Sacrifice

Summoning demons requires a sacrifice. If the summoning ritual is about cutting a hole in the ice, the sacrifice is about luring the fish to the hole. Only it's more like using blood to lure sharks.

As their purchase on reality runs out or they tempt their master to greater demands, demons often require more and larger sacrifice. A simple imp summoned to steal might need only a drop of blood at first, but by the time it's strangling its mistress's ex-husband, it may be demanding entire pints of her blood.

Types of sacrifices

The general rule is this: the bigger the advantage gained from the demon, the harder the sacrifice is to obtain.

The sorcerer's blood

Nearly every ritual requires a small amount of the sorcerer's blood. Some of them require much more. At least one would-be sorcerer has bled himself to death trying to bring forth a creature from Outside.

Symbols

For whatever reason, demons love symbols. Venerating and then destroying a symbol is a great way to get a demon's attention. Religious symbols, like crosses, are popular, as are military and national icons (the older, the better). Some of the more frequently-summoned demons even have their own symbols, which a sorcerer must find or produce.

Exotic materials

Sometimes, demons require very specialized and hard-to-obtain items; the grave-dust of an unmourned man, iron soaked in ancient blood, or a Babylonian vase.

People, animals, and corpses

These, now, are the classics. While only really powerful demons require living sacrifices, a surprising number of lesser ones demand human or animal corpses.

Living human sacrifices are the ickiest of sorcerer's offerings, and Company psychologists have written volumes on the kind of freaks willing to make them- not to mention spent hours counseling and debriefing Specialists confronted with these gruesome spectacles.

Using sacrifice in your game

Sacrifice as a clue

Specialists are often called to investigate bizarre murders or vandalism, on the off chance that it might be a sacrifice. Indeed, the Company contracts out crime lab services to a number of state and federal police agencies just to keep tabs on so-called "weird evidence."

Sacrifice as the stakes

Saving people is a great feeling. Trying desperately to reach them before they get killed is a tense one. Stopping a human sacrifice, then, is a great way to get a group of Specialists motivated.

Wicked Synergy

Some of the most dangerous sorcerers are those whose demons want the same thing their master does. Demons fed on the blood of a sorcerer's enemies tend to become bloated and mighty as he realizes just how many people make him mad.

Ignoring sacrifice

For a lot of plots, the summoning ritual doesn't matter much. If it doesn't affect your game, feel free to just assume the sacrifice happened off-camera.