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Friday, April 17, 2015

Artifact April #17: The Book of Summonings [Mage: the Ascension]

[Mage: the Ascension]

The Book of Summonings is a treatise on Qlippothic magic detailing the summoning rituals required to summon Portoblax and Its various spirit servitors.  It appears as a leather-bound volume entitled in Arabic.  The pages are hand-written, with several diagrams and pictures to aid comprehension to the admittedly obtuse rambling grimoire.  The first portion of the book is more archaic than the second, detailing how to summon the demonic lord Portoblax.  This portion of the book acts as a tome which teaches the reader how to summon (though not bind or dismiss) Portoblax.  The second portion is more recent, written by Fadi ibn Hept-seshet ibn Set-ab al-Naar, and detailing how to summon, bind, and dismiss various spirit servitors of Portoblax.

The Book of Summonings also acts as a great reference material, allowing those who reference it a +1 Occult (specialty: infernalism) bonus.  Furthermore, those who spend the proper experience points may learn Nephandi Lore 2, Portoblax Lore 3, Spirit Names +1 (specialty: demons).

Part One

This portion of The Book of Summonings is a tome which details the most dreaded of all the Order of Portoblax's rituals, which is the summoning of Portoblax.  Those with the proper knowledge may learn to breach the gap between dimensions and bring this particular Dark Lord to our space-time (the fact that the rift opened will bring the other Dark Lords through is, of course, a mild oversight).

Minimum Arete: 3
Minimum Spheres: Learning the ritual in this book requires Life 4, Prime 4, Spirit 4.
Actual Spheres: Life 5, Prime 5, Spirit 5, optional Time 4.  If the creation of the Wonder is performed communally, it is possible for four different mages to contribute one of these Spheres to the ceremony.

The tome appears as the first half of a leather-bound volume written in Arabic.  This first section appears to be the older of the two sections, and predates the current binding by some time (proper analysis indicates that the book was bound within the past few months; this first portion was written sometime during the Renaissance, and only recently bound into this volume).  The tome details a long and involved process which will open the Gate to Portoblax's domain and bring It to our world.

Included within the text is a calendar, of sorts, detailing times of astrological significance to the Order of Portoblax (such as when summonings may occur).  Dates of note include both solstices, Halloween, and various days when planetary and solar alignments converge.  Also included within the text are images, diagrams, and suchlike to aid reader comprehension and to fully convey that which is necessary for this ritual.  A full list of components required also helps, including legions of sacrifices and similar rites; the centerpiece includes the sacrifices of those innocent lambs who truly believe in the Order of Portoblax (to use for the Prime 3 rote Lambs to the Slaughter).  However, the list of sacrifices tallies to somewhere around the level of an entire city, and requires orgies, desecration of holy items, and suchlike to permit Portoblax's essence to enter this plane.

If these things are all completed, however, according to the proper rites, the Gates to the Realm shall open and Portoblax's rightful place shall be reclaimed.  Bwa, ha, ha, ha.

Quaintly enough, knowledge of summoning Portoblax might also aid someone seeking to dismiss Portoblax, though this is a tricky proposition (if It comes to our dimension, it is probably already too late).

Skimming the book takes two hours; reading the book takes between two and 20 weeks.

The Ritual: This tome teaches the user how to summon Portoblax to our world whereupon It may reside at will.  This ritual is a massive undertaking, and should have plenty of time in which to work.  Spirit rips apart spiritual barriers while Life and Prime provide infusions of Quintessence and help build a body.  The ritemaster needs to roll Arete, difficulty 10, and needs to garner at least 30 successes.  Each roll represents an hour of chants and orgiastic rites.  "Innocent lambs," or children raised in the Nephandic paradigm as sacrifices, must be sacrificed and their Quintessence offered as a gift to Portoblax.  An entire city's worth of sacrifices must be made.  This should be performed in a prepared location with the proper Resonance (that is, the major Node in the throne room of the Cor Obscuritatis Labyrinth itself).  If successful, a vacuum will allow Portoblax to appear on this plane, thusly ushering in the Nephandic Dark Lords.  Paradox backlashes, on the other hand, will incur the full wrath of reality and the Dark Lords, as spiritual surges destroy the proceedings, likely killing those involved or shunting them into Hells and Paradox Realms.  Failing this spell will probably kill and Gilgul the ritemaster.

Part Two

This portion of The Book of Summonings acts as an Artifact which allows the user to summon many spirit servitors of Portoblax including Enforcers of the Pit, Eudociae, and Servitor Imps.  Furthermore, the second section also has magics for rituals to create Shamblers and Unem-ab.

This part of the book appears much more recent than the first portion; the first part was created in the Renaissance, while the binding and second part were created within the past few months.  Like the first portion, the second portion contains detailed instructions, complete with notes and diagrams, on how to summon many servitors of Portoblax.  Unlike the first section, however, the instructions are written in such a way that anyone with the proper knowledge (read: an Arete rating) can follow the instructions in the book to summon these things.

[This book is simple; the prime component is Spirit 4 to allow for summoning and binding.  All these rituals are cast at difficulty 7 if in an area where they may be concidered coincidental, difficulty 8 if not, and difficulty 9 if performed where unbelieving Sleepers may witness.  Frequently, this is vulgar without witnesses, making the difficulty 8.  A successful roll of the caster's Arete, usually requiring about five to ten successes, depending upon the creature, allows the caster to summon Enforcers of the Pit, Eudociae, and Servitor Imps.  If the person also has available corpses with which to house the proper spirits, they may create shamblers (zombies) and Unem-ab.]

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