Relics & Rituals

Relics & Rituals is a mingled Player's Handbook / magic-item collection for Scarred Lands. White Wolf published this (via its Sword and Sorcery Studios line) in its initial flurry alongside / against WotC's third-edition, end of Y-2-K.

These mad lads even grabbled E. Gary Gygax to do the preface. And it's a good one! Gary presciently noted what this book is going to add to D&D"The D20 Fantasy Game" which its third-edition had either overlooked or else not had the space for. He also pokes the lawyers in the ribs for forcing him to utter "D20 Fantasy Game" for the system which he'd designed himself.

This book was rushed and that may explain why information necessary for players (like spells) has ended up bundled with DM-only lore like clearly-NPC prestige-classes and magic items. And it accumulated an impressive collection of errata. Although, not as impressive as the Creature Collection's. (Not many books could match that one in that regard.)

Chapters

It all starts with the seven Prestige Classes you'll meet in the Ghelspad gazetteer: Blood Witch, Crypt Lord, Incarnate, Penumbral Lord, Sea Witch, Summoner, and Vigilant. Of these the Crypt Lord is notable for evolving into a lich at the end of his dark path. The Penumbral Lord becomes important as a member of a semi-villainous cabal. The Vigilant is a government-sponsored ranger; Monte Cook liked this guy so much he will propose to bring him into Diamond Throne. And Cook will be turning the Witches into a full-on sorcerer replacement.

Next up: spells, Vancian Casting style. This book offers over a hundred pages of these bloody things. Several spells here overlap (not to say, plagiarise) what you remember from two (or three) editions of the D&D ruleset - there's a Feign Death in here, for instance. Clearly R&R meant these as a replacement, not a complement.

The most original contribution - and the contribution casting the longest shadow over 3.x / d20 D&D generally - is assuredly the Ritual Magic. R&R details them over two (2) chapters: the first six-page chapter explains what a Ritual is, and the next chapter details them over sixteen more pages. We're not sure why these chapters are dual; White Wolf gotta white wolf, we guess. Anyway a Ritual isn't necessarily an epic spell but it is a long lasting spell, with a long lasting effect. One example of a Ritual is consecrating a Marriage. (Given Western divorce-rates maybe that's not all that bad an idea.) We'll see Arcana Unearthed using this template as well, and the Epic Level Handbook in 3.5 mainline.

Then, Magic Items. There are... a lot of these, well over fifty pages; at the end of it, Tattoo Magic, which Monte will be porting over to his Eldritch Might series. Then, "Relics" (mostly artifacts): twenty pages of those, minor then major. Again: this book, relative to the 3e baseline, is more replacement than complement. White Wolf are driving home that Scarn is not your daddy's RPG setting so has its own slate of magical goodies.

Lost Lore

The 'Wolf did a followup. This had different "developers" and "editors"; Anthony Pryor is here, whom you may (or may not, or may not want to) remember from WGR3. Monte Cook did the preface for this sequel, we guess because they couldn't find Carl Sargent.

The pattern remains similar except that it begins with a "magic rules" section which involves alchemy and astrology.

The Prestige Classes here are: High Astrologer, Jordeh, Lady of Serpents, Sage of the Phylacteric Vault, Son of Mirth, and Spirit Walker. Monte wants that last for the Diamond Throne.

Then there's the hundred pages of new Spells, and more for True Rituals but only six pages for those this time. Lots of new items (and tattooes) but only six pages for minor and major artifacts / relics.

Next is introduced psionics, brought over (with attribution) from Bruce Cordell's If Thoughts Could Kill. That's the Slarecian Legacy - arguably a retcon but then, Slarecians hadn't been hashed out in the lore up to now.

Ending it all are the Lost Tomes. But it's not just spellbooks! There's a tomb in here, and runic swords. Blink and you'll miss 'em.

Anyway, Lost Lore is an interesting sequel, but a different sort of book from the first one. If the first one is White Wolf meets classical-mythology, the second one infuses that Sargent / Cordell 1970s-era parapsychology you hated and loved from 1990s second-edition TSR.