Secrets of Skillful Artifice

Rules

Performing the Ritual

Performing this ritual takes at least 2 minutes of roleplaying. This ritual targets a character, who must be present throughout. The target character must have the artisan skill.

An additional donor character who also has the artisan skill must also be present throughout.

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

Effects

This ritual requires two artisan characters: one who is the target of the enchantment and the other who donates the knowledge of how to make a magical item. At the completion of the ritual, the donor character chooses one of the magic items they know how to craft. The target artisan is enchanted with the ability to make the chosen item, as if they possessed the appropriate extra item skill.

The target also experiences a roleplaying effect: they occasionally hear faint whispers, offering advice on the quality of crafted items or on tasks related to crafting, art, or artifice. These whispers can occasionally be quite distracting.

The donor artisan can always choose to not provide knowledge of an item. If the donor chooses to provide no knowledge, then all resources are still expended in the casting, and the enchantment is still applied - along with the roleplaying effect - but the target gains no additional knowledge.

If this ritual is used to share knowledge of how to craft an item in Runesmith's Law with someone who is not a citizen of Wintermark, it constitutes a breach of the powerful oath sworn by all who have access to that information. The ritual works normally, and then the Wintermark artisan permanently loses access to Runesmith's Law (knowledge of how to make all such items is removed, and cannot be regained).

The effect lasts until the start of the next Profound Decisions Empire event.

Description

As the eternals of Night enjoy beautiful art and cunning artifice, almost as much as they love secrets and mysteries. Through this ritual, the magicians can help artificers to share their knowledge with each other - but they can just as easily use it to steal the secrets of how to create something from an unwilling target.

While the ability to craft an item remains for only a short time, there is nothing to prevent the ritual being used again, or being performed multiple times. During the reign of Empress Giselle, for example, a cabal of Temeschwari ritualists were found guilty of kidnapping skilled crafters and keeping them imprisoned, using threats and the power of this ritual to allow their own artisans to duplicate their finest work and selling the proceeds for a pretty profit.

Common Elements

This ritual is often performed in conditions of dim lighting, and one or both of the artisans involved in the ritual may be masked or blindfolded. A connection is often created between the two artisans - they may be tied together, or may both hold one end of a length of silk or metal. In some cases, they are bound together by multiple threads by the ritualists. Symbols of artifice and creation are often used, and there is often a symbolic moment where the artisan who knows how to craft the desired item passes something to the target - often a cup of wine, sometimes with a little blood in it.

In some cases, especially when the ritual is performed by the Freeborn, the artisan with the item knowledge is paid by the recipient either symbolically or with an arranged fee. This practice is said to intensify the roleplaying effect that the target experiences, and the voices often mutter negatively about someone who would sell a secret for mere money.

The rune of secrets is often used in this ritual, as are the runes Aesh and Pallas.