Additional Sacrifice Rules

Grimoire of Cosmic Entities Volume One By Eli Atkinson, William Church and Serge W. Desir, Jr.
Original Concept by Serge W. Desir, Jr.

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The Book of Vile Darkness has rules for sacrifice as a means of gaining power (see from p.26). In that tome, the only types of sacrifice listed are those that involve the shedding of blood (killing) of a creature as a sign of devotion to an evil power.

Other types of sacrifice are also possible, depending on the nature of the Power being dealt with. For example, Amdusias advocates vile rites that mark a child his. Correct performance of such rites allow a servant of Amdusias to enter the Prime and steal the child away, leaving behind an unholy blessing on the invocant.

One of the most vile types of sacrifice is that espoused by Rosier, Duchess of Witchcraft. Her licentious rites involve the forceful stealing of virtue and innocence from the “sacrificial victims”, in nothing more than an aggrandized, celebratory excuse for rape.

In such a sacrifice (known as the Black Ritual), some of the Knowledge (religion) modifiers are no longer appropriate, and new modifiers must be introduced. Any element listed in the Book of Vile Darkness that hinges on the death of the victim should be removed or changed so that the focus is on allowing the victim to live on afterwards. Examples are given below, followed by new modifiers.

Note that at least three unwilling creatures must be involved in the Black Ritual. The witch conducting the rite may use either Knowledge
(religion) or Knowledge (nature) to determine the final check and the unholy blessings to follow (the modifiers in the table above can apply to either Knowledge (nature) or Knowledge (religion) at the invocant’s option). The check result should follow the results given in the Book of Vile Darkness where appropriate, except that where a single wish or miracle can be obtained, the nature of that reward allows the benefits shown under Rosier’s Black Ritual entry, save that the benefits are one degree worse (e.g. if the sacrificial victim is 6th to 10th level, the invocant gains the ability to cast Charm Person 1/day as a 5th level sorcerer, instead of suggestion 1/day and Charm Person 1/day as a 10th level sorcerer). Those forced to participate do not suffer Rites of the Flesh (see Rosier’s description), but do suffer sanity damage of 2d6/5d6, with any cases of insanity tending towards phobias or similar of a sexual nature. If you do not use sanity rules, the victim must instead make a Will save (DC = 10 + ½ Class levels + Charisma modifier) or suffer insanity as per the spell.

Black Ritual Sacrifice Modifiers
Sacrifice Element	Knowledge (religion) Modifier
Sacrifice is tortured for 1 day prior to ceremony	+1
Sacrifice is genuinely willing1	+0
Conducted in a phallic grove2	+2
More than 3 couples involved	+1
More than 9 couples involved3	+2 (overlaps with 3 couples benefit)
1 Willing creatures do not count towards the “sacrifice” requirement of the Black Ritual 2 A phallic grove is a desecrated area with an abundance of obscene, licentious fertility symbols. 3 Note that this benefit overlaps and does not stack with the three couples benefit.