Before calling upon Otherworldly aid, a magus must prepare himself to greet that very special guest. In traditional mystic practices, this involves fasting, meditation and prayer, a purification process (usually involving ritual baths and exercises, sometimes a visionquest, and usually some sort of sacrifice of goods or blood), and the preparation of ritual space. Technomagickal practices involve calibrating instruments,

• Cosmology/ Subdimensions (specialties: Otherworldly Etiquette, Courts, Threat-Factors)

• Intimidation (specialties: Brutal Threats, Cold Stare, Topping From Below)

• Leadership (specialties: Regal, Harsh, Soft-Voiced Command)

• Science (specialties: Extra-Dimensional Entities, Hypermathematics, Paraphysics, Psychodynamics)

• Subterfuge (specialties: Con Games, Sensing Deceptions, Spotting Weakness, Undermining Opposition)

securing a safe location, calculating probable outcomes, and preparing countermeasures in case the “alien” gets frisky. No mage of any type summons Otherworldly creatures without some sort of advance preparations… not if he wants to live through the process, anyway. In game terms, a Storyteller may feel free to impose drastic penalties – difficulty modifiers for the rolls, and horrendous consequences for failure – for a mage who simply “calls up what he can’t put down.” At best, that mage ought to get the cosmic equivalent of a busy signal and no response at all. The mortal who summons spirit-entities without advance prep is asking for all kinds of trouble.

(In game terms, the character should, at the very least, set up a ward or two – see below for details. A mage who doesn’t take protective measures in advance is essentially smearing meat on himself before jumping into a tiger-cage.)