Wolves of the Hungry Sea

Rules

Performing the Ritual

Performing this ritual takes at least 2 minutes of roleplaying. This ritual targets a fleet. 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

The fleet gains a significant boost to its effective rank, provided it takes a guarding action. This temporary bonus increases the rank of the fleet by the equivalent of 5 normal upgrades.

The character who controls the target resource experiences a roleplaying effect for as long as the enchantment lasts: You feel jealously protective of your family and friends, and find it easy to see strangers or even loose acquaintances as potential threats. If anyone or anything threatens those you feel responsible for, you feel an urge to do whatever you think will remove that threat as quickly and effectively as possible.

The magicians contributing to the ritual may choose to experience a roleplaying effect either during casting or for a short time after it is complete: you find yourself short of breath, as if drowning or suffocating. This does not impede the performance of the ritual, and Draughir magicians never experience this roleplaying effect.

The effect lasts until the start of the next Profound Decisions Empire event. If the owner of the resource does not attend the next event, then the additional production provided by the resource is still added to that character's inventory.

Additional Targets

This ritual can affect additional fleets belonging to characters in the same banner. Each additional fleet increases the magnitude by 8. The character who controls each fleet must be present throughout the ritual.

Description

This ritual originates in Varushka, on the shores of the Semmerlak, and while it has not been performed in recent years is fairly old. It has a number of other names; some Semmerholm guisers remember it as The Lady's Guardian, while League magicians might call it Rings Around the Mast. In the Brass Coast it is referred to as Beacon of Rocks, a poetical name referencing the way that it helps ships avoid hazards and suggesting that any enemy crew that dares to tangle with those under its influence would be better served driving their own ship into the shore.

The effects of the enchantment are twofold. It wards the ship and crew it is cast on, making both more resistant to death or destruction. There are some tales that, when the ritual was in common use, it would help maintain a vessel that otherwise would have broken apart or sunk long enough for the crew to limp back into port. This may have given rise to some stories of so-called "ghost ships" - the holed and waterlogged hulks of cursed vessels that populate some of the grimmer sailors' tales. It also empowers and provides insight to the ship's captain and crew, making them keenly aware of threats and dangers to themselves or their charges before they strike, even if those threats are otherwise well-hidden. This awareness is shared among everyone on the vessel and, to a lesser degree, with those the ship may be guarding. It provides a kind of supernatural wisdom that covers the safety and well-being of people and ship alike. There are even accounts of captains dreaming of looming threats, and how to deal with them, the night before they actually occur.

When trouble does rear its head, the enchantment helps the crew deal with it quickly and effectively. There are old reports that the ritual can sometimes prove unexpectedly potent where the crew contains one or more draughir. The magic enhances the pack mentality many with that lineage experience, causing them to act as fierce protectors of their fellows and any vessels they are guarding and sometimes providing them with additional reservoirs of brutal prowess in combat.

Some magicians who perform this ritual find that they experience a fleeting sensation of shortness of breath, although this may well be a psychosomatic response to the grim history of Wolves of the Hungry Seas rather than residue of any actual curse. There is also some evidence that this is not a recent occurrence; it might well be built into the formulation of the ritual either intentionally or as an unexpected side-effect of the original codification. A few sensitive magicians claim that this sensation of shortness-of-breath is coupled with a sense of great weight, as if they were clenched in a giant fist, and there is a monograph from the reign of Empress Varkula that suggests the ritual might inadvertently touch on the "dark power" inherent in the crushing ocean depths. Other theorists suggest it is a consequence of the fear that seas and oceans engender in some people. One went so far as to suggest that any codified ritual from the Winter realm dealing with ships might encounter a similar peculiar resonance - but there are no common examples to compare it to. Interestingly, no draughir reports experiencing this effect.

History

This ritual was introduced into Imperial lore during the reign of Empress Aenea. There is no record of who codified it; rather the ritual text submitted to the Imperial Conclave was part of a battered old tome contributed by a cabal of Varushkan magicians from Korotny. The book apparently contained a second ritual Lay of the Rusalka, but the Conclave declined to make that spell part of lore and beyond its name, and that fact that it was a curse of some kind, no other details survive to this day.

The ritual had apparently been used for years as a way to support ships crossing the Semmerlak, and braving the dangerous waterways of the Mallum to reach the eastern seas. Once part of lore, Aenea's well-recorded tendency to put the Empire's interests above any foreign concerns resulted in a marked increase in piracy and privateering targeting Imperial shipping. The ritual was an effective way to support the maritime escorts protecting Imperial traders. In the winter of the year 200YE, however, the enchantment suddenly stopped working. Astronomancers suggest that an adversarial conjunction of the Drowned Man and the Great Wyrm with the Stallion may have echoed or been responsible for this shift. Dramaturgists claim that the ritual's failure was caused by the fiery destruction of the Goatsmoor Playhouse in Caricomare - Sarvos' only floating theatre. The conflagration saw the deaths of sixty people, including the entire troupe, by a combination of flame, smoke, and drowning in the winter seas. The Goatsmoor was hosting a special invitation-only evening, a performance of the ill-omened play The Final Voyage of the Ariel as part of a large working of Wolves of the Hungry Sea. The captains of the four ships being enchanted were also recorded among the dead. For years afterwards, that part of the Caricomare coast was reputed to be haunted by horrible, burning wraiths. There may be some credence to this somewhat sensationalised story; following the incident, those who tried to perform the ritual spoke of experiencing a sensation of choking or suffocating. The ritual was shelved but remained part of lore, and an investigation by the Unfettered Mind to try and determine if a ritual can, indeed, become cursed was unfortunately inconclusive. Neither detect magic nor Wisdom of the Balanced Blade cast alongside a performance of the ritual divined anything useful although one of the casters said that watching the ritual and knowing it's history "gave her the willies."

Following the Autumn Equinox 386YE, a discussion between some itinerant magicians from Varushka, Dawn, and the League in the shade of the Journeyman Tower at Lacre devolved into a series of slightly drunken dares as the volhov, guisers, and mountebanks tried to outdo one another. The Dawnish magicians, members of a small coven, egged on by their peers, proposed to perform the "cursed" ritual with the captain of a local fishing vessel as the target. To the sobering surprise of those present, the ritual worked fine, and nobody drowned or caught fire. This information quickly spread, in part thanks to the Unfettered Mind and their efforts to examine rituals and codify forgotten assurances. Concerns that the ritual remains "cursed" remain, but there's no evidence that the ritual is any less effective than it was when it was first entered into lore.

The Civil Service have ensured that places of magical learning across the Empire are aware the ritual now works again and will ensure that more recently established centres of magical learning that lack copies are provided with them.

Common Elements

The ritual both protects vessels directly and grants the ship's crew a keen awareness of threats. Ritual performances often echo the tradition, common along the shores of the Semmerlak where Wolves of the Hungry Sea originated, of painting eyes on the prow of a ship to allow it to find its way. By drawing, tracing, or painting symbols of warding on the hands of the captain, the ritual symbolically passes the protection along to the ship they command. The presence of other members of a ship's crew is useful in the ritual, especially when combined with elements of binding the sailors together as a pack or team. Likewise, if a captain intends to undertake a particular commission, the presence of the people they intend to guard or symbols thereof can help the magic flow.

The ritual might also include an evocation of the virtuous animals of the original Varushkan formulation, especially the goose and the spider, while Heraldic witches call on the wisdom and foresight of the sphinx or the powerful protective magic of the firebird. Dramaturgists favour stories involving the Prince, especially in the aspect of Gancio; the Coin, often as a reminder of the importance of paying for protection; and the Quayside a version of the Counting House with an obvious maritime connection. Obviously, no sensible dramaturge would risk using any part of The Last Voyage of the Ariel when weaving this spell. The rune of Wisdom and the Rune of Battle both resonate with this ritual, as does an invocation of the Oak.