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Order of Hermes: Weavers of Odyllic Magicks
This is only a Test
(AKA: Hell week)
Entropy 5, Mind 3, Prime 2, time 4
The Order of Hermes are renowned for their illustrious history, talented members, and patience in all things arcane, relating to the training and care of initiates. This rote is proof positive of this supposed litany of virtues. It was devised back in the High Mythic Age, by a mentor not long for this realm of existence (adding Bani Flambeau to one's name was a sign of a death wish in that time, and his of 'bani Fortunae' didn't do much to extend his own life span) with a host of students vying for his attentions. This rote, useful to keep them at a state of readiness at all times, was his only achievement of note accomplished in his short, violent life. By invoking the probabilities of randomized, intense bursts of worry, anguish, and Enlightenment, the initiates were never for a lack of something to do: recovering from one encounter only sped up the process of encountering the next. They called the first seven days "Hell Week", in homage of the military tradition of the same name. It was only after the eighth day they realized that it wasn't going to stop anytime soon. His students never knew when they would be tested, or even what forms it would take next. As the record shows, it never did appear the same way twice, or for the same duration, and of the original ten initiates, only three went on to full-time membership. These three are currently unsuccessfully leading a faction to have this rote removed from the Order's curriculum. It's effects were simple, but dramatic in their implications: even years after the mentor's death, the students learned from him, even if the lesson came at great cost. They became accustomed to having their possessions stolen, being incarcerated for up to five weeks, or, in one case, being captured by the then-forming Order of Reason (the only things lost were a few hours of time, and the life of a Reason acolyte). Their mentor's good graces were codified as an official Mentorship rote thirty years after his death, and the posthumous award for his work disappeared during the ceremony, never to be found. The only sign it might have been taken somehow by it's recipient, was a scrawled sigil of thankfulness appearing.. one for every member's sleeve, totaling eight-five. No one, to this era, knows how it was accomplished, only that the name of Traspetti bani Fonrtunae would be forever remembered as the only one to outsmart Porthos himself from beyond the grave.To this day, Porthos has yet to remove the sigil, and tells the tale, smiling faintly, recalling his trials and tribulations under his Entropy-intensive third Mentor, "Uncle" Traspetti bani Fortunae. Go ahead. Ask Porthos about him.
:Game system:
Get disturbed. Get weird. Be unpredictable. Think of *every* rotten thing you can do to a player, and then ask a non-Mage player what the worst of them is, and expound on it. Keep it non-lethal to PCs but fun nonetheless. Mentors seldom kill a good student on purpose. Then again, if he's NOT a good one...
And remember:
This is Only a Test.
Hermetic
Justice
(AKA:
Flambeau's slowkiller)
Forces
3+, Prime 2, life 3
This is one of the more insidious ways to kill
devised by the Orders stable of "Tac Nukes"; left to their own devices,
they can get worse, unless reigned in by House Quaesitor. This rote releases
trace amounts of radiation into a victim, slowly giving him cancer (multiple
varieties, no less), tumorous growths, and all manners of associated disorders.
Validated by the presence of heavy electrical ectivites, "cancer clusters",
nuclear power plant leaks, and the unpredictability of cancer-causing substances,
this rote is tragically coincidental in most technologically-attuned areas,
such as suburbs, rural areas near hydroelectric dams, and polluted waterways.
First stage is atypically a warning, to either have the victim change in
some way ("Stop selling drugs, or you'll hurt..."), followed by a feeling
of intense nausea, muscle cramps, and a total rad count of fifty to one
hundred above normal. The following steps are progressively worse, and
the effects best left to the storyteller's discretion. Some of the worst
effects, however, are in the mutations formed by genetic damage in their
offspring. They are the real sufferers here; innocent, unwittingly involved,
and irreversibly damaged for the crimes of their parent(s). The Flambeau,
when presented with this evidence, dismiss it with a teary eye.
Chill
of the Windsaber
(AKA:
The Tremere betrayal rote/ritual)
Correspondence
3, Force 3, spirit 3, prime 3
