Page 140 - Chronicles of Darkness

Research

Most deliberate interactions with entities — summoning,
exorcising, and abjuration — rely on having as much knowl- Esoteric Armory (• to •••••)
edge of the entity in question as the mortal can get. Research Effect: Your character is the go-to guy when one
rolls to determine bans and banes are handled as extended needs a knife carved from the bone of a martyred
Intelligence + Occult rolls for the most part, but many entities saint, a hawthorn stake, rock salt shotgun shells,
are protected by deliberate secrecy, obscurity, or don’t take the powdered remains of cremated suicides or any
much interest in human affairs so haven’t had their details number of other things. No matter how strange
recorded. The target number of successes for a research roll the need, you’ve got it covered. After successfully
is determined by the entity’s type and Rank, as follows: researching an ephemeral entity’s Bane, compare
your dots in this Merit to the entity’s Rank. If the
Rank Successes merit is equal to or greater than its Rank, you’ve got
what you need in your Armory. You should decide
1 5 along with your Storyteller where the Armory is,
2 7 though; a one-dot Esoteric Armory can fit in a large
3 10 bag, but a four- or five-dot one will fill a house.
4 14
5 20
A summoning is made up of several research actions
Researching a ghost reduces the target number of suc- (Intelligence + Occult rolls, with bonuses and penalties
cesses by two, while researching an angel increases it by for access to proper literature) to narrow down the require-
four. Reaching the target number reveals the entity’s ban ments for the rest of the rites. The remaining actions serve
or bane, while an exceptional success reveals both. Partial as alternate ways to cause the Influence Conditions in the
successes should reveal increasing information about the desired location.
entity, as the character learns more about their nature, By acquiring a ghost’s bones, or researching his Anchor
habits, and history. and using it in the rite, the summoner sets up the Anchor
Resourceful investigators find other ways to learn the weak- Condition. By burning rare materials, the area is made
nesses of an ephemeral foe, though. Many entities are willing to Resonant with a fire spirit. By gathering people who can
sell out their fellows’ secrets in exchange for something. Many see the gears and following the God-Machine’s instructions,
bans are also rather obvious, especially for low-Rank entities, Infrastructure begins to build. Using the fruits of their re-
and a mortal might simply try to use the right thing by chance. searches, the Cultists customize Conditions for their intended
Contact guest, advancing the Condition to Open… and allowing it
to Manifest. Summoning rituals involving bringing an entity
Faced with a haunting, or what appears to be a haunting, forth from another world must include a step where the gate-
many occult investigators’ first course of action is to attempt way is opened — summonings for spirits must be performed
to make contact with the entity involved. Unless the entity in locii, and those for ghosts near a gate to the Underworld.
actually has the Image or Materialize Manifestations, or the These are even more difficult to pull off and are apt to be
Signs Numen, this is a slow process of trial, error, and research interrupted by meddling investigators, but are the only way
that takes up several actions, each roll relating to one tested to allow truly powerful entities access to the world.
attempt to understand what the entity wants. Supernatural Occult literature is full of proposed ways to control sum-
equipment can help the character in his endeavor. moned entities. These usually consist of banes and bans,
Some mortals, however, are true mediums, able to make which the summoner can use as leverage. Some spirits really
it easier for an entity to contact them. Doing so opens them are bound via their bans to serve mortals that raise them in
up to the risk of being used for the entity’s own ends; see the the correct manner, while others will Blast anyone presump-
Medium Merit on p. 57. tuous enough to try.
Exorcism is the opposite of summoning, but works in
Summoning and Exorcism exactly the same way — a series of actions that interact with
the Conditions an entity is relying on to Manifest or feed.
For a solitary occultist attempting to force a ghost to The classic image of an exorcism, priests sealing themselves
appear, or a shaman inviting a spirit to Influence an area, into a room with a possessed victim to drive the entity out
occult libraries are filled with summoning rites. None of with prayer, confrontation, and willpower, is a combination of
them, strictly speaking, actually work, in that without super- exorcism to chip away at the entity’s conditions, bindings and
natural power it’s impossible to compel an ephemeral entity wards to keep it from escaping or summoning aid, abjurations
to appear, but the rituals and practices of a summoning can to provide a spiritual kick, and the use of as many banes and
often, by accident or design, create the Conditions an entity bans as the exorcist has been able to research.
would need to appear if it were so inclined.

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