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Bastet |
Misc Gaming Mechanics Index | NPC Building Index |
Moon Rites |
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These magical rituals can only be performed beneath the glow of Seline and the vault of Ahui. Moonlight is an essential part of all the following rites, so each of them occurs outside after sundown. Although cloudiness won’t prevent the rite, it’ll make performing it a bit more difficult (add 1 to the difficulty, add two if it’s raining, unless the rite conjures a storm). Bastet often chooses full-moon phases to enact such rituals; the strength of Seline makes the rites easier and more powerful.
Moon Rites invoke the power of the Bastet patron, strengthening their ties with her and infusing them with her essence. All Moon rites have mystical effects; tales of them having colored human folklore and superstition for millennia. These are the most sacred rites of all; anyone caught spying on them will be hunted down. This punishment is rarely necessary; Moon Rites evoke such power that any non-Bastet - including wizards and other shapechangers - fell distinctly uneasy and physically sick. All spies must make Stamina + Enigmas rolls once or twice during the ceremony or freak out (the difficulty is 5 + the level of the rite). The effects of the breakdown depend on the spies and the Storyteller, but include insanity, uncontrolled nausea, total panic (as the Delirium) or phantom pains. Vampires and werewolves have been driven to frenzy, while sorcerers have fallen into Quiet as a result of peeking at Moon Rites. Bastet elders, of course, know what such signs betray, and the worst fate - being ripped apart by angry claws - often follows a spy’s discomfort. |
Level One |
Rite of Warding |
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A simple precaution taken around any site of importance, this rite is typically performed before the guests for a taghairm arrive. By calling up spirits, securing the corners of entrances of the site and charging the safety of the area to Seline, the Bastet sets up an “alarm system” which bars the site against lesser intrusions and alerts the ritespeaker against greater ones.
System: By spending a Gnosis point, the ritespeaker ties herself to the place for the duration of the Warding. This warding continues for one hour per success unless the ritespeaker either leaves the area or dismisses the guard. For as long as it lasts, any non-Bastet who enters the area triggers a mystic feeling of unease; the ritespeaker will not know exactly who or what the culprit is, but she’ll know something isn’t right. Intruders cannot enter a warded site at all without succeeding in a Willpower roll (difficulty is 5 + the caster’s successes) - the energies of the place simply drive them away for no explicable reason. Even spirits cannot pass through a warded area without alerting the ritespeaker. |
Level Three |
Rite of Claiming |
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This mystic secret proclaims the foundation, or transferal of a Den-Realm. To do this, a Bastet travels across his territory on foot, marking the boundaries with scratches, urine and other forms (graffiti, incantations, blood, etc.). When the circuit is completed, the werecat performs the rite in the place where he began, and binds himself to the essence of the place. From then on, the area is his Den-Realm, and he may do what he wants within it.
Occasionally, Den-Realms exchange hands; some upstarts take the lands from dying elders, while others receive old friends’ territory for safekeeping. This rite is still essential to becoming one with the land; until it’s performed by the new owner, it’s just another hunting ground. Sometimes, a dying elder will pass the rite along to the newcomer as a gesture of respect. If the Den-Realm has been ripped from her hands, however, the old owner’s not likely to help the thief. Although Den -Realms may be expanded by performing this rite again, no werecat can keep more than one separate Realm. Fewer still would give up their lands without a fight. The Den-Realm is the cat’s true home, and until she dies, it remains a part of her. System: Standard roll; the rules for Den-Realms can be found in Chapter Three. |
Level Four |
Eater of the Dead |
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The Bubasti alone command this rite, a vile punishment reserved for oathbreakers among their tribe and thieve from outside it. By calling to Sobk, the Egyptian crocodile lord, an elder Bubasti sends the soul of the offender into a labyrinthine spirit realm deep within the ground. Here (they say), the victim is stalked by Sobk, who pursues him, corners him, judges him and may consume his soul.
Once a transgressor is caught, the shadowcats, bind him for the rite. During the ritual, the offender’s tongue is ripped out, his eyes are seared and his ears are plugged up. Special wrappings, prepared in sandalwood oil and honey, are wound around the cat from toes to forehead. Then his head is struck off, followed by his limbs, and the whole mess is burned in an oven prepared for the rite. This ceremony, horrifying in itself, sends the cat’s soul to the tunnels of Sobk to be judged. The chase begins as the cat, now whole again, rips out of his bandages and flees into the tunnels. The Eater of the Dead pursues the soul for what seems like weeks, until he finally corners the cat. Biting off each limb in turn, he judges the soul on a golden scale. If the punishment so far is ruled enough, the soul is freed to its final journey. IF Sobk doesn’t like what he sees, he devours the offender forever. System: Standard roll, plus a Gnosis point and the preparations mentioned above. Rather than joining his Ancestor-spirits, a truly unworthy victim’s essence is gone for good. Tales of this gruesome rite keep other cats very far away from Bubasti affairs. |
Eater of the Dead |
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The Bubasti alone command this rite, a vile punishment reserved for oathbreakers among their tribe and thieve from outside it. By calling to Sobk, the Egyptian crocodile lord, an elder Bubasti sends the soul of the offender into a labyrinthine spirit realm deep within the ground. Here (they say), the victim is stalked by Sobk, who pursues him, corners him, judges him and may consume his soul.
Once a transgressor is caught, the shadowcats, bind him for the rite. During the ritual, the offender’s tongue is ripped out, his eyes are seared and his ears are plugged up. Special wrappings, prepared in sandalwood oil and honey, are wound around the cat from toes to forehead. Then his head is struck off, followed by his limbs, and the whole mess is burned in an oven prepared for the rite. This ceremony, horrifying in itself, sends the cat’s soul to the tunnels of Sobk to be judged. The chase begins as the cat, now whole again, rips out of his bandages and flees into the tunnels. The Eater of the Dead pursues the soul for what seems like weeks, until he finally corners the cat. Biting off each limb in turn, he judges the soul on a golden scale. If the punishment so far is ruled enough, the soul is freed to its final journey. If Sobk doesn’t like what he sees, he devours the offender forever. System: Standard roll, plus a Gnosis point and the preparations mentioned above. Rather than joining his Ancestor-spirits, a truly unworthy victim’s essence is gone for good. Tales of this gruesome rite keep other cats very far away from Bubasti affairs. |
Level Five |
Rite of Nine Lives |
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The secret knowledge granted by Seline to the wisest of her children allows them to literally return from the dead. This rite, which may only be performed once in a werecat’s life, allows her to return from the dead as many as eight times before her spirit departs for good.
To begin, the werecat sets aside a ritual space outside and calls upon Seline’s favor. After mixing a bit of blood, water, spit and fur in a bowl, she holds the bowl up to the moon and chants the rite. Once finished, she drinks the broth and hopes for the best. Seline will be the final judge as to whether the cat survives her death or not. System: Standard roll, plus two Gnosis points. This rite can be performed only once, and the success of it uncertain until something kills the werecat. If successful, the Bastet recovers from her death; her spirit remains in the body and wills it to return to health. Depending on how she perishes, this may take some time. A Bastet who’s “merely” mauled will return in a day or two; if she falls off a 40-story building, it may take a week to recover; a really nasty demise, like immolation or entombment, may take her weeks to confound. The recovery process is slow and painful - a Bastet who had been skinned to death may wish she had stayed dead before she heals completely. As you can imagine, a werecat who returns from death often has some serious scores to settle upon her return.... Once the cat lives again in all senses of the word, she may still face difficulties. If she was buried, she’ll have to dig herself out. This may kill her a second time before she can escape. Dismemberments do not prevent resurrection - some gruesome tales speak of werecats who were hanged, drawn and quartered, only to drag their limbs from their crossroads graves to rejoin somewhere in the middle. Once recovered, the werecat loses one permanent point of each her Rage, Gnosis and Willpower. These point may never be regained; hence, a Simba who died eight times finishes his life with a maximum of two dots in each of these Traits. Any part of the cat that is destroyed (see below) is lost forever; resurrected cats often lose limbs or retain other disfigurements. Aside from that, the werecat is her old self (though some deaths leave permanent emotional and psychological scars). Naturally, some deaths cancel out even this arcane secret. If a Bastet dies in one of these ways, she won’t come back, and must face her fate like the rest of Gaia’s children.
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Wishing Waves |
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By yowling spitting and dancing around a lake or sea, a werecat can stir the surface into waves. Celican who drowned their enemies this way gave rise to tales of witches who danced with cats to create storms at sea. Although this tribe claims to have originated the Rite, the Bubasti say otherwise. In their stories Bast herself taught her children to wreck invaders on the Nile, and supposedly used it to punish Pharaoh Snefru II, who persecuted her kind.
System: This rite must be performed on a cliff or beach overlooking the sea. To begin the tempest, each player makes the standard roll and spends two Gnosis points. If more than one cat performs the rite, all their successes are added together. Each blood-Kinfolk present adds an additional success to the total. One roll is made for each hour spent dancing, at successively higher difficulties; each new roll costs an additional two gnosis points and a point of Willpower. The turbulence extends out for one mile for every Bastet participating in the rite, and dies down an hour or so after the dance ends. |
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