Ageless Banquet
The Handler’s Guide mentions versions of the ritual that involve drinking blood instead of eating flesh. Maybe this variant costs 20 HP from the operator and a human sacrifice. Exsanguination is messy and costs 0/1D4 SAN from violence unless the operator has Medicine or Surgery and can do it cleanly. This is in addition to the SAN loss from murder. Some operators use one unlucky sacrifice rich in hit points, bleeding them and letting them recover over and over again each year.
Alternate Names: Consume Strength, Immortality, The Vampire’s Sacrament
The Call of Dagon
The ritual’s cost can be paid with HP as the operator carves glyphs normally inscribed on a clay tablet into flesh instead. This engenders more trust in the Deep Ones; any Delta Green agent crazed enough to do this won’t be as hellbent on fishy genocide as the rest of their organization. With a human sacrifice, the operator might even siphon off enough of the dying victim’s POW to control the Deep Ones like with a regular summoning ritual or at least compel them to respond to the summons. Other versions of the ritual may instead involve standing at least ankle-deep in saltwater and chanting an inhuman melody.
Alternate Names: Blood Sacrifice of Hydra, Pact with the Frogge, Song of the Deep
Call Forth Those From Outside
This ritual doesn’t get a writeup. It’s an indefinite amount of rituals in one and I’d have to write flavor text for summoning every different entity to do it justice. Plus, it’s a ‘build-it-yourself’ ritual anyway and gives the Handler suggestions for unique costs for each version.
Call Zombies
Some versions let the operator prolong the ritual’s effects by spending 1 WP for each extra hour. The Scandinavian version of this ritual involves planting a candle inside a dead thing that has been under the ground for at least one day. It rapidly decays, fueling the flame in place of the candle wax. It burns for an hour, spewing rotten smoke that attracts zombies. Other versions of the ritual attract not just zombies, but anything that blurs the boundaries between life and death.
Alternate Names: Corpse Beacon, Parliament of the Dead, Summon Zombies
Changeling Feast
The operator may pay part of the WP cost when they consume the body and the rest when they assume the disguise. The latter cost is reduced, as it must be paid repeatedly. Eg: 6 WP and 1D4 SAN during cannibalism and 1D4 WP (or 1 SAN if they have any) every time they ‘change shape.’ Maybe it takes anywhere from a turn to a minute to assume someone else’s form and taking damage disrupts the illusion. A successful Ritual Activation roll could enact a speedy change. Unnatural entities always transform quickly. Some versions ‘only’ involve skinning and tanning the victim’s corpse (1/1D4 SAN from violence) to make a cloak or belt that disguises its wearer. It can’t be disrupted but isn’t as easily put on and taken off as the traditional glamour.
Alternate Names: Consume Semblance, Deathly Glamour, Yig’s Deception
Charnel Meditation
Some versions of this ritual involve prayers to a death-god often revered by ghouls known as ‘The Hunger.’ These cost 1 POW and 2 WP as the operator comes in contact with a Great Old One (and garners respect from any ghouls who show up). Others allow the operator to use a sacrifice’s WP to pay the ritual’s costs. Unlike Changeling Feast, the operator doesn’t have to cannibalize the entire body, so the act only costs 1/1D4 SAN from violence, in addition to SAN tests for murder (or maiming, if they only chop off a part to eat or take a few big bites). If your ghouls run with a more vampiric style, maybe blood-drinking is required, not eating flesh.
Alternate Names: Beseech the Servants of The Hunger, Call of the Moon, Graveyard Council
Clairvoyance
Some versions of this ritual allow the operator to pay the costs with their own HP or that of an assistant or human sacrifice. Blood is mixed with water or other liquids in a scrying bowl. Other versions come from haruspex traditions and require animal sacrifice. These versions can’t use all the creature’s HP, only a percentage equal to the highest of the operator’s Occult, Surgery, and Survival skills. Fractions are rounded to the nearest hit point, rounding up at ½ and above. The operator loses 1 SAN for each minute they spend examining the animal’s entrails. (common sacrifices: cat: 4 HP, cattle: 25 HP, goat: 9 HP, pig: 10 HP, pigeon: 1 HP, rooster: 2 HP)
Alternate Names: Augury, Remote Viewing, Visions of the Mind’s Eye
The Closing of the Breach
I won’t be covering this one for the same reasons I skipped over Call Forth Those From Outside.
Consciousness Expansion
This spell basically just exists for flavor, so I’m ignoring it. It’s also so highly specific in the Delta Green universe that it doesn’t make sense for there to be alternate versions. That, and because it basically kills the operator, it doesn’t even have any activation costs.
Create Stone Gate
Less flawed versions of this ritual exist. These only require 1 POW from the operator, the remaining cost being 190 WP. However, every assistant who attempts to contribute their own WP must succeed on a Ritual Activation roll or be forced to pay some part of their share in POW. These versions also require an Art or Craft skill of 60% or better. Maybe travelers pass through the gate by walking across the arch like a bridge. Maybe the gate is a set of pillars that you walk around in a winding path until you arrive somewhere else (these gates are always open, but can only be passed through by those who know the Create Stone Gate or Open Gate ritual).
Alternate Names: Bridge of the Wizard, Journeying Stone, Traveler’s Archway
The Dho-Hna Formula
Some scholars of the unnatural split this ritual in two: the Dho Equation and the Hna Solution. The former allows the operator to view distant locales, while the latter (and harder to find) allows them to transport themselves there. The separate portions only cost 15 WP and 1D8 SAN and usually come ‘pre-solved,’ only accessing a specific time or place on earth.
Alternate Names: Attune Oneself to the Polar Cities, Dhorian Chant of Farsight, Transposition
Dust of the Thresholds
Maybe the ritual allows the operator to share the WP cost with assistants who also know the ritual. Maybe the 135 WP cost can be expended over any amount of time, each day of work only costing 1 SAN on a fumbled SAN test. Maybe the costs can be paid with HP (using animal blood makes it a flawed ritual). Maybe the ritual produces a paste or unguent instead, used to coat weapons (Luck roll after each hit to see if there’s still enough of the dose left to cause harm).
Alternate Names: Banish the Unclean, Curse-dust of the Pharaohs, Purging Lifeblood
OPINT: Ritual Costs
Dust of the Thresholds is a weird ritual. It costs less than the Ritual Details chart (HG pg. 168) would suggest for its effects, and the operator theoretically pays the cost before making the Ritual Activation roll. The ritual is also more costly than it seems, as it drains WP faster than sleep can replenish it. At a certain point, the operator has to start burning permanent POW. Even Joseph Camp, one of Delta Green’s most accomplished users of hypergeometry, would probably lose 7 POW completing the ritual, despite his 17 POW and highly applicable motivation: weaponize the mysteries beyond the stars. In summary, the ritual’s costs feel like a mechanical oversight, especially in comparison to those of similar rituals like The Powder of Ibn-Ghazi. In my home games, the number of doses created depends on how many willpower points the operator can spend over the course of fifteen days. One dose for 27 WP, 1D4 doses for 68 WP, and 2D4 doses for 135 WP. The ritual costs 1 SAN per dose created at the end. If the operator is in a hurry, they can make the Ritual Activation roll at a -20% penalty before the 15 days are over.
THE ELDER SIGN
Gesture in the Air
Maybe the ritual costs HP instead of WP, as the operator’s hand twists in and out of an unnatural shape. It would certainly explain why activating the ritual costs SAN from both the operator and any observers. If it costs a point of HP and WP each, failed Ritual Activation rolls only cost 1 WP from the strain of trying to move one’s hand in an impossible direction. Maybe the effect lasts 1D12 or 1D10+2 turns; similar average duration as 2D6 but with a different distribution. Maybe it lasts indefinitely but has a (25 – POW)% chance of ending each turn.
Alternate Names: The Forbidding Hand, The High Court’s Salute, Sign of the Dead
Permanent Inscription
The easiest way to change this one up is with the shape. There’s the classic star and branch, but maybe it’s a swastika like suggested in The Shadow Over Innsmouth, only with five arms. Maybe the cost is paid with STR and CON as the operator pours sacrifice after sacrifice of their own blood into the grooves of the sigil. Craft (Electronics) could create the sign out of electric arcs, able to be turned on and off; versatility at the cost of fragility. Craft (Architecture or Carpentry) could work it into the designs of a house (with an extra point of POW or two) or chest, creating a cage. Rather than draining POW, it traps beings from Outside and prevents other ones from entering so long as all exits are sealed shut. Mundane external help is needed to break the sigil.
Alternate Names: Quintet of Wisdom, Seal of the Old Ones, Yggdrasil’s Omen
Most Potent Engraving
Some versions of the ritual include invocations to Nodens, lord of the hunt, allowing part of the cost to be paid by the POW of an unnatural entity, provided the operator and their assistants caught and/or killed it themselves. Others involve pouring blood over the sign, allowing the operator (and any assistants who know the ritual) to sacrifice points of STR and CON instead. Though, one point of permanent POW must always be contributed by each participant. Some versions only require 25 points of POW, but only prevent Outsiders from coming within 50 meters of the sign and only drain WP and cancel out rituals within a 5 km meter radius.
Alternate Names: Beacon of the Cruel Empire, The Eye of Day and Night, Hunter’s Mark
Elixir of Infinite Space
Different versions of the ritual have different brewing times, though one dose always costs 18 WP in total and 1 SAN. Some recipes take less time but are exhausting, costing 9 or 18 WP per day. Slower ones costing 1-2 WP per day are ill-suited for last-minute prep but let the operator easily brew multiple doses at once. Maybe paying the costs with permanent POW means the elixir doesn’t drain WP from the drinker. Maybe it’s a paste, rubbed into the skin. Maybe the ritual produces a calcified lozenge whose effects last a fixed amount of hours (eg: 1 hour for every 3 INT the operator has) rather than draining WP, but it can be spat out and saved for later.
Alternate Names: Bezoar of the Void, Sky Wine, Traveler’s Balm
Exaltation of the Flesh
Some versions allow the operator to pay the costs with human sacrifice. The operator uses the victim’s blood to paint invocations to Shub-Niggurath and Yog-Sothoth on their body, reducing the WP cost by one for each HP inflicted in the sacrifice, to a minimum of 1. Those who survive suffer the same SAN loss as the operator, just from helplessness. Some Catholic traditions allow the operator to reduce the WP cost by two points (to a minimum of 1) for every single point of damage inflicted upon themselves as they embed bread1 under their skin. Other versions invoke Y’golonac and cover the operator with protective oil-filled layers of fat. Armor from more potent versions only decreases if an attack fails to penetrate it or a Lethality roll would have succeeded.
Alternate Names: The All-Father/All-Mother’s Guidance, Blood Shield, Preparest thy Body
Exchange Personalities
Some versions of this ritual require complex hypergeometric equipment. Maybe it’s a two foot tall mix of rods, wheels, and mirrors. Maybe it’s an unholy cross between a dental X-ray machine and a medieval faraday cage. The ritual cannot be performed without these devices, but the activation rolls get a +20% bonus (or +40% for machines constructed by unnatural entities). The ritual might cost 2 WP and 2 HP as the operator’s brain hemorrhages from effort. The cost of 24-hour or longer exchanges could be paid with INT or CHA, not just POW. Versions found in texts that teach Fascination and Obscure Memory can paralyze the target during temporary exchanges or stop them from remembering anything they hear or see by adding +6 WP to the ritual’s cost. The latter only costs the target SAN if they fail a SAN test (turn-long exchanges only cost 0/1 SAN). Some versions allow the operator to skip to the longer durations, taking a -10% penalty for each prior exchange bypassed. The operator only pays the cost of the exchange they’re skipping to, but a permanent swap always requires the full cumulative POW cost.
Alternate Names: Mental Transference, Possession, The Swapping Rite of the Ythe
Exorcism
In my games, I treat Exorcism as a generalized form of The Closing of the Breach. I also run Exorcism’s costs a bit differently, as the description in the Handler’s Guide seems a contradictory typo. Here’s how I rule it: the operator and any assistants or sacrifices must spend WP equal to the possessing entity’s current WP. The SAN cost corresponds to the closest WP cost to half the entity’s POW2. Unlike The Closing of the Breach, which must be studied for every different unnatural instance, you only need to learn Exorcism once. To compensate, it has two drawbacks: it usually costs more to banish something with an exorcism than The Closing of the Breach and it only works against ‘possession.’ Though I encourage Handlers to be creative about what constitutes possession. It could include anything from protomatter hiding inside a human body to a hypnotic link between a cultist and their Yithian masters. While most variants of Exorcism resemble traditional ‘magic,’ MJ-12 and the OUTLOOK group have discovered more scientific-looking alternatives, involving electromagnetic stimulation and chemical injections.
Alternate Names: ARCHINT Procedure 63-Q, Dispel the White Children, Eject Invading Soul
Fascination
Does the operator recite a string of trigger words or sing a nonsensical lullaby verse? Maybe they whistle an eerie note or tune instead of speaking. Maybe the ritual can work over the phone so long as the conversation is calm. Maybe the operator can bleed themselves for 1D4 HP to pay the cost and only have to get some of their blood on the target instead of speaking to them. This requires an attack roll to touch them in combat or a DEX test to splash them with it. Maybe the regular version of the ritual ritual can work in combat, but the operator has to succeed on a POW test or their target has to fail one, whichever is less likely. Maybe the operator has to spend 1 WP before making the opposed POW roll but only pays the ritual’s cost afterwards if they win the contest. Maybe failed POW tests can be forced just like activation rolls. More powerful versions of the ritual cloud the target’s mind with hypergeometry after they wake from their stupor, imposing a -20% penalty to all actions for the next hour. Some even more powerful versions still inflict a -10% penalty on the target even if they beat the operator in the opposed POW contest.
Alternate Names: Drown the Mind, Nervous Cascade, Smother Senses
Finding
Some versions of the ritual place an arrow or other projectile in a circle of rope woven from feathers and human hair. Successful activation rolls send the arrow flying into the sky and towards the operator’s quarry. It either plunges down when it reaches its target, or hits an invisible ‘barrier’ 100 meters out and falls out of the sky. For the next 3D6 minutes, the operator can send the arrow back up again to search, they just need to spend a minute setting it up in another rope circle and make another activation roll. If successful, the operator pays a reduced cost of 2 WP. Other versions of the ritual use makeshift compasses to guide the operator, or cargo cult devices that couldn’t even point north if they weren’t imbued with hypergeometry. Some variants require the use of a dowsing rod. Maybe the ritual opts for ‘overkill’ and invokes Daoloth, the render of veils, raising the cost to 1 POW. However, it automatically finds anything within 100 meters if the operator knows of it, and gives them a direction and a vision of its location if it’s outside that radius. Some versions substitute Saint Anthony or the Greco-Roman deities Janus and Hecate for Yog-Sothoth and Tsathoggua respectively in the chants.
Alternate Names: Dowsing, Locate Thy Heart’s Desire, Seek the Lost
The First Secret
Like Consciousness Expansion, this ritual is too specific to write variants for. It only appears in The Revelations of Glaaki and only two canon NPCs know it: Robert Hubert/Belial, famous Glaaki cultist, and Emil Furst, famed Glaaki cultist-hater. I suppose the operator might use a human sacrifice, impaling them or drowning them in a lake, to pay the ritual’s WP cost as they fall deeper into the deception that they’re contacting “the sleeper, bane to the horned god Gla’ak” and become more willing to ignore evidence to the contrary.
Healing Balm
Maybe the healing process needs a jumpstart with part of the operator’s life-force; the ritual costs 5 WP and 1 HP instead of 6 WP. If the operator uses this version to heal themselves, it costs 3 WP and 1 SAN but only restores 1D6 HP. Maybe the ritual causes a literal balm to congeal out of thin air that can be saved and applied later to heal wounds. In some variations on the ritual, the operator produces the ‘balm’ (a thick milk) through spontaneous lactation, no matter their sex. Other versions imbue liquids (that are then drunk) with healing powers, or invoke other gods such as Azathoth (the maelstrom of creation), Nodens (to let the subject continue the great hunt), or Tsathoggua (she who taught the K’n-Yani to change their bodies at the whims of thought).
Alternate Names: The Creator’s Verse, Reshape Flesh, Wine of the Huntsman
OPINT: Paying the Costs in Advance
Agents can choose Study the Unnatural as a Home scene to stockpile healing balms and make a Ritual Activation roll. Failure costs 1 SAN, 1D4 SAN for success, and 4 SAN for a crit. Each point of SAN loss (before projection) yields one healing balm for every Bond point the Home scene cost. Fumbled activation rolls don’t produce anything. Instead, they increase the operator’s Unnatural by one point, plus another for every Bond point lost as they’re overwhelmed with visions of Shub-Niggurath. One ‘dose’ of healing balm fits in a juice-box. Drinking it or pouring it over a wound activates the ritual’s effects. All witnesses lose 0/1 SAN from unnatural.
Immortal Messenger
Countless variations on this ritual exist, one for every culture or philosophy that had its own idea of what Nyarlathotep was. Some require the operator to meditate on the form of the shining trapezohedron or tri-lobed eye instead of chanting. Others invite the crawling chaos into the self as a cancer of the body or mind, costing a point of CON or INT instead of POW. It’s mostly the witch-cult traditions that allow the operator to use an unwilling human sacrifice to pay the cost. Some versions turn an unlucky assistant or sacrifice into an avatar of Nyarlathotep that eventually self-destructs. With others, the Mighty Messenger merely possesses an assistant, usually with some unnerving cosmetic changes that mostly go away after the possession ends.
Alternate Names: Call Spiralling Worm, Dance with the Devil, Unearth the Crawling Chaos
Infallible Suggestion
Some versions allow the operator to reattempt the POW contest on following turns, though this makes each failed attempt cost 1D4 WP (or 1 SAN if they have any). Other versions of the ritual always cost 1 POW, but grant the operator a +20% bonus to their opposed POW test. One version claims to use ‘primal resonances’ to tap into a series of hypnotic commands instilled into all life by ‘the Elders.’ It costs at least 1 HP from the operator as alien noises run their throats raw and bleed their gums, but the WP cost is lowered by two for every hit point used to pay the cost. Maybe this version works even without a common language (if the ritual didn’t already).
Alternate Names: Domination, Edict of the Wizard, Impose Thy Will, Silvertongue
Leaves of Time
Some recipes, whether written by deluded alchemists or desperate psychonauts without access to Liao, are simply mixtures of common hallucinogens and toxic chemicals. In a way that only makes sense to those with low SAN and high Unnatural, these potions work just as well as Liao. Unfortunately, they tax the body instead of the mind, inflicting 1D4 damage instead of costing 1D4 WP. The ‘upside’ is that if unnatural entities attempt to use the operator’s mind to break through into our world, the operator has a stroke (5% Lethality poison), severing the connection.
Alternate Names: Brew Plutonian Drug, Read Leaves of the Lotus, Elixir of Time and Space
Lure the Hungerer
Some variants of the ritual require all 9 points of the cost to be paid in HP. The reduced cost of a failed Ritual Activation roll means the operator can sense the ‘hungerer’ has lost interest after the ‘letting’ of 5 HP of blood. A fumble means the victim bleeds out (or all nine hit points are extracted if the sacrifice is fairly hardy or the cost is being split between the operator and an assistant). The summoners must chant the binding ritual quickly and forcefully, because the dimensional shambler immediately begins feasting on one of the bleeders. If they fail the POW test to control it but spend a point of permanent POW, it tears itself away, inflicting 1 damage.
Alternate Names: Call up Demon, The Thing That Lurks Between Spaces, Unseen Abductor
Meditation Upon the Favored Ones
Some traditions involve trepanation and can be traced back to the neolithic or earlier. Rather than “letting the evil spirits out,” they welcome the ‘star people’ in. These versions cost 1 permanent point of INT or POW. Sometimes the Mi-Go see fit to miraculously repair their summoner’s newfound skull-holes. There’s also a flawed version of the ritual where the operator pours 9 HP of blood and/or guts from an animal sacrifice into the brainpan of a horizontally bisected skull. The penalty to the Ritual Activation roll is only -10% if it’s taken from a human sacrifice or an assistant. Unnatural scholars claim the imagery attracts the winged ones, as it resembles an exposed brain before the Mi-Go take it on a sightseeing tour through outer space.
Alternate Names: Beseech the Nobles of Faerie, Melody of the Sky People, Reach for Yuggoth
Mountain and Sea
Certain versions of the ritual instruct the operator to spill their blood on the rocks or into the water. Some, if not all of the cost must be paid in HP. These rituals are usually intended for hungrier entities associated with Tsathoggua and Nyogtha, or crueler ones, like the Lloigor. Paying the cost with human or animal sacrifices can be less effective. The Handler decides if there’s a -10% or -20% penalty (for human or animal blood respectively) to the activation roll or it automatically fails and must be forced. Other versions contact enormous worm-like beasts who tunnel through the underworld and whose squid-like tentacles recoil from the touch of water.
Alternate Names: Chthonic Communion, Dreams from Below, Plumb the Depths
Obscure Memory
Some versions use 3 hit points of blood from the operator and/or an assistant to create a potion that automatically clears the target’s memory if drunk. However, the victim can roll INT or POW to recall details if confronted with evidence of what they forgot. Other times, the operator phases their hand into the target’s head and plucks out a crumbling crystal or a wisp of brain. If the POW vs POW contest fails, their fingers (or claws, tentacles, etc.) bounce off the target’s skull.
Alternate Names: Cloud the Mind, Oblivion, Quell Suspicion
Open Gate
A variant of this ritual costs 1 hit point. The spilled drops of blood ooze and encircle the portal’s circumference before filling it in with a reddish mist. Others require rhythmic chants and dancing instead of meditation upon an impossible angle. Sometimes the ritual allows operators to spend more WP (or HP) to keep the gate open for longer. Maybe assistants can pay the cost, attached to the gate with jumper cables or tied to it with silk sashes. Their bioenergy flows down the lines, sparking. If an unwilling sacrifice is used, the operator must beat them in an opposed POW test to drain more than a single point of willpower to use in the ritual.
Alternate Names: Grant Me Passage, Reveal the Path, Unbar the Many-Angled Door
One Who Passes the Gateways
The ritual might let the operator travel our realm as a spirit, only visible to dogs and sensitive souls. One version requires eleven circles and esoteric but mundane ingredients to be mixed with the phosphorus. It taps into a greater power to preserve the link between the operator’s spirit and body, though the insulating nature of this protective force slowly warps their personality. This either permanently lowers their CHA score by one, or requires a CHAx5 test for each Bond (including Delta Green Bonds) or else they lose 1D4 points from it.
Alternate Names: Astral Projection, Journey to Sharnoth, Pass Through the Abysses of Space
Pentagram of Power
Some versions of the ritual require the operator to carve the occult diagram into a stone or wooden slab or etch it into a metal plate. This greater degree of permanence requires greater sacrifice; the ritual costs 1 POW (or 20 HP from sacrifices) and 2 WP. Maybe the ritual only accepts the operator’s HP as a WP substitute. If the Handler doesn’t think this counts as a human sacrifice, it should at least provide more than a +20% bonus, like +INTx2%, +30%, or even INT+20%. Some western grimoires claim you can pass off a goat as a human sacrifice if you baptize it in pig’s blood. Others purport to prevent summoned creatures from crossing the boundaries of the pentagram. The veracity of these claims is up to the Handler, though the latter is more likely if human sacrifice is involved or the operator spends POW to activate the ritual or pay the costs. Some rituals have an activation time of days, as the operator buries the sacrifice and waits for a circle of mushrooms or flowers to sprout.
Alternate Names: Conjurer’s Circle, Enjoin Pnakotic Pentacle, Wall of Blood and Will
Petrification
The Book of Eibon was translated many times. The recipe in some versions may be corrupted, only costing 20 WP and 1D10 SAN but with a Lethality rating of 20%. A Home scene used to Study the Unnatural may be enough to reverse-engineer the original instructions. Some versions of the ritual heavily focus on the invocations to Tsathoggua and Shub-Niggurath. Their hunger may be fed with blood, using the operator’s own HP or that of human sacrifices to pay part of the WP cost. Animal blood imposes a -20% penalty to the Ritual Activation roll or allows victims of the petrifying solution to roll CONx5 as if it were a poison. Success halves the HP damage and the Lethality rating. A critical success means 3% Lethality (or 1 HP damage if the Lethality roll fails). Some versions are purely alchemical, omitting any mention of alien gods. These cost less SAN (anywhere from 1 to 1D8) but the activation roll is at -40%. The penalty is reduced by 20% for each of the following skills the operator has at 60% or can succeed on a test for: Occult, Science (Chemistry), and Unnatural (only 20% or a test at +20% is needed).
Alternate Names: Curse of Stone, Mineralize Flesh, The Sculptor’s Poison
OPINT: The Mask
By studying The King in Yellow, an Agent may find a variant of this ritual. It sears flesh with a milk-white foam, turning it into marble. A splash has a 5% Lethality rating while full immersion inflicts 30% Lethality per turn. However, instead of killing, it preserves. Victims may wake after months or years in stasis. If this is possible, it takes longer the more POW the operator has than their victim3. The operator’s death can also hasten a victim’s revival.
The Powder of Ibn-Ghazi
For those of you curious, ‘Ibn-Ghazi’ is an Arabic surname that roughly translates to “son of the warrior.” The easiest way to change up the ritual is to change how the product is used. Maybe it’s sprinkled in a line or circle, revealing the first thing to cross the threshold. Maybe you snort it like cocaine or dissolve it in solution and apply it as eye-drops. This way only reveals things to the user, but for 2D4 minutes instead of turns. Maybe like in Molly Tanzer’s short story, In the Garden of Ibn-Ghazi, it can force people to reveal their deepest secrets if blown in their face. Maybe like in The Dunwich Horror, the powder allows banishment and dismissal rituals to work more effectively, either by reducing the costs or granting a bonus to the activation roll.
Alternate Names: Dust of True Sight, Recipe for Truth, Unveil the Unknown/Unseen
Prayer to the Dark Man
This ritual is already a variation on an existing ritual, Immortal Messenger, and even has its own set of alternate costs in the scenario Music From a Darkened Room by Dennis Detwiller. One thing to note is that the thirteen blood sacrifices don’t necessarily mean thirteen corpses. If the bloodletting is significant enough to cause SAN loss, that should be sufficient for the ritual.
Alternate Names: Abbadon’s Summons, The Meeting at the Crossroads, Witch’s Sabbath
Preserve Living Brain
I basically feel the same way about this ritual as I do about the Reanimation Formula, although Muñoz’s efforts are more mystical than Herbert West’s. So I wrote my own version4.
The Primal Lay
Some versions use sacrifices to pay the costs, though using a dumb animal imposes a -40% penalty to the POW test. Others are based in numerology and require sufficient skill in Occult or Science (Mathematics) to activate and an INT test to maintain focus. Maybe like in its initial debut, the ritual grants minor but permanent clairvoyance/retrocognition at the cost of 1 POW.
Alternate Names: Alsophocus’ Sight, Expand the Mind’s Horizons, The Ninth Verse
Raise From Essential Saltes
Maybe the ritual requires the operator and assistants to form a circle around the corpse, link hands, and recite the incantation. Only the operator needs to know the ritual, the rest can just echo their words. If the operator is alone, hugging the corpse counts as a circle of linked hands. Maybe the ritual can reduce multiple corpses to essential saltes at once, but can only resurrect them together as a hulking amalgamation. Keeping the dead separate from each other increases the ritual’s cost by +3 WP and +1 SAN per individual. Maybe the ritual reduces corpses into a gelatinous liquid, stored in a bottle. Boiling liquid essential saltes might conjure up a spirit that can be conversed with like the original spell, but without the risk of the deceased going rogue.
Alternate Names: Cremation of the Magi, Resurrection, The Rite of Ancient Knowledge
Reanimation Formula
In the original sourcebook, this was a purely chemical process. The only SAN loss was for seeing a zombie come to life, matching the depiction in the Lovecraft story. So I was miffed when the Handler’s Guide wrote it up as just a ‘magic spell’ with the exact same flavor text as Preserve Living Brain. I wrote my own version with mechanics I felt were more gameable.
Release Breath
Some versions of the ritual require larger animals, but each hit point of damage inflicted in the sacrifice reduces the WP cost by one, to a minimum of 1 WP. Others have the operator stab themselves with a knife for 1D4 damage, lowering the WP cost by one and granting a +10% bonus to the activation roll for each point of damage taken. Versions from Islamic, Judaic, and European occult traditions involve complex incantations but no sacrifice. However, the operator must succeed on an Occult test or they stumble over the words, making the ritual take two turns to activate. Foreign Language (Arabic, Hebrew, or Latin) at +40% can substitute for Occult. If the operator’s native language is Arabic or Hebrew, they can use INTx5 at +20%. Other versions of the ritual let the operator destroy multiple zombies at once, increasing the ritual’s cost by 1 WP and 1 SAN (or just +3 WP) for each additional zombie targeted5. There are also versions that allow the operator to destroy zombies created by means other than the Zombie ritual (HG p 187).
Alternate Names: Dirge of Ny-hargo, Eradicating Chant, Lay the Dead to Rest
See the Other Side
Variants from haruspicy traditions can pay some or all the cost with hit points instead of WP. Blood is spattered onto a gate, allowing the operator to see the ‘other side.’ This takes a minute. Animal blood is less potent and must be specifically spilled to have any effect. This requires the operator to have at least 60% in Occult, 40% in Survival, or 20% in Surgery.
Alternate Names: Eyes of Heimdall, Farsight, Peer Through the Portal
Song of Power
The ritual might cost 1 point from a different stat like STR, CON, or INT. Maybe it’s a recipe for a poison that converts POW into WP, where the activation roll occurs in the safety and comfort of an alchemical lab. In that version, whoever bites down on the toxic pellet immediately loses 1D4 SAN and gains 20 WP (and loses 1 POW if the operator didn’t originally invest any).
Alternate Names: Draw Out True Strength, Invoke the Ourouboros, Philosopher’s Elixir
Soothing Song
Buddhist and flagellant traditions have the operator meditate on the nature of pain instead of intoning a ritual chant. Each HP inflicted in the ritual lowers the WP cost by one, to a minimum of 1. If the subject is not the operator, both can contribute their hit points. Some versions let the subject roll CONx5 to ignore stuns from losing half their HP to one attack or remain conscious below 3 HP. Other versions take hours to activate as the operator hangs calligraphic scrolls or draws occult diagrams in chalk or sand. These cost 1 permanent point of POW and invoke hosts of spirits or higher powers. However, the ritual’s effects last until the subject reaches 0 SAN. If the subject suffers a permanent injury (or gains a Disorder) and fails an INTx5 roll, the effects end early. Some flawed versions can be activated with a -20% to the roll in the moment of pain or stress, using the HP lost to contribute towards the WP cost.
Alternate Names: Buddha’s Bliss, Endure Pain, Mantra of Tranquility
OPINT: Project OUTLOOK and MJ-12’s Parapsychology Research
Building on the foundations of the CIA’s MKUltra program, MAJESTIC found ‘scientific’ ways of activating different rituals that affect and manipulate the human mind, eg: Clairvoyance, Fascination, Infallible Suggestion, Obscure Memory, Soothing Song, etc. These took the form of electronic devices and various drugs. To replicate their success, the operator must have learned the ritual they want to imitate and have one or more relevant skills, such as Craft (Electronics or Microelectronics), Pharmacy, or Psychotherapy. Additionally, the sum of the relevant skill/s and their Unnatural score must be at least 90. If their skills fall short, they can test the highest skill to proceed anyways. Failure imposes a -20% to the activation roll, -40% for a fumble.
To create a device or develop the formula for an unnatural drug, the operator rolls their highest relevant skill (or Unnatural) and makes a Ritual Activation roll. Each failure adds a drawback or complication that makes using the device or drug inconvenient. With a device, anyone can trigger the effect by simply paying the ritual’s costs. The WP spent represents the effort it takes to force crude human technology to achieve unnatural feats. With a pharmaceutical formula, the operator can pay the WP cost of the equivalent ritual to create a dose. This doesn’t cost SAN, though witnessing or learning of its effects does. If the ritual requires an opposed roll, use the skill used to formulate the drug instead of whatever stat it calls for. Pre-dosing targets with narcotics and/or psychedelics can penalize their rolls to resist the effects.
Agents can still build devices and synthesize drugs if they don’t know the original ritual. They just need instructions from someone who did and the skills to understand them. The skill roll to create a device is also at -20% and each batch of drugs requires a skill test in addition to WP. Failure could mean wasted time and ingredients or a weaker product.
Speaking Dream
There’s a variant of this ritual that has the operator invest 2 POW into a pair of candles or other light source. If someone focuses on one of the lights before falling asleep, they can communicate with anyone sleeping near the other light by spending 2 WP (the cost can be shared with the recipient). Maybe the ritual works like normal, but allows the operator to contact two or more people at once, splitting the WP cost even further. Other versions of the ritual act as directions to specific meeting places within the Dreamlands. These cost less WP and just 1 SAN instead of 1D4, but only work up to a few thousand kilometers at most. Any further and the dream-journey to the rendezvous point would take so long that the onironauts would wake up before it was over.
Alternate Names: Linking of the Lamps, Rendezvous at Céléphaïs, Thread of Communion
Speech of Birds and Beasts
Some versions cost 1 POW instead of 9 WP, but permanently grant the operator a ‘Foreign Language skill’ equal to their Ritual Activation rating whenever they are under the influence of a hallucinogen. Each time they activate the ritual, they gain the ability to speak with another kind of animal. Mutual intelligibility is up to the Handler. If the operator learns the tongue of dogs, they may be able to communicate with wolves, but not foxes or raccoons. Or maybe they still understand, but count their Ritual Activation rating as lower for the purposes of comprehension. Not all instances of the ritual require a hallucinogen. Variants from northern Europe use mead, while those from central Asia, the Middle East, or north Africa might use opium instead.
Alternate Names: Pfungst Modulator, Transmutation of Babel, Wyldetongue
Storm and Stillness
Sometimes the ritual instructs the operator to imitate the desired weather changes in miniature, eg: pouring water or blood for rain, waving fans for wind, pounding the earth for thunderstorms, etc. Maybe the ritual’s costs have to be paid in POW, but it only takes 1 turn to activate for each point spent. More powerful versions let the operator and their assistants directly control the weather. Though they have to roll INTx5 every half hour (or whenever they’re stunned) or lose control. Maybe assistants who don’t know the ritual can still contribute to the cost in a limited way. After all, the human sacrifices don’t need to know anything. Maybe ignorant assistants are exhausted (AH, p. 47) if they spend more than 1D6 WP, or their contributions count for half. Or maybe each assistant that doesn’t know the ritual imposes a -10% penalty to the activation roll.
Alternate Names: Hymnody of Sea and Sky, Rain Dance, Wrath of the Sabaoth
Swarm
Some versions only ask the operator to mix their blood with some bait (paying part of the cost with HP), no elaborate chants required, and can attract the attention of larger fish heavier than 10 pounds. Another version only costs WP or SAN, not both, but requires a lead talisman fashioned by the Deep Ones to be cast into a body of water. Variations of the chant exist to attract (and exert limited control over) other animals, such as birds, frogs, insects, spiders, rats, worms, etc.
Alternate Names: Call the Crawling Ones, Flock, Gather Ocean’s Bounty
The Voorish Sign
Some versions of the ritual don’t involve any hand gestures. Instead, the operator bleeds from their eyes and ears as part of the WP cost is paid with hit points. The permanent version of this ritual invokes Daoloth, he who parts the veils, and costs 3 POW and 1D8 SAN. By plucking out an eye, the operator can lower the POW cost by 1 or force a connection to the unnatural on a failed activation roll without spending any POW. If the operator removes both of their eyes to cover the costs of the ritual, they’re still aware of the world in a manner similar to blindsight, but better. Even though they’re blind, the sign allows the operator to ‘see’ by revealing the unnatural truths that hide behind every aspect of reality. Drive, Pilot, ranged attack rolls, and skill tests that require finely detailed perception take a -10% penalty. The operator doesn’t take any penalties from poor visibility, but can’t benefit from holographic sights or targeting lasers.
Alternate Names: Banish Illusions, Manual/Digital* Spyglass of the Sorcerer, Second Sight
*referring to the hands or fingers
Whispers of the Dead
Some versions of this ritual which contact hungry and bloodthirsty unnatural entities allow part of the cost to be paid with HP. Sometimes animal sacrifice works, other times the operator must contribute at least one of their own hit points. To contact a Great Old One in such a cruel way, the operator must sacrifice one of their own kind (or an unlucky human).
Alternate Names: Beseech [Entity], Communion with the [Metaphor Describing the Entity]
Winged Steed
The easiest way to change this is to alter the winged servitor. In Countdown, byakhee are the leftovers of an alien race whose civilization was absorbed by Carcosa. Those winged servitors fly the operator to the city of Yhtill rather than the court of Azathoth. They’re indistinct, entirely composed of vestigial features, more like a statue eaten away by acid rain than a living creature. Their physical form still commands power and strength, either because it remembers doing so, or a corrosive aura of decay makes up for any losses from atrophy. The ritual gains a +10% bonus to the activation roll if conducted while Aldebaran is high in the sky. Anyone who’s seen the Yellow Sign gets a +10% bonus to the POW contest to control the byakhee.
Alternate: Covenant with the Silent One, Song of the Sky and Stars, Summon Living Memory
Withering
Maybe it can deal damage to inanimate objects as well as living ones6. Maybe the ritual costs 10 WP and 1D6 HP as the operator slashes themselves with a knife. Smaller knives that only deal 1D4 damage mean the ritual deals 1D12 damage but only costs 1D6 SAN. The ritual might kill its targets by scalding them with an impossible torrent of boiling blood, pus, or steam that flows from an open wound on the operator. Maybe instead of creating an effigy, the operator can create a wax seal or wand, increasing the WP cost by +7 but allowing them to pay it over time and save it for later. The HP and SAN costs are paid when they make the activation roll, inflicting 1D20 damage on a nearby target within sight and burning up the talisman or rod.
Alternate Names: Death Spell, Focus The Burning Rays of G_d, Shriveling
Zombie
The Icelandic version of this ritual creates a ‘draugr’ by exhuming a corpse and carving a rune into its chest. The rune is also carved into the chest of a human sacrifice in an hour-long ritual. When the earth tastes the victim’s blood, it summons a spirit of the dead, which may just be an alien intelligence from Outside. Then the operator seats the corpse in an upright position and buries the sacrifice alive. The ritual raises the corpse as a draugr with half the INT and POW it had in life. It can oppose attack rolls and there’s no universal +20% bonus to all attack rolls against it. Some versions of the ritual require the operator bind the draugr to their service with an opposed POW test. These usually result in a more obedient servant. In every version, the victim lies underground in a deathless torpor. Failed activation rolls still create draugr, but after days, weeks, or months equal to the operator’s POW pass, the sacrifice claws out of the grave as an unbound draugr, determined to destroy the operator and their servant. The Closing of the Breach and Exorcism rituals break the connection between the sacrifice and the draugr, destroying the latter. This can save the victim, but there’s no spell keeping them from suffocating underground anymore. Digging up the sacrifice, killing them, and destroying their body also destroys a draugr.
Alternate Names: Create Deathless Servant, Draugr, Gray Binding
OPINT: Alchemy in Home Scenes
The operator must use their Home scene to Study the Unnatural. Each of these rituals require “rare and esoteric” or “notoriously strange and rare” ingredients. Unless the Handler wants to make a micro-scenario out of it, it’s assumed that the loss of 1D4 Bond points (even from a Delta Green Bond) covers the difficulty of obtaining them. This also assumes the operator only has time to make one activation roll. If Handlers want to encourage their Agents to go ‘occult grocery shopping’ but don’t want to flat out disallow alchemy without ingredients, having them already prepared can provide a +20% bonus to the activation roll.
Dust of the Thresholds
Meditation skills, focus, and sheer determination can ensure the operator has enough WP. This is represented by the operator making an INT or POW test. If they suffer from Sleep Disorder, they must roll SAN instead if it's lower. A failed stat test costs 1 permanent POW, 2 for a fumble. Unless the operator rolls a critical success, they start the next session exhausted and/or missing 1D6 WP. If the Handler agrees that the Agent is acting on one or more of their motivations as a result of this vignette, they can reduce the loss.
If you’re using my tweak to the ritual costs, failed stat tests don’t cost POW, but instead produce less doses; 1D4 for failure and just 1 on a fumble. However, the operator can burn a permanent point of POW to turn a fumble into a failure and a failure into a success.
If the operator fails the activation roll and doesn’t force a connection to the unnatural, they still have to pay a reduced cost. This is represented by making the aforementioned INT, POW, or SAN test with a +40% bonus. They also learn from failure, increasing their Occult and another alchemically relevant skill by 1D4 points. They also gain 2% in Unnatural for each Bond point that the personal pursuit cost.
If using the optional Ritual Cost Rebalancing rules, failing on the activation roll doesn’t cost anything, but forcing a success doubles any WP and POW losses involved in the Home scene.
Elixir of Infinite Space
On the abstract scale of a Home scene, the ritual’s costs are negligible. It only costs 3 WP per day while the average Agent regains 1D6 WP every night. The Agent can keep making Ritual Activation rolls (at a -20% penalty if suffering from Sleep Disorder) until they fail and don’t force a connection to the unnatural. Each success produces one dose of the elixir and costs 1 SAN. If they only make one activation roll which fails and don’t force a success, the operator can increase their skills as described above.
If using the optional Ritual Cost Rebalancing rules, forcing a success means the operator has to roll INT or POW to see if they lose WP or POW as per the Dust of the Thresholds mechanics.
The Powder of Ibn-Ghazi
Successful activation rolls cost 1 SAN and create POW doses, though the operator can choose to burn POW for more, +10 doses for each point permanently sacrificed. If they have less than 6 POW, each batch costs 1 POW but consists of 10 doses. Because the alchemical process only takes one day to complete, the operator can choose to multiply the costs and the number of doses produced by the number shown on the D4 they rolled for Bond point loss. If their Ritual Activation roll failed and they didn’t force a connection to the unnatural, they can increase their skills as described in the Dust of the Thresholds entry.
If using the optional Ritual Cost Rebalancing rules, a failed activation roll that is forced into a success produces half the number of doses.
2 For example, an operator is attempting to evict an insect from Shaggai from its human host. The horrible insect has already spent 6 of its 20 WP using hypergeometry to torture its victims. Therefore, the operator and their assistant must spend 14 WP to banish it. The ritual itself costs 1D4 SAN. Half of 20 POW is 10, 9 WP is the closest cost to 10, and rituals that cost 9 WP also cost 1D4 SAN. ↩
3 And if the operator has less POW than the victim, it might take less time.↩
4 Still under construction.↩
5 In the short story Down in the Delta, Emil Furst 'deactivates' two zombies at once by snapping the necks of two chickens in quick succession. So maybe it just depends on how many small animals you can ritually kill in a single turn.↩
6 If used to destroy a piece of cover, reduce its Armor value by one for each point of damage dealt. Vehicles reduced to half HP provide cover one step down (see page 59 of the Agent's Handbook) and another step when reduced to 0 HP.↩
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