Mokole Rites
Sources: PGttCB 119, Mokole 89-95
| Type | Roll | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Accord | Cha + Rituals | 7 |
| Caern | Varies (max. Gnosis) | 7 |
| Death | Cha + Rituals | 8 minus Rank |
| Mystic | Wits + Rituals | 7 |
| Punishment | Cha + Rituals | 7 |
| Renown | Cha + Rituals | 6 |
| Seasonal | Sta + Rituals | 8 minus Caern Level |
| Astrological | See System | |
| Minor | None | None |
Contents
Mokole Rites
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Level 1
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Level 2
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Level 3
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Level 4
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Level 5
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Rank 1
Feed the Wallow (Caern) - This rite takes a small amount of food and increases it to provide food for many.
System: The ritemaster blesses the food and divides it while performing the rite. The number of successes is the power by which the food is increased. A dinner for two would serve four if there were two successes, and sixteen if there were four successes.
(Mokole BB, p93)
Feed the Wallow (Caern) - This rite is very similar to the Rite of the Opened Caern, save that Sun's light must fill the wallow with its blessing. For Midnight Suns, a night sky is appropriate to "illuminate" the wallow with darkness. Note that the ritemaster must please not only the spirits, but the sleeping elder, if there is one. The method for which these creatures can be bested varies from wallow to wallow. For example if the elder was a mancala player, playing a riotous game in the wallow's sands might illuminate a wallow of laughter, while an elder who had fought the Garou all her life might demand a much darker ritual...
System: As the Garou Caern Rite: Rite of the Opened Caern. - To open a caern, a character engages in a resisted, extended success test of Wits + Rituals (difficulty 7). The number of successes needed equals the caern's level.
The Character must overcome the caern spirit to prove herself worthy. The caern spirit uses its caern level as a dice pool. Its difficulty equals the character's Gnosis, while the number of successes needed equals the character's Willpower. The first one to garner the necessary number of successes wins.
If the character wins the test, she can add the caern's rating to her dice pool when performing actions appropriate to that caern's focus. If she loses, however, she takes wounds equal to the number of successes by which the caern beat her. A botch indicates that the wounds are aggravated. These physical and spiritual wounds are the result of a backlash of spiritual energy.
See Caern Mechanics(WW: Revised, p226) for a list of caern types, their powers, and the spirits that can be encountered near them.
(Werewolf:Revised p157, Mokole BB p93)
Rite of the Nesting Mound (Caern) - This rite enables a mother to pile up earth and vegetation to create a protective nest for eggs. Although this is common behavior among crocodilians and monitors, the ritual version grants the eggs an extra measure of spiritual protection.
System: If performed properly, the rite keeps the eggs at optimum temperature until they hatch. The eggs will either hatch twice as quickly or twice as slowly, depending on how the mother performed the rite and built the mound; some mothers try using this rite to ensure a certain sun auspice for their children.
(Mokole BB, p93)
Save Hatchling (Caern) - Over 90% of potential suchid Mokole and other reptiles die in their first year of life from disease and predation. This rite creates a link between parent and child, allowing the parent to know any one child's condition at any one time.
System: Once the rite is performed, the parent need only concentrate for a turn on the given hatchling and the child's relative condition (safe, in immediate danger, wounded, and so on) is revealed.
(Mokole BB, p93)
Shedding Hide (Accord) - This rite may be performed alone or in groups. It is usually done once a year. The Mokole sheds her skin over a period of days or weeks, and at the same time sheds any Dissolver-taint accumulated through toxins or through contact with Dissolver-creatures.
System: The ritemaster rolls Charisma + Rituals as usual; the difficulty is 5 plus the number of times she has been Dissolver-tainted, such as by touching fomori or vampires, eating tainted food, speaking the words of the Dissolver, and so forth. The maximum difficulty is 9. The number of successes gained indicates the number of levels of Dissolver-taint that pass away. The Mokole will begin to itch horribly as the toxin works its way up to her skin. As she scratches, her skin peels off, revealing new skin beneath. Tattoos, scars or brands usually disappear during the shedding. This rite is highly refreshing to the celebrant.
(Mokole BB, p89)
Level 2
Level 3
Level 4
Level 5
Gumagan Rites
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Level 1
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Level 2
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Level 3 |
Level 4
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Level 5 |
Level 1
Djunggawon (Renown) - This rite of Renown is a rite of passage for Kinfolk and Gumagan. It takes place when they are young. The mob will assemble at a waterhole or sacred site. The men (for a boy) or women (for a girl) go off together. They then tell the child about the Gumagan and the spirits of the Dreamtime. The rite involves body art: painting, circumcision, or the removal of one tooth. For Kinfolk, this is the moment at which the adolescents become adults. The Gumagan usually pass from the ceremony to their great trance in which they dream their Archid form.
System: Men and women who bear the scars of this rite will be recognized by anyone else who is also initiated this way, and receive an extra die on Social rolls with any native people of Bandaiyan. Thereacter, they may learn the rituals and songs that they are in line to inherit from uncles, aunts, and other elders.
Suchids perform this rite as well, but the Mokole themselves initiate the young one by biting them.
(Mokole BB, p94)
The Oknanikilla - The Gumagan, Australia's native Mokole, originated this rite and allowed their allies, the Bunyip, to share it. It is performed alone. The ritemaster, who must be a gravid female, makes a long journey along the "paths of the ancestors" (songlines) to an oknanikilla, a place where a totem has manifested. Usually this place will be a wallow, or it once was one. (Of course, many oknanikilla are now wallows of the egg-smashers). The totems give special favor to anyone born in their sacred sites.
System: After performing the rite, the mother-to-be spends one or more Gnosis points, and lays her eggs or gives birth on the site. She remains there until the eggs hatch (if suchid) or until she is able to walk after the birth (if homid). The number of Gnosis spent is the number of additional dice that the child may roll, when an adult, when trying to call the totem of the sacred place.
(Mokole BB, p94)
Songs of the Dreamtime - This rite is associated with spirit songs. The ritemaster must sing the song for a place (such as a songline) or a thing (such as a tjurunga; see below). He is then able to use the songline to travel or read the memories of the ancestor, usually via the Gifts of the Gumagan.
System: The roll is Manipulation + Rituals, difficulty 6. However, to learn the rite, you must inherit the rite.
(Mokole BB, p94)
Rank 2
Into the Waterhole (Death) - This rite allows the soul of a dead person to be free. The body is disposed of by exposure, cremation or burial. The ritemaster then sings and dances and burns the dead person's possessions while calling their name. The soul passes on into a waterhole to be reborn, and does not haunt the living any more. Most souls welcome this rite. Some, frighteningly, do not...
System: Like other Rites of Death, the roll is Charisma + Rituals.
(Mokole BB, p94)
Rank 4
Tjurunga - This Rite enables a Gumagan to put some of their Mnesis into a carved and painted board, a tjurunga. The Mnesis can be accessed by anyone who knows the spirit songs.
Gumagan mobs often trade tjurunga. This is a common way to establish alliances and unify the people. The hereditary owners of tjurunga are very choosy about whom they exchange them with, or at least they used to be. Tjurunga are exchanged across thousands of miles among mobs who know each other well.
There are said to be three tjurunga left which were made by the Bunyip before they perished. No one knows where these mystic spirit boards are located, but the Gumagan are looking for them. They hope to find them before the European Garou do.
System: The ritemaster must sacrifice a point of permanent Gnosis and carve and paint the board during the rite. The tjurunga is then stored in a sacred cave or other such place. Anyone seeking to read it must sing and make an Expression + Rituals roll, difficulty 7. The number of successes is the number of memories that emerge.
(Mokole BB, p94)
Zhong Lung Rites
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Level 1 |
Level 2 |
Level 3 |
Level 4 |
Level 5
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Level 5
Shedding Bones - This powerful rite allows the Zhong Lung to prolong his life. He must first prepare a medicinal potion of herbs to restore the balance of yin and yang. This takes some time. He may also engage an herbalist to make it for him. He will then identify his weakest and oldest bones, and push them out through his skin. As he does so, his youth returns to him.
System: As the rite is performed, the Zhong Lung must sacrifice a permanent point of Gnosis to grow a new bone for each bone expelled. For each point of Gnosis thus sacrificed (and each bone renewed), five years of physical age return to the ritemaster. The cast-off bones are valued by wu-magicians, herbalists, and paleontologists.
(Mokole BB, p95)
