A Red Meat-inspired ritual.
This ritual requires:
One human skull, and its jaw,
A large lump of raw beeswax,
A melted stick of lip balm that you’ve used,
A handful of ash, preferably hawthorn,
A number of fireflies, ground into a paste
A sharp knife,
A black rag,
Sheets of yellow fabric, any shade,
A whole tongue (one having belonged to a cow or sheep will suffice), and
The eyes from an animal you’ve killed yourself.
This ritual must be performed by a solitary caster.
Any mirrors in the room used for the attempted ritual are to be covered with the yellow cloth, while one is to be spread as a work surface; the skull will go in its center, facing east every time it’s set down. Polish it, first using the rag and ash, and following up with the firefly paste. Mix the lip balm and some beeswax; use this combination to fix the jaw in place, and use plain beeswax to fill in the eye sockets. Carve a triangle into the tongue, with its point pointing away from the tongue’s tip, and a line through this triangle; insert the tongue carefully and close the jaw. Indent the wax in its eye sockets, insert the eyes, and bundle the thing in the cloth on which you’ve been working. Leave it overnight in whatever room of your house—or apartment—is used least.
What this ritual is supposed to do: It’s supposed to animate the skull, which will then answer any three questions honestly.
What it does: It animates the skull alright, but the skull then floats at about eye-level, constantly following the caster around their house and trying to provoke them into looking at it. It may speak civilly, it may scream constantly, but it will not cease. Should the caster make eye contact with the skull, they must roll Soul; on a failure, the caster comes to find themself standing where they were when they looked at the thing, though minutes equal to the sum of the failure have passed. They’ve only a blank spot in memory for that time. On the next Soul failure following eye contact, they’re missing time for minutes equal to the sum of the failure plus minutes equal to the sum of all previous failures.
This unnerves one quickly.
That’s hilarious!
I’m glad you think so! I can’t wait to spring this one on my players.
Same here.
Thanks for sharing.
Wouldn’t any of this qualify for some serious unnatural checks?
Oh, I’m not denying that it would, but I’ll leave the checks to the GMs to call as they see fit.
If someone else than the ritualist looks eye to eye the skull, what happens?