To cast call forth the Dweller, the caster must inscribe forty-two mystic symbols around an open doorway, then begin the chants and supplications required for the ritual.

If the ritual succeeds, an image of the Dweller—an inky mass of tentacles and mouths—appears on the other side of the doorway. The Dweller on the Threshold truthfully answers any questions it is asked about a particular door. For example, the Dweller can provide a magical password that unlocks a door, indicate how to disarm a trap on a door, reveal the weaknesses of a door’s guardian, or describe the room that lies beyond the door. Its answers are clear and fairly specific, if somewhat terse. The caster may well appreciate such concise answers, because one of the forty-two symbols inscribed around the doorway during the casting of the ritual fades away with each word the Dweller on the Threshold speaks—and when all the symbols are gone, the Dweller disappears.

If the caster asks the Dweller on the Threshold a question that doesn’t involve doors, the Dweller responds with a cutting insult, often about something the caster thought was secret. Each word of the insult likewise makes a symbol disappear from the perimeter of the doorway.

The exact nature of the Dweller on the Threshold is shrouded in mystery. Some contend that it is somehow connected to the god of secrets, although no one has ever found conclusive evidence that the Dweller on the Threshold is evil.

Option

If the doorway used as the focus is one that the Dweller has been asked about in the past, the caster gains a +4 bonus on the Knowledge (arcana) checks during the ritual. For example, if Boredflak uses call forth the Dweller to learn about the Gateway to Despair, then when he reaches the Gateway, he can use the Gateway as the focus and gain a +4 bonus when he uses the ritual to ask about the Arches of Certain Doom.

Material Component

Forty-two mystic symbols inscribed around the perimeter of the focus doorway (requiring materials costing 500 gp). As described above, these symbols gradually disappear during the time the ritual is in effect.

Focus

An open doorway large enough to allow a Medium creature to pass through it.

Failure

If the caster fails two consecutive Knowledge (arcana) checks, the Dweller on the Threshold gleefully lies, employing falsehoods that demonstrate its inclination toward mischief and cruelty.

Backlash

After speaking with the Dweller on the Threshold, the caster is exhausted. The ritual also causes the caster to age by 9 months.

To summon the expedient whirlwind, you must intone the words of the ritual (which are mystic invocations of the spirits of the air, spoken in Auran, the language of air elementals) while you carefully construct a strange-looking sculpture out of dust and sand, incorporating into it the ritual’s material component (powdered gemstones).

Once the sculpture is complete, and you speak the final phrases of the invocation, the sculpture bursts into a whirlwind of glittering dust, within which the faint hint of eyes and other features may be seen. The air elemental hovers before you, awaiting your carefully worded request. You must elaborately flatter the creature, extolling its magnificence and might, before it will consent to carry you.

Should the elemental accede to your request, you (and any allies you wish to bring with you, subject to the limitations imposed by the conjured elemental’s size) are swept up in the whirlwind and carried to the place you specify. The whirlwind’s flight speed is 100 ft. (perfect maneuverability), so it can move up to 200 feet per round, in any direction. (It will not enter a building or other structure, however, nor will it descend into a cavern, etc.) After arriving at your destination, the whirlwind gently deposits you on a solid surface, then dissipates. (You may also instruct the elemental to carry you to a point in mid-air, but then the responsibility for getting safely down to earth is yours.)

By default, the elemental conjured is Large, and can carry up to 10 creatures of Medium size (or correspondingly many smaller creatures) for up to 1 minute. At your option, you may instead choose to summon a Huge elemental, which can carry up to 10 creatures of Large size or up to 20 creatures of Medium size (or correspondingly many smaller creatures) for up to 1 hour. This increases the ritual’s level to 5th, increases the DCs for the ritual’s skill checks by 5, requires two Knowledge (arcana) checks and two Diplomacy/Perform checks (instead of one of each), and requires a more costly material component (see below).

Material Component

Powdered gemstones costing 50 gp. (If conjuring a Huge elemental, the cost is 500 gp.)

Time/Place

The expedient whirlwind may be summoned only outdoors, under the open sky, and only once per day.

Backlash

All characters carried by the whirlwind suffer 2d6 points of nonlethal damage per minute of travel time. Any character who takes nonlethal damage from the whirlwind is sickened; this condition lasts as long after being returned to solid ground as the trip through the air did.

Failure

If you fail either the Knowledge (arcana) or Craft (sculpture) checks, then the elemental does not appear. (The material component is wasted.) You can attempt the ritual again on the same day, if you wish.

If you fail the Diplomacy/Perform check, you offend the elemental. It vanishes (after directing various imprecations at you in its language), and you may not attempt the ritual again for a month. At the end of that period, you can try again, but the material component cost is doubled, since you must propitiate the elemental spirit before it will respond to your summons once more. (This cost increase applies only until you have again successfully performed the ritual once.)

If you fail the Diplomacy/Perform check by 10 or more, the elemental attacks you. (The consequences are otherwise as given above.)

(You take no backlash damage if the ritual fails, since you aren’t carried anywhere in that case.)

By administering special herbal preparations, poultices, unguents, and other such concoctions, you stimulate and empower the subject’s bodily processes, helping his body to expel diseases, poisons, and most other non-magical forms of bodily pollutions or afflictions. Each of the two successful Heal checks required for the ritual’s completion counts as a saving throw result against each applicable affliction that the subject is suffering from, equal to the check result. If both saving throw results are successful (i.e., if they match or exceed the DC of the affliction), then that affliction is cured.

Material Component

Herbal unguents and preparations costing 200 gp. These may either be purchased, or else acquired from the land. One watch of foraging (and a successful skill check, DC equal to 10 + the forage DC of the terrain if using the Survival skill, or 5 less than that if using the Profession (herbalist) skill), and one watch of preparation (which requires an alchemist’s lab), are required.

Secondary Performers

At least one assistant is required for this ritual.

Backlash

Both the primary performer of the ritual, and the subject, are exhausted at the ritual’s completion.

Failure

If the ritual fails, then this counts as a failed saving throw against each affliction that you were trying to cure. This generally causes the subject to immediately advance one step along that affliction’s progression.

The purpose of the ritual is to conjure an extraplanar entity, which will then administer a test of the applicant’s intelligence; should he pass muster, the being (referred to as the instructor) will (over the course of some weeks or months) teach him the rudiments of magic (allowing him to begin gaining levels in the wizard or magus classes). The consequences of failure are usually unfortunate, however (see Failure, below).

The Knowledge (arcana) checks needed for this ritual may be made untrained (as they often are, since the applicant—i.e., the character performing the ritual—is usually someone who has had no formal instruction in arcane lore), but in that case, it is necessary to have on hand a suitable text on the subject of calling rituals, or else detailed notes that describe the principles and pitfalls of such conjurations. Such a reference work allows the applicant to make the Knowledge (arcana) checks as if he had 1 rank in the skill.

There are, potentially, many variants of this ritual, aimed at conjuring various sorts of beings to act as instructors. The variant described here (by far the most common form of the ritual, and unquestionably the easiest to perform) conjures a fiendish creature—typically, an imp.

Material Component

Mystic incenses and other accoutrements, costing 100 gp.

Time/Place

This ritual must be performed after sundown, and must be completed before dawn; if the sun rises before the ritual is done, it fails automatically, as if two consecutive Knowledge (arcana) checks had been failed. A desecrated (or otherwise tainted with evil) location is also required.

Corruption

Successfully performing this ritual increases the applicant’s corruption score by 2. Even if the ritual fails (and the applicant survives), his corruption score increases by 1. (This can happen multiple times, but the total increase to a character’s corruption score due to this ritual can never exceed 2.)

Additionally, if the applicant dies at any time before the instructor has finished teaching him, his soul is forfeit. (This may be an extended period of time, of months or even years, as many applicants cannot resist the temptation to continue to avail themselves of their instructor’s arcane knowledge even after they’ve learned enough to continue their studies on their own, it being much simpler to learn spells from the already-available instructor than to seek out spell knowledge elsewhere.) Once the instruction ends, and the applicant “graduates”, he is no longer in “soul debt”… but by then, most applicants have committed more than enough evil deeds to ensure their damnation in any case.

Sacrifice

The most important component of the practitioner’s first examination is the sacrifice.

Unlike with a sacrificial ritual, this need not necessarily involve killing someone (indeed, a simple murder will not suffice, not even if torture or other “embellishments” are involved). Rather, the applicant must, through cleverness and guile, destroy a life.

This requirement may be satisfied, for instance, by engineering a political or romantic rival’s downfall—perhaps through blackmail, or slanderous accusations, or uncovering real wrongdoing. (Merely enacting justice does not suffice, however; the punishment must be disproportionate to the crime—in other words, the victim must be made to suffer, beyond the bounds defined by an impartial judgment.) Alternatively, the applicant might labor to discover the one thing that a victim holds most dear, then subtly cause that thing’s destruction, and thereby drive the victim to despair and suicide.

The applicant’s motives do not concern the instructor, so it matters not whether the applicant sadistically enjoys the suffering of his chosen victim, or whether he acts dispassionately, viewing the effort as only a means to an end. Only the consequences matter. (However, having to look at the world of mortals with the goal of inflicting life-destroying suffering, and then committing the deeds necessary to accomplish that goal, all but ensures that the applicant will be incapable of true goodness.) Indeed, the deed need not have been committed for the express purpose of this ritual—even if done years prior, the requirement is satisfied (so long as the applicant has not repented of his actions in the meantime).

That the applicant’s involvement in the victim’s fate remain unknown is not, strictly speaking, a requirement of the ritual. But it is prudent.

Backlash

Performing this ritual leaves the applicant exhausted. The applicant also ages by 2 years if the ritual succeeds. If the ritual fails (and the applicant survives), he ages by 3 months.

Failure

If the ritual fails because of two consecutive failed Knowledge (arcana) checks, or due to the coming of dawn, then there are no special consequences to failure beyond those mentioned above (see the Corruption and Backlash sections).

If the ritual fails because of two failed Intelligence checks (that is, if the applicant successfully conjures the instructor, but then does not pass the test of his intelligence), then the instructor immediately attacks the applicant. Surviving the attack leaves the applicant free to attempt the ritual again. If the applicant is killed, however, the instructor takes his soul.

There are many variants of the ward against evil, which differ mostly in superficial ways, according to the religious or cultural practices with which they are associated. As described here, this ritual may be performed by a pious Pelorite, who directs her prayers to the patron saint of her village; or by a man of one of the southern tribes, who invokes his family’s venerated ancestors; or even by a hermit living deep in the woods of Donaille, who makes offerings to the spirits of the land and forest in exchange for guarding his cabin against intrusion. The form of the ritual may vary, but the essence is the same in each case.

If successful, the ritual protects the dwelling where it is performed for a day and a night (i.e., 24 hours) with an effect similar to magic circle against evil (but without the bonuses to AC and saving throws). Unlike the spell, however, the ward against evil works not only against summoned creatures, but against malevolent entities of all sorts: undead (including incorporeal undead), fiends, evil fey creatures, and so on—in short, any sort of supernatural creature which means harm against the dwelling’s residents is hedged out (and may not even touch the warded structure). Neither can such creatures affect those within the warded structure with enchantments or mind-affecting powers of any sort. (Excluded creatures are free to make ranged attacks, however, or to cast damaging spells, either at the dwelling itself or at those within.)

Spell resistance applies to the hedging-out effect, but no save is allowed unless the affected creature has at least 11 Hit Dice. A creature that makes its save (but not one whose spell resistance defeats the ritual’s effect) nevertheless takes a −2 penalty to all attacks, saves, and checks while it is within the warded structure.

Material Component

In the course of performing the ritual, materials must be expended costing at least 50 gp, or else 10% of the residents’ daily earnings, whichever is less. (This typically takes the form of burnt sacrificial offerings, or special candles, or any of a variety of other things, depending on the precise form of the ritual.)

(If performed in a larger residence, the material component cost increases; see Secondary Performers, below.)

Time/Place

The ward against evil must be cast in a permanent dwelling—typically, a house. The dwelling must have a well-maintained shrine appropriate to the form of the ritual, appropriate ritual objects, etc., and the house must have been blessed by a priest or other servant of the faith.

Secondary Performers (optional)

This ritual normally affects a structure large enough to house one family. If performed in a larger residence (such as a dormitory, or an orphanage, or a large manor house, etc.), the ritual requires secondary performers, in number proportionate to the size of the structure to be warded, all of whom must meet the devotion requirement (see below). The material component for the ritual must also be multiplied accordingly.

Devotion

All those attempting to cast the ward against evil must possess true faith in the tradition with which the ritual is associated. They must also have committed no serious sins or transgressions (or, if they have, must have confessed, atoned, and otherwise unburdened and purified themselves) within the past month, and must have obeyed all relevant taboos and restrictions (e.g. dietary rules) for a similar period.

Failure

If two consecutive checks are failed, the ritual has no protective effect (but the performers of the ritual have no way of knowing this, until it is too late). Failing at least one of the two consecutive checks by 5 or more also brings bad luck for the next day. Failing by 10 or more means that the gods (or spirits, ancestors, etc.) are angered, and may visit misfortune upon the house. (The nature of such a disaster depends on many factors, from the whim of the entities who were entreated for protection to the personality of the person performing the ritual.)