Heroquest Larp/Lrp - Casting Ritual Power
Priests are capable of far greater displays of power than humble Acolytes but the forces involved in these displays mean that greater preparation, concentration and ritual are required in order to unleash them.
Casting Ritual Power
Ritual Power is the official name for all invocations of ranks 6, 7 and 8. The full casting of a Ritual invocation takes 15 minutes. At the conclusion of the casting time the Priest should utter their casting vocals for that invocation (30, 35 or 40 words) upon the completion of which they have 30 seconds to release the invocation in the appropriate manner as listed under the invocation description (usually touch or a target within 20 feet). As soon as the Priest begins casting he expends power from his talisman equal to the rank of the invocation and suffers casting damage depending on the rank of the invocation (1 damage at rank 6, 2 at rank 7, 3 at rank 8 - this cannot be reduced in any way). If for any reason the priest does not have enough power in his Talisman to cast the invocation he will fall dead from the effort of channelling too much power from the Sphere. Note that invocations cast from the Good Sphere, on Orin Rakatha, do not inflict casting damage but will still kill a character who overcasts during a Ritual Invocation. The casting time for Ritual power can be reduced by up to five minutes at the referee's discretion if you have a good quality casting kit and an appropriate ritual. If you often run away and hide in dark corners to cast it may be worth showing the referee your casting kit and ritual at the start of the dungeon. The referee will then inform you whether or not that will reduce your casting time and by how much. He will then monitor your casting during the dungeon to ensure that quality is maintained. It is not normally possible to reduce the casting time below 10 minutes for Ritual Invocations.
Talisman
A Talisman is required to cast any invocation above rank 5. Ritual invocations must be cast using the power stored in a Talisman. If a character attempts to cast a Ritual invocation from his body rather than his Talisman then the invocation they are attempting to cast will fail and they will die.
Casting Kit
Ritual invocations all require a set of casting apparatus commonly referred to as a "casting kit". A casting kit should comprise of a casting mat at least two and a half square feet in size (a square mat 18 inches on each side is fine) and a number of other components appropriate to your character (for example an Evil Priest may use a collection of skulls). Candles are also a common casting component used by many people as are small stones or beads used to mark the passage of time. Your casting kit should be personal to your character and it should be obvious from the casting kit what Sphere the kit is dedicated to.
Ritual
All Ritual invocations require a ritual to be performed in order to harness the power of the Sphere. This ritual is performed in conjunction with the casting kit explained above and should be performed for the full duration of the casting time. The ritual should be appropriate to the character. For example an Evil Priest may light a sequence of candles around an ornate skull whilst repeating a mantra of praise to the Evil Sphere, promising death to all those who would oppose him, whilst a Priest of the Good Sphere may beseech the Lady of Light to answer his call. You should have a unique ritual for each Ritual invocation that you can cast. The easiest way to vary your rituals is to change the words that you use to perform the ritual although you may wish to be more elaborate than this. A good ritual with well performed vocals will help to reduce your casting times as explained above.
Timing
Most Ritual invocations take between 10 and 15 minutes to cast as described above. It is the player's responsibility to time their own casting in a fair way. For this reason many casters use small beads or stones to mark off one minute intervals during casting. The player referee may wish to time you himself on occasion, he will indicate if this is the case. The player referee will monitor your casting times and give guidance if they are consistently too long or too short.
Casting Damage
Invocations of Rank 6 inflict 1 point of damage upon the caster, through any armour class, upon completion of the invocation.
Invocations of Rank 7 inflict 2 points of damage upon the caster, through any armour class, upon completion of the invocation.
Invocations of Rank 8 inflict 3 points of damage upon the caster, through any armour class, upon completion of the invocation.
Invoking
Some Priests capable of casting Ritual Power can also cast a special invocation called Invoke Sphere at rank 5. Invoking involves a special ritual, using the casting kit, that takes 5 minutes. At the completion of the five minute ritual the Priest casts the Invoke Sphere invocation (costing 5 power) upon himself with a duration of 15 minutes. At any point during the duration of the Invoke Sphere invocation the Priest may cast one Ritual Invocation at vocal length without the need for a ritual or casting kit. This requires the expenditure of Power and the caster suffers casting damage in exactly the same way as if they had cast the invocation normally. Invoke Sphere is used once a Ritual invocation is cast, or attempted to be cast if interrupted. A Priest may not have more than one Invoke Sphere invocation in effect at any one time. Attempting to cast a second Invoke Sphere invocation whilst the first is still running will cause both invocations to fail. Whilst invoked in a Sphere you may only cast invocations from that Sphere.
Over Casting
If a character attempts to cast an invocation, of any rank, for which he does not have enough Power in either his body or his Talisman, then the Talisman will explode and he will fall unconscious for 15 minutes. Should the same caster overcast again in the future then he will die.
Lay Power : Ritual Power : Cosmic Power : Common Lay Invocations : Sect Invocations : Good Invocations : Neutral Invocations : Evil Invocations