The Summer Solstice
Summer might not lead one’s thoughts to vampires. Summer is fun and tans and bikinis on the beach; it’s sweat and picnics and baseball games. While Kindred have to eat just as much as at any other time, it’s often a season when they lay low, almost instinctively taking it easy during the short nights and long hot days.
It is fitting that this least venerable of seasons holds the festival of the Acolytes’ outsider roles, for the Summer Solstice is when The Scarlet Woman and The Hero have their chance to shine. The Summer Solstice is a festival, a bash, a dance, a party, a spectacle and an opportunity to get noticed.
This celebration on the informal end of the Acolyte ritual spectrum. In many domains, there’s no overt religious element, not even an invocation to start things off. Instead, a place is selected, Acolytes show up some time after full dark and at some point music starts (anything from one guy with a boom box to a full orchestra, depending on who’s footing the bill). This festival rarely very organized, and often there’s competing music from different parts of the house, forest or graveyard where the Summer Solstice is celebrated.
It is a great honor to catch a spirit at the Summer Solstice, and many within the Circle are eager to help such a host in hopes of improving their own communications with the invisible world. Some good actors have feigned possession in order to manipulate their fellow Acolytes into supporting their mundane ambitions. Indeed, that may be more common than genuine contact. It’s unheard-of for more than two spirits to take hosts at a Summer Solstice, and far more often none are able to take hosts at all.
The missions of these spirits range from the assassination of one particular mortal to the preservation and recovery of particular artifacts to alterations of the physical landscape at scales ranging from the vast to the negligible. (One possessed Acolyte convinced the local covenant to help him Hound an entire Dragon coterie out of town, citing the will of the spirit world. In fact, all his rider wanted him to do was remove a metal door from a local synagogue and have it replaced with greenpainted wood.)
Some of the spirits’ tasks are dangerous, some trivial and most are inscrutable. But mounts who succeed are more likely to be contacted again, while those who fail almost never are.
It is fitting that this least venerable of seasons holds the festival of the Acolytes’ outsider roles, for the Summer Solstice is when The Scarlet Woman and The Hero have their chance to shine. The Summer Solstice is a festival, a bash, a dance, a party, a spectacle and an opportunity to get noticed.
This celebration on the informal end of the Acolyte ritual spectrum. In many domains, there’s no overt religious element, not even an invocation to start things off. Instead, a place is selected, Acolytes show up some time after full dark and at some point music starts (anything from one guy with a boom box to a full orchestra, depending on who’s footing the bill). This festival rarely very organized, and often there’s competing music from different parts of the house, forest or graveyard where the Summer Solstice is celebrated.
It is a great honor to catch a spirit at the Summer Solstice, and many within the Circle are eager to help such a host in hopes of improving their own communications with the invisible world. Some good actors have feigned possession in order to manipulate their fellow Acolytes into supporting their mundane ambitions. Indeed, that may be more common than genuine contact. It’s unheard-of for more than two spirits to take hosts at a Summer Solstice, and far more often none are able to take hosts at all.
The missions of these spirits range from the assassination of one particular mortal to the preservation and recovery of particular artifacts to alterations of the physical landscape at scales ranging from the vast to the negligible. (One possessed Acolyte convinced the local covenant to help him Hound an entire Dragon coterie out of town, citing the will of the spirit world. In fact, all his rider wanted him to do was remove a metal door from a local synagogue and have it replaced with greenpainted wood.)
Some of the spirits’ tasks are dangerous, some trivial and most are inscrutable. But mounts who succeed are more likely to be contacted again, while those who fail almost never are.
Execution
There are a number of hours of dancing and mingling, and this is when the feeding happens, too. (It’s pretty much a BYO affair, though Heroes and Scarlet Women with large herds often flaunt them by bringing any members who’d be willing to give it up for complete strangers. Furthermore, given the preponderance of blood dolls and mortal Acolytes who attend, any Hunting rolls get a +3 bonus.) All of this drinking and dancing and jubilation are, in themselves, pretty worthwhile if you like that sort of thing. But from a larger perspective, it’s all prelude to Declaration.
Declaration starts around one or two in the morning — right about the time that the excitement goes from unsullied enthusiasm and starts to take on a tinge of Hysteria or desperation. The music stops, and Acolytes present stand up on a raised platform and begin to declare.
Declarations take the form of boasts about what the Acolytes intend to accomplish in the following year. Sometimes these boasts are carefully calculated displays of power and ambition, along the lines of “For the last hundred years, the Sheriff’s been Invictus, but this year it’s going to be an Acolyte. It’s going to be me!” or “This year, I will succeed at a takeover of WLTL radio!” Other times, the brags are more along the lines of personal goals, everything from the profoundly shallow (“I promise, I’m going to seduce a married woman every week for a year!”) to the deeply spiritual (“I’m going to go without feeding every Monday and Tuesday to demonstrate my devotion to Omecihuatl”).
Similar to the dancing and frolicking, these displays are well and good and, depending on how they’re handled, can result in gains and losses in reputation (and possibly the Status Merit). But they’re still not what the festival is really about.
Declaration starts around one or two in the morning — right about the time that the excitement goes from unsullied enthusiasm and starts to take on a tinge of Hysteria or desperation. The music stops, and Acolytes present stand up on a raised platform and begin to declare.
Declarations take the form of boasts about what the Acolytes intend to accomplish in the following year. Sometimes these boasts are carefully calculated displays of power and ambition, along the lines of “For the last hundred years, the Sheriff’s been Invictus, but this year it’s going to be an Acolyte. It’s going to be me!” or “This year, I will succeed at a takeover of WLTL radio!” Other times, the brags are more along the lines of personal goals, everything from the profoundly shallow (“I promise, I’m going to seduce a married woman every week for a year!”) to the deeply spiritual (“I’m going to go without feeding every Monday and Tuesday to demonstrate my devotion to Omecihuatl”).
Similar to the dancing and frolicking, these displays are well and good and, depending on how they’re handled, can result in gains and losses in reputation (and possibly the Status Merit). But they’re still not what the festival is really about.
Components and tools
Trance Possession
There are two ways to enter a state of trance possession during the Summer Solstice. The trance can be voluntary, or it can be against the vampire’s will.
If the vampire is unwilling to become possessed, and a spirit wants to seize his body anyway, the Kindred rolls Resolve + Composure to resist. A single success keeps his mind free and his conscience in control. A vampire who wants to host a spirit at the Summer Solstice can roll Manipulation + Occult in an attempt to lure one in.
Whether the possession is desired or not, the weak spirits interested in this ritual can only truly control the vampire’s corpse-body long enough to make a single pronouncement of intention. After that, the core personality returns, but the spirit is still tied to its new pawn and aware what happens to him. When the vampire is pursuing the spirit’s goals, the spirit can offer one free Willpower point per session, and it can be added after the dice have hit the table. Only the Storyteller decides when the Willpower bonus kicks in, if ever. (The smarter spirits help out to save the skins of their proxies in the physical realm, of course.)
On the other hand, vampires with such a spirit who resist the spirit’s call must make a Resolve + Composure roll to act directly against the mission. If the roll fails, the vampire loses a point of Willpower. If the vampire has no Willpower left, he is unable to carry out their act of sabotage.
Kindred carrying Solstice-called spirits are still in command of themselves to a very large degree and can pursue their own goals and ambitions without interference. These Kindred are just expected to do the spirit’s task in addition. Those who look at the auras of these “spirit mounts” see a double exposure of overlapping emotions — often with the vivid second set scribbled outside the outlines of the vampire’s physical body.
There are two ways to enter a state of trance possession during the Summer Solstice. The trance can be voluntary, or it can be against the vampire’s will.
If the vampire is unwilling to become possessed, and a spirit wants to seize his body anyway, the Kindred rolls Resolve + Composure to resist. A single success keeps his mind free and his conscience in control. A vampire who wants to host a spirit at the Summer Solstice can roll Manipulation + Occult in an attempt to lure one in.
Whether the possession is desired or not, the weak spirits interested in this ritual can only truly control the vampire’s corpse-body long enough to make a single pronouncement of intention. After that, the core personality returns, but the spirit is still tied to its new pawn and aware what happens to him. When the vampire is pursuing the spirit’s goals, the spirit can offer one free Willpower point per session, and it can be added after the dice have hit the table. Only the Storyteller decides when the Willpower bonus kicks in, if ever. (The smarter spirits help out to save the skins of their proxies in the physical realm, of course.)
On the other hand, vampires with such a spirit who resist the spirit’s call must make a Resolve + Composure roll to act directly against the mission. If the roll fails, the vampire loses a point of Willpower. If the vampire has no Willpower left, he is unable to carry out their act of sabotage.
Kindred carrying Solstice-called spirits are still in command of themselves to a very large degree and can pursue their own goals and ambitions without interference. These Kindred are just expected to do the spirit’s task in addition. Those who look at the auras of these “spirit mounts” see a double exposure of overlapping emotions — often with the vivid second set scribbled outside the outlines of the vampire’s physical body.
Participants
What the older guests (along with those Fathers, Mothers, Hermits and Crones who consider all this bravado inappropriate to their dignified positions) are watching for are spontaneous declarations — “I’m going to get closure with my mom while she’s still alive!” or “I’m going to show those uppity Dragon shitbirds they can’t mess with me!” Those promises, blurted out and ill-considered, are regarded as more significant, more honest and more meaningful because they came from somewhere deep and unreasoned, closer to the heart of the Man.
But most of all, the experienced watchers are hoping to see inspired declarations. Not “inspired” in the sense of “someone having a really good idea.” “Inspired” in its old meaning. Inspired meaning that a spirit is speaking. At the Summer Solstice, the point is to lose yourself. Some become so thoroughly lost that something Other can find them.
But most of all, the experienced watchers are hoping to see inspired declarations. Not “inspired” in the sense of “someone having a really good idea.” “Inspired” in its old meaning. Inspired meaning that a spirit is speaking. At the Summer Solstice, the point is to lose yourself. Some become so thoroughly lost that something Other can find them.
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