A Scrying artefact creation ritual …
What Do You See Now?

The Average White Band

With a typically Scottish sense of irony, the Average White Band were so named because, even at the very outset, the cocky wee buggers knew very well they were anything but. Their sound was both entirely original and as black as the ace of spades, drawing on soul, funk and R&B for its inspiration, but freshly delivered in a musical package of utterly exquisite and irresistible smoothness.

Signed to Atlantic Records in 1974, their finest hour is probably encapsulated within the “White Album”, every track a triumph of their polished urban black/white style, including the seminal “Pick up the pieces”.

Universally acclaimed on both sides of the racial divide (and both sides of the Atlantic), and destined for No1 in the album charts, it seemed that only a tragedy could deny them their rightful place at the music world’s top table.

Tragedy struck in September 1974. At a party thrown at the home of millionaire Kenneth Moss in honour of Gregg Allman (one half of the originally named “Allman Brothers Band”) several of the guests including the AWB’s Robbie McIntosh and Alan Gorrie were given what they thought was cocaine, but which turned out to be heroin laced with strychnine. They were all violently ill, and by pacing the rooms to avoid becoming comatose all recovered, with one exception. McIntosh, already exhausted from the band’s punishing weeklong residency at the Los Angeles Troubador Club, was unable to vomit and thus retained the poison in his system. He slipped into unconsciousness and died in the early hours of the morning.

The rest of the band were, understandably, shattered. If founder member Hamish Stuart was the AWB’s soul, drummer McIntosh was undoubtedly its beating heart, his tight syncopation the unflinching backbone around which the AWB groove was so perfectly formed.

The Way to Tomorrow

The AWB released a limited-press EP titled “The Way to Tomorrow” in 1974 (shortly before the infamous party), in which they concealed lyrics that were actually guidelines for a ritual to create a magical lava-lamp. The “poisoning” was actually performed by The Sleepers to suppress the magic, and almost all of the EPs were recalled and destroyed – but a few (perhaps 3 or 4) made it through the net. Of them, it is unknown how many still survive to this day.
The ritual requires both the EP and the inlay – as the inlay lays out certain details of the procedure, while the lyrics to the song “What Do You See Now?” contain the remainder (though the ritual is coded, and difficult to decipher).

The ritual involves obtaining an original 1963 Mathmos™ lava-lamp, and emptying the glass of the original contents. You then make your own wax and oil: the wax consists of human menstrual blood, beeswax, ground saffron, belladonna, and mercury; while the oil is composed of human vitreous humour, semen, ground gold, good quality hash-resin, and extra virgin olive-oil. These ingredients are combined separately at sunset (the wax is combined in a silver vessel, and the oil in gold), and kept heated and in darkness overnight while the EP is played continuously over them (it has to be the vinyl EP – other recording types won’t do, so this will likely require careful monitoring). After this 5 significant charges are expended, and the wax and oil are decanted into the empty glass vessel and allowed to settle. This artefact is actually created using Narco-Alchemical principles (intermingled with the ancient divinatory practice of dropping molten wax into water and studying the patterns formed), so using Solar Gold in the oil instead of gold and hash-resin removes the requirement for using the significant charges.
If successful, you will now have a magical lava lamp (“The Mathmos”) that permits the scrying of the present and near future while it is turned on (in effect, it is like the divinatory effects of having consumed the Significant work Solar Gold). A major check against Soul with a –30% shift is required to use the Mathmos, and the divination takes at least an hour of watching the shifting globules move around. Taking longer helps – each additional hour provides a +10% bonus to the roll, to a maximum of +30%. Being thoroughly stoned on marijuana provides an additional +10% (though the normal Mind impairment penalties apply). Narco-Alchemists, but no other school of adepts, can use their Magic skill instead of their Soul stat: they do not suffer the –30% shift, and can still get the bonuses for taking extra time or being stoned (so they can roll up to their school +40%). The divination is imperfect – a failure on the divination roll provides misleading information instead of nothing.
The artefact is fragile, however: the Mathmos must still be kept in the dark – any exposure to sunlight (though not artificial light) will destroy the power. Additionally, if a matched failure or botch comes up on the divination roll, in addition to the misleading information, the oil and wax form an emulsion, and refuse to separate out – destroying the effectiveness (though the lamp itself may be re-used in the creation of a new Mathmos). If the Mathmos is moved, care must be taken to ensure that this emulsification does not occur during transport.

What Do You See Now?

Have you lost your way
I know just how you feel
Things seem distant today
Things just ain’t that real
I can help you find your way back home
I can help you see
I can show you different things
Just hold my hand and come with me

What do you see now
The red goes up, the red goes down
Quickened man, two kinds of gold
Woman’s blood and saffron

Silver guides the moon’s choice
Gold the sun’s certainty
Listen to the sound of my voice
In the passage through dark and heat you’ll find the key
Watch the patterns shift and form
At night it’s so clear, it’s darkened by day
The message is shown while the body’s still warm
Tales of yesterday, tomorrow, today

What do you see now
The moon goes up, the sun comes down
Eyes and oil, two kinds of gold
Quicksilver and saffron

What do you see now
Moon’s blood goes up, sunlight goes down
Beautiful woman, two kinds of gold
Olive oil and saffron

What do you see now …
Etc.

The track itself is very simple in style – just vocals and guitar, but behind the lead vocals, the backing-vocals consist of an impossible-to-make-out repeated chant.
The inlay card for the EP contains – in addition to more “normal” images – pictures of vintage Mathmos™ lava-lamps, gold and silver crucibles over low flames, beeswax, resin, olives, belladonna, alchemical-style diagrams and symbols, and other trappings of the ritual itself. It also shows Robbie McIntosh, smoking a large spliff, with the eerie red-and-gold of the lava-lamp reflected in his shades.