Lamashtan Rituals

[Tamago]

I'm going to be featuring a section in my game soon where a PC will be taking part in a ritual to Lamashtu. Sort of like an undercover operation. The PC will need to convince the worshipers of Lamashtu that she is genuinely taking part in whatever they are doing. I need to come up with some stuff that they will be doing as part of the ritual.

What sorts of things might be involved in such a service?

Some ideas I had:
* Praying, chanting, etc.
* Ritually cutting oneself, perhaps with claws taken from a monster
* Drinking the Waters of Lamashtu
* Sacrificing a creature

Do you have any other ideas?

[Cuchulainn]

What is the "rating" of your campaign, PG, PG-13, R, or NC-17?

I have some ideas, but I'm not sure where you would draw the line for your game

PG:

Have the characters consume a drug that causes halluncinations and fits of rage.

PG-13:

As above, plus having the participants pummel and bite each other in a violent and bloody "mosh pit"

R:

As above, plus having the participants rip apart small, harmless, adorable live animals and eat them raw.

NC-17:

All of the above plus smearing the animal blood and entrails all over each others' naked flesh while engaging in acts of violent, indiscriminate, collective lust.

[Deadmanwalking]

The NC-17 stuff (ie: orgy) is sadly pretty much the most appropriate. Lamashtu is a goddess of dark fertility, sex (especially interspecies sex) is likely to be the single most prominent aspect of her rituals.

[The Drunken Dragon]

Ayup...Lamashtu is...um...she's pretty sick, as far as demons go. Guess that's why she's a goddess and the others aren't, eh? According to most I've read on her, rituals to her consist of sentient sacrifice (often violently), ritual scarification, and lots of bloody and debased orgies. Pretty much the only people that go further are Urgathoan priests, and they're just wantonly hedonistic rather than specifically lust-crazed. In fact, one of the obediences needed to gain special powers from Lamashtu is to engage in a sexual act with the intent to spawn some sort of demonic creature in the process, either yourself or force the other to bear it. That said, most of the time, unless there are two priests involved at a time (rare) it's pretty much murder and rape as the events of the day. Personally, i try to stay away from Lamashtu, since most people would find it difficult to stomach her rituals, even in jest...or to infiltrate. They tend to bite off more than they can chew, so to speak.

[Set]

Madness, monsters and nightmares.

During the ritual, the adherents consume a toxic brew composed from the blood and venom of several monstrous creatures (perhaps an ettercap or aranea 'donated' to the elixir, willingly or otherwise), with assorted herbs and whatnot.

Horrifying nightmare hallucinations ensue, and participants are expected to find some sort of insight in these visions (sharing them with the cult leader, who will creatively interpret them in a way that furthers her own goals) and then act upon them.

The cult leader insists that the participants will continue receiving the nightmare visions every night, tormenting their sleep, and be wracked by the toxic brew, until they complete their assigned 'holy mission,' but that's just suggestion nonsense for the rubes, to keep them focused on their task (a suggestion made easier by the after-effects of the drug trip). She may use bestow curse or nightmare spells, in extreme cases, to 'prove' her threat's efficacy.

[Deadmanwalking]

The Drunken Dragon wrote:

Pretty much the only people that go further are Urgathoan priests, and they're just wantonly hedonistic rather than specifically lust-crazed. In fact, one of the obediences needed to gain special powers from Lamashtu is to engage in a sexual act with the intent to spawn some sort of demonic creature in the process, either yourself or force the other to bear it. That said, most of the time, unless there are two priests involved at a time (rare) it's pretty much murder and rape as the events of the day.

In fairness, the sex can be consensual. Lamashtu doesn't care, after all. And you don't need two priests for that, just two worshippers, and having several worshippers (of both genders) is part of being a cult or tribe. Which are very much what Lamashtu's worshippers organize themselves in.

[Gorbacz]

Make them participate in a routine ritual: tie up some innocent abducted sweetie, have a bunch of rabid dogs/hyenas/shapeshifted cultists/barghests mate with her violently, use some twisted magic to ensure that the bun gets placed in the oven and is baked swiftly, take a pair of kukris and reenact *that* scene from Prometheus, sans anesthesiac.

Depending on the party alignment and world outlooks, rolls for initiative can be made at any point of the ordeal.

You don't mess with demons, really.

[Navarion]

Reminds me of The Dark Eye. There's (or was, I stopped following the setting a few years ago) a nation controlled by the cultists of the archdemonic opposite to the goddess of love (which of course is all about mind control and rape) and they are completely infiltration-proof. Whoever wants to wield some kind of power has to sell his soul to the archdemon in a ritual which includes acts that would damn the soul even without the selling part. If someone tries to get out at that point he's killed, if not he's one of them. Trying to get someone out of a pact is usually painful and fatal.... If it is tried. Of course killing someone to send him to eternal torment is an easier option.

So yeah, this isn't Scooby-doo where you grab a black robe mumble something and copy the movements of the other people there. Demons are bad news and proving your loyalty to them will not give you brownie points with the higher planes.

[Tamago]

Thanks for the thoughts, everyone!

I do want the rituals to be creepy and definitely evil, but given what is going on in the story, the PCs will be there during a sort of regular weekly service. So it's not going to be *too* out there. Some of the stuff you all suggested would be fantastic for "high days" but I don't see it as the sort of thing a cult could pull off all the time -- particularly since they are near a civilized area.

So, I think probably what I will end up using are:
* Chants, readings, candles, etc.
* Taking some hallucenogenic plants
* Make a sacrifice of some cute woodland creature
* Drinking the Waters of Lamashtu
* Performing some ritual self-mutilation
* At the end of the ceremony, the members will pair off and start having sex (though I expect the PCs will bug out at that point)

[Winter_Born]

I picture it being just like that described in Lovecraft's Call of Cthulhu short story.

It's in public domain, check it out.

[Zmar]

Well, I don't think that Lamashtu has any set ritual. She is a chaotic demon turned god afterall.

When her cultists honor her it will certainly involve sacrifice of living things. Intelligent might not be as important as is their physical perfection. It will be an ecstatic affair involving wild sex and dancing. And sex will be with anything that moves particularly. Waters of Lamashtu may help to bless the unholy union of all involved with sufficiently deformed spawn. Self mutilitation will be seen as a sign of special devoutness, but otherwise it will be mostly dancing, sex, drumming and chanting... well okay, howling and squawing with occasional sacrifice of a physically perfect being. There may be masks or paint or alcohol or any other props, but chaotic nature of the demon-goddess practically guarantees that no two ceremonies will be the same aside from their ecstatic nature, glorification of Lamashtu and her portfolio and wild decadence encouraging wickedness and tearing down moral barriers concerning lust and aesthetics.