205 - Never Again

Ritual: Never Again

Cost: 4 minor charges.

Ritual Action: Some people feel compelled to repeatedly do things they know they’ll regret. Whether it’s the bottle, overeating, the needle or the arms of a woman who isn’t your wife, some addictions require years - even a lifetime - of hard work to overcome. Sometimes even that isn’t enough. For people more concerned with the product than the outcome magick provides one questionable shortcut. So long as they want it bad enough.

Take an antique coke bottle - at least 100 years old - and something that can be used to facilitate your regretful temptation of choice: whiskey, a bag full of heroin, cash. Put that object inside the bottle with a handful of ash from something burned at least a half dozen years ago. Seal it with wax from a scented candle (any except sandalwood). Give it to someone you don’t trust and convince them to bury it somewhere you won’t find it.

Make no act of contrition for at least 3 days. If it works the effect will take hold when you wake up on the fourth.

Effect: You physically can’t perform the action. You might want to, need to, but your body won’t comply.

Mentally it’s a different story, you’re constantly haunted by the consequences of the action as though you had caved in to your compulsion. Your unrelenting nightmares reflect a world in which the worst of your excesses are realised. Take a rank 5 stress check on a relevant gauge (Unnatural is a strong contender) once per week from the burden of guilt. Make it a rank 6 check if it’s relevant to a passion or obsession, rank 7 if it hits one of each. It doesn’t ever get worse than that, a lot of people eventually get used to carrying around an invisible monkey on their back. Some of them prefer it to the alternative.

The effect can be broken by retrieving and opening the bottle. However, doing so has the opposite effect, you cannot physically prevent yourself from indulging. At least the dreams will stop.