Hands of Sacred Life

Rules

Performing the Ritual

Performing this ritual takes at least 2 minutes of roleplaying. The target character must be present throughout.

The ritual fails if you or the target are hit, or attack another character.

Effects

The target of this ritual, who may be one of the characters performing it, regains all lost hits.

Additional Targets

This ritual can affect additional characters. The magnitude increases by one for every two additional targets. All targets must be present throughout, and the ritual fails if any of the targets are hit, or attack another character.

Description

The Hands of Sacred Life is a simple, yet potent, healing ritual that is at it's most effective when it restores several people to full health. The more patients the ritual treats, the more powerful it is in comparison to the heal incantation. It sees most use on battlefields, or in the aftermath of accidents and disasters. A single competent ritualist can restore nearly a dozen injured or dying people with a handful of mana crystals.

The heal spell is more versatile, and can be performed much faster, but even a skilled magician is likely to find their personal reserves of strength quickly depleted in the aftermath of an especially vicious engagement. The Hands of Sacred Life comes into it's own in this kind of situation, allowing a small team of ritual magicians to heal many targets to full health at the expense of a little extra time.

The other primary use for this ritual is on those occasions when other reserves of healing power are depleted or dangerously low. While many ritual magicians eschew the study of healing incantations, the ability to quickly improvise this ritual is available to anyone who has made even a cursory study of the lore of Spring; in such circumstances it can be a literal lifesaver.

Common Elements

Blood and water are very common elements in this ritual. Highborn magisters and Urizen magi alike use bowls and ewers of fresh water as part of the rite, cleansing wounds and quenching the thirst of their patients as they perform the ritual.

Small gifts or benedictions are another common feature of this healing ritual. A band of Marcher ritualists may quickly weave poppets from grass and corn, dunk them in water or beer and give them to their targets with whispered words of healing. In The League this ritual is often associated with the character of The Doctor, and the use of The Chalice.

Elements such as natural sunlight, wholesome food and drink, the Rhyvv rune and the constellation of The Fountain might all be evoked to restore vitality to the targets of this ritual.