A way to change places

Cosanguinous Exchange

Cost: Either 13 minor Charges or 1 Significant Charge

Effects:

The ritual of Cosanguinous Exchange enables two people to effectively swap places with one another, regardless of how far apart they might be. There are, of course, some limitations. In the first place, the participants clothing and equipment is not exchanged – whatever they are wearing, whatever they are holding, is now in the hands of whoever they exchanged with – including such things as fillings, piercings and tattoos. Remember to take out that glass eye. Finally, this ritual only works once for any person.

More subtly, while participants appear to have swapped places, the ritual does not actually involve any physical movement – it simply changes the participants’ bodies. While this change is almost indistinguishable, internally and externally, the body’s genetic code is unchanged – if forensic experts are bad enough, participants who want children may run into some difficulties. It’s even worse if they swapped with somebody of the opposite sex – sure, their testicles may produce healthy sperm, but since they’ve now got a double-X chromosome, they’ll be stuck with daughters. While women can still have sons, yy embryos just don’t work, meaning their fertility drops by half. (If they try making babies with someone in a similar position, these problems naturally cancel each other out.)

Epideromancers who perform the Exchange face further complications – while they cast spells as normal, their partner is the one with their body. Though they usually shift their symbolic connection to their new body in a month or so, before that time their partner is the one who has to deal with charging up and avoid breaking taboo – and since they break taboo if they are not the one to initiate the Exchange, this is usually a very, very bad thing.

Of course, not everybody knows about the latter two problems with this ritual. Ancient thaumaturges may have paid attention to the fertility issues given the importance of raising sons, but since DNA fingerprinting and Epideromancy did not exist back then, it wasn’t really an issue.

Ritual Actions:

Ritually brew a special ink from the sap of an air plant, melted hail, volcanic ash and the blood of both participants. Using this ink and a magnetised needle, place a tattoo that is somehow symbolic of the other person over each participant’s heart – this could just be the partner’s name, but it could be just as easily a picture related to their obsession, archetype or adept school. A Trickster might be represented by a tattoo of Bugs Bunny, while an Entropomancer could be symbolised by a butterfly, or the words “Hail Eris!”. Finally, both partners must annoint a blade of some sort in their own blood – often a knife, but anything sharp enough to cut the skin will do, though it’s best to use something small and durable since this blade is used by the other participant to activate their tattoo. After this is done, the caster – who does not need to be a participant – makes a Magick roll and spends their charges. If they fail, both participants must get rid of their tattoo before they try again.

If the ritual is successful, either participant may activate their tattoo at any time by cutting it open with the blade their partner annointed. When they do this, the GM makes a Soul roll. If they succeed, they appear to be replaced with their partner. If they fail, they still make the swap, but over the next month both bodies will slowly revert to their original appearance, stats (but not skills) and sex (if applicable). Bring on the Self checks! On a matched failure, participants’ souls are swapped, but their bodies remain the same. On a fumble, their bodies are altered but their souls remain where they are. (Given that blood is exchanged, it opens the body up to diseases. GMs may let people who’ve caught one-another’s diseases avoid some of the above side effects by way of compensation…or not)

What You Hear:

The whole charge-taboo fuck-up means most of the fleshworkers in the know stay the hell away from this spell, but like most things it works both ways. Once upon a time, or so the story goes, a woman with nothing to lose and an Epideromancer buddy used it for the ultimate payback. She disguised herself with a little help from the mage and flirted and charmed her way into the inner sanctum of those responsible for her troubles. Once she got in, she swapped with the fleshworker and got to work with his equipment, racking up an ungodly number of major charges before she died. What happened next varies depending on who’s doing the telling, but none of it’s pretty.

Notes:

I’m not sure about the costs of this ritual, since I worked it up for a cabal of Thaumaturges and have yet to play it, but if it is a minor ritual, I’m thinking that I should make it necessary for the caster to be one (or both) of the participants, while a Significant ritual may do without the annointed blades and/or bump the side effects of a failed Soul check up to a matched failure.

Though now that I think about it, I’ve always wanted to have a bunch of minor thaumaturges hire their spells out to adepts in need…