Gathering the Harvest

Rules

Performing the Ritual

Performing this ritual takes at least 2 minutes of roleplaying. This ritual targets a farm which must already be enchanted with the Strong Ox, Golden Sun ritual. The character who controls the target personal resource must be present throughout.

This ritual is an enchantment. A target may only be under one enchantment effect at a time.

Effects

This ritual completely replaces the effect of Strong Ox, Golden Sun.

The farm earns an additional 400 rings at the Autumn Equinox (event 4). The ritual ends at the start of winter.

This spell is intended to be cast at the Summer Solstice. If the spell is cast earlier in the year, then money that would have been gained from Strong Ox, Golden Sun or Blessing of New Spring is lost.

If the owner of the resource does not attend the Autumn Equinox event, then the additional production provided by the resource is still added to that character's inventory.

Additional Targets

This ritual can affect additional farms in the same territory. Each additional farm increases the magnitude by 12. The character who controls each farm must be present throughout the ritual.

Description

This spell is intended to be cast at the Summer Solstice, and it is a little less productive if cast earlier in the year and is useless if performed after the Summer Solstice. A farm affected by the ritual will gather its crops faster, and with less wastage; the weather remains fairer for longer; and all the minor elements that might damage or reduce the value of a crop tend to be mitigated or avoided. Every harvest is a bumper harvest under this ritual; stalks bend practically double with corn and wheat, fruit are oversized and succulent, animals are fat and complacent to the slaughter ... it ensures wealth, prosperity and comfort for the farmers and their families, as well as plenty left over to sell at a profit.

As with the blessing of new spring, this is a very old ritual indeed. The ritual is understandably popular in The Marches, and there are covens of landskeepers who work hard to ensure that they can perform this ritual on many farms simultaneously. Such covens also work to master Blessing of New Spring and Strong Ox, Golden Sun if they can, and know that their ability to perform this ritual gives them a useful political tool when dealing with the households and monasteries.

Common Elements

The ritual brings prosperity, and of all the farm enchantments this is the one that tends to have the most dramatic performances. Ritual performances often include the evocation of the rune Pallas. Hearth magics and symbols associated with strength and agricultural Prosperity are also commonly evoked, such as sweat, salt, honey, ale, milk or grain. Foodstuffs are often shared and a toast drunk, with a libation poured onto the soil in acknowledgement of the role it plays in providing a fine harvest.

In The Marches, a portion of the produce that the farm produced the previous year might be used in the ritual. In a similar way, a Varushkan cabal or circle of Wintermark magicians might use honey made in an especially prosperous year with fresh-baked runebread, to draw a connection between then and now.

The magic item known as the Straw Mask can be used to make this ritual easier to perform.