#cult crew with ritualist whisper feels like a must
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honourablejester · 14 days ago
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Two Blades in the Dark Ritual Ideas
Rituals in Blades in the Dark are amazing. If a crew has a Whisper with the Ritual ability, they can research and then cast various rituals, come up with between the player and the GM. The three sample rituals in the book, to create a ghost map of a district to track ghosts, to ward someone so that the ghosts of those they kill can’t find them, and to summon a small portal to the Void Sea near the ritual site to drown people, are all fantastic. Rituals always cost stress, and always cause fear in the caster as the occult practise introduces them to new fun and horrifying knowledge, and some of them come with fun extra consequences, and they delight me. This feels like a part of the game where as a player you could have a lot of fun throwing wacky ideas at your GM and seeing what they’d let you get away with. In what manner would you channel the occult powers of a shattered world in order to make it easier to commit crimes?
For my own part, a couple of initial ideas for rituals that people might research in Doskvol:
Blind Eyes
“Just after dawn and again at twilight, the city is usually blanketed in a thick fog that obscures street lights and ruins visibility in the darkness. Many people habitually take a break during these times, staying indoors with a cup of tea to wait out the ‘blind hour.’” (BitD pg 245).
If a crew, for example a crew of smugglers, wanted to operate with relative impunity during the ‘blind hour’, a ritual that would allow them to operate in the dense fog might be useful, no?
Ritual Purpose: Grants a crew the ability to see through even the densest fog as if it wasn’t there for a period of one or more hours.
Ritual Weirdness: Under the influence of this ritual ointment, a person’s eyes glow a faint bioluminescent green.
Ritual Form: A downtime activity is spent ritually preparing an ointment of salt water, algae, and a drop of leviathan blood, costing 2 to 4 stress depending on the duration of sight desired, from 1 hour to a few hours to a day. The ritual prepares enough ointment for each member of the crew, and each person can then apply the ointment to their eyelids later to activate the sight.
Ritual Fear: The use of this ointment provides glimpses of things, neither man nor ghost, that hide in the fog. And some of those things notice being noticed. Each successive use of the ointment after the first ticks a six-segment progress clock ‘the Horror in the Fog’.
Hue and Cry
“A hue and cry is a process by which bystanders are summoned to assist in the apprehension of a criminal who has been witnessed in the act of committing a crime. ‘Hue’ appears to come from the Old French huer, which means ‘to shout’, and ‘cry’ from Old French crier (‘to cry’).” (Wikipedia)
The hue and cry is the enemy of any scoundrel, but there are ways to turn it to one’s purpose. Perhaps a ritual to summon a spectral hue and cry that terrifies all who hear it into hunkering down and hiding rather than venturing out?
Ritual Purpose: Creates an object that summons a great clamour of spectral baying and shouting that terrifies everyone within a block’s radius into hiding save those of the caster’s choosing, potentially clearing a path for a crew to escape.
Ritual Weirdness: During the hue and cry, members of the crew that summoned it glow with light as though spectres themselves.
Ritual Form: The caster must spend a downtime activity in meditation at the site of a riotous and violent event, perhaps the site of a violent mob or the clash and cries of a riot, channeling the Echo of that event into a specially prepared object, usually an instrument such as a horn or a bell. This can be quite dangerous (risky action roll), and the caster takes 4 stress for the attempt. If successful, the instrument can be used thereafter to summon the hue and cry.
Ritual Fear: While the spectral hue and cry prevents mortal pursuers from hampering the crew, perhaps it might eventually call non-mortal pursuers to apprehend the criminals before them?
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monstersofsilence · 4 years ago
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I’m too old for this shit
“Breaking news: The cult serial killer has struck once more but this time it appeared to have set a resident building on fire in a peculiar way. Nothing has come up of how this was caused whether it was a regular blaze or something psionic-made is still unclear. Three bodies have been found within the charred ruins but it’s unclear if they can be identified. All three are presumed dead and follow the same ritualistic killing as the previous victims. We’ll report more as we gain more info later on.”
Lemoru finally arrived at the crime scene as a few trolls with hydro psionics put out the remaining fire that was lit before he got there. Already it has drawn a crowd. Many trolls with their phones out and recording as well as a news crew on scene. The police are doing there best to keep people back as the teal blood walked onto the crime scene and before the three corpses before him. “What do we got here?” He said to a police officer.
“Same MO.” They responded. “All three victims having their innards gutted out. Heart missing. We would want to believe they did the same arrangement with the guts but... well... the place is burned down.”
“I would imagine they might have done it. Though it doesn’t make sense to me...”
“What, sir?”
“Why burn the place down?”
“I beg your pardon?”
“Usually with some killers, they want you see their handy work. So... burning the place down wouldn’t make any sense... hmm.”
“Well, maybe they want to change it up. Feel sorry for these three. It’s gonna be hard to identify them with how burnt they are.” The officer zipped up the body bags and went along with the other officers trying to keep back.
Meanwhile, Lemoru was still stuck in thought from the missing puzzle, looking over at the charred ruins of what used to be a building. Walking over to it, he looks over at anything that could be a sign of something. “It doesn’t make any sense...” He whispered to himself. “Why start burning buildings now? the previous times they leave their victims out like in an arrangement for me to see, never like this. There must have been some struggle...” The teal blood looked around and then spotted a familiar face. One that he’s tired of seeing. “You’ve got to be kidding me.
The detective walked over to a familiar brown blood who was watching over at the crowd of people behind the police line until noticing Lemoru walking towards him. “Ey! How’s it going bud?” They said joyfully.
“Why...?” Lemoru responded with annoyance. “Why do I find you in anything where I am doing an investigation? I’m getting tired of this, Mr. Donovk.”
“Hey. It’s Axxiom.” The brown blood corrected. “And it’s not fault thatI just happened to be in the neighborhood!”
“Yes, happen to be in every murder case that I’m half suspecting you to actually be said murderer coming back to the crime scene.”
“What?! I would never!”
“You...-” Lemoru paused, letting out a sigh and calms himself down as he just covers his face with his hand and drags it down, feeling stressed out as it is from everything. Today is one of those days. “Forget it... I’m just... I’m not thinking correctly and you being where I am every single time is not helping with my anxiety.”
“I don’t mean to make ya anxious. Like I said, I’m just in the neighborhood.” Axxiom explained.
Lemoru sat next to him, taking out a cigarette carton and taking one out. “You’re girl friend isn’t with you today, huh?” Lemoru slightly teased as he reaches into his own pocket to get his lighter.
“Salemm. And she’s not my girlfriend.” Axxiom takes out a cigarette of his own along with a lighter, offering it to Lemoru.
The teal blood notices, hesitating for a second until taking it, putting the cigarette into his lips and lit it with the lighter given to him, handing it back. “Whatever you say.” Lemoru says, taking a drag of his cig and letting out a puff of smoke. “I’m getting too old for this shit...”
Axxiom lit his cigarette, taking a drag of his own until catching what the detective said. “Why not quit?”
“I’ve thought about it... many times. If I quit... perhaps my nightmares will go away. I still have the same one... it’s just... stuck to me.”
“What’s the nightmare?”
“... One of the first cases I’ve done. I was chasing down a killer that has been attacking women. There was one who believed she was the next target and made me an offer to be her protection. At first... I denied it... but... I don’t know. Something about her made me decide to accept her offer. I stayed with her and I... felt at peace... her company was bliss. I haven’t felt that kind of comfort in so long... one day, I was out getting something. I was outside of her home until I heard her scream. It was pouring out and I quickly ran to go save her but it was dark. I caught the killer and we both had a struggle... I got him restrained but... I was too late... the flash of thunder illuminated the room and I saw the women’s body. I keep having that same nightmare... I try my best to save her but I’m always too late...”
Axxiom’s eyes widened from listening to the story, not expecting that level of a sad story. “Fuck... didn’t know this happened. Why didn’t ya tell me?”
“Because you make it very hard for me to trust you given the previous circumstances you were in.”
“Hey, those guys pulled the punches on me. I defended myself.”
“On several occasions.”
“I’m a punchable guy! What can I say?”
Lemoru let out a sigh of annoyance, taking a drag of his smoke, looking off at a random direction. “I can’t quit... not now. I want to protect people... but I’m always one step behind...”
Axxiom merely shrugged. “It’s your life. I think you should quit while you still got the option. Rebuild yourself, find peace, get therapy, all that crap to help recover your mind.” The brown blood took one last drag of his cigarette, dropping it on the ground and puts it out with the bottom of his shoe. “Just think about it.” He pats the back of Lemoru gently and walked off, waving goodbye behind him as he leaves the teal blood to his own thoughts.
Lemoru sat where he is, sighing softly, taking a final drag on his smoke and merely uttered a few words. “... I’m sorry I couldn’t save you... I’m sorry...”
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