Since we have a lot of characters who are interested in the Ghost Dance, I'd like to show you all how I'm handling it. If you have any ranks in Knowledge (Ghost Dance) from earlier in the game, you may convert them to this Edge.
Ghost Dancer
Requirements: Novice, Arcane Background (Shamanism), Spirit d8+, Tribal Medicine d6+, receive instruction for 1d6+1 days from a shaman with this Edge.
Followers of the Ghost Dance are told they must perform the ritual until the dead rise again. The ceremony must be performed until the dancers collapse from exhaustion, but the stories are true—the ritual can banish fear, raise the dead, and tear the Harrowed asunder. The Ghost Dance can be performed by anyone (as a show of solidarity, for example) but it only has supernatural effects if it is led by a shaman who knows the secret, precise ritual actions.
There are two forms of the Ghost Dance. One is for contacting the spirits for advice about the future, gaining wisdom in exchange for putting their physical well-being at risk. The shaman gains the vision quest power, but in addition to the time it takes to call on the vision the shaman also suffers a level of fatigue commensurate to the cost in Power Points (Fatigued for 3pp, Exhausted for 5 pp, Incapacitated for 10 pp). This fatigue is potentially fatal, though the shaman has an opportunity to pass on the vision he gained before he expires. Otherwise, the fatigue heals at a rate of 1 level per day.
The second form has greater effects. The dance takes five days. Everyone in the village must participate, even those traveling in war parties or hunting bands. At the end of each day’s performance every participant makes a Vigor roll. Those who succeed are Exhausted (Fatigue –2, removed by a good night’s sleep) and collapse until the next morning, when they start dancing again. Those who fail are Incapacitated by Fatigue for 1d4 days and cannot rejoin the dance.
Anyone can aid the Ghost Dance by performing the ritual dance and making a Vigor roll at the end of each day. Characters with the Arcane Background (Shamanism) Edge who participate for the whole ceremony (but don’t know the Ghost Dance's secrets) can make a single Tribal Medicine roll at the end of the dance. Each success and raise adds +1 to the leader’s Tribal Medicine roll. Character with this edge add their successes and raises to the leader's roll directly.
At the end of five days, the leader makes a single Tribal Medicine roll to gauge the ritual’s effectiveness, modified by the rolls of any shamans still aiding the ritual. For each success and raise on the roll, the leading shaman may do one of the following things:
- Lower the Fear Level by 1.
- Add +1 Grit to a dead hero for the purposes of the character coming back Harrowed. (If Grit is 10 or more, the character is fully resurrected).
- Make an opposed Spirit roll against a Harrowed’s manitou to drive it out and lay the Harrowed to rest for good.
- Open a portal to the Hunting Grounds, which lasts for one day per success and raise invested in this option.
- Give everyone involved a vision as per the vision quest power, with the power of the vision dependent on the number of successes and raises used on this option.
