Ritual of the Missing One
(A ritual to paint a picture of someone and their surroundings, using a linked ebony brush and ebony bracelet)[1]
Invoke the Tao
Prepare the paper and the watercolors.
The paper should be heavy mulberry paper; smooth it with a heated white sandstone until each spot is smoothed flat and warm.
Prepare the watercolors by rubbing the dry pigments with an ice cube until just enough water has melted to bring the paints to deep color.
Each roll:
- Resolve roll with the hot stone and the paper
- Yang roll with magic ritual skill
- Dexterity roll (including Calligraphy) to prepare the ink in the dark
- Yin roll with magic ritual skill
must score at least 3 successes, as power 3 is needed for the ritual.
Invoke the Elements, the Actions, and the Cycle Spirits
This ritual Seeks Wood (the ebony), with aspects of Butterfly (for the painting) and Crane (for vision at a great distance).
Light a thin green candle scented with sweet ylang ylang[2], and place a small round silver dish[3] of clear water atop the candle, allowing it to heat. With the water, use the paintbrush to take up a bit of each pigment, one at a time, onto the palette, to create the working colors. The three watercolor cakes should be primary colors; make all possible blends from the colors in the final working colors[4]. Wash the brush again, and then draw characters for the Dog at the top of the page, Phoenix at the bottom, Tortoise to the left, and Spider to the right, to circumscribe the land in which the missing one lies.
When the water has nearly heated away, pick up the silver dish, fling away the last of the water[5] and then crush roughly it in your hand[6], soaking the Yang energy of the ritual (this requires three successes on a Resolve roll and three successes on a Strength roll), and will cause 9 damage in burns.
The Yin energy will be channeled into the brush and the paints to Seek the linked Wood of the bracelet; paint quickly, before the watercolors dry.
- ↑ The bracelet is given to the person you want to paint; the brush is used by the ritualist. The ebony items aren't created as part of the ritual; they are created before. If one of the items is lost, a new pair can be prepared by creating brush handle and bracelet from the same piece of ebony.
- ↑ Create Fire; Fox for the scent, Serpent for the visual aspect of the candle
- ↑ Magpie
- ↑ Transform Earth; Control Water
- ↑ Monkey
- ↑ Destroy Metal, Tiger for fierceness and Bear to follow through
