SETITE RITUALS

Setite rituals usurp power from the Western Lands, or from its ruling deity, Osiris. They provide a focus the Setite sorcerer can draw upon to work the magic of his path, or to strengthen his hand in the performance of otherwise mundane tasks.

System:
The player rolls Intelligence + Occult (difficulty is three + level of the ritual, maximum 9). Success brings the result given in the description of the ritual; a failure means that nothing happens. A botch cancels all currently active ritual or path effects, as disfavor in the Western Lands cuts off a sorcerer from their effects.

LEVEL ONE RITUALS

MILK OF SET

This entry is a catch-all for a range of rituals too numerous to mention, though many Setites have their own names for concoctions created in this fashion. In each, the Setite creates a salve or unguent with magical properties. The exact details of the ritual and ingredients of the salve vary depending on the desired effect.
Each effect must be learned as a separate ritual. When he wants his character to gain a new ritual, the player specifies a desired effect; the Storyteller deter-mines its level, according to her judgment of the unguent's effectiveness as compared to other ritual effects. She should rule out any effect that too closely resembles an existing path or ritual from any tradition, unless the effect is a common one already available to a number of Disciplines. Effects must change their targets for the worse, or alter them so that they serve a new purpose. It takes one week per level to produce a single dose of salve or unguent. It stays potent for a number of weeks equal to the player's successes, and then becomes useless.
Here are some common manifestations of the Milk of Set.

LEVEL TWO RITUALS

OPENING THE GATE

This ritual prepares a corpse so that it becomes a focus for the Setite's magic. If the corpse is not already mummified according to ancient Egyptian tradition, it must undergo the procedure before the ritual begins. This process alone can take several nights, and is usually performed by a coven of Setite priests and sorcerers.
Once the body is prepared, the ritualist begins the ceremony by verbally recounting the victory of Set over Osiris, and informing the corpse of Set's subsequent penetration of the Western Lands and the powerless-ness of Osiris to stop his progress. He arranges the canopic jars in reversed order, placing the jar that's supposed to be positioned to the west of the body to its east, and so on. The ritualist then saws open the corpse's chest cavity and breaks open the ribcage. He severs the corpse's spine and drills dozens of hooks into the corpse. Into the hooks he threads catgut strings, which he then attaches to a metal frame around the mummy. The sorcerer pulls the strings tight, forcing the body into a tortured position. The ritual takes 12 hours to complete.
The Storyteller assigns the corpse a rating from 0 to 5, showing the degree to which its funeral arrangements satisfied the requirements of The Egyptian Book of the Dead. Zero represents no similarity whatsoever which will most often be the case and 5 signals the greatest adherence to those rituals possible in modern times. The Storyteller keeps his value secret until the ritual's successful completion.
A successful Setite now possesses a means of siphoning energy from the Western Lands. He may at any time increase his blood or Willpower pools by a number of points equal to the rating the Storyteller assigned the mummy. After the passage of a number of hours equal to his successes on the ritual, he loses the points. He may do this once per night.
If anyone destroys the corpse or unstrings it from the frame, the Setite loses a sum of blood and Willpower points (distributed by the Storyteller) equal to twice his mummy's rating.

LEVEL THREE RITUAL

PREPARE CANOPIC JARS

The Setite takes bodily tissues of a desired victim and places them in the four canopic jars used in ancient Egyptian funerary practice. He inverts the ritual designed to ensure speedy passage to the Western Lands, gaining advantage over the chosen victim. The jars and their associated tissue types are described fully on page 115.
Samples of other tissues can be used, though they are not so potent. The Setite can still direct a working against a target even if he lacks the requisite bits of flesh; he can use an object stolen from the victim that symbolically resonates with the desired organ. The remaining bits of a meal half-eaten by the target work as substitute contents of south or north jars. Heart pills and asthma inhalers even breath mints and syringes make acceptable substitutes for the contents of the east jar. Drugs or alcohol once in the possession of the target can represent the liver and gall bladder in a jar of the west. The ritual takes four hours to perform. Once completed, the Setite can at any time interfere with any action performed by the victim, provided he is somehow aware of the target's current activities. Examples of interference include making the victim miss a bus or plane, lose her wallet, become the subject of a random mugging, and any number of other significant yet indirect effects. The Setite may interfere with a number of actions each night equal to the number of successes scored on the ritual roll. He may do this until the jars are moved or destroyed.

LEVEL FOUR RITUAL

DISMEMBERMENT OF OSIRIS

The Setite ritually dismembers the captured leader of a group or organization, starting with the limbs and finishing with the penis. (The ritual works only on male victims.) At the conclusion of the ritual, the Setite drops the phallus into a tank full offish. It only works if the fish devour the severed organ.
The organization headed by the victim suffers a serious calamity, as determined by the Storyteller. A corporation might lose half of its stock value overnight, a military unit could fall in battle, or a religious order might experience mass defections.
The ritual takes six hours to complete.

LEVEL FIVE RITUAL

DISMEMBERING THE GOD

The Setite removes from a canopic jar a tissue sample taken from the chosen victim; the sample must have steeped in the urine of a jackal, hyena or other scavenging predator for at least 24 hours. She brews an unguent in which the tissue sample, vitae and papyrus are ingredients, then covers her genitals with this unguent. The Setite completes the ritual by coming into skin contact with the victim before the next sunrise.
The victim may resist the ritual on a Willpower roll (difficulty 9) if he accumulates more successes than the Setite had on the ritual roll. If the ritual succeeds, the victim loses both a number of Willpower points and a number of blood points equal to twice the caster's number of successes. Further, the victim can't refresh either pool for one night. Note that a significant blood loss (3 or more points) may very well kill a mortal, or at least require medical attention.