The provenance of the Ranta family and other sealkin occultists, the Selkies practice a form of magic which hinges on their unique place in the World of Darkness. Selkie magic is not an Art, but rather a series of quasi-numinous rituals a given Selkie might learn from a mentor.
To purchase a Taikavoima ritual, a Selkie character must have Gremayre equal to the level of the ritual she wishes to learn. Taikavoima costs three times the number of dots in experience points (thus, a three-dot ritual costs nine XP).
Selkie kinain may purchase rituals at a cost of four times the number of dots (thus, a three-dot ritual costs twelve XP), but otherwise no one may cast these spells unless they have both a Selkie coat and a teacher. Kinain do not get an XP refund should they experience Chrysalis, but may purchase new rituals at the lower rate.
A character must know at least one ritual of the previous level before learning a more advanced ritual. A character wishing to learn a three-dot ritual, therefore, must know at least one one-dot ritual and one two-dot ritual first.
Unless otherwise stated in the description, the roll for Taikavoima is Charisma + Gremayre (default difficulty). All Taikavoima requires one Glamour to cast, in addition to any other listed Glamour.
• Abundance
A Selkie must provide for her pod. This ritual allows the sealkin to call forth many schools of salmon, trout, or other native fish to her location. It is up to nearby fishers to take advantage of this bounty. This is far and away the power for which Selkies are captured by greedy fishermen.
The Selkie must make a Wits + Animal Ken roll, with the bounty she calls equal to one hundred fish per success.
In seal form, she may speak with the fish – though they will certainly be afraid of her.
• Sense the Wind
A Selkie casting this ritual must stand barefoot the area where the waves just gently cross the sand. As she feels the wind and water on her skin, she senses how the weather might turn. She knows if a storm looms, and how bad it might be.
If a tsunami approaches, she knows that as well. This ritual allows her to sense the weather forecast with uncanny acuity for 72 hours ahead of time, for roughly fifty square miles.
She of course cannot sense if someone will use weather-controlling magic, such as Skycraft, in the future. But should she cast this ritual and then another character use such a power within the given time frame, the Selkie will know that someone has magically interfered with the weather. She can also cast this ritual to look back 12 hours, and sense similar disturbances in the natural weather patterns.
Depending on her successes on this roll, versus the opposing caster’s successes, the Selkie may be able to pinpoint, within a half-city block or so, the origin of any weather-affecting magic.
• Calm the Angry Waters
A Selkie mixes some of her own blood with a selection of special herbs and reagents. She whispers an incantation while simmering this mixture with fresh seawater. The potency of this potion lasts until the next changing of the sun.
When poured into the ocean, it will calm troubled seas. It cannot thwart a hurricane nor tsunami. But it calms choppy waters and causes rip tides to abate.
If thrown on a Garou, Fera, or vampire, it brings her out of frenzy. If consumed, it restores 1 Willpower (and one Blood Point for the vampire).
•• Compass of Enchantment
A Selkie pricks her finger with a needle, then lets some of her blood drip into a dish of water. She thrusts the needle through a piece of cork, then drops the cork and needle into the bloody water. Upon speaking the words of enchantment, her rudimentary compass points not towards north, but to the nearest Selkie kinfolk. There is no indication as to distance: the kinfolk might be ten yards away, or ten thousand.
This ritual is most commonly used by Brennan sealers trying to find the right seal to make into a new Selkie coat.
It is unknown outside that family.
•• Mantle of the Ambassador
The Selkie must mix together one measure of seal oil, one measure of shark blood, and one measure of her own blood, along with several magical reagents. This must reduce over an open fire until it becomes a thick sludge. The caster transfers the potion to a seashell, and uses the shell as a palette from which to paint the recipient (which may be the caster herself).
The caster paints any number of glyphs and sigils onto the recipient’s skin, which disappear almost as soon as they are drawn. Now, when a Selkie speaks to someone else while wearing her coat, she gains two extra dice to any Charisma-based rolls until the next changing of the sun.
•• Sense the Dream Below
This is a rare ritual, but a much prized one nonetheless.
This ritual allows the caster to know if a faerie soul lies dormant within a Dreamer. This has no effect on changelings, whose faerie souls are already at the forefront of their lives.
Rather, it reveals whether the subject has the potential to experience Chrysalis.
The sorceress anoints a mirror, which might be a suitably polished piece of beach glass. She then looks at the reflection of her subject against a setting or rising sun. On a success, she sees either the potential fae mien of her subject... or nothing at all.
•• Speak With Friends
The Selkies were inspired to create this ritual after hearing of Menehune cantrips to allow communication. The Selkie must enchant an item of natural jewelry for this power to work. The traditional style is a seashell strung on woven grass; but other Selkies use bone beads on leather cords, carved driftwood on woolen yarn, or even wooden rings.
The Selkie must succeed at a Wits + Crafts roll. On a success, her jewelry becomes enchanted, and she may touch her accessory while speaking to convey her true words to someone who hears her. If she gifts her new friend with a similarly enchanted item, he may be similarly understood.
Recipients may decline to have their words translated by not holding the charm while speaking. The charm succeeds in translating words spoken via Animalism, High Speech or similar magic powers, should the speaker make the necessary contact. As with all changeling powers, intent matters. A Speak With Friends charm cannot be used to eavesdrop on an unwitting speaker; the holder of the charm must intend to use it for communication.
••• Locate the Lost
This ritual was developed specifically to find lost or stolen coats. This ritual only functions for bonded coats, and must involve the Selkie to whom the coat is bonded.
The caster threads a needle with pure woolen yarn that has been soaked in seawater. While the caster speaks a secret chant, the hopeful must shed her blood three times: on the thread, the needle, and the caster. On a successful casting, the needle points in the direction of the lost coat. This may or may not be helpful, depending on how far away the coat is kept, or how well-guarded it is. But it gives the bereft Selkie a lead, and thus hope.
••• Remembrance
This ritual is most often cast on a Selkie coat that has had at least one owner but is currently unclaimed. The caster immerses the coat in sea water, then lets it dry for two days above an open fire while casting a continuous ritual. The caster mends any small tears in the coat, sings over it, brushes it, and otherwise takes great care to tend it.
On a success, the somnolent souls within the coat are stirred. They become a more active participant in ensuing Chrysalis. The one who becomes a Selkie through this coat has a greater chance of remembering her past lives. During Chrysalis, she gains one free dot of Kenning.
This ritual may be cast on an owned coat, but the difficulty increases by 2. A given coat may only be subjected to this ritual once per bonded cycle. The caster cannot attempt this ritual again on a coat, should she fail the first time.
••• Water Witness
A Selkie must gather up at least a pint of sea water into a glass or metal bowl. She sits the bowl beside a fire, and speaks the name of that which she wishes to view. This can be a person or location, but must be clearly named.
This power only reveals what is happening within real-time. It cannot show the past nor the future; only the present. The power is blocked by iron (such as a room sealed by a wooden door banded by iron), but can otherwise slip past wards intended to protect against non-changeling forms of magic. It conveys sight and sound, but no other senses.
The ritual ends at the next changing of the sun; or when the water spills out from the bowl.
•••• Circle of Peace
A Selkie can only cast this ritual on a beach. She must stand in the place where all four elements meet, usually by kindling a bonfire along the shoreline. Around the bonfire, she marks a circle with rocks, driftwood, seashells, or other natural objects. The radius of the circle can measure ten feet for each dot of Kenning she possesses.
On a success, all who cross the boundary feel their inner turmoil stop, if only for a moment. Vampires do not experience Rötschreck when faced with the bonfire, and find their Beast lulled to sleep. Garou do not acquire Rage, no matter the circumstance; nor do wraiths accumulate Angst.
Those who stand within the circle gain Willpower at the rate of one per hour, regardless of what they are doing.
The difficulty of any test related to self-control is reduced by 2 for the duration of the power.
Circle of Peace ends when one of three conditions is met: the bonfire goes out; the caster deliberately breaks the circle; or the sun changes.
•••• Depth Charge
By and large, the Selkies are happy to leave poison to the Sluagh. Sometimes, though, the sealkin must take matters into their own hands.
The sorceress harvests poison and/or venom from the creatures of the sea: pufferfish, stingrays, stonefish, jellyfish, or other animals. Whatever creature she harvests from must die in the process. She cannot take from an animal already dead. She must deliberately end a life, no matter how small, to power this ritual.
After treating the toxin, it becomes a chimerical poison. Unlike most other Taikavoima rituals, this toxin retains its potency for a year and a day (each point of Glamour extending its efficacy by one more year and one more day).
This poison might be ingested, or it could be applied to a weapon and inflicted that way. It causes two points of aggravated and chimerical damage per day. The target must make a Stamina check each day, difficulty 7, and accumulate more successes than current levels of damage, to throw off the effects.
Should the poison cause death, an autopsy reveals that the target died from whatever creature was sacrificed to create the Depth Charge.
•••• Water Ward
This ritual is the inverse of Circle of Peace. A small flame, such as a candle or oil lamp, stands in the center of the circle, which is then circumscribed by sprinkled seawater (a radius of ten feet per dot of Gremayre the caster knows).
Until the next changing of the sun, no one hostile to the caster may cross the boundary. Anyone who attempts to cross suffers aggravated damage equal to half the caster’s Gremayre (rounded up).
This ritual applies only to hostile intent at the time of crossing. Someone might cross in good faith, only to then fall out with the sorcerer while within the ritual boundaries.
That character remains unharmed (though she may suffer from whatever else the caster has planned!). But someone approaching with violent intent will suffer the full brunt of this ritual.
Exiting the circle does not re-invoke damage.
••••• Awaken the Faerie
This ritual is one of the rarest and most powerful known to changelings. Most sorcerers have cast Sense the Dream Below already, to know if her target has the potential to become a changeling.
Once she knows for certain, Awaken the Faerie does just that. The core of the ritual is when the caster douses her subject in seawater. The ritual likely has other components, based on the kith the caster saw during Sense the Dream.
Music plays for a Satyr, the ritual takes place in a cemetery for Sluagh, etc.
If all goes well, the faerie soul awakens, and Chrysalis happens.
Sometimes this ritual does not work. If the caster knows her subject has a fae aspect, she can try again in a year and a day (if Chrysalis does not happen before then). If she does not know, or if she botches the initial casting, the boundary between the Dreaming and the mundane world has been collapsed, and the subject will never experience Chrysalis, First Change, or Awakening (though may certainly be Embraced!).
This ritual has no effect on changelings, Dauntain, or Undone.
••••• Starfish Limb
This puissant ritual can restore lost limbs, eyes, ears or similar extremities. It cannot regrow a head, as this ritual cannot undo death. It can, however, relieve a target of her disability.
Starfish Limb ritual requires a poultice be made from ground up starfish. Applied to the missing extremity, the lost body part regrows over the next twenty-four hours. Many find this experience to be itchy, if not outright painful and even grotesque at times. But it’s frequently considered better than the alternative.
It has no effect on those born with congenital disabilities. It can only restore that which was lost. The caster must make separate preparations for each lost limb.
Changing of the Sun
Most Selkie sorcerers describe the limits of their powers as the ‘changing of sun’. This means either dusk or dawn, whichever comes next after the casting of the ritual. Should a spell be cast during the day, it lasts until sunset. Should a spell be cast at night, it lasts until dawn.
Selkies can spend one point of Glamour to extend the spell one day. In which case, a spell cast at 3 pm on Sunday, instead of ending on Sunday’s dusk, will end at Monday’s dusk. The caster may spend as much Glamour as she has to extend the spell as long as she wishes. The Glamour must be spent when casting.
Comments