This Ritual allows the bearer to Sacrifice their own life to preserve the strength of the Spirit of another. A valid Target for the Sacrifice Ritual is a character which has Dissipated and is currently in a Greater Earth Circle of Power awaiting or undergoing Resurrection. The Spirit within the Circle must have been inside the Greater Earth Circle no more than 30 minutes for the Sacrifice to work - waiting longer than 30 minutes will cause an attempted Sacrifice to fail with no effect. This Ritual in no way gives the bearer the ability to determine how long a Spirit has been inside a Circle.
To activate a Sacrifice Ritual the bearer must stand before the Greater Earth Circle (able to touch the Physical Representation) or be inside the Earth Circle containing the Target Spirit and state “I Sacrifice my Life to you”. If more than one Spirit is present in the Circle the bearer must identify which Spirit is the Target of this Ritual Effect. Once activated the Spirit within the Circle immediately regains a physical Body without the occurrence of a Death on their Card (and does not need to Draw from the Bag of Chance) and experiences the effects of a successful Resurrection. The activator of the Sacrifice Ritual immediately Dissipates as if they had been the Target of a Killing Blow and their Death Count had completed, dropping all gear and In Game Items as per the Death/Resurrection process and moves to the Circle to attempt Resurrection following all standard Rules for a Resurrection (including Drawing from the Bag of Chance and receiving the Death on their Card). The Targeted Spirit of a Sacrifice may not refuse the Sacrifice Ritual unless the Resurrecting Spirit also has a Sacrifice Ritual on their Spirit. By expending this Sacrifice Ritual the Targeted Spirit may counteract the bearers Sacrifice Ritual (both are Expended). In such an event the original Spirit will be able to undergo Resurrection as normal or, if the 30 minute window has not expired, receive additional Sacrifice Rituals. The decision to counteract a Sacrifice Ritual is an Out of Game decision of the Target.
Sacrifice will not allow you to take the place of a Character which has died due to a Players decision to avoid a Ritual Effect or as a result of any Ritual effect which is defined as “Unavoidable” such as Obliteration. In addition, a Sacrifice will fail if attempted for a character who is on their one last death after pulling a Black Bead from the Bag of Chance.
Out of Game: A Target may have more than one Sacrifice Ritual cast upon it, but it counts towards the twenty Ritual maximum. The Activation of a Sacrifice, and its Refusal, may be woven into the Resurrection Story of the character(s) involved.