Rituals
Trait: Nimbleness
TN: Need to pass Fightin' roll (5+defence bonus of enemy+/-other mods)
Speed: 1 Round
Appeasement: 1
Ritual Items: Coup stick (required), Annointed Coup stick (+1 dice), an aggressive enemy to hit around the head (required)
Description
Touching an armed opponent in combat without causing him harm is a practice common with most plains Indians and brings glory in combat. Any fool can kill a man but only the brave and skilled (and some would say foolish) would face an armed man with only a small stick. This is called "counting coup" and is great for pleasing the nature spirits. The Shaman must first get himself a "Coup stick" - basically an 18 inch wooden stick with eagle feathers and other adornments attached - and then enters combat with an armed enemy (one who would wish the Shaman harm and is able to do so - not some little old lady with a broom!) announcing that he is initiating his Coup ritual. The Shaman now has one full round to strike the armed opponent as many times as possible, causing no actual damage but netting himself 1 point of appeasement for every strike to the head, vitals or guts. Limb hits do not count as these would not be killing blows. The Shaman uses his Coup ritual dice to hit in combat as if Coup were a Fightin' aptitude.
Unlike other Rituals the appeasement points earned are stored in the Coup stick and do not have to be used immediately. These stored AP's can be used to net a Favour at a later date by passing a Faith (5) roll to redeem them. If this roll is failed then the stored AP's are lost. If the Coup stick is broken at any point then all stored AP's are lost. A Shaman may only posess one Coup stick at a time (so no storing 30 appeasement points in 12 different Coup sticks!) and if he performs the Coup Ritual again then any previously stored AP's are lost. Also note that, like the Pact favour, storing AP's/Favours annoys the Spirits no end and the Shaman suffers a -2 modifier to all future Ritual rolls whilst he has saved AP's in a coup stick.
WEAPON SPEED DAMAGE FIGHTIN' APTITUDE USED DEFENCE BONUS
Coup Stick 1 0 Coup Ritual as Coup Ritual*
* as with any Fightin' aptitude the Shaman gets a Defence Bonus equal to his Fightin'Aptitude level, in the case his level in the "Coup" Ritual itself
Also note that unlike other Rituals AP's are earned 1 for every guts hit and 2 for every head hit, raises on the Coup roll do not net extra AP's - but this is balanced by the ability store up any AP's earned during the combat round
Trait: Mien & Knowledge (see below)
TN: Variable
Speed: Variable, 5 mins to 3 hours
Appeasement Gained: 1 per success and raise
Ritual Items: Ability to sing (required), Drums (optional), Annointed Drums (+1 dice)
Description
Passing on stories and history through song is an integral part of Indian life, they have no written language and singing or dancing was always the best way to pass on knowledge. Some Indian tribes use these stories to entertain, others use them as a way of appeasing the Nature Spirits.
The Chant Ritual is performed by loudly chanting (or singing) certain stories to remind the Spirits of how great they are, and the Nature Spirits, not averse to a little flattery, respond by giving out a Favour - depending on whether or not the Shaman's Chant was impressive, both in terms of the story's content and the style in which the Shaman told it.
In game terms the Shaman must roll twice for this ritual to work, once against his Knowledge (to represent the Chant's content) and once against his Mien (to represent his ability to actually sing/perform) the results are then totalled and a TN has to be reached depending on the length of the Chant;
Note that the 2 separate rolls are added together to meet the TN, if Dancing Grass the Shaman performs his Ritual for 30 minutes and rolls a 7 for his Knowledge/Chant test and 11 for his Mien/Chant test he scores 7+11 = 18, that's a success over the TN of 14. If he'd have rolled an 11 and 14 then he would have got 25 altogether, that's a success and 2 raises = 3 ap's in total. Note that going bust on either roll still incurs the same penalties as going bust on any other ritual. Nature Sprits aren't the only denizens of the Hunting Grounds to appreciate a good story...
Trait: Cognition
TN: 7
Speed: 12 hours
Appeasement Gained: 2 per Success and Raise
Ritual Items: Small tree trunk (required), carving tools (required), paint (optional), annointed paints (+1 dice)
Description
Now, Sigmund Freud may have his own theories on why certain Northwestern Indian tribes erected 12 foot high wooden poles with carvings of animals and spirits all over them but I prefer my own explanation. The Shaman of the tribe cuts down a large tree and works tirelessly to turn it into a Totem Pole (a carved effigy of animals and spirits, perhaps painted for show) in an effort to appease her spirits. The job is a strenuous one, for the shaman may not pause to rest or eat while carving the Totem and must make a Vigor(15), losing the difference in wind at the end of the ritual. Dropping to zero wind or going bust means she was unable to finish the Totem and collapses exhausted. Multiple Shamans may work on this Ritual (so long as they all know the Totem Ritual) the time taken to carve and erect the pole is divided by the number of Shamans working on it, the roll for appeasement is also averaged between the rolls made by any Shamans left standing at the end of the ordeal. The roll needed to succesfully pull off the Ritual is a Totem(7) against Deftness to see whether the Spirits are reasonably impressed the the Shaman's handywork .
A bonus of the Totem Pole is that any Dance, Chant, Star Gazing or Sacrifice Rituals performed below the Totem within the next 7 days will generate an extra 1 appeasement point to the Shaman. Performing the Totem Ritual again (i.e building another Totem) while the old one still has "power" (during the first week) will have a penalty of +2 to the TN of the Ritual roll as the Spirits prefer a steady flow of Totems rather than a dozen all at once
Trait: Knowledge
TN: Variable
Speed:Catch a creature, then burn for 6-12 hours
Appeasement Gained: 3 per success and raise
Ritual Items: Wild animal (required), anointed sacrificial knife/bow/spear (optional, +1 dice), bonfire (required)
Description
Years ago the Mexican Indians used to appease their gods with human sacrifice, by knife or sometimes by flame. Nowadays their methods are similar although not quite as barbaric. The Shaman must first hunt and kill a wild animal and then prepare a special bonfire on top of which she places the dead animal. The bonfire is lit and the carcass burns whole while the shaman sings songs of the Old ways. The appeasement is rewarded after the bonfire has died down, the time taken for this to happen depends on the size of the fire needed to burn the sacrifice - roughly 6-12 hours. During this time the shaman may also perform other Rituals, such as Dance or Fast as part of an Ordeal for extra appeasement, but if the roll for any of these Rituals goes bust then the Sacrifice ritual is also a failure, making it risky to perform the multiple rituals at once. The difficulty of the roll depends on the beast that is sacrificed...
If the Shaman used weapons not of the Old Ways (such as a rifle) to kill the sacrifice in the first place then the subsequent roll for appeasement has a -4 penalty. i.e. if the shaman kills a rabbit with a hunting rifle then her roll at TN 11 is at -4.
NB: The ritual will not work if certain creatures are sacrificed, such as Abominations or Humans, only evil spirits will be appeased in this way, nature spirits don't go for human sacrifice nowadays, and the thought of presenting them with a supernatural or unatural sacrifice is considered offensive
Trait: Spirit
TN: Variable
Speed:Variable
Appeasement Gained: 2 per success and raise
Ritual Items: Peyote (reqired), annointed pipe/bowl (optional, +1 dice), Bob Marley tunes (prefered)
Description
The Shaman will need the Peyote cactus drug and a pipe to smoke it with for this to work, or the drug can be in soup form, the term "Smoke" applies to any method of consuming the drug to feel its effects. The Shaman smokes, or drinks, the prepared peyote to achieve a higher state of consciousness to appease their Spirits, the difficulty of the roll depends on how long the Shaman is willing to be under the influence of the peyote. In roleplay terms the Shaman must smoke/drink the drug ceremonially for the alloted time given below:
The duration of the drug's effects depends on the quantity consumed, the Shaman must also make a Vigor check at the end of the session, with TN's given above, to see if the drug is just too much for them, a failure indicates the shaman is 3 sheets to the wind for at least an hour (under the rules for being drunk - Peyote is also a hallucinagenic which should make for some interesting side-effects), going bust means the Shaman passes out for D6 rounds, minutes, or hours, depending on how long the "session" was. Even if the Shaman passes his Vigor check he still suffers a -1 modifier to all actions for the next d6 rounds/minutes/hours while under influence! If you've ever seen the film "Young Guns" when Chavez picks some Peyote to get in touch with the Spirits and the gang all go nuts - ("You see the size o' that chicken!?"), then you know what Peyote does to a man...