[WFRP] The Bloody Crown OOC XV

[-Sentinel-]

It's hard for me to argue against that without it feeling like a cop out, but I'd keep in mind the sort of gamble you'd be taking. Failure would mean Elsa goes from being the strongest combatant in the party to the weakest. Even without his hand, Jamie still had the Lannister name and the authority and loyalty that comes with that. Elsa would be losing a lot more in that comparison. I guess I'd at least caveat it with "Elsa only suffers this effect if she actually fails the casting roll. Not if she succeeds on that part but destroying the book is just not possible."

The description I provided already says "if you fail the casting roll". I think it's a whole other thing if the ritual goes off but proves insufficient for the task at hand. It's like the difference between Filomena (the cannon) blowing up, or her cannonball simply failing to breach the wall. The cannonball might bounce back in your general direction, but at least you're not taking a faceful of sharp metal splinters at extreme short range.

Since Elsa is a fire wizard, wouldn't it be appropriate for her to focus on using fire for the ritual, as LCP suggests above?

I agree. I see it as using the wind of Aqshy to burn the other winds (presumably Shyish) that make up the threads of the enchantment. The winds of magic go beyond the elements that symbolize them; Aqshy means not only fire, but also fury and destruction.

A thematic ingredient could then be something like the "fire lit in a volcano" ingredient for The Body Gilded ritual, or a fire lit using a specific and unusual fuel. For a combination of fire and death, perhaps a fire lit from the bones of dead men? Or maybe even bones from an undead creature? (I hear the group knows where to find plenty of those )

The good news is that we know where to find volcanic cracks. We once fetched volcano fire for the late Beatrix Fassbender.

Another fire condition - the caster must intentionally inflict a burn injury on themselves while casting the ritual, or perhaps cut themselves and drip blood into the flames? This probably requires losing one Wound permanently, like the Warning Wound effect from Night's Dark Masters.

Interesting. I've also been considering permanent alterations to Elsa's body, like perhaps extra tattoos that might provide protection from Shyish or act as a conduit for Aqshy. Presumably the ink and designs would need to be quite specific.

A fiery and anti-nerd condition (or maybe it's an ingredient): an Orc shaman must be convinced to cast the Fires of Vengeance spell at the book a certain number of times during the ritual. Can't get more anti-nerd than an Orc, and they're historically enemies of vampires and Nehekarans, so the book would be a thematically appropriate target for the spell.

Sounds a bit too outlandish for me.

More anti-nerd stuff: The caster must desecrate (rip/tear, scribble dirty jokes, wipe their bottom with) a book stolen from a priest of Verena. Then maybe burn it for good measure during the ritual.

*sound of Adelbert indignantly pounding against the gate of Morr's realm*

In all seriousness, I don't think I want to anger Verena! Also, I'd rather avoid an overly scattershot approach. A ritual should be an arrow, not a blunderbuss.

And if you go with the fiery theme, you'll probably need a very expensive brazier to do all the burning, though that may not count as a thematic ingredient.

I've thought about a brazier before, when I was considering a souped-up Ruin and Destruction. The spell ingredient for Ruin and Destruction is "a white-hot piece of coal", so a ritual with similar effects might involve a larger amount of burning coal. (Which an assistant would need to replenish once in a while, because rituals take hours to cast.)


@ LCP: I've been talking about enchantments in terms of weaving and threads, and I just want to make sure this is an appropriate simile? Because if it is, ingredients might involve things such as woven or knit items, cobwebs, complex knots, etc.