DF: How do cults release Elder Things?

[b-dog]

I was wondering how cults can release Elder Things, considering humanity is so powerless. I mean do sacrifices give power to Elder Things to help release them? Would mana also be useful to Elder Things as a source of energy or is it too weak to help release Elder Things? Thanks.

[Voidstar]

Summoning rituals under taken on High unholy days, usually when the forces between worlds are weakest. Results are usually better with Lots of blood of the innocent, A special Sacrificial virgin of obviously pure origin. This setting should include lots of cultists chanting, holy relics of the cult that add to the power and improve the odds of summoning ritual. A cult leader who should be "THE" local bad guy with lots of cult religious knowlage, research and information on the cult, it's teachings and it's unholy books of power and knowlage. It should be assumed that the cult leader has an additional background in magic (be it sorcery, witchcraft or priestly) with which to produce the spell or summoning ritual. Much of the cult leaders power may come from their own sources such as the "unholy book", the "artifact of power" or the "Specially prepared and consicrated" ritual site.

While I dont have any specifics on the Elder Things I would fit their mythos over the above suggestions. Most of this is taken from fantasy settings so it should fit in nicely, but use what ever you feel is best to create the setting that fits your needs.

[Captain-Captain]

Treat it as Ceremonial casting. You have a high priest or priestess, probably with a BIG Power Item, several lower ranking priests with fairly powerful power items as well. For the sake of not over enriching the presumably victorious PCs when they disrupt the ceremony, the High Priest's item has a capacity of 20 and the other priests have 15.

And for convenience's sake each priest has 11 FP and can safely spend 10 to stay conscious after the casting. (Several acolytes know Lend Vitality and have power items to help their masters recover their Fatigue.)

If there are 5 priests in the casting we have 20 from the high priest's item 60 from the other priests item, 50 from their personal FP scores, 100 from the chanting spectators and the sacrificed life force of the princess or whomever the victim is. (Sacrificed Life Force means all Fatigue and HP all the way down to Death, which is rolled for normally.) So an average victim is a guaranteed 20 points and potentially 70 points, depending on when the HT check vs death fails.

Now done in a circle enchanted for this ritual, you might get effects akin to Exclusive and Dedicated powerstones. Perhaps a tripling of energy points.

Minimum energy available is 250 without the dedicated/exclusive effect. Maximum without it is 300. So IF the dedicated effect occurs you have 500 or 600 energy points, and if the Exclusive effect occurs you have 750 to 900 energy points.

You can summon a pretty powerful entity for that kind of energy.

[Captain-Captain]

As for mana and elder things... some would use mana, others won't (some will be spell or Powers as magically based, the others built on Powers using other descriptors.

Elder Things don't play by the same rules you see.

[Hai-Etlik]

Whatever works. Just make it up as you go. It would depend on the elder thing and what it is being released from in the first place so you don't particularly have to worry about internal consistency. Not that such consistency has any place in a DF game to begin with.

[b-dog]

So, basically, sacrifice is just used as fatigue to help in the summoning of the Elder Things. But wouldn't the Elder Thing also enjoy the suffering of others? Or would they be too insignificant to care about?

[Witchking]

My only thought is CAREFULLY!

[Rocket Man]

It's much easier to release Elder Things than Younger ones. Failing to pay the bill at the rest home usually works.

[Voidstar]

Originally Posted by b-dog

So, basically, sacrifice is just used as fatigue to help in the summoning of the Elder Things. But wouldn't the Elder Thing also enjoy the suffering of others? Or would they be too insignificant to care about?

In some systems the sacrifice releases a soul to feed upon, and blood points
to be consumed like mana.

[Kromm]

I've always been partial to the "Mmmm, cultists!" approach. Seriously: cultists aren't sane. Perhaps they simply gazed upon Lesser Things already loose in the world and went nuts, and the Things influenced what kind of nuts. Perhaps Things manipulate weak-willed people from a strange ether plane just out of sight of the mind -- a kind of sinister foreboding effect, as experienced in a haunted wood. Perhaps Things manipulate bloodlines, warping weak blood with Sinister Radiation From Beyond (that would explain why cultists always seem to show up in isolated, inbred villages . . .). And of course some percentage of people have serious psychiatric problems, and see going to your doom as food for Things as a desirable end. All of this this leads to enough human sacrifices to generate sufficient death energy, bound life force, or Yog-knows-what-else to rip open the membrane between worlds so more Things can step through.