Gridde views herself as a witch, and together with her coven practices the ancient art of Magic. Every week and throughout the various holy days, she and her Sisters work their magics. Melissa always took the Art more seriously than many of them, however. She studied in books, delved into the occult, and struggled to learn the secrets to real power.

In time, she discovered something.

SISTER-BOND
Power: Minor
Cost: 4 minor charges
Effect: This ritual forms a tight bond in all those who participate in the ritual. Each participant gains the Soul-based “Empathic Bond” skill at 15%. This bond can be improved with the expenditure of experience points, but has to be maintained seasonally.
Ritual Action: Gather all those who are going to undergo the bonding together, on the night of a full moon. A large bonfire must be started, with the freshly cut wood of five different trees. The ritual itself must be started at midnight, the gathered removing their clothes and beginning a raucous celebratory dance around the fire while they sing and praise the Gods. Specifically, the Greek Gods (Melissa has choosen Tyche and Artemis for her enactments, but any two will work with the ritual.)

At precisely 1pm, the dance comes to an end and the dancers line up around the fire where they joy hands. The leader of the ritual begins the incantation, which is largely untranslatable gibberish, while leading the circle counterclockwise around the fire. Everyone must do their best to repeat the words of the leader of the ritual, but a precise recitation is not required of anyone except the leader. Once the recitation (about 20 lines, all gibberish) is complete, the circle breaks up into twos and threes — there to engage in various sex acts with one another, which forms and cements the bonds with those whom they have sex with. Typically these rituals devolve into open-air orgies, as everyone tries to develop a bond with as many people as possible.

The leader of the ritual makes all rolls. If the Soul or Thaumaturgy roll to activate the ritual fails, no magical effects come to pass and the ritual does not work to renew an existing bond. This ritual, if successfully performed, requires an Unnatural-2 check.

“Empathic Bond”
Your bond-skill allows you to feel the emotions of those whom you had sex with after the ritual, forging a closer relationship with those people. A significant check is required to ues the skill. A roll under your Soul stat allows you to empathize with someone and know what they’re feeling at the moment, while a roll under your skill allows you to get insight into their personality and surface thoughts. A major check with the skill will allow you to empathically communicate with everyone whom you share a bond with, regardless of distance. Merely using this skill requires a Self-2 check. Physically or emotionally harming anyone whom you’ve bonded with requires you to make a Self-6.

THE SEEKING
Power: Minor
Cost: 1 minor charge
Effect: This is not an actual ritual. It is a trap, albiet a particularly cunning one. If the ritual is successfully enacted, the subject experiences a mind altering vision that seems to show him meaningful and important messages — albiet cryptic ones. If the subject rolls a match, the vision is particularly addictive and the subject has to take a Helplessness-2 check if he doesn’t perform it again as soon as possible.

A failure has mutch the same effect as a success, though the visions seem even more vitally important and even more difficult to understand. A matched failure brings forth a frightening and maddeing vision of the end of the word, a different one each time. An Unnatural-4 check is required in this case. A critical failure kills the seeker.

Regardless of the outcome of the ritual roll, the subject takes damage equal to the sum of the dice.
Ritual Action: Three hours are spent in silent meditation, eyes open and staring into the space where a candle flame rests upon the wick, idly chanting a calming mantra (‘I seek the truest answers to my self’, in badly translated Greek). The subject must not be disturbed during the enactment of the ritual.