Quinta Purgatio Elementorum

Level 3 - Storyline Rituals

Description: The English translation of this ritual's title is 'Cleansing of the Five Elements', though older and more traditional mages of House Tremere prefer its original Latin title as a remembrance of nights long past. The origin of this ritual seems to date from the early nights of the Warlock Clan and may even predate the existence of Clan Tremere. The purpose of the ritual is fairly strait forward, it serves as a means to erase the residue of thaumaturgic rituals. The ritual calls upon the classic five elements of Hermetic tradition: air, earth, fire, spirit and water. By its very nature, this ritual is self eradicating, only rituals of a higher level can hope to reveal residue of its use or any ritual residue removed with it. To this night, it remains a Tremere Clan secret and anyone not of Clan Tremere caught using it would surely face the reprisal of the entire Warlock Clan.
Origin: The origin of this ritual remains unknown, but it may very well precede the rise of Clan Tremere.
Ingredients: Incense (Air) / Sand (Earth) / Candles (Fire) / Willpower (Spirit) / Water (Water)
Casting: The thaumaturge chants a invocation of the five classic elements as he draws a pentagram over the area to be affected. Then he stands within it and lights five candles for the element of fire. From the candles he lights five different sticks of incense and invokes the element of air by blowing on each stick towards one of the five sides of the pentagram. Then he invokes the element of water by shaking a aspergillum (a liturgical implement used to sprinkle holy water) in each of the pentagrams five directions. The fourth step is the invocation of earth, which entails the throwing of sand in each of the five directions. Finally, the thaumaturge invokes spirit by kneeling each of the five directions and expending a temporary point of willpower.
System: The player rolls Intelligence + Rituals at a difficulty of six (6) and the ritual takes fifteen (15) minutes to cast. If the caster botches the ritual, the residue becomes permanent for one season per botch. If the caster fails the casting of the ritual, then he wastes fifteen minutes and valuable ritual components, but may otherwise cast the ritual again with the appropriate increase for casting difficulty due to repetition. If successful, each success scrubs the residue of a previous ritual's successes. Ritual difficulty may vary based on the level of the ritual to be scrubbed. So, if a ritual to be scrubbed is a level higher than the 'Purgatio', the difficulty modifier is +1 higher; should the ritual to be scrubbed be a level lower, then the difficulty modifier is -1 to the roll, making it that much easier. Despite the assertions of the Tremere hierarchy, this ritual can be defeated by other forms of divination or meta-magic, but the same formula applies to those magics in their attempt to scrounge residue scrubbed by this ritual.
Reference: There are no references to a path or ritual with a similar capacity in thaumaturgic canon, but necromancy is another matter.
Notes: This ritual was used to scrub those sites where the Tremere Justicar Anastaz di Zagreb carried out thaumaturgic investigations in the Spring of 2013. Both Madame Mina and Prince O'Reilly have used the meta-magic ritual called 'Full Analysis' to attempt to scrounge enough residue to successfully learn the Justicar's secret techniques. But it remains to be seen if they amassed enough successes to scrounge Anastaz di Zagreb's rites. (Yes, this means you must roll out your successes in front of your storyteller to determine if you actually learned the Tremere's secrets.)