Witchcraft Spells

Witchcraft

The practice of witchcraft has its origins in the folklore of healers, midwives, and fortune-tellers, three traditions generally associated with women. Most witches considered themselves good Christians, even if their practices were rooted in early paganism. It should go without saying that very few worshipped Satan, and the vast majority of “witches” drowned, hanged, stoned, or burned were not even witches at all. Men who practiced witchcraft were generally called warlocks or wizards, and were subjected to the same punishments as female witches.

In White Leviathan, Rachel Ward and Lady Jezebel are traditional witches, their practice informed by European paganism. Neither connects “the Craft” to the Mythos, although these lines are certainly more blurry in Dunwich than Salem. However, pull up the floorboards of the Craft, and one exposes a foundation of darker powers. In the milieu of H.P. Lovecraft, witchcraft is like any other pagan magic: just another mask for the Mythos. The extent of this relationship is up to the Keeper and Rachel Ward’s player to determine; but witchcraft is not intended to be an “opposing force” to the Mythos. This is not an August Derleth scenario, where light and darkness are at war, and the Elder Sign is proof against annihilation. There is only the Mythos. This is the reason that witchcraft spells require intensive preparation and numerous material components—the farther one gets from the true source of power, the more compromises and compensations are required.

The Vocabulary of Witchcraft
Many of the familiar terms now associated with witchcraft were coined during the Wicca revival of the 1950s and were unknown in the nineteenth century. This includes the term Wicca itself, calling a knife an “athamé,” or referring to a grimoire as a “Book of Shadows.” Nevertheless, because these ideas have become so ingrained in modern witchcraft narratives, they have been incorporated into White Leviathan, even if the terms themselves are avoided. Therefore witches use a “black-handled knife” and record their spells in a “lorebook.” Keepers less concerned about anachronism are free to retcon accordingly!

Practicing Witchcraft
Learning a new witchcraft spell requires four weeks of study followed by a successful Witchcraft roll. A failed roll restarts the process. The following spells are listed in the order usually learned, with the standard Call of Cthulhu analogues in parentheses. The Keeper and players are free to create more as the scenario progresses.

Credits
Some of these spells are unique to White Leviathan, and some are variations of standard spells found in the “Grimoire” of the Call of Cthulhu Rulebook, and assume the players have access to those descriptions. Those marked with an asterisk are adapted from spells found in Chaosium’s Grand Grimoire of Cthulhu Mythos Magic. Some of the witchcraft spells I devised for White Leviathan have been purchased by Chaosium for use in future resources; specifically Scrying Gaze, Ritual for the Creation of a Mandragora, Call Upon the Mandragora to Remain Unseen, Brew Sabbat Unguent, and the Rite of Aquelarre. This material is copyrighted 2021 by Chaosium, and used with permission.

Enchanting a Black-Handled Knife (Bless Blade/Enchant Knife)

• Cost: 1-5 Power percentiles. 1D3 Sanity points
• Casting time: 1 month

The famous “witches’ knife” is a black-handled knife used to channel magical energies. It can also harm entities immune to mundane weapons. The ritual used to create the knife is quite detailed, and features a complicated sigil derived from the Key of Solomon. Any knife or dagger may be enchanted, but the handle must be black. (It may be otherwise bejeweled or ornamented.) The ritual begins when the witch uses the knife to etch the sigil into a flat rock during a new moon. In New England, a piece of slate is customary, the smoother the better. During the next full moon, an animal of Size 50 or greater must be sacrificed above the rock. The animal’s throat is cut from left to right, the head removed, and the body skinned. The caster uses the blade to retrace the sigil in the animal’s blood, and invests the blade with 1-5 Power percentiles. This loss is permanent for the caster, and assigns the Power level of the blade. Most witches invest the full 5 points. The 1D3 Sanity loss is suffered at this time as well. The knife is wrapped in the skin of the sacrificed animal and buried under the stone. The head must be skinned and boiled, and the magical sigil carefully painted upon the skull. The following new moon, the blade is dug up and rinsed in running water. Upon driving its tip through the painted skull, the blade is fully consecrated.

The black-handled blade may be used as a standard weapon, inflicting 1D4 damage. When used in conjunction with another witchcraft spell, the knife grants the witch a percentage bonus equal to its Power level. These points are applied to any relevant casting rolls. This power only works for the witch or her direct descendants; in the hands of anyone else, the black-handled blade is just an ordinary dagger.

Charm to Beguile a Man (Enthrall Victim)

• Cost: 2 magic points; 1D4 Sanity points
• Casting time: 1 round

This spell is similar to the standard Enthrall Victim spell, however it only works on heterosexual men, and requires a rose petal, a dash of rose attar, or a perfume made from roses. The witch must place this ingredient across the Girdle of Venus on her right palm, her right thumb pressed against the flower petal or liquid essence. She must make eye contact with her target, then bring her hand to her mouth and kiss the knuckle of her thumb. If the spell is successful, the target is enthralled by the witch’s charms, and cannot move or speak until released by a physical blow, a loud noise, or some other jarring disturbance. If the target has previously allowed the witch to kiss him, she receives a +1D10 bonus die on her Power roll and suffers no loss of Sanity.

Hex to Dumbfound the Troublesome (Cloud Memory)

• Cost: 1D6 magic points; 1D2 Sanity points
• Casting time: 1 round

This spell is similar to the standard Cloud Memory spell, however the witch must proceed her instructions with the words, “I command thee to forget…” and accompany the demand with a twisting motion of her left hand, preferably while holding her black-handled knife. If a male target has previously allowed the witch to kiss him, she receives a +1D10 bonus die on her Power roll and suffers no loss of Sanity.

Ward Against Harm (Deflect Harm*)

• Cost: Variable magic points; 1 Sanity point
• Casting time: 2 rounds

This spell is similar to the standard Deflect Harm spell, but requires a string of acorns, a rosary, a silver necklace, or some other form of circular charm personally meaningful to the witch. The spell is prepared by making a shallow cut across the Life Line of the witch’s left palm, drawing blood into the Quadrangle. A small living creature must be placed into her palm—a spider, a lizard, a worm, whatever may be gripped and concealed. Closing her left hand around the creature, the witch wraps the charm around her fist and extends her closed hand towards a potential assailant. Until dropping her hand, she may deflect successive attacks by expending magic points equal to the rolled damage for each attack. If an attack misses, no magic points are expended. She may choose which attacks to deflect, and from which attacks to take damage; but she must choose before knowing what that damage will be. These injuries are transferred onto the creature, which invariably perishes during the spell. The spell concludes when the witch opens her hand or runs out of magic points.

Encanto para hacer obedecer a los hombres (Mental Suggestion)

• Cost: 1 Power percentile. Variable magic points; variable Sanity points
• Casting time: 3 rounds

Operating much like the standard Mental Suggestion spell, the “Charm to Make Men Obey” was taught to Lady Jezebel by a Mexican bruja in New Orleans. More elaborate than the version used by the Kingsport Cult, “Encanto para hacer obedecer a los hombres” is also less destabilizing to the caster’s Sanity. Unthreatening suggestions cost no Sanity points, riskier suggestions cost 1D3 Sanity points, and dangerous or suicidal suggestions cost 1D6 Sanity points. (See the standard Mental Suggestion rules for details.) The charm requires the witch to possess a sachet of herbs containing bat’s head root, garlic, and High John the Conqueror root. These ingredients must be mixed with the witch’s menstrual blood and permanently invested with 1 Power percentile. The resulting sachet contains five “charges,” and must be physically touched by the witch while casting the spell. The witch must make the standard opposed Power roll to cast the spell, but also a Charm roll. If the Charm roll fails, one charge is drained from the sachet whether or not the spell is successful. However, if any pushed roll is failed, the sachet drains completely. If a male target has previously allowed the witch to kiss him, she receives a +1D10 bonus die on her Power roll.

Witches’ Hex (Evil Eye)

• Cost: 10 magic points; 1D4 Sanity points
• Casting time: 2 rounds

This spell is similar to the standard Evil Eye spell, but requires the witch to win an opposed Power roll against her target. To invoke the hex, the witch must cut her left palm, using her right index figure to smear the blood left to right, from the Inner Mars to the Outer Mars. The bloody finger is pointed at the heart of her target, and the following curse is spoken out loud: “By the command of Hecate! I am clothed in terror! I make thee tremble, I make thee run afraid, I drive thee out! I curse thee, thrice I curse thee, thou art thrice cursed!” If she fails the opposed Power roll, the curse rebounds on the witch, but lasts for three days instead of one—the origin of the Triple Rede. (Regional variations change the name of the goddess invoked. Lilith, Ishtar, Erzulie, Kali, and Saint Sarah are all common.)

Scrying Gaze

• Cost: Variable magic points; variable Sanity points
• Casting time: 1 round

This spell allows the witch to use a reflective surface to visualize a distant person, place, or thing. However, it only works on people the witch has met, places she has visited, or things she has touched. The witch stars into a mirror, a bowl of water, or a crystal ball and spends  1 magic point to begin the process. The act of scrying requires a successful Power roll and costs 1 magic point per round. If the target is inanimate, or a friendly human being, a failed Power roll doubles the required magic points, and drains Sanity at the rate of 1 point per round. If the target is unfriendly, the witch’s Power roll is opposed. (Neutral targets are considered “unfriendly” by default, as are friendly targets unwilling to be scried.) Failing the opposed Power roll results in the witch being “sensed.” This does not disrupt the spell, but triples the required magic points, and the witch loses 1D2 Sanity points per round. If the witch is in possession of a sympathetic totem—a lock of hair from the target, a painting of the location, a fragment of the object—she receives a +1D10 bonus die on her Power roll. Scrying is mentally exhausting, and can only be performed when the witch is at full magic points. Mythos creatures cannot be scried.

Ritual for the Creation of a Mandragora

• Cost: Variable magic points; 1D3 Sanity points
• Casting time: 1 month

This is a traditional ritual from medieval Europe. It details the making of a Mandragora, a fetish doll fashioned from a mandrake root. The Mandragora is considered a “minor homunculus,” and represents the witch during certain magical acts. In White Leviathan, a Mandragora is an essential component for a witch’s most powerful abilities—to turn invisible and to fly! The ritual is described thusly, translated from the French:

Would you like to make a Mandragora, as powerful as the Homunculus so praised by Paracelsus? Then find a root of the plant called mandrake. Take it out of the ground on a Monday—the day of the moon—shortly after a solstice or equinox. Be careful! The scream of the mandrake is fatal, so tie the root to an animal and stop your ears with wax. Force the beast to draw the root from the ground. Once the animal perishes, you are released from peril. Cut off the ends of the root with an enchanted knife. At midnight, bury it in a grave located in a country churchyard. For thirty days, water the grave with cow’s milk in which three bats have been drowned. When the thirty-first day arrives, unbury the root at midnight and dry it in an oven heated with branches of verbena. Wrap the Mandragora in a strip of a dead man’s winding-sheet pulled from the grave between sunset and sunrise, and carry it with you everywhere.

A newly-made Mandragora has seven “charges” and adds +7 percentiles to the witch’s Luck score. As charges are consumed, the corresponding percentiles are deducted from Luck. The charges are consumed through the following two spells: Call Upon the Mandragora to Remain Unseen, and Brew Sabbath Unguent.

Pulling the Mandrake
If the witch fails to follow the suggested precautions, pulling the mandrake root can be quite dangerous. The witch must make a Hard Power roll or hear a deafening shriek. Although no one else can hear the scream, the witch suffers 3D6 damage. Also, mandrakes growing beneath execution sites are particularly powerful, granting ten “charges” and +10 Luck.

Call Upon the Mandragora to Remain Unseen

• Cost: Variable magic points; variable Sanity points
• Casting time: 1D6+3 rounds

In order to “remain unseen,” the witch must slice off a “knuckle-sized” piece of her Mandragora and chew it into a pulp, which is then anointed upon her eyelids. This reduces the Mandragora by one charge. Within a few seconds, she begins to experience sensory distortions and synesthesia, a milder but similar experience to ingesting a psychedelic mushroom. Once the witch has acclimatized to her altered state, she may move “unseen” by expending 1 magic point per minute. Any sentient being must achieve an Extreme success on a Power roll to observe the witch, but the spell does not muffle sounds, so a Stealth roll may be required to remain undetected while moving. Each minute of invisibility demands a Sanity roll for a 0/1 loss. (In combat, minutes are reduced to rounds.) Once 5 points of Sanity have been lost, the spell ends, but the psychedelic effects persist for another 1D3 hours. If the spell is ended voluntarily, the effects fade in 1D3 minutes.

Brew Sabbath Unguent

• Cost: 5 magic points
• Casting time: 30 minutes

Also known as Sabbath ointment, green ointment, or Hexensalbe, Sabbath unguent is used in the Rite of Aquelarre. In order to prepare the ointment, a “knuckle-sized” piece of the Mandragora must be sliced off and chewed to a pulp. This reduces the Mandragora by one charge. The pulp is spat out and mixed with lard, cinquefoil, and two of the following four herbs: belladonna, henbane, jimson weed, or wolfsbane. The concoction is boiled to a paste and traditionally stored in a hollow horn. The Sabbath unguent must be made perfectly, or it becomes dangerously toxic! The creator must make a blind Witchcraft roll, with only the Keeper seeing the results. If the roll is a failure, the unguent acts as a Deadly poison, inflicting 2D10 damage on the witch shortly after absorption. (See “Rite of Aquelarre.”)

Deeper Version—Black Sabbath Unguent
A more potent Sabbath unguent may be brewed by replacing animal lard with the fat of an unbaptized baby. Shunned by wholesome practitioners of the Craft, such Black Sabbath Unguent provides a +1D10 bonus die to the blind Witchcraft roll, and allows the Rite of Aquelarre to be cast with a Regular success instead of a Hard success on the Power roll.

The Rite of Aquelarre

• Cost: Variable magic points; 1D6 Sanity points
• Casting time: 1D6+2 rounds

The Rite of Aquelarre originates in medieval Europe, and grants a witch the power of flight. A Spanish word, Aquelarre is derived from the Basque “Akelarre,” meaning a witches’ Sabbath, often conducted in a place accessible by magic flight and presided over by a black goat. In order to achieve this flight, Sabbath unguent is smeared upon a smooth dowel of wood, traditionally a broomstick. The broomstick is straddled, and the witch grinds the ointment into her vagina. Within 1D6+2 rounds of absorption, the witch begins to experience sensory distortions and synesthesia, similar to ingesting a psychedelic mushroom. Side effects include manic laughter, sexual arousal, and psychic disassociation from the body. If the Sabbath unguent was prepared using her own Mandragora, the witch may invoke the power of flight with a Hard success on a Power roll. Using someone else’s unguent requires an Extreme success. Sustaining flight requires the expenditure of 1 magic point every ten minutes, during which a speed of 30 miles/hour may be achieved. Under stressful situations such as combat, this is reduced to 1 magic point per round. If the witch fails her Power roll, she may believe she is flying; but this is merely the effects of the psychedelic experience.

Experienced casters may rub the ointment directly into their bodies and fly without brooms. Some European witches smeared the unguent onto the backs of animals such as goats and swine, and flew to their Sabbaths mounted upon beasts! It should be noted that Rite of Aquelarre is a very difficult spell, and first requires the creation of a black-handled knife and a Mandragora. The majority of witches who attempt this spell usually wind up hopping around on their brooms and laughing uncontrollably; however, an unfortunate number of would-be revelers have become poisoned or paralyzed.

Ritual para la creacíon de un macuñ

• Cost: 2-16 Power points; 1D6 Sanity points
• Casting time: Forty days

This piece of brujería is a Patagonian variant of the Rite of Aquelarre. Practiced by the brujos of La Recta Provincia, the Chilean hybrid of European witchcraft and the Mapuche mythology of the Chiloé Islands, the “Ritual for the creation of a macuñ” details the manufacturing of a macuñ, a special vest that conveys the powers of flight.

To create a macuñ, a kalku—the Chilote term for an evil brujo—must first capture a lizard under the light of the full moon. This familiar is trapped in a cloth and worn on the brujo’s head. The lizard must be kept alive, nourished on flies, berries, and the brujo’s own sweat. The brujo must also sing to the lizard, quiet incantations in a mixture of Spanish and Huilliche. If the sorcerer has followed the process correctly, during the next new moon the lizard whispers the name of a local virgin. The brujo seeks out this woman and seduces her. At the moment he’s ready to claim her maidenhead, he stuffs the lizard down her throat, clamps his hands over her mouth and nose, and suffocates her to death. Her body is moistened with sacred oils and her torso is flayed. The skin is cured for forty days and fashioned into a waistcoat. The victim’s sinews provide the laces, and her teeth and hair are used for decoration.

To transform this ghastly waistcoat into a proper macuñ, the kalku tattoos a unique sigil over the heart and fumigates the vest with cinnamon smoke. At the conclusion of the ritual, the kalku must tattoo the sigil above his own heart. This act permanently invests the macuñ with 2 Power points.

The macuñ must be worn with the breasts facing forward. It radiates a pale phosphorescence that only the wearer can see. Additionally, the brujo becomes immediately aware of any living creature within a radius of five body lengths (approx. 25-30 feet). If worn by its creator, the macuñ grants the power of flight with a Hard success on a Power roll. Sustaining flight requires the expenditure of 1 magic point every ten minutes, during which a speed of 30 miles/hour may be achieved. Under stressful situations such as combat, this is reduced to 1 magic point per round. If the kalku fails his Power roll, the macuñ becomes inert until the next full moon.

Variations
There are many variations of macuñ. If the kalku rescues the lizard from the murdered woman, the creature may be sewn into the collar for additional powers. Green lizards grant the wearer invisibility, a power that requires 2 magic points per minute. A possible onlooker must achieve an Extreme success on a Spot Hidden roll to observe the kalku. (A macuñ does not muffle sounds, so a Stealth roll may be required to remain undetected while moving.) Each minute of invisibility demands a Sanity roll for a 0/1 loss. (In combat, minutes are reduced to rounds.) A striped lizard invests the macuñ with the power of unlocking doors and windows. This requires the expenditure of 3 magic points per lock, and triggers a Sanity roll for a 0/1 loss. A red lizard grants the brujo immunity to fire. A black lizard allows him to see in the dark.

If the kalku murders his victim after taking her virginity, the power of flight is exchanged for the ability to transform into an animal; usually a dog, pig, snake, or owl. Such lycanthropic macuñs must be decorated with sympathetic tokens such as teeth, tails, fangs, or feathers. Activating and sustaining this power is identical to flight.

Less Powerful Variations
A macuñ may be fashioned from a pre-existing corpse, a non-virgin, or even a male. Preparing these “lesser” macuñs does not require a prophetic lizard, allowing the kalku to select his own victim. However, each factor of removal from “sacrificed/virgin/woman” doubles the associated Power cost of the investiture. For instance, creating a macuñ from the pre-existing corpse of a female virgin costs 4 Power points; from the corpse of a female nonvirgin 8 Power points; and from the corpse of a male nonvirgin 16 Power points. Lesser macuñs have fewer associated powers, and required stricter rolls to function. For example, a macuñ made from a nonvirgin requires an Extreme Power roll to grant flight.

Deeper Version—El macuñ rojo
In some areas of La Recta Provincia it’s whispered that certain kalkus create macuñs from pregnant women—the dread “macuñ rojo.” While such macuñs cannot bestow the power of flight or lycanthropy, other equivalent powers have been described, such as the ability to duplicate another person’s appearance, to pass through walls, or to breathe underwater. The most terrible of these stories are about El No Nacido, an evil brujo who throttled his own daughter during childbirth. His macuñ was said to feature his undead grandchild still connected by its umbilical cord, a wicked sprite that granted El No Nacido the power to mesmerize onlookers.

Weaknesses
A macuñ is subject to normal wear and tear, and may be destroyed by fire. Its powers are negated by cinnamon smoke, which forces the kalku to “restore” the macuñ by standing under a waterfall during a full moon. A macuñ may be temporarily negated by salt. Throwing a handful of salt at a brujo wearing a macuñ forces the sorcerer to make a Power roll. If he fails, the macuñ becomes inert for 2D6 minutes.

White Leviathan > Auxiliary Materials > New Spells
[Witchcraft | Cult Sorcery | Eldritch Magic | Pacific Shamanism]
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Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 20 April 2023
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
White Leviathan PDF: [TBD]