Haruspicy was the name given by Romans to the practice of reading omens and portents from the entrails of sacrificed animals, usually sheep or poultry. However, the practice predates Rome by millennia and has been practiced by countless other occult societies since. The ritualist (or “haruspex”) must perform the sacrifice in a space purified by the Sanctify the Temple ritual. After slaying the animal and slicing open its belly to let the entrails fall out, the haruspex must douse them with a quantity of her own vitae, cut from her wrists with a ritual dagger. Poultry sacrifices require one point of blood. Sheep or larger animals require two points of blood. If the haruspex is sufficiently ruthless, she can even sacrifice a mortal (almost certainly requiring a Degeneration roll). A haruspex may never perform a reading for herself. She can

only do so on behalf of another who must provide some personal item to be incorporated into the ritual sacrifice. Naturally, this also means that the ritual may also be performed on an unwilling and unknowing target through sympathetic magic (see pp. 133-135). The Haruspicy ritual may only be performed for a single target, and only once every seven nights.

System

Each success allows the haruspex to ask one question about the subject’s past or present, while two successes may be spent to ask one question about the subject’s future. Using a larger sacrifice reduces the difficulty by 1. Using a human sacrifice reduces it by 3. These benefits stack with the -1 difficulty reduction from using a sanctified temple.