IkselamInfernal/SidebarSummon

Demon-Summoning For Dummies

Summoning a demon without the appropriate Sorcery spell is an extended Charisma + Occult roll, with each roll representing one hour of game time. Trappings such as sacrifices, elaborate ritual trappings, and crowds of chanting acolytes should be treated as stunts, and grant their dice bonus to every roll in the extended action. If the ritual lasts for more hours than the summoner's Stamina score, each subsequent roll is made at a cumulative -1 die penalty.

Summoning a First Circle demon requires ten total successes; Second Circle demons require twenty, and Third Circle demons require forty. Knowing the true name of the demon being summoned reduces the number of required successes by five. If the summoner has successfully called the demon more than three times previously, the required successes are further decreased by one.

Summoning a demon is only half the battle; only an idiot or a lunatic would call up a denizen of Malfeas without making some provision for containing it when it arrives. Making such preparations is an extended Intelligence + Occult roll; as with the actual summoning, each roll represents an hour of effort. Each success will hold the demon for ten minutes; most serious summoners spend days or weeks constructing elaborate magic circles to protect themselves.

Once the demon has arrived, the summoner generally attempts to bargain with it. This should usually be played out, but those wishing a mechanical system can have the summoner make an extended Manipulation + Occult roll, opposed by the demon's Manipulation + Presence, with each roll representing ten minutes of haggling. The summoner's net successes determine how favorable to her the final agreement is.

Dismissing a demon back to Malfeas requires a Charisma + Occult roll, opposed by the demon's Willpower roll. If the first roll fails, additional banishment attempts may be made every ten minutes. A botch by the summoner means the demon breaks loose; a botch by the demon means that it immediately disappears back to Malfeas.