View source for Now its Sight is Ours

[[Level 1.]]

This ritual creates a scrying device which can be used to observe enemies and events from safety; Paul Cordwood devised it for his use and that of his spies.  The ritual requires a three-inch, golden pin, a length of wire, a small golden claw cast in the shape of a rooster's foot, some of the caster's vitae, and a human victim with at least one healthy eye.  As the ritual begins, the victim is on her knees, bound, gagged and blindfolded.  The ritualist (or an assistant; usually two helpers are required to restrain the victim during the stage to follow) removes the victim's blindfold and shines a bright light into his face.  Using a caliper, the vampire plucks out the desired eye, taking care not to unduly damage it.  While assistants remove the victim, the ritualist speaks a series of incantations and pierces the eye with a pin.  He attaches the pin to the wire and the wire to the claw, draws the eye through the smoke of several censers as a preservative measure and then dips it in a pool of his own vitae that rests in a golden bowl inscribed with the image of Thoth, Egyptian god of knowledge.  The vitae is then drawn off, placed in a solution of preservative salts and essences and saved.

The device can now be placed in any location the vampire wishes to survey from a distance.  The claw is used to secure it to a surface.  Needless to say, it must be well-hidden from observant targets.

To see through the eye of the device, the user (who must be a vampire, but needn't be the original ritualist) ingests the vitae potion.  The device takes over his visual perceptions; instead of what stands before him, he sees what the device sees.

'''System''':  The ritualist must spend at least 3 blood points in making the vitae potion but is not limited to that quantity.  Each point yields four doses of the potion.

Using the device requires no roll, unless the user is fed the prepared blood unwillingly.  In that case she may roll Willpower against a difficulty of 9 to resist the vision.  The image flooding the user's vision is flat; a single eye yields no perception of depth.  It is purely visual, conveying no sounds, smells or other sensory information.  The user may vary the duration of the vision by altering the quantity of the vitae potion she drinks. It lasts ten minutes for every dose consumed.  The potion does not also nourish the drinker; it can't be used to increase her blood pool.

The eye remains potent until destroyed but is useless without the correct potion of blood.  The original thaumaturge and ''only'' the original thaumaturge, can perform a new ritual using an existing eye (and no new victims) to gain further doses of blood.  Each time this is done to a single eye, the ritual difficulty rises by 2.