The Skoptsi: Yelena's Notes

YELENA’S NOTES

A disorganized jumble of papers contains the journals, experiment logs, enemy lists, and recipes of Yelena Kalamatiano. These documents represent a lifetime’s work of pursuing the mysteries of The Magna Mater. Though I-Cell has come to know it by other names, The Black Goat of the Woods, Sheela Na-Gig, Shub-Niggurath. Whatever it is. 

The documents provide a basic outline of the Skoptsi theological and cosmological beliefs, and some of the routine operations undertaken by them in Moscow-on-the-Chesapeake. 

The intelligence of this book will prove invaluable to I-Cell efforts in destroying the Skoptsi. 

Below are some of the spells invented and learned by Kalamatiano in her many, many years. 

BECKON THE ARCHANGEL OF THE MAGNA MATER

Elaborate Ritual. Study Time, WEEKS; 1d10 SAN, +1 Unnatural, Casting Time: HOURS, 1D6 SAN, 12 WP

This ritual beckons for an “Archangel of the Magna Mater”, an enormous and horrific creature resembling a tree, an alligator, and what remains of a human being after a car accident. The Skoptsi believe it to be an angel of God. 

The ritual begins with an area of ground of the Operator’s choosing being soaked in the blood of bovine. Kalamatiano believed that one cow’s supply sufficed, but often bled two or even three for good measure. This can be anywhere from weeks or months before the summoning, or right before the next steps begin. Next, a chunk of stone or volcanic glass carved in a specific shape resembling an oblong pentagonal prism that has been coated in blood across its entire surface is placed in the center of bloodied earth (like the soaking of the earth, the coating of the prism can be done ahead of time). 

A prayer then begins led by the operator, with odd verses taken up by assistants, though this ritual does not require assistants to perform. The prayer is 9 verses that take roughly 11 minutes, some verses are to be “sung like a folk tune” while others are to be “shouted as if in a blinding rage”. The prayer is to be repeated until the archangel appears and is normally performed while dancing, which normally takes about 30 minutes, but can take as little as 5.

Once the archangel appears an offering is to be presented to it, this can be a “sinner” or any mammal. In the past, Yelena has offered the archangel live humans, sheep, and cows. There is no discernible difference whether or not the offerings have been castrated before the ritual. Yelena has never casted the ritual and not given the offering, but was warned by cult elders long ago that doing so is likely to anger them.

Once the Archangel has been given its offering, the operator has its audience, and it will perform certain duties asked of it, such as destroying enemies of the faith, and simply “offering its wisdom in the ways of God's immaculate creation”. Yelena never gives specifics on how it “communicates” with her.

PETITION THE ARCHANGEL TO RETURN UNTO THE KINGDOM OF THE MAGNA MATER

Complex Ritual. Study Time, DAYS; 1d8 SAN. Activation: ONE HOUR, 3 WP for creation of the amulet, 3 WP on activation, 1 SAN

Described by Yelena as a countermeasure should the Archangel become wroth, this ritual involves a stone similar to the one used in the summoning of the Archangel. It is to be soaked in an alchemical mixture, consisting primarily of fresh blood of men, holy wine and bread, and holy water, which is to be prayed upon at the sun’s rising and setting for at least one day. After a day or two of this, the stone is taken out and is allowed to dry, but cannot be exposed directly to the light of the sun. When the spell is to be activated, the stone must be presented in clear line of sight to the Archangel and the 3-verse spell is to be recited once. After which, the operator is to remain completely silent. The Archangel returns to the kingdom of heaven “through the stone”, which the Skoptsi mandate must be cast into fire or into the earth. 

Yelena’s experiments have yielded small ways to improve the ritual: such as using the actual stone used in the summoning ritual and using the placenta of one of the bovine slaughtered in the summoning in the jar of fluids that the stone soaks in. She claims these small alterations have made it more “reliable” and “potent”. 

EXCHANGE PERSONALITIES

Simple Ritual. Study Time, DAYS; 1d8 SAN. Activation: VARIES

An ancient technique used by the Skoptsi, tutored to Kalamatiano by Jeremija Bogdashkavich when she was still a girl. The ritual enables her to exchange the personalities and “life-glow” of a target, allowing her to control and perceive through the body of another as if it were her own, while elsewhere, the target remains inside her original body. 

The technique can be performed in many ways. It can be performed instantaneously, requiring intense mental focus and the brief recitation of ritual words that allows the operator to “reach out and pluck” the mind from another and “pour themselves in” to the vacant body instantly. 

Mechanically, the operator spends 3 WP and attempts to overcome its target in an opposed POWx5 test. The switch costs 1 SAN for the operator and 1/1d6 for the target and the switch lasts for 1d4 rounds, though the operator can choose to spend 3 WP or 1 POW to forcibly prolong the spell’s duration. If the target fumbles the opposed POWx5 test, or the operator critically succeeds it, then the target fails unconscious while body-swapped and remembers nothing afterwards. 

Kalamatiano’s experiments with this spell have failed to yield any method of a permanent transfer of consciousness, though she had yet to attempt to fuel it with human sacrifice, she hypothesized that “siphoning consciousness” might give the spell sufficient power to enable such a transfer. She has discovered that “carving” a symbol used by the Skoptsi in the summoning of its archangels on the operator’s flesh, or on the flesh of the target while they are under possession, can extend the spells’ duration. She is not aware of what happens when an operator forces a possessed body to commit suicide, or cause it to otherwise die with her inside. 

DOMINATION

Simple Ritual. Study Time, DAYS; 1d8 SAN. Activation: ONE TURN; 8 WP, 1d4 SAN

This ritual involves simple but specific occult hand gestures and training in a strange and alien method of controlling one’s voice in order to create a highly specific and disturbing tonality. The operator must overcome the opponent in an opposed POWx5 test. This ritual does not tax the operator anything if the POW test fails. The target of the spell obeys the command turns equal to the operator’s POW score. Every turn, the target can attempt a POWx5 test to regain control of themselves for that turn, though this does not end the effect. This is at -20% if the action they’ve been ordered to perform does not put them or bonds in mortal danger, and is rolled at +20% if they are ordered to harm themselves or a bond. 

If the target loses more than 1 HP from a single source, they “snap out” of the effect instantly.  The operator can sense this and has the option to spend 1 POW to reassert control. 

Kalamatiano has discovered that feeding targets a substance she calls “Mother’s Milk”, the milk of the Archangels of the Magna Mater, enhances the spell’s power, and can extend the duration of the spell to weeks and even months without them even being aware of it. 

SALVE OF THE GREAT MOTHER

Simple Ritual. Study Time, DAYS; 1d4 SAN. Activation TURNS; 6 WP, 1 SAN

This spell involves a brief invocation to the Magna Mater both in Russian and in a strange, alien tongue. The spell quickly heals injuries. The target recovers 1d4 HP for 1d4 turns. The spell cost the operator 1d6 SAN and the target and any witnesses 1 SAN. She has never had to use this on herself, though mentions that those who’ve received the “blessing” of the spell have recounted fantastic dreams of the Great Mother’s domain.

This is described as the simplest spell in her collection. She mentions that Bogdashkavich intends to instruct Skoptsi cultists this ritual should harassment from the “interlopers” continue.  

SOLONITSYN’S TRICK

Simple Ritual. Study Time, DAYS; 1d4 SAN. Activation MINUTES; 3 WP, 1 SAN

Named for a long-lost senior cultist of the Skoptsi. The Trick is a method of obfuscating and destroying memory. The operator must overcome the target in a POWx5 test, the operator may reroll the test for an additional 3 WP as many times as they want. If the operator succeeds, they may order the target to “forget” certain memories, or change the memories to be different, these commands are given verbally in a language that the subject can comprehend. The target loses no SAN when the spell is cast on them, and then 1 SAN each day, one day for every point of willpower the operator spent on casting the spell. 

The actual spell involves ritual words that are spoken to the user that are meant to put them in a trance, and are to be repeated while verbal instructions are given. Repetitive sights and sounds seem to help “solidify” the commands, such as a skipping record, water dripping from a faucet, a symbol intermittently shown to the victim, or a light flashing on and off. Kalamatiano likewise has found that forcing victims to imbibe “mother’s milk” enhances the ritual’s duration and effectiveness, though laments that chronic exposure to the ritual seems to seriously harm the sanity and mental faculty of its victims in a manner similar to Alzheimer's.