040 - Stealing Thunder

Ritual: Stealing Thunder

Cost: 3 minor charges.

Ritual: Draw blood from an avatar, about a pint should do (conveniently this is about what someone gives when donating, the anticoagulants won’t do the taste any good but it’s better than letting it clump up uselessly). Take it to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London, specifically the space under the auditorium stage. Once situated make alcohol out of it. This is tricky, you’ll probably need to add sugar to get a yeast reaction going and fiddle with the pH to keep it somewhat feasible. A successful roll on an identity related to brewing will definitely help here, but careful preparation could take its place. Maybe make some practice runs? In any case such an identity and the ritual roll are both at a +30% shift if the brewing takes place while a showing of Macbeth is going on upstairs.

Once you’re done pour the resulting brew into a black-glazed drinking vessel of an appropriate style, make a toast to whichever Greek god is a mask for the archetype of the donating avatar in Latin or Greek (modern or ancient) and scull the entire thing without stopping. If you can keep it down you’ll soon know if the ritual succeeded.

Effect: There are two effects to a successful stealing thunder ritual. The first is that you’re carrying around a one-shot version of that avatar’s first channel power with a value equal to the ritual roll. Reportedly this feels sort of itchy and full, like a cross between feeling libidinous and carrying around a loaded gun for the first time. Avatars are instead nauseated, forcing a Self check equal to the tens place of their avatar identity and causing taboo. The second effect is that until you discharge the power (or one of you dies, ending the effect) the donating avatar is at a -20% shift to their avatar identity.

The flip side is that they’re at a +20% shift to any attempt to track you down (and if you care to this goes both ways). It’s like the mystical equivalent of following an extension lead to find out which one of your neighbours is siphoning electricity. Drinking people’s blood is also pretty unsanitary by the way.

An ensorcelled donating avatar can short circuit the ritual at any time by tabooing themselves. They don’t have to be aware that it will do this, it sometimes happens by accident. After all it’s a bit like trying to get rid of a cold by hitting yourself in the face with a hammer. The negative shift doesn’t alter access to avatar channels and trying to pull this on someone already under the effect fizzles.

Rumour has it there’s a greater version of the ritual. I wouldn’t trouble yourself, this one’s dangerous enough. You don’t want to wind up getting your liver pecked out by an eagle for eternity do you?