Dream Sorcerers

[Old_Scratch]

Here are some more rituals. I suppose I could be detailing this thing to death, but I hope that by describing the rituals for each setting I might provide a firmer picture.

Dreams Beyond Time and Space Rituals

Contact: Contacting with the Demons of the Abyss is concerned with fracturing time and space and is conducted either in dreams or in trance state. Chanting ancient and inhuman verses and the use of incense with hallucinogenic drugs are the primary means of altering one's state of consciousness.

As with all the Rituals for the Dreams Beyond Time and Space setting, when a ritual is performed any clocks or other means of telling time become unstable and for any witnesses time may hurdle forward or reverse for moments and candles may burn down instantly or the flame may crawl back up reforming the candle. Objects and people in the room may have shifted position or have slightly different dimensions or appearance.

The Sorcerer heads for the cold numbness of the Abyss and therefore a cold room is often central to the ritual, as is holding a cold object in one's own hands.

The contact takes place within the mind through telepathic means with the far off entities. The entity remains within the Abyss unless Summoned.

Once a Demon of the Abyss has been Summoned and if it is manifested in the Waking World, contact involves tracking down its trail or its Summoning and Binding Sorcerer through the use of the Lore skill.

Summon: All rituals in the Dreams Beyond Time and Space setting are particularly fraught with danger, but Summon is one of the most dangerous as it tears holes in the fabric of reality.

When one Summons a Demon of the Abyss in the Dreamworld, one's own consciousness ventures forth to the very edge of the Abyss, an act of damnation for even strong minds. So in the Dreamworld, the initial Summoning is not a bringing of the Demon to the Sorcerer, but rather bringing the Sorcerer to the Demon. In a sense, it is the Sorcerer who has been summoned by the Demons.

Summoning a Demon of the Abyss into the Waking World is even more challenging – for it does not merely slip a sliver of its essence into your mind, but it journeys from the edge of the cosmoverse, shredding apart reality and emerging through the rent to pulsate on the floor with tentacles twitching and oozing. Again time and space will flux and the emanations outwards will cause queasiness for people in the nearby area, electrical systems will burn out, pregnant women nearby will miscarry, and small birds and animals die instantly while larger animals will panic and act aggressively.

Bind: The act of Binding follows the Summoning, when the Sorcerer nears the edge of the Abyss and the Demon from that benighted place slips forth into their psyche, latently resting part of its essence in Sorcerer's subconscious mind. The Sorcerer will never be the same again. It latches onto its host, often the Sorcerer, acting as an extra organ in the body cavity and can be detected by instruments as an anomaly of some sorts.

This Binding is only partial – the Demon exists in the physical world but can only exert its powers when the Sorcerer is asleep or in trance. There is one last element of the Binding that some Sorcerers will complete, which is crossing over the demon from the subconscious to the conscious world. Allowing the Demon to cross over is a transgression and immediately results in a Humanity Loss roll. The actual experience is agonizing as well and the Sorcerer takes Special Damage: Lethal from the Demon's Power against the Sorcerer's Stamina. If the Sorcerer survives the experience, the Demon's organ has extended its own tendrils up their spine and driven it home into the Sorcerer's brain and the Sorcerer can use the Demon's abilities in the Waking World and the Dream World.

Punish: The Demon is a thing of unreality and our own existence is a painful and hateful thing for the Demon of the Abyss, but its animus allows it to endure. To Punish, the Sorcerer must tightly weave reality around it, forcing the Waking World and its material and spiritual comforts into the very being of the Demon of the Abyss. Attending an orchestral performance or repeated viewings of "On Golden Pond" are noted for their ability to punish and immiserate Demons. In the Dreamworld, punishing can be a leisurely journey down a particularly fond memory or intruding upon the memory of a content and sleeping child, an experience terrible for both demon and infant.

Another means of punishing the Demon is to starve its host. Poisoning, starving, or near-drowning of its host, invariably the Sorcerer are prolonged means of demonstrating to the Demon of the Abyss the powers of the physical world and its own precarious physical existence in this world. Likewise, cutting or piercing one's skin, branding, or electrical shocks can be used to punish a Demon at the expense of its Sorcerer.

Banish: The presence of a Demon invited from the Abyss and bound has an inevitable warping effect on reality. While the presence of emotions and meaning may disturb a Demon of the Abyss, it is wholly insufficient to Banish it. The only means to Banish a Demon is through ancient techniques passed on from generation to generation. These formal techniques follow rituals older than humanity itself. Some say that the ritual are the words of creation, others say that the rituals evoke the 10,000 names of god that created the universe, while a few argue that the ritual names the Demons of the Abyss and includes them into the realm of the physical and of creation thereby empowering the Sorcerer to expel them. The truth is that the reason why banishment works is a mystery. The act of banishing entails following these rituals, kept secret by religious sects, passed down by Demon Hunters, or encoded in rare tomes.

Some argue that a Demon of the Abyss can be Banished by the killing of its host, the Sorcerer, while others suggest that the Demon is then let loose to prowl reality and seek out and even mentor a new host-Sorcerer.

Contain: The ritual of Containment draws upon similar measures as the Ritual of Banishment and its origins are just as obscure. The Containment ritual is merely a portion of the larger Banishment ritual, drawing upon the same chants and accoutrements as candles and incense as its more powerful version. There have been reports that recent innovations have been made on the Contain ritual using new mathematical applications drawn from Astro-Physics or Genetics. Using non-Euclidean geometry or drawing upon sequences in the human genome formulated by powerful super computers, some Sorcerers and other occult figures claim that the Demons of the Abyss can be contained by the formulae drawn from such experimentations.

[Ron Edwards]

Hey there,

... a very dynamic relationship between the Sorcerer's humanity and their Dark Self Demon's Power. As the Sorcerer's humanity drops, the Dark Self Demon becomes more powerful and gains in abilities. So what I'm thinking is that each time the Sorcerer loses Humanity or the Demon gains a power, the Binding Strength moves one forward in the Demon's favor, and as the Sorcerer's Humanity increases the Demon loses Power and Abilities and the like as well, shifting the Binding strength to the favor of the Sorcerer.

Thus the relationship between them is fraught with tension - the Sorcerer, by doing good deeds and turning their back upon their dark ambitions can dissolve or weaken their demon, while the demon has a vested interest in increasing its own powers and becoming ever stronger.

Is this an okay thing to twist and manipulate, or is Binding strength something that should be left alone?

Let me get this absolutely straight - when the demon's Power goes up, what happens to the rest of the demon? Are you planning on having its Stamina, Will, or Lore increase as well?

I ask this because you refer to the abilities disappearing as Power decreases, which implies that Lore is dropping to remain under Power as it diminishes.

More generally, this is an interesting rules-tweak on a par with the material in the mini-supplements, and I don't see any reason not to use it.

However, I'll give you one general observation - as a rule, I consider very elaborate solo speculation about "Sorcerer to play one day" to be a low-grade act, relative to actual play. You are far past the point where you should have turned this material over to real live players, and have them provide stuff like the meat of the rituals and the various scope/concepts for the demons beyond the initial concept.

The Price and Cover descriptors are a good case study, and I fear you didn't understand my earlier point about them. Don't provide so many examples, is what I'm saying. Provide an idea about Prices and Covers, to give the players the scope or "feel" you would like to stick to, providing maybe two examples each. Then have them riff out a bunch of possible examples.

Best,
Ron

[Old_Scratch]

Let me get this absolutely straight - when the demon's Power goes up, what happens to the rest of the demon? Are you planning on having its Stamina, Will, or Lore increase as well?

I ask this because you refer to the abilities disappearing as Power decreases, which implies that Lore is dropping to remain under Power as it diminishes.

Yes, that was exactly what I was thinking. One becomes a shadow of a man while conversely the Shadow of the Man grows larger.

Lore in particular would be important - as Humanity drops and the Sorcerer becomes closer to the Dark Self Demon, it affirms the Dark Self Demon's idea of the Sorcerer. Yet if the Sorcerer gains in humanity, the Dark Self Demon simply cannot relate to the change - "Why would anyone bring home a mangy mutt and treat it as if it was their own child".

In playing Charnel Gods, I've been having a difficult time with the interaction between the object demon and the PC. This sort of Demon allows me to really focus on playing a psychotic, manipulative NPC Demon with an unnatural intimacy with the Sorcerer.

Thanks for the feedback on the concept. I'll run with it. Using that and Bailey's ideas, its developing to be a bit more interesting than I first theorized.

However, I'll give you one general observation - as a rule, I consider very elaborate solo speculation about "Sorcerer to play one day" to be a low-grade act, relative to actual play.

To which, I agree. Playing a game or in a particular setting reveals a lot I would have never guessed at. That said, the first few months of having a game are the most fertile for me initially before I start sliding into a rut. So for now I'm exploring the potential settings and concepts and toying about with them while playing the game. If my initial ideas and settings outnumber my play sessions, it will remedy itself over time. It's also encouraged me to use nightmares and dreams as a means of getting players and their Fell Weapons to interact. I can't believe I didn't think much of it before - I use dreams all the time for this sort of thing.

Anyhow, thanks for the push to getting off my ass and actually playing the game. I might play a session with a friend and see what he thinks of it.

The Price and Cover descriptors are a good case study, and I fear you didn't understand my earlier point about them. Don't provide so many examples, is what I'm saying. Provide an idea about Prices and Covers, to give the players the scope or "feel" you would like to stick to, providing maybe two examples each. Then have them riff out a bunch of possible examples.

Your fear was correct, I wasn't clear on what you were stating and had earlier asked for clarification. You're right - although I suppose I'm at a brainstorming stage right now and writing everything I can down before I lose it all! I can always use this stuff for NPCs.

I'll remember when I use one of these settings for a game to reduce them. It'll be very difficult - I might have to get someone else to do the chopping for me. I'm pretty fond of most of the descriptors. Sigh.

Thanks for the suggestions and advice. All great. I may continue to post ideas and it may seem like I haven't taken your advice, but for now I'm just exploring the potential of the game and settings and brainstorming.

[Ron Edwards]

No problem! You've certainly earned your sergeant's stripes as a Sorcerer GM and therefore some speculation-time is understandable.

And since we're all getting so familiar, I invite you to tell me/us your actual first name, so this whole "internet handle" thing can get chucked within our posts.

Best,
Ron