Rituals

Rank 1

Balancing Salve (Sapphid Caliphate Character Only)

Within the known world, al-Zawira in the Sapphid Caliphate is said to have reached the greatest height of the medical arts and sciences. Researchers there tirelessly experiment and meticulously record their results, seeking to understand life, death, the states of matter, and the transitions between them all. Due to the influence of the acadamies and numerous published texts on medicine and alchemy, amnu citizens of al-Zawira are learned in the basics. Member's of the Caliph's shieldbearers, for instance, learn as part of their training to use an admixture of herbs alongside targeted pressure to stabilize a wounded patient, keeping them alive until a skilled physician can arrive on the scene. The user must know how to apply the cure to the specific ailment, whether it be using hyssop oil to prevent disease from catching or balancing elemental influences to drive away hostile spirits with mercury and sulfur.   Activation - Once per scene as a Support action using an alchemy kit, you may make a TN2 Medicine (Air) check targeting one character with the Dying or Afflicted condition.   Effects - If you succeed, remove the Dying or Afflicted condition from that character. The target suffers the Unconscious condition and cannot be awakened until the end of the scene.   Opportunity;

• 1 Opportunity - If inspected by someone who does not know this ritual, the target appears to be dead.
• 2+ Opportunity - Choose one additional target per 2 Opportunity spent this way.

 

Rank 2

Blessing of Steel (Artisan Character Only)

The sword is the soul of the warrior, and proper maintenance of one’s ancestral wargear is not just an important physical act, but also a sacred rite in its own regard.   Activation: As a downtime activity, you may make a TN 2 Smithing check using any ring to undertake the maintenance of your weapons and armor.   Effects: If you succeed, apply one of the followingbased on the ring you used;

• Air: Increase the deadliness of a weapon by 1.
• Earth: Remove the Damaged quality from the item. If it did not have the Damaged quality, it gains the Durable quality.
• Fire: The item gains one quality that it could logically possess. The GM is the final arbiter of what quality can be added this way, and they should inform the player of whether an option is possible before their character undertakes this downtime activity.
• Water: Increase the base damage of a weapon by 1 and decrease its deadliness by 1, or increase the supernatural resistance of a set of armor by 1 and reduce its physical resistance by 1.
• Void: Reduce the TN of the next check the character makes with this weapon by 1. 

Only one of these effects can be applied to an item. Any effect applied this way persists until the end of the next scene in which the item is used  

Craft Shikigami (Mystic Character Only)

It is a minor thing for mystical adepts to create these small creatures, often from paper but sometimes from other materials. They can take almost any form, and as such they can offer much amusement in courts as they caper about or even fly through the air. Surely, no one would ever think to use them to sneak into secured rooms or secretly add poison to a lord’s sake. Surely.     Activation: As a downtime activity using a consecrated vessel of silhouette 0 or smaller, you may make an Artisan skill (Void) check to create a shikigami. You choose the TN of the check (minimum 1).   Effects: If you succeed, choose a number of invocations that you know up to the TN of the check. Record the selected invocations and create a unique name for the shikigami. While the shikigami exists, the chosen invocations are sealed within it — you cannot use them, but the shikigami can. You can have up to one shikigami at a time. When the shikigami’s physical form is destroyed, its essence returns to you; you can recreate it by making a new physical form for it in the manner of making a new shikigami, but it retains its memories and personality. The GM has the basic stat block for the Shikigami.   Opportunity;

• 1 Opportunity - Choose one of your advantages, and one of your disadvantages. Add these to the created Shikigami
• 1 Opportunity - Instead of appearing as the item or material from which it was created, the Shikigami has a different form of your choosing of the same silhouette.
• 1+ Opportunity - Increase the silhouette of the Shikigami by 1 per opportunity spent this way
• 1+ Opportunity - Choose one skill. The Shikigami possesses a number of ranks in this skill equal to the opportunity spent this way. You may activate this multiple times for different skills.
• 1+ Opportunity - Increase the Shikigami's endurance or composure by 2 per Opportunity spent this way

 

Elixir of Recovery (Sapphid Caliphate Character Only)

While certain herbs and materials can help to keep an injured patient alive, others can dramatically accelerate recovery times, reducing pain, increasing mobility, and driving off inflammation. Some alchemists base these formulations on alignment with the universe, such as by altering their ingredients’ ratios based on the phase of the moon or on the elemental balance within the patient’s body.     Activation - As a downtime activity using an alchemy kit, you may make a TN 3 Medicine (Water) check targeting one character.   Effects - If you succeed, your target removes twice as much fatigue when they rest and reduces the TN of their checks to remove conditions by 2. This effect persists until the end of the game session.   Opportunities;

• 2+ Opportunity - Choose one additional target per 2 Opportunity spent this way.

 

Wayfarer's Path

A wanderer's path is never certain, except in it's uncertainty. Thus, many who wander the roads have traditions and rituals that are simple. Dropping a leaf and letting the wind carry it, casting dice and reading their direction, or even letting a staff fall and walking the path it indicates. While these methods are far from the courtly divinations of the Empire, many wanderers put a great deal of faith in them.   Activation - Oncer per game session, as a downtime activity while at a crossroads, in the wilderness, or or in another place where your path is unclear, you may make a TN3 Meditation check.   Effects - if you succeed, you emcounter a sign of one of the following, based on the ring you used;

• Earth - Direction of someone with whom you share a bond.
• Water - Direction of an opportunity to make some money.
• Fire - Direction of the nearest Large-Scale conflict.
• Air - Direction of a person related to your past or desire.
• Void - Direction in which you are needed most.

 

Rank 3

Fortitude Draught (Sapphid Caliphate Character Only)

The alchemists and physicians of the Sapphid Caliphate are interested not only in treatment, but also in proactive uses of their arts to promote health, vitality, and sanitation. While the more experimental efforts of some researchers seek to awaken the spark of vitality in the base elements of life, more common efforts use herbs and other ingredients to invigorate already living flesh. Alchemical knowledge to strengthen the body against attacks both spiritual and physical is a prized achievement of al-Zawira scholars.     Activation - As a downtime activity using an alchemy kit, you may make a TN4 Medicine (Earth) check targeting one character.   Effects - If you succeed, your target adds one bonus success to their successful checks to resist critical strikes, plus one for every two bonus successes on the Medicine check. This effect persists until the end of the next scene.   Opportunities;

• 1+ Opportunity - Choose one additional target per Opportunity spent this way.
• 1 Opportunity - If you succeed, your target also adds the same number of bonus successes to their successful checks to resist supernatural effects (such as the effect of an Invocation or Maho Technique)

 

Rank 4

Rank 5

Restorative Transmutation (Sapphid Caliphate Character Only)

Surgery is not uncommon in most lands, but when the pinnacle of surgical knowledge is combined with alchemy, it can lead to near-miraculous restorations. Surgeons have even been able to reattach severed limbs, using alchemy to reignite the spark of life in what should be dead flesh. While true resurrection has never been achieved by an alchemist - at least not any whoi have shared such a theologically troubling discovery - substantial progress has been made on healing injuries and treating diseases once thought incurable.   Activation - As a downtime activity, using an alchemy kit, you may make a TN6 Medicine (Void) check targeting one charcter who suffered a Permenant Injury or Maiming Blow in the previous scene. If a,imb was detatched, you must have that limb to attempt this ritual.   Effects - if you succeed, you remove any disadvantage the character recieved as part of the Permenant Injury or Maiming Blow, and they instead recieve the Horrible Scar adversity.   Opportunities;

• 3 Opportunity - If you succeed, instead of gaining the Horrible Scar adversity, the character instead gains the Dashing Scar distinction.