Abombwe
Unique to the Akunanse legacy, Abombwe is a Discipline in the truest sense of the word, for in addition to closeness to the animal kingdom, it also confers a heightened awareness and control of the user's Beast. Akunanse are known for both their jungle experience and their overall wisdom, and their control over frenzy and Rötschreck rolls contributes to the air of wisdom they project. Some Laibon believe that the Akunanse learn control of their own Beasts by studying and emulating the wild creatures of the rainforests, gaining a level of instinct unkown to other Laibon. Some believe that the power focused almost entirely on control over the Beast in the past, but in its current form, it blends this with transformative abilities, possibly learned from outsiders during the Dark Ages, when some Akunanse ventured into
In addition to the powers detailed here, Abombwe gives an additional measure of control against the Beast. When rolling to resist frenzy or Rötschreck, a character's rating in Abombwe adds to her dice pool. With fewer than three successes, however, she must continue to placate her Beast by “tithing” it one point of blood each time she spends blood for the rest of the night. If she does not succeed, the Beast overpowers her defenses, and she may not use her Abombwe to resist frenzy or Rötschreck for the rest of the night.
Lvl 1 Predator's Communion
The Akunanse uses her Beast's primal senses to detect other Beasts in the area. This applies to vampires and other supernatural creatures, so results can be ambiguous, but it does allow detection of hidden creatures at times. Akunanse most often use this power to detect potential threats before entering a new area or settling in to rest at sunrise.
System : The player spends a blood point. For the rest of the scene, the character can sense other Beasts in the area (including other vampires, shapeshifters, ghosts, predatory animals and mortals and ghouls with Humanity scores of 4 or less). The character automatically knows if another Beast is in the vicinity. To pinpoint the location (or to find a hidden character by “sniffing out” its Beast), the player rolls Perception + Survival (difficulty 6, modified by the strength of the beast, as determined by the Storyteller). Stronger Beasts (from evil ghosts or vampires with low Path ratings, for example) are generally easier to detect than weaker ones.
Lvl 2 Invoking the Beast
By calling upon the feral nature of her Beast, the Akunanse temporarily takes on one characteristic of a particular animal. Akunanse use this power to temporarily grow claws, poison glands, wings, exoskeletons or nearly any other minor feature they can imagine. These modifications aren't always fully functional – wings ar eonly useful for slowing a fall or gliding a short distance, for example – but still this power has helped save quite a dew Akunanse who found themselves in difficult situations.
System : Invoking the Beast is similar to Feral Claws, but with a broader focus. If used to grow claws, they inflict Strength +1 lethal damage (not aggravated) and reduce climbing difficulties by two, but the power can also be used to create other small appendages (only one at a time). The transformation takes one turn and requires expenditure of one blood point. For anything perticularly exotic (such as poison glands, wings or webbed toes), the Storyteller may require an Intelligence + Survival roll (difficulty 7) to correctly manifest the desired feature. A botch on this roll still results in the creation of the desired item, but along with it come several permanent cosmetic changes (scales, skin markings, gills, hair, etc.).
This power is meant to be useful, not cinematic, and Storytellers are encouraged to use any overly wild suggestions creatively. Despite the origin of their legacy's name, Akunanse should be seen swinging from the trees and buildings with this power like a certain comic-book superhero. In most cases, weight is the easiest solution to this problem. Spider silk isn't nearly strong enough to hold a
150-plus pound Laibon, and no set of wings could possibly support one in flight, either.
Lvl 3 Unseen Hibernation
This power is likely the reason so many Akunanse are able to survive the harsh forests, jungles and savannas of the Ebony Kingdom without so much as a tent or a hut to protect them from the sunlight during the day. Unseen Hibernation allows an Akunanse to use the natural world as a temporary haven, taking sanctuary in a tree, a rock formation, even the ground. Mystically fusing herself into a chosen resting spot, the Akunanse becomes hidden from both the physical and the astral plane, protecting her while she slumbers during the day.
System : Mechanics for this power are identical to the Protean power Earth Meld, but the Laibon may choose any stationary natural formation or plant in addition to the ground. Trees and rock formations are the most popular alternative choices. Some prefer to use caves, particularly those where lions or other predatory animals live. Anything sculpted by man is no longer considered “natural” for the purposes of this power, so rock sculptures or wooden dwellings are not an option. A tree with carvings in it is probably (Strotyeller discretion) still usable, though. If the Laibon's resting-place is disturbed (by axe, pcik or whatever means), she is expelled the same way as with Earth Meld, usually destroying the tree or rock formation in the process.
Lvl 4 Devil - Channel
One of the most mysterious and powerful abilities of the Akunanse, Devil-Channel is the ability to harness the Beast by imbuing its power into a specific part of the body. Depending on which part of the body he chooses to imbue, a variety of different abilities may be gained.
System : The player spends two blood points. All difficulties to avoid frenzy increase by one because the Beast is literally very close to the surface. The Beast manifests as a film of black, clotted blood that cakes the affected body part. Only one power can be activated at one time.
Storytellers are encouraged to cooperate with players to create their own manifestations of the Devil-Channel. Examples of use include:
Hands : The Laibon inflicts aggravated damage with punches. The power lasts for the scene.
Head : The Laibon gains the ability to see perfectly in normal darkness and a -2 difficulty to seeing in supernatural forms of darkness. He can also spit (Dexterity + Athletics, difficulty 7) a toxin that paralzes whichever of an enemy's limbs it uches – which the target may resist with a straight Stamina roll (difficulty 7). This power lasts for the scene.
Back : The Laibon sprouts four evil-looking “spider legs” from his back. Thse legs provide two additional actions if used to grapple or attack. Any attempts to climb automatically succeed, and attempts to escape by running are at -2 difficulty. This power lasts for the scene.
Legs : The Laibon inflicts aggravated damage with kicks. He can also leap up to 10 times his normal jumping distance. He also receives -1 difficulty to landing without hurting himself (on rolls requiring Dexterity + Athletics). This power lasts for the scene.
Throat : The Laibon can roar. Mortals (and ghouls) flee unless they succeed on Courage rolls (dificulty 9). Players of supernatural creatures must make successful Courage rolls (difficulty 8), lest their characters become weak with terror (all dice pools reduced to half, rounded up). This effect lasts for the scene.
Lvl 5 Predator's Transformation
By slaying a creature and drenching herself in its blood, the Akunanse can enshroud herself in the creature's Beast. Doing so allows the Akunanse to transform herself into the slain creature. Laibon who wish to transform into a particular type of creature often use this power in conjunction with Animalism. After learning to transform into a certain type of creature, skilled Akunanse can even
re-create the transformation later without slaying another of the same type of beast. Thus do the Akunanse become true masters of shapeshifting.
System : The Laibon must anoint herself with the creature's blood, then successfully invite the spirit of the creature into herself (requiring a Charisma + Occult roll, difficulty 7). If successful, the Laibon transforms physically into that creature. The creature in question must have at least one blood point's worth of vitae (that is, it must be at least as large as a cat or large bird) and must be a predatory or omnivorous creature (no elephants or rhinos). The blood must be fresh. The laibon gains all physical traits of the creature (so a Laibon transformed into a vulture can fly, and a vampire transformed into a leopard has claws and increased speed). Humans and supernatural creatures may be duplicated in this fashion, though such changes are limited to appearances (no Disciplines or other supernatural powers are gained from such transformations). The transformation lasts until the sunrise or until the Laibon “sheds” the skin he's taken.
A Laibon may also attempt to duplicate a pervious transformation without slaying another creature. Doing so requires an Orun roll (difficulty 10), with difficulty reduced by one for each time the Laibon has killed and transformed into a creature of that type (down to a minimum of 7). For mortals and vampires, this means that the Laibon may become only an “average” member of his victim's particular ethnic group or legacy, unless the player succeeds on the roll at difficulty 10 (in which case, a previous transformation is completely duplicated in every way).
Akhu
The game mechanics of Akhu differ from Hermetic Thaumaturgy in several important ways. Most immediately, Setite Sorcery paths do not all use a Willpower roll. Some paths call for an Attribute + Ability roll – always the same roll for each power in the path. All rituals use an Intelligence + Occult roll. Difficulties are usually the power or ritual's level +3, to a maximum of 9. In some cases, however, a power or ritual might use the victim's Willpower as the difficulty instead.
Most Akhu path powers do not require expending vitae. The lector-priest draws upon her blasphemy-shrine's power instead. Vitae expenditures within Setite Sorcery often take the form of sacrifices to Set or another god.
A lector-priest character needs at least one dot of Occult and one dot of Linguistics to know the requisite mysteries of Egyptian myth, magic and language. Alchemical rituals demand that the magician possesses at least one dot of Medicine or Science. If a character lacks at least one dot of Crafts, the difficulty of all rituals that involve written spells, engraved amulets or other inscirptions increases by one.
Storytellers may impose other difficulty penalties or bonuses upon a player's roll, depending on how thoroughly the character adheres to the full pomp of Egyptian priestly tradition. For instance, rituals that involve writing assume that the character employs an authentic reed pen, ink and papyrus. She could also draw her inscription on a moist clay tablet and bake it hard. Chiseling the spell into a stone stela and painting the hieroglyphs would merit reducing the difficulty by -1. Conversely, scribbling spells with a ballpoint pen of a three-by-five note card would increase the sending's difficulty by +1. Other factors that could reduce difficulties include the use of genuine Nile sand, ancient ritual tools or a congregation of fellow Set cultists (such as a personal blood cult). Negative factors include wearing synthetic or animal-derived fabrics (Egyptian priests wore linen), or improvised ritual tools. We recommend that Storytellers not adjust difficulties up or down by more than two.
Some Aku paths require the use of a material focus. In most cases, the path requires only a small amulet or item of jewelry. A few paths require as much time and preparation as rituals – but they are so fundamental to Akhu that players spend experience points for their characters to learn them.
Setite Alchemy
Akhu includes a subset of rituals that create magical salves, unguents and potions. These are collectively called “the Milk of Set”. Unless otherwise mentioned, it takes one week per level of the ritual to brew a single dose of an alchemical preparation. The salve, unguent or potion retains its potency for a number of weeks equal to the player's successes on the Intelligence + Occult roll, and then becomes useless.
Divine Hand
This Path deals with sympathetic magic. What the magician does to a model of an object happens in truth to the real object. More firghteningly, the Divine Hand can affect people, too. The Divine Hand ignores distance: using this Path, a magician can affect targets around the world.
The composition of a model object does not matter – cardboard works as well as anything – but te model should resemble the object as closely as possible. Realistic model cars, trucks and other toys are a boon to a magician with Divine Hand. The lector-priest must hand-craft models of people, animals or spirits out of beeswax. The magician inscribes words of power on the model while chanting invocations to the gods. What the magician then does to the model, happens to the real object within the next 24 hours. As a magician becomes more powerful, he can affect larget objects and a wider variety of victims.
Lector-priests typically use the Divine Hand to destroy or attack. For instance, burning a model of a house makes the actual house catch fire. Snapping off a doll's arm makes the real person break his arm. The magician can also cause instantaneous, “ real time” damage to a target, but only if the magician can actually see the target.
The Divine Hand has more subtle uses, though. A magician could steer a truck off theroad by pushing a model truck, or stop a damaged boat from sinking by supporting a similarly damaged model boat with his hand. A magician could even fix a damaged object by repairing a consecrated, identically damaged model.
System : Every application of the Divine Hand calls for a successful Intelligence + Occult roll (difficulty of the effect's level +3). The spell to activate the Divine Hand takes at least five minutes to cast.
Making an adequate model of a person or object calls for a successful Perception + Craft roll (difficulty 6-8, based on the details of the target). The player needs a single success. If the model is especially good (many successes rolled) the Storyteller may grant a small reduction of difficulty to the roll for the actual spell. Conversely, if the magician did not try very hard to duplicate the target (for instance, not painting a cardboard model of a stone object) the Storyteller may raise the difficulty by 1.
Lvl 1 Hand of Ptah
At first, the magician can affect only small objects with the Divine Hand – 200 pounds at most. Typical targets might be a wooden support beam, an item of furniture or a small motorcycle. The lector-priest identifies himself with the artisan-god Ptah.
System : The magician can inflict (or repair) two health levels of damage on the object, or exert a force equal to a Strength of 3.
Lvl 2 Hand of Khnum
At this level of mastery, a magician gains the power to affect mortal beings – humans and animals – with the Divine Hand. The magician takes on the power of Khnum, divine shaper of life. Innately supernatural creatures such as vampires and werewolves, however, remain immune.
To cast the Hand of Khnum upon a mortal, the magician inscribes the person's name on a wax doll and incorporates bits of the person in the doll – a snippet of hair, say, or fingernail clippings. A supernatural “True Name” removes the need for body relics, but most modern people do not have a True Name, or at least they don't know it.
The magician can also affect more massive objects, up to 1,000 pounds, such as a telephone pole, steel support beam, large motorcycle or dumpster.
System : For each success the player rolls, the magician can inflict one health level of lethal damage upon a mortal victim. Alternatively, she can exert Strength 2 against the person for each success rolled – for instance, the magician could wrap her hand tightly around a doll to immoblize the victim.
Against inanimate objects, the magician can inflict four health levels of damage or exert a Strength of 6.
Lvl 3 Hand of Anubis
At this level, the magician gains the power to influence corporeal supernatural entities: vampires, werewolves, changelings and other such creatures of mixed natures. The character calls upon Anubis, the mediator between worlds. He cannot affect wraiths or other sorts of spirits. As with the Hand of Khnum, the magician needs the victim's True Name or a sample of her body and her mundane name. The magician must make an extraordinary effort, however, to overpower the innate magic of the victim's being.
The magician can also now affect inanimate objects weighing up to 5,000 pounds, such as a car or a large speedboat.
System : To affect a supernatural victim, the magician's player spends two blood points and two points of temporary Willpower (that do not add successes to the dice roll). For every success rolled on the Intelligence + Occult check, the magician inflicts one health level of lethal damage to a supernatural target.
The magician can inflict up to six health levels of damage on inanimate objects, or exert a Strength of 9. This application does not cost vitae or Willpower.
Lvl 4 Hand of Thoth
At this level of mastery, the magician can employ the Divine Hand against all sorts of spirits, including wraiths. Since spirits do not have corporeal forms, the magician needs the spirit's True Name or (in the case of wraiths) a relic of the deceased's khat or some object (called a Fetter) that was supremely important to the person in life. The lector-priest can also affect a spirit that she sees directly. The magic only affects spirits who manifest on Earth, or at least in the spirit world very close to Earth. The Hand of Thoth cannot reach spirits in their own realms.
At this level, the magician can use the Divine Hand against inanimate objects weighing up to 20,000 pounds such as an armored limousine, a semi, or a Learjet.
System : The magician's player spends two blood points and two points of temporary Willpower to affect a spirit, and makes the Intelligence + Occult roll. For every success, the magician inflicts one health level of lethal damage to the spirit. The magic only affects spirits who manifest on Earth or in the Penumbra or Shroud.
The magician can inflict up to eight health levels of damage to an inanimate object, or exert a Strength of 12, without expending vitae or Willpower.
Lvl 5 Hand of Heka
A master of the Divine Hand can transmit magical powers to affect a target anywhere in the world by calling upon Heka, personified Magic itself. The transmitted magic can be a Discipline effect or another Path or ritual power. For instance, a lector-priest could make a person fall in love with her by pouring a love potion over a consecrated doll, or by using the Presence power Entrancement upon the doll. The Hand of Heka cannot transmit purely physical effects such as a Feral Claws or Quietus attack, but the Hand can transmit non-physical effects to object, mortals, supernatural beings and spirits.
At this level of mastery, the magician can also damage or manipulate inanimate objects weighing up to 100,000 pounds. Examples include a small house (or a section of a larger building), a large yacht, a passenger plane, a boxcar or a good-sized tree.
System : The magician's player spends two blood points and two Willpower points to affect supernatural or psiritual targets. The player also expends whatever vitae the transmitted magic demands, and makes separate dice rolls for the Hand of Heka and the transmitted magic. Either the Hand or the other magic might fail. To influence mortal or corporeal targets, the magician needs the victim's True Name or something from the victim's body. Affecting spirits requires possession of the spirit's True Name, a body relic or Fetter for wraiths, or line of sight.
The magician can inflict up to 10 health levels of damage to an object, or exert a Strength of 15.
Path of Duat
Through the Path of Duat, a practitioner of Akhu conjures the attributes of the Egyptian netherworld and inflicts them upon an enemy. The effects are mental and hypnotic rather than physical; an observer sees no physical cause for the victim's malady.
Each power within the Path calls for a Charisma + Occult roll. Except for the last power, the effect lasts as long as the magician concentrates upon maintaining it. This means that the magician cannot engage in an yviolent physical activity, or employ other Path or ritual magic. The character can, however, use passive amulets. None of the Duat powers cost blood points; the magician relies upon her blashpemy-shrine's power.
To use the Path of Duat, the magician must arry a talismanic gem of black onyx carved with the image of a mummified man – the form of Sokar, the god of Duat. A few minutes before using the Path, the magician smears the talisman with a drop of her own blood as an offering to Sokar, and whispers a short prayer.
The hypnotic aspects of the Path of Duat mean that all powers operate at +1 difficulty if the lector-priest does not catch the victim's attention using the darkly glittering talisman on the turn when she initiates the magic. The victim does not nees to see the magician on subsequent turns. If the character does not feel the need to attract the victim's attention, the Path of Duat can affect any victims that the magician can see with his own eyes. Once the magician can no longer see the victim, Path of Duat attacks end.
Lvl 1 A Sending of Serpents
Serpents, the spawn of Apep, haunt the 12 caverns of Duat. They swim in the river and coil about the limbs of the unredeemed dead. Through this power, the magician makes her victim hallicunate about snakes. The victim starts by seeing a single asp slithering nearby. No matter what the victim does, the snake comes closer. If he runs, another snake drops down before him or slithers from behind the furniture. If he attacks the snake, it vanishes but another serpent takes its place. Before long, more serpents appear, and one manages to coil around his body...Although the snakes look real and deadly, they never actually bite. They can only frighten the victim.
Other people, of course, do not see these phantom serpents and might assume that a frightened victim is on drugs or has lost his mind.
System : The Charisma + Occult roll has a difficulty of 4, or 5 if the victim did not see the magician and the talisman of Sokar when the attack began.
Lvl 2 Darkness of Duat
The dead in Duat exist in darkness, relieved only by the nightly passage of the ship of Ra. This power casts the darkness of Duat into a victim's eyes, rendering him blind. The victim also hears the soft lapping of the River of Death as it flows through the Underworld.
System : If the Charisma + Occult roll succeeds, the victim sees nothing for as long as the magician concentrates upon her. Blinded characters are at +2 difficulty on Dexterity-based actions, or tasks that involve sight (such as searching for an object, typiong at a keyboard, etc.). Those who attack a blind character receive +2 dice to their attack rolls.
Lvl 3 Suffocation of the Tomb
Along with their other torments, the dead in Duat cannot breathe or speak. The “Opening of the Mouth” funerary ritual was meant to deliver the deceased from this unhappy condition. Through this power, a magician renders a victim as breathless and mute as the dead.
System : If the player succeeds in the dice roll, the victim can neither breathe nor speak for as long as the vampire concentrates upon her. For vampires, muteness is a minor inconvenience: they do not, of course, need to breathe. For a mortal, loss of breath will kill and deliver him to the netherworld in truth if the magician persists long enough. Mortals can survive a few minutes of suffocation, but immediately drop to Injured. For each turn of energetic action that a mortal attempts while suffocating, the player rolls Stamina + Athletics (difficulty 6). Failure means that the character suffers another health level of bashing damage. Once a mortal loses consciousness from this attack, she can live as many minutes as her Stamina Trait rating before suffocating to death.
Lvl 4 The Narrow House
The dead in Duat rest in coffins that open only when the sun-god Ra makes his nightly passage. At this level, the magician makes her victim feel that he is trapped in a coffin, unable to move.
System : A successfully paralyzed victim can take no action at all so long as the magician concentrates upon her, unless her player spends a Willpower point. In that case, the victim can act for that single turn, at a dice penalty equal to the number of successes the magician's player rolled. This power affects vampires, other corporeal supernatural entities and wraiths, but not other sorts of spirits.
Lvl 5 Consignment to Duat
The ultimate power of this Path sends the victim's entire consciousness to Duat. For a mortal, this means death. For a vampire, it merely means torpor – but since the victim is at the magician's mercy, in all likelihood Final Death soon follows anyway.
System : Unlike the other powers in this Path, the magician's player spends a Willpower point. This does not add a success to the Charisma + Occult roll. The victim, feeling himself die, can also expend Willpower to stay active for another turn. While doing this, the victim suffers a -2 dice penalty to all dice pools, as if attempting to do two things at once. The victim's player spends an other Willpower point each turn to keep the character alive (or undead, at least), but the magician's player does not have to expend more Willpower points to continue the attack. To survive the attack, the victim needs some way to break the magician's concentration or escape her line of sight.
Torpor induced by Consignment to Duat lasts the normal duration set by the victim's Humanity or Path of Enlightenment rating – barring further action by the magician.
Ushabti
The name of the Path comes from the figurines that prosperous Egyptians had buried with them. In the Afterlife, these figurines supposedly became servants who would work for the interred person's soul. Images of objects also became real in the death-realm. Egyptian magicians also brought images to life in this world. One old tale tells of a magician who created a magical sedan chair and bearers who kidnapped a king from distant countries and returned him the same night. Vampire magicians cannot perform such magnificent feats, but masters of the Ushabti Path can still achieve many wonderful things.
Each use of this Path requires a separate figurine. Thus, a magician who wants to create a crocodile fashions a model crocodile; to create a falcon, he uses a model falcon. Animal figures are as easy to animate as images of humans. A magician can use a figurine only once.
In every case, the magician makes the figurine out of wax or clay mixed with one blood point's worth of her own vitae. The lector-priest writes words of power upon the model, including its name in Egyptian hieroglyphics - “digger”, “bullock”, “guar” or the like. Then she bathes the figurine in honey and beer and fumigates it in the smoke of various herbs.
System : When activating an ushabti, the magician annoints the figurine with one blood point's worth of her own vitae and speaks an incantation. At this point, the player makes an Intelligence + Crafts roll to determine whether the magic succeeds. If the magic works, the statuette expands into a life-sized, animate figure. If the player rolls a botch, the statuette animates but an evil spirit possesses the ushabti and sets about making the character's unlife miserable.
Ushabti creatures have Attributes and Abilities. Attributes are limited only by the magician's mastery of the Path. A
lector-priest cannot give an ushabti any Ability that she herself does not possess, and cannot grant an Ability rating above her own. Only at the highest level of mastery can an ushabti have Virtues, Humanity or Willpower, because they they have no genuine minds or free will. Most ushabti can only follow orders. They cannot think for themselves, even to preserve their own existence.
An ushabti has health levels identical to a human or vampire. They soak both bashing and lethal damage with their full Stamina at difficulty 6. Although ushabti can possess the physical abilities intrisic to an animal form, such as flight for a bird or a lion's claws and teeth, they cannot have any sort of magical powers.
Ushabti range from obvious animate mannikins to simulacra almost indistinguishable from life. The number of successes from the player's Intelligence + Crafts roll indicates the realism of the animate figure:
1 success Obviously clay or wax, crudely formed.
2 successes A fairly realistic mannikin, like waxworks or a china doll.
3 successes Moderately lifelike; could fool a casual viewer (Perception + Alertness, difficulty 6, to detect as false).
4 successes Incredibly lifelike (difficulty 8 to detect as false).
5 successes Indistinguishable from life.
An ushabti's “realism rating” can never exceed the level of the power that created it. Thus, a Guard could never look more than moderately lifelike.
An ushabti creature remains active for one lunar month, so long as it has no contact with mundane humanity and stays within the vampire's haven. At the end of this period, the magician can extend the ushabti's existence for another lunar month by feeding it another blood point. If an ushabti interacts with ordinary humans outside its creator's haven, the magic degrades rapidly: within an hour, the ushabti reverts to wax or clay and becomes a crumbling statuette again. A “slain” ushabti becomes a figurine at the moment of its “death”.
Ushabti figurines are always made for use by a specific person; no one lese can employ them. Most of the time, the magician makes ushabti for his own use, but she can prepare ushabti for another person to use at some later time. This costs the magician a point of Willpower. The other person activates the ushabti using the requisite magic words, but does not need to expend vitae.
Lvl 1 Laborer
At first, a magician can produce only simple, nearly mindless servants. These ushabti can perform simple, repetitive tasks such as digging, sweeping, pulling and carrying. Laborers cannot fight.
System : Whether human or animal, these basic ushabti have two dots in each Physical Attribute, one dot in each Mental Attribute and no dots in their Social Attributes. Ushabti can be beautiful, if their maker fashions them so. A 0 Appearance Trait represents an ushabti's inability to perform any rask requiring Social Attributes. They have no Abilities.
Lvl 2 Servitor
A more skilled magician can produce ushabti with greater intelligence and usefulness. Servitors can perform moderately complex tasks that require some small degree of common sense.
System : To the basic Laborer, add three dots of Attributes (but no Social Attributes, and no Mental Attributes can rise above 2). Also add two dots of Abilities. At this level, these cannot be combat Abilities.
Lvl 3 Guard
At this level, the magician can create ushabti with simulated minds that work quickly enough to handle combat. An ushabti created with this level of mastery does not have to be an actual guard, but it is a common application.
System : To the basic Laborer, add six dots of Attributes and four dots of Abilities. Guards can have Social Attributes, but no Social or Mental Attribute can have a rating higher than 2; neither can any Ability.
Lvl 4 Overseer
A truly skilled magician can create formidable ushabti – powerful beasts, or servants more skilled than many humans. Such an ushabti can command lesser ushabti, and perform complex tasks without supervision.
System : To the basic Laborer, add nine dots of Attributes and six dots of Abilities. No Social or Mental Attribute can rise above 3 dots; neither can any Ability.
Lvl 5 Gift of Khnum
The ancient Egyptians believed that the god Khnum shaped human beings in the womb, as a potter shapes clay. A mater of Ushabti can create servants of remarkable skill or power who are utterly loyal, but do not know that they are fakes. Even more remarkably, a magician can craft a body for a spirit and that spirit and body will truly live, as a free-willed being from then on. Through the Gift of Khnum, a blood-sorcerer can raise the dead – or release demons on the world.
System : To the basic Laborer, add 12 dots of Attributes and eight dots of Abilities. The ushabti also has Virtues, Humanity and Willpower like a starting Vampire character. It can think for itself, but remains emotionally bound to its creator as if blood bound. Alternatively, the magician can simply craft a body and infuse it with a pre-existing soul: either a wraith or some other sort of spirit. The ushabti then has whatever Abilities, Virtues and other Traits the spirit had. The magician can create whatever body he pleases, but the spirit must agree of its own free will to occupy the body.
The Gift of Khnum costs two Willpower points. The player can spend more Willpower points for added successes on the Intelligence + Crafts roll to increase the chance of a highly lifelike ushabti, if she wants.
An ushabti created by the Gift of Khnum does not degrade in the presenc eof ordinary humans, or at the end of a month. It will degrade within minutes, however, if someone challenges its identity and convinces it that it is not a real person. One Setite legend tells of a faithful ushabti who served its creator for a hundred years before it saw its reflection and realized that it was just another one of it's master's statues. Another story tells of a perfectly lifelike ushabti who married and bore children to her husband. She crumbled to dust, however, when her husband sought to discover her past and found that she did not have one.
The Snake Inside
Setites love debasement of all kinds, but have developed a special taste for the self-destruction of others. Although the modern concept of addiction exists far from the ancient Egyptian worldview, tonight's Setites confidently believe that their god would approve. Even is he doesn't care for their favorite pursuit, they're not about to stop. After all, it's habit-forming.
Lvl 1 First Taste
The Setite uses this power while his target is conducting some minor, repetitive action. The power makes him unconsciously associate is action with pleasure, so he'll want to do it again. And again. And again. Creative-minded Setites can addict their victims to thoroughly bizarre substances or behaviors.
System : The player rolls Manipulation + Seduction against a difficulty to the subject's Willpower. The number of successes determines the strength of the induced compulsion. Whenever the target sees another chance to repeat the triggering behavior, he must make a Willpower roll (difficulty equals the Setite's Willpower) to stop himself from doing so. The victim loses his compulsion entirely if he scores five successes while attempting to resist.
Lvl 2 Cross – Addiction
The Setite temporarily changes the focus of an addict or compulsive's dependency to a substance or behavior of her own choosing. For example, a cocaine addict could be made to crave the act of sex while on the rush, or a compulsive gambler may become a kleptomaniac as well.
System : While the Setite is in the victim's company, the player rolls Manipulation + Seduction (difficulty equals the target's Willpower). If successful, the target switches fixations for a number of scenes equal to the Setite's successes. By spending a blood point, the vampire can extend the period for the same number of scenes.
Lvl 3 The Jones
The Setite reinforces a victim's pre-existing addiction or compulsion, so that he'll set aside all of his moral impulses and ethical beliefs to satisfy his craving.
System : While the Setite is in the presence of the target, the player rolls Manipulation + Seduction against a difficulty equal to the target's Willpower and spends a blood point. If successful, any qualms the victim might have about removing the barriers to the satisfaction of her cravings melt away – she may not even spend Willpower points to overcome the addiction, and she'll gladly leave her office during the middle of work to score a hit. The effect lasts for one scene per blood point spent.
Lvl 4 Fatal Compulsion
The Seite twists a victim's dependency, turning it into a literal hunger. If the subject doesn't satisfy his addiction, he starves to death.
System : The Setite must be in the target's presence, and the player rolls Manipulation + Seduction against a difficulty equal to the target's Willpower and spends 3 blood points. Whenever she oes for three consecutive nights without indulging her addiction or compulsion, the subject suffers one health level of unsoakable lethal damage. The only way to regain health levels lost in this way is to satisfy the compulsion; the character recovers all of them immediately and the power's influence ends.
Lvl 5 Temperance
The final power of the Snake Inside puzzles Setites who do not fully understand their clan's seductive ways. What's the point of preventing addictions? Forcing an addict to abstain, however, can shatter many habits and force a complete lifestyle (or unlifestyle) change – not just an easily visible addiction.
Temperance renders a victim unable to take pleasure from satisfying an addiction. The physical or psychological craving still exists, but the substance or behavior that once gave such pleasure now provokes pain and disgust.
System : While the character is near the target, the player rolls Manipulation + Seduction (difficulty of the target's Willpower) and spends a blood point. The number of successes determines the duration of the Temperance effect.
1 success 1 scene
2 successes 1 night
3 successes 1 week
4 successes 1 month
5 successes 1 year
The victim suffers one health level of bashing damage from the nausea and pain of satusfying her addiction. Storytellers may impose other problems, too, based on the nature of the victim's addiction. For instance, an alcoholic forced to go cold turkey might need a successful Willpower roll to avoid vomiting when he drinks. Storytelelrs may also wish to impose withdrawal symptoms on those whose addictions would likely produce such a result for “coming off the junk”.
The sorcerer's player must select one and only one craving for Temperance to affect. The character may use the power more than once, however, to block multiple addictions. Temperance does not work against true physiological necessities such as food (for mortals) or blood (for vampires).
Path of the Dry Nile
When the Son of Osiris killed Set, the snake god vowed that he would take his revenge by working to destroy everything that his brother had held dear in life. Like the god from which they take inspiration, practitioners of this Path swear to destroy everything that makes a society work. Some accept this task as the price of the power Set grants them. Others revel in it, as they seek their own revenge against an uncaring universe. The Path of the Dry Nile serves as their greatest weapon in this crusade.
Unless otherwise stated, each power requires the Setite to place a faience (blue-glazed earthenware) amulet in the personal effects or dwelling of a target individual. The magic lasts until the individual destroys or otherwise gets rid of the amulet. However, it may do permanent harm while active. A husband who leaves his wife under the influence of Love Dies, for example, won't necessarily be able to win her forgiveness after he discards the amulet and comes to his senses.
Lvl 1 Beauty Fades
The Setite causes a work of art, such as a painting, sculpture, novel, film or live performance, to be perceived by its audience as repellent, ugly, badly executed and cruelly nihilistic. Using the power on a work of art that already displays one or more of these qualities is redundant.
System :The Setite rolls Wits + Manipulation (difficulty 3-9, at Storyteller's discretion; a sitcom episode rates a 3; the Mona Lisa, a 9). The Setite must be in the presenc eof the work when he uses the power. If multiple copies of a work exist, only the one(s) in her presence is/are affected. For example, characters watching a television boradcast with her see it as repulsive, while viewers in other households perceive it to be nothing out of the ordinary. The effect lasts for the length of time required to experience the work, or for one scene, whichever is greater. This power doesn't require the amulet described above.
Lvl 2 Trust Withers
The victim begins to suspect that a specified, trusted ally or associate intends to betray him. The victim's delusion escalates from mild unease to wild-eyed paranoia.
System : The Setite's player rolls Wits + Manipulation against the target's Willpower and spends a blood point. The full process takes nine weeks minus one week per success rolled. The subject may resist on a successful Willpower roll if he suspects that something outside may be influencing him (Storytellers, use your best judgment) by accumulating more successes than weeks have passed in the character's decline.
Lvl 3 Love Dies
The Setite suppresses all feelings of love felt by the victim toward a specified secondary target. The first victim feels nothing but emptiness and confusion when he sees or thinks about the second. Love Dies counters romantic, platonic and familial love.
System : The Setite must be in the presence of her subject to initiate this power. The player rolls Wits + Manipulation against the target's Willpower and spends two blood points. Thereafter, the subject's emotional attachment – which must have been love in origin – withers over the course of the next few nights. This power does not affect blood bonds. Love Dies ends after a number of months equal to the Setite's Willpower at the time it is used.
Lvl 4 Hope Dissolves
The Setite's victim subject can't shake the absolute conviction that a specified goal he meant to accomplish can under no circumstances be achieved. He rapidly grows disheartened and indolent.
System : The Setite must be in the presence of the subject at the time he invokes this power. The player rolls Wits + Manipulation against the target's Willpower and spends three blood points. If the roll is successful, the subject sinks into a deep depression over the course of one day or night, and becomes distinctly morose. While in this state, a character may only have a number of dice equal to her Self-Control Virtue available for dice pools. If she wishes to use her full dice pool, she must spend a Willpower point to undertake that action. Although this power is unlikely to drive a character to suicidal depression, a character already predisposed toward that end may find the urge more compelling.
The duration of this power varies by the number of successes the Setite acquired. It may be cured through therapy, drugs, etc., before this time period, however, should the victim seek help.
1 success One night
2 successes One week
3 successes One month
4 successes One year
5 successes Permanent
Lvl 5 Thrones Crumble
The Setite selects an individual and causes him to re-examine his loyalty to an authority figure. No matter why the target followed his leader – admiration, ideological fervor, fear, greed or simple ambivalence – he now bitterly rejects his allegiance. Whether the victim actively works against the former object of his loyalty, or simply drops out of the picture, remains his choice.
System : The Setite must see his subject to initiate this power. The player rolls Wits + Manipulation (difficulty of the target's Willpower) and spends three blood points. If the roll is successful, the character acquires an active anitpathy for some leadership figure who affects his life – a manager, a vicar, a king, a president, his father – and reacts in order with his Nature against that figure. This will not always result in physical conflict; a Conformist may well “play along” grudgingly with the authority figure, but he might seek the company of others who oppose the leader, whereas a Rogue may make a grand show of rebellion against the leader.
Alchemy
Thaumaturgy has some roots in the early practices of Hermetic alchemy, which concerned itself with changing the properties of given ideals. Indeed, much of Thaumaturgy's codified structure and basic principles are very similar to those of alchemy.
In the near-millennium that has passed since the Tremere's earliest efforts with blood magic, alchemy has fallen by the wayside, however. Modern technology makes possible almost anything this Path can do and far more – it is easier and more reliable to mine for gold, for example, than it is to create it by transmuting other materials. Still, old habits die hard among vampires, and the Tremere are no exception. A few elders still practice this Path, and of these, some still teach it to their childer to illustrate the basic tenets of modern blood magic.
System : The number of successes on the activation roll determines how radically a thaumaturge may alter a given compound's form. He need not use all his successes – a thaumaturge wishing to effect only a simple change of form need not turn lead into gold if he accumulates five successes. The thaumaturge must, however, acquire at least the minimum number of successes suggested by the table below to generate the effect he seeks.
Changing one element into another requires familiarity with both elements. One cannot suddenly decide he wants to change a balloon's worth of helium into a sphere of solid titanium if he has never dealt with either of those elements before. Simply knowing an atomic number is not enough to warp the laws of nature so radically. It is worthwhile to note, however, that Alchemy makes no distinction between naturally occurring and man-made elements – if affects Einsteinium as readily as it affects carbon.
Note also that this Path has fallen out of practice because it is less useful in modern nights than it was in the past. Transmutations create Hermetic “ideals” rather than perfect real-world resources which cannot be broken down into lesser constructs. A hunk of gold is a hunk of gold – an attempt to cast coins with it will reduce the hunk into a pile of sludge. Before you ask – yes, this means your Tremere anarch will not be able to create nuclear bombs by turning the prince's shoes into uranium. There's nothing wrong with converting lead into gold and selling that hunk of gold to someone else, however – caveat emptor!
Note : Storytellers are encouraged to applyt his principle to the use of the Path of Conjuring as well. Characters who try to conjure “antimatter” or create weapons of mass destruction magically should be subtly but reasonably discouraged.
Also, use of this Path assumes the thaumaturge works with the elements in a laboratory-style (or at least controlled) environment. No vampire will be able to walk down the street and turn the iron in people's blood to helium with a simple touch.
A vampire's knowledge of Alchemy determines how greatly she may change a given element.
Lvl 1 Simple changes in form – solid to liquid, liquid to gas, etc.
Lvl 2 Complex changes to form – liquid to a specific shape of solid, water to separate hydrogen and oxygen clouds, etc.
Lvl 3 Complicated changes to form – wate r to breathable O2 and loose H2, compounds into seperate elements, etc.
Lvl 4 Minor shifts in composition, such as adjusting an element's atomic number up to five greater or less than its original destination.
Lvl 5 Miraculous shifts in composition, such as turning lead into gold or nitrogen into radium.
Path of Thoth
Developed by a Tremere Kabbalah scholar, this little-known path of Thaumaturgy had been around for a few centuries and remains in practice by a select few. Practitioners of the Focused Mind greatly enhance their mental alactiry and readiness, allowing better comprehension of problems and situations. Thaumaturges, already disciplined of mind, become frightfully powerful in the realm of the cerebral when mastering this path.
Unlike most Thaumaturgy, the powers of this path do not require an action to invoke, although they still require the normal blood expenditure and Willpower activation roll. Each of these powers is usable only once per turn.
Lvl 1 Readiness
Using Readiness makes the caster able to gain a quicker understanding on a predicament. Enhanced lucidity enlightens the chaster, allowing better reactions to chaing situations and increased cleverness.
System : This power is only usable on the thaumaturge himself. Every success on the activation roll adds one die to a special dice pool for the remainder of the turn. These dice may be used on any Wits-related rolls or actions that the magus performs during this turn. Alternatively, each die removed from the dice pool adds one to the caster's initiative rating.
Lvl 2 Centering
By invoking this power, the thaumaturge causes a sudden, intense calmness in the subject by whispering soothing words to her. While this serenity, the target is able to better focus on tasks at hand, ignoring distractions and annoyances, including grave bodily harm.
Magi in fear of frenzy often use this power on themselves to achieve a state of tranquility, as emotions are stifled.
System : This power is usable on any subject within earshot of the thaumaturge and lasts for one turn per success on the activation roll. During this period the target is unaffected by any effect that reduces his dice pools. This includes wound penalties, situational modifiers and Disciplines. Midifications to difficulty numbers still apply during this time, though.
In addition, due to the unnatural serenity that his power bestows, the target receives two additional dice in all attempts to avoid or break frenzy. Lupines may even be calmed from their murderous rampages if five or more successes are scored on the activation roll.
Lvl 3 One-Tracked Mind
By extending his powers to other individuals, the thaumaturge is able to fixate the subject on one action. This single-mindedness of the target is such that they ignore everything else that occurs around them. Guards are easily distracted with this power, as their attention becomes fixated elsewhere, and research becomes a dedicated, focused task. Use of this power is sometimes colloquially referred to as “railroading someone”.
System : This power may affect anyone who can hear the thaumaturge. Successful invocation makes the target unable to split any dice pools for extra actions and unable to change tactics after actions have been declared. As a side benefit, reduce the difficulty of the action by one. Additional actions that the victim takes (from Celerity, for example) during the duration of this power must follow their initial action, as the concentrate wholly upon this one idea. The duration of One-Tracked Mind is one scene if used outside of combat, otherwise it is reduced to one turn per success on the activation roll.
Lvl 4 Dual Thought
With the rigors of concentration required to learn Thaumaturgy, many Tremere are able to take quick and complete control of a situation. With this power, the thaumaturge is able to divide his attention to two completely separate tasks without problems. As One-Tracked Mind forces the subject's attention into a single objective, Dual Thought expands the thaumaturge's concentration to the point that focus upon two goals is possible.
System : Successful use of Dual Thought allows the caster to take an extra action during this turn. This is restricted to mental actions, be it the use of Disciplines such as the use of Auspex or Thaumaturgy, or the contemplation of some problem. If the character is using both actions to solve a problem, he has two separate dice pools to draw from. These two actions happen at the same time, as determined by the initiative rating of the character.
Lvl 5 Perfect Clarity
Perfect Clarity brings about a Zenlike moment of unimpeded insight for the thaumaturge. Pur focus is achieved, thought and action become one, and complete serenity of mind descends upon the Kindred magus. This lucidity protects the thaumaturge from influences both internal and external; even the Beast within is unable to rage forth.
Some practitioners have likened use of this power with the state of Golconda (theoratically, of course), but the upper Tremere hierarchy denies this rumor as much as they deride the existence of Golconda itself.
System : This power lasts for the duration of one scene. For this period the thaumaturge has the difficulties of all actions reduced by two. The Kindred is immune to frenzy and Rötschreck from all sources, even by supernatural means. Finally, any means to control or influence the thaumaturge suffer +2 difficulty, including the powers of Presence and Dominate.
Path of Ptah
Invoking objects “out of thin air” has been a staple of occult and supernatural legend since long before the rise of the Tremere. This thaumaturgical Path enables powerful conjurations limited only by the mind of the practitioner.
Objects summoned via this Path bear two distinct characteristics. They are uniformly “generic” in that each object summoned, if summoned again, would look exactly as it did at first. For example, a knife would be precisely the same knife if created twice; the two would be indistinguishable. Even a specific knife – the one a character's father used to threaten her – would appear identical every time it was conjured. A rat would have repeated “tiled” patterns over its fur, and a garbage can would have the exact same fluted texture over its surface. Additionally, conjured objects bear no flaws. Weapons have no dents or scratches, tools hav eno distinguishing marks, and computers have featureless casings.
The limit on the size of conjured objects appears to be that of the conjurer; nothing larger than the thaumaturge can be created. The conjurer must also have some degree of familiarity with the object he wishes to call forth. Simply working from a picture or imagination calls for a higher difficulty, while objects with which the character is intimately familiar (such as the knife described above) may actually lower the difficulty, at the Storyteller's discretion.
When a player rolls to conjure something, the successes gained on the roll indicate the quality of the summoned object. One success yields a shoddy, imperfect creation, while five successes garner the thaumaturge a nearly perfect replica.
Lvl 1 Summon the Simple Form
At this level of mastery, the conjurer may create simple, inanimate objects. The object cannot have any moving parts and may not be made of multiple materials. For example, the conjurer may summon a steel baton, a lead pipe, a wooden stake of a chunk of granite.
System : Each turn the conjurer wishes to keep the object in existence, another Willpower point must be spent or the object vanishes.
Lvl 2 Permanency
At this level, the conjurer no longer needs to pay Willpower costs to keep an object in existence. The object is, as th is level's name suggests, permanent, though simple objects are still all that may be created.
System : The player must invest three blood points in an object to make it real.
Lvl 3 Magic of the Smith
The Kindred may now conjure complex objects of multiple components and with moving parts. For example, the thaumaturge can create guns, chainsaws or cellular phones.
System : Objects created via Magic of the Smith are permanent items and cost five blood points to conjure. Particularly complex items often require a Knowledge roll (Crafts, Science, etc.) in addition to the basic roll.
Lvl 4 Reverse Conjuration
This power allows the conjurer to “banish” into nonexistence any object previously called forth via this Path.
System : This is an extended success roll. The conjurer must accumulate as many successes as the original caster received when creating the object in question.
Lvl 5 Power Over Life
This power cannot create true life, though it can summon forth some truly impressive simulacra. Creatures (and people) summoned with this power lack the free will to act on their own, instead mindlessly following the simple instructions of their conjurer.
System : The player spends 10 blood points. Imperfect and impermanent, creatures u mmoned via this Path are too complex to exist for long. Within a week after their conjuration, the simulacra vanish into insubstantiality.
Path of Anubis
Not to be confused with, or perhaps derived form the ancient Path of Spirit Thaumaturgy, Spirit Manipulation is a relatively recent innovation of the Tremere. Created to replace the rituals practiced by the clan in the days when it was a band of mortal wizards, Spirit Manipulation is the art of forcing spirits into actions and situations that would normally be anathema to them. Spirit Manipulation simulates many effects that can be created by Lupine and shamanic mages, but does so by forcing the spirits involved into a grotesque mockery of their normal behaviors. Any botch with Spirit Manipulation not only inflicts the normal loss of Willpower involved with thaumaturgical mishaps but also turns the full force of the spirit's wrath against the offending vampire.
Lvl 1 Hermetic Sight
The vampire can perceive the spirit world, either by gazing deeply into it or by seeing the presence of nearby spirits as a hazy overlay on the material world. This power does not allow the thaumaturge to see into the realms of the dead or into the realms of the fae.
System : One success on the roll is needed for the thaumaturge to perceive spirits, while two allow him to view the spirit realm. With less than four successes, the thaumaturge is at +2 difficulty to all actions performed while using this power due to the distraction of divided perceptions. Hermetic Sight lasts for the duration of the scene or until the thaumaturge deactivates it.
Lvl 2 Astral Cant
The languages of the spirit world are infinitely varied and mainly incomprehensible to mortal (or immortal) minds. Astral Cant does not teach the thaumaturge the tongues of the spirits, but it does allow him to understand them as they speak to him and to reply in their own languages – in effect, a universal translator for the spirit world. Imprecise use of this power can be disastrous, particularly when a thaumaturge is bargaining with a powerful spirit. The use of this power is not always necessary; many spirits speak human tongues but choose to feign ignorance when dealing with vampires.
System : The number of successes determines the accuracy of the translation.
No. of successes Effect
1 success Pidgin spirit language; very simple words and phrases can be comprehended
2 successes Simple sentences are possible; “trade language”
3 successes Fluent conversation; sufficient for most conversations
4 successes Complex issues such as metaphysics can be discussed
5 successes Even the most obscure idiomatic expressions and forms of humor come through
Lvl 3 Voice of Command
This is perhaps the most dangerous power in the Spirit Manipulation arsenal, for the consequences if a thaumaturge fails can be most unpleasant. Voice of Command allows a vampire to issue orders to a spirit, compelling it to heed her biding whether or not it desires to do so.
System : The player makes the normal Willpower roll; the target spirit resists with Willpower (difficulty of the thaumaturge's Manipulation + Occult or Manipulation + Lore: Spirits). The degree of success the thaumaturge attains determines the complexity and severity of the command that she can issue.
No. of successes Effect
Botch The spirit is immune to the character's commands for the rest of the night. It reacts however the Storyteller deems appropriate.
Failure The spirit is unaffected, and further attempts to command it are made at +1 difficulty (cumulative). It may ignore, taunt or even attack the character at the Storyteller's discretion.
1 success The spirit obeys a very simple command that is no great inconvenience to it.
2 successes The spirit heeds a relatively straight forward command that it is not innately opposed to performing.
3 successes The spirit agrees to perform a moderately complex task that does not violate its ethics.
4 successes The spirit consents to an extended or intricate task that does not place it in immediate danger.
5 successes The spirit accepts a lengthy or nigh-impossible task, or one that may mean its destruction.
Crafty Storytellers should note that spirits compelled by this power are fully aware that they are being forced into these actions, and may well seek revenge on their erstwhile masters at a later time.
Thaumaturges who issue commands above and beyond what their spirit servants are compelled to perform may find themselves ignored or mocked. Even worse, a spirit in such a situation may “agree” to follow orders without following through, leaving the thaumaturge in a situation of potentially fatal embarassment.
Lvl 4 Entrap Ephemera
This power allows a thaumaturge to bind a spirit into a physical object. This can be done to imprison the target, but is more often performed to create a fetish, an artifact that allows a user to channel a portion of the spirit's power through it to affect the physical world. Fetishes created by this power are often recalcitrant and fail at inappropriate moments, as the spirits within are most displeased with their situation and will take any opportunity to escape or thwart their captor.
System : The number of successes rolled determines the power level of the fetish to be created. A fetish is activated by rolling the user's Willpower (difficulty of the fetish's power level +3). A botch on this roll destroys the physical compoent of the fetish and frees the spirit that was trapped inside.
For more complete guidelines to fetish powers, refer to pages 273-275 of Werewolf : The Apocalypse. The Storyteller is always the final authority in determining the powers and mechanics of a fetish created through the use of this power.
Lvl 5 Duality
The thaumaturge can now fully interact with the spirit world. While using this power, he exists on both planes of existence at once. He is able to pick up objects in the physical world and place them in the spirit world and vice versa. Beings and landscapes features in both realms are solid to him, and he can engage in any manner of interaction. He can even unse Thaumaturgy and other Disciplines in either world. This is not without its dangers, however. One misstep and the vampire can find himself trapped in the spirit realm with no way to return home. Several incautious thaumaturges have starved into torpor while trapped on the other side of the barrier that spearates the physical and spirit realms.
System : The number of successes dictates how long the vampire can interact with the spirit world.
No. of successes Duration
1 success One turn
2 successes Three turns
3 successes 10 turns
4 successes 10 minutes
5 successes The remainder of the scene
Duality can only be used while the character is in the physical world. Note that while Duality is in effect the character is also susceptible to attacks from both realms. Additionally, the player must roll Perception + Occult (difficulty 8) when this power is actiated; a roll with less than three successes indicates that all rolls made while this power is active are at +2 difficulty due to the distraction of the character's dual perceptions. The character is still considered to be in the physical world for purposes of basic physics and common sense – for instance, his feet rest on the ground in the physical world, not the ground in the spirit world, and the could this walk across a spiritual chasm if a physical parking lot overlaid the same place.
A botch on the roll to activate this power tears the vampire out of the physical world and traps him in the spirit realm. The way back to the physical realm, if there is one, is left to the Storyteller's discretion, and may constitute an entire adventure in and of itself
The False Heart
The origins of this Path are hotly debated among those who are familiar with its intricacies. One theory holds that its secrets wwere taught to the Tremere by demons and that use of it brings the practitioner dangerously close to the infernal powers. A second opinion has been advanced that the Path of Corruption is a holdover from the days when Clan Tremere was still mortal. The third primary theory, and the most disturbing to the Tremere, is that the Path originated with the Followers of Set, and that knowledge of its workings was sold to the Tremere for an unspecified price. This last rumor is, of course, vehemently denied by the Tremere, which automatically makes it the favorite topic of discussion when the matter comes up.
The Path of Corruption is primarily a mentally and spiritually oriented Path centered on influencing the psyches of other individuals. It can be used neither to issue commands like Dominate nor to change emotions of the moment like Presence. Rather, it produces a gradual and subtle twisting of the subject's actions, morals and thought processes. This Path deals intimately with deception and dark desires, and those who work through it must understand the hidden places of the heart. Accordingly, no character may have a higher rating in the Path of Corruption than he has in Subterfuge.
Lvl 1 Contradict
The thaumaturge can interrupt a subject's thought processes, forcing the victim to reverse his current course of action. An archon may be caused to execute a prisoner she was about to exonerate and release; a mortal lover might switch from gentle and caring to sadistic and demanding in the middle of an encounter. The results of Contradict are never precisely known to the thaumaturge in advnace, but they always take the form of a more negative action than the subject had originally intended to perform.
System : This power may be used on any subject within the character's line of sight. The player rolls as normal. The target rolls Perception + Subterfuge (difficulty of the number of successes scores by the thaumaturge +2). Two successes allow the subejct to realize that she is being influenced by some outside source. Three successes let her pinpoint the source of the effect. Four successes give her a moment of hesitation, neither performing her original action not its inverse, while five allow her to carry through with the original action.
The Storyteller dictates what the subject's precise reaction to this power is. Contradict cannot be used in combat or to affect other actions (Storyteller's discretion) that are mainly physical and reflexive.
Lvl 2 Subvert
This power follows the same principle as does Contradict, the release of a subject's dark, self-destructive side. However, Subvert's effects are longer-lasting than the momentary flare of Contradict. Under the influence of this power, victims act on their own surpressed temptations, pursuing agendas that their morals or self-control would forbid them to follow under normal circumstances.
System : This power requires the character to make eye contact with the intended victim. The player rolls normally. The target resists with a roll of Perception + Subterfuge (difficulty of the target's Manipulation + Subterfuge). If the thaumaturge scores more successes, the victim becomes inclined to follow repressed, shameful desire for the length of time described below.
No. of successes Duration of effect
1 success Five minutes
2 successes One hour
3 successes One night
4 successes Three nights
5 successes One week
The Storyteller determines the precise desire or agenda that the victim foloows. It should be in keeping with the Psychological Flaws that she possesses or with the negative aspects of her Nature (for example, a Londer desiring isolation to such an extent that she becomes violent if forced to attend a social function). The subject should not become fixated on following this new agenda at all times, but should occasionally be forced to spend a Willpower point if the opportunity to succumb arises and she wishes to resist the impulse.
Lvl 3 Dissociate
“Divide and conquer” is a maxim that is well-understood by the Tremere, and Dissociate is a pwoerful tool with which to divide the clan's enemies. This power is used to break the social ties of interpersonal relationships. Even the most passionate affair or the oldest friendship can be cooled through use of Dissociate, and weaker personal ties can be destroyed althogether.
System : The character must touch the target. The player rolld normally. The target resists with a Willpower roll (difficulty of the thaumaturge's Manipulation + Empathy). The victim loses three dice from all Social rolls for a period of time determined by the number of successes gained by the thaumaturge.
No. of successes Duration of effect
1 success Five minutes
2 successes One hour
3 successes One night
4 successes Three nights
5 successes One week
This penalty applies to all rolls that rely on Social Attributes, even those required for the use of Disciplines. If this power is used on a character who has participated in the Sabbat Vaulderie or a similar ritual, that character's Vinculum ratings are reduced by three for the duration of Dissociate's effect.
Dissociate's primary effect falls under roleplaying rather than game mechanics. Victims of this power should be played as withdrawn, suspicious and emotionally distant. The Storyteller should fele free to require a Willpower point expenditure for a player who does not follow these guidelines.
Lvl 4 Addiction
This power is a much stronger and more potentially damaging form of Subvert. Addiction creates just that in the victim. By simply exposing the target to a particular sensation, substance or action, the thaumaturge creates a powerful psychological dependence. Many Tremere ensure that their victims become addicted to substances or thrills that only Warlocks can provide, this creating both a source of income and potential blackmail material.
System : The subject must encounter or be exposed to the sensation, substance or action to which the character wants to addict him. The thaumaturge then touches his target. The player rolls normally; the victim resists with a Self-Control roll (difficulty equal to the number of successes scored by the thaumaturge +3). Failure gives the subject an instant addiction to the object desired by the character.
An addicted character must get his fix at least once a night. Every night that he goes without satisfying his desire imposes a cumulative penalty of one die on all of his dice pools (reduced to a minimum of one die). The victim must roll Self-Control (difficulty 8) every time he is confronted with the object of his addiction and wishes to keep from indulging. Addiction lasts for a number of weeks equal to the thaumaturge's Manipulation score.
An individual may try to break the effect of Addiction. This requires an extended Self-Control roll (difficulty of the thaumaturge's Manipulation + Subterfuge), with one roll made per night. The addict must accumulate a number of successes equal to three times the number of successes scored by the thaumaturge. The victim may not indulge in his addiction over the time needed to accumulate these succcesses. If he does so, all accumulated successes are lost and he must begin anew on the next night. Note that the
Self-Control dice pool is reduced every night that the victim goes without feeding his addiction.
Lvl 5 Dependence
Many former pawns of Clan Tremere claim to have felt a strange sensation similar to depression when not in the presence of their masters. This isusually attributed to the blood bond, but is often the result of the thaumaturge's mastery of Dependence. The final power of the Path of Corruption enables the vampire to tie he victim's soul own, engendering feelings of lethargy and helplessness when the victim is not in her presence of acting to further her desires.
System : The character engages the target in conversation. The player rolls normally. The victim rolls Self-Control (difficulty of the number of successes scored by the thaumaturge +3). Failure means that the victim's psyche has been subtly bonded to that of the thaumaturge for one night per success rolled by the thaumaturge.
A bonded victim is no less likely to attack his controller, and he feels no particular positive emotions toward her. However, he is psychologically addicted to her presence, and suffers a one-die penalty to all rolls when he is not around her or performing tasks for her. Additionally, he is much less resistant to her commands, and his dice pools are halved when he attempts to resist her Dominate, Presence or Social rolls. Finally, he is unable to regain Willpower when he is not in the thaumaturge's presence.
Breath of Set
Command over the weather has long been a staple power of wizards both mortal and immortal, and this Path is said by many to predate the Tremere by millennia. The proliferation of usage of this Path outside the clan tends to confirm this theory; Weather Control is quite common outside the Tremere, and even outside the Camarilla. Lower levels of this Path allow subtle manipulations, while higher stages of mastery allow a vampire to call up raging storms. The area affected by this power is usually rather small, no more than three or four miles in diameter, and the changes the power wreaks are not always immediate.
System : The number of successes rolled indidcates how long it takes the weather magic to take effect. One success indicates an entire day may pass before the weather changes to the thaumaturge's liking, while a roll with five successes brings an almost instant effect.
The difficulty of the Willpower roll necessary to invoke this power may change depending on the current local weather conditions and the weather the character is attempting to create. The Storyteller should impose a bonus (-1 or -2 difficulty) for relatively minor shifts, such as clearing away a light drizzle or calling lightning when a severe thunderstorm is already raging. Conversely, a penalty (+1 or +2 difficulty) should be applied when the desired change is at odds with the current conditions, such as summoning the same light drizzle in the middle of the Sahara Desert or calling down lightning from a cloudless sky.
If the character tries to strike a specific target with lightning, the player must roll Perception + Occult (difficulty 6 if the target is standing in open terrain, 8 if he is under shelter, or 10 is he is inside but near a window) in addition to the base roll to use Thaumaturgy. Otherwise the bolt goes astray, with the relative degree of failure of the roll determining where exactly the lightning strikes.
Effects of the power default to the maximum area available unless the thaumaturge states that he's attempting to affect a smaller area. At Storyteller discretion, an additional Willpower roll (difficulty 6) may be required to keep the change in the weather under control.
Individual power descriptions are not provided for this Path, as the general principle is fairly consistent. Instead, the strongest weather phenomenon possible at each level is listed.
Lvl 1 Fog : Vision is slightly impaired and sounds are muffled; a +1 difficulty is imposed on all Perception rolls that involve sight and hearing, and the effective ranges of all ranged attacks are halved.
Light breeze : A +1 difficulty is imposed on all Perception rolls that involve smell.
Minor temperature change : It is possible to raise or lower the local temperature by up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
Lvl 2 Rain or snow : Precipitation has the same effect as Fog, but Perception rolls are impaired to a much greater extent; the difficulty modifier for all such rolls rises to +2. In addition, the difficulty on all Drive rolls increases by two.
Lvl 3 High winds : The wind speed rises to around 10 miles per hour, with gusts of up to twice that. Ranged attacks are much more difficult: +1 to firearm attacks, +2 to thrown weapons and archery. In addition, during fierce gusts, Dexterity rolls (difficulty 6) may be required to keep characters from being knocked over by the winds. Needless to say, when gale-force winds are in effect, papers go flying, objects get picked up by the winds and hurled with abandon, and other suitably cinematic effects are likely.
Moderate temperature change : The local temperature can be raised or lowered by up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
Lvl 4 Storm : This has the effects of both Rain and High Winds.
Lvl 5 Lightning Strike : This attack inflicts 10 dice of lethal damage. Body armor does not add to the target's dice pool to soak this attack.
Valor of Sutekh
The few Sabbat who have retained Thaumaturgical talents have turned their focus to the assistance of the sect in times of war. This Path has proven useful to Sabbat War Parties, and it has turned the tides of several confrontations with elder vampires. It is quite unusual among Thaumaturgical Paths, in that it adopts a very martial stance, whereas other blood magics tend to have subtler, less violent effects.
Lvl 1 War Cry
A vampire on the attack can focus his will, making him less susceptible to battle fear or the powers of the undead. The vampire shouts a primal scream to start the effect, though some thaumaturges have been known to paint their faces or cut themselves open instead.
System : For the duration of one sene, the vampire adds one to his Courage Trait. Additionally, for the purposes of hostile effects, his Willpower is considered to be one higher (though this bonus applies only to the Trait itself, not the Willpower pool). A character may only gain the benefits of War Cry once per scene.
Lvl 2 Strike True
The vampire makes a single attack, guided by the unholy power of her Blood. This attack strikes its foe infallibly.
System : By invoking this power, the player need not roll to see of the vampire's attack hits – it does, automatically. Only Melee or Brawling (or Martial Arts) attacks may be made in this manner. These attacks are considered to be one-success attacks; they offer no additional damage dice. Also, they may be dodged, blocked or parried normally, and the defender needs only one success (as the attacks' number of success is assumed to be one). Strike True has no affect if attempted on multiple attacks (dice pool splits) in a single round from one character.
Lvl 3 Wind Dance
The thaumaturge invokes the power of the winds, moving in a blur. She gains preternatural edge in avoiding her enemies' blows, moving out of their way before the enemy has a chance to throw them.
System : The player needs not split her dice pool if she wishes to make multiple dodges in a single round. This advantage applies only to dodges – if the character wishes to attack and dodge, the player must split her dice pool. This power lasts for one scene.
Lvl 4 Fearless Heart
The vampire temporarily augments his abilities as a warrior. Through the mystical powers of blood magic, the character becomes a potent fighting force.
System : Fearless Heart grants the vampire an extra point in each of the Physical Attributes (Strength, Dexterity and Stamina). These Traits may not exceed their generational maximums, though the player may use blood points to push the character's Traits even higher. The effects last for one scene, and a character may gain its benefits onle once per scene.
The vampire must calm down for two hours following the use of Fearless Heart, or he loses a blood point for every 15 minutes until he rests.
Lvl 5 Comrades at Arms
This ability extends the power of the previous abilities in the Path. It allows any of the earlier effects to be applied to a group such as a pack or War Party.
System : The player chooses one of the lower-level powers in the Path, invoking it as normal. Afterward, he touches another character and (if the roll for Comrades at Arms is successful) bestows the benefit on her as well. The same power may be delivered to any number of packmates, as long as the rolls for Comrades at Arms are successful and the thaumaturge pays the appropriate blood point costs.
Vengeance of Khnum
A thaumaturge practicing Mastery of the Mortal Shell explores the fundamental functions of the body, granting control over the physical workings of a subject. Lesser powers of this Path are clumsy in their control of the body, but become increasingly precise and complete.
In the early nights, Mastery of the Mortal Shell was created to assist in the hunting of the Tzimisce and Gangrel enemies of the Tremere, but its uses were expanded to enforce subservience among enslaved Gargoyles after their first revolt. The powers of this Path form the foundation for may tales of witches' curses and possession in folklore.
Unless otherwise stated, the powers of Mastery of the Mortal Shell last a number of turns equal to the number of successes a thaumaturge scores on his activation roll.
Lvl 1 Vertigo
The thaumaturge induces a minor disorientation and dizziness through subtle manipulations in the subject's body. Although the physical discomfort is temporary and minor, Tremere have been known to use it on social rivals at the most inopportune times, causing them to lose their aplomb.
System : A touch from the thaumaturge (possibly requiring a Brawl attack, with Storyteller discretion) invokes disorientation in her victim. All of the subject's physical actions are at +1 difficulty for the duration of Vertigo. Further uses of this Path may extend the duration, though the difficulty will not increase beyond +1. The Storyteller may impose any other desirable effects, such as acrophobia or agoraphobia.
Lvl 2 Contortion
With but a touch, the thaumaturge causes her opponent's muscles to contract involuntarily, reducing her to twitching fits. This effect is extremely disconcerting to the subject, rendering the affected limb unusable.
System : By making physical contact with one of the limbs of the target, the thaumaturge renders it useless for the duration of Contortion. Targeting rules apply for selecting a specific extremity, should contact not be guaranteed. A leg rendered useless may make it difficult to remain standing. A controted arm hangs lifeless at the subject's side. A useless head causes loss of speech and increases the difficulty of all Social rolls by three as the facial muscles spasm out of control.
The thaumaturge can affect himself, causing his muscles to tighten like a vise. Each success increases the difficulty by one to break his grasp or hold. This is very useful during a bite of choke attack, making futile any attempt to flee, and may also be used on others in this “beneficial” manner.
Lvl 3 Seizure
Like a nervous disorder, this power causes the body to “lock up” in a fit of convulsions. All the muscles throughout the body tighten uncontrollably, the victim foams at the mouth and spasms rack him with agony. A mortal may even choke to death as her tongue cuts off her air supply.
System : A light touch visits upon any target the very unpleasant effects of this power. For the duration of the seizure, a target's body writhes, tormenting him to the point of incapacitation. Victims suffer a four-dice penalty to all actions. The victim also suffers one level of bashing damage every turn, though this damage is soakable, as her body helplessly twists itself unnaturally.
Lvl 4 Body Failure
Thaumaturges wielding this frightful power gain devastating insights into the workings of the body, allowing a complete shutdown of its systems. This sudden biological overload often proves fatal to mortals and damaging to other supernatural beings. Body Failure has been used throughout the ages to afflict victims in “natural” and inconspicuous ways. Many cases of “fatal palsy” and natural death may indeed be the result of a skilled thaumaturge.
System : This power can affect any target the thaumaturge can see. A successful activation of this power grants effects similar to Seizure, except that damage is lethal (and thus not soakable by mortals) due to complete organ failure. Additionally, the victim suffers a five-dice penalty to all actions. Kindred ewise affected by Body Failure, as their muscles spasm and brain activity becomes erratic. As Kindred, they may soak the damage this power inflicts on them.
Lvl 5 Marionette
The thaumaturge invoking Marionette gains such mastery over the body that he can magically seize control of another being and manipulate her actions to suit his own whims. Although this control is not as fine as the direct and personal command of the Dominate power of Possession, the thaumaturge's true body is not as vulnerable during the manipulation. Once established, the Marionette victim is under the complete sway of the thaumaturge, forced to perform as the thaumaturge's macabre pawn. As Gepetto once moved Pinocchio's strings, so the thaumaturge bends his target to his will.
System : The thaumaturge may affect any target within his line of sight and he must keep visual contact with the victim at all times to maintain this effect. A subject may resist the effects of Marionette on a Stamina + Fortitude roll (difficulty equal to the thaumaturge's Willpower) when the thaumaturge attempts to take control. Each success he gains on this roll reduces the duration of Marionette by one turn. Victims lacking Fortitude do not have the physical resistance to defy this effect.
For the duration of this power, the thaumaturge can cause the victim to perform any physical action. However, due to the nature of this control, the difficulties of all the actions of the victim increase by two. The concentration this power requires also increases the thaumaturge's own difficulties by two for all actions undertaken while manipulating the victim. Another application of this power extends the duration of this arcane control.
Marionette does not rob the victim of his cognizance, only his physical control over his body. During this time of the thaumaturge's mastery, the target remains aware that some outside force is manipulating his actions, conscious that they are not his own.
Sebau 's Touch
Mankind learned early in history to hate, envy, lust and wish malice upon itself. In such spitefulness curses were born. Most were just plain words and gestures, but some, spoken with such vehemence and spite, became tangible and formed true curses. In the dark depths of passionate hate, curses gained more weight, more substance, until people could use the evil eye or a spoken word to afflict such banes upon their fellow men.
Early in the history of Thaumaturgy, the Path of Curses was developed and refined. It is still known by its early names in certain circles: Maleficium, Hexen-Kraft, the Evil Eye. Victims of this Path, often called accursed, are subject to extreme treatment and psychological feelings of inadequacy, often to the point of becoming social outcasts. When accursed are afflicted, friends and society tend to distance themselves from the victim, creating a social schism and driving the accursed toward alienation.
When cursing a victim, the thaumaturge is obvious – curses must be spoken aloud and directly toward the target of their ill effects, although the curse itself is often comprised of dead languages and sounds like gibberish. In modern, industrialized countries, many tend to discount the verbal telltales of being cursed, while some areas of the world might see a witch who acts so brazenly outright assaulted. Additionally, the thaumaturge requires can be hair, blood, flesh or any other part of the victim. This link binds the myustic energies brgingin the malison to the accursed.
Because of the severe psychological effects on a victim, the target may attempt to resist all the powers of this Path with a Willpower roll (difficulty 7, unless stated otherwise). This is the victim asserting his own strength of will and personality to throw off the yoke of anathema. The thaumaturge can lift the curse that she brings down at any time she wishes, which makes an excellent bargaining chip.
Lvl 1 Stigma
The most basic of curses, the victim is stricken with an invisible stigma that manifests only in the eyes of those around them. Few can describe its actual form. People shy away from interacting with the marked victim, and will have a hard time taking him seriously. Social interaction becomes difficulty, and frustration quickly follows for the accursed.
System : The stigma lasts until the next sunset, during which time the victim is doomed to frustration when performing any Social actions. All of the victim's Manipulation, Charisma and Appearance rolls are at +1 difficulty (maximum 10) during this curse. Unlike the ritual Devil's Touch, this power also works on Kindred.
Lvl 2 Malady
The thaumaturge causes the victim to suffer intense illness and discomfort, not unlike the plagues and pestilences of history. During the Dark Ages, this power was used to strike down rivals and force them into subservience to the thaumaturge. Cainites likewise feel the pain and suffering from the sickness instilled by this curse. For elder Kindred, this is one of the worst curses – to be stricken down with illness as if a common mortal!
System : If this power is successfully invoked, the accursed suffers the effects of severe illness for a number of nights equal to the thaumaturge's Willpower. This intensity of this sickness equals the successes the thaumaturge scores on the activation roll. Each success reduces the victim's Strength, Dexterity and Stamina dice pools by one (with a maximum reduction of three dice). The afflicted character may also attempt to see if she breaks the curse nightly – as soon as she succeeds in resisting, the Malady will not afflict her unless invoked again.
Lvl 3 Pariah
This curse touches upon one of the most feared elements of society, that of becoming an outcast. This power goes beyond cursing the victim with simple social ostracism – while under the effects of Pariah, the accursed appears to be the most hated of enemies to everyone they encounter. This alteration of perception is only in body and form, the victim still acts and speaks as normal. But then again, few are willing to listen to the ranting and ravings of a despised foe.
System : This nasty curse sustains its baneful effects upon the subject for a period of one night per success. Similar to the power Mask of a Thousand Faces, this power influences the perceptions of those around the accursed, leading observers to believe that the subject is a dire rival. This will not necessarily result in attack – indeed, in most cases, it shouldn't – but will cause antagonism in whatever is most appropriate to the onlooker. Most people will just leave the vampire's presence with a look of disdain, but some may snub her, insult her of even throw the first punch. Unlike with the Obfuscate power, Auspex cannot see through this involuntary disguise for the duration.
Lvl 4 Corrupt Body
This poweful curse is invoked by the thaumaturge, who approaches the victim and denounces his physical form. Over the course of seconds, the victim's body distorts and perverts into a parody of itself. During this transformation, the victim suffers extreme pain that wracks his body. This defilement leaves behind a victim scarred both physically and mentally. Recently, Camarilla princes have had this power used upon violators of the Traditions to enforce their will; a graceful Kindred dancer reduced to an uncoordinated oaf is not likely to forget his mistakes.
System : During the three turns that the physical change occurs, the target suffers a three-dice penalty to dice pools. For the duration of the Corrupt Body, the accursed suffers a one-die penalty to all dice pools, as if she were wounded. This is cumulative with other wounds.
The thaumaturge chooses Strength, Dexterity, Stamina or Appearance to warp. This drops the appropriate Attribute to 1 for the duration. The Storyteller should add any additional effects to aid in how nasty this power is. Only one Corrupt Body can affect a victim at any one time. The number of successes determines the duration of Corrupt Body, as follows:
1 success One night
2 successes One week
3 successes One month
4 successes One season
5 successes One year
Lvl 5 Fall From Grace
The magus is now able to curse his victim with supreme ineptitude, causing a loss in confidence and failings in any and all tasks. Striking a combination of mystical dread and self-loathing in the victim, failure becomes almost a certainty. Fate and circumstance now conspire to prevent prosperity. Victims of this power often retire from the normal activities of their lives as nothing goes right; relationships fall apart, jobs crumble around them, and accidents seem to become commonplace.
System : The victim can contest the effects of this power with a Willpower roll against a difficulty of 8. All actions have one automatic botch die that must be overcome to accomplish anything (treat this as a phantom die that came up as a “1”). Additionally, even when the victim successfully performs an action, it will be mediocre at best. At most, any action can have a maximum of two successes; drop additional successes beyond two, including any from expenditure of Willpower.
Unless the subject botches the contested Willpower roll, the number of successes determines the duration of this penultimate failure, as follows:
1 success One night
2 successes One week
3 successes One month
4 successes One season
5 successes One year
Animalism
The Beast resides within all creatures, from lice-ridden rats to powerful Kindred elders. The Discipline of Animalism allows the vampire to develop a close, intense connection with his primordial nature. He not only communicates empathically with the lower beasts, but also projects his own force of will upon them, directing animals to do his bidding. Additionally, as the vampire grows in power, he can use Animalism to control the Beast within mortals and even other supernaturals.
A vampire who lacks this Discipline or the Skill of Animal Ken is repellent to animals. Beasts grow distinctly agitated in the presence of such a Kindred, often to the point of fleeing from or attacking the vampire. In contrast, Kindred with Animalism present a soothing aspect to lower creatures – indeed, animals are often attracted to them.
The Gangrel are especially renowned as the masters of Animalism, although the Nosferatu, Ravnos and Tzimisce clans show a talent for the Discipline as well.
The Traits of Manipulation and Charisma are key to Animalism powers. The stronger the vampire's force of personality, the better able he is to influence lesser creatures.
Lvl 1 Feral Whispers
This power is the basis from which all other Animalism abilities grow. The vampire creates an empathic connection with a beast, thereby allowing him to communicate or issue simple commands. The Kindred locks eyes with the animal, transmitting his desires through sheer force of will. Although it isn't necessary to actually “speak” in chirps, hisses or barks, some vampires find that doing so helps strengthen the connection with the animal. Eye contact must be maintained the entire time; if it's broken, the Kindred must look into the beast's eyes once again to regain contact.
Since Feral Whispers requires eye contact, animals that cannot see are not affected. Further, the simpler the creature, the more difficult it becomes to connect with the animal's Beast. Mammals, predatory birds and larger reptiles are relatively easy to communicate with. Insects, invertebrates and most fish (with the possible exception of larger ones like sharks) are just too simple, their Beast too weak, to connect with.
Feral Whispers provides no guarantee that an animal will want to deal with the vampire, nor does it ensure that the animal will pursue any requests the vampire makes of it. Still, it does at least make the creature better disposed toward the Kindred. The manner in which the vampire presents his desires to the animal often depends on the type of creature. A Kindred can probably cow smaller beasts into heeding commands, but he's better off couching orders for large predators in terms of requests.
If the vampire successfully uses the power, tha animal performs the command to the best of its ability and intellect. Only the very brightest creatures understand truly complex directives (orders dealing with conditional situations or requiring abstract logic). Commands that the animal does understand remain deeply implanted, however, and may affect it for some time.
System : No roll is necessary to talk with an animal, but the character must establish eye contact first. Issuing commands requires a Manipulation + Animal Kenn roll. The difficulty depends on the creature: Predatory mammals (wolves, cats, insectivorous/vampire bats) are difficulty 6, other mammals and predatory birds (rats, owls) re difficulty 7, other birds and reptiles (pigeons, snakes) are difficulty 8. This difficulty is reduced by one if the character speaks to the animal in its “native tongue”, and can be adjusted further by circumstances and roleplaying skill (we highly recommend that all communication between characters and animals be roleplayed).
The number of successes the player achieves dictates how strongly the character's command affects the animal. One success is sufficient to have a cat follow someone and lead the character to the same location, three successes are enough to have a raven spy on a target for weeks, and five successes ensure that a grizzly ferociously guards the entrance to the character's wilderness haven for some months.
The character's Nature plays a large part in how he approachces these conversations. The character might try intimidation, teasing, cajoling, rationality or emotional pleading. The player should understand that he does not simply play his character in these situations, but the Beast Within as well.
Lvl 2 Beckoning
The vampire's connection to the Beast grows strong enough that he may call out in the voice of a specific type of animal – howling like a wolf, cawing like a raven, etc. This call mystically summons creatures of the chosen type. Since each type of animal has a different call, Beckoning works for only a single species at a time.
All such animals within earshot are summoned, but may choose individually whether or not to respond. While the vampire has no control over the beasts who answer, the animals who do are favorably disposed towad him and are at least willing to listen to the Kindred's request.
System : The player rolls Charisma + Survival (difficulty 6) to determine the response to the character's call; consult the table below. Only animals that can hear the cry will respond. If the Storyteller decides no animals of that type are within earshot, the summons goes unanswered.
The call can be as specific as the player desires. A character could call for all bats in the area, for only the male bats nearby, or for only the albino bat with the noched ear he saw the other night.
1 success A single animal responds
2 successes One-quarter of the animals within earshot responds
3 successes Half of the animals respond
4 successes Most of the animals respond
5 successes All of the animals respond
Lvl 3 Quell the Beast
As the supreme predators of the natural world, Kindred are highly attuned to the bestial nature that dwells within every mortal heart. A vampire who develops this power may assert his will over a mortal (animal or human) subject, subduing the Beast within her. This quenches all powerful, assertive emotions – hope, fury, inspiration – within the target. The Kindred must either touch his subject or stare into her eyes to channel his will efectively.
Mortals who lack the fire of their inner Beasts are quite tractable, reacting to even stressful situations with indifference. Even the most courageous or maddened mortal becomes apathetic and listless, while an especially sensitive individual may suffer from a phobic derangement while under the power's influence.
Different clans evoke this power in different ways, although the effect itself is identical. Tzimisce call it Cowing the Beast, since they force the mortal's weaker spirit to cower in fear before the Kindred's own inner Beast. Nosferatu refer to it as Song of Serenity, since they soothe the subject's Beast into a state of utter complacency, thus allowing them to feed freely. Gangrel know the power as Quell the Beast, and force the mortal spirit into a state of fear or apathy as befits the individual vampire's nature.
System : The player rolls Manipulation + Intimidation if forcing out the Beast through fear, Manipulation + Empathy if soothing it into complacency. The roll is made versus difficulty 7 in either case. This is an extended action requiring as many total successes as the target has Willpower. Failure indicates that the player must start over from the beginning, while a botch indicates that the vampire may never again affect that subject's Beast.
When a mortal's Beast is cowed or soothed, she can no longer use or regain Willpower. She ceases all struggles, whether mental or physical. She doesn't even defend herself if assaulted, though the Storyteller may allow a Willpower roll if the mortal's life is threatened. To recover from this power, the mortal rolls Willpower (difficulty 6) once per day until she accumulates enough successes to equal the vampire's Willpower. Kindred themselves cannot be affected by this power.
Lvl 4 Subsume the Spirit
By locking his gaze with that of a beast, the vampire may psychically possess the animal. Some older Kindred believe that since animals have no souls, only spirits, the vampire can move his own soul into the animal's body. Most younger vampires think it is a matter of transferring once's consciousness into the animal's mind. In either case, it's agreed that the best's weaker spirit (or mind) is pushed aside by the Kindred's own consciousness. The vampire's body falls into a motionless state akin to torpor while his mind takes control of the animal's actions, remaining this way until the Kindred's consciousness returns.
Tzimisce seldom use this power, considering it debasing to enter the body of a lesser creature. When they do stoop to using it, they possess only predators. Conversely, Gangrel revel ion connecting to the natural world in this fundamental way. They delight in sampling different animal's natures.
System : The player rolls Manipulation + Animal Ken (dificulty 8) as the character looks into the animal's eyes (only beasts with eyes can be possessed). The number of successes obtained determines how thoroughly the character overrides the animal's spirit. Fewer than three successes means the character must use Willpower points to take any action that directly violates the instincts of the animal in question. With fewer than five successes, the possessing character behaves much like the animal – his soul is clouded with needs and impulses from the animal's spirit and body. Multiple successes allow the character to utilize some mental Disciplines while possessing the animal, as noted on the chart below.
1 success Cannot use Disciplines
2 successes Can use Auspex
3 successes Can also use Presence
4 successes Can also use Dementation, Dominate
5 successes Can also use Chimerstry, Necromancy, Thaumaturgy
This power entwines the character's consciousness closely with the animal's spirit, so much so that the character spends a total of seven Willpower points to resist and finally overcome the animal nature. This should be roleplayed, although to a lessening degree as Willpower is spent.
At the end of any particular exciting incident during possession, the player rolls Wits + Empathy (difficulty 8) for the character to retain his own mind. Failure indicates that the character's mind returns to his own body, but still thinks in purely animalistic terms. A botch sends the character into frenzy upon returning to his own body.
The character may travel as far from his body as he is physically able while possessing the animal. The hcaracter retains no conscious connection with his vampire body during this time, though. The vampire may also venture out during the day, albeit in the animal's body. However, the character's own body myst be awake to do so, requiring a successful roll to remain awake. If the character leaves the animal's body (by choice, if his body falls asleep, after sustaining significant injury), the vampire's consciousness returns to his physical form instantaneously.
Although the vampire has no conscious link to his body while possessing the animal, he does form a sympathetic bond. Anything the animal feels, the vampire also experiences, from pleasure to pain. In fact, any damage the animals'body sustains is also applied to the character's body, although the Kindred may soak as normal. If the animal dies before the vampire's soul can flee the body, the character's body falls into torpor. Presumably this is in sympathetic response to the massive trauma of death, although some Kindred believe that the vampire's soul is cast adrift during this time and must find its way back to the body.
Lvl 5 Drawing out the Beast
At this level of Animalism, the Kindred has a keen understanding of the Beast Within. Whenever this predator spirit threatens to overwhelm the vampire's soul and send him into frenzy, he may instead release his feral urges upon another creature. The recipient of the vampire's Beast is instantly overcome by frenzy. This is an unnatural frenzy, however, as the victim is channeling the Kindred's own fury. As such, the vampire's own behavior, expressions and even speech patterns are evident in the subject's savage actions.
Gangrel and Tzimisce are especially fond of loosing their Beasts on others. Gangrel do so to stir their ghouls into inspired heights of savagery during combat. Tzimiscce care less for who receives their Beast than they do for retaining their own composure.
System : the vampire must be in frenzy or close to it to use this power. The player must announce his preferred target (since is must be someone within sight, Drawing Out the Beast cannot be used if the vampire is alone), then roll Manipulation + Self-Control (difficulty 8). Refer to the table below for results:
1 success The character transfers the Beast, but unleashes it upon a random individual
2 successes The character is stunned by the effort and may not act next turn, but transfers the Beast successfully
3 successes The character transfers the Beast successfully
If the attempt fails, the intensity of the frenzy actually increases. As the character relaxes in expectation of relieving his savage urges, the Beast takes that opportunity to dig deeper. In this case, the frenzy lasts twice as long as normal and is twice as difficult to shrug off; its severity also increases exponentionally. Botching this roll is even more catastrophic; the hieghtened frenzy grows so extreme that not even expending Willpower curbs its duration or effects. The character is a hapless victim of the terrible fury of his Beast.
If the character leaves the target's presence before the frenzy expends itself, the vampire loses his Beast, perhaps permanently. While no longer vulnerable to frenzy, the character cannot use or regain Willpower and becomes increasingly lethargic. To recover the Beast, he must find the person who now possesses it (who likely isn't enjoying herself very much) and retrap the Beast. The most effective way to do so is to behave in ways that make the Beast want to return – however, this isn't a guarantee that it will wish to do so. Alternatively, the character can simply kill the host (thus causing the Beast to return to the vampire immediately), but such an acts costs at least one point of Humanity.
Lvl 6 Animal Succulence
Most vampires find the blood of animals flat, tasteless and lacking nutritional value. Some Gangrel and Nosferatu, however, have refined their understanding of the spirits of such “lesser prey” to the point that they are able to draw much more sustenance from beasts than normal Kindred can. This power does not allow an elder to subsists solely on the blood of animals, but it does allow him to go for extended periods of time without taking vitae from h umans or other Kindred.
System : No roll is needed; once learned, this power is always in effect. Animal Succulence allows a character to count each blood point drawn from an animal as two in her blood pool. This does not increase the size of the vampire's blood pool, just the nutritional value of animal blood.
Animal Succulence does not allow a character to completely ignore his craving for the blood of “higher” prey; in fact, it heightens his desire for “real food”. Every three times (rounded down) the character drinks from an animal, a cumulative +1 difficulty is applied to the next Self-Control roll the player makes when the character is confronted with the possibility of dining on human or Kindred blood.
Animal Succulence does not increase the blood point value of other supernatural creatures (Gangrel, mages, pookas, werecreatures) who have taken animal forms.
Lvl 6 Shared Soul
This power allows a character to probe the mind of any one animal within reach. Shared Soul can be very disconcerting to both parties involved, as each participant is completely immersed in the thoughts and emotions of the other. With enough effort or time, each participant can gain a complete understanding of the other's mind. Shared Soul is most often used to extract an animal's memories of a specific event, but some Gangrel use this power as a tool in the search for enlightenment, feeling they come to a better understanding of their own Beasts through rapport with true beasts. Too close of a bond, however, can leave the two souls entangled after the sharing ends, causing the vampire to adopt mannerism, behavior patterns or even ethics (or lack thereof) similar to those of the animal.
System : The character touches the intended subject creature, and the player rolls Perception + Animal Ken (difficulty 6). The player spends a Willpower point for every turn past the first that contact is maintained. Locating a specific memory takes six turns, minus one turn for every success on the roll. A complete bond takes 10 turns, minus one turn for every success on the roll. A botch on this roll may, at the Storyteller's discretion, send the vampire into a frenzy or give the character a derangement related to the behavior patterns of the animal (extreme cowardice if the vampire contacted the soul of a mouse, bloodlust if the subject was a rabid dog, and so forth).
Lvl 6 Species Speech
The basic power Feral Whispers allows allows a character to communicate with only one animal at a time. With Species Speech, a character can enter into psychic communion with all creatures of a certain species that are present. Species Speech is most often used after an applicant of The Beckoning, which draws a crowd of likely subjects.
System : The playe rolls Manipulation + Animal Ken (difficulty 7) to establish contact with the targeted group of animals. Once the character establishes contact, the player makes a second roll to issue commands. There is no practical upper limit on the number of animals that can be commanded with this power, although all of the intended subjects must be in the vampire's immediate vicinity. Only once species of animal can be commanded at a time; thus, if a character is standing in the middle of the reptile house at the zoo, she could command all of the Komodo dragons, all of the boa constrictors or all of the skinks, but she could not simultaneously give orders to every reptile or snake present. Species Speech functions much like Feral Whispers in all other respects.
Lvl 6 Quell the Herd
This power functions along the same lines as Quell the Beast – the Gangrel asserts her over mortal animals (or humans), subduing their Beasts with the terrifying powers of her own. Passionate, powerful emotions, or even simple attempts to assert individuality or will are squelched, rendering those affected apathetic and lethargic for the duration. Multiple targets may be affected; the only requirement is that the individuals must be able to see or hear the Gangrel. It may be necessary in some extreme situations to get the target's attention, but that is not likely to be difficult for a monster of this power.
System : The player rolls Strength + Intimidation (difficulty 7) – the Gangrel always forces the Beast into submission through fear. This is an extended action requiring as many total successes as the target has Willpower (each individual target is cowed as soon as his Willpower is reached). The Gangrel may subdue twice her Willpower rating in animals and/or humans. If the crowd, herd or pack is too large for the vampire to subdue them all, the indiciduals with the lowest Willpower scores are necessarily affected first. Failure on any roll in the sequence means that the vampire must re-accumulate successes, but those individuals already subdued remain so. A botch on any roll in the sequence means the the previously subdued creatures seethe violently into frenzy – they immediately attack the Gangrel who tried to knuckle them under, or anything that stands in the way.
When a mortal's beast is cowed, he can no longer use or regain Willpower. He ceases all mental and physical struggles, not even defending himself when assaulted (the Storyteller may allow a Willpower roll if the mortal's life is threatened). To recover from this power, the animal or human rolls Willpower (difficulty 6) once per day until he accumulates enough successes to equal the Gangrel's Willpower. Kindred are not affected by this power, generally, but their ghoul retainers are.
Lvl 6 Song in the Dark
Before the clan could hide in labyrinths buried beneath the cities os men, Ancients relied upon vast caves and caverns for their survival. The most powerful Methuselahs didn't limit themselves to the few that existed – they created new ones. Loremasters tell tales of vast creatures underground, forgotten things from the early days of the world, monsters that Nosferatu himself could not destroy. Giants in the earth, these atavisms sluggishly tunnel and crawl miles beneath the surface world. Although cynical and scientific Nosferatu (autarkis or otherwise) deny the existence of such creatures, human scientists cannot fully predict the occurrence of earthquakes and similar subterranean events.
Some Nosferatu occultists claim that only Nosferatu Methuselahs are potent enough to draw upon this power. A few insist that mighty vampires employ this Discipline to create sinkholes, collapse unstable sewer tunnels or open up vast caverns in rural areas desperately essential to their descendants. The most outrageous stories concern entire ecosystems based around massive chthonic worms, subterranean leviathans or other burrowers beneath the Earth's crust. Whether this supernatural power (if it exists at all) involves summoning these creatures or merely shifting vast amounts of earth with the power of the mind remains a point of conjecture. Your Storyteller must decide.
System : If these creatures exist, then Nosferatu Ancients can control them somewhat sparingly. A Nosferatu Methuselah should theoretically be able to summon and command a creature once each year for every five points of Willpower he possesses. First, the vampire burns these temporary points for a period of at least one month; he cannot regain them until this time has elapsed. The size of the subterranean disturbance depends on a Charisma + Survival roll; the difficulty depends on how rural the chosen location is (an uninhabited plot of land in the midst of the Sahara would be difficulty 6; downtown Manhattan is difficulty 10). Storytellers may choose to forego game mechanics where Methuselahs are concerned, of course, and just pass around newspaper clippings of recent massive earthquakes throughout the world.
Lvl 6 Eye of the Szlachta
Any Fiend who's been around for a while knows how to possess a lowly beast, but a few can ride any ghoul who shares their blood. By locking eyes with the ghoul (and yes, parties must have eyes), the Fiend can transfer his soul into the creature, while his body falls into a state resembling torpor. Although some Tzimisce consider such intimate contact with their servants distasteful, sometimes it's necessary to calm a rampaging vozhd in a disposable vessel or to “fleshride” a ghoul who can speak and open doors.
System : Use the system for the Animalism power Subsume the Spirit.
Lvl 7 Conquer the Beast
Masters of Animalism have a much greater understanding of both beasts in general and the Beast in particular. Those who have developed this power can master their own Beasts to a degree impossible for lesser Kindred to attain. Conquer the Beast allows the vampire to both control her frenzies and also to enter them at will. Some elders say that the development of this power is one of the first steps on the road to Golconda.
System : the character can enter frenzy at will. The player rolls Willpower (difficulty 7). Success sends the character into a controlled frenzy. He can choose his targets at will, but gains limited Dominate and wound penalty resistance and Rötschreck immunity as per the normal frenzy rules. A botch on the roll sends the vampire into an uncontrolled frenzy which Conquer the Beast may not be used to end.
The player may also roll Willpower (difficulty 9) to enable the character to control an involuntary frenzy. In this cae, a Willpower point must be spent for every turn that the vampir remains in frenzy. The player may make Self-Control rolls as normal to end a frenzy, but if the vampire runs out of Willpower points before the frenzy ends, he drops into an uncontrolled frenzy again. A botch on the Willpowr roll raises the difficulty of the vampire's Self-Control rolls by two and renders Conquer the Beast unusable for the remainder of the night.
Lvl 7 Stampede
A deep, innate knowledge of animal instincts allows the Gangrel to trigger a very specific fear in his victims – an unthinking panic that pushes hundreds of creatures into headlong flight. This ability only works on large groups of people; too few, and the aggregate fear will not be enough to override sensible plans of action. Also, the crowd or herd must be already agitated by some mundane occurrence, such as the smell of a large predator, a lost football game by the home team or a shortage of this year's fad toy during prime shopping season (the Gangrel may cause the “mundane” situation – by being the large predator, influencing the outcome of the soccer match, or waylaying the toys – but this is not necessary or even wise). Once this power takes hold, its victims will flee until they escape the vampire's influence or until they are rendered unable to run.
System : This power must be activated within sight of a crowd of roughly 50 agitated mortals (the Storyteller may allow this power to be used on smaller groups of really pissed-off mortals). The player rolls Stamina + Animal Ken (difficulty 7). The resulting waves of terror roll 50 yards in all directions from the Gangrel for each success achieved. Any unsettled mortal within this radius will immediately flee toward the nearest escape or exit unless the Gangrel chooses to direct the Stampede by force of will. The vampire may set a direction or path for the fleeing multitudes, but may not change or alter it once the flight has begun. Members of the Stampede will ignore many potential sources of danger, such as running into the road or through a firing range, but will not take obviously suicidal actions like leaping off tall cliffs or skyscrapers. In some cases, however, the crazed mob will not see potential danger in time – or be forced into it anyway by the pressure of the crowd behind them.
Mortals who were not initially affected may be caught up physically or emotionally in the tide, as the Gangrel projected Beast wreaks havoc for a scene unless he chooses to end the madness earlier. Upon leaving the affected area, mortals may recover their senses and stop their mad rush. If the area is bottlenecked, however, such as a long hallway or valley, the mortals may opt to continue fleeing rather than be trampled. It is worth noting that this power can go awry, even without a rolled botch – the power of hundreds of Bbeasts, even those of mortals, can be too much for the vampire to control. Animals pushed to hard may frenzy, and people have a disturbing tendency to riot.
Lvl 8 Taunt the Caged Beast
Some Kidnred are so attuned to the Beast that they can unleash it in another individual at will. Vampires who have develoepd this power are able to send adversaries into frenzy with a finger's touch and the resultant, momentary contact with the victim's Beast. The physical contact allows the vampire's own Beast to reach out and awaken that of the victim, enraging it by threatening its spiritual territory.
System : The character touches the target. The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Manipulation + Empathy (difficulty 7). The victim makes a Self-Control roll (difficulty 5 + the number of successes); failure results in an immediate frenzy, with standard rules applying. A botch causes the hcaracter to unleash his own Beast and frenzy instead. This power may be used on those individuals who are normally incapable of frenzy, sending ordinary humans into murdering rages worthy of the bloodthirstiest Brujah berserker.
Lvl 8 Crimson Fury
This power is the subject of much rumor and conjecture, as it has very little visible effect. Upon reaching this level of mastery, the Gangrel may choose to allow his Beast to roam freely through his veins.. His blood causes frenzy in mortals and vampires who taste it. Should a diablerist successfully consume the Gangrel's soul, she may well meet a grisly end as the Gangrel's Beast eats her away from the inside.
System : This power is activated once, when the Gangrel learns it. It cannot be turned off. The smallest taste of the vampire's vitae causes agitation in the taster, who must make a Self-Control roll (difficulty 7) or frenzy immediately. This applies to newly created childer, ghouls, attackers who bite and any vampires who would drink from the Gangrel. This is the equivalent of a warning shot for would-be diablerists. Should the attacker resist the urge to frenzy, she may continue to drink as normal, but the supernatural agitation she experiences should be a clear sign that something is unusual about the vitae. If the attacker succumbs to the frenzy, she must spend a Willpower point for each turn she continues to drink.
Should the diablerist be successful, she immediately suffers a +2 difficulty on all frenzy rolls for a duration determined by the Storyteller. She must also make an opposed Willpower roll against her victim's Beast (which has the same Willpower rating as the now-deceased vampire had). The loser of this contest forfeits one permanent Willpower point. This contest takes place every month for the first year past the diablerie and once a year thereafter. As the diablerist loses Willpower, she becomes more feral and impulsive (this should be roleplayed, and the Storyteller should feel free to require frequent Self-Control rolls from the diablerist's player). If the diablerist loses her last Willpower point, she becomes a crazed, bestial monster (and a Storyteller character). If the invading Beast loses its last Willpower point, it becomes quiescent, ceding victory to the diablerist. The evidence of diablerie in the perpetrator's aura persists until the Beast is subdued.
Humanity or Path rating loss may result from the actions the “possessed” diablerist takes, but they are not lost a a direct result of this power.
Gangrel legends suggest that some incredibly powerful “victims” of diablerie have eaten their way through their attackers, consuming the diablerist's soul in turn, and then taken over the new body. This is not the normal result of this power, but the rumors do circulate...
Lvl 9 Unchain the Beast
The self-destructive nature of Cainites can be turned against them by an elder who possesses this formidable power. With a glance, the vampire can awaken the Beasts of her enemies, causing physical injury and excruciating agony as the victim's own violent impulses manifest in physical form to tear him apart from within. A target of this power erupts into a fountain of blood and gore as claw and bite wounds from an invisible source spontaneously tear his flesh asunder.
System : The character makes eye contact with the intended victim. The player spends three blood points and rolls Manipulation + Intimidation (difficulty of the victim's Self-Control +4). Each success inflicts one health level of lethal damage, which can be soaked normally. A botch inflicts one health level of damage on the character each “1” rolled. This damage can also be soaked normally.
Lvl 9 Eyes of the Forest
This awe-inspiring power is at the root of may folk tales about brooding forests and forbidding mountains. The vampire inters herself in the ground of her chosen domain, spreading her physical and spiritual self through the area. Unlike a vampire using Earth Meld, the Gangrel cannot be simply dug out of the ground. The animals and even insects within the area serve as the Gangrel's eyes and ears, providing her with an intimate knowledge of the nighttime goins-on of her domain.
System : This power costs six blood points to activate and it lasts as long as the Gangrel wishes to remain beneath her domain. The area itself should be relatively well-defined geographically, although it can be quite large: a mountain or valley, an isolated wood, a plateau. The vampire sees and hears everything within the enclosed area through the animals and insects that inhabit it. Additionally, the Gangrel may use mental Disciplines that do not require physical or eye contact to initiate. While the power is active, it is impossible to attack the Gangrel directly. Significant damage to her domain, however – fires, strip mining, explosives, chemical contaminatns – will also damage the vampire, and are likely to drive her from the ground.
The area under the Gangrel's influence reflects the vampire's nature. Even the most cheerful wood during daylight becomes a place of terror for mere mortals the sun sets.
Should two masters of Animalism somehow “claim” the same area, the Cainite with the greatest Willpower achieves success. This may result in an established Kindred being forced to rise and flee the area, or it might rouse the other Kindred on a quest for vengeance on the trespasser.
Auspex
This Discipline bestows uncanny sensory abilities upon the vampire. While Auspex initially heightens all of the Kindred's senses significantly, that is merely the beginning. As she grows in power, the vampire can perceive the psychic auras that flow around her and even project her mind into another being's thoughts. Furthermore, Auspex can pierce the disguises that Obfuscate creates; see “Seeing the Unseen” for more details.
Such sensory command gives the vampire a distinct advantage over mortals and even many supernaturals. Whether these talents let her view a distant haven, sense the Prince's mood or pluck secrets from a rival Kindred's ghoul, Auspex is a powerful tool.
Still, the vampire must be careful lest this heightened sensitivity cause her to be distracted by beautiful things, startled by loud noises or overwhelmed by foul smells. Sudden or dynamic events can disorient an Auspex-using character unless she makes a Willpower roll (difficulty 4) to block them out. The more potent the source of distraction, the higher the difficulty. Failure overwhelms the character's senses, making her oblivious to her surroundings for a turn or two.
Malkavians and Toreador are most susceptible to such distractions. Kindred from the Tremere and Tzimisce clans seem better able to regulate their sensory input, bu they are not immune to the occasional distraction.
A high Perception Trait is a great boon to using Auspex powers. The better the roll, the greater the degree of sensory information the character gains.
Lvl 1 Heightened Senses
This power sharpens all of the vampire's senses, effectively doubling the clarity and range of sight, hearing and smell. While her sneses of taste and rouch extend no farther than normal, they likewise become far more acute; the vampire could taste the hint of liquor in a victim's blood, or feel the give of the board concealing a hollow space in the floor. The Kindred may magnify her senses at will, sustaining this heightened focus for as long as she desires. At the Storyteller's option, this may make hunting easier.
Occasionally, this talent provides extrasensory or even precognitive insights. These brief, unfocused glimpses may be odd premonitions, flashes of empathy or eerie feelings of foreboding. The vampire has no control over these perceptions, but with practice can learn to interpret them with a fair degree of accuracy.
Expanded senses come at a price, however. Bright lights, loud noises and strong smells present a hazard while the vampire uses th is power. In addition to the possibility for distraction mentioned above, an espcially sudden stimulus – like the glare of a spotlight or a clap of thunder – can blind or deafen the Kindred for an hour or more.
System : This power doesn't normally require the use of dice, instead being defined through the Storyteller's descriptions and the player's imagination. In certain circumstances, use of this power requires a die roll: for a normal Perceeption roll (the Storyteller may reduce the difficulty by the character's Auspex rating), to notice a subject using Obfuscate, or to preceive a threat (the Storyteller privately rolls the character's unmodified Auspex rating, applying whatever difficulty he feels best suits the circumstances). For example, in the last instance, sensing that a pistol is pointed at the back of a character's head may require a 5, while the sudden realization that a rival for primogen is planning her assassination may require a 9.
This power does not let characters see in pitch darkness, as does Eyes of the Beast, but it does reduce difficulty penalties to act in pitch darkness from +2 to +1, and the character may make ranged attacks in pitch darkness if she can hear, smell or otherwise detect her foe.
Lvl 2 Aura Perception
Using this power, the vampire cn perceive the psychic “auras” that radiate from mortals and supernatural beings alike. These halos comprise a shifting series of colors that take practice to discern with clarity. Even the simplest individual has many shifting hues within his aura; strong emotions predominate, while momentary impressions or deep secrets flash through in streaks and swirls.
The colors change in sympathy with the subject's emotional state, blending into new tones in a constantly dancing pattern. The stronger the emotions involved, the more intense the hues become. A skilled vampire can learn much from her subject by reading the nuances of color and brilliance in the aura's flow.
Aside from perceiving emoptional states, vampires use Aura Perception to detect supernatural beings. The colors in Kindred auras, while intense, are quite pale; mage auras often flare and crackle with suppresses powerl werebeasts have strikingly bright, almost frantic, halos; ghosts have weak auras that flicker fitfully like a dying flamel and faerie creatures' radiance is shot through with rainbow hues.
System: The player rolls Perception + Empathy (difficulty 8); each success indicates how much of the subject's aura the character sees and understands (see the table below). A botch indicates a flase or erroneous interpretation. The Storyteller may wish to make th is roll, thus keeping the player in the dark as to just how good (or bad) the character's interpretation is.
1 success Can distinguish only the shade (pale or bright)
2 successes Can distinguish the main colors
3 successes Can recognize the color patterns
4 successes Can detect subtle shifts
5 successes Can identiy mixtures of color and pattern
The Aura Colors chart offers examples of some common colors and the emotions they reflect.
The character may view a particular subject's auro only once with any degree of clarity. Any subsequent attempts that result in failure should be considered botches. It is very easy for the character to imagine seeing what she wants to see when judging someone's intentions. After a full month, the character may try again at no penalty.
It is possible, though difficult, to sense the aura of a being who is otherwise invisible to normal sight. Reer to “Seeing the Unseen” for more information).
Aura Colors
Condition Aura Colors
Afraid Orange
Aggressive Purple
Angry Red
Bitter Brown
Calm Light Blue
Compassionate Pink
Conservative Lavender
Depressed Gray
Desirous or Lustful Deep Red
Distrustful Light Green
Envious Dark Green
Excited Violet
Generous Rose
Happy Vermillion
Hateful Black
Idealistic Yellow
Innocent White
Lovestruck Blue
Obsessed Green
Sad Silver
Spiritual Gold
Suspicious Dark Blue
Confused Mottled, shifting colors
Diablerist Black veins in aura
Daydreaming Sharp flickering colors
Frenzied Rapidly rippling colors
Psychotic Hypnotic, swirling colors
Vampires Appropriate color is pale
Magic Use Myriad sparkles in aura
Werebeast Bright, vibrant aura
Ghosts Weak, intermittent aura
Faerie Rainbow highlights in aura
Lvl 3 The Spirit's Touch
When someone handles an object for any length of time, he leaves a psychic impression on the item. A vampire with this level of Auspex can “read” these sensations, learning who handled the object, when he last held it and what was done with it recently.
These visions are seldom clear and detailed, registering more like a kind of “psychic snapshot”. Still, the Kindred can learn much even from such a glimpse. Although most visions concern the last person to handle the item, a long-time owner leaves a stronger impression than someone who held the object briefly.
Gleaning information from the spiritual residue requires the vampire to hold the object and enter a shallow trance. She is only marginally aware of her surroundings while using The Spirit's Touch, but a loud noise or jarring physical sensation breaks the trance instantly.
System : The player rolls Perception + Empathy. The difficulty is determined by the age of the impressions and the mental and spiritual strength of the person or event that left them. Sensing information from a pistol used for murder hours ago may require a 5, while learning who owned a set of keys found days ago might be a 9.
The greater the indicidual's emotional connection to the object, the stronger the impression he leaves on it – and the more information the Kindred can glean from it. Also, events involving strong emotions (a gift-giving, a torture, a long family history) likewise leave stronger impressions than does a short or casual contact. Assume that each success offers one piece of information. While one success tells the character only that “a man held this pocket watch last”, three reveales that he was pretty, middle-aged and afraid. Four successes discover his name, and five or more reveal his connection to the watch as well as wome of the things he did with it in his possession.
Lvl 4 Telepathy
The vampire projects a portion of her consciousness into a nearby mortal's mind, creating a mental link through which she can communicate wordlessly or even read the target's deepest thoughts. The Kindred “hears” in her own mind the thoughts plucked from a subject as if they were spoken to her.
This is one of the most potent vampiric abilities, since, given time, a Kindred can learn virtually anything from a subject without him ever knowing. The Tremere and Tzimisce in particular find this power especially useful in gleaning secrets from others, or for their mortal followers with silent precision.
System : The player rolls Intelligence + Subterfuge (difficulty of the subject's Willpower). Projecting thoughts into the target's mind requires one success. The subject recognizes that the thoughts come from somewhere other than his own consciousness, although he cannot discern their actual origin.
To read minds, one success must be rolled for each item of information plucked or each layer of thought pierced. Deep secrets or buried memories are harder to obtain than surface emotions or unspoken comments, requiring five or more successes to access.
Telepathy does not commonly work upon the undead mind. A character may spend a Willpower point to make the effort, making the normal roll afterward. Likewise, it is equally difficult to read the thoughts of other supernatural creatures.
Storytellers are encouraged to descirbe thoughts as flowing streams of impressions and images, rather than as a sequence of prose. Instead of making flat statements like “He's planning on killing his former lover's new boyfriend”, say “You see a fleeting series of visiosn: A couple kissing passionately in a doorway, then the man walking alone at night; you suddenly see your hands, knuckles white, wrapped around a steering wheel, with a figure crossing the street ahead; your heart, mortal now and hammering with panic as you hear the engine rev wildly; and above all, a blazing anger coupled with emotional agony and a panicked fear of loss”.
Such descriptions not only add to the story, they also force the player to decide for herself what her character reads. After all, understanding minds – especially highly emotional or deranged minds – is a difficult and often puzzling task.
Lvl 5 Psychic Projection
The Kindred with this awesome ability projects her senses out of her physical shell, stepping from her body as an entity of pure thought. The vampire's astral form is immune to physical damage or fatigue, and can “fly” with blinding speed anywhere across the earth – or even underground – so long as she remains below the moon's orbit.
The Kindred's material form lies in a torpid state while her astral self is active, and the vampire isn't aware of anything that befalls her body until she returns to it. An ephemeral silver cord connects the Kindred's psyche to her body. If this cord is severed, her consciousness becomes stranded in the astral plane, the realm of ghost, spirits and shades. Attempting to return to the vampire's physical shell is a long and terrifying ordeal, especially since there is no guarantee that she willa ccomplish the journey successfully. This significant danger keeps many Kindred from leaving their bodies for long, but those who dare can learn much.
System : Journeying in astral form requires the player to expend a point of Willpower and make a Perception + Occult roll. Difficulty varies depending on the distance and complexity of the intended trip; 7 is average, with 10 reflecting a trip far from familiar territory (a first journey from North America to the Far East; trying to shortcut through the earth). The greater the number of successes rolled, the more focused the character's astral presence is and the easier it is for her to reach her desired destination.
Failure means the character is unable to separate her consciousness from her body, while a botch can have nasty consequences – flinging her astral form to a random destination on Earth or in the spirit realm, or heading for the desired destination so forcefully that the silver cord snaps.
Changing course of continuing to another destination requires another point of Willpower and a new roll. Failure indicates that the vampire has lost her way and must retrace the path of her silver cord. A botch at this stage means the cord snaps, stranding the character's psychic form in the mysterious astral plane.
An astral form may travel at great speeds (the Storyteller can use 1000 miles per hour as a general guide) and carries no clothing or material objects of any kind. Some artifacts are said to exist in the spirit world, and the character can try to use one of these tools if she finds one. The character cannot bring such relics to the physical world when she returns to her body, however.
Interaction with the physical world is impossible while using Psychic Projection. At best, the character may spend a Willpower point to manifest as a ghostlike shape. This apparition lasts one turn before fading away; while she can't affect anything physically during this time, the character can speak. Despite lacking physical substance, an astral character can use Auspex normally. At the Storyteller's discretion, such a character may employ any Animalism, Dementation, Dominate, Necromancy, Obtenebration, Presence and/or Thaumaturgy powers she has, though this typically requires a minimum of three successes on the initial Psychic Projection roll.
Of two astral shapes encounter one another, they interact as if they were solid. They may talk, touch and even fight as if both were in the material world. Since they have no physical bodies, astral characters seeking to interact “physically” substitute Mental and Social Traits for Physical ones (Wits replaces Dexterity, Manipulation supplants Strength, and Intelligence replaces Stamina). Due to the lack of a material form, the only real way to damage another psychic entity is to cut its silver cord. When fighting this way, consider Willpower points to be health levels; when a combatant loses all of her Willpower, the cord is severed.
Although an astrally projected remains in the reflection of the mortal world (referred to as the Penumbra in other World of Darkness games), she may venture further into the spirit realms, especially if she becomes lost. Other beings, such as ghosts, werewolves and even rare magi, travel the astral plane as well, and can interact with a vampire's psychic presence normally. Storytellers are encouraged to make trips into the spirit world as bizarre, mysterious and dreamlike as possible. The world beyond is a vivid and fantastic place, where the true nature of things is stronger and often strikingly different from the earthly appearances.
Note : For Storytellers familiar with White Wolf's other games, the “astral plane” to which the vampire travels is a reflection of the Umbra in general, not one specific level.
Lvl 6 Clairvoyance
By using Clairvoyance, a vampire can perceive distant events without using Psychic Projection. By concentrating on a familiar person, place of object, a character can observe the subject's immediate vicinity while staying aware of her own surroundings.
System : The player rolls Perception + Empathy (difficulty 6) and describes the target she's trying to look in on. If the roll is successful, the character can then perceive the evens and environments surrounding the desired target for one turn per success. Other Auspex powers may be used on the scene being viewed; these are rolled normally. Clairvoyance does split the vampire's perceptions between what she is viewing at a distance and what is taking place around her. As a result, while using this power, a character is at +3 difficulty on all rolls relating to actions that affect her physical surroundings.
Lvl 6 Prediction
Some people are capable of finishing their friends' sentences. Elder vampires with Prediction sometimes begin their friends' sentences. Prediction is a constant low-level telepathic scan of the minds of everyone the character is in proximity to. While this power doesnot give the vampire the details of his neighbors' conscious thoughts, it does provide a wealth of cues as to the subjects' moods, suppressed reflexes and attitudes toward the topic of conversation.
System : Whenever the character is in conversation and either participant in the discussion makes a Social roll, the player may pre-empt the roll to spend a blood point and make a Perception + Empathy roll (difficulty of the target's Manipulation + Subterfuge). Each success is an additional die that can be applied to the player's Social roll or subtracted from the dice pool of the Social roll being made against the character.
Lvl 6 Telepathic Communication
Telepathy allows a character to pick up only the surface thoughts of other individuals, and to speak to one at a time. With Telepathic Communication, a character can form a link between his mind and that of other subjects, allowing them to converse in words, concepts and sensory images at the speed of thought. Vampires with this level of Auspex can act as “switchboard operators”, creating a telepathic web that allows all participants to share thoughts with some or all other members of the network as they choose.
System : The player rolls Charisma + Empathy (difficulty of the target's current Willpower) to establish contact, although a willing subject may allow the vampire access and thus obviate the need for a roll. The maximum range at which a subject may be contacted and the maximum number of individuals who may be linked simultaneously with this power depends on the Ausepx rating of the vampire who initiates contact.
Auspex rating No. of targets Range
Auspex 6 3 subjects 500 miles
Auspex 7 Perception rating 1000 miles
Auspex 8 Perception + Empathy combined 500 miles for every point of Intelligence
Auspex 9 2x Perception + Empathy combined 1000 miles for every point of Intelligence
Lvl 6 Sibyl's Tongue
Elder Malkavians have a well-deserved reputation as seers and prophets. The power of the Sibyl's Tongue takes this predeliction one step further: the Malkavian so blessed can call on her advanced Auspex to go deliberately questing into the Legion-mind for the answer to a particular question. If some Malkavian somewhere knows the answer, then the sibyl has a chance of making the connection to that Malkavian's memories and drawing forth the information.
Failure carries a penalty, though. To open oneself to the Legion-mind and deliberately tread naked into its waters – that's dangerous stuff. Whenever a Malkavian uses this talent, she runs the risk of having the clan's collective mad thoughts invade her head in a rush. The process is...highly unpleasant.
System : The Malkavian must focus for a turn to attune herself to the Network. The player then rolls Wits + Investigation, difficulty 8. If the roll is successful, the Malkavian gets the answer of her choice; the more successes, the less cryptic the reply. However, the answer must be something that some Malkavian somewhere knows (excluding Malkav himself, of course).
If the roll is failed, then the Malkavian is in trouble. The stew of psychoses that makes up the Network invades her personal headspace, at such a speed that it's impossible to filter out what she wants. She immediately gains two additional derangements for the duration of the scene. If the roll is botched, then the effects are even worse – one of these additional derangements settles into her mind permanently.
At the Storyteller's option, particularly dangerous questions might inflict an extra derangement even if the roll is successful, and have even more severe penalties for failure. This is especially true of questions that require tapping the mind of a Methuselah – a place nobody, no matter how well-prepared, wants to go.
Lvl 6 Babble
One of the more classic powers among elder Malkavians, this is the ability to communicate at great distances by using the power of the Network. The Malkavian with this ability can link a number of people together, allowing them all to converse at will – however, everyone involved must carry on their conversation out loud. What's more, each person hears their fellows as if the other people were standing next to them; thus, if Rosegarden were in the comfort of her own quiet haven while Pack was in a crowded subway, Pack could murmur quietly and be heard, while Rosegarden would have to raise her voice for Pack to hear her over the crowd.
System : The Malkavian may communicate with as many other people as he has points of Willpower; to link with unwilling targets, the player must roll Charisma + Empathy, difficulty of the target's Willpower. He may add more people (up to his Empathy rating) over and above his Willpower score only if those people have derangements and don't resist the Babble.
Lvl 6 Crocodile's Tongue
A character with this power instinctively understands what one other person in a conversation (living or undead) wants to hear. If he can find a way to phrase what he wants so that it sounds like what that person wants to hear, this may help him get points across. This also gives him a way to ingratiate himself with people or to accumulate favors. This differs from Telepathy in that the subject need not be actively thinking about what she wants to hear – a disinterested club patron may find out that his brash suitor offers her some secret desire, while al onely student might have found his “soulmate” who shares his same dreams.
System : The character must spend at least a minute speaking with the subject, and the player must make a successful Perception + Empathy roll (difficulty 6). For the character to phrase his own idea in terms to which the target will respond favorably, assuming, for whatever reason that the Storyteller chooses not to roleplay such a situation, she may allow the player to roll Manipulation or Charisma + Expression (difficulty 6). Such reliance on mechanics should only be used as a last resort, however – the very nature of this power is social, and should rarely be dictated by dice instead of roleplaying.
Lvl 6 Celestial Harmony
This power is a little dangerous to use, but its effects are well worth any price the vampire may have to pay. It allows a Cainite to open up his mind to the river of thoughts and emotions created by the souls of those nearby, flooding his head with a torrent of unfamiliar images, voices and other less identifiable sensory input. Built in to this power, however, is a screening mechanism by which the user may be able to perceive at least general impressions of whose thoughts belong to who. This influx of information, coupled with the usual complement of skills possessed by all Hand member, provides a quick and efficient way of analyzing one's surroundings and gleaning the most useful information from them without having to expose oneself or interrogate those nearby.
For example, a Cainite with this power enters a local watering hole in a town unfamiliar to him. After activating this power, he becomes attuned to the souls of those nearby, his mind in harmony with theirs. After a few moments, he ha slearned that the waitress fears for his well-being (strangers aren't very welcome in this bar), the cashier beind him is single and looking, and the stocky man in the cheap suit is an undercover agent of some kind – all in addition to the unwanted realization that the burly trcuker at the bar happens to be wearing ladies' underwear for some reason.
Sytem : To activate his Celestial Harmony, the vampire's player must roll Willpower (difficulty 7). With each success garnered on this roll, the character can “tune in” for one turn. Successes and turns do not have to be used consecutively, and the vampire can turn the power on and off repeatedly throughout the scene, if so desired. If he activates the power twice in the same scene, however, or if he uses it more times than he has permanent Willpower in one night, he gains a new derangement (Storyteller's choice, based upon circumstances) that will plague him for the rest of the story. In addition, the character suffers a two-dice penalty to all Perception- and Wits-based rolls while celestially harmonizing.
Unfortunately, this brand of mass telepathy doesn't allow the user to shut out certain stimuli or “target” specific individuals. It is a floodgate into the vampire's mind, one which is either entirely open or entirely closed. If the user wishes to narrow his focus, after having received enough information through the use of his Celestial Harmony to get him started, he may simply shut this power off and activate Telepathy instead – a power better designed for such person-to-person intimacies.
Lvl 6 Cipher
The character can understand any written material, even in a language with which she is unfamiliar or scribed in code. Only words with some supernatural nature – such as a Malkavian's Scrawl or Thaumaturgical runes – are not always subject to this effect.
System : Cipher requires the expenditure of a blood point and a roll of Intelligence + Linguistics (difficulty 6). Each success allows the character to read a specific language or decipher a specific code for an entire scene. Thus, a character who speaks neither French nor Russian could, if he rolled two successes, read both French and Russian for one scene; alternatively, he could read one work written in French and encoded (one success for the language, one for the code). Multiple attempts may be made on a single written work, but each new attempt requires a blood point. A botch results in a false translation.
If the character is attempting to read supernatural writing, compare his total level of Auspex to the level of the writer's relevant Discipline at the time the words were written. If, for instance, the character is trying to read a Malkavian's Scrawl, compare his Auspex to the Malkavian's Obfuscate. If the Auspex is higher, the words can be read; if the Obfuscate is equal or greater, they cannot.
Lvl 6 Discern the Aura
A more wide-reaching if less precise enhancement of Aura Perception, Discern the Aura allows the Kindred to glance over a group of individuals and pick out all those who show a specific color, emotion or state of being in their auras. The character could, for instance, glance around a room, and auditorium or even at passersby on the street and pick out everyone who is angry, or frightened or even Kindred.
System : The player rolls Perception + Empathy (difficulty 8) and may choose to spend a blood point or not, as she prefers. The character can then identify a number of people with the specific color in their aura up to her number of successes (or u p to ten times her number of successes, if she chose to spend a blood point). The power lasts until the number is reached, or until the end of the scene, whichever occurs first.
Each use of the power can locate only one hue. If the character wishes to find all Kindred (every pale aura) in the crowd, and then wishes to find everyone in the crowd who is currently frightened, that would require two uses of this power. This power can sometimes penetrate Obfuscate, per the standard rules.
Lvl 7 Karmic Sight
The power of Aura Perception allows a vampire to take a brief glimpse at the soul of a subject. This power takes Aura Perception several steps forward, allowing a vampire who has mastered Auspex 2 to probe the inner workings of a subject's mind and soul. Knowledge acquired in this fashion can be used in many ways, and a vampire who has developed this power is undoubtedly familiar with all of them.
System : The player rolls Perception + Empathy (difficulty of the subject's permanent Willpower). The degree of success determines the information gained.
No. of successes Effect
Botch The character gains a Derangement or Psychological/Mental/Supernatural Flaw of the target's for one night, at Storyteller discretion.
1 success As per five successes on an Aura Perception roll.
2 successes Subject's Nature, Demeanor and Humanity/Path can be determined.
3 successes Any outside influences on the subject's mind or soul, such as Dominate or a demonic pact, can be detected.
4 successes Subject's Willpower, Humanity/Path and Virtue scores can be determined.
5 successes The state of the subject's karma may be determined. This is a highly abstract piece of information best left to Storyteller discretion, but should reveal the general balance between “good” and “bad” actions the subject has performed, both recently and over the course of his existence. If the plot merits it, the character may receive visions of one or more incidents in the subject's past that radically altered his destiny. With this degree of success, some fate-related Mertis and Flaws (e.g. Destiny or Dark Fate) can be identified as well.
Lvl 7 Mirror Reflex
This power was developed by a Toreador elder who made a fearsome reputation through her fencing prowess, acting as a hired champion in dozens of Ventrue duels. Mirror Reflex is similar to Prediction in that it is in essence a low-leverl telepathic scan of an opponent, but his power taps into physical (rather than social) reflexes, allowing the character to anticipate an enemy's moves in personal combat.
System : The player spends a blood point and rolls Perception + the combat skill the opponent is using (difficulty of the subject's Manipulation + combat skill in use). Each success is an additional die that can be applied to the character's dice pools during the next turn of combat for any actions takes against the scanned opponent. The use of Mirror Reflex does take one combat action, and the power has a maximum range in yards equal to the character's Willpower rating.
Lvl 7 Anima Gathering
The power of Psychic Projection allows limitless exploration. However, many of the experiences that it grants cannot be adequately conveyed to individuals who cannot share them. Other would-be observers on the astral plane are left blind and deaf. The viziers believe Anima Gathering originated as a technique for leading warrior-caste mystics on vision quests. It allows a willing seer to bring a small group of companions into the astral realms with him.
System : All individuals who want to benefit from Anima Gathering must be in physical contact with the character who possesses the power or with someone who is in contact with him – in effect, they must form an unbroken chain of participants.
The player spends a blood point for each “follower” the character wishes to bring into the astral realm, up to a maximum of his Wits. He then leaves his body as per the system for Psychic Projection. As long as they remain in physical contact with the character, all followers are treated as if they know Psychic Projection, regardless of their actual Auspex ratings (if any). This temporary power functions as if each follower had rolled a number of successes equal to those that the “leader” rolled.
On the astral plane, followers remain within close proximity to their leader – within 100 feet or so – tethered to him by a thin silver leash. They may not break this connection. This imposes no penalties save for a faint awareness of the leader's location at all times.
Any follower who loses her physical connection to the character instantly returns to her body and loses a number of temporary Willpower points equal to 8 - the character's Wits. If this reduces her to zero Willpower, she falls unconscious until the next sunset.
Lvl 8 Psychic Assault
Psychic Assault is nothing less than a direct mind-to-mind attack which uses the sheer force of an elder's will to overpower his target. Victims of Psychic Assault show little outward sign of the attack, save for nosebleeds and expressions of intense agony; all injuries by means of this psychic pressure inflicted are internal. A medical examination of a mortal victim of a Psychic Assault invariably shows the cause of death to be a heart attack or aneurysm, while vampires killed with this power decay to dust instantly, regardless of age.
System : The character must touch or make eye contact with his target. The player spends three blood point (and a Willpower point, if assaulting a vampire or other supernatural bing) and rolls Manipulation + Intimidation in a contested roll against the victim's permanent Willpower. The result depends on the number of net successes the attacker rolls.
No. of successes Effect
Botch The target becomes immune to the attackers Psychic Assailt for one night per “1” rolled.
Failure The target is unharmed and may determine that a psychic assault is taking place by succeeding on a Perception + Occult roll (difficulty 6).
1 success The target is shaken but unharmed. He loses a temporary Willpower point.
2 successes The target is badly frightened. He loses three temporary Willpower points and, if a vampire, must roll Courage (difficulty of the attacker's Auspex score) to avoid Rötschreck.
3 succcesses The target loses six temporary Willpower points and, if a vampire, must roll Courage as above. If this causes him to lose his last Willpower point, he loses a permanent Willpower point and receives three health levels of bashing damage (soaked normally).
4 successes The taget loses all temporary Willpower points and half of his permanent Willpower points (round down) and receives three health levels of lethal damage (soaked normally).
5 successes The target must roll Willpower (difficulty 7). If he succeeds, apply the effect of four successes. If he fails, the Psychic Assault kills him instantly.
Lvl 8 The Call
Although many clan gatherings happen spontaneously, the Call arising from a general subconscious need shared by a city's Malkavian population, it is possible to send the Call deliberately. Both Auspex and Dementation offer the ability to send the Call, although it's a much easier art to perform when expressed through Dementation.
System : To send the Call, a Malkavian (and only a Malkavian) rolls Perception + Empathy, difficulty 6. As always, other clan members will hear (and attend if they choose) only if they make their Malkavian Time rolls.
Successes Malkavians reached
1 All within three city blocks
3 All within a three-mile radius
5 All within a 10-mile radius
7 The city's entire Malkavian population
10 All within the greater metropolitan area
13 All within 300 miles
15 All Malkavians on the continent
20 Every Malkavian in the world
The Call as broadcastted is not a verbal thing; it merely conveys an impression of a place and a time. There is no sense of purpose, nor even the name of the gathering point; still, neither is really necessary. The Call is so instinctive that if an American Malkavian who didn't speak a word of French were visiting Paris, and heard the Call, he'd be able to follow his impressions and visions to the gathering place as readily as any native Lunatic.
Lvl 9 False Slumber
Possibly the source of many Malkavians' conviction that their sire is alive and well on the astral plane, this power allows a Methuselah's spirit to leave his body while in torpor. While seemingly asleep, the vampire is able to project astrally, think and perceive events normally.
System : No roll is needed. This power is considered to be active whenever the vampire's body is in torpor, and astral travels are handled as per the rules for Psychic Projection. The vampire may not be able to awaken physically at will, however – waking from torpor is handled per the normal rules for such an action.
A vampire with this power whose silver chord is severed in astral combat loses all Willpower points, as per the rules for astral combat under Psychic Projection, but is not killed. Instead, he loses the use of this Auspex power and half of his permanent Willpower must be bought back with experience points. The vampire's souls slowly returns to his body over the course of a year and a day, during which time he may not be awakened from torpor by any means.
Seeing the Unseen
Auspex enables Kindred to preceive many things beyond mortal ken. Among its many uses, Auspex can detect the presence of a supernatural being who is hidden from normal sight (a vampire using Obfuscate, a mage cloaked with invisibility, a wraith) or pierce illusions created by the Discipline of Chimerstry.
Obfuscate : When a vampire tries to use her heightened perceptions to notice a Kindred hidden with Obfuscate, she detects the subject's presence if her Auspex rating is higher than his Obfuscate. Conversely, if the target's Obfuscate outranks her Auspex, he remains undiscovered.If the two scores are equal, both characters make a resisted roll of Perception + Subterfuge (Auspex user) against Manipulation + Subterfuge (Obfuscate user). The difficulty for both rolls is 7, and the character with the most successes wins.
Chimerstry : Likewise, vampires with Auspex may seek to penetrate illusions created with Chimerstry. The Auspex-wielder must actively seek to pierce the illusion (i.e., the player must tell the Storyteller that his character is trying to detect an illusion). Auspex-wielder and Chimerstry-wielder then compare relative scores, per Obfuscate, above. The process is otherwise identical to piercing Obfuscate.
Other Powers : Since the powers of beings like mages and wraiths function differently from vampiric Disciplines, a simple comparison of relative ratings isn't applicable. To keep things simple, both characters make a resisted roll. The vampire rolls Perception + Subterfuge, while the subject rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge. Again, the difficulty is 7, and the character with the most successes wins.
Bardo
This is the Children of Osiris' Discipline, handed down since Osiris himself first discovered this path. It involves attainment of a constant state of mystical conciousness, only achieved by living the rigid, ascetic life of the Children. It is named after the Tibetan word for the half world, the place entered between life and resurrection. This is the realm where the Children of Osiris' consciousness resides.
This Discipline is not the same state as Golconda. Golconda is a realization and acceptance of the way things are, while the Children's Disciplines are based on denial. They deny the Beast within them by intensely concentrating on their Humanitas and their state of death. If a Child was to give up his meditation and Discipline, he would be assailed by his dark, repressed half, so long denied: the Beast unbound.
The Child must maintain Humanity equal to their highest level of ability, or else lose that ability. For example, a Child must have a Humanity of 9 to gain the 9thlevel of attainment. If the Child's Humanity were ever to drop below the required level, then the ability of that level is lost and must be bought all over again with experience points. The Child can counteract this with their first Discipline.
Lvl 1 Restore Humanitas
The first Discipline taught to new Children is the ability to regain lost Humanity. This ability must be used within a week of the loss. The user must meditate for one hour per point she is attempting to regain. Then, Conscience and Empathy are rolled with a difficulty equal to the level of Humanity being restored. The number of successes is the number of Humanity points gained back (though the Child cannot gain back more than were lost). If the roll is botched, the user must perform penance before this ability can be used again. The Temple's Undying King can recommend appropriate measures.
If this ability is successfully used within the week after losing Humanity, then any levels of Bardo also lost are regained.
Lvl 2 Banishing Sign of Thoth
The Child learns a mystic gesture which can defend against any supernatural influences. The Child rolls her Dexterity and Occult with a difficulty of 8. The number of successes is the number added to the difficulty roll of any supernatural power attempting to work upon the Child. These include Thaumaturgy, vampiric Disciplines (Dominate, Presence, Auspex, etc.), Lupine spirit magics and the enchantments of Faerie. It will also work against the Faith of mortals who are attempting to turn the Child, or injure him with their Faith.
Rumor says this ability was taught to the Children by Thoth, and ancient Mage and powerful ally of Osiris. None know today if he was a Kindred or a powerful mortal, or if he even existed at all.
Lvl 3 Gift of Apis
This level of ability frees the Child from the curse of having to drink from mankind to survive. The Child can drink from animals and gain as much nourishment from their blood as from mortal vitae. As long as the proper rituals are maintainted, this ability does not diminish with time. The Grand Undying King of Osiris has not drunk mortal blood since the fall of Rome.
Lvl 4 Pillar of Osiris
The Child can create a Pillar of Osiris, the center of a temple, where the study and meditation of Bardo can be maintained. Any spells or supernatural Disciplines practiced within the Temple subtract three from the difficulty factor to succeed. However, if a Child spends an extended time away from a Temple, the chance of frenzy increases. For every month away, increase the difficulty roll to frenzy by one. Also, the instances in which a frenzy is called for increase, until after a few months, even the slightest annoyance may trigger it. Only regular meditation at a Temple can prevent this degeneration.
Most Children reside at a major Temple, where fellow sect members aid them in the maintenance of their strict path. But sometimes, a Child may have to enter the outer world on sect missions. This level of ability is vital to the Child's mystic health.
Any place can be turned into a Pillar after a night-long ritual. The Pillar is an abstract concept of a mystical center, and does not require a physical pillar. The Child rolls Willpower versus a difficulty decided by the Storyteller, dependant on the nature of the location. A secluded cave, never disturbed by violent Kindred or mortals, would only be a difficulty 5. But a city appartment on the most crime-ridden street in the area would be a 9. A suburban home in a nice neighborhood would fall in the middle, with a difficulty 7. The number of successes is the number of weeks the Temple can be maintained before another ritual is required.
Lvl 5 Paradox
With this level, the Child has gained enough knowledge in her mystic studies as to innately understand the illusory nature of the world. She can utter an extemporaneous remark about it, usually a nonsensical phrase of haiku.
The Child rolls her Wits + Manipulation against each listener's Willpower. Anyone whom she is successful against suddenly becomes overwhelmed with knowledge of the essential oneness of the universe. They are in a confused trance and must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) to successfully attempt any action for the rest of the scene. At the end of the scene, the knowledge will fade away, sunk again into the illusions of the mind.
The person so affected by the Paradox must add one to any difficulties to harm the Child after that, as part of their self remembers the bliss the Child delivered, if only for a few fleeting moments.
Sometimes the phrase's effectiveness can be added to by striking the intended listener with a sudden blow while pronouncing the phrase. This subtracts two points from the difficulty (the listener's Willpower).
Lvl 6 Boon of Anubis
This ability allows the Child to protect a mortal from the Embrace. If a mortal so protected is bitten by a vampire who then attempts to turn her into one of the Kindred, it is ineffective. The vampire will not realize this until after the mortal awakens from the first sleep. The mortal will, however, be considered a ghoul.
The Child must prepare herself in a meditative ritual before contact with the intended mortal. She roll her Empathy + Occult with a difficulty of 6. The number of successes is the number of weeks for which the mortal will be immune. If she fails, she may not try again on that mortal for another lunar month. If she botches, she may never protect that mortal.
Once successful, all that is required to bestow the protection on the mortal is a kiss. This kiss can be anywhere on the face, but is most often on the forehead, where the mystical third eye resides.
Lvl 7 Bring Forth the Dawn
This ability does not actually cause the sun to rise, but instead causes Kindred to sleep as if it were daylight. The Child rolls his Occult + Manipulation versus the Humanity of the Kindred targeted. The number of successes is the number of hours which the Kindred will sleep. The Child can affect multiple targets by dividing his dice pool.
Any Disciplines or Thaumaturgy rituals which protect the Kindred during the sleep will work in defending against this level of Bardo.
Lvl 8 Mummification Ritual
This allows the Child to force a Kindred into torpor and keep her there for a defined period of time. This is a long ritual, so the Kindred must first be constrained against escape during the ritual, or incapacitated. The Kindred must be wrapped in ritual bandages to bond her soul and body into confinement. After an eight-hour ritual, the Child rolls his Willpower versus the Willpower of the Kindred. The number of successes is the number of centuries the torpor will last.
This is a ritual the Children of Osiris sometimes use against any Kindred they feel are too dangerous to be allowed to move freely in the world, such as Followers of Set. It is a form of punishment for those they feel are evil, yet do not deserve final destruction. The mummified Kindred is then usually sealed up in an ancient ruin hidden from the world.
However, the Kindred can increasingly resist the torpor over the years. The confined Kindred can roll her Willpower to break the torpor once for every century that passes. The difficulty begins with a 9, but decreases by one with every century passed.
Ghouls can also be mummified, so that they can follow their masters into the next aeon.
Lvl 9 Ra's Blessing
After a long period of meditation, a Child with this level of mystical ability can walk outside during day, in full sunlight, and not come to harm. The Child must prepare in a month-long ceremony of ascetisism, contemplating the Light Within. After that time, she must roll her Humanity versus a difficulty of 10. The number of successes is the number of hours she may walk the day. A botch means that the Child cannot try again for another decade.
The ability to look upon the sun can bolster a Child's Humanity and Virtues. For every hour spent under the sun, the Child can roll his Humanity, or one of his Virtues, against a difficulty of 9. A success means that Trait is raised by one.
Lvl 9 Rebirth
This powerful ritual allows the Child of Osiris to be brought back from Final Death. This ceremony must be overseen by a Daughter of Isis. All who reside in the dead one's temple must contribute at least one blood point each. The condition of the body is unimportant, as long as some part of it is there. The vampire's consciousness has achieved a level of static existence on the astral plane, where it can reside until regaining its body.
The vampire must roll his Willpower versus a difficulty of 10. If he succeeds, he can use the blood points poured on his body to heal it. When restored to full health levels, the vampire can again live as he has before, but he has lost the ability to create progeny of ghouls. While he retains his generation for purposes of Dominate and other Disciplines that rely on generation, his blood is no longer of its original potency, and anyone drinking it whole will not gain that generation. The Child can only use this ability once per century.
Note that there is no 10thlevel of Bardo. Indeed, none of the Children have ever heard of a Third Generation Cainite ever practicing this Discipline.
Celerity
The Embrace gifts some vampires with startling spee dand reflexes. They can use Celerity to move with amazing swiftness in times of stress. Mortals, and even Kindred lacking this Discipline, move as if in slow motion compared to the astonishing blur the vampire becomes.
Celerity is common among the Assamites, Brujah and Toreador clans. The Assamites use this ability to strike down their foes before the victims are even aware of the attack. Brujah delight in the advantage this Discipline gives them against superior numbers of opponents. Toreador are more likely to use Celerity to lend preternatural grace to live performances such as dance or extraordinary speed when creating sculptures or paintings – however, they van be as terrifying as any Assamite or Brujah when angered.
System : The character spends a single blood point. The next turn, she gains a number of additional full actions equal to her Celerity rating. These additional actions must be physical (e.g., the vampire cannot use a mental Discipline like Dominate multiple times in one turn). So a vampire with Celerity 4 who spends a blood point may perform a total of five physical actions in her next turn. The actions occur at the end of the turn (the vampire's regular action still takes place per her initiative roll).
Normally, a character without Celerity must apply a dice pool penatly if she wants to take multiple actions in a single turn. A character using Celerity performs his extra actions (including full movement) without penalty, gaining a full dice pool for each separate action. Extra actions gained through Celerity may not in turn be split into multiple actions.
Few Kindred can even conceive of any use for Celerity other than that of speeding up one's actins so that one might pop off a few more TEC-9 rounds in combat. While that approach is all well and good, there are other potential applications of the power available to ancient, learned or clever vampires.
Under normal circumstances, advanced mastery of Celerity means that the normal progression of powers predominates. Unless the character makes a special effort to learn an alternate power or to create one, each additional level of the power from 6 to 9 means that once the Discipline is activated, the vampire simply receives another additional action per turn.
If, however, the vampire chooses to take an alternate power, she forfeits that normal progression (which can later be made up through experience) and takes the new manifestation of Celerity instead. She does not gain the extra action in adition to the special power; it's an either/or situation.
Note : Yes, there are fewer alternate Celerity powers listed than there are for any other Discipline (save Potence and Fortitude). No, this is not an oversight – there has been less impetus for practitioners of these three Disciplines to develop variations than there has been on masters of, say, Auspex.
Lvl 6 Projectile
Despite the fact that a vampire with Celerity moves at incredible speeds, by some quirk of metaphysics any bullets he fires or knives he throws while in this state don't move any faster than they normally would. Scientifically minded Kindred have been baffled by the phenomenon for centuries, but more pragmatic ones have found a way to work around it. Projectile enables a vampire to take his preternatural speed and transfer it into something he has thrown, fired or launched.
System : Projectile requires the expenditure of a blood point. In addition, the player must decide how many levels of his character's Celerity he is putting into the speed of the launched object. Thus, a character with Celerity 6 in addition to Projectile could decide to put three dots' worth of speed into a knife he is throwing, and use the other three dots as extra actions as per normal. Each dot of Celerity infudes into a thrown object becomes an automatic success on the attack's damage roll, assuming the knife/hatchet/spear/bullet actually hits.
Lvl 6 Precision
While many elder Cainites simply develop their superhuman reflexes to truly amazing levels, others find new and varied uses for the ability – like Precision. This focused technique allows its wielder to apply all of his intense energy to the smallest of targets. He effectively increases his fine manipulation capabilities beyond those of the most advanced mechanical lathes by moving so quickly as to disturb absolutely nothing save that which he actually touches. Cainite sculptors who have mastered Precision are capable of creating works of near-microscopic detail by striking so swiftly as to remove only the tiniest shavings of wood or stone. A certain medical specialist of the vizier caste is reputed to be able of wielding surgical tools so deftly as to be able to reattach severed spinal tissue.
System : The player spends two blood points and a Willpower point and rolls Dexterity + Crafts (difficulty 6, substituting an appropriate Ability for Crafts at the Storyteller's discretion). For each success, the player may add one dice to all rolls pertaining to precision, fine manipulation or moving something without disturbing its surroundings. This power lasts for a number of minutes equal to the character's Celerity rating.
The character is in something of a trance state as she concentrates on channeling all her speed into tiny, flickering motions. Any actions that do not involve fine manipulation are at +2 difficulty. Even conversation is a strain. The character may voluntarily withdraw from Precision before its duration elapses, but all benefits are lost without a subsequent re-invocation of the power. Under no circumstances does Precision give any benefits in combat (though it may allow the preparation of weapons of fiendish intricacy).
Lvl 6 Tireless Tread
As much as physical conflict, part of the initial Anarch Revolt was spent fleeing from unfavorable odds and vengeful elders. This power made some of those exoduses possible, enabling the Kindred of those early nights to put far much more ground between themselves and their antagonists than the rest of the world could imagine at the time. As long as the anarchdevoted himself to escape, he could cover enormous distances in a single night.
This power has fallen into some disuse in the modern nights, given the prevalence of transportation methods that make it a bit obsolete. The most significant benefit it still has, however, is a virtual inability to trace. Those flying on planes or riding buses require tickets, and even a properly registered car leaves a paper trail or bears a license plate. When a Kindred invokes the Tireless Tread, however, the only evidence of her passing is herself.
System : this power costs one blood point per night. The Kindred simply walks and does nothing else over the course of the night. Perhaps “walks” is a bit misleading, as the Kindred covers a distance of 50 miles per hour. This power must be used for at least eight hours, meaning the Kindred must travel a distance of at least 400 miles. Any less and the power fails to work initially. The Kindred finds a rhythm and stays in it, as opposed to merely sprinting for eight hours. If the Kindred tarries too much along her way, she will find herself unable to find that traveler's pace, and the power will fail entirely.
Lvl 7 Flower of Death
In combat, as in all things, speed kills. A proper application of Celerity in combat can turn even the meekest Cainite into a walking abattoir. How much more deadly, then, is a vampire with the ability to utilize his preternatural speed to the utmost in combat? The answer to that question is “Rather a lot”. Flower of Death allows a vampire to take his Celerity and apply it in full to each hand-to-hand or melee attack he makes.
System : Flower of Death costs four blood points, but the spectacular effect is well worth it.Once the power is in effect, a number of dice equal to the vampire's normal Celerity rating gets added to every dice pool for attack the character makes until the end of the scene. The effect is limited to hand-to-hand or melee weapon attacks – firearms, bows and whatnot are excluded – and does not grant the attacker additional dice for damage rolls.
Flower of Death is not cumulative – it is impossible to “layer” uses of the power over one another to create astronomical dice pools.
Lvl 7 Stutter -Step
Calling upon her preternatural speed, a Kindred using this power appears to undertake several actions at once, “flickering” from one action to the next. This is particularly useful in combat, as one's foe cannot guess which of the actions he perceives is the one with which the character follows through. The character seems to be a dervish while this power is in effect, beginning countless feints, dodges and parries.
System : The player spends a blood point to activate this power. For the turn in which the character calls upon this power, she may add her full Celerity rating to her Dodge, Block or Parry pool. This pool may also be distributed among multiple actions – a character with this power can use it in a succession of Dodges, moving too fast for the eye to perceive, much like the fluttering of a hummingbird's wings.
Lvl 8 Zephyr
Zephyr produces an effect vaguely similar to one of the legendary comic book-style uses of enhanced speed, allowing its practitioner to run so fast he can run across water (he's moving so fast he doesn't have time to sink). Particularly successful applications of Zephyr allow a vampire to go so far as to run up walls and, in at least one recorded instance, across a ceiling, though the latter is more of a parlor trick than anything else.
System : Zephyr requires the expenditure of a point each of blood and Willpower. Unfortunately, Zephyr requires such extremes of concentration that it cannot be combined with any form of attack, or indeed, with most any sort of action at all. If a character using Zephyr feels the need to do something else while moving at such tremendous speeds, a Willpower roll (dificulty 8) is required. Needless to say, botches at Zephyr speed can be spectacular in all the wrong ways.
Most times, a vampire moving at such a rate of speed is barely visible, appearing more as a vampire-shaped blur than anything else. Observers must succeed on a Perception + Alertness roll (difficulty 7) to get even a decent look at a Kindred zooming past in this fashion.
Chimerstry
The Ravnos are heirs to a legacy of illusion, and none can say exactly why. The elders of their clan, when properly approached, speak cryptically of ghuls and rakshasas, and the shapeshifting antics of their Antediluvian founder are the subject of many a dark campfire tale among the clan. But whatever the source, the nomadic Ravnos have a potent weapon in the form of their Discipline of Chimerstry.
Chimerstry is an art of conjuration; the vampire may draw upon her inner reserves to bring phantoms to life. These false images can confound mortal senses and sensory equipment alike. If the Cainite's power is strong enough, illusions created by Chimerstry may even baffle the heightened senses of the vampire. The Ravnos are fond of using this power to seduce, swindle or enslave mortals, effectively purchasing their victims' souls in exchange for a sack of bouillon that isn't there.
Illusions created by Chimerstry may be detected by Auspex. They may also be seen for what they are by a victim who “proves” the illusion's falsehood (e.g., a person who walks up to an illusory wall, expresses his disbelief in it, and puts his hand through it efectively banished the illusion).
Lvl 1 Ignis Fatuus
The vampire may conjure a minor, static image that confounds one sense. For instance, he may evoke a sulfurous stench, the image of a curtain, or the feel of raw silk. Note that although tactile illusions can be felt, they have no real substance; an invisible but tactile wall cannot confine anyone, and invisible razor-wire causes no real damage.
System : The player must spend a point of Willpower to create this illusion. It lasts until the Ravnos leaves its vicinity (such as stepping out of the room) or until another person sees through it somehow. The Cainite may also end the illusion at any time; this requires no effort, only the merest whim.
Lvl 2 Fata Morgana
The Cainite can now create illulsions that appeal to all the senses, although they remain static. For example, the vampire could throw a mirage over a dank basement, making it appear to a sumptuous boudoir, although she could not create flickering cnaldes or a flowing fountain. Again, the dweomer has no solid presence, although it's easy enough to make a filthy mattress on two sawhorses feel like a four-poster bed.
System : The player spends a Willpower point and a bloo dpoint to create the dweomer. These static images remain until dispelled, in much the same way that an Ignis Fatuus illusion does.
Lvl 3 Apparition
Not really a power unto itself. Apparition allows the vampire to give motion to an illusion created with Ignis Fatuus or Fata Morgana. Thus, the Ravnos could create the illusion of a living being, running water, fluttering drapes ora roaring fire.
System : The creator spends one blood point to make the illusion move in one specific way. She may change the image's movement only if she has done nothing but concentrate on the mirage since creating it.
Lvl 4 Permanency
This power, also used in conjunction with Ignis Fatuus or Fata Morgana, allows a mirage to persist even when the vampire cannot see it. In this way, Ravnos often cloak their temporary havens in false trappings of luxury, or ward off trespassers with illusory guard dogs.
System : The vampire need only spend a blood point, and the illusion becomes permanent until dissolved.
Lvl 5 Horrid Reality
Rather than create simple illusions, the vampire can now project hallucinations directly into a victim's mind. The target of thes eillusions believes completely that the images are real; a hallucinatory fire can burn him, an imaginary noose can strangle him. This power affects only one person at a time; although other people can try to convince the victim that his terrors are not real, he won't believe them.
System : A Horrid Reality costs two Willpower points to set in motion and lasts for an entire scene (although its effects may last longer; see below). If the vampire is trying to injure his victim, his player must roll Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty of the victim's Perception + Self-Control). Each success inflicts one health level of damage on the victim; if the player wishes to inflict less damage, he may announce imum amount of damage before rolling the dice. This power cannot actually kill its victims (although a target with a heart condition may wel die from fright); a victim “killed” by an illusory attack loses consciousness or enters torpor. All injuries disappear once the victim is truly convinced that she wasn't actually harmed by the Horrid Reality. Of course, such a cure may take a long time, or even psychological therapy. The nightmarish power of Chimerstry is nothing to take lightly.
Lvl 6 False Resonance
Illusions of living or unliving beings are all well and good until someone decides to read the illusion's mind or aura. The automatic failure to perceive any sense of the target's thoughts or emotions will usually be passed off as bad luck or simple lack of concentration, or whatever reason any Kindred might construct to explain why he didn't succeed in gleaning information through supernatural means. A Ravnos can use False Resonance to overlay auras and thoughts on illusions, as well as leave a trace that other emotionally resonant powers can detect later.
System : This power automatically applies to any other use of Chimerstry as the user wishes. In effect, any attempt to use Auspex or the Dementation power, Eyes of Chaos, that generates five or fewer successes will detect an aura, thoughts, Demeanor or whatever the power would normally detect. Thoughts won't be exceptionally complex, and will relate to whatever is going on around the illusion in a mundane and simplistic way. Auras will consist of colors related to specific emotions (anger, sadness, hatred, love and happiness) and will not show much complexity beyond that. Spirit's Touch can pick up the same emotional resonance until the next sunrise.
Lvl 6 Fatuus Mastery
A Ravnos with Fatuus Mastery has no restriction how often she may use the first three levels (Ignis Fatuus, Fata Morgana and Apparition) and can maintain or control illusions with minimal concentration or fatigue. Kindred who rely on the high cost of Chimerstry to limit a Ravnos' ability to use illusions are in for a very rude surprise when they encounter a Ravnos with this power.
System : Fatuus Mastery negates the Willpower and blood cost for using the first three levels of Chimerstry. In addition, the Ravnos may direct movement for a number of illusions equal to his Intelligence without intense concentration. Furthermore, the character can maintain the illusion as long as it remains within his Willpower score in miles (although he may not make it react to events around it if he has not way to perceive those events).
Lvl 6 Shared Nightmare
Even though Horrid Reality is visible to all onlookers, it can only inflict “damage” on one victim. With Shared Nightmare, a Ravnos can inflict her tormented visions on a crowd.
System : To use this power, the player must spend one blood point per target and two Willpower points. The player rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge once, but compares the results against each target individually. The difficulty is still each victim's Perception + Self-Control.
Lvl 7 Far Fatuus
This power is the province of the Phuri Dae, who use it in conjunction with highly developed Auspex powers. It allows a Ravnos to project illusions to any area he can see or visualize. Under most circumstances, accomplishing this requires him to have visited the location in question before he can project illusions there. Although more difficult, a Ravnos may project illusions on the basis of a description, a photograph or a television image.
System : The difficulty for using Far Fatuus depends on the user's familiarity with the location. The player must roll Perception + Subterfuge to affect the location. Once this roll is successful, the Ravnos may then use any other Chimerstry power on that location.
Difficulty Familiarity
6 As familiar as one's haven; currently viewing with Clairvoyance of Psychic Projection
7 Visited three or more times
8 Visited once; viewing on a live feed camera
9 Described in detail
10 Never been there; seen it on television or have a photograph
Lvl 7 Suspension of Disbelief
A Ravnos with this power can imbue her Chimerstry with a sense of reality that makes it easier for viewers to believe in the illusion. No matter how strange or surreal the illusion is, an onlooker will accept it as real. If the illusion is wildly unrealistic (fire-breathing dragons, a pack of gray aliens), once it is no longer in sight, the observer will question what he saw and eventually deny the event ever happened. A Ravnos can also use this power to make something appear unbelievable, whether it's real or not. In this case, observers will write off what they're seeing as some kind of trick of hallucination.
System : The player rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty 7). The number of successes determines how may witnesses are affected. If the player uses the power to make something look unbelievable, Auspex will show the thing in question to be an illusion unless the Auspex score is high enough to penetrate the Ravnos' Chimerstry
1 success Five people
2 successes 10 people
3 successes 25 people
4 successes 50 people
5 successes Everyone who can see it
Lvl 8 Occlusion
A Ravnos who masters this power can shuffle others' senses around to suit his preferences. He can select one target and inflict a serious, disorienting and all-encompassing cae synesthesia upon her, making it impossible for her to interact meaningfully with the real world for the power's duration. The Ravnos has complete control over how the target's senses work and can manipulate them to suit. For example, he may decide that she smells all sounds as varieties of nauseating stenches, or more subtly, he may exchange pain for pleasure. Against a crowd, sensations are randomly shuffled, so one man will se what the woman next to him sees, but hears what the man 15 feet behind him hears and feels what the child a block away feels. The end result is extremely disorienting for all victims.
System : When used against a single victim, the player must spend one Willpower point and roll Manipulation + Intimidation (difficulty is the victim's Willpower). For use against crowds, the difficulty is 7, and the power affects everyone within the Ravnos' line of sight and subtracts one point from Perception per success rolled. Victims whose Perception has been reduced to zero can only sit down and wait for the disorientation to end. Duration against a single victim is determined below. Against a crowd, the power persists until sunrise.
1 success One week
2 successes One month
3 successes Six months
4 successes One year
5 successes Permanent
Lvl 9 Mayaparisatya
Arguably the philosopher's stone for Shilmulo, this penultimate expression of chimerstry allows the Ravnos to directly alter or create real objects or creatures, although such changes are of finite duration. A Ravnos with this power can transform the air around a rival Kindred into fire or render a locked door insubstantial. A more harrowing use of this power enables the Ravnos to roce an object out of existence by transforming it into nothing more than a wisp of its former reality.
Path of Paradox philosophers point to this power as the only “true” use of Chimerstry, claiming all others are distraction or stepping stones to this porfound understanding. Since the Week of Nightmares, it's likely that no surviving Ravnos has mastered Chimerstry to this degree.
System : To use this power, the player must spend 10 blood points and one permanent Willpower point and roll Manipulation + Subterfuge. Difficulty for the roll is 6 for affecting inanimate objects, and the victim's Willpower score for affecting characters. This power can affect anything within miles of the Ravnos, as long as the character is aware of the target in some way. If used with Far Fatuus, the effects are centered on the chosen location. This power can affect a number of conscious targets equal to the Ravnos' Willpower per use.
When dealing with inanimate objects, the number of successes determines how drastic the alteration may be. No mateer how many successes the player rolls, the duration is always a scene. This power can affect any objects of a type within the Ravnos' are affected.
1 success Render an object harmless (swords won't cut, firearms won't shoot), create a large volume of obscuring smoke
2 successes Change an object into another object (turn candles into tarantulas, etc.)
3 successes Render the object insubstantial, make solid smoke
4 successes Cause drastic changes (stone becomes highly flammable)
5 successes Cause the environment to behave illogically (gravity twists sideways, rivers stand still as hills flow upward)
6+ successes Delete any offending material objects from existence. This effect is permanent (to use this on conscious targets, follow the system below)
When using the power on conscious targets, consult the table above for alterations (such as forcing the victim into another form or transforming her into a different substance). If using the power to negate the victim's existence, the power inflicts two levels of unsoakable aggravated damage per success. If the power doesn't kill the victim, subtract one dot of Strength and Stamina per success. The damage must be healed normally, but the lost Attributes return at the end of the scene. Victims of this power look hazy and insubstantial. Victims destroyed with this power simply vanish.
Daimoinon
These are the mysteries of the Baali, black arts torn whole and beating from the sorcerer-kings of ancient cultures and prehistoric civilizations, incoherent memories passed from tome to tongue, hearkening to times of insensate oblivion. They are sibilant secrets in which all begins to end and begin again...and with every new night and novice brought into the circle, the telling grows shorter.
Lvl 1 Sense the Sin
The novitiate first learns the art of unmaking where the seeds of chaos are strewn – from within. This power allows the Baali to see into the heart of a person, unearthing his flaws – his shortcomings, his vulnerabilities, his exploitable weaknesses.
System : The player rolls Perception + Empathy against living or undead beings, difficulty equal to the subject's Self-Control +4. If successful, the Baali can sense the subject's greatest weakness. The depth and significance of this information are dictated by the degree of success; one success might determine a low Virtue, weak Willpower or a poorly defended avenue of approach, whereas two might yield a closely-guarded secret or conversational misstep. Three or more yields a central Derangement or informative trauma from the subject's past.
Lvl 2 Fear of the Void Below
The disciple's power has progressed from the ephemeral to the tangible. Through the use of this Discipline, she may project into listener's minds the beginnings of oblivion – the nameless, formless terrors of the night, the unknown and the inevitability of nonbeing.
System : The Baali must first employ Sense the Sin to discern the tragic flaw of the target. She must then speak to the target(s), playing upon his inadequacies, the inescapable consequences of his shortcomings and the certain nothingness that must follow failure. A successful Wits + Intimidation roll (difficulty of the subject's Courage +4) deives the victim into quavering fits of tremulous terror (one succes), mindless panic-borne flight similar to Rötschreck (two successes) or even unconsciousness (three or more successes). All effects last for the remainder of the scene. Kindred subjects may resist with a Courage roll (difficulty of the Baali's Willpower) that garners more successes than the Baali – they are accustomed to dealing with their Beasts.
Lvl 3 Conflagration
Through focus and force of will, the adept summons forth something of the essence of Beyond...the briefest trickle of otherworldly power. This sinister “black fire” has been known to manifest as an imperceptible distortion of time and space, and incandescent halo of ethereal light, even the semblance of eldritch flame – all of which, of course, leave observers eerily reminded of traditional guises of the infernal...
System : The player spends a blood point. This creates a bolt of black flame that inflicts one die of aggravated damage; more blood points may be spent to increase the size and damage of the flame. Such fires are fleeting and dissipate at the end of the turn in which they are summoned, unless the Baali spends blood points over several turns, gradually creating a larger flame. The player also rolls Dexterity + Occult (difficulty 6) to hit his target, who may dodge as normal, unless circumstances prevent it. Vampires confronted with this black fire make Rötschreck tests as if confronted with a similar quantity of normal flame.
Lvl 4 Psychomachia
At length the Baali, having grasped something of the nature of fervor and the frailty of flesh, takes on the power to ravage a victim's unconscious, forcing his innermost passions and perversions into palpable physical form – the stuff of nightmare.
System : The vampire, spinning the nightmare from an individual hell of the victim's own making (after using Sense the Sin), forces the subject's player to roll her lowest Virtue (difficulty 6). Failing this roll pits the target against an apparition summoned from her darker self, visible and material to the subject only – for instance, an abusive father, a long-dead lover, perhaps a childhood boogeyman or (for Kindred victims) even the Beast itself. A botch indicates the target has been overwhelmed and frenzies – or, worse, becomes possessed by her inner demons.
This imaginary antagonist should be wholly narrated, or assigned Traits equivalent or slighty inferior to the victim's, at the Storyteller's option. All injuries sustained by the target in such an encounter are illusory (substitute catatonia or torpor for death as appropriate) and vanish upon the phantasm's defeat or the Baali's loss of concentration.
Lvl 5 Condemnation
Calling upon forbidden pacts, forgotten powers and a legacy of blighted ritual dating back to prehistoric times, the Baali may call down a curse upon his enemies. The least of such afflictions cripple, disfigure or otherwise hinder their victims; the greatest have become the stuff of legend.
System : An Intelligence + Occult roll (difficulty equal to the subject's Willpower) dictates the length and severity of the curse; successes must be split between both these effects, as follows:
1 success Up to one week; “No voice shall be lent your lying tongue.”
2 successes One month; “Sicken and wither, infidel...a babe's weakness upon you.”
3 successes One year; “Reap this bitter harvest – may your closest friends turn foe.”
4 successes Ten years; “Barren be thy seed and the loins of all your line.”
5 successes Permanent; “The mark of doom – all you touch or love must fail.”
At any time, the Baali may choose to end the curse, though few have ever done so. Stroytellers should feel free to invent creative or story-appropriate curses; similarly, abuse (including but not limited to overuse) should be met with automatic failure or distortion beyond the curse's original intent.
Lvl 6 Concordance
At this level of mastery, the Baali takes something of the nature of his true masters into his person, partially transcending his undead condition. The prices exacted by Those Who Wait Beyond, however, can be steep indeed. History depicts the priesthood of Baal as a cabal of hellish creatures – horned, taloned, insectile, possessed of the powers of flight, the ability to withstand open flame and countless other infernal investitures.
System : The most typical manifestation of this power incorporates immunity to the damaging effects of fire, though other equivalently powered assets may be available at the Storyteller's option. Most of these tributes take the form of left-handed “gifts” with unforeseen consequences (a telltale bronze tint to flame-resistant flesh; an inhuman homunculus that must be fed from a third nipple; a vestigial set of wings; visible talons or horns that cannot be concealed; etc.). This Discipline may be purchased more than once for concurrent divestments...at still greater cost to body and soul. (Indeed, the current shaitan is said to have been so gnarled and twisted by the Masters as to be no longer even remotely mistakable for human).
Note that certain banes of the Cainite race – piety, dependency on blood for sustenance, etc. - may not be overcome by this Discipline under any circumstances. In the end, it is up to the Storyteller's discretion as to what the Baali may or may not withstand.
Lvl 7 Summon the Herald of Topheth
Only a handful of Baali elders have ever attained this degree of mastery. These select few embody an understanding of the whys and wherefores of the Void sufficient to begin bridging the fissure between worlds, that someone – something – might enter through a momentary rift.
System : Although the names assigned them differ by church and culture (angel, demon, daeva, djinn, efreet, malakim, shedim and countless others), the end results are the same. Such summoned creatures vary greatly in abilities and form, but are built on approximately the following: Attributes 10/7/3, Abilities (15 points worth), Willpower 8, Disciplines (10 points worth), Fortitude of at least 3 and the capacity to heal one health level at least eery other round. Form can vary wildly; though most celestial beings chafe at the notion of wearing a single shape, many adopt those common to myth and legend. Succubi, reptilian horrors, unearthly beautiful spindly creatures and bat-winged monsters are among the most often recorded shapes.
The enactment of this rite is frequently accompanied by a blood sacrifice (at least three blood point's worth) and ceremony; in some cases the being summoned may choose to inhabit the Baali. This phenomenon has led some Followers of Baal to wonder if the ranks of those clanmates are entirely their own...
Lvl 8 Contagion
Not so much a means of directed curse or control as a natural extension of faith, this power infects the very institutions and inhabitants of the Baali's surroundings with a pervading sense of gloom, despair and malaise. Crime and violence soar; petty angers give rise to seething hatreds; local economies take a downward spiral; marriages end over trivial quarrels and the world, as the region's residents know it, becomes a nastier place in general. In the history of the Baali, entire towns and villages have been temporarily enslaved – mindless armies yoked heart, strength and faith to an infernal master's will.
System : Successes garnered on an Intelligence + Occult roll (difficulty 9) must be divided between the intensity and the area of the desired effect. Sufficiently high degrees of Auspex may be ble to pick up on this vague, malevolent aura; otherwise they will simply assume that times have taken a dire change for the worse.
1 success Immediate vicinity; ill-tempered/out-of-sorts behavior
2 successes An office complex; civil/domestic unrest, prejudice
3 successes A city block; angry (ven riotous) dissent
4 successes An auditorium or apartment complex; bar-brawls, hair triggers, hate crimes, blood in the streets
5 successes An entire city; a throng of bloodthirsty single-minded Philistines
Lvl 9 Call the Great Beast
No power is so feared as the one that literally awakens the Elder Gods and begs them journey to the world of men. This power has never been uscessfully implemented, though its formulae and incantations are known to at least one childe of Baal-Hammon who sleeps beneath the blighted earth. Truly, the pwoers of the beings summoned by one who must veritably be a god himself to perform the call would tear the land asunder.
System : The preparatory ritual requires a tremendous investment of time and sacrifice; veiled allusions such as “fivescore souls, plucked clean and whole” and “when three times sets the hooded sun” indicate a selective sacrificial rite spanning days, nights and dozens of victims. Deviation or imperfection in this litany may well have unforeseen consequences, ranging from simple failure to unwelcome attention on behalf of the entity being petitioned!
At this point, the high priest expends all of his permanent Willpower and releases his consciousness in a final, desperate attempt to breach the gulf Beyond, becoming an empty vessel, a once-mortal gateway granting passage into this reality for...why, for whatever will most effectively end the world as your chronicle knows it, of course. You're the Storyteller – what would the Devil do to your world?
Dark Thaumaturgy
Despite the inexplicable disappearance of the Tremere antitribu, Dark Thaumaturgy has entrenched itself in the malignant underground of the Sabbat. A basic tenet of Sabbat unity is the sharing of Disciplines among pack members. This sharing strengthens the pack as a whole, and it better prepares the pack for a stand against the Camarilla. Although this tenet is true, students of Dark Thaumaturgy are still rare, due to the innate dangers in dealing with the infernal.
Dark Thaumaturgy is simply Thaumaturgical knowledge gleaned from demons, rather than a separate Discipline. The distinction is made merely for the pusposes of illustrating the danger of dealing with infernal forces – learning a Path or ritual from a text or another vampire does not leave the taint of the infernal on the vampire. Trucking with demons, however, stains the soul in a serious way.
In the absence of the Traditional Tremere training and research, some Sabbat who want to learn the secrets of Thaumaturgy turn to demons. These demons pride themselves on taking over the beings to whom they teach their dark magics and bending them to their infernal will. Practitioners of Dark Thaumaturgy think they work to control the “Devil on their shoulder”, lest it take over entirely. In reality, Dark Thaumaturgy is practiced predominantly by fools who think they're going to outsmart the Devil, those who want a wuick route to power and people too weak to resist infernal temptation.
Dark Thaumaturgy has levels and Paths, just like Thaumaturgy. The mechanical difference between Thaumaturgy and Dark Thaumaturgy is relatively moot – Paths and rituals still create the same effects. However, Dark Thaumaturgy comes with a price. Traffic with the Devil's minions permanently scars the soul, and the taint of infernalism manifests in the dark thaumaturge's aura. Before long, the unmistakable marks of the Devil's favor may even appear physically, as a wart on the nose, a “wtich's claw” behind the ear or even (among the most Damned of the Damned) withered limbs, freakish scars, horns or cloven hoofs! Needless to say, once these visible traits appear, the Inquisistion is sure to follow close behind, hastening the infernalist to deliver his soul to whatever dark power has claimed it.
Again, Dark Thaumaturgy is simply Thaumaturgy learned from demons – there is no separate Dark Thaumaturgy Trait. Demons may teach any of the “normal” Paths and rituals of Thaumaturgy, but a few powers may only be learned with demonic tutelage. Increasing Path and Thaumaturgy Traits is less difficult when dealing with the minions of Hell, but that ease is more than compensated for by the ruthless pursuit oand persecution the infernalist faces when (or if) her unholy leanings come to the fore. Buying Thaumaturgy as a “New Discipline” with demonic instruction costs only 8 experience points. New Paths cost only 5 points. Increasing a Thaumaturgy Trait with infernal assistance costs the curent rating x5 experience points, while increasing a Path rating costs the currerating x3 points.
Dark Thaumaturgical Paths
Like normal Thaumaturgy Paths, Dark Thaumaturgical Paths require a Willpower roll (difficulty equal to the power's level +3) and the expenditure of a blood point. Only one success is necessary to invoke these powers, unless otherwise noted. Failure on this roll signifies that the effect fails, while a botch costs the thaumaturge a permanent point of Willpower.
The Fires of the Inferno
This Path of Dark Thaumaturgy allows the thaumaturge to manipulate the supernatural flames conjured from the depths of Hades. It appears in a malignant green, and it is impossible for the infernalist to hide. This “balefire” is supernatural fire, and it affects those with protection from mundane flames normally.
Balefire is not subtle. The sickly, green flame springs from the conjurer's hand in jets or globes, its sole purpose to damage opponents. Unlike the Lure of Flames, Fires of the Inferno are not intended for fine or discrete purposes.
Price : Hell's Aura
Upon attaining level two of this Path, acter suffers a change in her aura. Immediately visible to those using Aura Perception on her is a baleful green flame. This aura is visible to anyone using that power on her successfully, and it does not count toward the normal amount of information the character receives from such uses.
System : the higher the level of mastery the practitioner possesses, the hotter the flames are. Hellfire can be extinguished in the same way as normal flames, though the green color implies that something less than normal is happening. A botched roll results in the caster losing control of the flames, which may turn on him or engulf him. Remember that vampires wishing to soak this damage must possess the Discipline of Fortitude.
Lvl 1 Lighter (difficulty 3 to soak, one health level of damage/turn)
Lvl 2 Stovetop (difficulty 4 to soak, two health levels of damage/turn)
Lvl 3 Blowtorch (difficulty 5 to soak, three health levels of damage/turn)
Lvl 4 Flame-thrower (difficulty 7 to soak, four health levels of damage/turn)
Lvl 5 Conflagration (difficulty 9 to soak, five health levels of damage/turn)
The Path of Phobos
This Path allows infernalists to wield the fears of their victims as a weapon. Practitioners of this Path mystically tap into the depths of their victims' psyches, prying the terros from their minds and making them seem very real. Many more sophisticated Sabbat infernalists prefer this Path over physical ones, as they enjoy the sublime effects of using the subjects' own fears against them rather than vulgar, brutal displays of fire and demonic servants.
Infernalists using this Path often experience nightmares and night terrors, which result from the many horrible memories they have leached from their victims. Storytellers should make Manipulation + Empathy rolls (difficulty 7) for characters who use the Path of Phobos more than once in a given story. The number of successes indicates how long the character must cope with the sea of stolen terrors roiling in her own mind. Botching results in the nightmares not only recurring for a week, but draining an additional nightly blood point from the vampire, due to the lack of sound sleep. Such is the price of hellish insight.
1 success One week
2 successes Five days
3 successes Four days
4 successes Two days
5 successes One day
Price : Nightmares
The very dream-forces that the character uses upon others ravage their way through his own mind while he sleeps. Any character who learns this Path at any level acquires the Nightmares Flaw, but receives no additional points for it.
Lvl 1 Induce Fear
This power causes the victim to feel extremely paranoid. Subtle shapes and shadows move in and out of the victim's vision, tormenting her by lurking just beyond the range of sight.
System : The infernalist can use this power on any target within his view. For the duration of the effect, the subject becomes noticeably upset and preoccupied, which should be roleplayed. The victim must make a Courage roll (difficulty 5 + the number of successes the thaumaturge garnered) to take any action other than looking for the imagined stalker. If the character enters combat while under the effects of Induce Fear, she loses one die from all dice pools (provided she even makes the Courage roll), as her invisible stalker distracts and disconcerts her.
1 success One turn
2 successes Five minutes
3 successes One hour
4 successes One night
5 successes Two nights
Lvl 2 Spook
This power turns suspicion to dread, as the flitting shadows become visible threats. The victim feels that something terrible is about to happen to her unless she leaves the area quickly. She might imagine she sees the flash of a gun barrel or hears the clicking of hard-soled shoes on the pavement just behind her. She might even believe she smells her pursuer's sweat or feels his damp breath on the back of her neck.
System : The nagging sense of discomfort in the back of the character's mind becomes more tangible. Mortals must make a successful Courage roll (difficulty 7) to keep from fleeing the area in terror. Vampires must make the same roll, but if they fail they enter Rötschreck. The thaumaturge must see her victim for this power to work.
Lvl 3 Terrorize
The infernalist can draw out his victim's fear and present him with it. The victim sees that which terrifies him the most. Ifhe fears spiders, he may imagine spider webs brushing his face and hands as thousands of illusory arachnids scuttle across his flesh. He may hear them skittering across the floor or clicking their horrid chelicerae. To the victim, the effects seem very real, though they are simply illusions.
System : The Willpower roll to activate this power also determines how long its effects last. Should the terrorized character wish to take any action, a Courage roll (difficulty 7) is required to allow her to shake off her fear, otherwise she simply cowers, feebly hiding from her imagined object of terror. Botching this Courage roll results in a derangement, preferably suited to the fear visiting the victim. The vampire must see his victim in order to use this power.
1 success One turn
2 successes Five minutes
3 successes 30 minutes
4 successes One hour
5 successes One night
Lvl 4 Fear – Plague
The victim's most deep-rooted fear reveals itself to the infernalist with this power, who then forced the victim to deal with it head-on. The fear plagues the victim in every waking moment, and often in his sleep as well. A person afraid of drowning would feel the air thicken and coagulate in his throat and lungs, until he cannot take a breath, for example, while a person afraid of vampires may see fanged nemeses in his coworkers or lurking behind every corner. Eventually, the victim becomes so exhausted that he is unable to rise and face a new night of swarming horrors.
System : This power lasts for a week, during which the victim suffers his fear at every turn. Weakened by his constant state of fear, the character cannot spend Willpower, and the player makes all Willpowe rrolls as if his permanent rating is three lower (to a minimum of 1). The thaumaturge must see his victim to activate this power, but once it takes effect, it works regardless of whether or not he maintains a line of sight.
Lvl 5 Leech of Fear
This power enables the infernalist to temporarily feed on fear as though it was blood. This experience gives a euphoric high stronger than conventional feeding, but it is a dangeours practice if used too frequently. The thaumaturge converts the pure emotional charge drawn from the victim's terror into a mystical substitute for vitae. This power may have something to do with old legends of vampires being able to “smell fear”.
System : As long as the thaumaturge with this power has a victim in sight, he may attempt to gain sustenance from that victim's fear. The victim must have cause to be afraid of something or someone while the infernalist practices this power, but those fears may not be caused by other applications of this Path. The number of successes equals the “fear pool” the Cainite takes from the victim. This pool may be spent like a blood pool, but must be used before sunrise. Any unused points disappear at that time. In addition to the lost Willpower point, a botch means that the infernalist gets no “fear pool” from the victim, and cannot use the power on that again for 24 hours.
The Taking of the Spirit
This Path allows the infernalist to strip away the Willpower of his victim, leaving an almost soulless automaton ready to serve the Cainite without question. Some fiendish vampires have built entire legions of servants fro themselves with this power, and it works on vampires and kine alike.
Price : Arrogance
All too accustomed to watching the will of others erode before her won, those who practice this Path suffer the effects of the Megalomania derangement for the duration of any scene in which this Path's powers are invoked.
System : The victim loses a number of temporary Willpower equal to the vampire's mastery of this Path (see table). Should the victim know what is taking place (having heard of it, or having had it happened before), the player may resist with her own Willpower roll (difficulty 7). If the victim's player accumulates more successes on this extended, resisted roll than the thaumaturge before being reduced to zero Willpower, this Path may not be used against her character by the same thaumaturge for a full year. If the victim is reduced to zero Willpower, she must do the vampire's bidding, not speaking, staring blankly forward, in a state much like a zombie. The victim regains a Willpower point per night, which the thaumaturge may continue to try to steal away. If she sees her “master” killed, she regains full Willpower pool immediately. The Cainite must touch the victim to perform the Taking of the Spirit.
A botch on the part of the thaumaturge has unique results. He loses the corresponding number of temporary Willpower points (which also return at a rate of one per night). If all points are lost, he may come under the control of otherworldly forces.
Lvl 1 Loss of one Willpower point
Lvl 2 Loss of two Willpower points
Lvl 3 Loss of four Willpower points
Lvl 4 Loss of six Willpower points
Lvl 5 Loss of eight Willpower points
The Path of Pain
Physical discomfort fuels this Path. In the right hands, the Path of Pain can flay flesh from the body, shatter bones and rupture internal organs with a single look or word. Infernalists who practice this Path derive as much pleasure from inflicting pain as their victims suffer. However, pain is also an opiate – an addiction that requires the thaumaturge to subject himself to intense torture and agony. Only by reaching the depths and depredations of sadomasochism can a thaumaturge unlock the true potential of this wicked art. Ritual scarring and maiming is common among practitioners of the Path of Pain, who often walk a fine line between self-mutilation and self-destruction.
Price : Addicted to Pain
Upon learning the third level in this Path, the infernalist is addicted to pain, needing it almost as much as vitae. Whenever the thaumaturge takes a single health level of damage, he will do nothing to stop the source of the injury unless the player spends a Willpower point. However, if the character suffers a single health level from a weapon, attack or effect that causes a variable amount of damage, she will not nececssarily have to withstand it again. A character will not stand idly by while being mauled by a Gangrel whose player just happened to roll poorly, for example, nor will she perforce tempt a gunman to shoot her again in hopes of suffering only one health level of damage.
The pain addiction is insidious, however. It applies to Path of Pain powers that require the thaumaturge to inflict health levels of damage on hiumself, but only when the player fails his initial Willpower roll. If such is the case, the thaumaturge will conntinue inflicting the same number of h ealth levels he sacrificed every turn until the player spends a Willpower point.
The character will indulge his addiction a maximum of three times consecutively in each situation. Note that a character will not do so if it would render him Incapacitated.
Lvl 1 The Numbing
Broken bones, torture and ritualistic scarring are all a source of delight for many on the Path of Pain. Thaumaturges studying this Path must first learn how to control and resist their instincts to avoid pain. Once mastered, the Numbing allows the infernalist to explore the limits of pain without becoming weakened or incapacitated by it. However, overriding the Beast's instincts to avoid pain has caused many dark thaumaturges to destroy themselves – literally reducing their bodies to ashes.
System : For each success scores on the Willpower roll, the thaumaturge can ignore the dice pool and movement penalty for one health level of damage. This effect lasts for a scene. The Numbing does not work with wound penalties incurred from aggravated damage.
Lvl 2 Anguish
A thaumaturge on the Path of Pain can flood his target with sensations of pain without having to actually wound her. Although the injuries are not real, the pain is. With a simple touch, the thaumaturge can send his victim reeling in agony to the point of rendering her unconscious or even comatose due to shock.
System : The Practitioner needs to touch his target in order to use this power (possibly requiring a Brawl roll, at the Storyteller's discretion). If the character does so, the player can roll Willpower and spend a blood point as normal. For every success, the target suffers the dice pool penalty associated with losing the equivalent number of health levels (starting with Hurt, not Bruised), but he doesn't suffer actual damage. When used against mortals, nothing can be done to stop the pain. If the target reached Incapacitated, she falls unconscious. Vampires and supernatural creatures can try to resist by rolling Willpower. Each success on this roll cancels one of the thaumaturge's successes. A vampire may be Incapacitated by this pain, but it will not force him into torpor. Furthermore, a point of blood heals one level of Anguish “damage”. The effects of Anguish last for a scene otherwise.
Lvl 3 Shattering
At this level, the thaumaturge can break bones and rupture organs, crippling his victim. The resulting cacophony of compound fractures and bursting organs are, more often than not, the last sounds the victim ever hears.
System : The thaumaturge can use this power on any one target within eyesight. To invoke Shattering, he must sacrifice a health level in order to channel the pain to the target. Once he does so, a point of blood and a successful Willpower roll complete the process. For each success, the thaumaturge inflicts a health level of lethal damage that cannot be soaked. Vampires can roll Willpower to resist the effects of the Shattering; each success on the victim's Willpower roll negates one success of the thaumaturge. Additionally, creatures with the ability to do so (Kindred, ghouls, etc.) may spend blood points to heal the damage as normal.
Lvl 4 Agony Within
This terrifying power allows the thaumaturge to create hooked tendrils out of his target's own blood that course through his veins and rip him to shreds. In some extreme cases of this power's use, the blood-barbs actually burst the victim's flesh, ending his life in a gory display.
System : In addition to the blood point expenditure and Willpower roll, this power may require the thaumaturge to wound himself to create the blood chains. For each health level of bashing damage that the thaumaturge inflicts on himself (minimum one), the player can add one to the total number of successes from the Willpower roll. This total is then applied as lethal damage to the victim, as the blood tendrils bite into and rend the hapless victim asunder from within. Mortals cannot soak Agony Within damage, and vampires may use only Fortitude. However, the target is allowed a Willpower roll with a difficulty equal to 6 + the number of health levels that the thaumaturge inflicted upon himself (maximum 10). For every two successes on the Willpower roll (round down), reduce the damage of Agony Within by one.
Lvl 5 Hundred Deaths
The ultimate expression of pain known to practitioners of the Path of Pain, Hundred Deaths lacerates the victim with countless deep cuts that constantly heal and repoen. The pain drives the victim insane before killing him outright.
System : Hundred Deaths requires the thaumaturge to inflict upon himself a single aggravated wound, achieved by the player succeeding a Willpower roll (difficulty 6) first. If successful, the player can then roll Willpower and spend a blood point to evoke Hundred Deaths. Each success inflicts one health level of aggravated damage on the target, which can be soaked only with Fortitude. The pain debilitates the target completely, rendering her shocked by pain and unable to do anything, including heal herself, without the expenditure of a Willpower point. If the victim does not receive medical attention or some form of supernatural healing, she will suffer an additional health of lethal damage every night for each unhealed of aggravated damage that remains.
The Path of Pleasure
Perversion comes easily to vampires, being creatures of strong emotional echoes and strong desires, but practitioners of the Path of Pleasure take decadence to unnatural depths. They are masters at infecting others with their own indulgence and manipulating their desires, fanning them into self-destructive infernos of depravity.
Forbidden pleasure, often fueled by obsession, guilt and self-loathing, is a gateway to corruption, a downward spiral that damns those who walk it. Making matters worse is the fact that everyone, from Setite temptresses to the local preacher, keeps forbidden desires hidden and locked deep within themselves. To the thaumaturge, these desires become a tool with which to bend the will others to their own needs – whether for the sake of pleasure, power or something less definable.
It is whispered that Toreador and Malkavian infernalists crafted the Path of Pleasure during the orgies of Rome, and that to this date, they gather in secret locations to indulge their wanton desires.
Price : Desires Sated
Infernalist practitioners of the Path of Pleasure sacrifice more than their souls to learn this Path. They open themselves to the basest desires of their Beasts, crafting their power from its unnatural hunger. To represent this effect, all frenzy rolls suffer a +1 dificulty modifier once the thaumaturge attains the third level in the Path. This penalty is cumulative with other frenzy penalties. Brujah beware.
Lvl 1 Ecstasy
The thaumaturge can make the target feel intense pleasure, tailoring the sensation from general sexual arousal to mimicking the euphoria of the strongest drug tastes, simulating any kink or fetish, or stimulating simpler, less complicated pleasures – whether the victim consents or not.
System : Ecstasy requires the Willpower roll only if the thaumaturge uses this power on an unwilling target. Otherwise, physical contact and a blood point are all that are needed. Once she is under the effects of Ecstasy, the victim is flooded with physical sensations so intense that she must score more successes on a Wits + Self-Control roll (difficulty 7) than the thaumaturge's player's Willpower roll to do anything except onjoy herself. This power lasts as long as the thaumaturge continues to touch the target. Once physical contact stops, the effect wears down over the course of a number of turns equal to 10 - the subject's Willpower. During tis time, the victim exists in a mollified, sluggish state and suffers a +1 difficulty to all actions.
Whatever sensation the thaumaturge used becomes the focus of the Obsessive/Compulsive derangement of the victim's player fails her Self-Control roll.
Lvl 2 Intrusion
Intrusion functions much like Ecstasy, however, the thaumaturge doesn't need to touch the target. He can communicate the pleasure through telepathic means.
System : Intrusion can be used on any individual within eyesight of the thaumaturge. If successful, the infernalist overwhelms the individual with a pleasurable physical sensation of his (the infernalist's) choice. Because of the unexpected nature of the pleasure, the victim suffers one bashing health level of damage for each success scored on the Willpower roll. Note that this bashing damage isn't “painful” as such. It reflects the subject being immediately overwhelmed by pleasure. Mortals cannot soak this damage, but vampires can resist with a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) of their own. Each succes negates one level of the bashing damage.
In all other respects, this power works like Ecstasy, including Willpower and blood costs, as well as requiring a Wits + Self-Control roll (difficulty 7) to ignore the pleasure long enough to take an action.
Lvl 3 Daisy Chain
This orgasmic power allows the thaumaturge to spread pleasure to other people in a chain. Each person that the infernalist touches becomes a vector for the chosen pleasure, “infecting” anyone with whom he comes in contact.
System : The Daisy Chain works exactly like Ecstasy, however a Willpower roll is needed even if the target consents to use it. For each success, the thaumaturge can spread the sensation to another target (at the rate of one per turn), who then experiences the same sensation. Furthermore, each target can affect another individual through touch (the nes victim is allowed a Self-Control roll to resist). Daisy Chain functions only if the thaumaturge remains within eyesight of the victims, or until a subject resists successfully, which also ends that perticular vector's “contagion”.
Lvl 4 Deadening
This insidious power allows the thaumaturge to make an individual numb to physical sensations and even most emotions. While under the effects of Deadening, the victim can feel nothing including pain or pleasure. For all intents and purposes, he is dead to any and all sensations. He exists as if in a daze, aware of being unable to feel anything and incapable of doing anything about it.
System : This power requires the standard blood point and Willpower roll. The target is allowed to resist by rolling Willpower (difficulty equal to the thaumaturge's Manipulation + Empathy). If the thaumaturge scores more successes, Deadening is successful. While he is in this emotionally torpid state, the victim cannot spend Willpower points, and any Virtue roll is at a +2 dificulty. The number of successes scored determines the duration of Deadening.
1 success One turn
2 successes One hour
3 successes One day
4 successes One week
5 successes One month
This power is exempt from the price: desires sated.
Lvl 5 The Garden of Earthly Delights
With this power, the thaumaturge can totally overwhelm a victim with pleasure until it renders her catatonic, existing only in her mind and unaware of her immediate surroundings or even her physical body.
System : To use this power, the victim must already be under he effects of Ecstasy. Once this criteria is met, the player makes another Willpower roll and spends an additional blood point. If this second roll is successful, the infernalist can flood the victim with pleasure until she becomes comatose, her mind entering a dream-like state where all she experiences are visions and sensations of pleasure. To resist this power, the victim needs to score more successes on a Willpower roll (difficulty 8) than the thaumaturge scored upon invocation. Remember, though, that the target first makes a Self-Control roll as per the Ecstasy rules before this power even becomes a possibility.
For each night a victim is under the effect of this power, her body takes a level of bashing damage unless the victim is being treated at a hospital. Vampires can resist this damage with Stamina (and Fortitude). Successes determine the duration of this power.
1 success One night
2 successes Three nights
3 successes One week
4 successes One month
5 successes One year
Path of the Defiler
Few Dark Thaumaturgy Paths, except perhaps the Path of the Unspoken, are so reviled as the Path of the Defiler. Under the auspice of this Path, a thaumaturge can warp and taint others as easily as a gardener can make plants blossom or wither – even other infernalists loathe the corrupting influence of the defilers. The thaumaturge's hatred and jealousy of the normalcy of others fuels this insidious and perverse school of Thaumaturgy. Many infernalists come across the Path through a desire to see people debase themselves – not by perverting them through pleasure or suffering – but by tainting their own perceptions of themselves and all that they hold dear.
Many Inquisitors consider this Path to be a variation of the more traditional Path of Corruption, and they charge the now defunct Tremere antitribu with its creation. The fact that it continues to exist, and attact new practitioners even after the disappearance of the Sabbat Warlocks, suggests that more malignant forces are at work.
Price : Jealousy
Defilers are extremely territorial, especially when it comes to their victims. Once the thaumaturge uses Path of the Defiler on an individual, he becomes possessive, even protective of his victims. Like an overprotective parent or lover, the infernalist guards his victim jealously. If another vampire, or even mortal attempts to harm, seduce, use any Discipline or even help the victim while in the presence of the thaumaturge, she must succeed on a Self-Control roll (difficulty 7) to prevent herself from flying into a possessive frenzy. This territoriality lasts for as long as the victim is under the effect of a power from the Path or the thaumaturge uses the Path of the Defiler on another target. A Willpower point can be spent to override the urge for a scene.
Lvl 1 Call the Weakness
Defilers are adept social predators, able to surmise an individual's passions and weaknesses by engaging in idle conversation. From a simple answer or a casual gesture, the defiler can piece together a complete mental picture of the individual. The thaumaturge can use this information to bring the victim under her sway.
System : Aside from the blood point and the Willpower roll needed to evoke Call the Weakness, the defiler must engage the victim in conversation. For each success, the thaumaturge can ask the Storyteller a single question about the target, which then must be answered truthfully. Information that can be gleaned this way includes, but is not limited to, Nature and Demeanor, Willpower ratings, derangements, blood bonds and Virtues that the character observes – in effect, any single aspect of the character's emotional or moral self.
Furthermore, each success adds one to the thaumaturge's dice pool when making any Social roll against the target. This aspect of Call the Weakness lasts for an entire scene.
Lvl 2 Tainted
With this power, the defiler can plant the seed of doubt and self-loathing in an individual, slowly infecting the victim with shame and guilt. With a well-timed comment or action, the thaumaturge can break the victim's spirits, rendering him hollow and empty. An artist will be ashamed of his work, a priest's faith will falter, and a prince might lose all confidence. Once under the spell of Tainted, the victim becomes an easy tool for the defiler to bend to his own needs.
System : Tainted requires the thaumaturge to first use Call the Weakness to discern the victim's most cherished quality of herself. This can be something tangible like a prized obsession, or an intangible quality, like a Trait, Ability or even a less quantifiable characteristic. The player then rolls as normal, and the target can resist with a Willpower roll (difficulty equal to the thaumaturge's Manipulation + Subterfuge). If the thaumaturge is successful, the victim must spend a point of Willpower to use or acknowledge the Trait or quality in question. For example, an artist will cease to paint, possibly pushing him into depression, unless he spends a Willpower point every time he picks up a brush. Likewise, a priest's sudden lack of faith might lead him toward sin as his moral resolve is stretched to the limit.
The duration of Tainted varies, based on the number of successes the thaumaturge scored.
1 success One scene
2 successes One night
3 successes One week
4 successes One month
5 successes One year
Lvl 3 Degradation
With this power, the defiler not only taints an individual's source of pride, but he can cause drastic personality changes as well. Once under the effect of Degradation, the victim becomes a whole new person, unrecognizable to his friends and family, and governed by strange obsessions and desires.
System : Degradation allows the defiler to change a target's Nature. Doing so has the immediate effect of altering the victim's personality and how he regains Willpower. Most infernalists choose a new Nature that is contradictory to the target's old one, forcing the target to debase himself in order to regain Willpower.
Alternatively, with Degradation, the thaumaturge can infect the victim with a derangement of the defiler's choice.
The number of successes rolled determines the duration of the Degradation.
1 success One scene
2 successes One night
3 successes One week
4 successes One month
5 successes One year
Lvl 4 Poisoned Soul
Far more potent than Degradation, Poisoned Soul removes any moral or ethical inhibitions from an individual. Without the need to conform to social mores, victims of Poisoned Soul succumb to their most base and perverse desires, indulging in rape, murder, torture and other heinous crimes to provoke any emotional response at all from herself, much as a Kindred with low Humanity does. Poisoned Soul, like other Path of the Defiler powers, is subtle and insidious, even though the results seldom are.
System : The player spends a blood point and rolls Willpower as normal. The victim may resist with a Conscience roll (difficulty equal to the thaumaturge's Manipulation + Empathy). If successful, the victim resists. If the victim fails, every success that the infernalist scored reduces the victim's Humanity rating by one. The effect occurs at the rate of one Humanity point lost per night.
Furthermore, each night that the victim's Humanity rating is affected, he is compelled to perform one sin according to his new Humanity rating unless he spends a Willpower point. In addition, the target incurs any penalties associated with his new, lower Humanity score. If reduced to zero, the victim becomes a mindless beast for as long as Poisoned Soul remains in effect.
Poisoned Soul's duration is based on the number of successes scored on the thaumaturge's Willpower roll.
1 success One night
2 successes Three nights
3 successes One week
4 successes One month
5 successes One year
This power also affects Kindred who follow Paths of Enlightenment.
Lvl 5 Chancrous Blossom
the thaumaturge can transform the target's perversion, self-loathing and guilt into a physical cancer that either turns her into a hideous mass of boils and sores or kills her outright. The effect is disturbing to witness as the victim's skin literally erupts with lacerations and ulcers that ooze a black, malignant ichor.
System : The thaumaturge must caatch the target engaging in some depraved act (as determined by his Humanity/Path score). The player then spends a blood point and rolls Willpower as normal. For each success, the victim suffers a health level of aggravated damage. Additionally, the victim cannot heal these wounds for a number of nights equal to the thaumaturge's successes.
Path of the Unspoken
Many thaumaturges believe that the Path of the Unspoken is a legend, superstitious babble spawned from the absinthe-addled dreams of florid mortal poets. Even the Tremere denoucen it, having found no substantial proof of its existence – at least, so the Warlocks claim. Mere mention of this Path often causes knowledgeable sorcerers to prick up their ears in many domains. Those who know the truth, however, know that the Path of the Unspoken is no legend.
With the vanishing of the Tremere antitribu, many considered the Path a dying one, practiced by only a few thaumaturges deranged enough to walk down the road of heresy. However, a disturbing number of rumors involving the Path have surfaced in the last few years. Luckily (or unluckily), many of these infernalists have since been destroyed, not by fellow vampires, but by mortal
witch-hunters.
Price : Memory Lapse
Infernalists drawn down the Path of the Unspoken hunger for knowledge – even to the point of sacrificing their own mental integrity. The Path has such a pervasive and insidious influence over the infernalist that it begins to affect his psyche, clouding his memories and slowly making the thaumaturge forget what he already knows in his desperate rush to learn more.
For every level of mastery in the Path of the Unspoken, the infernalist loses more of his memories. Eventually, he forgeets even who he was originally. This memory loss is so total that even written accounts of the thaumaturge, such as diaries and journals, fail to trigger any recollections.
To reflect this effect, any time the character needs to use a Knowledge, his difficulty increases by one for every level of the Path of the Unspoken he possesses, to a maximum of 10. He simply can't remember the finer points of his vast memory. If the character's Path of the Unspoken score ever exceeds his Willpower, he has difficulty remembering even things about himself, such as his clan, the location of his haven or even his name.
Lvl 1 Whispers of the Unborn
The infernalist opens himself to the raw power of entropy, and for a few seconds, he can hear what can only be desribed as the voices of the unborn. Immediastely, a chorus of childlike voices and screams flood the thaumaturge, who can then discern warnings or glean information from the resulting cacophony.
System : The player rolls Willpower and spends a blood point. For each success, the player can decide to gain an answer to a single question, or receive a preomintion of danger, or a combination of the two.
If used to gain information, the “voices” can articulate only rough answers of no more than three to five words (stroytellers are encouraged to be as vague as they wish), yet they do seem to be omniscient. Storytellers should also be cryptic, as the unborn hav eno real reason to care about the outcome of the living world's problems.
If used for premonitions, Whispers of the Unborn lasts for a scene. During this time, the player can subtract one from the difficulty of one roll for each success achieved.
Lvl 2 Scribing the Unknown
Entering a trance-like state, the thaumaturge can subconsciously scribe the contents of a written document – regardless of the language and without needing to see the original. As long as something is written down, whether on vellum or as magnetic data on a hard drive, there is no way of keeping it a secret from the infernalist.
System : For the thaumaturge to enter the trance, he first needs to know the source of the information he wants to transcribe (the name of the book, author of a letter or file name is often enough) and the player must spend a blood point and roll Willpower. The copy is rarely exact, and unless the infernalist has some skill in forgery, the transcribed material will look nothing like the original. Even that isn't enough in some cases, such as a handwritten version of a computer document.
The number of successes determines the accuracy of the transcript.
1 success Largely incomplete. Many sentences are missing, and some words are replaced with others of different meaning; 20 percent accurate to the original document.
2 successes Vaguely complete; 40 percent accurate.
3 successes Partially complete; 60 percent accurate.
4 successes Mostly complete; 80 percent accurate.
5 successes Functional; 95 percent complete.
Lvl 3 Shadow Thoughts
This mysterious power allows the thaumaturge to peer into anyone's shadow and glean information about him. As the saying goes, nobody knows one better than her own shadow.
System : Evoking this power requires the usual blood point and Willpower roll. In addition, the thaumaturge needs to be standing in the shadow of his intended victim. Any successes achieved on the Willpower roll allow the thaumaturge to look into the target's past, enabling him to witness any actions or thoughts as if the infernalist was present. She will be unable to affect the outcome of the events, though.
The number of successes determines how far back in time the thaumaturge can gaze.
1 success One night
2 successes Three nights
3 successes One week
4 successes One month
5 successes One year
Lvl 4 Fragments of the Forgotten
With Fragments of the Forgotten, the infernalist can transcribe information even if the source no longer exists, or was never written down. Entering a similar state to Scribing the Unknown, the infernalist can write fragments of the original Book of Nod, paint DAVinci's lost masterpieces or pen Shakespeare's original copies of his plays.
Because these tattered memories are invariably incomplete, however, Hell has been known to “fill in the blanks” when it sees fit. As a resuilt, no information this power generates should ever be completely trusted. Then again, if the person the infernalist reveals it to doesn't know the source...
System : Fragments of the Forgotten works the same as Scribing the Unknnown, except that the thaumaturge can now transcribe to paper any written document even if it no longer exists. However, this power is nowhere near as precise as Scribing the Unknown. Although Fragments of th Forgotten allows the thaumaturge to transcribe lost or destroyed document, the hellish minions who provide the information ultimately taint the process. The final document, though close to the original, is also extremely subjective and not entirely accurate.
The number of successes on the roll determines how accurate the document is. The Storyteller should conduct this roll in secret – as the information no longer exists, even the thaumaturge should have no idea what parts of it she can trust and what she can't. Demons misdirect, occlude and outright lie about such things, even to infernalists. Also, Storytellers will obviously have to make some parts of this information up for themselves.
1 success Occasionally sensible garble; five percent accurate to original document.
2 successes Partially intelligible; 10 percent accurate.
3 successes Some parts form complete sentences; 15 percent accurate.
4 successes Rambling, but largely cogent; 25 percent accurate.
5 successes A clever reader can spot the lies by context; 50 percent accurate.
Alternately, the thaumaturge can use Fragments of the Forgotten to write down prophecies or premonitions about the future. If used in this manner, the prophecy gives the infernalist a vague impression of what might happen. The number of successes dictates how clear the prophecy is. The nature of the premonition is again left to the Storyteller's discretion.
Lvl 5 Forsaken
The few infernalists who have attained this level have the power to literally make people and things vanish from the collective subconscious. Although the thaumaturge cannot destroy the target physically, he can cause it to disappear from the mind's eye. With Forsaken, the thaumaturge alter people's perceptions and memories about someone or something to the point that they seem to cease to exist without actually doing so.
System : Forsaken makes it nearly impossible to find, remember or even see the person or object in question. In addition to the normal mechanics for casting, the thaumaturge's player must spend a permanent Willpower point and suffer a permanent loss of a health level, subsuming the person's legacy into a suppurating wound. Once this power has been invoked, anyone wishing to interact with the target of Forsaken must first make a Perception + Occult roll (difficulty 5 + 1 for each success the thaumaturge scored) to do so. If he succeeds at this roll, he can interact with the target of Forsaken as normal (such as have conversations, remember the subject'slocation, etc.) for as many nihts as he scored successes on the Perception + Occult roll. Once this time expires, the fugue of Forsaken returns.
If the thaumaturge uses this power against inanimate objects such as paintings or sculptures, the objects become virtually impossible to find, even in plain sight. Books collect dust on library shelves, overlooked by everyone, including their owners, or they sit in huge warehouses never to be read again – or even inwittingly destroyed as needless junk.
If used against a person, Forsaken blurs people's memories and perceptions so that all forget every meeting with the victim. The victim still exists, and he can act as normal, but once out of sight, he is forgotten. Even if the victim manages to remain insight, he is often overlooked and ignored. This effect might have obvious advantages, but they are outweighed by the drawbacks. While the prince's ghoul might overlook the target, so might the bus driver.
Forsaken remains in effect until the thaumaturge is destroyed, chooses to end the effect or evokes this power on another target. If the thaumaturge ends the effect, he rises the next night with his original complement of health levels. The thaumaturge can evoke Forsaken on only one target at a given time.
Path of Pestilence
While hate may bring a thaumaturge to the Path of Pain and pride to the Path of the Unspoken, nihilism brings the desperate and forsaken to the Path of Pestilence. A subconscious desire to destroy everything, even themselves, drives the practitioners of this art to revere all that is vile and corrupt. Beneath the filth and decay, the practitioners of the Path of Pestilence long for the final kiss of death, but they are too craven to end their own existences. Instead, they satisfy their urge by inflicting pain and suffering on others – killing them through wasting diseases, plagues and cancers born from the thaumaturge's own self-loathing and misery.
Once learned, the Path of Pestilence warps the minds and bodies of its practitioners. They become infatuated with decay and drawn to torment. Like carrion, they flock to places where despair reigns supreme, all too pleased to indulge in its agony. They forget everything that once brought them joy, able only to focus on their wasting desires. Their bodies, too, become hosts for different viruses and plagues. This telltale sign, known as the Rot, is near impossible to hide or disguise – further pushing the thaumaturge underground.
Price : The Rot
Upon attaining the first level in this Path, the thaumaturge develops the Infectious Bite Flaw but earns no additional points for it. Once the thaumaturge progresses to level three and beyond, his body becomes riddled with diseases and viruses – acquiring the Disease Carrier Flaw for no points as well. At undefined intervals, a new sickness manifests (both the illness and the frequency are up to the Storyteller), which is impossible to conceal unless the thaumaturge spends a point of blood every night to “heal” the symptoms temporarily.
Lvl 1 Illness
Although he is still only a student in the Path of Pestilence, the thaumaturge with this power can make his victims succumb to symptoms that are common among many illnesses. With a simple touch, the victim can suddenly develop a fever, chills, internal bleeding, stomach cramps, vomiting, nausea and even open sores. The effects are never long lasting, but they are nonentheless debilitating and unpleasant to experience.
System : Illness requires the thaumaturge to touch his victim. The player may then roll as normal, while the victim rolls Stamina + Survival against a target number equal to the thaumaturge's Path of Pestilence rating +3. If the victim scores more successes, Illness fails to take effect. However, if the thaumaturge acquires more successes, each success subtracts one from one of the victim's Physical Attributes or Appearance, at the thaumaturge's choice. If any Physical Attribute drops to zero, the victim falls unconscious and remains bedridden. This power can affect vampires, but they can spend a blood point to nullify the effect of Illness. Each point of blood used reduces the Attribute penalty by one.
Illness cannot be healed normally, but the victim recovers a point in each Attribute every four hours.
Lvl 2 Infection
At this stage of understanding, the thaumaturge can infect a victim's wounds causing further injury and even death. With the right incantation, maggots will burrow deep into flesh, gangrene will set in and other complications arise from even the most incidental of cuts. Among mortals, Infection usually spells a death sentence – even with modern medical attention.
System : Evoking the right incantation (and succeeding at the appropriate Willpower roll as well as spending blood) allows the thaumaturge to infect a normal wound. As long as the victim has suffered a wound recently (whether bashing, lethal or aggravated), the thaumaturge can use Infection to cause an additional level of aggravated damage per individual wound. Mortals cannot soak this damage, and only vampires with Fortitude can try to resist.
Lvl 3 Miasma
A thaumaturge this far advanced in the Path of Pestilence is usually riddled with countless diseases and sores allowing him to exhale a noxious gas from his mouth and pores. The resulting miasma affects all creatures that breathe, while vampires are blinded by it.
System : If the player spends the blood point and succeeds at his Willpower roll, the thaumaturge exhales a cloud of diseased breath around himself. The cloud lasts for a number of turns equal to the thaumaturge's Stamina rating and expands at a rate of five feet per turn. Players of characters caught in the miasma must roll Stamina (difficulty 6). Those who succeed can do little except move out of the miasma cloud. If they fail, all difficulty ratings increase by one for each success scored on the casting Willpowe rroll for the duration of the turn. Furthermore, for every two successes the thaumaturge rolled, those affacted by Miasma suffer one health level of bashing damage (round down). This damage can be soaked with Stamina. Vampires take no damage. Instead, they suffer the difficulty penalty if they failed their Stamina roll.
Lvl 4 Parasitic Possession
This strange and unnerving power allows the thaumaturge to take control of an organism riddled with disease. As long as the target is currently suffering from a viral or other infection – even something as innocuous as a common cold – the infernalist can command the host's body as if it were her own. The thaumaturge can use Parasitic Possession on any visible organism (anything from insects to large mammals), but is not restricted to living beings. With this power, the infernalist can literally raise the dead, animating the parasites inhabiting the carcasses.
System : Parasitic Possession has a number of distinct applications, however, all require the standard blood point and Willpower roll. Commonly, this power allows the thaumaturge to take control of a victim's body to perform an action of his choice. If used in this manner, each success translates into a single physical action that the victim must perform. The target can resist by spending a Willpower point to nullify one forced action. Dead “hosts” may not spend Willpower to resist, but Kindred may.
Alternatively, infernalists can use this power to summon and command pestilential insects and small vermin. Each success determines the size of the swarm called. However, the thaumaturge can issue only simple commands such as attack, eat all food or bite.
1 success One tiny animal (a rat), a few insects
2 successes One small animal (a raccoon), a small swarm (a one-foot cube)
3 successes One medium-sized animal (a dog or wolf), a medium swarm (a three-foot cube)
4 successes One large animal (a horse), a large swarm (a five-foot cube)
5 successes One massive animal (a bear), a veritable plague of insects
Finally, the thaumaturge can animate a single dead organism, as long as it is a host to insects or other parasites. Once animated, the thaumaturge can issue a single, simple command, which the carcass follows until Parasitic Possession wears off. Successes determines how long the body remains animated.
1 success One turn
2 successes Five minutes
3 successes One hour
4 successes Three hours
5 successes Until sunrise
Lvl 5 Vector
Mastery of the Path of Pestilence grants the thaumaturge the ability to infect a target with any virulent disease. Once infected, the victim succumbs to the virus almost instantaneously, exhibiting all the symptoms and accompanying agony in a matter of minutes.
System : Vector is a devastating power. If successful, the thaumaturge infects his target with a disease of his choice, which then plagues the victim for a duration dictated by the infernalist's Willpower successes. Victims are allowed a Stamina roll (difficulty 8) upon contracting the disease. Should they fail, they succumb to the accelerated effects of the disease, sufering a number of health levels of bashing damage equal to the thaumaturge's total successes, plus whatever the disease itself imposes upon the sufferer. For mortals, death is almost guaranteed with Vector.
The disease imparted by Vector has a supernatural duration, so it is unaffected by medicine or hospitalization, but medical science may allow the character to heal the damage they suffer from it. Healing Disciplines will abate health levels of damage, but not the disease itself unless the user of the healing effects knows that Discipline at a higher level than the thaumaturge imparting the Vector.
1 success One night
2 successes One month
3 successes One year
4 successes Seven years
5 successes Permanent
Players of Cainites may add Fortitude to their Stamina roll. Should their character fail, they contract the symptoms of the disease for the duration of Vector, but instead of losing health levels, they lose blood points.
Finally, there is a chance that witnesses and those who come in contact with the victim may contract the disease in question and become carriers. Any living being within a 10-foot radius must roll Stamina (difficulty 6) or contract the disease normally. Such “secondhand” infections are normal, and they may be healed and treated as such.
Dementation
The special legacy of the Malkavian clan, Dementation allows the vampire to channel madness, focus it, and pour it into the minds of those around him. Though in former nights this power was practiced primarily by the Malkavians of the Sabbat, in recent years it has spread throughout the clan. Some Kindred speculate that this “infection” might yet be another move in the Jyhad; a few vampires, of particularly paranoid bent, even whisper that the Malkavians are to be harbingers of the Final Nights.
The practitioner of Dementation need not actually be mad himself – at least initially – althoug madness seems to grant a certain insight into the key tenets of this Discipline. Few vampires ask the Mallkavians to teach them this Discipline, although the Lunatics are almost always eager to “enlighten” others. In fact, some say that one cannot learn the secrets of Dementation without eventually going mad.
Eerily enough, Dementation doesn't seem to i nflict insanity on its victims per se. Rather, it seems to catalyze madness, breaking down doors into the hidden reaches of the mind and releasing whatever it finds there. The Malkavians claim that this is because insanity is the next step in the evolution of the mind – a necessary progression if one is to behold the truths of the universe. As such, they say, it is inherent to all minds, and evident only in the more highly evolved specimens of human or vampiric though. Other Kidnred pray that Malkavians are wrong, but find it difficult to dismiss such thoughts out of hand, particularly because Dementation works as well on vampires as it does on mortals...
Lvl 1 Passion
The vampire may stir his victim's emotions, either heightening them to a fevered pitch or blunting them until the target is completely desensitized. The Cainite may not choose which emotion is affected; she may only amplify or dull emotions already present in the target. In this way, a vampire can turn mild irritation into frothing rage or dull true love into casual interest.
System : The player rolls Charisma + Empathy (difficulty of the victim's Humanity score). The number of successes determines the duration of the altered state of feeling. Effects of this power might include one- or two-point additions or substractions to difficulties of frenzy rolls, Virtue rolls, rolls to resists Presence powers, etc.
1 success One turn
2 successes One hour
3 successes One night
4 successes One week
5 successes One month
6+ successes Three months
Lvl 2 The Haunting
The vampire may stir the sensory centers of his victim's brain, flooding the victim's senses with visions, sounds, scents or feelings that aren't really there. The images, regardless of the sense to which they appeal, are only fleeting “glimpses”, barely perceptible to the victim. The vampire using Dementaiton cannot control what the victim perceives, but may choose which sense is affected.
The “haunting” effects occur mainly when the victim is alone, and mostly at night. They may take the form of the subject's repressed fears, guilty emotions, or anything else that the Storyteller finds dramatically appropriate. The effects are never pleasant or unobtrusive, though. The Storyteller should let her imagination run wild when discribing these sensory impressions; thevictim may well feel as if she is going mad, or as if the world is.
System : The player spends a blood point and rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty of his victim's Perception + Self-Control). The number of successes determines the length of the sensory “visitations”. The precise effects are up to the Storyteller, though particularly eerie or harrowing apparitions can certainly reduce dice pools for a turn or two after the manifestation.
1 success One night
2 successes Two nights
3 successes One week
4 successes One month
5 successes Three months
6+ successes One year
Lvl 3 Eyes of Chaos
This peculiar power allows the vampire to take advantage of the fractured wisdom hidden in insanity. She may scrutinize the “patterns” or a person's soul, the convolutions of a vampire's inner nature, or even random events in nature itself. The Kindred with this power can discern the most well-hidden psychoses, or gain insight into a person's true self. Malkavians with this power often have (or claim to have) knowledge of the moves and countermoves of the great Jyhad.
System : This power allows a vampire to determine a person's true Nature, among other things. The vampire concentrates for a turn, then her player rolls Perception + Occult. The difficulty depends on the intricacy of the pattern. Discerning the Nature of a stranger would be difficulty 9; a casual acquaintance would be an 8, an old friend a 6. The Malkavian could also read the message locked in a coded missive (difficulty 7), or even see the doings of an invisible hand in such events as the pattern of falling leaves (difficulty 6). Almost anything might contain some hidden insight, no matter how trivial or meaningless. The patterns are present in most things, but are often so intricate they can keep a vampire spellbound for hours while she tries to understand their “message”.
Lvl 4 Voice of Madness
By merely addressing his victims aloud, the Malkavian can drive targets into fits of blind rage or fear, forcing them to abandon reason and higher thought. Victims are plagued by hallucinations of their subconscious demons, and try to flee or destroy their hidden shames. Tragedy almost always follows in the wake of this power's use, although offending Malkavians often claim that they were merely encouraging people to act “according to their natures”. Unfortunately for the vampire concerned, he runs a very real risk of falling prey to his own voice's power.
System : The player spends a blood point and makes a Manipulation + Empathy roll (difficulty 7). one target is affected per success, although all potential victims must be listening to the vampire's voice.
Affected victims fly immediately into frenzy or a blind fear like Rötschreck. Kindred or other creatures capable of frenzy, such as Lupines, may make a frenzy check or Rötschreck test (storyteller's choice as to how they are affected) at +2 difficulty to resist the power. Mortals are automatically affected and don't remember their actions while berserk. The frenzy or fear lasts for a scene, although vampires and Lupines may test as usual to snap out of it.
The vampire using Voice of Madness must also test for frenzy or Rötschreck upon invoking his power, although his difficulty to resist is one lower than normal.
Lvl 5 Total Insanity
The vampire pulls the madness from the deepst rececsses of her target's mind, focusing it into an overwhelming wave of insanity. This power has driven countless victims, vampire and mortal alike, to unfortunate ends.
System : The Malkavian must gain her target's undivided attention for at least one full turn to enact this power. The player spends a blood point and rolls Manipulation + Intimidation (difficulty of her victim's Willpower). If successful, the victim is afflicted with five derangements of the Storyteller's choice. The number of successes determines the duration.
1 success One turn
2 successes One night
3 successes One week
4 successes One month
5 successes One year
Lvl 6 Lingering Malaise
While lesser Dementation powers allow a Malkavian to inflict temporary (though often long-lasting) madness upon a victim, elders of the clan have developed the ability to infect the minds of their victims with permanent dementia. Lingering Malaise causes permanent psychological shifts within the victim, making him, as one Gangrel elder remarked, “an honorary Lunatic”.
System : The character speaks to his victim for at least a minnute, describing the derangement that Lingering Malaise will inflict. The player rolls Manipulation + Empathy (difficulty of the victim's Willpower); the victim resists with a Willpower roll (difficulty 8). If the user of Lingering Malaise scores more net successes, the victim gains a permanent derangement chosen by the individual who inflicts it. Lingering Malaise may only be used to inflict one derangement per night on any given victim, though multiple attempts amy be made until the derangement takes hold.
Lvl 6 Shattered Mirror
Although Dementation's low-leverl effects are primarily to initiate or rpomote insanity rather than to create it spontaneously, some of its more potent manifestations are not as subtle. The wielder of this earsome power can transfer her own deranged mindset into the psyche of a hapless victim, spreading her own brand of insanity like a virus.
System : The vampire must establish eye contact with her intended victim to apply this power. The player then rolls Charisma + Subterfuge (difficulty of the target's Willpower) resisted by the target's Wits + Self-Control/Instinct (difficulty of the Malkavian's Willpower). If the aggressor wins, the target gains all of her derangements and Mental Flaws for a period of time determined by the number of net successes the aggressor scored:
1 success One hour
2 successes One night
3 successes One week
4 successes One month
5 successes Six months
6+ successes One year per success over 5
Lvl 6 Babble
One of the more classic powers among elder Malkavians, this is the ability to communicate at great distances by using the power of the Network. The Malkavian with this ability can link a number of people together, allowing them all to converse at will – however, everyone involved must carry on their conversation out loud. What's more, each person hears their fellows as if the other people were standing next to them; thus, if Rosegarden were in the comfort of her own quiet haven while Pack was in a crowded subway, Pack could murmur quietly and be heard, while Rosegarden would have to raise her voice for Pack to hear her over the crowd.
System : The Malkavian may communicate with as many other people as he has points of Willpower; to link with unwilling targets, the player must roll Charisma + Empathy, difficulty of the target's Willpower. He may add more people (up to his Empathy rating) over and above his Willpower score only if those people have derangements and don't resist the Babble.
Lvl 6 The Call
Although many clan gatherings happen spontaneously, the Call arising from a general subconscious need shared by a city's Malkavian population, it is possible to send the Call deliberately. Both Auspex and Dementation offer the ability to send the Call, although it's a much easier art to perform when expressed through Dementation.
System : To send the Call, a Malkavian (and only a Malkavian) rolls Perception + Empathy, difficulty 6. As always, other clan members will hear (and attend if they choose) only if they make their Malkavian Time rolls.
Successes Malkavians reached
1 All within three city blocks
3 All within a three-mile radius
5 All within a 10-mile radius
7 The city's entire Malkavian population
10 All within the greater metropolitan area
13 All within 300 miles
15 All Malkavians on the continent
20 Every Malkavian in the world
The Call as broadcasted is not a verbal thing; it merely conveys an impression of a place and a time. There is no sense of purpose, nor even the name of the gathering point; still, neither is really necessary. The Call is so instinctive that if an American Malkavian who didn't speak a word of French were visiting Paris, and heard the Call, he'd be able to follow his impressions and visions to the gathering place as readily as any native Lunatic.
Lvl 7 Restructure
The elder with this fearsome power has the ability to twist his victim's psyches at their most basic levels, warping their very beings. The subject of Resturcture retains her memories in toto, but her outlook on life changes completely, as if she has undergone a sudden epiphany or religious conversion. This effect goes much deeper than the implantation of a derangement; it actually performs a complete rewriting of the victim's very personality.
System : As the description says, this power allows the Malkavian to change his target's Nature to one more suitable to his ends. To accomplish this, the character must make eye contact with his intended victim. The player rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty of the victim's Wits + Subterfuge). If he rolls a number of successes equal to or greater than the target's Self-Control/Instinct, the target's Nature changes to whatever the player desires. This effect is permanent and can be undone only by another application of Restructure (though subtle differences from the character's original Nature may still remain, as it is impossible for such a grave change to occur flawlessly). A botch on this roll changes the character's own Nature to that of his intended victim.
Lvl 7 Childmind
This dread ability allows the Malkavian to give another person the equivalent of a psychic lobotomy. By focusing the power of Dementation, the Lunatic can strip away much of a target's power of reasoning, reducing the victim to a childlike state.
System : The Malkavian must make eye contact with his victim in order to use this ability. Once eye contact is established, the player rolls Intelligence + Empathy, difficulty of the victim's Self-Control or Instinct.
The player can choose to reduce the victim's Mental Attributes by up to seven points, as long as the victim is left with at least one dot in each. The Storyteller is under no obligation to reveal the victim's actual Attributes, however; the player myst guess which Attributes to reduce and by how much. The victim also gains the derangement of Regression for as long as the childlike state lasts.
For example, Hoxha, played by Ben, uses Childmind on Lauren-Bess. Hoxha (and by proxy, Ben) knows that she has a reputation for being intelligent and cunning, so Ben announces that he intends to drop her Intelligence by three, her Wits by three and her Perception by one. Lauren-Bess normally has Intelligence 5, Perception 3 and Wits 3; she's rather more intelligent and a little less cunning than Hoxha guessed. Her Intelligence falls to 2, as does her Perception. Her Wits becomes as 1, as the power cannot reduce any Attributes to zero. Lauren-Bess still retains some of her acruity and is as intelligent as the average person, but her decision-making faculties are severly impaired, and she will still regress to childlike behavior under the proper stimuli. At least she's still somewhat functional some of the time...
The number of successes determines the duration of the Childmind's effects.
1 success One turn
2 successes One night
3 successes One week
4 successes One month
5 successes One year
6+ successes One year per success past 5
Lvl 7 Sleep of Reason
This macabre power gained its name from a Goya print that has achieved remarkable popularity among the clan. The Malkavian with this ability can reach into her victim's mind, pull forth whatever hobgoblins he finds there, and set them buzzing to the attack.
System : The player rolls Wits + Intimidation, difficulty 6. The Malkavian must spend one blood point for each hobgoblin he creates, up to a maximum number determined by the successes on the roll. This, if Fitzgerald were to get five successes on the Wits + Intimidation roll, he could create up to five hobgoblins at one blood point each.
The hobgoblins can appear as almost anything, but they're usually caricatures of whatever insecurities or bad memories the target might possess. Since they are born of the victim's frailties, the victim's mental resilience determines just how powerful the hobgoblins are.
Each beastie's statistics are as follows:
Strength: 10 - victim's Willpower
Dexterity: 13 - victim's Willpower
Stamina: 12 - victim's Willpower
Health levels: 13 - victim's Self-Control + Courage
The hobgoblins have no Mental or Social Attributes of their own, and as creations of the victim's own psyche, are immune to any mental powers the victim uses against them. A victim cannot use Obfuscate to hide form his own persecutors, nor can he Dominate them into leaving him alone. Other vampires can affect the victim's hobgoblins with these Disciplines, but the difficulty to do so is the same as if they were using those powers against the victim himself. In any event, the hobgoblins will ignore all other beings save their target unless compelled otherwise, and cannot damage anyone other than their victim.
A hobgoblin can attack with a bite, punch, claw rake or whatever attack is reasonable for its form. All of these attacks inflict Strength +1 lethal damage; however, this damage is purely psychic in nature, and will disappear at the end of the scene. The malicious little beasties can fly as quickly as their victim can run, and can find him wherever he runs. If not destroyed by the end of the scene, the hobgoblins melt back into the ether from which they sprang.
Lvl 8 Personal Scourge
Similar to the Auspex power of Psychic Assault, this fearsome ability allows the elder to turn the very strength of the victim's mind against him, inflicting physical harm with the power of his own will. Victims of this self-powered attack spontaneously erupt in lacerations and bruises, spraying blood in every direction and howling in agony. Those who have observed such an attack with Auspex note that the victim's aura swirls with violent psychosis and erupts outward in writhing appendages – a sight that can make even the most hardened Tzimisce quail. Some callous vampires call the victims of this power Blairs, apparently some sort of pop-culture reference.
System : The vampire must touch or establish eye contact with her target. The player rolls Manipulation + Empathy (difficulty of the target's Stamina + Self-Control/Instinct) and spends two Willpower points. For a number of turns equal to the number of successes rolled, the victim rolls his own permanent Willpower as lethal damage against himself (soaked with is Humanity or Path of Enlightenment [difficulty 6] – Fortitude does not add to this soak dice pool, nor does body armor). He may take no other actions during this time other than thrashing and gibbering; this includes spending blood to heal.
Lvl 8 Deny
This highly disturbing power offers a very compelling argument that the Malkavians see more of reality than anyone else does. The Malkavian using Deny is able to focus away from a certain object so completely that the object ceases to exist in the Malkavian's perception. However, the power of Dementation is so strong for all intents and purposes, the Malkavian is right. The Malkavian may step through a locked door that he “doesn't see” as if it were an archway; a sword that he refuses to acknowledge will fail to cut him, passing right through his body. Those few elders of other clans who've seen this power in action cannot find a suitable explanation for how exactly it works. Perhaps the astral plane is somehow involved, or perhaps elder Lunatics simply function in more than three dimensions – who can say? There's certainly no explanation forthcoming from the Malkavians...
This power cannot be used to “deny” the existence of loving creatures, undead or spirits; it works only on inanimate objects. Some fragments of old stories hint that the Easter and perhaps even Malkav might have the abilit to use a similar power against living creatres, but such a power is beyond the scope of most elders in existence today.
System : The player spends a blood point and rolls Willpower, difficulty 8. If successful, for the duration of the sene, the Malkavian cannot recognize or interact with the given object in any way. It's as if the object just didn't exist for the Lunatic. Of course, this does have one or two drawbacks; if a Malkavian has successfully “tuned out” an opponent's weapon, he won't be able to understand why his friends are reacting as if their foe were armed (they're probably hallucinating, come to think of it).
The aura of “noninterference” doesn't extend further than anything the Malkavian is holding; the Malkavian can swing a fire ax through a “denied” door to strike the opponent on the other side, but if he were to fire through the “open archway”, the bullets would hit the door as usual (possibly to the Lunatic's consternation). The Malkavian cannot help other vampires or living beings to tune out the ignored object, even if touching them; the power only benefits the Malkavian and his personal effects.
Lvl 9 Lunatic Eruption
This fearsome ability is only known to have been applied a few times in recorded Kindred history, most spectacularly during the final nights of the last battle of Carthage. It is effectively a psychic nuclear bomb, used to incite every intelligent being within several miles into an orgy of bloodlust and rage. It is suspected that the Malkavians have used the threat of this power as a bargaining chip in several key negotiations with Camarilla elders.
System : The player spends four Willpower points and rolls Stamina + Intimidation (difficulty 8). The radius of effect is determined by the number of successes scored:
1 success One city block or 500 feet
2 successes An entire neighborhood or one mile
3 successes A large downtown area or three miles
4 successes Several neighborhoods or 10 miles
5 successes An entire metropolitan area or 30 miles
6+ successes An additional 10 miles for every success past 5
Within this area, all sentient creatures fall prey to their baser instincts. Mortals spontaneously riot, looting and burning between bouts of mass violence. Kindred enter hunger-induced frenzies, draining dry as many vessels as they can sink their fangs into. Other supernatural beings run amok according to their base natures: Lupines under the effect of this power enter their warforms and frenzy indiscriminately at anything that resembles an enemy, mages temporarily fall into states of magic-induced delusion, and the fae bask in the sudden influx of energy and revel in their temporary power. An entire city can quite literally be driven temporarily insane by this power. Lunatic Eruption's effects persist until the next sunrise, and anyone entering its radius of effect (centered on the site at which is was used, not on the character who applied it) falls under its spell. However, inertia may carry the violence spawned by this power much farther – and keep it going much longer – than the power itself can force.
Victims of Lunatic Eruption may resist with Self-Control/Instinct rolls (difficulty of the character's Willpower); each success provides one hour of lucidity, which most wise individuals use to leave the power's area of effect (leaving the “blast radius” does remove the power's influence). The source of Lunatic Eruption may be pinpointed if a character is using Heightened Senses or an equivalent power at the time it is used; this is automatic and requires no roll. However, this grants no knowledge of what actually happened – the observer simply “feels” a massive psychic shockwave explode from the character using the power.
Dementation and Iron Will
The Merit: Iron Will grants immunity to Dementation in the same manner as it does versus Dominate: by spending a Willpower point, the player negates the effects of a successful application of Dementation to her character. However, as is the case with Dominate, high levels of Dementation may overwhelm even this resistance. Rather than completely negating the effect of an elder Dementation power, the use of Iron Will raises its effective difficulty, which may reduce the number of successes rolled. Against Dementation Level Six, the expenditure of a Willpower point through Iron Will raises the difficulty of the Dementation roll by two. Against Dementation Level Seven, the same expenditure raises the Dementation difficulty by one. Dementation Level Eight and higher cannot be resisted with Iron Will.
Dominate
This Discipline involves influencing the very thoughts and actions of others through the vampire's own force of will. Use of Dominate requires that the Kindred capture his victim's eye; as such, it may be used against only one subject at a time. The extent of this control depends on the particular power being applied.
While truly potent, Dominate powers can be exacting to perform. Commands must be issued verbally; after all, direct mind-to-mind contact is the purview of Auspex. Still, some simple orders may be made with signs – for example, a pointed finger and forceful expression to indicate “Go!” If the subject doesn't understand the vampire (she doesn't speak the same language, the order doesn't make sense, she cannot hear his words), she won't comply with the directive, no matter how mighty the Kindred's supernatural will.
Not surprisingly, Kindred who use Dominate were often willful, controlling individuals in mortal life. Indeed, it's quite possible that this is what drew vampires' sires to them in the first place. After all, the Giovanni, Lasombra, Tremere and Ventrue clans who specialize in this Discipline consider strong will a definite benefit. Due to this tendency toward control, characters with high Dominate scores may be unable to spend experience points to increase Abilities such as Empathy.
Lvl 1 Command
The vampire locks eyes with the subject and speaks a one-word command which must be obeyed instantly. The order must be clear and straightforwad – run, cough, fall, yawn, jump, laugh, sneeze, belch, follow. If the command is at all confusing or ambiguous, the subject may respond slowly or perform the task poorly. The subject cannot be ordered to do something directly to harm herself, so a command like “die” is ineffective.
The command may be included in a sentence, thereby concealing the power's use from others. This effort at subtlety still requires the Kindred to make eye contact at the proper moment and stress the key word slightly. An alert bystander – or even the victim – may notice the emphasis; still, unless she's conversant with supernatural powers, the individual islikely to attribute the utterance and the subsequent action as bizarre coincidence.
System : The player rolls Manipulation + Intimidation (difficulty of the target's permanent Willpower). More successes force the subject to act with greater vigor or for a longer duration (continue running for a number of turns, go off on a laughing jag, sneeze uncontrollably).
Lvl 2 Mesmerize
With this power, a vampire can verbally implant a false thought or hypnotic suggestion in the subject's subconscious mind. Both Kindred and target must be free from distraction, since Mesmerize requires intense concentration and precise wording to be effective. The vampire may activate the imposed thought immediately or establish a stimulus that will trigger it later. The victim must be able to understand the vampire, although the two need to maintain eye contactonly as long as it takes to implant the idea.
Mesmerize allows for anything from simple, precise directives (handing over an item) to complex, highly involved ones (taking notes of someone's habits and relaying that information at an appointed time). A subject can have only one suggestion implanted at any time.
System : The player rolls Manipulation + Leadership (difficulty equal tot he target's permanent Willpower). The number of successes determines how well the suggestion takes hold in the victim's subconscious. If the vampire scores one or two successes, the subject cannot be forced to do anything that seems strange to her (she might walk outside, but is unlikely to act like a chicken). At three or four successes, the command is effective unless following it endangers the subject. At five successes or greater, the vampire can implant nearly any sort of command.
No matter how strong the Kindred's will, his command cannot force the subject to harm herself directly or defy her innate Nature. So, while a vampire who scored five successes could make a 98-pound weakling attack a 300-pound bouncer, he could not make the mortal shoot herself in the head.
If a vampire tries to Mesmerize a subject before the target fulfills a previously implanted directive, compare the successes rolled to those gained during the implanting of the first suggestion. Whichever roll had the greater number of successes is the command that now lodges in the target's subconcious; the other suggestion is wiped clean. If the successes rolled are equal, the newer command supplants the old one.
Lvl 3 The Forgetful Mind
After capturing the subject's gaze, the vampire delves into the subject's memories, stealing or re-creating them at his whim. The Forgetful Mind does not allow for telepathic contact; the Kindred operates much like a hypnotist, asking directed questions and drawing out answers from the subject. The degree of memory alteration depends on what the vampire desires. He may alter the subject's mind only slightly – quite effective for eliminating memories of the victim meeting or even being fed upon by the vampire – or utterly undo the victim's memories of her past.
The degree of detail used has a direct bearing on how strong the new memories take hold, since the victim's subconscious mind resists the lateration the vampire imposes. A simplistic or incomplete false memory (“You went to the movies last night”) crumbles much more quickly than does one with more attention to detail (“You went to the nine o'clock showing of the new Leonardo DiCaprio movie. You thought about getting some popcorn, but the line was too long so you went right into the theater. The couple next to you kept whispering through the film until someone else shushed them. You liked the movie well enough, but the plot seemed weak. You were tired after it ended, so you went home, watched a little late-night television, and went to bed.”).
Even in its simplest applications, The Forgetful Mind requires tremendous skill and finesse. It's a relatively simple matter to rifle through a victim's psyche and rip out the memories of the previous night, without even knowing what the subject did that evening. Doing so leaves a gap in the victim's mind, though, a hole that can give rise to further problems down the road. The Kindred may describe new memories, but these recollections seldom have the same degree of realism that the subject's true thoughts held.
As such, this power isn't always completely effective. The victim may remember being bitten, but believes it to be an animal attack. Greater memories may return in pieces as dreams, or through sensory triggers like a familiar odor or spoken phrase. Even so, months or years may pass before the subject regains enough of her lost memories to make sense of the fragments.
A vampire can also senswhen a subject's memories were altered through use of this power, and even restore them like a hypnotist draws forth psychologically surpressed thoughts. However, the Kindred cannot use The Forgetful Mind to restore his own memories if they were stilen in such a way.
System : The player states what sort of alteration he wants to perform, then rolls Wits + Subterfuge (difficulty of the target's Willpower score). Any success pacifies the victim for the amount of time it takes the vampire to perform the verbal alteration, provided the vampire does not act aggressively toward the victim. The table below indicates the degree of modification possible to the subject's memory, depending on the number of successes gained. If the successes rolled don't allow for the extent of change the character desired, the Storyteller reduces the resulting impact on the victim's mind.
1 success May remove a single memory, lasts one day.
2 successes May remove, but not alter, memory permanently.
3 successes May make slight changes to memory.
4 successes May alter or remove entire scene from subject's memory.
5 successes May reconstruct entire periods of subject's life.
To restore removes memories or sense false ones in a subject, the character's Dominate rating must be equal to or higher than that of the vampire who made the alteration. If so, the player must make a Wits + Empathy roll (difficulty equal to the original vampire's permanent Willpower) and score more successes than his predecessor did.
Lvl 4 Conditioning
Through sustained manipulation, the vampire can make a subject more pliant to the Kindred's will. Over time, the victim becomes increasingly susceptible to the vampire's influence while simultaneously growing more resistant to the corrupting efforts of other immortals. Gaining complete control over a subject's mind is no small task, taking weeks or even months to accomplish.
Kindred often fill their retainers' heads with subtle whispers and veiled urges, thereby ensuring these mortals' loyalty. Yet vampires must pay a high price for the minds they ensnare. Servants Dominated in this way lose much of their passion and individuality. They follow the vampire's orders quite literally, seldom taking initiative or showing any imagination. In the end, such retainers become like automatons or the walking dead.
System : The player rolls Charisma + Leadership (difficulty of the target's permanent Willpower). Conditioning is an extended action; the Storyteller secretly determines the number of successes required. It typically requires between five and 10 times the subject's Self-Control score. Targets with more empathic Natures may require lower number of successes, while those with willful Natures require a higher total. Only through roleplaying may a character discern whether his subject is conditioned successfully.
A target may become more tractable even before becoming fully conditioned. Once the vampire accumulates half the required number of successes, the Storyteller may apply a lower difficulty to the vampire's subsequent uses of Dominate. After being conditioned, the target falls so far under the vampire's influence that the Kindred need not make eye contact or even be present to retain absolute control. The subject does exactly as she is told, so long as her master can communicate with her verbally. No command roll is necessary unless the subject is totally isolated from the vampire (in a different room, over the phone). Even if a command roll fails, the target will still likely carry out part of the orders given.
After the subject is fully conditioned, other Kindred find her more difficult to Dominate. Such conditioning raises others' difficulties by Two (to a maximum of 10).
It is possible, though difficult, to shake conditioning. The subject must be separated entirely from the vampire to whom she was in thrall. This period of separation varies depending on the individual, but the Storyteller may set it at six months, less a number of weeks equal to the subject's Willpower score (so a person with 5 Willpower must stay away from the vampire for just under 5 months). The subject regains her personality slowly during this time, although she may still lapse into brief spells of listlessness. If the vampire encounters the target before that time passes, a single successful Charisma + Leadership roll (difficulty of the target's Willpowe) on the part of the vampire completely reasserts the dominance.
If the subject makes it through the time period without intervntion by her master, the target regains her former individuality. Even so, the vampire may reestablish conditioning more easily than the first time, since the subject is forever after predisposed to falling under the Kindred's mental control. New attempts require hald the total number of successes that the last bout of conditioning did.
Lvl 5 Possession
At this level of Dominate, the force of the Kindred's psyche is such that it can utterly supplant the mind of a mortal subject. Speaking isn't required, although the vampire must capture the victim's gaze. During the psychic struggle, the contestants' eyes are locked on one another.
Once the Kindred crushes the subject's mind, the vampire moves his own consciousness into the victim's body and controls it as easily as he uses his own. The mortal falls into a mental fugue while under possession. She is aware of events only in a distorted, dreamlike fashion. In turn, the vampire's mind focuses entirely on controlling his mortal subject. His immortal body lies in a torpid state, defenseless against any actions made toward it.
Vampires cannot possess one another in this fashion, as even the weakest Kindred's mind is strong enough to resist such straightforward mental dominance. Only through a blood bond can one vampire control another to this degree.
System : The vampire must compltely strip away the target's Willpower prior to possessing her. The player spends a Willpower point, then rolls Charisma + Intimidation, while the subject rolls Willpower in a resisted action (difficulty 7 for both). For each success the vampire obtains over the victim's total, the target loses a point of temporary Willpower. Each success the subject gains over the vampire's total equals another die she adds to her roll on the next turn. It's often only a matter of time before the victim falls under the vampire's power. Only if the attacker botches can the subject escape her fate, since this makes the target permanently immune to any further Dominate attempts by that vampire.
Once the target loses all her temporary Willpower, her mind os open to the vampire. The vampire rolls Manipulation + Intimidation (difficulty 7) to determine how fully he assumes control over the mortal shell. Similar to the Animalism power Subsume the Spirit, multiple successes allow the character to utilize some mental Dsiciplines, noted on the chart below.
1 success Cannot use Disciplines
2 successes Can use Auspex
3 successes Can also use Dominate, Presence
4 successes Can also use Chimerstry, Dementation
5 successes Can also use Necromancy, Thaumaturgy
The character may travel as far from his body as he is physically able while possessing the mortal. The vampire may also venture out during the day, albeit in mortal form. However, the vampire's own body must be awake to do so, requiring a successful roll to remain awake. If the vampire leaves the mortal shell (by choice, if his body falls asleep, through supernatural expulsion, after sustaining significant injury), his consciousness returns to his physical form in an instant.
Once freed from possession, the mortal regains mental control of herself. This can happen in an instant, or the victim may lie comatose for days while her psyche copes with the violation.
The vampire experiences everything the mortal body feels during possession, from pleasure to pain. In fact, any damage the victim's body sustains is also applied to the character's body (although the Kindred may soak as normal). If the mortal dies before the vampire's soul can flee from the body, the character's body falls into torpor. Presumably this is in sympathetic response to the massive trauma of death, although some Kindred believe that the vampire's soul is cast adrift druing this time and must find its way back to the body.
The Kindred can remain in the mortal's body even if his own torpid form is destroyed, though such a pathetic creature is not likely to exist for long. At each sunrise, the vampire must roll Courage (difficulty 8) or be expelled from the body. If forced from the mortal body, the vampire tumbles into the astral plane, his soul permanently lost in the spirit world. Nor may a vampire trapped in a mortal body be “re-Embraced”; if the Embrace occurs to such a creature, he simply meets Final Death.
Lvl 6 Chain the Psyche
Not content with merely commanding their subjects, some elders apply this power to ensure obedience from recalcitrant victims. Chain the Psyche is a Dominate technique that inflicts incapacitating pain on a target who attempts to break the vampire's ommands.
System : The player spends a blood point when her character applies Dominate to a subject. Any attempt that the subject makes to go against the vampire's implanted commands or to recover stolen memories causes intense pain. When such an attempt is made, the Storyteller rolls the character's Manipulation + Intimidation (difficulty of the subject's Stamina + Empathy). Each success equals one turn that the ictim is unable to act, as she is wracked with agony. Each application of Chain the Psyche crushes a number of resistance attempts equal to the character's Manipulation rating, after which the effect fades.
Lvl 6 Loyalty
With this power in effect, the elder's Dominate is so strong that other vampires find it almost impossible to break with their own commands. Despite the name, Loyalty instills no special feelings in the victim – the vampire's commands are simply implanted far more deeply than normal.
System : Any other vampire attempting to employ Dominate on a subject who has been Dominated by a vampire with Loyalty must spend an additional Willpower point and make all rolls to do so at +3 difficulty.
Lvl 6 Obedience
While most Kindred must employ Dominate through eye contact, some powerful elders may command loyalty with the lightest brush of a hand.
System : The character can employ all Dominate powers through touch instead of eye contact (although eye contact still works). Skin contact is necessary – simply touching the target's clothing or something she is holding will not suffice. The touch does not have to be maintained for the full time it takes to issue a Dominate command, though repeated attempts to Dominate a single target require the character to touch the subject again.
Lvl 6 Oberon's Grail
Memory manipulation gives effective options for influence, protection of secrets or intimidation. Employed carefully, such methods can change motives and perform subtle alterations to a subject's personality. Sometimes, though, a few subtle changes aren't enough, and when entire nights of memory lead to trouble, a mere 15-minute alteration won't do. Tremere elders may be beguiling schemers, but sometimes even they must resort to brute force. Recalcitrant memories wiped away, whole evenings lost to mystery – rumor holds that some Tremere can do this and more. But who would ever remember?
Oberon's Grail serves as a very final and dramatic cure to problem witnesses. The Forgetful Mind can only remove or alter small sections of memory at a time, but Oberon's Grail has no such limitation. A single application can wash away an entire night. The Tremere need only touch the subject while making eye contact (even light clothing will not stop this). Everything from sundown up to the point of the Tremere's touch vanishes from the victim's memory. With effort, the Tremere can even fog the victim's mind so that he remembers nothing from the point of the touch to sunup, once the victim has slept. In effect, the victim seems to function normally (except, of course, for the loss of everything from sunset to the touch) until he wakes up the next day or night, at which point he realizes that he has no recollection whatsoever of the whole previous night.
Those elders who master Oberon's Grail use it only rarely. The touch can't remove expertise – someone who learns a skill cannot be made to forgot how to do it – but it can make the victim unable to recall how or when he learned something, or to realize that he knows about it. Most often, the Grail helps to guard the Masquerade, protect clan secrets and punish those who would violate Kindred custom. Because the Grail's effects are so profound and so obvious, it's a good way to make enemies, and it's thus rarely used, but it is perhaps more effective for its threat than its practice.
System : The Tremere must make eye contact, as usual for Dominate and touch the victim (an elder who also has the power of Obedience can use Oberon's Grail without eye contact). The player rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty equal to the victim's Willpower). One success causes the victim's memories from sunset to the point of the touch to become hazy; two successes completely wipe out all memory in that time period. With three or more successes, the Tremere can erase the entirety of the night, with everything from the touch until sunrise disappearing from moemory once the victim falls asleep, but this costs a point of Willpower.
Oberon's Grail has no effect if administered during the day (that's day for the body making the touch – a Tremere cannot leave his body in some part of the world at night and use the Grail through a Possessed vessel in some other, daylit part of the world). Although Oberon's Grail destroys memories, it cannot remove Attributes, Abilities, Disciplines or other Traits. This power works against victims with Eidetic Memory normally; against victims who do not sleep, its ability to surpress memory functions only on the period from sundown to the point of the touch, though the user will not be aware of this. A vampire who enters torpor counts as falling asleep.
Lvl 7 Mass Manipulation
A truly skilled elder may command small crowds through the use of this power. By manipulating the strongest mind within a given group, a gathering may be directed to the vampire's will.
System : The player declares that he is using this power before rolling for the use of another Dominate power. The difficulty of the roll is that which would be required to Dominate the most resistant member of the target group – if he cannot be Dominated, no one in his immediate vicinity can. For every success past that needed to inflict the desired result on the first target, the player may choose one additional target to receive the same effect in its entirety. The vampire needs to make eye contact only with the initial target.
Lvl 7 Still the Mortal Flesh
Despite its name, this power may be employed on vampires as well as mortals, and it has left more than one unfortunate victim writhing in agony – or unable to do even that. A vampire who has developed this power is able to overide her victim's body as easily as his mind in order to cut off his senses or even stop his heart. It is rumored that this power once came more easily to the Kindred, but modern medicine has made the bodies and spirits of mortals more resistant to such manipulations.
System : The player rolls Manipulation + Medicine (difficulty of the target's Willpower +2; a difficulty over 10 means that this power cannot affect the target at all). The effect lasts for one turn per success. The player must choose what function of the target's body is being cut off before rolling. She may affect any of the body's involuntary functions; breathing, circulation, perspiration, sight and hearing are all viable targets. While Still the Mortal Flesh is in effect, a vampire can either stop any one of those functions entirely or cause them to fluctuate erratically.
The exact effects of any given bodily function being shut off are left to the Storyteller. Most mortals panic if suddenly struck blind, but only the shutdown of the heart will kill a target instantly. Vampires are unaffected by loss of heartbeat or breathing, but may be rendered deaf and blind as easily as mortals.
Lvl 7 Chain of Command
Sometimes a single thrall isn't sufficient to accomplish a given task. Chain of Command allows the character to implant a sugggestion (much like those allowed by Mesmerize, except even more complex). For instance, the subject could be commanded to follow an individual and report who she speaks to, or to travel from Mexico City to Houston and deliver intelligence from an undercover archon to the prince there. Chain of Command does more than this, however. Should the thrall prove unable to complete his assigned task, Chain of Command grants him the power to pass the compulsion along to someone else. This person could, in turn, pass the compulsion along to a third agent, and even a fourht, until the objective is completed.
System : The player spends one blood point, one Willpower point and rolls Manipulation + Leadership (difficulty equal to the target's permanent Willpower) when implanting the suggestion in the first thrall. Keep track of the character's total successes. Should the thrall encounter an impediment or circumstance that she honestly believes will prevent her from fulfilling the objective – perhaps she is injured and unable to leave the hospital, is recognized by the individual she's tailing, cannot afford to travel to her destination, or the like – she will attempt to pass the compulsion on to another individual whom she judges capable of continuing the assignment. Should the thrall believe herself to be dying, she will choose whoever is most convenient. If the character who implanted the original suggestion possesses the power of Obedience, the compulsion can be passed by touch; otherwise it requires eye contact. The compulsion can be passed only to an individual with a Willpower equal to or less than that of the current trhall (and only to Kindred of higher generation than the character). The thrall does not make a roll to determine success; rather, take the original character's successes and subtract one. Subtract two if the second thrall passes along the compulsion, three if the third thrall passes it along, and so forth. Chain of Command lasts either until the task is complete, a thrall is killed without the chance to pass the compulsion on, the character chooses to end it or the number of successes drops to zero.
Lvl 7 Strings of the Marionette
With this power, the Kindred's ability to command the minds of others is so great that she may even overcome the paralysis imposed by staking, or the languor of torpor. The subject cannot move as swiftly as normal, has reduced mental capacity, and cannot access any Disciplines that require conscious effort to activate. Within these parameters, however, the subject can be forced to take any actions the character desires.
System : The character must first physically touch the subject; the player then rolls Manipulation + Leadership, with a difficulty equal to the target's Willpower + 1 (the added difficulty is to overcome the paralysis or torpor). The character maintains control for a number of scenes equal to the successes rolled.
The subject of this power is limited in the actions he can perform while staked or torpid. In addition to the restiction on Disciplines, the subject loses one from all dice pools involving physical actions; all other dice pools are reduced by half (round down).
Lvl 8 Far Mastery
This refinement of Obedience (though the character need not have learned Obedience first) allows the use of Dominate on any subject that the vampire is familiar with, at any time, over any distance. If the elder knows where his target is, he may issue commands as if he were standing face-to-face with his intended victim.
System : The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Perception + Empathy (difficulty equal to the subject's Wits + Stealth) to establish contact. A second Willpower point must be spent in order for a vampire to use this power on another vampire or other supernatural being.
Lvl 9 Speak Through the Blood
The power structures of Methuselahs extend across continents and centuries. This power is a powerful tool by which such ancients wield control over their descendants, even far outside their geographic spheres of influence. Speak Through the Blood allows an elder to issue commands to every vampire whose lineage returns to her – even if the two have never met. Thus, entire broods act to further the goals of sleeping ancients whose existences they are completely unaware of. The vampires affected by this power rarely act directly to pursue the command they were given, but over 10 or so years, their priorities slowly shift until the fulfillment of the Methuselah's command is among their long-term goals. Speak Through the Blood, because it takes effect so slowly, is rarely recognized as an outside influence, and its victims rationalize their behavior as “growing and changing”, or something to that effect.
System : The player spends a permanent Willpower point and rolls Manipulation + Leadership. The difficulty of this roll is equal to four plus the number of generations to which the command is to be passed. Unless the character is aware of the location and present agenda of every descendant of his – a highly u nlikely event – he may only issue general command, such as “work for the greater glory of clan Malkavian” or “destroy all those who seek to extinguish the light of knowledge”. Speak Through the Blood can be used by a vampire in torpor. Commands issued through this power last for one decade per success on the roll. Difficulties over 10 require one additional ss for each point past 10, making it that much more difficult to issue long-lasting commands stretching down to the ends of one's lineage.
A vampire who has reached Golconda is not affected by this power, and is completely unaware that it has been used. Her childer, however, are affected normally unless they are also enlightened. Ghouls of the victims of this power are also affected, but to a lesser extent than vampires.
Resisting Dominate
Most victims cannot stand against the effects of Dominate. Still, there are situations where this Discipline is powerless to sway the subject.
Mortals : Few mortals can hope to resist Dominate, their strength of will nothing compared to the supernatural magnetism of a vampire. Still, there are extremely rare individuals who, due to strong religious faith, unique psychic talent or simple mental resolve, can shrug off this Discipline's effects. Beyond these scattered few, a select number of organizations like the Inquisition know certain rituals to render a mortal immune. Only a foolish vampire ignores the potential threat such human beings represent.
Vampires : It is impossible to Dominate another Kindred who is of stronger Blood – the vampire must be of an equal or higher generation than the target for the powers to be effective.
Nature : A character's Nature can have a distinct impact on how easily Dominate influences her. A vampire might control subjects with inherently empathic Natures (Caregiver, Child, Conformist) more easily, while those whose Natures denote a great degree of inner strength (Bravo, Director, Rebel) can be more of a challenge. The Storyteller may reduce the requires difficulty or number of successes by one or two when the player rolls against those subhects with “weaker” Natures, or raise them by a similar amount for “stronger” Natures. On the other hand, “strong” Natures might be more easily influenced to take aggressive actions – for example, coaxing a Rebel to denounce the prince is likely easier than goading a Conformist to do the same thing. Ultimately, the Storyteller must adjudicate this.
Botches : If a Dominate roll botches, the target is rendered immune to future attempts by the same vampire for the rest of the story.
Iron Will
Any vampire with Dominate 6 or higher may employ Dominate upon a character with the Merit Iron Will, “burning through” the defender's barriers. An Iron Willed character may spend a Willpower point to raisse the difficulty of a Dominate attempt by +2 if the attacker has Dominate 6, or by +1 if he has Dominate 7. Iron Will provides no benefit whatsoever against the commands of a character with Dominate 8 or higher.
Dur-An-Ki
In rules terms, Dur-An-Ki resembles Hermetic Thaumaturgy. All Dur-An-Ki path powers call for a Willpower roll. All rituals use the usual Intelligence + Occult roll. Powers and rituals have a difficulty of 3 + the power or ritual's level, toa maximum of 9. All Path powers cost vitae. Dur-An-Ki demands no other special condition, in terms of game mechanics, from ashipu.
Optionally, Storytellers may rule that an ashipu's level of Dur-An-Ki mastery cannot exceed her Stamina Trait. Many of the trance techniques used by these sorcerers place great strain on undead bodies. Conversely, long practice at dancing, self-torture, extended medication and keeping a clear head despite intoxication can justify a vampire developing a higher Stamina. This optional rule plays up the physical as well as mental challenge of Dur-An-Ki. It also renders Hermetic Thaumaturgy slightly superior to the older art, emphasizing the Tremere's status as the premier thaumaturges of the World of Darkness.
Personal Covenants and Spirit Allies
Through the Path of Spirit Manipulation or various rituals, the ashipu can forge long-term pacts with minor spirits. A sorcerer might win spirit minions through a relationship with some greater spirit, or she might bind spirits and force them to serve. Some spirits serve a sorcerer willingly in order to gain some special favor. The Amr al-Ashrad, for instance, commands a cadre of powerful afrits and djinn.
Spirits kept “on call” as minions count as Retainers. Sppirits that assist an ashipu in lesser ways may become Allies or Contacts. For instance, a clairvoyant seer-demon that a mgician can summon and consult without danger would make a fine Contact. A greater spirit that willingly advises an ashipu can become a Mentor.
Storytellers should remember that characters never gain long-term spirit allies easily. Gaining a spirit ally or minion can become the focus of an entire story. First the character has to find the spirit. Then the test truly starts, as the character matches wits and will with the spirit. The magician can try to trade favors and services, or browbeat or bully the spirit to serve. Perhaps the magician must outright defeat the spirit in battle and make it fear for its existence. Some spirits set tests and demand peculiar gifts and services before they accept a pact.
Storytellers should also remember that spirit Allies, Contacts and Retainers have personalities and wills of their own – just like any other Ally, Contact or Retainer. Spirits can have very strange priorities by mortal (or even Kindred) standards....
Covenant of Nergal
In Babylonian myth, the war-god Nergal and his wife Ereshkigal, queen of the dead, had special command over plague-demons. Through this Path, an ashipu claims this baleful power over disease. The Path also grants limited powers to abate sickness. All the powers of this Path affect Cainites as well as mortals, which gives the Path an evil reputation among the undead.
Notes : Fortitude does not afford its normal defense against most Covenant of Nergal attacks. Each dot of Fortitude, however, gives the afflicted Kindred's player one more die on any rolls to resist Nergal's Wrath or Ill Wind. Covenant of Nergal attacks also do not work against vampires who have a higher rating in the Path than the attacker.
Most of the powers in this Path reduce a victim's Physical Attributes. If either Strength, Dexterity or Stamina drops to 0, the character is immediately Incapacitated regardless of her actual health levels. Strength or Dexterity cannot drop below 0. An attack that would reduce a victim's Stamina below 0 kills a mortal or drives a Kindred into torpor.
Most Covenant of Nergal attacks do not accumulate with each other, and higher-level powers supersede lower-level powers; Ill Wind forms the exception. For instance, Maskim's Touch and Breath of Ereshkigal cannot affect a victim already suffering from Nergal's Wrath. The last-named power would affect a person who already suffered from the lower-level powers, but its effects would not become noticeable until they exceeded the lesser power's effects or the lesser power's duration ended.
Of all the powers, only the Breath of Ereshkigal can cause an increased effect from multiple uses. Covenant of Nergal powers do accumulate their effect with other attacks that cause Attribute loss, such as the Quietus power of Scorpion's Touch.
Lvl 1 Maskim's Touch
By touching the subject – or at least getting near enough to touch – the magician causes effects much like influenza: fever, nausea, sorejoints and the like. This makes the target slower, weaker and more frail.
System : If the Willpower roll succeeds, the victim loses one dot each from his Strength, Dexterity and Stamina. This loss lasts for one scene. Multiple Maskim's Touch attacks do not accumulate effects, neither with each other or with higher-level Covenant of Nergal attacks. Effects will accumulate, however, with deleterious effects produced by other Disciplines, such as the Scorpion's Touch power of Quietus.
Lvl 2 Breath of Ereshkigal
Simply by drawing a breath and exhaling in the victim's direction, a vampire can inflict disease upon her target. The sickness can affect victims some distance away. Unlike the Maskim's Touch, a vampire can use the Breath of Ereshkigal more than once upon a target.
System : The magician can attack anyone within about 50 feet. If the attack succeeds, the Breath of Ereshkigal reduces each of the victim's Physical Attributes by one. The number of successes determines the duration of the magical sickness:
1 success One scene
2 successes One night
3 successes Two nights
4 successes Four nights
5 successes One week
Multiple attacks can accumulate, further reducing the victim's Physical Attributes, but only if the subsequent attack has at least as many successes as the previous attacks. Thus, is a vampire's player rolled three successes for the ashipu's first attack, a second attack would strip another dot from each Physical Attribute only if the player rolled three or more successes for its effect. If the player rolled four successes on the second attack, subsequent Breath of Ereshkigal attacks would need at least four successes to increase the effect.
A vampire or ghoul can raise Physical Attributes by expending vitae, and so counter the Breath of Ereshkigal. Raising all three Attributes back to their starting value completely cures the magical illness. Then, however, the attacker can start over again. Mortals must simply wait for the curse to run its course.
Lvl 3 Nergal's Blessing
This power cures mild diseases, and at least reduces the effect of severe disease. The user touches the target for about a minute. Nergal's Blessing completely heals any health or Attribute loss from the Maskim's Touch or Breath of Ereshkigal. If partly negates the effects of higher-level Covenant of Nergal powers.
Nergal's Blessing cannot cure non-patholgenic diseases such as allergies, deficiency diseases, cancer, arthritis or genetic disorders, although it alleviates their effects for a day. If also does nothing for purely mental illness (though it may help in cases of mental illness with organic causes).
In countries that lack modern hospitals, ashipu still use Nergal's Blessing to buy favors and goodwill from mortals. In “developed” countries, ashipu find fewer truly desperate clients – but they do find them. AIDS is not the only disease that modern medicine cannot cure.
System : Nergal's Blessing can cure ordinary infections, from acne to pneumonia, with a single use. Notably severe or chronic disease like hepatitis or malaria might require two uses of this power, at the Storyteller's option. Really nasty intractable diseases like ebola or AIDS require three uses to cure. A single use of Nergal's Blessing always suffices for illness caused by other powers in this Path.
Successful use of Nergal's Blessing keeps the subject alive (or undead) for another night, no matter how severe the disease, and palliates the symptoms. This applies to non-pathogenic illness as well. Although the magician can never produce a true cure in such cases, Nergal's Blessing may keep a sick person alive long enough for the target to heal on her own.
Lvl 4 Nergal's Wrath
This ghastly power induces severe disease in the victim. This is real infection – the appropriate microbes appear in the victim's body – but the disease progresses with unnatural speed. If the ravaging plague takes the form of gangrene, leprosy or some other relatively slow infection, its acceleration baffles and terrifies any doctor.
A vampire who achieves this level of Path mastery selects a disease as his personal form of Nergal's Wrath. An attack from one vampire might take the form of cholera, while another uses yellow fever to kill.
System : Nergal's Wrath works by touch. For each success the attacker's player rolls, the victim suffers five hours of the curse's effect. A botch means that the caster suffers the curse's effects instead, for five hours per 1 rolled, on top of the usual Willpower loss. Of course, the magician can use Nergal's Blessing to try curing herself.
For each hour of the character's ilness, the victim's player makes a Stamina + Survival roll (difficulty 8). Failure means that the character loses one health level and one dot each from Strength, Dexterity and Stamina. If the victim receives medical care, the doctor can substitute his Medicine Trait for the victim's Survival Trait, but only the victim's Stamina matters in either case. If the victim can accumulate five successes before dying, Nergal's Wrath ends.
A vampire can counter the effects of the curse by expending vitae to heal the damage. That can mean expending a good deal of vitae – and Nergal's Wrath will not stop just because it's daytime and the vampire must sleep.
Lvl 5 Ill Wind
A master of Nergal's Covenant simply walks by a location and people get sick. The disease appears natural. It will not progress any faster than normal, but the illness may be unusually virulent, and it can affect Kindred too. The Ill Wind ignores most mundane barriers. Only magic or an air-tight chamber can protect against the curse.
The Ill Wind always takes the form of a disease that could plausibly occur in the area where the magician uses the curse. Thus, an ashipu could attack a New York dinner party with ptomaine, E. Coli or even legionnaire's disease, but not smallpox (extinct) or bubonic plague (not native to the area). The Ill Wind's user has no control over what disease he calls, but every victim contracts the same disease.
System : The Ill Wind costs the magician's player one Willpower point in addition to the usual blood point. The number of successes roleld by the ashipu's player determines the number of people affected:
1 success Four people
2 successes Eight people
3 successes 12 people
4 successes 20 people
5 successes Everyone in the vampire's immediate area (an auditorium, a mob)
If an area holds more people than the vampire can affect, the Ill Wind infects the people with lower Stamina Traits first. The Ill Wind does not harm the magician herself.
The disease takes effect slowly (growing to full strength at about one day per dot of Stamina for a victim). Once the curse takes effect, the victim loses three health levels and three dots from each Physical Attribute, to a minimum of 0 – at this stage.
A victim has a chance of recovery for each day of bedrest, or sleep for Kindred. The victim's player makes a Stamina + Survival roll (difficulty 7). If the roll succeeds, the victim recovers one dot of each Physical Attribute. Failing the Stamina + Survival roll means losing another dot of Stamina. The curse ends when the victim recovers all her Physical Attributes. As with Nergal's Wrath, the player of a victim under medical care can add the character's Stamina Trait and the doctor's Medicine Trait.
Unlike other attacks based on Nergal's Covenant, Ill Wind does not protect a victim from the lower-level powers. A sick victim can suffer further Attribute loss from Maskim's Touch, Breath of Ereshkigal or Nergal's Wrath.
The Evil Eye
Middle Eastern people have feard the Evil Eye since time immemorial. To look upon a person or object with malice or envy may inflict a curse upon them. Surprise or admiration may have the same effect, and so a person who delivers praise exorcises the potential evil with an exclamation of “God is great!” or “What God wills!” Some people possess a powerful Evil Eye whether they want it or not. Such persons can kill animals with a careless word or glance, shatter stone, or in extreme cases make a person's eyes explode out of their head.
Naturally, vampire sorcerers had to claim such a formidable power. The Path of the Evil Eye inflicts a variety of calamities upon its victims. Although the powers take little time to use, the effects may take hours or nights to manifest, and the sorcerer often does not know or control the exact nature of the curse.
The powers of this Path do not accumulate. While affected by a curse, a victim becomes immune to further use of that specific power by that specific vampire. For instance, if a magician inflicted a Peril on a victim, he could not curse that person with another Peril until the first had run its course. He could, however, still attack that victim with a Loss or any other Evil Eye power. Likewise, another ashipu could impose his own Evil Eye curse (making a very unlucky victim).
The victim also has ways to remove an Evil Eye curse before it runs its course. People with True Faith can remove the Evil Eye's effect through religious ritual and prayer. Occultists can work out rituals to weaken or avoid a curse with a Wits + Occult roll (difficulty 8). Each success rolled by the player cancels out one success of the Evil Eye attack. For some powers, however, the exorcism works only if performed very soon after the ashipu lays the curse. No exorcism can restore what the victim has already lost.
Lvl 1 Humiliation
With a venomous glance, the vampire inflicts bad luck upon his victim. This bad luck attacks the victim's social standing. The victim suffers some terrible embarassment within the next few nights. Neither victim nor attacker knows what form this embarassment will take, so the victim has no way to defend against it. Will you say something incredibly stupid? Will a waiter trip and drench you with soup? Will a childe or ghoul commit some hideous blunder? You have no way to tell. The Humiliation inflicts no real harm, but can ruin a person's prestige or credibility for a while.
Humiliation works well against Camarilla vampires, especially if the local Kindred include a few vicious harpies, but Sabbat vampires can suffer humiliation too. Besides the obvious physical embarassments, a Sabbat might inadvertently help an enemy, or seem to act “too human”.
System : The attacker's player makes the usual Willpower roll. If the roll succeeds, the victim suffers humiliation some time within the next week. If the Storyteller uses the optional Prestige Background, the victim might lose one dot of Prestige for every two successes rolled (round up), until she does something to restore her reputation.
Lvl 2 Loss
This curse affects the victim's property. Within a few nights of the curse, the victim loses both real wealth and some possession of emotional value (assuming the victim has such a thing). Lost property does not magically vanish; some “natural explanation” (such as fire, accident, theft, confiscation or unexpected legal fees) causes the loss. Even the sorcerer who casts the curse has no idea what form the loss may take. Loss is permanent, barring special exertions by the victim. Lost money and possessions do not magically reappear, either.
System : If the Willpower roll succeeds, the victim loses one dot of Resources within the next week. The Storyteller decides what sentimental loss the victim suffers. If all else fails, the victim might lose a Retainer or a dot of Herd. Even if a victim completely lacks Resources, the curse still finds something to strip away. Perhaps the victim loses his wedding ring, the last memento of a happier life, or an abandoned building used as a haven might burn down.
Lvl 3 Peril
This power puts the victim directly in danger. Over the next few nights – neither victim nor attacker knows exactly when – the victim finds herself in dangerous situations. The victim might cleverly escape the danger, and Kindred can probably survive even the worst Perils. Then again, they may not.
System : The number of successes on the Willpower roll gives the number or severity of the perils:
1 success One mild Peril (example: a mugger)
2 successes Two mild to moderate Perils (a car crash)
3 successes Three mild to moderate Perils
4 successes Three moderate to sever Perils (a collapsing building, locked out of haven near sunrise)
5 successes Three Perils, one catastrophic (meet a Lupine pack, haven catches fire during the day)
Each night is 50% likely to bring a Peril, and the curse continues until all Perils have occurred (or the victim finds a way to lift the curse).
Lvl 4 Enemy
This level of Evil Eye has the most far-reaching effect on a victim. Friends turn away; enemies appear (and may be former friends). Perhaps the victim can recover lost allies and placate new enemies, but the Storyteller should not make it easy.
System : For each success on the attacker's Willpower roll, the victim either loses one dot of Allies, Contacts, Influence or Retainers, or gains an Enemy worth one point (as the Flaw). For instance, with four successes on the roll, the victim might lose two dots in Allies and gain a two-point Enemy (perhaps a former Ally). A victim never gains more than one Enemy from the curse; more points of Enemy indicate a more dangerous foe. No one ever loses more than two dots from any single Background.
Imposing an Enemy takes time. The attacker might spend several hours in places where the victim has interests and connections, for example, spreading insults and innuendoes – just like a normal smear campaign, but the curse makes sure the smear campaign really works. The effects manifest within a week.
Lvl 5 Chashm Zakhm
The “Eye that Wounds” represents the most immediately dangerous use of the Evil Eye. Unlike the other powers, this power acts immediately. The magician expresses fulsome praise, vicious insult or utter astonishment at the target person or object – and on the next turn, something really bad happens to the target.
System : If the player's Willpower roll succeeds, the targer person or object suffers one health level of aggravated damage per two successes rolled (round up). The magician's speech shapes the form of the damage. For instance, saying nasty things about a person's car could make the engine explode, while praising a person's tennis backhand could make her arm instantly wither. Mortal victims generally suffer some permanent maiming. Animals affects by the Chashm Zakhm usually drop dead on the s
Music of the Spheres
The Neoplatonist philosophers taught that the planets radiated musical pitches as they circled the Earth. Ordinary people could not hear this “music of the spheres”, but highly spiritual people could. The medieval Arabs joined this idea to music's uncanny power to influence the mind and soul. In their quest to reach Heaven through trance, Assamite and Toreador sorcerers listened to the music of the spheres. They learned occult melodies that powerfully affected the emotions of listeners. The effects resemble a specialized version of Presence.
So far, no vampire has ever been known to have learned both the Music of the Spheres and the Melpominee Discipline of the small and obscure Daughters of Cacophony bloodline, but it's bound to happen eventually. The Path and Discipline powers cannot add to each other's effects.
System : This Path calls for the usual Willpower roll, but the character requires a Trait rating of 3 in Performance – either singing or playing some sort of instrument – to cast the Music of the Spheres. The magician can activate the Music of the Spheres through a single turn of melody, but everyone nearby can sense the occult power in the music. The magician can conceal the celestial melody within ordinary music, but this requires that targets hear the music for at least a full minute. Listeners also receive a Perception + Occult roll (difficulty 5 + the number of successes the performer's player received on the Willpower roll) to detect the unnatural force within the performer's music.
Each power affects a variable number of targets depending on how many successes the magician's player rolls, as noted on the chart below. If more people are present than the character can influence, the Music of the Spheres affects those with lower Willpower scores first.
1 success One person
2 successes Two people
3 successes Six people
4 successes 20 people
5 successes Everyone in the vampire's immediate vicinity (an entire auditorium, a mob)
The Music of the Spheres does not enchant people who hear it in a recording, or transmitted by telephone, television or other electircal or mechanical means.
If two characters use the Music of the Sphees against the same target, the character whose player rolls the most successes has her effect take precedence.
Lvl 1 Song of Mercury
The music of Mercury, the planet that rules abstract thought, deadens emotions. The swift cascades of notes distract listeners and calm their souls.
System : In game terms, the Song of Mercury negates the effect of other Music of the Spheres powers while the music continues. The power costs one blood point to activate, but the effect continues as long as the character keeps singing or playing. The Song of Mercury lacks sufficient power to counter frenzy or Rötschreck.
Lvl 2 Song of Venus
The sweet music of Venus imspires deelings of affection that an occult musician can direct as she wills. The character can make people like her, or anyone else she chooses – for a while.
System : This power acts like the Presence power Awe, but the magician can direct the victims' warm feelings toward anyone she wants, to make someone else seem incredibly charismatic. The magician needs some way to indicate the recipient of the magical charisma, whether by words, admiring glances or other means. The effect lasts the rest of the scene. Affected people can resist the Song of Venus by expending one Willpower point for every turn they remain within the target person's supernatural charisma. When a character's player spends a number of Willpower points equal to the successes rolled, the character shakes off the Song of Venus completely.
Lvl 3 Song of Mars
The harsh chords and driving rhythms of Mars inspire feelings of anger and aggression. The magician can make his audience hate a particular target or actually drive listeners to fits of rage.
System : This power can have two effects. The magician can make an audience despise a target person or organization – like Awe in reverse. The target does not have to be present. This effect lasts a scene. Players can spend Willpower to have their characters resist the supernatural anger for a turn. If the ashipu's player additionally expends a Willpower point, affected Kindred enter frenzy unless their players succeed at Self-Control rolls (difficulty 7). This augmented powr can induce frenzy-like rage in mortals as well, but mortals resist at difficulty 5.
Lvl 4 Song of Jupiter
The strong, steady chords of Jupiter, the planet of power and status, boost courage and strength of purpose. Listeners feel resolute and fearless, like unto kings.
System : This power renders listeners immune to all attempts to use Presence while the music continues; it does not negate Presence uses that have already taken place. Any other mind control (such as Dominate, other Music of the Spheres powers, mortal magic or the powers of other supernatural beings) against an audience member suffers a +2 difficulty penalty (to a maximum of 10) for the rest of the sene.
The Song of Jupiter also strengthens the Man to resist the Beast. For the rest of the scene, characters resisting Rötschreck or frenzy have the difficulty of their Virtue rolls reduced by 2.
Lvl 5 Song of Saturn
The menacing chords of Saturn, planet of death and restriction, inspire terror in those who hear them. People affected by the magical music need all their courage and will to resist the urge to flee or surender.
System : Affected Kindred immediately enter Rötschreck unless their player succeed at Courage rolls (difficulty 7). Mortal listeners feel the same blind fear (and have the same difficulty to resist it), but their terror may take other forms than flight, depending on each individual's Nature.
The Hunter's Winds
The Assamites are known as the assassins of the Kindred world for a reason. Their viziers provide them with ways to avoid detection that go above and beyond the vampiric Discipline of Obfuscate. Assamite magic can do more than merely blind a person to their presence or confuse a target's senses: those benefitting from the Path of the Hunter's Winds have learned to do many of the things for which the Nosferatu are infamous, but in a more physical sense. Viziers bestow these gifts on “field” Assamites, making contact in person or through the ritual Reach the Earth or through the ritual Pebble From the Mountain. The subject holds the activation of the power in abeyance until he needs to trigger it; at any one time can he maintain a number of dormant effect equal to his current Willpower. The recipient does not learn of the vizier's magic was successful until he tries to activate the effect.
Lvl 1 Scent of Deception
When this power is employed, the recipient can mask or completely alter her scent. The original purpose for this ability was to avoid the hunting dogs of nobles and crusaders, but it proves just as effective at throwing off any Lupines, ghouls or Gangrel who might be following too closely for comfort.
System : Success indicates the Assamite can change or simply negate her scent, making tracking her far more difficult. Failure means nothing happens, while a botched roll actually amplifies her scent or makes it noticeably offensive.
Lvl 2 Chameleon's Skin
The subject can change the color of his skin and the texture as well. If resting against a tree with rough bark, the skin and clothing alike of the Assamite take on the same coloration – including any variations – and changes to mimic the form.
System : If successful, this power makes the subject virtually impossible to see (+4 difficulty on al Perception rolls) so long as he remains stationary. Slight movements might be mistaken for the wind, but any sudden change in position negates the effects. The player must roll Perception + Stealth (difficulty 6, or 9 if anyone is actively looking for him) if the character tries to change his environment, such as moving from the tree-camouflage to that of a brick wall. While the texture of the skin changes, it remains skin. No increases or decreases in the character's Stamina occur as a result of this sorcerous power. This ability lasts for one scene.
Lvl 3 Unassuming Pose
The subject uses this power to blend into virtually any crowd, no matter what size. Anyone seeking the character simply fails to see her, automatically assuming that the vampire belongs there.
System : If successful, people wimply do not notice the Assamite, no matter how hard they might be looking. Observers using technological means of surveillance, like video cameras, can still see him, though. This power lasts for one scene.
Lvl 4 Whiff of Kalif
The Assamite distorts the perceptions of those around him, so that they experience a distractingly powerful feeling of intoxication. They may enjoy a pleasant hallucination, or may just stand there blissing out, not caring what the Assamite is up to.
System : Any character looking directly at the Assamite as the effect is activated must roll Wits + Alertness (difficulty 7) or face intoxication. Any obvious threat to a character activates his subconscious defense mechanisms and snaps him out of the kalif dream. Otherwise, this power, once activated, lasts for one hour for every success garnered on the activation roll.
Lvl 5 Ghost Body
The Assamite triggering this power can moolid objects, without being seen or heard. For all intents and purposes, the Assamite becomes intangible. The side effect of this power is that the Assamite cannot affect anything material around her any more than it can affect her.
System : This power requires three blood points instead of the usual one. Once in the Ghost Body the subject cannot be seen, heard or touched. Despite the name, this power does not actually place the character within the realms of the dead, and does not allow interaction with the ghosts from the Underworld. Some Assamites have reported seeing very strange things while in this form, however, and most are very cautious about attaining the Ghost Body. Once the character decides to affect the physical world again, she is once again visible and solid. No other Disciplines work while the Assamite uses this power – she may not Dominate anyone, activate Celerity or even use Auspex, if she has it.
Awakening of the Steel
Although combat mastery is hardly the sorcerer caste's primary goal, they have a long tradition of standing ready to defend themselves and, if need be, assisting the warrior caste on the battlefield (though they have not joined any large-scale struggle since the Long Night). Awakening of the Steel is one legacy of this preparedness, a Path that some say began with the alchemists who studied in the forges of Toledo and Damascus. This set of techniques focuses on the symbolism of the sword as the ultimate extension of a trained warrior's body, drawing on the mythos that various warrior traditions attached to their swords and daggers; European crusaders and their blessed blades, the kris of Indonesian Pentjak-Silat practitioners, and Indian Ghurka and their kukri knives, am0ong others. The practitioner of Awakening of the Steel focuses on this symbolism as he uses the power of his blood to enhance his weapon and his skill.
A student of Awakening of the Steel finds that a keen understanding of both the form and the function of a blade is necessary for full mastery of this Path. A character must have a level of either Melee or Crafts Ability equal to his level in Awakening of the Steel. Those who practice this Path also find that its lessons are tightly focused, perhaps to the point of overspecialization. The Path is at its most effective with swords and knives, and the wielder can only extend its effects to other edged weapons. Any attempt to use a technique of this Path on another edged weapon is at +1 difficulty.
Lvl 1 Confer with the Blade
Although few Assamites claim to have actually spoken to a weapon's soul, blacksmiths and warriors alike have ascribed spiritual qualities to hand-forged blades for centuries. Practitioners of Auspex are familiar with the manner in which inanimate objects can bear impressions of their own history. Confer with the Blade allows a weapon's wielder to delve into the events that have occurred around this weapon. Some practitioners of this power claim this makes the weapon feel more “comfortable” in their hands, while others speak of the sense of history that an ancient blade bears. The actual impressions only take an instant to gain, though many prefer to spend much longer in contemplation if time permits.
System : The number of successes determines the amount of information the sorcerer gains regarding the blade's history and its present state, as well as all information yielded by a lesser number of successes. With three of more successes, the sorcerer may lower the difficulty on his next attempt to apply a blood magic ritual to the weapon by one.
1 success Physical information only: precise length and weight (to the micrometer and milligram), chemical composition (assuming the character understands metallurgy), number of damage dice and type of damage (lethal or aggravated).
2 successes Historical overview: when and where the blade was forged, the name and face of its smith, brief glimpses of significant events in its existence.
3 successes Sorcerous understanding: the type and relative level of power of any enchantments or supernatural enhancements that the blade possesses as well as the name and face of the individual who laid them.
4 successes Subliminal synthesis: comprehensive knowledge of the sword's history. For the next seven nights, the character recognizes the taste of any blood that has ever stained the blade if she tastes it herself.
5 successes Total communion: the sword and the wielder become linked at a level deeper than the physical and more enduring than the immediate. The Storyteller determines what information the sword holds for the character, but it may include any event in the blade's history or any aspect of its present existence and condition.
Lvl 2 Grasp of the Mountain
The best scimitar in all creation does its owner no good if it's lying five yards away from him. Grasp of the Mountain strengthens the spiritual bond between the sword and the swordsman in order to reinforce the wielder's physical grip on his weapon. A blade that is under the effect of this art never leaves its master's hand unless he so wills it.
System : For the rest of the scene, the character has a number of automatic successes to resist all attempts to disarm him equal to the number of successes rolled. He cannot accidentally drop the blade (which means his botches are likely to result in self-mutilation instead of an ampty hand). If the character is somehow disarmed in spite of Grasp of the Mountain, he may call the blade back to his hand by successfully invoking this power again, assuming he has a clear line of sight to the weapon.
Lvl 3 Pierce Steel's Skin
At this level of understanding, the sorcerer can command his blade with such precision as to strike at an opponent's physical protection rather than his body. The sword transfers its full fury to the intended target, shredding even the toughest chain or plate. This strips away the victim's defenses, leaving him vulnerable to the next attack. While this power is of limited utility in modern nights, as full plate has fallen by the wayside, it remains in the Path's progression of lessons due to its utility in destroying other obstacles.
System : For a numer of turns equal to the number of successes rolled, each successful attack the character makes inflicts damage on the target's body armor rather than injuring him. Armor injured by this power must be of the metal variety. When the character makes a successful attack against an armored targetdoes not roll damage. Instead, he rolls a number of dice equal to the sword's damage bonus (the number of dice that it adds to his Strength) against a difficulty of 7. Each success reduces the armor's soak bonus by one die. Armor that is reduced to zero soak dice in this manner is completely destroyed and unsalvageable.
While Pierce Steel's Skin is in effect, an attack against an unarmored target inflicts half daamge (rounded down). Additional successes beyond those needed to destroy a piece of armor have no effect. At the Storyteller's discretion, Pierce Steel's Skin may dstroy other inanimate objects (walls, doors, cars, dramatically appropriate obstacles) without significant damage to the sword. For the purposes of this power, Fortitude counts as part of the target's Stamina, not external armor.
Lvl 4 Razor's Shield
Many swordsmen hold that the duel is the ultimate test of the warrior because it places all opponents on an equal footing. Death is only three feet of steel away, and only the skill of the combatants determines who walks away. However, observers who are more pragmatic than romantic note than an enemy with a ranged weapon, be it bow, sling or gun, has the advantage of striking from much farther away than arm's length. While Awakening of the Steel cannot completely counteract this advantage, this power allows the skilled sorcerer some measure of defense as the sword interposes itself between its master and attacks from afar.
System : For a number of turns equal to the number of successes rolled, the character may attempt to parry projectiles. This requires one action for each projectile that the player wishes to block, and the character must be able to see the shot coming (Heightened Senses allows a visual tracking of bullets). Each parrying attempt requires a Dexterity + Melee roll, with a difficulty determined by the speed of the projectile. Thrown objects have a difficulty of 6, arrows and crossbow bolts a difficulty of 7 and bullets a difficulty of 9. Each success subtracts one of the attacker's successes on his attack roll.
Razor's Shield does not allow the character to parry ranged attacks that do not incorporate solid projectiles, such as flame, lighting or spat blood.
Lvl 5 Strike at the True Flesh
Although pacifists may find other uses for blades, turning their swords to plowshares, a warrior knows that swords were created for one purpose: to carve an enemy's flesh into bloody ruin. Strike at the True Flesh invokes the very essence of the sorcerer's weapon, reducing it to the embodiment of its very definition (or, as the more classically minded would put it, invoking the Platonic form) while simplifying its target to a similarly basic level. The results of such an invocation are susually devaststing on both a philosophical and practical level as weapon and victim lose all supernatural attributes.
System : The effects of Strike at the True Flesh last for a number of turns equal to the number of successes rolled, and they end with the first successful attack that the character makes within this time period. The sowrd inflicts only the base amount of lethal damage that a weapon of its size and type would normally cause, disregarding all enhancements that it may have received (though augmentations to the wielder's strength or speed, such as Potence or Celerity, still have their normal effects, as do extra successes on the attack roll).
However, all the target's supernatural defenses (including Fortitude) are likewise negated – he soaks only with his base Stamina. If the negation of his powers and defenses renders the target unable to soak lethal damage, he cannot soak the attack at all. Body armor does protect against this attack, as it is a mundane form of defense.
Life's Water
Almost every Tremere studies the Path of Blood as her primary Path. It encompasses some of the most fundamental principles of Thaumaturgy, based as it is on the manipulation of Kindred vitae. If a player wishes to select another Path as her character's primary Path, she'd better have a good reason (though choosing a different Path is by no means unheard of).
Lvl 1 A Taste for Blood
This power was developed as a means of testing a foe's might – an extremely important ability in the tumultuous early nights of Clan Tremere. By merely tasting the blood of his subject, the thaumaturge may determine how much vitae remains in the subject and, if the subject is a vampire, how recently he has fed, his approximate generation and, with three or more successes, whether he has recently committed diablerie.
System : The number of successes achieved on the roll determines how much information the thaumaturge gleans and how accurate it is.
Lvl 2 Blood Rage
This power allows a vampire to force another Kindred to expend blood against his will. The thaumaturge must touch her subject for this power to work, though only the lightest contact is necessary. A vampire affected by this power might feel a physical rush as the thaumaturge heightens his Physical Attributes, or may even find himself on the brink of frenzy as his stores of vitae are mystically depleted.
System : Each success forces the subject to spend one blood point immediately in the way the thaumaturge desires. Note that blood points forcibly spent in this manner may exceed the normal “per turn” maximum indicated by the victim's generation. Each success gained also increases the subject's difficulty to resist frenzy by one.
Lvl 3 Blood of Potency
The thaumaturge gains such control over his own blood that he may effectively “concentrate” it, making it more powerful for a short time. In effect, he may temporarily lower his own generation with this power. This power may be used only once per night.
System : Successes earned on the Willpower roll must be spent both to decrease the vampire's generation and to maintain the change. One success allows the character to lower generation by one step for one hour. Each success grants the Kindred either one step down in generation or one hour of effect. If the vampire is diablerized while this power is in effect, it wears off immediately and the diablerist gains power appropriate to the thaumaturge's actual generation. Furthermore, any mortals Embraced by the thaumaturge are born to the generation appropriate to their sire's original generation (e.g., a 10th-generation Tremere who has reduced his effective generation to eight still produces 11th-generation childer).
Once the effect wears off, any blood over the character's blood pool maximum dilutes, leaving the character at his regular blood pool maximum. Thus, is a 12th-generation Tremere (maximum blood pool of 11) decreased his generation to ninth (maximum blood pool 14), ingested 14 blood points, and has this much vitae in his system when the power wore off, his blood pool would immediately drop to 11.
Lvl 4 Theft of Vitae
A thaumaturge using this power siphons vitae from her subject. She need never come in contact with the subject – blood literally streams out in a physical torrent from the subject to the Kindred (though it is often mystically absorbed and need not enter through the mouth).
System : The number of successes determines how many blood points the Tremere transfers from the subject. The subject must be visible to the thaumaturge and within 50 feet. Using this power is like drinking from the subject – used three times on the same Kindred, it creates a blood bond on the part of the thaumaturge! This power is obviously quite spectacular, and Camarilla princes justifiably consider its public use abreach of the Masquerade.
Lvl 5 Cauldron of Blood
A thaumaturge using this power boils her subject's blood in his veins like water on a stove. The Kindred must touch her subject, and it is this contact that simmers the subject's blood. This power is always fatal to mortals, and causes great damage to even the mightiest vampires.
System : The number of successes gained determines how many blood points are brought to boil. The subject suffers one health level of aggravated damage for each point boiled (individuals with Fortitude may soak this damage using only their Fortitude dice). A single success kills any mortal, though some ghouls are said to have survived.
Jinn's Gift
Invoking objects “out of thin air” has been a staple of occult and supernatural legend since long before the rise of the Tremere. This thaumaturgical Path enables powerful conjurations limited only by the mind of the practitioner.
Objects summoned via this Path bear two distinct characteristics. They are uniformly “generic” in that each object summoned, if summoned again, would look exactly as it did at first. For example, a knife would be precisely the same knife if created twice; the two would be indistinguishable. Even a specific knife – the one a character's father used to threaten her – would appear identical every time it was conjured. A rat would have repeated “tiled” patterns over its fur, and a garbage can would have the exact same fluted texture over its surface. Additionally, conjured objects bear no flaws. Weapons hav eno dents or scratches, tools hav eno distinguishing marks, and computers have featureless casings.
The limit on the size of conjured objects appears to be that of the conjurer; nothing larger than the thaumaturge can be created. The conjurer must also have some degree of familiarity with the object he wishes to call forth. Simply working from a picture or imagination calls for a higher difficulty, while objects with which the character is intimately familiar (such as the knife described above) may actually lower the difficulty, at the Storyteller's discretion.
When a player rolls to conjure something, the successes gained on the roll indicate the quality of the summoned object. One success yields a shoddy, imperfect creation, while five successes garner the thaumaturge a nearly perfect replica.
Lvl 1 Summon the Simple Form
At this level of mastery, the conjurer may create simple, inanimate objects. The object cannot have any moving parts and may not be made of multiple materials. For example, the conjurer may summon a steel baton, a lead pipe, a wooden stake of a chunk of granite.
System : Each turn the conjurer wishes to keep the object in existence, another Willpower point must be spent or the object vanishes.
Lvl 2 Permanency
At this level, the conjurer no longer needs to pay Willpower costs to keep an object in existence. The object is, as th is level's name suggests, permanent, though simple objects are still all that may be created.
System : The player must invest three blood points in an object to make it real.
Lvl 3 Magic of the Smith
The Kindred may now conjure complex objects of multiple components and with moving parts. For example, the thaumaturge can create guns, chainsaws or cellular phones.
System : Objects created via Magic of the Smith are permanent items and cost five blood points to conjure. Particularly complex items often require a Knowledge roll (Crafts, Science, etc.) in addition to the basic roll.
Lvl 4 Reverse Conjuration
This power allows the conjurer to “banish” into nonexistence any object previously called forth via this Path.
System : This is an extended success roll. The conjurer must accumulate as many successes as the original caster received when creating the object in question.
Lvl 5 Power Over Life
This power cannot create true life, though it can summon forth some truly impressive simulacra. Creatures (and people) summoned with this power lack the free will to act on their own, instead mindlessly following the simple instructions of their conjurer.
System : The player spends 10 blood points. Imperfect and impermanent, creatures u mmoned via this Path are too complex to exist for long. Within a week after their conjuration, the simulacra vanish into insubstantiality.
Hand of the Magi
This Path grants the thaumaturge the ability to conjure forth mystical flames – small fires at first, but skilled magicians may create great conflagrations. The Lure of Flames is greatly feared, as fire is one of the surest ways to bring Final Death upon a vampire.
Fire created by this Path is not “natural”. In fact, many vampires believe the flames to be conjured from Hell itself.
Fire conjured by the Lure of Flames must be released for it to hav eany effect. Thus, a “palm of flame” does not burn the vampire's hand and cause an aggravated wound – it merely produces light. Once the flame has been released, however, it burns normally and the character has no control over it.
System : The number of successes determines how accurately the thaumaturge places the flame in his desired location. One success is all that is necessary to conjure a flame in one's hand, while five successes place a flame anywhere in the Kindred's line of sight.
Individual descriptions are not provided for each level of this Path – fire is fire, after all. The chart below describes the Path level required to generate a specific amount of flame. To soak the damage at all, of course, a vampire must have the Fortitude Discipline.
Lvl 1 Candle (difficulty 3 to soak, one health level of aggravated damage/turn)
Lvl 2 Palm of flame (difficulty 4 to soak, one health level of aggravated damage/turn)
Lvl 3 Campfire (difficulty 5 to soak, two health levels of aggravated damage/turn)
Lvl 4 Bonfire (difficulty 7 to soak, two health levels of aggravated damage/turn)
Lvl 5 Inferno (difficulty 9 to soak, three health levels of aggravated damage/turn)
Covenant of Enki
Vampires are rarely associated with the ocean in most mythologies, and most Kindred have nothing to do with water in large quantities simply because they have no reason to do so. Nevertheless, Neptune's Might has enjoyed a small, but devoted, following for centuries among Camarilla thaumaturges. This Path is based primarily around the manipulation of standing water, although some of is more disturbing effects depart from this principle.
Once a character reaches the third level of Neptune's Might, the player may choose to specialize in either fresh water or salt water. Such specialization lowers all Neptune's Might difficulties by one when dealing with the chosen medium but raises them by one when dealing with the opposite. Blood is considered neither fresh nor salty for this purpose, and difficulties in manipulating it are unaffected.
Lvl 1 Eyes of the Sea
The thaumaturge may peer into a body of water and view events that have transpired on, in or around it from the water's persepctive. Some older practitioners of this art claim that the vampire communes with the spirits of the waters when using this power; younger Kindred scoff at such claims.
System : The number of successes rolled determines how far into the past the character can look.
No. of successes Range of effect
1 success One day
2 successes One week
3 succecces One month
4 successes One year
5 successes 10 years
The Storyteller may require a Perception + Occult roll for the character to discern very small details in the transmitted images. This power can only be used on standing water; lakes and puddles qualify, but oceans, sewers and wineglasses do not.
Lvl 2 Prison of Water
The thaumaturge can command a sufficiently large quantity of water to animate itsel;f and imprison a subject. This power requires a significant amount of fluid to be fully effective, although even a few gallons can be used to shape chains of animated water. Mortals subjected to this power's effects can drown if the thaumaturge is not careful (or if she so desires it), and even vampires can be crushed by extreme pressure thus brought to bear.
System : the number of successes scored on the roll is the number of successes the victim must score on a Strength roll (difficulty 8; Potence adds to successes) to break free. A subject may be held in only one prison at a time, although the thaumaturge is free to invoke multiple uses of this power upon separate victims and may dissolve her own prisons at will.
If a sufficient quantity of water (at least a bathtub's worth) is not present, the difficulty of the Willpower roll to activate this power is raised by one.
Lvl 3 Blood to Water
The thaumaturge has now attained engouh power over water that she can transmute other liquids to this basic element. The most commonly seen use of this power is as an assault; with but a touch, the victim's blood transforms to water, weakening vampires and killing mortals in moments.
System : The character must touch her intended victim. The player rolls normally. Each success converts one of the victim's blood points to water. One success kills a mortal within minutes. Vampires who lose blood points to this power also suffer dice pool penalties as if they had received an equivalent number of health levels of injury. The water left in the target's system by this attack evaporates out at a rate of one blood point's worth per hour, but the lost blood does not return.
At the Storyteller's discretion, other liquids may be turned to water with this power (the difficulty for such an action is reduced by one unless the substance is particularly dangerous or magical in nature). The character must still touch the substance or its container to use this power.
Lvl 4 Flowing Wall
Tales of vampire's inability to cross running water may have derived from garbled accounts of this power in action. The thaumaturge can animate water to an even greater degree than is posible with the use of Prison of Water, commanding it to rise up to form a barrier impassable to almost any being.
System : The character touchessurface of a standing body of water; the player spends three Willpower points and the normal required blood point and rolls normally. Successes are applied to both width and height of the wall; each success “buys” 10 feet in one dimension. The wall may be placed anywhere within the character's line of sight, and must be formed in a straight line. The wall lasts until the next sunrise. It cannot be climbed, though it can be flown over. To pass through the barrier, any supernatural being (including beings trying to pass the wall on other levels of existence) must score at least three successes on a single Willpower roll (dificulty 9).
Lvl 5 Dehydrate
At this level of mastery, the thaumaturge can directly attack living and inliving targets by removing the water from their bodies. Victims killed by this power leave behind hideous mummified corpses. This powers can also be used tor less aggressive purposes, such as drying out wet clothes – or evaporating puddles to keep other practitioners of this Path from using them.
System : This power can be used on any target in the character's line of sight. The player rolls normally; the victim resists with a roll of Stamina + Fortitude (difficulty 9). Each success gained by the thaumaturge translates into one health level of lethal damage inflicted on the victim. This injury cannot be soaked (the resistance roll replaces the soak for this attack) but can be healed normally. Vampires lose blood points instead of health levels, though if a vampire has no blood points this attack inflicts health level loss as it would against a mortal. The victim of this attack must also roll Courage (difficulty of the number of successes scored by the thaumaturge +3) to be able to act on the turn following the attack; failure means he is overcome with agony and can do nothing.
Suleiman's Laws
Not to be confused with, or perhaps derived form the ancient Path of Spirit Thaumaturgy, Spirit Manipulation is a relatively recent innovation of the Tremere. Created to replace the rituals practiced by the clan in the days when it was a band of mortal wizards, Spirit Manipulation is the art of forcing spirits into actions and situations that would normally be anathema to them. Spirit Manipulation simulates many effects that can be created by Lupine and shamanic mages, but does so by forcing the spirits involved into a grotesque mockery of their normal behaviors. Any botch with Spirit Manipulation not only inflicts the normal loss of Willpower involved with thaumaturgical mishaps but also turns the full force of the spirit's wrath against the offending vampire.
Lvl 1 Hermetic Sight
The vampire can perceive the spirit world, either by gazing deeply into it or by seeing the presence of nearby spirits as a hazy overlay on the material world. This power does not allow the thaumaturge to see into the realms of the dead or into the realms of the fae.
System : One success on the roll is needed for the thaumaturge to perceive spirits, while two allow him to view the spirit realm. With less than four successes, the thaumaturge is at +2 difficulty to all actions performed while using this power due to the distraction of divided perceptions. Hermetic Sight lasts for the duration of the scene or until the thaumaturge deactivates it.
Lvl 2 Astral Cant
The languages of the spirit world are infinitely varied and mainly incomprehensible to mortal (or immortal) minds. Astral Cant does not teach the thaumaturge the tongues of the spirits, but it does allow him to understand them as they speak to him and to reply in their own languages – in effect, a universal translator for the spirit world. Imprecise use of this power can be disastrous, particularly when a thaumaturge is bargaining with a powerful spirit. The use of this power is not always necessary; many spirits speak human tongues but choose to feign ignorance when dealing with vampires.
System : The number of successes determines the accuracy of the translation.
No. of successes Effect
1 success Pidgin spirit language; very simple words and phrases can be comprehended
2 successes Simple sentences are possible; “trade language”
3 successes Fluent conversation; sufficient for most conversations
4 successes Complex issues such as metaphysics can be discussed
5 successes Even the most obscure idiomatic expressions and forms of humor come through
Lvl 3 Voice of Command
This is perhaps the most dangerous power in the Spirit Manipulation arsenal, for the consequences if a thaumaturge fails can be most unpleasant. Voice of Command allows a vampire to issue orders to a spirit, compelling it to heed her biding whether or not it desires to do so.
System : The player makes the normal Willpower roll; the target spirit resists with Willpower (difficulty of the thaumaturge's Manipulation + Occult or Manipulation + Lore: Spirits). The degree of success the thaumaturge attains determines the complexity and severity of the command that she can issue.
No. of successes Effect
Botch The spirit is immune to the character's commands for the rest of the night. It reacts however the Storyteller deems appropriate.
Failure The spirit is unaffected, and further attempts to command it are made at +1 difficulty (cumulative). It may ignore, taunt or even attack the character at the Storyteller's discretion.
1 success The spirit obeys a very simple command that is no great inconvenience to it.
2 successes The spirit heeds a relatively straight forward command that it is not innately opposed to performing.
3 successes The spirit agrees to perform a moderately complex task that does not violate its ethics.
4 successes The spirit consents to an extended or intricate task that does not place it in immediate danger.
5 successes The spirit accepts a lengthy or nigh-impossible task, or one that may mean its destruction.
Crafty Storytellers should note that spirits compelled by this power are fully aware that they are being forced into these actions, and may well seek revenge on their erstwhile masters at a later time.
Thaumaturges who issue commands above and beyond what their spirit servants are compelled to perform may find themselves ignored or mocked. Even worse, a spirit in such a situation may “agree” to follow orders without following through, leaving the thaumaturge in a situation of potentially fatal embarassment.
Lvl 4 Entrap Ephemera
This power allows a thaumaturge to bind a spirit into a physical object. This can be done to imprison the target, but is more often performed to create a fetish, an artifact that allows a user to channel a portion of the spirit's power through it to affect the physical world. Fetishes created by this power are often recalcitrant and fail at inappropriate moments, as the spirits within are most displeased with their situation and will take any opportunity to escape or thwart their captor.
System : The number of successes rolled determines the power level of the fetish to be created. A fetish is activated by rolling the user's Willpower (difficulty of the fetish's power level +3). A botch on this roll destroys the physical compoent of the fetish and frees the spirit that was trapped inside.
For more complete guidelines to fetish powers, refer to pages 273-275 of Werewolf : The Apocalypse. The Storyteller is always the final authority in determining the powers and mechanics of a fetish created through the use of this power.
Lvl 5 Duality
The thaumaturge can now fully interact with the spirit world. While using this power, he exists on both planes of existence at once. He is able to pick up objects in the physical world and place them in the spirit world and vice versa. Beings and landscapes features in both realms are solid to him, and he can engage in any manner of interaction. He can even unse Thaumaturgy and other Disciplines in either world. This is not without its dangers, however. One misstep and the vampire can find himself trapped in the spirit realm with no way to return home. Several incautious thaumaturges have starved into torpor while trapped on the other side of the barrier that spearates the physical and spirit realms.
System : The number of successes dictates how long the vampire can interact with the spirit world.
No. of successes Duration
1 success One turn
2 successes Three turns
3 successes 10 turns
4 successes 10 minutes
5 successes The remainder of the scene
Duality can only be used while the character is in the physical world. Note that while Duality is in effect the character is also susceptible to attacks from both realms. Additionally, the player must roll Perception + Occult (difficulty 8) when this power is actiated; a roll with less than three successes indicates that all rolls made while this power is active are at +2 difficulty due to the distraction of the character's dual perceptions. The character is still considered to be in the physical world for purposes of basic physics and common sense – for instance, his feet rest on the ground in the physical world, not the ground in the spirit world, and the could this walk across a spiritual chasm if a physical parking lot overlaid the same place.
A botch on the roll to activate this power tears the vampire out of the physical world and traps him in the spirit realm. The way back to the physical realm, if there is one, is left to the Storyteller's discretion, and may constitute an entire adventure in and of itself
The Ailing Jackal
This Path, based loosely on powerful thaumaturge's interpretations of the Book of Nod, devotes itself to delivering justice to the race of Cainites. Each power supposedly has some precedent in the parables of the ancient book, and focuses on teaching the lessons of Caine via the power of blood magic. Use of this Path is hotly debated in the Sabbat, as some consider it tantamount to claiming to hold Caine's right over all vampires oneself.
The power of this Path comes not only from the magic of blood, but also incantation of verses from the Book of Nod. For any of these powers to take effect, the thaumaturge must speak the actual condemnation. For example, to invoke the third-level power, the caster must state plainly to his target that she may eat only ashes. Obviously, the subject must be able to hear the thaumaturge for these powers to take effect, though writing them and showing them to the subject will do.
These powers apply to Cainites only. They do not affect, Lupines, mortals or ghouls.
Lvl 1 Zillah's Litany
Zillah, the wife of Caine, unknowingly drank from her husband and sire three times, thus becoming bonded to him. This power reeals existing blood bonds and Vinculi to the thaumaturge.
System : If the subject has any blood bonds or Vinculi to other vampires, this power reveals them to the caster. Although the caster may not know the vampires in question, this power does reveal the names and gives rough psychic impressions of the individuals in question.
Lvl 2 The Crone's Pride
This power inflicts the curse of the crone, who bound Caine to her as he fled his wife's spurning. Hideously ugly, the crone had to resort to trickery to get others to help or serve her.
System : This power reduces the target's Appearance to zero. All Social rolls during this time generally fail, unless the character attempts to intimidate or browbeat the subject. This power lasts for one night.
Lvl 3 Feast of Ashes
Primarily used against wanton or excessive vampires, this power temporarily removes a vampire's dependency on blood. While some would say this negates the Curse of Caine, it reduces the vampire to little more than a wretched scavengers, as he must consume literal ashes, though he gains little sustenance from them.
System : The victim of this power can no longer consume blood, vomiting it as he would mortal food or drink. Instead, the victim can only eat ashes, and the “blood points” he gains from this may be used only to rise each night. Ashen “blood points” may not be used to power Disciplines, raise Attributes or feed ghouls (though actual blood points in the character's body at the time this power is invoked may still be used for such). One blood point's worth of ash is roughly one pint, and any ash will do – cigarette ash, campfire leftovers or vampire corpses destroyed by fire or sunlight. This power lasts for one week.
Lvl 4 Uriel's Disfavor
This power onvokes the darkness of the Angel of Death. All but the dimmest of light causes the subject excruciating pain, and some artificial forms of bright light may even damage the vampire. Uriel delivered God's curse on Caine, shielding him in the blackness of his wings.
System : The presence of any light makes the subject uncomfortable, and bright light of any kind – flashlights, neon beer lamps, headlights, etc. - inflict one health level of aggravated damage on the character for every turn he remains under its direct focus. Most vampires who su ffer this curse elect to sleep for the duration, hiding away in the darkness of thei havens until they can walk again among the living without pain. This power lasts for one week.
Lvl 5 Valediction
Many Sabbat rightfully fear this power, though none has ever seen it used. It levies a punishment for breaking one of Caine's greatest commandments – the ban against diablerie. As most Sabbat attain their power and station through some measure of diablerie, they must reconcile their beliefs with the admonitions of Caine, and this power engenders a great sense of humility.
System : When this power takes effect, the subject immediately reverts to her original generation. This change may entail losing points in certain Traits due to generational maximums. This power lasts for one week, after which any Traits reduced to
higher-generation maximums return to normal. It takes three turns to speak the full verse that implements this power's effects.
Fortitude
All vampires possess a preternatural constitution that makes most normal damage inconsequential. Fortitude bestows a resilience and vigor far beyond even normal vampiric toughness. Kindred with this power ignore the mightiest punches and barely feel hails of bullets. This Discipline also helps protect against sources of damage even vampires fear, such as sunlight, fire and terminal falls.
Gangrel, Ravnos and Ventrue possess this potent ability. Gangrel enjoy the benefits of Fortitude as a matter of course, but Ravnos and especially Ventrue delight in the power's psychological effects. It's not unusual for a Ventrue to take a “fatal” blow, giving his opponent just enough time to register the vampire's smile before the Ventrue finishes off the shocked victim.
System : A character's rating in Fortitude adds to his Stamina for the purpose of saoking normal damage (bashing and lethal). A character with this Discipline may also use his dots in Fortitude to soak aggravated damage (Kindred cannot normally soak things like vampire bites, werewolf claws, magical effects, fire, sunlight or massive physical trauma). So a vampire with Fortitude 3 has three dice to soak aggravated damage.
Vampires have inhuman stamina by mortal standards, capable as they are of withstanding being repeatedly shot, stabbed, crushed, staked and otherwise brutalized without showing much wear. Then there are those Kindred whose powers of endurance cause ven other vampires to marvel – or fear. A vampire with sufficient mastery of Fortitude is nigh indestructible, able to withstand sunlight, flame and other perils that would quickly reduce a mere neonate to ash.
Kindred advance in Fortitude the same way the advance in Celerity, having the option to increase their basic mastery of the Discipline or to take an alternate power such as one of those detailed below.
Lvl 6 Personal Armor
Nobody likes to get hit (or shot, or stabbed for that matter), not even Cainites. The easiest way to ensure that one is not hit (or shot, or stabbed) repeatedly is to take the weapon with which one is assaulted away from one's attacker and break it. That's where Personal Armor comes in. This application of Fortitude, derived from one popular in the 12thcentury, causes anything that strikes a Kindred who employs Personal Armor to shatter on impact.
System : With the expenditure of two blood points, a vampire can add preternatural hardness to his flesh. Every time an attack is made on the Kindred using Personal Armor (one which he does not dodge), his player rolls Fortitude (difficulty 8). If the roll grants more successes than the attacker rolled, then the weapon used to make the attack shatters against the vampire's flesh (fetishes, klaives, “magical” swords and so on may be resistant to this effect, at Storyteller discretion). The vampire still takes normal damage if the attack is successful, even if the weapon shatters in the process; this damage may still be soaked. If the attack roll botches, any normal weapon automatically shatters.
A hand-to-hand attack causes the attacker equal damage to that suffered by the defender when Personal Armor comes into play. On a miss, the attacker takes one level of bashing damage.
The effects of this power last for the duration of the scene.
Lvl 6 Sensory Shield
A using this power supernaturally hardens his senses against injurious input. The vampire cannot be blinded by spotlights or sudden bursts of radiance, or deafened by explosions or gunfire; even his capacity to withstand pain is improved. His eyes, ears, nose and poen wounds glow with an eerie light while this power is active.
System : Spending two blood points activates this power for a scene. Mundane sources of overwhelming sensory input, such as searchlights, muzzle flash or pepper spray have no effect, even is sensory-enhancing powers like Heightened Senses are in use. The effects of supernatural sensory attacks or unusual circumstances (like being at ground zero for a massive explosion) may be soaked with the vampire's Fortitude dice, with each success reducing the effect or duration of the sensory damage, or negating it all together. In addition, the Gagnrel's wound penalties are reduced by two; he feels no pain whatsoever until he reaches the Crippled level, when he runs into only a three-dice penalty. At the end of the scene, wound penalties for all accumulated damage are applied as normal.
The phosphorescent glow streaming from the vampire's orifices and wounds is nearly impossible to hide, and inflicts a two-dice penalty on social interactions with mortals (other than Intimidation).
Lvl 7 Shared Strength
It's one thing to laugh off bullets, rather another to watch the ricochets mow down everyone around you. Many Kindred have wished, at one time or another, that they could lend their monstrous vitality to those around them. Those few vampires who have mastered Shared Strength can – if only for a little while.
System : Shared Strength transfers a portion of a vampire's Fortitude (one dot for every point of blood the vampire spends) to another being. Activating the power requires a Stamina + Survival roll (difficulty 8, increased to 9 if the target is not a normal mortal), and the expenditure of a point of Willpower. Furthermore, the vampire must mark his target by pressing a drop of his blood onto the target's forehead. This stain remains visible as long as the power is in effect, which is in turn determined by the initial roll.
No. of successes Duration
1 One turn
2 One scene
3 One hour
4 One night
5 One week
6 One month
7 One year
The target of this power need not be willing to accept the benefit to receive it. Particularly sadistic Kindred have come up with any number of ways in which a target's “devil's mark” and supernatural endurance can be used to land him in agreat deal of trouble.
A vampire can never bestow more levels of Fortitude than he himself possesses on another.
Lvl 7 Resilient Mind
At this level of accomplishment, the Gangrel extends her preternatural resistance to the very depths of her personality. Upon acquiring this power, the vampire may suddenly shed centuries of paranoia, tics, quirks and other perturbations that have accumulated in the cobwebby recesses of her brain. Additionally, it becomes more difficult to use mental Disciplines against the vampire. Unfortunately, this mental stability comes at a cost to the Gangrel; upon learning this power, the vampire must acquire physical animal flaws exclusively.
System : Upon learning this power, the Gangrel makes a Willpower roll (difficulty 7). For each success, the vampire may choose to eliminate one derangement or two animal behavior flaws (any Social Attribute points lost due in whhile or part to those flaws remain lost). This effect of the power occurs only once and is immediate.
The vampire permanently gains three dice to resist the effects of mind-altering Disciplines or magic. This bonus does not apply to Presence or other Disciplines that affect the emotions.
Finally, if the vampire gains a derangement for any reason after learning this power, the player may immediately make a Willpower roll (difficulty 6). If she achieves three successes, the derangement persists through the night and the following day, but is sloughed off as the vampire rises with the sunset. Willpower may not be spent on this roll.
Lvl 8 Adamantine
Adamantine functions as a more potent version of Personal Armor.
System : This power mimics the effects of Personal Armor, save that the vampire who uses it takes no damage from attacks that shatter on her skin.
Lvl 8 King of the Mountain
The most formidable opponents are not only hard to hurt, they are also hard to even touch. This power combines some of the effects of Personal Armor with an aura of resistance that impedes attackers, making it trivially easy for the Gangrel to block the incoming attacks of numerous opponents.
System : The Gangrel spends three blood points to activate this power, which lasts for a scene. The vampire does not gain the benefits of this power when he actively attacks. Instead, the vampire must block or dodge all incoming attacks, and may use his full dice pool against each attack. Every time an attack is made with a weapon against the Gangrel, his player rolls Fortitude (difficulty 6) in addition to the Dexterity + Brawl roll to block. If the Fortitude roll grants more successes than the attacker rolled, the weapon used in the attack shatters on contact with the vampire (mustically imbued weapons may be resistant to this effect at the Storyteller's discretion). If the roll to block succceeds, the vampire suffers no damage from the attack (if the block fails, the vampire may soak the damage normally, using Fortitude).
Hand-to-hand attacks may also be blocked. Successful hand-to-hand attacks inflict the character's damage on both the attacker and the vampire using this power. Blocked hand-to-hand attacks inflict the attacker's damage on herself. In both cases, the damage may be soaked normally. Additionally, the defending vampire does not suffer the standard multiple-attack penalty, no matter how many assailants he faces.
Kai
Kai is the Discipline of inner power. It is based upon the mystical honor fostered among the Bushi. The Bushi focuses her inner power and resolve into a weapon both martial and coercive. The fifth level of this Discipline is the highest given in this source book, but it is rumored that masters of this Discipline can draw upon the life force of others around them to dstroy enemies hundreds of miles away. This Discipline must be learned from another Bushi, so those wishing to learn it will have to seek out a master.
Lvl 1 Inner Focus
Honor is foremost in the Bushi's mind and soul. It is this idea of honor, this overwhelming drive to perform their duty, that allows this power to work. Instead of using Willpower points to resist the urge to frenzy, a Bushi may spend two blood points and regain an inner calm for the scene, so that she may act with honor and perform her master's will. In order for this to work, the situation in which the Bushi will frenzy must be one that would either endanger a task given by the Bushi's master or a situation which would cause the character to loose honor if she frenzies. This is just one of the powerful mystical abilities of the Bushi which may seem like a Thaumaturgy Path, but in fact is the essence of the spirit.
Lvl 2 Focused Strike
Those who are well-practiced in the martial arts are known to be able to break wood and brick with their hands, feet and heads. The Focused Strike is an extension of that ability. By expending blood points, the character can focus her inner power into a massive strike which, instead of wood and brick, can break through walls of stone or iron and destroy the most powerful of enemies. With this power, a Bushi may send an enemy flying with the lightest of blows. It is rumored that a higher level of Kai allows the vampire to focus such power through objects, such as swords or bullets.
System : The amount of damage done by a blow is increased by two dice per blood point expended (to a maximum of 10 dice). The inner force of a person, whether living or undead, has mystical properties and thus any damage caused by this attack will count as aggravated.
Lvl 3 Honorable Elixir
The Bushi may turn her blood into a spiritual substance that will cause others who drink it to walk the path of honor. Anyone, either mortal or vampire (even those of a higher generation than the blood donor) who drinks the blood must treat the Bushi honorably, as if he were a Bushi as well. He will suffer any Willpower loss or derangement that normally comes with breaking one's vow. This effect only lasts for one scene, unless the Honourable Elixir has been drunk on on three different occasions, in which case a blood bond develops and the honor effect becomes permanent.
The Bushi often use this during business negotiations, even on mortals ignorant of their vampiric nature. It is not hard convincing businessmen to honor the Bushi's “simple Japanese custom from samurai times”, in this case, the sharing of a drop of blood (or a drop concealed in a cup of saki). This ensures that the Bushi are never cheated in business dealings, or if they are, the cheaters suffer for their dishonor.
System : A Willpower point must be spent to energize the blood. Only those drinking the blood will be affected.
Lvl 4 Shield from Fire
Fire is the ally of the sun and thus the enemy of the children of Susanoo. Once the vampire masters the ability to focus her inner force, she is then taught to use this ability as a shield against attacks. By expending blood points, the character can create a red aura around herself which will ward off the power of the flame.
System : For every blood point expended, one turn of invulnerability from fire is gained.
Lvl 5 Daimyo's Law
This allows the Bushi to force another, whether mortal or vampire, to pursue an obligation for the Bushi. This obligation is specific and usually involves a task. The task could be to fetch a stolen clan object, such as an old sword, to punish another vampire for an injury to clan honor, or even to close a business deal for the clan. The Bushi must verbally deliver the obligation. The obligation lasts until it has been performed. If the target ignores the obligation, he will lose a Willpower point at the end of every week in which he has done nothing to complete the task. It is the Storyteller's discretion as to what constitutes furthering the task. It is rumored that a higher level of Kai allows the Daimyo's Law to be placed upon multiple targets.
System : The Bushi rolls Manipulation + Leadership against a difficulty of the target's Willpower. The target may resist with a Willpower roll against a difficulty of 8. If the Bushi has even 1 success, the Daimyo's Law takes effect. If the target is under the effect of the Honorable Elixir at the time, he may roll only half of his Willpower dice pool to resist.
Kineticism
Kineticism is an example of a Discipline created by a Caitiff. The Kindred who masters Kinteticism can control kinetic energy.
Lvl 1 Dampening
The character can hinder the flow of kinetic energy affecting him, reducing the damage of any such attacks directed against him.
System : The character spends one blood point and rolls Stamina + Dodge (difficulty 6). Each success reduces the amount of damage successes against him by one (before soak). Dampening affects aggravated attacks also. A character using Dampening may attempt to dodge at the same time by splitting his dice pool.
For example: Ivar the Caitiff is hit by an enraged Gangrel's claws. The Gangrel hits and rolls five successes for damage against Ivar. But Ivar uses Dampening and gets three successes. He now has to soak only two successes.
Lvl 2 Redirection
The character can alter the course of moving objects. Thus, bullets can be made to veer away from the character, sometimes even reversing course by up to 180 degrees.
System : The character rolls Stamina + Dodge (difficulty 6). For each success, the character may alter the direction of a single projectile by as much as 30 degrees. Due to the level of concentration required, the character may take no other actions. To redirect a missile back at its source, the character must achieve five successes (180 degrees). However, he must also make a Wits + Firearms roll (difficulty 8) to hit the source. If the target is a person, he may attempt to dodge the turned projectile.
Lvl 3 Vengeful Strike
The character is able to focus kinetic energy as a weapon. Any attack that successfully strikes the character may be refocused to add to the character's own hand-to-hand attacks.
System : The character spends one blood point. When struck by an attack, the character must still soak any damage she receives. However, she may add additional dice to her own damage dice pool equal to the total number of damage successes against her. This effect can only be used in the same or the following turn in which the character was hit. The extra damage is only considered aggravated if her attack is aggravated (such as vampiric fangs).
For example: Ivar uses Vengeful Strike when hitting his Gangrel attacker. The Gangrel had five damage successes against Ivar, so Ivar may add five dice to his damage dice pool.
Note : Vengeful Strike may be used in the same turn as Dampening as long as the proper amount of blood points are spent to activate the powers. However, the character must split his Dampening dice pool with his attack dice pool (unless he has Celerity).
Lvl 4 Discharge
The character can enhance the kinetic energy she generates herself. She may apply this to all ranged attacks.
System : The character spends one blood point and rolls Willpower (difficulty 6). For each success, she may add one die to her damage dice pool. This damage may only be applied to physical attacks, such as fists, swords or bullets. The extra damage is only considered aggravated if her attack is aggravated (such as vampiric fangs). The character does not need to split her dice pool between this power and her attack; she receives her full pool for each (unless she splits her attack pool with some other action, such as to dodge).
For example: Sheila shoots a Ventrue with a gun. She uses Discharge to make sure she takes him down fast. She spends a blood point and rolls Willpower and gets three successes. That's three dice she can add to her damage. However, she still has to make a Dexterity + Firearms roll to hit her target.
Lvl 5 Kinetic Shield
The character creates a barrier of kinetic energy in front of her, which may be used to protect herself or anyone else behind the barrier from assaults.
System : The character spends one blood point and rolls Willpower (difficulty 7). With one success, she creates a 6' x 4' barrier in front of her that will absorb up to five health levels of damage. Additional successes may be used to increase the area (three feet per success) or to add additional health levels (one per success).
Koldunic Sorcery
Long before the blood magics of the Tremere appeared, the Tzimisce wielded the mystical art of Koldunic Sorcery. Unlike the arcane Paths of Thaumaturgy, Koldunic Sorcery is a spiritual magic that manipulates the elements of nature. From the magically rich and diseased soil of their ancestral demesnes, the Tzimisce drew demonic power. Now, through the proper rites of contrition and binding, a koldun can summon forth the elemental correspondences that shape natural forces.
The specific Ways of this spiritual magic were often taught to novice koldun based on their regional settings. For example, though the Way of Spirit and Fire were universal, the Way of Wind was known only among koldun residing in the Carpathian Mountains. The Way of Water was predominantly practiced by koldun who made their havens near bodies of water like the Black Sea, the Plain Lakes and rivers of the Danube, Somes and Arges. The Way of Earth was common among koldun residing in the flatlands and plateaus of Eastern Europe.
During the time of clan Tremere's birth, Koldunic Sorcery was at its height in practice. With the threat of the Tremere and their blood magic, this sorcery became the weapon of choice for the koldun fighting to protect their lands. Bloody feuds between these two camps of sorcerers stained the Danube crimson and powerful magic defiled the land. As the Dark Ages passed, Koldunic Soercery faded as well, unpracticed and spoken of only in passing and half-truths.
In tonight's world, only a few, very ancient Tzimisce practice Koldunic Soercery. These surviving koldun are extremely territorial, rarely surfacing long enough to make their presenc eknown, and prefer to keep to themselves, surrounded by ruins of once-mighty castles and manses. With the mysterious disappearance of the Tremere antitribu, knowledge and philosophy of Koldunism is more frequently shared with anyone willing to learn of its existence, and has begun to spread among the ranks of the Sabbat's youth. Some suspect that enterprising Fiends have leaked a bit oftheir wisdom to the sect in order to keep the old ways in practice. More cynical Sabbat, though, believe that a clever Cainite or pack managed to steal a few secrets from a lax Tzimisce and passed them on to whoever wanted to learn.
System : Koldunic Sorcery consists of five elemental ways and several rituals, and is learned in a system similar to Thaumaturgy. A character's base Koldunic Sorcery Trait dictates how well he may learn the ways of the magic, and each dot earned in the Discipline also earns the character another dot in the Way of her choice. Obviously, this bonus dot may not be allocated to a Way that would be rated higher than the character's knowledge of Koldunic Sorcery. Kindred intent on learning Koldunic Sorcery must also study the unique Knowledge of Koldunism. For a character to invoke the powers of Koldunic Sorcery, a player must spend a Willpower point, then make an appropriate Attribute (governed by the way in question) + Koldunism roll (difficulty 4 + the level of the power). These five types of Attribute rolls are Charisma for the Way of Spirit, Stamina for the Way of Earth, Perception for the Way of Wind, Wits for the Way of Water and Manipulation for the Way of Fire. Unlike Thaumaturgy, there is no primary Path that must b elearned; any of Koldunic Sorcery's Ways are accesible at the standard cost of Paths, provided the koldun can find a teacher or suitable text.
Storytellers are advised that this is a rare form of spiritual magic, and that characters are unlikely to have access to it unless they are a part of the Sabbat or otherwise have a reason to research Koldunism. Players must keep in mind that Koldunic Sorcery has only just begun to circulate within the Sabbat; it is a certainty that a member of the Camarilla or of the independents isn't going to be searching out this art, if she is aware of it at all.
The Way of Earth
Ancient koldun hospodar rulers once claimed sovereignty over the lands of Eastern Europe, manipulating the magically rich chernozem - “black earth”- to invoke their power and instill fear in their boyars and peasants. Now, the young koldun of the Sabbat beckon the spirits of the Western soil and derive their powers of the Way of Earth from natural surroundings. When a koldun employs a power of this way, his eyes change color to walnut brown and his skin ripples with small patches of stone.
Lvl 1 Soil Silhouette
A koldun invoking this power has the ability to command dirt to rise up from the ground and crawl up the legs of an individual. The soil rises up very quickly and, as it passes above a victim's knees, renders him immobile.
System : Success on the activation roll causes the dirt anywhere within a 100-foot radius of the invoker to roil and crawl up a victim's legs; the dirt ends its ascent about halfway between the knees and the hips. Unless the subject can score five successes on a Strength + Survival roll (difficulty 6), he remains trapped in place by the Soil Silhouette for a number of turns equal to twice the successes the player scored on the activation roll.
Lvl 2 Unearthly Stamina
A koldun invoking this power temporarily borrows the earth's resilience, lending him stamina. Some elder Tremere of Eastern Europe reminisce on the frightening capacity for pain their rival koldun could withstand when invoking Unearthly Stamina. Sabbat koldun often use this power to prove their mettle during the ritae.
System : After spending a Willpower point and making a successful Stamina + Koldunism roll (difficulty 6), the player may add two temporary Stamina dice when soaking damage. These can be included in soaking aggravated damage. This effect lasts for one scene.
Lvl 3 Soil of Death
By invoking Soil of Death, a koldun commands roots to rise from the ground and drag a target below the soil, incapacitating him. Once buried up to his neck, a victim finds it increasingly difficult to breathe as he feels the weight of the earth cruching his chest.
System : Roots issue forth from the ground and wrap themselves around the legs, ankles and waist of a victim, pulling him underneath the earth. For every success a player scores on a Stamina + Koldunism roll (difficulty 7), the victim remains trapped underground for one turn. Mortals and ghouls will have a very difficult time breathing die to the prolonged pressure from comact earth, and must make a Stamina roll (difficulty 7) or suffer one level of lethal damage for every turn they spend entombed in the earth.
Lvl 4 Root of Vitality
Many healer believed that burying a person in the ground would allow the rich soil to purge him of his ailments. This power allows the koldun to draw any person into the ground up to the neck to heal grievous wounds.
System : With the expenditure of a Willpower point, the koldun commands the soil to pull a person down into the ground in order to heal her wounds. A character must remain underground for one turn per health level he heals. All damage a character suffers can heal in this manner including aggravated wounds, though the injured party must spend a blood point per aggravated wound level that he desires to heal (assuming the wounded character may do so). During this time of healing, the subject is helpless and unable to perform any other actions.
Lvl 5 Dracula's Restless Soul
Peasants whisper silent prayers to protect themselves from the unusual tremors that sometimes shake the Carpathian Mountains, which they believe to be the spirit of Dracula waking from centuries of slumber. In truth, this odd seismic activity is the result of a koldun calling upon the dormant wrath of the blighted land. When invoking this power, a koldun creates a large earth tremor capable of shaking the foundations of a city block.
System : With the expenditure of a Willpower point and a successful Stamina + Koldunism roll (difficulty 9), a player enables her character to cause the earth to shake violently. Each success she scores increases the radius of the quake; victims within the area of effect suffer 10 dice of lethal damage. Cars, RVs and small houses suffer substantial damage and, at the Storyteller's discretion, may be destroyed althogether. Buildings three stories and higher, such as apartment complexes and office buildings may sustain some structural damage, but this supernatural tremor is not strong enough to cause them to crumble and fall. This tremor lasts for one turn.
1 success One structure
2 successes Five structures
3 successes A residential street
4 successes Half a city block
5 successes A full city block
The Way of Wind
A second avenue of Koldunic Sorcery, the Way of Wind was once manipulated by Tzimisce lords to protect their Eastern European lands. Invoking these powers granted them the ability to control the element of crivat to suit their whims and master the air they once breathed in their mortal days. People of Eastern Europe, especially in Romania, name these types of unnatural winds the koldun manipulate – people of the west call the winds Austra, or the Black Winds, while residents of the south name them the Great Winds or the baltaret. When a koldun invokes a power of this Way, his eyes change color to sky blue and gusts of wind breeze all around him.
Lvl 1 Winds of Guilt
Ancient koldun hospodars invoked Winds of Guilt as a means of ensuring loyalty in their boyars without the need of a blood bond. This power caused a wind to gust around these boyars that sounded to them like whispering voices, telling of the horrors that would befall them and their families should they betray their voivode. These voices would slowly warp the minds of these men, and only when this sorcery waned would they regain their coherence. Afterward, the boyars were so afraid of the consequences of betrayal that their loyalty to their master was unswerving. Koldun of the Sabbat enjoy invoking this power during ritae before feeding, reveling in the mixture of adrenaline in the blood of a vessel sticken with terror.
System : With a successful Perception + Koldunism roll (difficulty 5), a koldun invokes mystical winds that plague a victim. The target is convinced that he hears voices whipsering of his most evil deeds (Storytellers are encouraged to improvise on the content of the whispers a victim hears). When in the presence of the koldun, targets lose two dots of Courage (to a minimum of 1). Each success the koldun's player scores increases the duration of this power.
1 success One scene
2 successes One night
3 successes One week
4 successes Two weeks
5 successes One month
Lvl 2 Biting Winds
The koldun creators of this power attempted to invoke a wind as chill as the air atop the Carpathian Fagrash Mountains. They noted the pain their victims endured as their bodies' temperatures dropped until the very blood froze in their veins. A koldun invoking this power had a much easier time of ridding his land of undesirables by plaguing them with bone-chilling gusts. Modern Sabbat koldun invoking this wind sometimes refer to its effects on victims as the “meat locker”. A koldun invoking Biting Winds causes a very cold breeze to swirl around in the area of his choosing. As the wind increases in speed, the wind chill factor drops the temperature until anyone within the affected area finds it too uncomfortable to remain.
System : After the player spends a Willpower point and rolls Perception + Koldunism (difficulty 6), the character summons forth a freezing cold wind. When Biting Winds first takes effect, a cool breeze blows in a 100-yard radius. Little by little, the winds gust faster and much colder. This continues until the wind blasts a stabbing chill difficult for anyone to tolerate. Those affected lose two dice from Dexterity dice pools and are reduced to half movement. Anyone attempting to enter this area must first spend a Willpower point and suffer a (soakable) level of bashing damage from the extreme cold.
Lvl 3 Winds of Lethargy
Although these winds do not induce immediate sleep in a victim, prolonged exposure to this supernatural gale causes extreme exhaustion and fatigued movement.Targets caught in the Winds of Lethargy smell a bittersweet smoke in the air. Individuals also claim that the wind feels like many intangible hands persistently rubbing their muscles to relaxation.
System : The player rolls Perception + Koldunism (difficulty 7) and spends a point of Willpower. If the roll is successful, the koldun creates a wind that induces extreme lethargy within a 200-foot radius, remaining for two turns per success he scores on the invocation roll. People caught in this gust or air must make a Stamina + Survival roll (difficulty 8) or are reduced to halving all dice pools that involve physical actions (actions such as breathing and blinking are innate and therefore unaffected, though the Storyteller should emphasize their laboriousness). Additionally, this fatigue reduces the movement rate of its victims by half for one full scene.
Lvl 4 Traveling the Winds
A koldun employing this power moves at incredible speeds by riding along the winds. The voivodes of nights past often appeared in each of their boyars' homes and to the villages of their lands, instilling fear in the peasants and terrorizing them to fealty. Koldun undertaking these outings could travel to most, if not all of their boyars and villages in a single night's time. During the Dark Ages, peasants under the rule of a koldun rarely rebelled against their master, fearing a personal appearance and, as a result, his swift punishing wrath. A koldun's body becomes almost ethereal while he moves along the wind, disappearing into a blurry outline of his physical self and re-materializing in a similar fashion.
System : A koldun journeys along the currents of the wind after the player spends a Willpower point and successfully rolls Perception + Koldunism (difficulty 8). With a successful invocation of this power, a koldun's body blurs in a gust of wind, moving through the air at 250 mph, though not directly affecting how fast the wind blows. This effect must be invoked outdoors; though he can avoid all obstacles outside, the koldun lacks the control to maneuver through a building of any kind and risks slamming into walls, doors and people at this high speed. This power lasts for one scene, after which the koldun re-materializes at his destination from his blurry shape back to his normal physical self.
Lvl 5 Body of Zephyr
A koldun dissolving into Body of Zephyr blends into the air, maneuvering through the smallest of cracks. The koldun's body retains its basic shape, though it is too ephemeral and transparent for onlookers to make out any physical shape.
System : It takes a full turn for a koldun to invoke this transofmration, after a successful Perception + Koldunism roll (difficulty 9) and the expenditure of a point of Willpower. In Body of Zephyr, a koldun moves at double his movement, though he cannot take any physical actions. Other powers of the Way of Wind may be used in conjunction with Body of Zephyr by spending an additional Willpower point at their activation; no other Discipline powers may be manipulated while in this form. A koldun may remain in this transofrmed state indefinitely, though he can return to his original form after one full turn of concentration.
The Way of Water
This Way was practiced primarily among koldun with havens near some sort of water source, from the Plain Lakes to the Black Sea. With their powers, these koldun confounded many Turkish invasion attempts along the Danube River, sinking their ships and drowning them under mystical riptides. When employing the powers of this Way, a koldun's eyes change color to vivid, almost glowing aquamarine.
Lvl 1 Pools of Illusion
Travelers have told tales of receiving warnings of future events, cries for help and even divine intervention from spirits that manifested themselves from a water source. Water spirits have been recounted the world over, from river cannibals to the lovely mermaids and lorelei that beckoned men to watery deaths. Even King Arthur received his prized sword Excalibur from such a spirit of water, known as the Lady of the Lake.
At this beginning level of the Way of Water, a koldun has the ability to create a three-dimensional illusion along the surface of a water source. Koldun during the modern nights sometimes invoke this power of illusion to prey on the superstitions of the mortal world.
System : The player makes a Wits + Koldunism roll (difficulty 5) in order to create an illusion of her choosing. The i llusion can speak and walk, but it is intangible and cannot leave the boundaries of water. This phantom image lasts for several seconds, after which it will slowly dissipate.
Lvl 2 Watery Solace
Should a koldun desperately need shleter, from enemies or the rising sun, she may opt to sink below the cool, dark, protective waters. As the vampire walks into a source of water, she sinks below its surface, protected by the magic of the liquid. Though a koldun can immerse herself into nearly all water sources, she cannot move around within it; water currents mystically avoid the koldun's dead body at her original interring point.
System : Unlike most powers of Koldunic Sorcery, this power does not require the expenditure of a Willpowe rpointl the player must accumulate two successes on her Wits + Koldunism roll (difficulty 6) to successfully submerge the character in the water. The amount of water must be at least a foot in depth and as large as her body for a koldun to rest here. This power acts like the Protean Discipline power of Earth Meld; after invoking the Watery Solace, a vampire is completely concealed from the rays of the sun. Those looking straight down into the water where a koldun melds may make a Perception + Alertness roll (difficulty 8). On a successful roll, they catch a glimpse of the slumbering koldun and can attempt to attack or rouse her.
Lvl 3 Water Walk
No longer bound by the laws of physics, a koldun has the ability to walk along the fluid surface of water. So long as she invokes this power, the vampire may walk the water's surface as if it is as solid as earth.
System : The koldun may walk across the surface of water for a number of scenes equal to the number of successes the player scores on a Wits + Koldunism roll (difficulty 7). This does not prevent the creatures of the seas or lakes (or any body of water the koldun traverses) from interacting with her. The Storyteller may find it appropriate to have dolphins torment her, or a hungry shark could surprise the vampire and take a bite at her from beneath. It is also possible that the koldun will be spotted by individuals in boats, fishermen or even people swimming in her general vicinity.
Lvl 4 Watery Minions
The koldun of the Middle Ages often invoked these minions from the moats surrounding their castles to deter the marauding Turks. These servants are comprised completely of water, ascending from a watery source. Once primed by this power, the minions follow only very simple instructions from the koldun, though they do so without hesitation. Some of the Turks surviving the raids on a koldun's keep told stories of weirds, dragons and dire wolves roaming around the armalisti castles.
Sytem : The player spends a point of Willpower. For every success he scores on a Wits + Koldunism roll (difficulty 8), one Watery Minion rises from its source and forms into any shape the koldun desires. The Storyteller determines the appropriate levels for these minions if they have the ability to attack and defend. As they are composed of water, bashing damage does not slow the minions, though fire-related attacks gain an extra two dice to damage. All of these Watery Minions last for one night.
Lvl 5 Doom Tides
Many Turkish ships lie below the Black Sea, destroyed by mighty whirlpools invoked by koldun. Victims fight to keep themselves afloat or else findelves sucked into whirling tides, suffocating until they can swim free from this vortex. Some of tonight's koldun entertain themselves by creating swirling riptides in pools to surprise late-night swimmers.
System : The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Wits + Koldunism (difficulty () to create a whirlpool. For every success she scores, the width of this maelstrom encreases by 10 feet. Doom Tides have a base Strength 15l this Strength increases by increments of five for each success the koldun scores beyond the activation roll. Victims must make a Strength + Survival roll (difficulty 8; Potence adds successes) in order to pull free from the riptide. This effect remains for one scene.
The Way of Fire
Ancient koldun created the Way of Fire by first manipulating the molten magam that exploded from volcanoes found throughout Eastern Europe. Then they evolved their control over the fiery liquid earth the point of invoking their own unique effects that would not necessarily occur during volcanic activity. Koldun who possess the powers of the Way of Fire in the modern nights are feared simply for their capacity to destroy so much in a short amount of time, just as a volcano can eliminate life on entire islands within a day. When invoking any of the powers of this Way, a koldun's eyes glow a feverish orange.
Note : At the Storyteller's discretion, Kindred observing these powers in use may be overtaken by Rötschreck (with the exception of the koldun, of course).
Lvl 1 Shatter
In a small demonstration of power that is inherent of the Way, a koldun invokes the air about an object to increase in temperature until the object combusts.
System : The player makes a Manipulation + Koldunism roll (difficulty 5) and spends a Willpower point. The koldun must have a target object in his line of sight before he can cause it to Shatter. Once this power is invoked, the heat around the target object intensifies until the object spontaneously combusts. The Storyteller may make a soak roll for the object to see if it does in fact Shatter (determined by the size or quality of an object: three dice for a small or shoddy object, five for an average-sized object and seven dice for a large or well-crafted object. Anything the size of a car cannot Shatter, as it is much too large). The object must accumulate five successes over three soak rolls (difficulty 5), or it will shatter. This power cannot be used on living beings or Kindred.
Lvl 2 Rouse the Molten Rock
The koldun can now cause magma to bubble up from the earth's core and slowly ooze its way along the ground. Although there is not a substantial amount of lava present, the magma burns through nearly everything it comes in contact with. The molten fires slowly work their way along tree trunks, spread from bottom to top floor of a house and may even eat through a metal door.
System : Only enough magma to fill a bathtub boils up through the ground, though it causes a victim to suffer three health levels of aggravated damage. Each success the player scores on the Manipulation + Koldunism roll (difficulty 6) keeps the lava superheated for one turn. It oozes along the ground in any direction the koldun desires, but at a slow-as-molasses rate. When the duration of this power expires, the magma instantly cools, creating a small slab of solid rock.
Lvl 3 Gates of Magma
The koldun invokes molten rock to bubble up from the ground in a circular ring, 10 feet high. The flow of lava is constant, creating a makeshift wall of superheated rock around the koldun. So long as this power remains in effect, it is nearly impossible for individuals to traverse the Gates of Magma without causing themselves severe bodily harm. It takes mighty resolve for a person to even approach the wall, as it gives off heat that causes grievous burns.
System : For every success the player scores on the Manipulation + Koldunism roll (difficulty 7), the seething hot lava will continue to surround his person for two turns. Individuals who atempt to penetrate the Gates of Magma must first make a Courage roll (difficulty 8). If successful, they can continue to approach the heated barrier but suffer one health level of lethal damage – or aggravated damage if they are Kindred. Failure to succeed on this Courage roll translates into the mind succumbing to its instinctual defense of
self-preservation; a second attempt to penetrate through the barrier requires the additional expenditure of a Willpower point. Anyone physically touching the Gates of Magma suffers three health level (not dice) of aggravated damage.
Lvl 4 Heat Wave
The koldun acts as a conduit for steam geysers and evokes a blast of dehydrating air, withering and desiccating an opponent.
System : The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Manipulation + Koldunism (difficulty 8). The vampire calls up hydrogen sulfide from the Earth's mantle and blasts the target. Mortal victims suffer five health levels of lethal damage as their bodies dehydrate. Vampires react similarly and also suffer five health levels of lethal damage, which they may soak. Kindred also lose five blood points that evaporate from the body (regardless of their soak roll), rsulting from the extreme heat of this gas. Note that this may send some Kindred into frenzy or torpor.
Lvl 5 Volcanic Blast
At this mastery level of the Way of Fire, a koldun commands lava to explode from the ground in a huge stream. The molten rock sprays in a large arc, then moves in small rivers in every direction, burning, melting and destroying almost everything in its path. Cars melt in these rivers, trees catch fire and burn to the ground, and houses erupt into flaming infernos in the wake of devastation
System : This power is not subtle. Lava erupts 10 feet into the air from underground with the expenditure of a Willpower point and a successful Manipulation + Koldunism roll (difficulty 9). For every success the player scores, the lava continues to explode from underground and move in rivers in all directions for one turn. Anything coming in contact with this molten rock suffers three levels of aggravated damage per turn (soakable only with Fortitude). Storytellers must decide how long objects remain intact after coming in contact with the lava before they ignite or dissolve. Once this power expires, the lava will cease its eruption and all of the magma will quickly cool trapping objects remaining within the river stream in a thin sheet of rock.
The Way of the Spirit
There resides a single force, an essence, that encompasses all things in nature. The ancient koldun manipulating this Way mystically tapped into the essence and, as a result, they gained insight and minor control over their surroundings. Oftentimes, the koldun wielded this Way in conjunction with other powers of Koldunic Sorcery. Many also protected themselves by invoking this Way before entering their havens, to pre-empt attempts on their unlives. Tonight's koldun invoking the Way of the Spirit procures a similar outcome as their ancient predecessors, creating a bond between themselves and the spirit of the land.
System : The player spends one Willpower point and rolls her Charisma + Koldunism (difficulty 4 + the level of the desired effect; see below) to activate the powers of this Way. These powers last for one scene per success the player scores. The chart below describes how far away from her person a koldun can “feel” out intruders or hostile spirits according to her power level.
A koldun can invoke other powers of Koldunic Sorcery that she knows in conjunction with the Way of the Spirit, though only at a lesser or equal power level at which she knows the Way of the Spirit. For example, a koldun may invoke Level One through Three powers of Way of Water in conjunction with the powers of Way of the Spirit if she knows the Way of the Spirit at Level Three.
This power also confounds use of the Discipline of Obfuscate.
Lvl 1 “See” everything within a 50-foot radius
Lvl 2 “See” everything within 100 yards
Lvl 3 “See” everything within a quarter-mile
Lvl 4 “See” everything within a mile
Lvl 5 “See” everything within five miles
The Way of Sorrow
From Kruchina, a goddess of mourning depicted as a perpetually weeping woman, to Likho Odnoglazoye, the emaciated one-eyed hag who represented privation and siffering, the pantheons of Eastern Europe brim with deities overseeing starvation, misery, misfortune, bitterness and death. Whether the gods hear their names or the spirits merely attend their mention, a koldun who understands the obscure Way of Sorrow can invoke the most dismal powers of the divine. This Way pays no heed to gods of revelry or plenty, only those whose attentions promise tragedy.
Like the Way of Fire, the Way of Sorrow is governed by the koldun's Manipulation, but the difficulty for each of the powers is the victim's permanent Willpower rather than the usual 4 + level of the power. In addition, a victim may spend a point of Willpower to overcome a particular effect of this Way but is still vulnerable to subsequent uses of the Discipline.
A final note: dealing with forgotten gods requires propriety, especially those who govern such bleak concerns. If invoked incorrectly, the Way of Sorrow turns on the koldun. On a botch, the Fiend suffers the effects of his own power as if she had scored five successes.
Lvl 1 The Frustrations of Nestrecha
Named for the goddess of grief and failure, this power allows the koldun to rob an opponent of his resolve. Although the victim is overcome with a resigned pessimism or feelings of defeat, he can still take action to resist the koldun, including combat, but only in a half-hearted or fearful way. He musters none of his usual passion or determination.
System : The koldun's player spends a Willpower point. Roll the koldun's Manipulation + Koldunism (difficulty equal to the victim's Willpower). For one turn per success, her target's player can't spend Willpower points to activate Disciplines or gain automatic successes. In storytelling terms, the victim might also lack strong motivations or convictions for the power's duration (“What difference does it make?” or “I just don't care anymore”). For this power to be effective, the koldun must make eye contact with her victim.
Lvl 2 The Insults of Krivda
Any Fiend worthy of the name can spit out a telling insult. But with this power, Krivda – a goddess of hatred and bitterness – ensures that the remarks offends, enraging the recipient. In the Tzimisce-Tremere conflicts of nights long past, koldun carried Krivda ir tongues, inciting their Usurper opponents to frenzy. They preferred to deal with angry fangs instead of calculated Thaumaturgy. This is a dangerous power to use, but it can unbalance a physically weak opponent who has access to powerful Disciplines or could be used to embarrass a Cainite by causing him to frenzy in public.
System : After het player spends a Willpower point, the koldun insults the target in the most offensive and humiliating way she can conceive. The koldun's player rolls Manipulation + Koldunism (difficulty equal to the victim's Willpower). If the roll is successful, the target flies into an uncontrollable rage and assaults the koldun. If the target is a vampire, he must immediately roll to resist frenzy (difficulty 5 + the number of successes on the activation roll).
Lvl 3 The Weeping of Kruchina
The glare of a koldun can make someone so miserable that they do nothing but cry. This power does more than spill a few tears – it causes hysterical bawling, wailing and gnashing of teeth. Some depressing notion overcomes the victim. Vampires might mourn their lost humanitas or the passing of lovers who died long ago. Sometimes the source is more nebulous – koldun believe that it imparts the collected sorrow of their demesnes' sickened soil.
System : The koldun's player spends a Willpower point and rolls the koldun's Manipulation + Koldunism (difficulty equal to the victim's Willpower). For one turn persuccess, the target is overwhelmed by intense misery and cries uncontrollably. Actions that require concentration are impossible for the power's duration. Cainites lose a blood point each turn as copious amounts of vitae stream from their eyes.
Lvl 4 The Misfortune of Chernogolov
With a declaration that a person is doomed or destined to fail, the koldun summons the attention of Chernogolov – the
silver-mustached god of misfortune – to her victim. Under Chernogolov's unlucky gaze, he ishindered in everything he does. If he fails, he does so spectacularly.
System : The koldun's player spends a Willpower point and rolls the koldun's Manipulation + Koldunism (difficulty equal to the victim's Willpower). For one turn per success, the target automatically loses two successes on every roll he attempts. Botches experienced under the effects of the Misfortune of Chernogolov should be especially disastrous.
Lvl 5 The Starvation of Marena
By invoking the wife of Kupala, the koldun summons the cold and starvation that is the domain of Marena. A frosty gale blasts the victim and leaves him emaciated as if he had just survived the coldest of winters. The frostbitten and starving victim clings to (un)life, usually in no condition to contradict the koldun. The cold symbolizes the passage of time in harsh conditions.
System : The koldun's player spends a Willpower point and rolls her Manipulation + Koldunism (difficulty equal to the victim's Willpower). For each success, the victim takes two levels of bashing damage that can be soaked normally. In addition to this damage, vampires lose one blood point for each of the koldun's successes – healthy prey was scarce in the Eastern European winter.
Melpominee
Named for Melpomene, the Greek Muse of tragedy, the unique Discipline of the Daughters of Cacophony is one of speech and song. The powers of this Discipline explore the various uses of the voice for both benefit and harm. As is the case with mortal art, it is not always clear which of those directions these powers take. No character may have a rating in Melpominee higher than her Performance rating. Melpominee affects the subject's soul as well as the ears; thus, it works perfectly well on deaf subjects, and has caused at least one known breach of the Masquerade due to this effect. Additionally, the powers of Melpominee work only on those who are present when it is used – Daughters of Cacophony cannot “encode” Melpominee effects onto compact discs or send them across radio signals.
Lvl 1 The Missing Voice
A vampire with this power may “throw” her voice anywhere within her line of sight, even carrying in two conversations simultaneously (one with her Missing Voice and one with her actual, physical one). Treacherous Daughters of Cacophony impersonate other individual's voices in order to mislead listerners, and less devious members of the bloodline can use their two voices simultaneously to perform hauntingly beautiful “duets” or eerie one-actress plays.
System : This power functions automatically as long as the character wills it. However, using the Missing Voice while performing any action other than speech or singing incurs a penalty of two dice on that action due to the disruption of the character's concentration.
Lvl 2 Phantom Speaker
With this power, the vampire may project her voice to any one individual with whom she has more than passing familiarity. The only distance limitation is that is must be night wherever the intended listener is. The vampire can talk, sing or make whatever other noises she wants. The sounds are inaudible to anyone but the intended subject, unless an eavesdropper has Auspex 3 or higher (and has reason to be listening for such). The Kindred cannot hear the sounds – or the subject's responses – unless she is within earshot. The use of Phantom Speaker has been responsible for several cases of “paranoid schizophrenia”.
System : The player rolls Wits + Performance (difficulty 7) and spends a blood point. Each success allows one turn of speech; three or more successes allow speech for an entire scene.
Lvl 3 Madrigal
The Kindred may imbue her audience with the emotions expressed in her song, rousing them to passion or deluging them with seemingly bottomless despair. Princes on good terms with Daughters of Cacophony sometimes have the songstress croon before they make an appearance, bolstering their fellow Kindred with a sense of loyalty.
System : The player rolls Charisma + Performance (difficulty 7). Each success instills the chosen emotion in a fifth of the Kindred's audience (more than five successes have no additional effect). The Storyteller decides precisely which members of the audience are affected. Characters may resist this power for the duration of the scene with the expenditure of a Willpower point, but only if they have reason to believe that they are being controlled by outside individuals. The song the vampire sings must also reflect the emotion she wishes to engender – no one's going to mob the concert security no matter how wel she sings “High hopes”, but they might if she wails
“Cop-killer”.
Affected individuals should act in accordance with their Natures – enraged Conformists would join a riot but not start one, aroused Bravos may force their attentions on the object of their desire, and jealous Directors may send cronies after their rivals.
Lvl 4 Siren's Beckoning
This power reaches deep into its victims' souls to twist their psyches. Siren's Beckoning causes temporary insanity in its victims. Malkavians and vampires in Golconda are immune to Siren's Beckoning; the former are too warped to be further affected, and the latter are too centered. Siren's Beckoning can affect only one victim at a time.
System : Siren's Beckoning requires an extended, resisted roll. The player rolls Manipulation + Performance (difficulty of the target's Willpower); the victim resists by rolling Willpower (difficulty of the singer's Appearance + Performance). If the singer accumulates five more successes than the victim at any point, the hapless soul acquires a new derangement (or Psychological Flaw) of the Storyteller's choice. This derangement normally lasts for one night per success over five. With a total of 20 net successes, the Daughter can make it permanent.
Lvl 5 Virtuosa
Although many low-level Melpominee powers allow a vampire to affect only one target at a time, those who have mastered the Discipline may entertain a wider audience, as it were.
System : The Daughter may use Phantom Speaker or Siren's Beckoning on a number of targets equal to her Stamina + Performance. The player must spend one blood point for every five targets beyond the first to be affected in such a manner.
Lvl 6 Shattering Crescendo
Mortal singer can shatter wineglasses with their voices by finding the precise pitch at which the glass resonates. A talented Daugher of Cacophony can go beyond the destruction of relatively fragile objects, pitching her voice to find the resonant frequency of virtually any object, including a human or Kindred body. Only one victim at a time can be affected by Shattering Crescendo; anyone else within earshot will hear a piercing, though not harmful, shriek.
System : Use of this power requirs that the victim be within hearing range (characters with hearing difficulties – or Heightened Senses – are affected at the same range as other victims). The player spends one blood point and rolls Manipulation + Performance (difficulty of the target's Stamina + Fortitude). Each success inflicts one health level of aggravated damage. If using this power on an inanimate object, the Storyteller determines how many dice (if any) with which the object may “soak” and how many successes are needed to completely shatter it.
Lvl 7 Persistent Echo
With this power, the Daughter can speak or sing to the air and leave her words for a later listener. This an be either the next being to stand where the character is when she uses this power or a specific individual that she is already acquainted with. Persistent Echo can also be used to “suspend” other Melpominee powers for a future listener or victim.
System : The player rolls Stamina + Performance (difficulty 8) and spends a blood point. Each success yields one turn of speech that may be left to be heard later. If the player wishes to time-delay another Melpominee power, the roll for that power must be made at +1 difficulty. The echo stays suspended for a maximum number of nights equal to twice the vampire's Stamina + Performance before fading.
The Kindred may choose to make the echo audible to anyone who stands in her position for the duration of the power – in effect, an endlesly looped mystic recording. Conversely, she may choose for it to fade away once it is heard for the first time. She may also choose to leave it dormant until activated by the presence of a specific individual with whom she is familiar. If the echo is made a one-time-only effect, all traces of the power disappear once the vampire's words echo to the intended recipient.
If a character uses Heightened Senses in an area where an “unactivated” echo exists, he will hear a faint murmur. Three successes on a Perception + Occult roll (difficulty 8) are necessary to hear the message, and a botch on this roll will deafen the listener for the rest of the night.
Mytherceria
The curious blood coursing through the undead veins of the Kiasyd has done some remarkable things, not the least of which has been the creation of the odd Discipline known as Mytherceria. A collection of powers attributed to the faeries and inclined toward the exposure of new knowledge, Mytherceria has driven many of its victims to babbling madness, or at least frustration. The Kiasyd are loath to teach its ways to others outside their bloodline – they know that were it turned against them, they may be forced to reveal secrets the world is better off not knowing.
Lvl 1 Folderol
It becomes increasingly difficult to deceive the Kiasyd as they absorb more and more knowledge. This power reveals lies told to the Kiasyd in several different ways, which varies from vampire to vampire. Some Kiasyd perceive lies via their teller's tongue glowing in an unnatural color, while others' eyes swell up with blood tears when lied to. The manner varies form Kiasyd to Kiasyd, but the effect is always the same – he knows you have lied to him.
System : The player rolls Perception + Expression (difficulty equal to the suspected liar's Manipulation + Subterfuge). If the roll succeeds, the Kiasyd gets an inkling as to whether or not the subject is lying. One roll must be made for each statement, should the Kiasyd be so suspicious as to check out everything the speaker says.
Lvl 2 Fae Sight
Attuned to the blood of the Wild Ones, Kiasyd have some propensity for seeing the true nature of the changelings. Kiasyd can identify changelings on sight, and they can even see through to the Wild Blood underneath. Additionally, they are able to recognize areas of faerie influence.
System : Kiasyd see changelings for what they truly are. Also, in any area of recent magical faery activity (caantrips, summoned chimera, etc.), the Kiasyd knows that the fae have been present on a Perception + Occult roll (difficulty 6).
Lvl 3 Aura Absorption
This power works much like the Auspex power of The Spirit's Touch. The Kiasyd must touch or pick up the object being read. Instead of just receiving and interpreting the psychic impressions left on the object by the last person who came in contact with it, the Kiasyd absorbs the impressions into her mind. This leaves her with a very clear interpretation of the aura, and wipes the object “psychically clean” so no one coming afterwards can get an impression from the item by using this ability or Auspex. Kiasyd also use this power to mask theirown possession of an object.
System : The player must make a Perception + Empathy roll, for which the difficulty is determined by the Storyteller's assessment of the age of the impressions and the mental and spiritual strength of the person who left them.
The number of successes determines the amount of information gained, both in terms of images of the scene when the object was being held or touched, and the nature of the person who was holding the object. Once scene-type image and one aspect of the person's identity (Nature, Demeanor, aura, name, sex or age) becomes clear for each success the player garners on the roll.
Anyone attempting to use this power or The Spirit's Touch on the same object subsequently must accumulate more successes than the Kiasyd did to get any impressions at all. The first Kiasyd's successes subtract from the number of successes scored by anyone subsequently trying to read the object thereafter.
Lvl 4 Chanjelin Ward
The vampire can create mystical wards, symbols of occult power that disorient onlookers. Many Kiasyd use these glyphs to protect their libraries, though some spiteful vampires use them as curses by placing them on individuals who have earned their disfavor.
System : The vampire creating the ward inscribes the symbol in a visible location – on a library door, bookshelf or an individual's clothing – and the player rolls Intelligence + Security (difficulty 7 for inanimate objects or the subject's Willpower +2). Anyone entering the warded area or touching the warded object loses two dice from her Intelligence doce pools as long as she maintains contact or proximity to the ward. Additionally, anyone seeing the ward becomes addled and lost unless she makes a Wits + Investigation roll (difficulty 8). The glyphs last for a duration indicated by the number of successes on the Intelligence + Security roll, and the Kiasyd is immune to his own wards.
1 success One hour
2 successes One night
3 successes One week
4 successes One month
5 successes One year
Lvl 5 Riddle Phantastique
The Kiasyd has knowledge of many hidden and intriguing truths. He can phrase these enigmas as a vexing riddle, causing whoever hears the Riddle Phantastique to do nothing but try and solve it. The Riddle is so impenetrable that it can actually damage the fragile brains of those who think about it. Malkavians and other deranged individuals sometimes have easier times solving the Riddle, but at other times it plagues them by driving them even more insane.
System : The player rolls Manipulation + Occult (difficulty of the victim's Willpower). After a successful roll, the victim can do nothing but sit and ponder the Riddle until she accumulates three times the riddler's successes. The subject rolls Wits + Occult (difficulty 8, plus or minus the number of derangements the victim has, at the Storyteller's discretion). She makes this roll as soon as she is told the Riddle, and then once per hour until she has gathered enough successes. Should the victim botch on a roll to solve the Riddle, she takes one level of lethal damage as the mystical enigma racks her body, and she loses one success from the accumulated total. This damage cannot be healed until the Riddle has been solved. The riddler can end this trance by just telling the victim the answer, but no one else can do so.
Lvl 6 Steal the Mind
This power is a further extension of the Kiasyd's mystical lore-gathering abilities. In their ever-increasing quest for knowledge, the Kiasyd have found a way to rip memories and knowledge from sentient beings. The Kiasyd's victim becomes a mindless fool for the duration of this power's effect, able to function only on a basic autonomic level (mortals continue to breath, while vampires imply stand in stupor). Normally in this state, the victim is so confused that she wanders aimlessly, or sits and does nothing. As soon as the Kiasyd purloins the memories, she often records them in a more permanent form such as a scroll or book, before they escape her own memory. This power accounts for some reports of individuals being left, foolish and duped, by the “Good Folk”.
System : The player rolls Perception + Subterfuge (difficulty equal to the target's Willpower). While the K iasyd has “stolen” her subject's mind, she retains her own consciousness, but has complete access to all of the subject's thoughts and memories. Subjects have no knowledge that they have been affected in this manner, though any attempts to harm them – by the Kiasyd or anyone else – return their wits to them immediately. Those who are victims of this power for long periods of time may starve, but they will eat food presented before them. The number of successes determines the duration of the effect, thgouh the Cainite may return the sibject's mind at any time before this period ends.
1 success 10 minutes
2 successes One hour
3 successes One night
4 successes One week
5 successes One month
Lvl 7 Absorb the Mind
the Kiasyd absorbs the Abilities from her victim's mind, and she is able to call on them immediately, even though she might have never had knowledge of them before. This power is invasive, actually stealing the Abilities permanently, leaving their original owners ignorant and inept.
System : The player rolls Perception + Empathy (difficulty of the target's Willpower). The target may resist with a Willpower roll (difficulty of the Kiasyd's Willpower). The difference between the two determines the effect. If the target gets more successes, he resists completely. The Kiasyd, if successful, may select a combination of Abilities to her satisfaction. Taking some of a victim's Ability dots may leave a remaining bit – the Kiasyd need not take all of a subject's dots in a given Ability. For example, a character with three dots in Occult, from whom a Kiasyd steals one, retains an Occult of 2. Also, if a Kiasyd takes less dots than she already has in a given Ability, these point do not serve to raise her own score. In the previous example, the Kiasyd would not increase his Occult score if he already had a scsore of one or more, as he took only one dot. No subsequent attempt can be made by the Kiasyd on a target against whom he fails the Perception + Empathy roll for at least a year. In all cases, the maximum to which the Kiasyd can raise an Ability is the level the target has in that Ability. Again by example, if a victim has a dot in Law and the Kiasyd gets 2 successes, she can't gain 2 dots in Law. Also, generation restrictions apply; a sicth GenerationKiasyd can have a maximum of seven dots in an Ability. All losses of Abilities on the part of the victim are permanent, though they may be returned to their original levels via experience-point expenditure.
1 success Steal 1 dot
2 successes Steal 2 dots in one Ability
3 successes Steal 3 dots in up to two Abilities
4 successes Steal 4 dots in up to three Abilities
5 successes Steal 5 dots in up to four Abilities
Lvl 8 The Grandest Trick
For an exceedingly brief time, the Kiasyd may call his fae blood to prominence to subdue the Curse of Caine. The Kiasyd may become mortal again, discarding all of the benefits and drawbacks of being a vampire. While (temporarily) mortal, the Kiasyd has no knowledge or memory of being a vampire, though he retains all other knowledge or memories. Kiasyd sometimes use this power to pursue lore accessible only by day (for whatever reason), though they sometimes use it to throw witch-hunters off their trail or simply for the bittersweet pleasure of seeing sunrise without fear.
System : The player spends eight blood points and makes a Willpower roll (difficulty 9). If this roll is successful, the character becomes mortal at the next sunrise for a duration determined by the number of successes on the roll. The Kiasyd knows, however subliminally, the duration of the power, and he automatically seeks to return to safety, should daylight be a problem at the duration's end (though “safety” is impossible to reach in some situations). After this power ens, the Kiasyd retains all memories of his brief return to the world of mortals. During his time as a mortal, the character's Traits are limited to scores of 5 (which return to their original levels when the character becomes a vampire again), and the character has no access to her Disciplines,. Likewise, the character may not use blood points for any vampiric benefits while mortal.
1 success 10 minutes
2 successes One hour
3 successes Four hours
4 successes 12 hours
5 successes 24 hours
Nahuallotl
Like Wanga, Nahuallotl is as much a religious system as a form of magic. The Tlacique believe that their magic comes from Tezcatlipoca and other ancient gods of Central and South America, gods upon whom the Tlacique still call. They believe these gods demand sacrifices, that the sun requires blood and hearts to keep it alive from day to day. Aztec faith maintained that the Earth has already died four times and that the of this, the fifth age, will be the end of all that is. The Tlacique believe this still, and their religious rites – and their magic – reflect the need to offer constant sacrifice to the powers that be.
No recorded occurrence of a Tlacique willingly teaching Nahuallotl to an outsider exists, but even if one did, a “heathen” nahualli suffers the same penalties to her rolls as do faithless wangateurs.
The skillful practice of Nahuallotl gerners substantial respect within the bloodline. A Tlaxique can never have more than one dot of bloodline Status unless she possesses some knowledge of the blood magic. Although Nahuallotl is not a clan Discipline, the practice is widespread, and any Tlacique character who wishes to purchase Nahuallotl with freebie points may do so (unless it violates the specific character concept, of course, or the Storyteller otherwise wishes to restrict it).
Although the practice is growing – as much as it can within so small a bloodline – the elders of the Tlacique weep bloody tears for their lost grandeur. The Sabbat purge destroyed a huge amount of the knowledge and practice of Nahuallotl. While many neonates receive basic instruction, fewer than a dozen nahualli of any real p ower have survived to the modern nights, and only a handful or rituals remain.
Nahuallotl employs the same mechanics as Thaumaturgy, but it remains a distinct and incompatible Discipline due to its forms and procedures. Activation of Paths still requires a Willpower roll, and rituals still require Intelligence + Occult, with the difficutly based upon the level of the power.
Lash of Xipe Totec
Xipe Totec, “Our Lord of the Flayed One”, is the god of suffering, and many of his rites involve the flaying of the skin from the victim with an obsidian blade. This Path allows the nahualli to control pain itself.
Lvl 1 Another's Burden
The nahualli can lessen the pain of another by taking some or all of his suffering onto herself.
System : The caster touches the subject after shedding a blood point and praying to Xipe Totec. Her successes on her Willpower roll indicate how many dice-pool penalties she can transfer (though she need not absorb the full amount). Thus, if a companion is at the Wounded health level (-2 penalty) and the caster achieves two or more successes, she may take a penalty of 1 die (leaving her companion with ony a 1 die penalty) or 2 dice (leaving her companion unhindered). This does not transfer actual damage or health levels, merely related penalties. The power lasts for the scene, or until the nahualli chooses to deactivate it. If the subject wishes to resist this power for whatever reason, he may do so with a Willpower roll, dificulty 5; his successes subtract from the caster's own.
Lvl 2 Obsidian Shattered
The nahualli may temporarily ignore wound penalties. This does not actually heal any damage; it simply dulls pain. This power may be used on the caster only.
System : The nahualli sheds a blood point and prays to Xipe Totec. The caster may ignore a number of dice penalties equal to his successes. The power lasts for a scene.
Lvl 3 Burden Another
The caster may reduce his own pain by inflicting it upon another.
System : The caster must touch the subject while shedding a blood point and praying to Xipe Totec. The power may be resisted with a Willpower roll, difficulty 8; successes on this roll indicate the caster's success. Her net successes on her casting roll indicate how many dice-pool penalties she can inflict (though she need not inflict the full amount). Thus, if the cater is at the Wounded health level (-2 penalty) and achieves two or more successes, she may inflict a penalty of 1 die on her subject (leaving her with only 1 die penalty) or 2 dice (leaving her completely unhindered). A nahualli may not transfer more pain – or penalties – than she currently suffers. This does not transfer actual damage or health levels; merely penalties and pain. The power lasts for the scene, unless the nahualli chooses to end it early.
Lvl 4 Obsidian's Edge
The nahualli may now cause actual damage at a distance. Wounds appear on the target's skin as though an invisible blade is being applied.
System : Obsidian's Edge requires the standard prayers and shedding of blood. The victim may not resist with Willpower, but he may soak the lethal damage. The damage pool equals the caster's Intelligence + her successes on her Willpower roll. This power mayu target anyone within line of sight.
Lvl 5 Flay
A further enhancement to the power of Obsidian's Edge, Flay may be used to cause severe pain and injury to multiple foes at once.
System : Flay requires the caster to pray, shed blood, and make the standard casting roll. The power can target a number of targets in a single turn equal to the caster's Intelligence; it otherwise employs the same mechanics as Obsidian's Edge.
Flower of the Divine Liquor
Almost every Tremere studies the Path of Blood as her primary Path. It encompasses some of the most fundamental principles of Thaumaturgy, based as it is on the manipulation of Kindred vitae. If a player wishes to select another Path as her character's primary Path, she'd better have a good reason (though choosing a different Path is by no means unheard of).
Lvl 1 A Taste for Blood
This power was developed as a means of testing a foe's might – an extremely important ability in the tumultuous early nights of Clan Tremere. By merely tasting the blood of his subject, the thaumaturge may determine how much vitae remains in the subject and, if the subject is a vampire, how recently he has fed, his approximate generation and, with three or more successes, whether he has recently committed diablerie.
System : The number of successes achieved on the roll determines how much information the thaumaturge gleans and how accurate it is.
Lvl 2 Blood Rage
This power allows a vampire to force another Kindred to expend blood against his will. The thaumaturge must touch her subject for this power to work, though only the lightest contact is necessary. A vampire affected by this power might feel a physical rush as the thaumaturge heightens his Physical Attributes, or may even find himself on the brink of frenzy as his stores of vitae are mystically depleted.
System : Each success forces the subject to spend one blood point immediately in the way the thaumaturge desires. Note that blood points forcibly spent in this manner may exceed the normal “per turn” maximum indicated by the victim's generation. Each success gained also increases the subject's difficulty to resist frenzy by one.
Lvl 3 Blood of Potency
The thaumaturge gains such control over his own blood that he may effectively “concentrate” it, making it more powerful for a short time. In effect, he may temporarily lower his own generation with this power. This power may be used only once per night.
System : Successes earned on the Willpower roll must be spent both to decrease the vampire's generation and to maintain the change. One success allows the character to lower generation by one step for one hour. Each success grants the Kindred either one step down in generation or one hour of effect. If the vampire is diablerized while this power is in effect, it wears off immediately and the diablerist gains power appropriate to the thaumaturge's actual generation. Furthermore, any mortals Embraced by the thaumaturge are born to the generation appropriate to their sire's original generation (e.g., a 10th-generation Tremere who has reduced his effective generation to eight still produces 11th-generation childer).
Once the effect wears off, any blood over the character's blood pool maximum dilutes, leaving the character at his regular blood pool maximum. Thus, is a 12th-generation Tremere (maximum blood pool of 11) decreased his generation to ninth (maximum blood pool 14), ingested 14 blood points, and has this much vitae in his system when the power wore off, his blood pool would immediately drop to 11.
Lvl 4 Theft of Vitae
A thaumaturge using this power siphons vitae from her subject. She need never come in contact with the subject – blood literally streams out in a physical torrent from the subject to the Kindred (though it is often mystically absorbed and need not enter through the mouth).
System : The number of successes determines how many blood points the Tremere transfers from the subject. The subject must be visible to the thaumaturge and within 50 feet. Using this power is like drinking from the subject – used three times on the same Kindred, it creates a blood bond on the part of the thaumaturge! This power is obviously quite spectacular, and Camarilla princes justifiably consider its public use abreach of the Masquerade.
Lvl 5 Cauldron of Blood
A thaumaturge using this power boils her subject's blood in his veins like water on a stove. The Kindred must touch her subject, and it is this contact that simmers the subject's blood. This power is always fatal to mortals, and causes great damage to even the mightiest vampires.
System : The number of successes gained determines how many blood points are brought to boil. The subject suffers one health level of aggravated damage for each point boiled (individuals with Fortitude may soak this damage using only their Fortitude dice). A single success kills any mortal, though some ghouls are said to have survived.
Huehuelotl's Glory
This Path grants the thaumaturge the ability to conjure forth mystical flames – small fires at first, but skilled magicians may create great conflagrations. The Lure of Flames is greatly feared, as fire is one of the surest ways to bring Final Death upon a vampire.
Fire created by this Path is not “natural”. In fact, many vampires believe the flames to be conjured from Hell itself.
Fire conjured by the Lure of Flames must be released for it to hav eany effect. Thus, a “palm of flame” does not burn the vampire's hand and cause an aggravated wound – it merely produces light. Once the flame has been released, however, it burns normally and the character has no control over it.
System : The number of successes determines how accurately the thaumaturge places the flame in his desired location. One success is all that is necessary to conjure a flame in one's hand, while five successes place a flame anywhere in the Kindred's line of sight.
Individual descriptions are not provided for each level of this Path – fire is fire, after all. The chart below describes the Path level required to generate a specific amount of flame. To soak the damage at all, of course, a vampire must have the Fortitude Discipline.
Lvl 1 Candle (difficulty 3 to soak, one health level of aggravated damage/turn)
Lvl 2 Palm of flame (difficulty 4 to soak, one health level of aggravated damage/turn)
Lvl 3 Campfire (difficulty 5 to soak, two health levels of aggravated damage/turn)
Lvl 4 Bonfire (difficulty 7 to soak, two health levels of aggravated damage/turn)
Lvl 5 Inferno (difficulty 9 to soak, three health levels of aggravated damage/turn)
Secret Ways of Tezcatlipoca
The origins of this Path are hotly debated among those who are familiar with its intricacies. One theory holds that its secrets wwere taught to the Tremere by demons and that use of it brings the practitioner dangerously close to the infernal powers. A second opinion has been advanced that the Path of Corruption is a holdover from the days when Clan Tremere was still mortal. The third primary theory, and the most disturbing to the Tremere, is that the Path originated with the Followers of Set, and that knowledge of its workings was sold to the Tremere for an unspecified price. This last rumor is, of course, vehemently denied by the Tremere, which automatically makes it the favorite topic of discussion when the matter comes up.
The Path of Corruption is primarily a mentally and spiritually oriented Path centered on influencing the psyches of other individuals. It can be used neither to issue commands like Dominate nor to change emotions of the moment like Presence. Rather, it produces a gradual and subtle twisting of the subject's actions, morals and thought processes. This Path deals intimately with deception and dark desires, and those who work through it must understand the hidden places of the heart. Accordingly, no character may have a higher rating in the Path of Corruption than he has in Subterfuge.
Lvl 1 Contradict
The thaumaturge can interrupt a subject's thought processes, forcing the victim to reverse his current course of action. An archon may be caused to execute a prisoner she was about to exonerate and release; a mortal lover might switch from gentle and caring to sadistic and demanding in the middle of an encounter. The results of Contradict are never precisely known to the thaumaturge in advnace, but they always take the form of a more negative action than the subject had originally intended to perform.
System : This power may be used on any subject within the character's line of sight. The player rolls as normal. The target rolls Perception + Subterfuge (difficulty of the number of successes scores by the thaumaturge +2). Two successes allow the subejct to realize that she is being influenced by some outside source. Three successes let her pinpoint the source of the effect. Four successes give her a moment of hesitation, neither performing her original action not its inverse, while five allow her to carry through with the original action.
The Storyteller dictates what the subject's precise reaction to this power is. Contradict cannot be used in combat or to affect other actions (Storyteller's discretion) that are mainly physical and reflexive.
Lvl 2 Subvert
This power follows the same principle as does Contradict, the release of a subject's dark, self-destructive side. However, Subvert's effects are longer-lasting than the momentary flare of Contradict. Under the influence of this power, victims act on their own surpressed temptations, pursuing agendas that their morals or self-control would forbid them to follow under normal circumstances.
System : This power requires the character to make eye contact with the intended victim. The player rolls normally. The target resists with a roll of Perception + Subterfuge (difficulty of the target's Manipulation + Subterfuge). If the thaumaturge scores more successes, the victim becomes inclined to follow repressed, shameful desire for the length of time described below.
No. of successes Duration of effect
1 success Five minutes
2 successes One hour
3 successes One night
4 successes Three nights
5 successes One week
The Storyteller determines the precise desire or agenda that the victim foloows. It should be in keeping with the Psychological Flaws that she possesses or with the negative aspects of her Nature (for example, a Londer desiring isolation to such an extent that she becomes violent if forced to attend a social function). The subject should not become fixated on following this new agenda at all times, but should occasionally be forced to spend a Willpower point if the opportunity to succumb arises and she wishes to resist the impulse.
Lvl 3 Dissociate
“Divide and conquer” is a maxim that is well-understood by the Tremere, and Dissociate is a pwoerful tool with which to divide the clan's enemies. This power is used to break the social ties of interpersonal relationships. Even the most passionate affair or the oldest friendship can be cooled through use of Dissociate, and weaker personal ties can be destroyed althogether.
System : The character must touch the target. The player rolld normally. The target resists with a Willpower roll (difficulty of the thaumaturge's Manipulation + Empathy). The victim loses three dice from all Social rolls for a period of time determined by the number of successes gained by the thaumaturge.
No. of successes Duration of effect
1 success Five minutes
2 successes One hour
3 successes One night
4 successes Three nights
5 successes One week
This penalty applies to all rolls that rely on Social Attributes, even those required for the use of Disciplines. If this power is used on a character who has participated in the Sabbat Vaulderie or a similar ritual, that character's Vinculum ratings are reduced by three for the duration of Dissociate's effect.
Dissociate's primary effect falls under roleplaying rather than game mechanics. Victims of this power should be played as withdrawn, suspicious and emotionally distant. The Storyteller should fele free to require a Willpower point expenditure for a player who does not follow these guidelines.
Lvl 4 Addiction
This power is a much stronger and more potentially damaging form of Subvert. Addiction creates just that in the victim. By simply exposing the target to a particular sensation, substance or action, the thaumaturge creates a powerful psychological dependence. Many Tremere ensure that their victims become addicted to substances or thrills that only Warlocks can provide, this creating both a source of income and potential blackmail material.
System : The subject must encounter or be exposed to the sensation, substance or action to which the character wants to addict him. The thaumaturge then touches his target. The player rolls normally; the victim resists with a Self-Control roll (difficulty equal to the number of successes scored by the thaumaturge +3). Failure gives the subject an instant addiction to the object desired by the character.
An addicted character must get his fix at least once a night. Every night that he goes without satisfying his desire imposes a cumulative penalty of one die on all of his dice pools (reduced to a minimum of one die). The victim must roll Self-Control (difficulty 8) every time he is confronted with the object of his addiction and wishes to keep from indulging. Addiction lasts for a number of weeks equal to the thaumaturge's Manipulation score.
An individual may try to break the effect of Addiction. This requires an extended Self-Control roll (difficulty of the thaumaturge's Manipulation + Subterfuge), with one roll made per night. The addict must accumulate a number of successes equal to three times the number of successes scored by the thaumaturge. The victim may not indulge in his addiction over the time needed to accumulate these succcesses. If he does so, all accumulated successes are lost and he must begin anew on the next night. Note that the
Self-Control dice pool is reduced every night that the victim goes without feeding his addiction.
Lvl 5 Dependence
Many former pawns of Clan Tremere claim to have felt a strange sensation similar to depression when not in the presence of their masters. This isusually attributed to the blood bond, but is often the result of the thaumaturge's mastery of Dependence. The final power of the Path of Corruption enables the vampire to tie he victim's soul own, engendering feelings of lethargy and helplessness when the victim is not in her presence of acting to further her desires.
System : The character engages the target in conversation. The player rolls normally. The victim rolls Self-Control (difficulty of the number of successes scored by the thaumaturge +3). Failure means that the victim's psyche has been subtly bonded to that of the thaumaturge for one night per success rolled by the thaumaturge.
A bonded victim is no less likely to attack his controller, and he feels no particular positive emotions toward her. However, he is psychologically addicted to her presence, and suffers a one-die penalty to all rolls when he is not around her or performing tasks for her. Additionally, he is much less resistant to her commands, and his dice pools are halved when he attempts to resist her Dominate, Presence or Social rolls. Finally, he is unable to regain Willpower when he is not in the thaumaturge's presence.
Rites of Tezcatlipoca
Not to be confused with, or perhaps derived form the ancient Path of Spirit Thaumaturgy, Spirit Manipulation is a relatively recent innovation of the Tremere. Created to replace the rituals practiced by the clan in the days when it was a band of mortal wizards, Spirit Manipulation is the art of forcing spirits into actions and situations that would normally be anathema to them. Spirit Manipulation simulates many effects that can be created by Lupine and shamanic mages, but does so by forcing the spirits involved into a grotesque mockery of their normal behaviors. Any botch with Spirit Manipulation not only inflicts the normal loss of Willpower involved with thaumaturgical mishaps but also turns the full force of the spirit's wrath against the offending vampire.
Lvl 1 Hermetic Sight
The vampire can perceive the spirit world, either by gazing deeply into it or by seeing the presence of nearby spirits as a hazy overlay on the material world. This power does not allow the thaumaturge to see into the realms of the dead or into the realms of the fae.
System : One success on the roll is needed for the thaumaturge to perceive spirits, while two allow him to view the spirit realm. With less than four successes, the thaumaturge is at +2 difficulty to all actions performed while using this power due to the distraction of divided perceptions. Hermetic Sight lasts for the duration of the scene or until the thaumaturge deactivates it.
Lvl 2 Astral Cant
The languages of the spirit world are infinitely varied and mainly incomprehensible to mortal (or immortal) minds. Astral Cant does not teach the thaumaturge the tongues of the spirits, but it does allow him to understand them as they speak to him and to reply in their own languages – in effect, a universal translator for the spirit world. Imprecise use of this power can be disastrous, particularly when a thaumaturge is bargaining with a powerful spirit. The use of this power is not always necessary; many spirits speak human tongues but choose to feign ignorance when dealing with vampires.
System : The number of successes determines the accuracy of the translation.
No. of successes Effect
1 success Pidgin spirit language; very simple words and phrases can be comprehended
2 successes Simple sentences are possible; “trade language”
3 successes Fluent conversation; sufficient for most conversations
4 successes Complex issues such as metaphysics can be discussed
5 successes Even the most obscure idiomatic expressions and forms of humor come through
Lvl 3 Voice of Command
This is perhaps the most dangerous power in the Spirit Manipulation arsenal, for the consequences if a thaumaturge fails can be most unpleasant. Voice of Command allows a vampire to issue orders to a spirit, compelling it to heed her biding whether or not it desires to do so.
System : The player makes the normal Willpower roll; the target spirit resists with Willpower (difficulty of the thaumaturge's Manipulation + Occult or Manipulation + Lore: Spirits). The degree of success the thaumaturge attains determines the complexity and severity of the command that she can issue.
No. of successes Effect
Botch The spirit is immune to the character's commands for the rest of the night. It reacts however the Storyteller deems appropriate.
Failure The spirit is unaffected, and further attempts to command it are made at +1 difficulty (cumulative). It may ignore, taunt or even attack the character at the Storyteller's discretion.
1 success The spirit obeys a very simple command that is no great inconvenience to it.
2 successes The spirit heeds a relatively straight forward command that it is not innately opposed to performing.
3 successes The spirit agrees to perform a moderately complex task that does not violate its ethics.
4 successes The spirit consents to an extended or intricate task that does not place it in immediate danger.
5 successes The spirit accepts a lengthy or nigh-impossible task, or one that may mean its destruction.
Crafty Storytellers should note that spirits compelled by this power are fully aware that they are being forced into these actions, and may well seek revenge on their erstwhile masters at a later time.
Thaumaturges who issue commands above and beyond what their spirit servants are compelled to perform may find themselves ignored or mocked. Even worse, a spirit in such a situation may “agree” to follow orders without following through, leaving the thaumaturge in a situation of potentially fatal embarassment.
Lvl 4 Entrap Ephemera
This power allows a thaumaturge to bind a spirit into a physical object. This can be done to imprison the target, but is more often performed to create a fetish, an artifact that allows a user to channel a portion of the spirit's power through it to affect the physical world. Fetishes created by this power are often recalcitrant and fail at inappropriate moments, as the spirits within are most displeased with their situation and will take any opportunity to escape or thwart their captor.
System : The number of successes rolled determines the power level of the fetish to be created. A fetish is activated by rolling the user's Willpower (difficulty of the fetish's power level +3). A botch on this roll destroys the physical compoent of the fetish and frees the spirit that was trapped inside.
For more complete guidelines to fetish powers, refer to pages 273-275 of Werewolf : The Apocalypse. The Storyteller is always the final authority in determining the powers and mechanics of a fetish created through the use of this power.
Lvl 5 Duality
The thaumaturge can now fully interact with the spirit world. While using this power, he exists on both planes of existence at once. He is able to pick up objects in the physical world and place them in the spirit world and vice versa. Beings and landscapes features in both realms are solid to him, and he can engage in any manner of interaction. He can even unse Thaumaturgy and other Disciplines in either world. This is not without its dangers, however. One misstep and the vampire can find himself trapped in the spirit realm with no way to return home. Several incautious thaumaturges have starved into torpor while trapped on the other side of the barrier that spearates the physical and spirit realms.
System : The number of successes dictates how long the vampire can interact with the spirit world.
No. of successes Duration
1 success One turn
2 successes Three turns
3 successes 10 turns
4 successes 10 minutes
5 successes The remainder of the scene
Duality can only be used while the character is in the physical world. Note that while Duality is in effect the character is also susceptible to attacks from both realms. Additionally, the player must roll Perception + Occult (difficulty 8) when this power is actiated; a roll with less than three successes indicates that all rolls made while this power is active are at +2 difficulty due to the distraction of the character's dual perceptions. The character is still considered to be in the physical world for purposes of basic physics and common sense – for instance, his feet rest on the ground in the physical world, not the ground in the spirit world, and the could this walk across a spiritual chasm if a physical parking lot overlaid the same place.
A botch on the roll to activate this power tears the vampire out of the physical world and traps him in the spirit realm. The way back to the physical realm, if there is one, is left to the Storyteller's discretion, and may constitute an entire adventure in and of itself.
Breath of Quetzalcoatl
Command over the weather has long been a staple power of wizards both mortal and immortal, and this Path is said by many to predate the Tremere by millennia. The proliferation of usage of this Path outside the clan tends to confirm this theory; Weather Control is quite common outside the Tremere, and even outside the Camarilla. Lower levels of this Path allow subtle manipulations, while higher stages of mastery allow a vampire to call up raging storms. The area affected by this power is usually rather small, no more than three or four miles in diameter, and the changes the power wreaks are not always immediate.
System : The number of successes rolled indidcates how long it takes the weather magic to take effect. One success indicates an entire day may pass before the weather changes to the thaumaturge's liking, while a roll with five successes brings an almost instant effect.
The difficulty of the Willpower roll necessary to invoke this power may change depending on the current local weather conditions and the weather the character is attempting to create. The Storyteller should impose a bonus (-1 or -2 difficulty) for relatively minor shifts, such as clearing away a light drizzle or calling lightning when a severe thunderstorm is already raging. Conversely, a penalty (+1 or +2 difficulty) should be applied when the desired change is at odds with the current conditions, such as summoning the same light drizzle in the middle of the Sahara Desert or calling down lightning from a cloudless sky.
If the character tries to strike a specific target with lightning, the player must roll Perception + Occult (difficulty 6 if the target is standing in open terrain, 8 if he is under shelter, or 10 is he is inside but near a window) in addition to the base roll to use Thaumaturgy. Otherwise the bolt goes astray, with the relative degree of failure of the roll determining where exactly the lightning strikes.
Effects of the power default to the maximum area available unless the thaumaturge states that he's attempting to affect a smaller area. At Storyteller discretion, an additional Willpower roll (difficulty 6) may be required to keep the change in the weather under control.
Individual power descriptions are not provided for this Path, as the general principle is fairly consistent. Instead, the strongest weather phenomenon possible at each level is listed.
Lvl 1 Fog : Vision is slightly impaired and sounds are muffled; a +1 difficulty is imposed on all Perception rolls that involve sight and hearing, and the effective ranges of all ranged attacks are halved.
Light breeze : A +1 difficulty is imposed on all Perception rolls that involve smell.
Minor temperature change : It is possible to raise or lower the local temperature by up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
Lvl 2 Rain or snow : Precipitation has the same effect as Fog, but Perception rolls are impaired to a much greater extent; the difficulty modifier for all such rolls rises to +2. In addition, the difficulty on all Drive rolls increases by two.
Lvl 3 High winds : The wind speed rises to around 10 miles per hour, with gusts of up to twice that. Ranged attacks are much more difficult: +1 to firearm attacks, +2 to thrown weapons and archery. In addition, during fierce gusts, Dexterity rolls (difficulty 6) may be required to keep characters from being knocked over by the winds. Needless to say, when gale-force winds are in effect, papers go flying, objects get picked up by the winds and hurled with abandon, and other suitably cinematic effects are likely.
Moderate temperature change : The local temperature can be raised or lowered by up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
Lvl 4 Storm : This has the effects of both Rain and High Winds.
Lvl 5 Lightning Strike : This attack inflicts 10 dice of lethal damage. Body armor does not add to the target's dice pool to soak this attack.
Necromancy
Necromancy is at once a Discipline and a school of magical learning, all dedicated toward the command of the souls of the dead. It has some similarities to Thaumaturgy in that, rather than being a strict linear progression of powers, Necromancy consists of several “paths” and accompanying “rituals”. Well-trained and puissant vampiric necromancers can summon the dead, banish or imprison souls, and even reinsert ghosts into living – or unliving – bodies. Needless to say, the study of Necromancy is not widespread among the Kindred, and its practitioners – primarily Giovanni Kindred – are shunned or ignored whenever possible.
Over the centuries, the various schools of vampiric Necromancy have diversified, leaving three distinct paths of necromantic magic available to Cainites. All necromancers first learn the so-called Sepulchre Path, then extend their studies to the Bone Path or the Ash Path as time and opportunity permit. The Sepulchre Path is always considered the character's “primary” path; it increases automatically as the character increases her overall Necromancy rating. The Bone and Ash Paths must be bought seperately, using the experience costs for secondary paths.
Like Thaumaturgy, Necromancy has also spawned a series of rituals. While not nearly so immediate in effect and the basic powers of Necromancy, Necromantic rituals can have impressive long-term effects. Unsurprisingly, the elements of Necromantic rituals are things like long-buried corpses, hands from the cadavers of hanged men, and so on, and so obtaining suitable materials can be quite difficult. Scarcity of supply limits the frequency of Necromantic rituals, giving cause for many other Kindred to breathe a metaphorical sigh of relief.
System : A Cainite necromancer must learn at least three levels in the Sepulchre Path before learning his first level in either the Bone Path or the Ash Path. He must then achieve matery in the Sepulchre Path (five levels) before acquiring any knowledge of the third path.
As with Thaumaturgy, advancement in the primary path (in this case, the Sepulchre Path) costs the normal experience amount, while study of secondary Necromantic paths incurs an additional experience-point cost. Because Necromancy is not quite so rigid a study as Thaumaturgy is, the rolls required to use Necromantic powers can vary from path to path and even within individual paths.
The Sepulchre Path
Lvl 1 Insight
This power allows a necromancer to stare into the eyes of a corpse and see reflected there the last thing the dead man witnessed. The vision appears only in the eyes of the cadaver and is visible to no one except the necromancer using Insight.
System : This power requires a roll of Perception + Occult (difficulty 8 for formerly living creatures, 10 for unliving ones such as vampires)_ as the vampire stares into the target's eyes. The number of successes on the roll determines the clarity of the vision; a botch shows the necromancer his own Final Death, which can induce Rötschreck.
This power cannot be used on the corpses of vampires who have reached Golconda, or those in whom advanced decomposition has already set in.
1 success A basic sense of the subject's death
2 successes A clear image of the subject's death and the seconds preceding it
3 successes A clear image, with sound, of the minutes preceding death
4 successes A clear image, with sound, of the half-hour before the subject's demise
5 successes Full sensory preception of the hour leading up to the target's death
Lvl 2 Summon Soul
The power of Summon Soul allows a necromancer to call a ghost back from the Underworld, though for conversational purposes only. In order to perform this feat, the necromancer must meet certain conditions:
* The necromancer must know the name of the wraith in question, though an image of the wraith obtained via Psychometry will suffice.
* An object with which the wraith had some contact in life must be in the vicinity. If the object is something of great importance to the ghost, the chances for success in the summoning increase dramatically (-2 difficulty). Note : This bonus applies for all powers on the Sepulchre Path.
Certain types of ghosts cannot be summoned with this power. Vampires who reached Golconda before their Final Deaths, or who were diablerized, are beyond the reach of this summons. Likewise, many ghosts of the dead cannot be called – they are destroyed, unable to return to the mortal plane, or lost in the eternal storm of the Underworld.
System : To use Summon Soul, the vampire's player must roll Perception + Occult (difficulty 7, or the ghost's Willpower of the Storyteller knows it). The number of successes on the roll indicates the tractability of the summoned spirit and how longthe summoned wraith remains in the vicinity of her summoner. Summoned ghosts are visible and audible to the vampire who summoned them, and remain so up until the time the summoning wears off. Ghosts who wish to be summoned can voluntarily appear.
For each question the vampire asks the summoned spirit, the Storyteller should roll one die per summoning success. At least one success is needed on this second roll (difficulty 6) in order to keep the wraith around long enough to answer the question.
If a vampire botches a summoning roll, she calls forth a malevolent ghost (known as a spectre), which immediately sets about tormenting its summoner.
Lvl 3 Compel Soul
With this power, a vampire can command a ghost to do his bidding for a while. Compel is a perilous undertaking and, when used improperly, can endanger vampire and wraith alike.
System : In order to compel a wraith, the vampire must first successfully summon it. Before the wraith has left the scene of the summoning, the vampire's player must roll Manipulation + Occult (difficulty equal to the target's Willpower). The wraith can spend Pathos (the ghostly equivalent of blood; assume a blood pool of 7 for all ghosts or consult Chapter Nine) to combat the compulsion; each point spent removes one of the vampire's successes. The vampire may attempt to compel a wraith multiple times during a singel summoning.
For each success achieved on the Manipulation + Occult roll, the necromancer achieves a greater degree of control over the wraith. The breakdown is as follows:
Failure : The compulsion of the summoning ends and the wraith is free to leave. Many wraiths take the opportunity to assault their would-be masters as they depart.
One success : The wraith must remain in the vicinity and refrain from attacking any creature without the necromancer's consent.
Two successes : The wraith is bound to remain and answer any questions truthfully, though the questions had best be phrased carefully.
Three successes : The wraith is forced to remain and answer questions truthfully, without evasion or omission.
Four successes : The wraith must remain, answering truthfully any questions asked of it. It must also perform any services commanded by its new master, though it is bound only to the letter of the command, not the spirit.
Five successes : The wraith is trapped, obeying the spirit of the vampire's commands to the best of its ability.
Compel holds a ghost for one hour per success rolled. If the vampire wishes, she can expend a temporary Willpower point to keep the wraith under the compulsion for an extra night. The expenditure of a permanent Willpower point on the vampire's part binds the wraith for a year and a day.
Lvl 4 Haunting
Haunting binds a summoned ghost to a particular location or, in extreme cases, an object. The wraith cannot leave the area to which the necromancer binds it without risking self-destruction. A wraith attempting to leave the area of a haunting must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 10, two successes necessary) or take a level of aggravated damage; if the wraith runs out of health levels, it is hurled into the Underworld to face destruction.
System : The player rolls Manipulation + Occult (difficulty is target's Willpower if she resists; otherwise it is 4). Each success ties the wraith to a particular spot of the necromancer's choosing for a night; with the expenditure of a Willpower point, that becomes a week. Expenditure of a point of permanent Willpower extends the duration to a year.
Lvl 5 Torment
It is through the use of this power that elder necromancers convince ghosts to behave – or else. Torment allows the vampire to strike a wraith as if he himself were in the lands of the dead, inflicting damage on the wraith's ectoplasmic form. The vampire remains in the real world, however, so he cannot be struck in return by the wraith.
System : The player rolls Stamina + Empathy (difficulty is the wraith's Willpower), and the vampire reaches out to “touch” the wraith. Each success inflicts a level of lethal damage on the wraith. Should the wraith lose all health levels, it immediately vavnishes into what appears to be a doorway to some hideous nightmare realm. Ghosts “destroyed” thus cannot reappear near the real world for a month.
The Bone Path
The Bone Path is concerned primarily with corpses and the methods by which dead souls can be restored to the living world – temporarily or otherwise.
Lvl 1 Tremens
Tremens allows a necromancer to make the flesh of a corpse shift once. An arm mught suddenly flop forward, a cadaver might sit up, or dead eyes might abruptly open. Needless to say, this sort of thing tends to have an impressive impact on people who aren't expecting a departed relative to roll over in his coffin.
System : To use Tremens, the necromancer spends a single blood point, and the player must succeed on a Dexterity + Occult roll (difficulty 6). The more successes achieved, the more complicated an action can be inculcated into the corpse. One success allows for an instantaneous movement, such as a twitch, while five allow the vampire to set up specific conditions under which the body animates (“The next time someone enters the room, I want the corpse to sit uand open its eyes”.). Under no circumstances can Tremens cause a dead body to attack or cause damage.
Lvl 2 Apprentice's Brooms
With Apprentice's Brooms, the necromancer can make a dead body rise and perform a simple function. For example, the corpse could be set to carrying heavy objects, digging, or just shambling from place to place. The cadavers thus animated do not attack or defend themselves if interfered with, but instead attempt to carry out their given instructions until such time as they've been rendered inanimate. Generally it takes dismemberment, flame or something similar to destroy a corpse animated in this way.
System : A roll of Wits + Occult (difficulty 7) and the expenditure of a point of both blood and Willpower are all that is necessary to animate corpses with Apprentice's Brooms. The number of corpses animated is equal to the number of successes achieved. The necromancer must then state the task to which he issetting the zombies. The cadavers turn themselves to their work until they finish the job (at which point they collapse) or something (including time) destroys them.
Bodies energized by this power continue to decay, albeit at a much slower rate than normal.
Lvl 3 Shambling Hordes
Shambling Hordes creates exactly what you think it might: reanimated corpses with the ability to attack, albeit never very well nor very quickly. Once primed by this power, the corpses wait – for years, if necessary – to fulfill the command given them. The orders might be to protect a certain site or simply to attack immediately, but they will be carried out until every last one of the decomposing monsters is destroyed.
System : The player invests a point of Willpower, then spends a point of blood for each corpse the necromancer animates. The player then must succeed on a Wits + Occult roll (difficulty 8); each success allows the vampire to raise another corpse from the grave. Each zombie (for lack of a better term) can follow one simple instruction, such as “Stay here and guard this graveyard against any intruders”, or “Kill them!”
Note: Zombies created by Shambling Hordes will wait forever if need be to fulfill their functions. Long after the flesh has rotted off the mystically animated bones, the zombies will wait...and wait...and wait – still able to perform their duties.
Lvl 4 Soul Stealing
This power affects the living, not the dead. It does, however, temporarily turn a living soul into a sort of wraith, as it allows a necromancer to strip a soul from a living – or vampiric – body. A mortal exiled from his body by this power becomes a wraith with a single tie to the real world: his now-empty body.
System : The player spends a point of Willpower and then makes a contested Willpower roll against the intended victim (difficulty 6). Successes indicate the number of hours during which the original soul is forced out of its housing. The body itself remains autonomically alive but catatonic.
This power can be used to create suitable hosts for Daemonic Possession.
Lvl 5 Daemonic Possession
Daemonic Possession lets a vampire insert a soul into a freshly dead body and inhabit it for the duration. This does not turn the reanimated corpse into anything other than a reanimated corpse, and one that will irrevocably decay after a week, but it does give either a wraith of a free-floating soul (say, that of a vampire using Psychic Projection) a temporary home in the physical world.
System : The body in question must be no more than 30 minutes dead, and the new tenant must agree to inhabit it – a ghost or astral form cannot be forced into a new shell. Of course, most ghosts would gladly seize the opportunity, but that's a different matter. Should the vampire, for whatever reason, wish to insert a soul into another vampire's corpse (before it crumbles to ash), the necromancer must achieve five successes on a resisted Willpower agains the original owner of the body. Otherwise, the interloper is denied entrance.
Note: The soul can use whatever physical abilities (Dodge, Brawl, Potence) his new home possesses, and whatever mental abilities (Computer, Law, Presence) he possesses in his current existence. He cannot use the physical abilities of his old form, or the mental abilities of his new one.
The Ash Path
The Ash Path allows necromancers to peek into the lands of the Dead and even affect things there. Of the three Paths of Necromancy, the Ash Path is the most perilous to learn, because many of the Path's uses increase a necromancer's vulnerability to wraiths.
Lvl 1 Shroudsight
Shroudsight allows a necromancer to see through the Shroud, the mystical barrier that separates the living world from the Underworld. By u sing this power, the vampire can spot ghostly buildings and items, the landscape of the so-called Shadowlands and even wraiths themselves. However, the odds are that an observant wraith will notice when a vampire suddenly starts staring at him, which can lead to unpleasant consequences.
System : A simple roll of Perception + Alertness (difficulty 7) allows a necromancer to utilize Shroudsight. The effects last for a sccene.
Lvl 2 Lifeless Tongues
Where Shroudsight allows a necromancer to see ghosts, Lifeless Tongues allows her to converse with them effortlessly. Once Lifeless Tongues is employed, the vampire can carry on a conversation with the denizens of the ghostly Underworld without spending blood or causing wraiths to expend any effort.
System : To use Lifeless Tongues requires a roll of Perception + Occult (difficulty 6) and the expenditure of a Willpower point. This power also grants the effects of Shroudsight, so the vampire can see with whom, or what, she is conversing.
Lvl 3 Dead Hand
Similar to the Sepulchre Path power Torment, Dead Hand allows a necromancer to reach across the Shroud and affect a ghostly object as if it were in the real world. Ghosts are solid to necromancers using this power, and can be attacked. Furthermore, the necromancer can pick up ghostly items, scale ghostly architecture (giving real-world bystanders the impression he's climbing on air!) and generally exist in two worlds. On the other hand, a necromancer using Dead Hand is quite solid to the residents of the Underworld – and to whatever weapons they might have.
System: The player spends a point of Willpower and makes a successful Wits + Occult roll (difficulty 7) for the vampire to activate Dead Hand. For each scene the vampire wishes to remain in contact with the Underworld, he must spend a point of blood.
Lvl 4 Ex Nihilo
Ex Nihilo allows a necromancer to enter the Underworld physically. While in the lands of the Dead, the vampire is essentially an extra-solid ghost. He maintains his normal number of health levels, but can e hurt only by things that inflict aggravated damage on ghosts (weapons forged from souls, certain ghostly powers, etc.). A vampire psysically in the Underworld can pass through solid objects (at the cost of one health level) and remain “incorporeal” thus for a number of turns equal to his Stamina rating. On the other hand, vampires present in the Underworld are subject to all of the Underworld's perils, including ultimate destruction. A vampire killed in the Deadlands is gone forever, beyond even the reach of other necromancers.
System : Using Ex Nihilo takes a tremendous toll on the necromancer. To activate this power, the vampire must first draw a doorway with chalk or blood on any available surface (Note : Doors can be drawn ahead of time for exactly this purpose). The player must then expendtwo points of Willpower and two points of blood, then make a Stamina + Occult roll (difficulty 8) as the vampire attempts to open the chalk door physically. If the roll succeeds, the door opens and the vampire steps through into the Underworld.
When the vampire wishes to return to the real world, he merely needs to concentrate (and the player spends another Willpower point and rolls Stamina + Occult, difficulty 6). At Storyteller's discretion, a vampire who is too deeply immersed in the Underworld may need to journey to a place close to the lands of the living in order to cross over. Vampires who wander too far into the lands of the Dead may be trapped there forever.
Vampires in the Underworld cannot fee dupon ghosts; their only sustenance is the blood they bring with them.
Lvl 5 Shroud Mastery
A bit of an exaggeration, Shroud Mastery is the ability to manipulate the veil between the worlds of the living and the Dead. By doing so, a necromancer can make it easier for bound wraiths in his service to function, or make it nearly impossible for ghosts to contact the material world.
System : To exercise Shroud Mastery, the necromancer expends two points of Willpower, then states whether he is attempting to raise or lower the Shroud. The player then makes a Willpower roll (difficulty 9). Each success on the roll raises or lowers the difficulties of all nearby wraith's actions by one, to a maximum of 10 or a minimum of 3. The Shroud reverts to its normal strength at a rate of one point per hour thereafter.
Vitreous Path
The Vitreous Path allows a necromancer to control and influence the energies pertaining to death, what wraiths call Oblivion. Rare in the extreme, this path manipulates entropy and decay, forces that even most necromancers are uncomfortable harnessing. This path, a development of the Nagaraja bloodline (who sometimes call the power “Nihilistics”), sees only the most limited use even among skilled necromancers. Still, its powers make a formidable complement to other necromantic crafts, and those obsessed with mastery over death and souls – such as the Harbingers of Skulls – wouls certainly risk much to uncover this path's secrets.
Like most necromancers, Nagaraja learn the Sepulchre Path before any others. The Vitreous Path is usually their second focus of study, which at one time reflected the amount of time they spent in the Underworld.
Lvl 1 Eyes of the Dead
The necromancer employing the Eyes of the Dead can literally see through the eyes of any wraiths around here, allowing her to use the wraiths' Deathsight. Of course, if there ar eno wraiths present, the power is useless. On the upside, at least for the necromancers, a few of the Restless may almost always be found wandering around. To an experienced manipulator of ghostly energies, the auras of surrounding beings give off telltale hints as to their health and may indicate their emotions or desires; the necromancer can see the energies of death and passion flowing through everyone, just as wraiths can.
System : The player rolls Perception + Occult, difficulty 6, in order to see through the eyes of the Dead around the necromancer. This effect is often disorienting, especially in areas where many wraiths are present and, at the Storyteller's discretion, can cause the necromancer to suffer up to a +4 difficulty when attempting to preceive things not in the Underworld. While employing Eyes of the Dead, the necromancer may not always understand what he is seeing (when in doubt, use Intelligence + Occult to recognize the patterns of death in auras). Properly used, this power lets a necromancer determine whether someone is injured, diseased or dying and, also, whether the individual labors under any sorts of curses of baleful magic. This ability lasts for one scene, though the necromancer may choose to prematurely draw his perceptions back to his own body (thereby ending the power).
Lvl 2 Hour of Death
Much like Eyes of the Dead, this power allows the necromancer to see with the perceptions of the Restless Dead. The difference is that this power grants the necromancer himself Deathsight instead of borrowing the perceptions of a wraith, and this vision gives much greater details. By looking at the entropic markings on a person's body, the necromancer can gain rough knowledge of how far that person is from death, how soon that person is likely to die and even what the cause of her death is likely to be. Conversely, the patterns of auras also tell when a person is agitated or excited and allow the death magician to gauge someone's feelings towards another individual when the first two meet. This is not an exact science by any means, but the power is extremely useful to give the necromancer an edge over those he scrutinizes.
Many necromancers actually use this talent to be at the right place and time to capture a newly departed soul.
System : The player rolls Wits + Occult (difficulty 7). The more successes scored, the more the character can tell about the target's fate. One success means the character can guess how long the target has to live within a few weeks. Three successes means the character can estimate how long the target has to live and what the probably source of demise will be, as the entropic markings clearly show the wounds that will someday exist on that person. Five successes means the character can actually see where and when the event will occur by interpreting the black markings on the target's soul. While this power lasts for one scene, it can be used to read the fate of only one target at a time.
Storytellers must exercise judgment with this power, since the markings of death are typically unavoidable. Of course, if the Storyteller rolls the dice, the player has no way of knowing whether her insight is correct.
Lvl 3 Soul Judgment
Wraiths seem to possess a Beast, much like vampires, though their “Shadows” are often less brutish. By using Soul Judgment, the necromancer determines whether the wraith is currently influenced by his darker passions. That knowledge can be very useful, as many necromancers prefer to barter with apparitions rather than merely trying to force the wraiths into subservience. Knowing the aspect of a wraith with which the death magician is dealing means knowing whether or not to discuss matters of importance with the wraith at that time. Many necromancers take this affair one level further, dealing with the Shadow and the normal wraith in separate matters and never letting on to either just what the other half is doing.
System : The player rolls Perception + Occult (difficulty 7) and spends one Willpower point in order to discern which aspect of the wraith is currently in control. Since the wraith's higher self usually has no idea of what its Shadow is doing (although the converse is not true), the necromancer can conceal his dealings by working with the wraith's dark nature. This power also allows the necromancer to determine whether the ghost is normally dominated by his higher self or his Shadow; wraiths routinely dominated by their Beasts are known as Spectres and are exceedingly dangerous.
Lvl 4 Breath of Thanatos
The Breath of Thanatos allows the necromancer to draw out entropic energy and focus it upon an area or person. Often, the death magician literally takes a deep breath and then forcefully exhales a fog of mephitic energy. This cloud of virulence is completely invisible to anyone without the ability to see the passing of entropy (as with lower levels of this power). The energy of this cloud is like a beacon for Spectres, and they are drawn to the entropic force like moths to a flame. There is no obligation on the part of Spectres to behave themselves, and the necromancer had best have a plan for what to do with them once they've arrived – which is why most Vitreous Path necromancers also learn other paths.
Once the energy is pulled from the necromancer's body, she can either disperse it over a large area as a lure for Spectres or use the mist for somewhat more sinister purposes. Channeled into an object or person, the death-mist inflicts the subject with an unwholesome, negative aspect, and may actually cause injury. Furthermore, the focused energies are tainted and eerie, and though generally invisible, they tend to cause people and animals to feel discomfort around the victim.
System : the player spends one Blood Point and rolls Willpower (difficulty 8). Only one success is needed to draw out the Breath of Thanatos. If dispersed to summon Spectres, the energies cover roughly one-quarter of a mile for every additional Blood Point expended. As noted previously, Spectres summoned with this power are not beholden to the necromancer in any way and may well go out of their way to wreak havoc on anyone in the vicinity. This energy disperses after a scene.
If the cloud is directed toward a particular target, the necromancer must either touch the target or else direct the stream of entropy using Dexterity + Occult (difficulty 7). A target laden with entropy suffers one (and only one) level of aggravated damage; this generally manifests as illness or decay. The target's social difficulties with those unfamiliar with the touch of death – Lupines, faeries, certain mages and most normal humans – increase by 2. Furthermore, supernatural perceptions indicate the target as tainted with decay, which can be dangerous, as certain entities (such as the Lupines) have special senses to detect such taint and a rather violent crusade against those thus infected. This form of taint lasts until sunrise or sunset; a victim already plagued by this power cannot be affected again until the previous fog of entropy has dispersed.
A botch on the roll to control this power indicates that the vampire has turned the energy upon himself, and suffers all the effects of the vitriolic breath. This inflicts the usual injury and subjects the necromancer to the possibly dangerous affection of Spectres and other creatures from beyond the grave.
Lvl 5 Soul Feasting
Just as the necromancer can draw Oblivion from within, she may also pull external entropic energies into herself as a source of power. Soul Feasting allows the caster to either draw on the ambient energies around her or to actively feed on a wraith, stealing the wraith's substance and mystically transforming that energy into a rude sustenance.
System : The player spends one Willpower to allow the vampire to feed on the negative energies of the dead. If the character is drawing the energies from the atmosphere, she must be in a place where death has occurred within the hour or in a place where death is common, such as a cemetery, a morgue or the scene of a recent murder. Generallthe necromancer can draw anywhere from one to four points of entropy from such a location, although the difficulty of all Necromancy (and all ghostly powers that must cross into the Living Lands) increases by an equal amount for several nights. The energies of such an area may only be drained once until the area's entropy replenishes (again, after several nights).
In cases when the necromancer feeds on a wraith, the vampire must actually attack the wraith as if feeding normally. Wraiths have up to 10 “Blood Points” that may be taken from them, and they become less and less “substantial” as their spirit-essence drains away. The character is vulnerable to any attack the wraith might make, even those that do not normally affect ehe physical world; while feeding, the vampire is essentially in a half-state, existing in both the Loving Lands and the Underworld simultaneously. The wraith so attacked is considered immobilized and cannot run or escape unless it can defeat the vampire in a resisted Willpower roll. This power may also be used in conjunction with Ash Path Necromancy, allowing the vampire to drain power (though not sustenance) from ghosts while traveling in the lands of the Dead.
This soul energy may be used to activate Disciplines, but may not be used in place of actual blood for the purposes of feeding or for other physical purposes such as healing or boosting Attributes.
Botching this power renders the vampire unable to feed through the wall of death. Conversely, he remains susceptible to the assaults of ghosts and spirits for several turns (generally, a number of turns equal to the amount of energy that could have been drawn from the area or one turn if attacking a ghost) as he hovers between worlds, unable to function effectively in either.
The Mortuus Path
Widely believed to be practiced by only the most loathsome Giovanni, Necromancy has actually been adopted by the Harbingers of Skulls, who claim to have learned the magic of death while trapped in the Underworld. Harbingers seem to know little of the Bone or Sepulchre Paths, instead learning their own Mortuus Path and the Ash Path. Harbingers of Skulls have not been known to interact with the Giovanni, but they may have acquired some knowledge of other paths from the Samedi, with whom they share some inexplicable tie. Harbingers of Skulls learn the Mortuus Path as their primary Necromancy Path; they can only learn their first level of the Ash Path after achieving the third level of mastery in the Mortuus Path. That aside, they learn Necromancy like other vampires.
Lvl 1 Reaper's Shroud
This power allows the Cainite or the subject of her choice to take on the semblance of death. Skin stretches tight over bones, flesh grows pale and sallow and joints seize as the body grows rigid. This power may be used to “play dead” and look the part, or to curse another with the appearance of the walking dead.
System : The vampire must touch her target frot his power to take effect. If the necromancer assumes this form, she merely spends a blood point. If attempting to use this power on another, the character's player spends a blood point and makes a Stamina + Occult roll (difficulty equal to the victim's Stamina +3). The effects of this power last until the next dawn or dusk, when the shriveled individual slowly regains her normal state over the course of an hour. While under the effects of the Reaper's Shroud, characters lose two points from their Dexterity and Appearance Traits (to a minimum of 1). Vampires may spend two blood points to reverse the effects of Reaper's Shroud.
Lvl 2 Blight
This power allows the vampire to accelerate the aging and decrepitude processes in his intended victim. The subject suffers the effects of old age: brittle bones, dry and think skin and various rheumatic pains among others. Some victims have ven acquired certain ailments normally experienced by the elderly, including bone diseases and arthritis.
System : The vampire must touch his intended victim. The player then rolls Manipulation + Medicine (difficulty equal to the victim's Willpower) and spends one point of Willpower. If this roll is successful, the target suffers the debilitating effects of advanced age. For the duration of this power (until the next dusk or dawn), the target, Cainite or otherwise, must subtract three points from all Physical Attributes (to a minimum of 1). Vampires and ghouls affected in this manner may still spend blood points to increase their Physical Attributes.
Mortals who undertake stressful activity while affected by Blight run the risk of heart failure. For each round the mortal continues strenuous activity, the player must make a Stamina roll (difficulty 6). If the roll fails, the mortal suffers a heart attack.
Lvl 3 Resume the Coil
This power allows vampires to wrench themselves free from death's long slumber. A character who possesses this level of mastery may throw off the darkness of torpor or aid another in doing so.
System : The player spends two Willpower points. She then makes a Willpower roll, for which the difficulty is ten minus the target's Humanity or Path rating. Obviously, the vampire uses her own rating if attempting to rouse herself from torpor. For example, if a vampire seeks to rise from torpor and has a Path of Death and the Soul score of 5, his difficulty for the Willpower roll is 5. If the vampire wishes to awaken another Cainite in torpor, she must touch that vampire. If the vampire so raised entered torpor because of a lack of blood, she awakens with one blood point in her veins.
Lvl 4 True Death
The neecromancer may temporarily cheat the Curse of Caine, albeit briefly, by becoming truly dead. While invoking this power, the character suffers none of the traditional banes against vampires. He is not burned by sunlight, holy water does not harm him, and he does not rise from the dead each night. He has literally become a corpse.
System : There is no cost to assume the corpse-body, but awakening from the slumber requires two blood points. While the character is in corpse form, he may obviously take no actions, nor may he use any Disciplines, even “automatic” ones like Fortitude. The corpse-vampire does not consume blood nightly – he retains the same amount of blood as he did when he entered the state of True Death (remember that it costs two blood points to leave the corpse state), which may prove damning should anyone cut him open in the interim. A character who has been stakes through the heart is still paralyzed when he returns to vampiric consciousness. This power has no maximum duration, other than the time the vampire chooses to remain dead.
Lvl 5 Mercy for Seth
Named after mortals – the Children of Seth – this power causes a victim to contract a virulent plague, similar to the epidemics of the 11ththrough 15thcenturies (the Black Plague, the Red Death, etc.). This illness causes death within 24 hours of time. Mortal victims of plague exhibit terrible plague symptoms – sunken eyes, blackened limbs, bloody sweat and excretions, swollen nodes and weeping lesions.
System : the vmapire touches her victim, and the player must spend one blood point (which must come in contact with the victim to communicate the plague) and one Willpower point. The player also rolls Stamina + Occult (difficulty equal to the target's Willpower). Success indicates that the vampire has afflicted his victim with plague, who dies or succumbs to torpor within 24 hours.
Ghiberti Necromancy
When brought into the Giovanni fold, the Ghiberti were already quite familiar with the finer points of African nigrimancy. Those unaccustomed to the fourfold souls of abombo (African wraiths) often have trouble controlling them – mechanically, an inexperienced Kindred suffers a +2 penalty to the difficulty of rolls to use Necromancy on the ghosts of indigenous Africans. Former slave traders, the Ghiberti combined elements of their prior profession and their unwholesome sorcery to create a path of Necromancy that made the enslavement of Ivory Kingdom wraiths easier to accomplish. Studying the strange powers of the ghostly Moriman, the Ghiberti learned to trace wraiths and bind them. Note that few (if any) Giovanni who are not members of the Ghiberti family have access to the knowledge of how to compel abombo, much less mastery of the Cenotaph Path.
The Cenotaph Path
Experienced Ghiberti Kindred recognized that mystically compelling the dead required an extensive knowledge of the ghosts to be so commanded. Whereas many among the family content themselves with mastery of the occasional wraith and the means to affect corpses or the Underworld, more erudite practitioners looked into necromantic means to unearth locations or objects holding strong ties to the dead. Some such studies became rituals, whereas others developed into a discrete path concerned primarily with discovering or forging links between the living world and the Shadowlands.
Most students of Necromancy attribute the creation of the Cenotaph Path to the eras following the World Wars. The great numbers of dead and dying across the world, especially with displaced soldiers flung to far corners of the globe, made for a brisk trade in soul-catching. Those Ghiberti who could “sniff out” the recently dead (especially in quantity) managed to augment their pursuits with the u se of Cenotaph Nercomancy to find objects or locations important to the legions of wraiths. A few older menbers of the Giovanni point out that similar powers proved useful during the ancient heyday of Mediterranean expanision, in seeking out death cults or battlefields during the prime of Rome and Italy. Regardless, the path remains something of a rarity, as it serves primarily to amplify the other powers of an already-skilled necromancer.
Cenotaph Necromancy seems to function on the principle that a Kindred, already a cadaver, is an unnatural bridge between the living and the dead. Through this principle, the path allows the necromancer to find other, similar likanges. The basic rudiments of the Cenotaph Path function easily enough once the Kindred learns to attune himself to these connections. Advanced mastery of the path usually entails some brief ritual to forge artificial connections, either through breaking taboos to draw the Shadowlands closer by focusing unsavory passions or through techniques or authority and purity designed to command the two disparate worlds together.
Lvl 1 A Touch of Death
Just as a necromancer may exert mastery over the Shadowlands, so too can some ghosts exert themselves in the mortal world. Whereas obvious displays of wraithly power such as bleeding walls or disembodied moans certainly won't be mistaken, some ghostly abilities exert subtle effects that aren't easily recognized. A necromancer sensitized to the residue of the dead, though, can feel whether an object has been touched by a ghost or sense the recent passage of a wraith.
System : The necromancer simply touches a person or object that he suspects is a victim of ghostly influence. The player rolls Perception + Occult (difficulty 6). If successful, the necromancer can determine whether a ghost has exerted any sorts of wraithly power on the subject, or even crossed nearby, to the duration detailed below.
1 success Last turn; detect use of ghostly powers
2 successes Last three turns, detect use of ghostly powers
3 successes Last hour; detect ghost's touch and use of ghostly powers
4 succcesses Last day; detect ghost's touch and use of ghostly powers
5 successes Last week; detect nearby passage of ghost, ghost's touch and use of ghostly powers
On a failure, the necromancer receives no impressions. A botch reveals a misleading answer (an object may seem tinged with ghostly power when it's not, or vice versa). Should the necromancer succeed in detection while touching an object or person that a ghost is possessing, he immediately becomes aware that the ghost is still inside. The impression gained in such a case is sufficient to count as a “strong psychic impression”, for purposes of the Sepulchre Path's powers, so the Kindred may be able to (for example) immediately command a ghost to exit a person whom it possesses.
Lvl 2 Reveal the Catene
Necromantic compulsions function much more effectively when the caster uses an object of significance to the ghost in question. Such fetters tie the dead to the living lands through their remembered importance – a favored recliner for relaxing, a reviled piece of art foisted off by hated relatives or some object of similar intense emotion. Many Giovanni can detect such catene through the use of rituals (see Ritual of the Unearthed Fetter). With this power, though, the Ghiberti can determine a fetter with just a few moments of handling. The Kindred simply rusn his hands over the object and concentrates on it. He quickly receives an impression of the item's (or person's) importance to wraiths, if any; should the wraith be one known to the necromancer, he immediately recognizes the object as a fetter to that (or those) wraith(s). Successful identification of a connected wraith is not exclusive; that is, if the Giovanni determines that the object is important to a given wraith, he can also determine if there ar eother wraiths tied to the item, though he must use the power again to gain their identities.
Many necromancers use this power on objects already identified with A Touch of Death, in order to determine whether the ghost is trying to attune a given fetter or simply toying with the world of the living.
System : The necromancer hold and examines the object for at least three turns – if it's an item, this means turning it over in his hands, running his fingers along it or otherwise giving it a critical eye; with a person, this may require more...invasive...examination. The player then spends a blood point and rolls Perception + Occult (difficulty 7). If successful, the Kindred determines whether the object holds any significance to any wraith and, with three or more successes, the identity of at least one such wraith (which of course allows the Kidnred to use the Sepulchre Path on that wraith). If the necromancer already knows any of the wraiths involved, their ties are revealed with their identity – so, if the necromancer already knows of a wraith well enough to summon and compel it with other powers, successful identification of a fetter tells whether the object is tied to that wraith, in addition to any other impressions gained.
If a botch is scored, the Ghiberti can never successfully use this power on the item being examined.
Lvl 3 Tread Upon the Grave
The extended awareness granted with the Cenotaph Path allows the necromancer to sense the vagaries of the sudario and to find locations where the Shadowlands and the living lands come close. Often, the necromancer experiences a chill or shiver when stepping into an area where the Underworld lies near the living one. With practice, the Giovanni can tell exactly where such locations are.
Experienced necromancers learn that certain locations are susceptible to ghostly influence; these haunted areas often become homes of a sort for wraiths. A knowledgeable vampire can thus discover places where the dead are likely to congregate, the better to snare them with other Necromancy powers.
System : The player simply declares the intent to sense the Shroud in an area and makes a Willpower roll (difficulty 8). Success reveals the Shroud rating. The Storyteller informs the player of the rating, while in story terms the Giovanni learns that the location is highly attuned to the Shadowlands, about average (not very close to the world of the dead) or far removed from the realm of death. Failing use of the power has no adverse effect, though it may be attempted only once per scene (so the necromancer must either wait for a time or move to a different area before attempting Tread Upon the Grave once more). A botch stuns the Giovanni into inaction for a full turn as well as costing him a temporary Willpower point, as he is overcome by shivers and the sense of overwhelming despair from the Shadowlands.
With three or more successes, the necromancer can determine whether the Shroud's strength has been artificailly altered in the area (perhaps through the use of the Ash Path or certain ghostly powers).
Lvl 4 Death Knell
Not all who die go on to become ghosts – many lack the drive to hang on after death or simply have no overwhelming needs that compel them to stick around. Normally, even necromancers have no way to sort those who might become ghosts from the masses who go on to whatever rewards await. Over time, though, a necromancer can become sensitized from a body only to hover in wait, enslaved by its postmortem desires. The weight of desperation becomes like a tangible tug, and some necromancers even learn to savor this emotion even as they follow the sensation to find the new ghost.
Of course, actually discovering the new ghost can be problematic. The Kindred may need some means to see through the Shroud or may have to send other wraiths to look for the new unfortunate, especially if a large accident or massacre leaves too many corpses for the Ghiberti to ecern and test names with other compulsions. Furthermore, new ghosts typically enter the afterlife insensate and covered in a sticky plasm that coulds their minds; the ghost must be freed from t his spirit sludge before she can be useful, which again requires the necromancer either to reach through the Shroud himself or to send a wraithly proxy to do so.
System : Whenever someone dies and becomes a wraith within a half-mile of the Ghiberti, the necromancer automatically sneses the demise (though many choose to ignore this “always-on” power unless actively seeking someone). This power does not automatically pinpoint the location of the new wraith or identify it, but the player may spend one Willpower point and roll Perception + Occult (difficulty 7) for the necromancer to gain a vague sense of the distance and direction to the new wraith. With one success, the Kindred may sense a vague pull in a general direction; with three successes, the necromancer can sense the direction and guess distance to within a quarter-mile. With five successes, the necromancer immediately senses the location of the new ghost to within a foo. A failure carries no penalty but a botched attempt naturally sends the necromancer scurrying off in the wrong direction.
The Storyteller may rule that disturbances in the Underworl, intervening magic or other similar phenomena cloud this sensation, simply to prevent overburdening a chronicle with constant ghost-hunting and dice rolling.
Lvl 5 Ephemeral Binding
The most puissant necromancers learn not only to sense the ties between living and dead, but to forge such ties themselves. The master of Ephemeral Bindings turns an otherwise mundane object or person into a depository for his own mephitic energy, the undying Curse transforming the subject into a sort of linkage between living and dead. The Ghiberti smears his blood on the item in question, which mystically absorbs the vitae and, in doing so, becomes a vessel to anchor a spirit.
System : The necromancer must coat an object with his blood (a full blood point's worth); if the subject is a person, then that individual must ingest the vitae. The player marks off the blood point, spends a point of Willpower and rolls Manipulation + Occult (difficulty 8). If successful, the item temporarily becomes a fetter to one wraith. If the Kindred already knows the name of the wraith or has a strong psychic impression, then the object can become a fetter at any range, even to a ghost who normally does not come near the living world (so long as the ghost still exists). Otherwise, the Ghiberti must be able to see or sense the ghost (with Shroudsight or other such means).
A fetter artificially created in this fashion functions for all necromantic and ghostly purposes as a normal fetter. It can be detected with other necromantic powers, the Giovanni gains a bonus to Necromancy against the wraith attuned to it, and the ghost similarly finds exertion of its powers easier upon the subject (so the Giovanni might turn an unwitting ghoul into a consort for a wraith familiar with possession...). The wraith can sink into the fetter to heal; conversely, if the fetter is destroyed, the wraith is banished to some inaccessible region of the Underworld, perhaps never to return.
A fetter created with Ephemeral Binding lasts for one night per success scored. The expenditure of an additional point of temporary Willpower increases this duration to a week per success, whereas spending a permanent point of Willpower extends the duration to a year and a night.
Botching with this power not only causes failure but also makes the ghost immediately aware of what the necromancer was trying to do. Most ghosts do not take kindly to meddling Kindred trying to make artificial chains for them.
Nihilistics
This peculiar collection of powers originates from the Underworld and from the nothingness energies of Oblivion. This is a trademark Discipline of the Nagaraja which only adds to their image as cruel and demented sorcerors.
Lvl 1 Eyes of the Wraith
The vampire can peer from the Living World into the Underworld and from the Underworld into the Living World the same way.
System : No roll is required, though using the power costs one Blood Point. The effects last the entire scene, and the character can shift her senses from one world into the other at will. While focusing on one world, she cannot perceive what is happening in the other. This power only allows her to look and listen.
Lvl 2 Consume the Dead
By using her fangs to cause damage, a vampire with this power can subsist on wraiths, gaining one Blood Point per Corpus Level consumed.
System : No roll is required, but the vampire can only drain up to three Corpus a turn. Note that this is not like the Kiss, and the wraith can fight to escape.
Lvl 3 Aura of Decay
The vampire can strengthen the feeling of corruption around her to the point where it can serve several uses. It can gnarl wood, rust metal, and erode plastic, glass and dead organic material. This power has a range of one foot from the vampire's body, but all those in the presence of the vampire will feel her corruption.
System : No roll is required, but this power does cost a Blood Point. Objects subjected to this Aura of Decay generally break down and become useless somewhere between one turn and one day after being targeted, depending upon the material, the type of object, and its complexity. A stereo would stop functioning the first turn, but it would take at least several hours to break down all the plastic, glass, metal and rubber in it. A wooden stake would begin to lose its pointed tup on the first turn and would be rotten and useless within a minute. Note that since this power requires the expenditure of a Blood Point, a character cannot cause Aura of Decay while staked.
Lvl 4 The Dark Touch
The vampire can direct destructive energies toward living, undead, and dead (wraith) opponents. The vampire causes them to suffer terrible pain and to begin decomposing. The nature of the effect varies. The vampire must be within 10 feet of the victim and must reach her hand out to him.
System : Roll Charisma + Occult (difficulty equals victim's Stamina + 3). The victim suffers 2 levels of damage per success.
Lvl 5 Nightcry
The vampire can issue an unearthly cry both heard in the Living World and in the Shadowlands, regardless of where the vampire is at the time. The cry will summon creatures of the Shadowlands. If the vampire is in the Living World, the creatures will appear in the Living World if possible. The Storyteller decides what types of creatures are summoned, though they should be appropriate to the area.
System : Roll Charisma + Intimidation (difficulty 8). The greater the number of successes, the greater the number or power of the creatures summoned. These will usually be the ghosts of people who has some connection to the vampire's current location. Creatures from Wraith : The Oblivion may also be used as summoned creatures, or whatever else the Storyteller desires. The character has no control over what is summoned. A botch indicates that the summoned creatures are extremely hostile toward the character.
Lvl 6 Black Bloody
This power makes many functions of vampiric blood work for wraiths as for humans. The Kiss now creates ecstasy, the vampire can Blood Bond wraiths into her service, and ghoul wraiths gain one level of Potence. The Blood Bond functions the same as it does upon any living creature, requiring three drinks to create a Regnant.
System : No roll is required and no Blood Points, except those drank, must be spent.
Lvl 7 Oblivion's Dance
The vampire swirls about, using her own body as a conduit to bring forth the nothingness energies of the Underworld into the Loving Lands. The energy pours from the vampire's eyes, ears, nose and mouth and affects everything in the vicinity.
System : Roll Stamina + Athletics (difficulty 8). The effect lasts two turns for each success. Treat the effects of Oblivion's Dance as Aura of Decay and The Dark Touch, affecting everything in the vicinity except the character, though it will affect the character's possessions.
Obeah
Although most modern Kindred who have heard of the Salubri know of them as soul-stealing abominations who should be reported to the prince, some elders still remember Saulot's line as a double-edged blade, gentle healers on one hand and matchless holy warriors on the other. Some Kindred have reported dealing with a Salubri who possesses frightening martial prowess. Whether or not this is the result of an avatism of this Discipline or an entirely separate power is unknown.
The characteristic third eye of the Salubri appears around the time that any vampire, regardless of clan or bloodline, developes the second level of Obeah. The eye opens whenever any power of the second level or higher is used. The Salubri give no concrete answer as to how or why this occurs. The most common theory is that the eye serves as a conduit for spiritual energies, both sensing and emitting them.
Lvl 1 Sense Vitality
The Salubri can feel the flow of a subject's life force afte touching him. Sense Vitality may be used to determine how much damage a person can withstand before death, which can be useful in sizing up a potential opponent. It can also aid in medical diagnosis or feeding, as it can reveal infections and diseases.
System : The Salubri must touch the target to see how close to death she is. This also requires a Perception + Empathy roll (difficulty 7). One success on this roll identifies a subject as a mortal, vapire, ghoul or other creature, or none of the above. Two successes reveal how may health levels of damage the subject has suffered. Three successes tell how full the subject's blood pool is (if a vampire) or how many blood points she has left in her system (if a mortal or other blood-bearing form of life). Four successes reveal any diseases in the subject's bloodstream, such as hemophilia or HIV. A player may opt to learn the information yielded by a lesser degree of success – for example, a player who accumulates three successes may learn whether or not a subject is a vampire as well as the contents of his blood pool.
Alternately, this power may be used as a sort of limited “aftersight”, revealing to the Salubri how the subject came to be in her current state. Each success on this roll allows the player to ask the Storyteller one question about the subject's health or health levels. “Was he drugged?” or “Are his wounds aggravated?” are valid questions, but “Did the Sabbat do this?” or “What did the Lupine who killed him look like?” are not. The Salubri may use this power on herself if she has injuries but has somehow lost the memory of how the wounds were received.
Lvl 2 Anesthetic Touch
This power may be used to block a voluntary subject's pain from wounds or disease, or to put a mortal to sleep. As with Sense Vitality, physical contact is required to anaesthesize someone. This power may not be used to block the Salubri's own pain.
System : If the subject is willing to undergo this process, the player needs to spend a bloo dpoint to block the subject's pain and make a Willpower roll (difficulty 6). This allows the subject to ignore all wound penalties for one turn per success. A second application of this power may be made once the first one has expired, at the cost of another blood point and another Willpower roll. If the subject is unwilling for some reason, the player must make a contested Willpower roll against the target (difficulty 8).
To put a mortal to sleep, the same system applies. The mortal sleeps for five to 10 hours – whatever his normal sleep cyccle is – and regains one temporary Willpower point upon awakening. He sleeps peacefully and does not suffer nightmares of the effects of any Derangements while asleep. He may be awakened normally (or violently).
Kindred are unaffected by this power – their corpselike bodies are too tied to death.
Lvl 3 Corpore Sano
The Salubri may heal injuries of others by laying his hands over the wound and channeling his own energies into the healing process. The subject feels a warm tingling in the affected area as it heals.
System : This power works on any living or undead creature, but the character must touch the actual injury (or the closest part of the victim's body in the case of internal injuries). Each health level to be healed requires the expenditure of one blood point and one turn of contact. Aggravated wounds may also be healed in this manner, but the vampire must spend two blood points instead of one for an aggravated health level.
Lvl 4 Mens Sana
This power allows the Salubri to remove a subject's derangements, or to at least migitate their effects for a time. Salubri Embraced in the modern age sometimes prefer to use psychological interview techniques, while older members of the bloodline prefer to whisper soothing words or perform exircism rituals. Some Kindred scholars believe the Antediluvian Saulot eased the Ancient Malkav's madness with this power, but a few others believe that Saulot may have caused Malkav's madness himself...
System : The player spends two blood points and rolls Intelligence + Empathy (difficulty 8). The use of Mens Sana takes at least 10 minutes of relatively uninterrupted conversation. Success cures the subject of one derangement of the Salubri player's choice. This power cannot cure a Malkavian of his core derangement, though it temprarily alleviates its effects for the rest of the scene. A botch inflicts the same derangement on the Salubri for the rest of the scene, and the target's own derangement is intensified. This power may not be used by the Salubri to cure her own derangements.
Lvl 5 Unburdening the Bestial Soul
The mainstay of the healing abilities of the Salubri, this power allows a character to stare into another individual's eyes and draw the subject's soul out of his body and into the Salubri's third eye, storing it within the Salubri's own soul while working powerful healing magics on it.
This power is the justification that the Tremere give for their pursuit of the Salubri as “soul-stealing fiends”. Tremere accounts of the diabolical practices of the Salubri ensure that few subjects are willing to have their souls removed from their bodies.
The subject's body becomes a mindless husk while it lacks a soul, and may not be affected by any mind-altering Disciplines or other supernatural powers – there's no mind there to control. However, it does respond to simple verbal commands from the Salubri who has its soul. If not reminded to eat or perform other personal upkeep, the body will not do so and will eventually die.
System : This power may be used to draw out the soul of any character except those with Humanity or Path rating of 1 or 0 or those who follow particularly inhuman Paths or Enlightenment; some souls are beyond redemption The player rolls Stamina + Empathy (difficulty of 12 minues the subject's Humanity or Path rating). A botch gives the Salubri derangement for the remainder of the scene. The Salubri must make eye contact with the subject and the subject must be willing to be subjected to this power.
A soul drawn out in this manner becomes part of the Salubri's while the healing process takes place. She may return it to its proper body at any time. While the soul is within the Salubri, she may spend a permanent Willpower point to restore a point to the subject's Humanity or Path rating. The Salubri may restore a maximum number of points equal to her Empathy score, and may not raise the subject's Humanity or Path higher than the sum of his relevant Virtues (for example, a character subscribing to Humanity with his Conscience 3 and Self-Control 3 could not have his Humanity raised above 6 in this manner).
While a soul is being held by the Salubri, its body is an empty husk, comatose or in torpor, with no motivating force within it. A souls whose body is killed immediately vanishes, its disposition unknown to any (although the Salubri strongly suspect that souls that vanish in this manner are completely and irreversibly destroyed). Killing the body of a drawn-out soul may warrant a Conscience or Conviction roll if the killer knows of the soul's absence, at the Storyteller's discretion. Thee's just no call for such brutality.
A soul that is being detained against its will mattempt to break free from the Salubri. This is resolved by a contested Willpower roll with the Salubri (difficulty of the opponent's Wits + Empathy). Only one attempt per night may be made.
Lvl 6 Renewed Vigor
The Salubri who has developed this power has heightened his healing abilities to such a degree that he can heal virtually any ailment as long as the subject still lives. All that is required is a touch and a brief moment of concentration.
System : The character touches the individual to be healed and spends a full turn concentrating. The player spends one Willpower point. At the end of the turn, the subject heals all los health levels, including aggravated wounds. If physical contact is not maintained for the entire turn, or if the Salubri is forced to take any action other than concentrating on healing, the Willpower point is lost with no effect on the subject of the healing. The Salubri may use this power on himself.
Lvl 7 Safe Passage
The Salubri may use this power to pass through a crowd without fear of hearm. This is not a powr that makes the vampire “invisible to the mind” as Obfuscate does, but rather a sort of “active neutrality” that makes all around the vampire inclined to treat her favorably and step out of her way. She seems inoffensive, pleasant and harmless, and people are respectful and helpful to her without stopping to consider why. This power also ensires that anyone who pursues the vampire of obviously wishes to do her harm is met with unfavorable reactions by those who have been affected by Safe Passage.
System : The Salubri may choose to “turn off” this power, but it is always in effect otherwise. If someone who wishes harm to the Salubri is in a crowd, the vampire and pursuer must make a contested Willpower roll (difficulty 6). If the Salubri wins, the puruer loses interest in the chase (“Why am I bothering with this when I could be at gome, safe, watching MTV?”) and loses a number of dice from his dice pools equal to the Salubri's net successes while pursuing her. If the pursuer wins, he is unaffected by the attempt.
If the Salubri is actively seeking shelter or assistance (“Excuse me, sir, can you tell me the best way to the airport from here?”), the player rolls Charisma + Empathy (diffculty 7). Each success reduces the difficulty of a subsequent, appropriate Social roll by one. This affects only attempts to gain seemingly harmless or innocent assistance, such as a place to stay or advice on the bad parts of town – a Salubri won't be able to get automatic weapons or low-grade heroin any easier with this power.
The effects of this power last until the next sunrise. Safe Passage affects only those who know the Salubri casually or not at all. Anyone who has known her long enough to form an opinion of her cannot be touched by this power.
Lvl 8 Purification
This power can be used to cleanse a person, item or place of demonic or malign spiritual influence. It is of paramount importance that the Salubri be of strong conviction and moral character, as he pits the purity of hos own soul against the corruption he is trying to purge. This power can be used against demonic possession or infernalism, those insidious temptations among the debased or power-hungry Kindred, but the price of failure is the Salubri's own soul.
System : This power may be developed and used only by a character with a Humanity or Path rating of 8 or higher. The player spends a Willpower point if the subject is willing and the corrupting agent does not resists (a rare occurrence). If the subject is possessed by a conscious entity, the demon (or other foreign consciousness) fights the Salubri for dominance. This takes place via an extended, contested roll of the Salubri's Humanity or Path versus the opponent's Willpower (each party's difficulty is the other's permanent Willpower). The winner is the first one to have three net successes more than the other. If the player fails, the attempt at purification also fails. If the player botches, the demon takes over the Salubri's body. Purification cannot be used on oneself and has no effect on the Beast or an alternate personality.
Once the initial removal has been successfully performed, the player spends a second Willpower point. The Salubri thrusts the demon into a nearby item, animal or person, trapping the demon in the selected vessel. This must be accomplished within two turns of the Purification and the target must be within physical reach. If this cannot be accomplished, the demon is likely to go free...or find another suitable vessel of its choice (such as the Salubri). If the vampire places the demon in a being who islikely to suffer from its presence, the player must make an immediate Conscience roll (difficulty 8) if the Storyteller believes that the character's morality would object. A botch, in addition to the normal consequences, releases the demon into the world.
Lvl 9 Unbind the Flesh -Clad Soul
The Salubri have always had a unique understanding of the nature of the soul. Some few Salubri elders may bestow (or inflict) upon others the fruits of that understanding. A willing subject may be permanently released from (or locked out of) her body to become a free-roaming soul upon the astral plance, empowered to explore the world (or cursed to wander) for all eternity without the constraints (or benefits) of physical existence. The possibilities inherent to this power are extremely unnerving to the few Tremere who are aware of its existence.
System : The vampire and a willing subject must both enter a deep meditative trance for a minimum of an uninterrupted hour as the Salubri performs the ritual necessary to separate soul from flesh without damaging either. During this period, the player spends a number of blood points equal to twice the permanent Willpower of the subject. At the end of the ritual, the subject's body slips into a coma and dies by the end of the night. Many Tremere and other cautious Kindred warn that the Salubri may misrepresent themselves and convince others to volunteer for a “release” from mortal concerns, when in truth they wish to trap the soul in another plane of existence.
The subject's soul is released from her body and enters the astral plance (see Psychic Projection). This separation is permanent and irreversible. The subject is treated as an astrally projecting character in terms of rules mechanics. However, she no longer has a silver cord and no longer needs one, as she exists independently of her body. If she is reduced to zero Willpower through astral combat, she loses one point of permanent Willpower and re-forms after a year and a day at the place where this power was used upon her. A character reduced to zero permanent Willpower is destroyed forever.
This power may only be used upon mortals (excluding mages) and vampires who are in Golconda, and the subject must have a full understanding of what this ritual entails – including its permanence and the impossibility of a reversal. The body of a vampire who is Unbound decays at sunrise. It is possible to drink the blood remaining in the vampire's body, but no benefits are gained from an attempt at diablerie. Any attempt to Embrace the body of an Unbound mortal automatically fails.
The Salubri may use this power on herself, provided she is in Golconda.
Obfuscate
This uncanny power enables Kindred to conceal themselves from others' sight. By simply wishing to remain unseen, a vampire can disappear, even if he stands in full view of a crowd. The immortal doesn't actually become invisible; he simply deludes any observers into thinking he has vanished. Additional uses of Obfuscate include changing the Kindred's features and concealing other people or objects.
Unless the vampire purposefully make shimself seen, he can remain obscured indefinitely. At higher levels of power, the vampire may fade from view so subtly that those nearby never register the point at which he “left”.
Under most circumstances, few mortals or supernaturals can penetrate Obfuscate's cloaking fog. Animals, operating on a more instinctual level, often perceive (and fear) the vampire's presence even if they can't detect him with their normal senses. Children and other innocents to whom deception is foreign might also be able to pierce the deception, at the Storyteller's discretion.
The Auspex Discipline enables Kindred to see through Obfuscate. Even that is not guaranteed, however; refer to “Seeing the Unseen” for more details.
Since Obfuscate affects the viewer's mind, Kindred cannot use this Discipline to cloak their presence from mechanical devices. Video recordings and photographs capture the vampire's image faithfully. Even so, such is Obfuscate's ability to bend the mind someone using a recording device will not see the immortal's image until she views the footage at a later date, if even then.
Several clans – Assamites, Followers of Set, Malkavians, Nosferatu – use this power, but it stands as the hallmark of the Nosferatu. A number of elder Kindred believe Caine, or perhaps Lilith, bestowed the clan with this Discipline to compensate for the hideous physical deformities its members suffer.
Most Obfuscate powers last for a scene or so, or until the vampire ceases maintaining them. Once evoked, they require very little mental effort to keep in place.
Lvl 1 Cloak of Shadows
At this level, the vampire must rely on nearby shadows and cover to assist in hiding his presence. He steps into an out-of-the-way, shadowed place and eases himself from normal sight. The vampire remains unnoticed as long as he stays silent, still, under some degree of cover (cutrain, bush, door frame, lamppast, alley) and out of direct lighting. The immortal's concealment vanishes if he moves, attacks or falls under direct light. Furthermore, the vampire's deeption cannot stand concentrated observation without fading.
System : No roll is required as long as the character fulfills the criteria described above. So long as he remains quiet and motionless, virtually no one but another Kindred with a high Auspex rating will see him.
Lvl 2 Unseen Presence
With experience, the vampire can move around without being seen. Shadows seem to shift to cover him, and others automatically avert their gaze as he passes by. People move unconsciously to avoid contact with the cloaked creature; those with weak wills may even scurry away from the area in unacknowledged fear. The vampire remains ignored indefinitely unless someone deliberately seeks him out aor he inadvertantly reveals himself.
Since the vampire fully retains his physical substance, he must be careful to avoid contact with anything that may disclose his presence (knocking ver a vase, bumping into someone). Even a whispered word or the scuffing of a shoe against the floor can be enough to disrupt the power.
System : No roll is necessary to use this power unless the character speaks, attacks or otherwise draws attention to himself. The Storyteller should call for a Wits + Stealth roll under any circumstances that might cause the character to reveal himself. The difficulty of the roll depends on the situation; stepping on a squeaky floorboard might be a 5, while walking through a pool of water may require a 9. Other acts may require a certain number of successes; speaking quietly without giving away one's position, for instance, demands at least three successes.
Some things are beyond the power of Unseen Presence to coneal. Although the character is cloaked from view while he smashes through a window, yells out or throws someone across the room, the vampire becomes visible to all in the aftermath. Bystanders snap out of the subtle fugue in which Obfuscate put them. Worse still, each viewer can make a Wits + Alertness roll (difficulty 7); if successful, the mental haze clears completely, so those individuals recall every move the character made up until then as if he were visible the entire time.
Lvl 3 Mask of a Thousand Faces
The vampire can influence the perception of others, causing them to see someone different from the immortal himself. Although the Kindred's physical form does not change, any observer who cannot sense the truth sees whomever the vampire wishes to see.
The vampire must have a firm idea of the visage he wishes to project. The primary decision is whether to create an imaginary face or to superimpose the features of another person. Manufactured features are often more difficult to compose in believable proportions, but such a disguise is easier to maintain than having to impersonate someone else. Of course, things get simplet if the Kindred borrows the face but doesn't bother with the personality.
System : The player rolls Manipulation + Performance (difficulty 7) to determine how well the disguise works. If the character tries to impersonate someone, he must get a good look at the subject before putting on the mask. The Storyteller may raise the difficulty if the character catches only a glimpse. The chart below lists the degrees of success in manufacturing another appearance.
Actually posing as someone else carries its own problems. The character should know at least basic information about the individual; especially, difficult deceptions (fooling a lover or close friend) require at least some familiarity with the target in order to succeed.
1 success The vampire retains the same height and build, with a few slight alterations to his basic features. Nosferatu can appear as normal, albeit ugly, mortals.
2 successes He looks unlike himself; people don't easily recognize him or agree about his appearance.
3 successes He looks the way he wants to appear.
4 successes Complete transformation, including gestures, mannerisms, appearance and voice.
5 successes Profound alteration (appear as the opposite sex, avastly different age, extreme change of size).
Lvl 4 Vanish from the Mind's Eye
This potent expression of Obfuscate enables the vampire to disappear from plain view. So profound is this vanishing that the immortal can fade away even if he stands directly before someone.
While the disappearance itself is quietly subtle, its impact on those who see it is anything but. Most kine panic and flee in the aftermath. Especially weak-willed individuals wipe the memory of the Kindred from their minds. Although vampires are not shaken so easily, even Kindred may be momentarily surprised by a sudden vanishing.
System : The player rolls Charisma + Stealth; the difficulty equals the target's Wits + Alertness (use the highest total in the group if the character disappears in front of a crowd). With three or fewer successes, the character fades but does not vanish, becoming an indistinct, ghostlike figure. With more than three, he disappears completely. If the player scores more successes than an observer's Willpower rating, that person forgets that the vampire was there in the first place.
Tracking the character accurately while he appears ghostlike requires a Perception + Alertness roll (difficulty 8). A successful roll means the individual can interact normally with the vampire (although the immortal looks like a profoundly disturbing ghostly shape). A failed roll results in +2 difficulties (maximum 10) when attempting to act upon, or interact with, the vampire. The Storyteller may call for new observation checks if the vampire moves to an environment in which he's difficult to see (heads into shadow, crosses behind an obstacle, proceeds through a crowd). When fully invisible, the vampire is handled as described under Unseen Presence, above.
A person subject to the vanishing makes a Wits + Courage roll (mortals at difficulty 9, immortals at difficulty 5). A successful roll means the individual reacts immediately (although after the vampire performs his action for that turn); failure means the person stands uncomprehending for two turns while her mind tries to make sense of what she just experienced.
Lvl 5 Cloak the Gathering
At this degree of power, the vampire may extend his concealing abilities to cover an area. The immortal may use any Obfuscate power upon those nearby as well as upon himself, if he wishes.
Any protected person who compromises the cloak exposes himself to view. Further, if the one who invokes the power gives himself away, the cloak falls from everyone. This power is particularly useful if the vampire needs to bring his retinue through a secure location without drawing the notice of others.
System : The character may conceal one extra individual for each dot of Stealth he possesses. He may bestow any single Obfuscate power at a given time to the group. While the power applies to everyone under the character's cloak, his player need only make a single roll. Each individual must follow the requirements described under the relevant Obfuscate power to remain under its effect; any person who fails to do so loses the cloak's protection, but doesn't expose the others. Only if the vampire himself errs does the endowment drop for everyone.
Lvl 6 Conceal
The vampire may mask an inanimate object up to the size of a house (Obfuscate cannot be used to disguise inanimate objects without the use of this power). If the object is hidden, so are all of its contents. While Conceal is in effect, passersby walk around the concealed object as if it were still visible, but refuse acknowledge that they are making any kind of detour.
System : In order to activate this power, a character must be within 30 feet of the object to be concealed and the item must hold some personal significance. The Conceal power functions as Unseen Presence for purposes of detection, as well as the duration and durability of the disguise.
Conceal can be used on a vehicle in which the character is traveling. In this instance, trafic patterns seem to flow around the vehicle, and accidents are actually less likely as other drivers subconsciously maneuver away from the concealed auto. A police radar gun still registers a speeding car maskes in this fashion, but the officer behind the gun is disciplined to make a traffic stop of the phantom blip. Using Conceal on aircrafts is problematic, as the power's range generally doesn't extend far enough to cover air traffic controllers and the like.
Lvl 6 Mind Blank
A vampire with this power is able to shrug off telepathic contact, easily withstanding invasive probes of her mind.
System : Any attempt to read or probe the character's mind first requires a successful Perception + Empathy roll (difficulty of the character's Wits + Stealth). Even if a potential intruder does succeed, his dice pool for the attempt itself is then limited to the number of successes he scored on the initial roll.
Lvl 6 Soul Mask
In addition to concealing her form, a vampire who ahs developed Soul Mask is able to conceal her aura. She may display whatever combination of colors and shades she wishes, or may appear to have no aura whatsoever. This power is of particular use to those of elder generation who have reached such heights of power through diablerie.
System : The use of this power allows the projection of only one aura (or lack thereof) – the vampire chooses precise colors to be displayed when she first develops Soul Mask. If the character has no experience with the use of Aura Perception, she may not choose an alternate aura, as she has no idea what one would look like, though she can still choose to display no aura whatsoever. Soul Mask can be bought multiple times, if desired, in order to give a vampire multiple alternate auras from which to choose.
Unless the player states otherwise, Soul Mask is always in effect. If the character has bought Soul Mask two or more times, her “default” aura displayed is the first one she learned.
Lvl 6 Mental Maze
Instead of concealing or disguising the vampire or an object, this power removes a victim's sense of direction. HE literally cannot see which way to go, forcing him to move in circles and binding him to an area of the vampire's choosing. The vampire can trap a person in his own home: to the victim's point of view the house folds back on itself, and all the exits lead back inside.
System : The vampire's player must make a Charisma + Intimidation roll (difficulty of the target's Willpower). The difficulty increases by 2 of the character cannot speak to he chosen victims, telling them they cannot escape. For each success, the character may affect one victim. The effects last a full scene.
Normally, the power is used in a multi-room structure such as a house or a good-sized Setite temple, or an outside area about the same size, such as a section of woodland. A much larger area (anything from an office tower to a neighborhood) reduces the difficulty by 1 and increases the duration a full day. If the vampire wants to trap a victim within a single room, the character must expend a point of Willpower. A character must also expend a Willpower point to use the Mental Maze upon supernatural victims such as werewolves, mages, other vampires or ghouls.
Lvl 6 Confusion of the Eye
This power extends the effect of Mask of a Thousand Faces to another person in a specialized way. While under the influence of this power, the victim perceives one other person of the vampire's choosing as someone else. For instance, the victim might hear and see the city's Sabbat archbishop as a mortal janitor, or a despised Anarch as a primogen whose favor the victim desires. The victim hears whatever the “masked” person says, but unconsciously explains away any inconsistencies in the person's responses. If the “masked” person directly tried to persuade the victim of his true identity, the victim will prove hard to convince and may become angry.
System : This power costs one Willpower point to use. The vampire's player makes a Willpower roll (difficulty of the target's Willpower). If the roll succeeds, the victim sees one person, of the character's choosing, as one other person of the character's choosing. The effect lasts up to 24 hours.
The victim will rationalize or ignore most evidence that the “masked” person is not who he believes. If the “masked” person tries to convince the victim of her true identity, the victim receives a Willpower roll to throw off the Confusion of the Eye ((difficulty 9, -1 per success the “masked” person might receive from a Charisma + appropriate Ability roll representing her attempt to convince the victim of his delusion).
Lvl 6 Scrawl
The Malkavian is able to tap into the recesses of his madness and encode his irrational thoughts within a written form. His writing appears no different than any other graffiti (although it may be distinctly irrational, like the scrawl on the walls of a madman's cell); however, other Malkavians are able to look at it and filter out the hidden message hidden within. In essence, the contagious madness of Malkav's blood acts as a medium for communication. If the writer so chooses, he can leave a message that can be read by all Malkavians, or by a specific Malkavian.
System : No roll is necessary to write encrypted messages; however, if the Malkavian is leaving a hidden message for a specific Malkavian, he must personally know either the intended reader, the reader's sire or one of the reader's progeny. There is no roll needed to read the message, either.
Non-Malkavians with Auspex 6 or higher, if they suspect a hidden message or pattern, can attempt to pierce the scrawl's meaning; doing so requires a Perception + Occult roll, difficulty 9. However, failure inflicts a temporary derangement on the reader, as he discovers exactly the wrong pattern in the writer's madness.
Lvl 6 Blithe Acceptance
Many Assamites undertake pursuits that would seem less than savory to most observers. Indeed, simply being known as an Assamite is enough to draw suspicion in many circles. This Obfuscate technique serves to dampen the repercussions of its practitioner's actions to a certain extent, making anything he might be doing seem much more tolerable. Bear in mind that Blithe Acceptance has its limits: while carrying a rifle down a street might be overlooked (“I'm taking this to be appraised.”), firing that same weapon into a passing car would alert even the most complacent observer.
System : The player spends a blood point and rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty 7). Any observer must roll an equal or greater number of successes on a Wits + Alertness roll (difficulty 8, reduced to 6 if the observer is actively looking for suspicious activity) to take note of the character's actions, so long as these actions are not physically threatening and the character does not attempt to directly interact with the observer.
Unlike most lesser Obfuscate powers, Blithe Acceptance remains in effect even if the character affects his physical surroundings or acts in an obtrusive manner. While using Blithe Acceptance, he could pick a lock, defuse a bomd, take money from a cash register or rappel down a skyscraper in Times Square, and all but the most perceptive or paranoid individuals would shrug his antics off and promptly forget ever witnessing them, as long as those actions stayed within the observer's definition of nonthreatening activity. The Storyteller is always the final arbiter of any given character's definition of “nonthreatening”.
Lvl 6 Gemini's Mirror
Legend speaks of strange Disciplines, mastered only by the most annuated Kindred, that allow the undead to split themselves in two. Gemini's Mirror doesn't have that level of power, but it does allow the character to appear to be in two places at once – or to move away invisibly while leaving an illusory double behind.
System : The character spends two blood points and rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge, difficulty 7. A mirror image of the character appears several feet from the character. The character may then move away, invoke other Disciplines or take any other action. The image can take any actions the character desires, though controlling both the image and himself in the same turn requires him to split his dice pools. The image remains visible even if the character hides his true self with Obfuscate or other Disciplines. It lasts for the scene, or until the character moves more than 100 feet away from it.
Lvl 6 Mask of Janus
Mask of Janus allows the character to assume the physical appearance of another individual, in much the same manner as Mask of a Thousand Faces. When a character assumes someone's form using Mask of Janus, however, the target's appearance also hanges – to match that of the character invoking the power. Unlike Mask of a Thousand Faces, Mask of Janus can be used only to duplicate someone exactly. It cannot be used to create a new or unique image.
Sytem : The player spends a blood point and rolls Manipulation + Performance (difficulty 7). The target must be visible to the character, though the reverse need not be true. This power works even over live or closed-circuit television. The victim can resist with a Willpower roll if she is equal or lower generation than the character. Compare the character's net successes to the chart for Mask of a Thousand Faces to determine her degree of success. This power lasts until the next sunrise.
Lvl 7 Cache
Most Obfuscate powers require the individual using them to be within a short distance of the subjects of the concealment. Cache extends the range considerably, allowing an elder with this power to leave people or objects safely hidden while he goes about his business elsewhere.
System : A character must be within the normal required distance to initiate an Obfuscate power. Once this is done, the player spends a Willpower point, which activates Cache on top of the already functioning use of the Discipline. The concealment will now remain in effect as long as the vampire is within a distance equal to his Wits + Stealth in miles from the object or person he wishes to conceal. The enhanced concealment fades at the next sunrise, or breaks, as always, of the Obfuscate subject reveals himself.
Lvl 7 Veil of Blissful Ignorance
This power's development is attributed to the Malkavians, but many Nosferatu have also found it to be highly useful. The Veil of Blissful Ignorance allows a vampire to Obfuscate an unwilling victim, removing him from the notice of others. Some Nodferatu use this power to teach a humbling lesson to individuals who take the presence and aid of others for granted, while other utilize it to remove an essential member of a group in the midst of a crisis.
System : The character must touch the victim to activate this power. The player spends a blood point and rolls Wits + Stealth (difficulty of the victim's Appearance +3). If the roll is a success, the victim is subject to the effects of Vanish from the Mind's Eye for a length of time determined by the number of successes the player rolls.
No. of successes Duration
1 success Three turns
2 successes One minute (20 turns)
3 successes 15 minutes
4 successes One hour
5 successes One night
The victim of Veil of Blissful Ignorance does not necessarily know that he is under the effect of this power. He isonly aware that everyone around him has sudenly begun acting as if he were not there. The victim cannot break this effect, even with violence; if he attacks someone, the target ascribes the act to the visible individual nearest to him. More than once fatal brawl has been incited by this side-effect. The Veil persists even if the vampire who activated it leaves the area.
Curiously enough, Veil of Blissful Ignorance can never be used on anyone who is ready and willing to accept its effects.
Lvl 8 Old Friend
Many elder Nosferatu have made reputations for omniscience with the secrets they learn through creative uses of this power. A variation of Mask of a Thousand Faces, Old Friend allows a vampire to probe a subject's subconscious and take the semblance of the individual whom that victim trusts over anyone else. Someone using this power does not appear as someone who the victim is frightened of or awed by, but rather someone to whom the victim feels comfortable revealing intimate secrets. Old Friend doesn't necessarily make its user appear as someone who is still among the living; a long-dead friend or relative is just as likely to be the assigned visage, and in such cases the subject remembers the encounter as a dream or a ghostly visitation.
System : The player rolls Manipulation + Acting (difficulty equal to the victim's Perception + Alertness, maximum 10). The more succcesses, the more convincing the impersonation. Each success also adds one die to all rolls involving the use of the Secondary Talent Interrogation against the victim. This power only affects one victim at a time; other observers see the vampire as she truly is, unless she also establishes a Mask o a Thousand Faces in addition to using Old Friend.
Lvl 8 Phantom Hunter
This frightening ability taps into the victim's actual self-image and grants the power found therein to the Lunatic. The Malkavian using Phantom Hunter can reach into his target's mind, draw forth the image of the person who has most shaped (or fucked up) the target's self-image, and then become that person in all respects. If the victim was most traumatized by her Embrace, the Malkavian might appear as her sire; if she was most affected by her overweening mother, then her mother suddenly confronts her; if a friendly priest managed to pull her back from the brink of self-destruction, the Lunatic might wear that priest's face. The phantom isn't necessarily accurate; as it's shaped by the victim's memories, the phantom might even be an outright caricature of the real figure from the victim's past.
Although the change is lagely illusory, it's more than skin-deep. Once the Malkavian has assumed the pesona of thep hantom, he gains whatever knowledge of the victim that the victim believes the phantom would have. If the victim beliefs her father suspected her of slipping off to have sex with her boyfriend on Sunday mornings, then the Malkavian learns of that little habit, and can use that knowledge believably. Since the phantom's knowledge depends on the victim's belief, then the Malkavian can wind up lacking information that the actual figure would ordinarily possess, but can also gain knowledge that the real-world counterpart wouldn't know. It all depends on what the victim thinks her phantom tormentor or benefactor knows.
Of course, assuming this form and faux memories exacts something of a toll on the Malkavian. Spending too much time acting (and thinking) like someone's personal bugbear can temporarily imprint the Malkavian with behavior patterns not his own.
System : This power requires a Manipulation + Empathy roll, difficulty of the target's Willpower. Each success allows the Malkavian to assume the phantom's persona for one turn. While this power is in effect, the Malkavian can destroy his target's confidence by using the secret knowledge so gained; any Dementation, Presence or Dominate attempts against the victim are at -3 difficulty, and the victim loses one temporary point of Willpower each turn that the “phantom” continues its rebuke.
However, the Lunatic must make a Willpower roll, difficulty 6, every turn past the first in order to retain full control. Failing a Willpower roll means that the Malkavian is oversaturated in the conjured phantom's persona, and continues to be haunted by the phantom's habits and prejudices for the rest of the night. This can be reated as either mild multiple personality disorder or mild schizophrenia; in either ase, the Malkavian temporarily loses some of his own self-image to the phantom's own pesonality. If the Willpower roll is botched, the phantom personality remains for a month or longer. In any case, the Malkavian no longer has access to the phantom's appearace or “memories”; the vague impressions of personality are all that remain.
Lvl 9 Create Name
Some Toreador call this power the ultimate development of method acting. Create Name allows a character to create a completely new identity; face, speech pattern, aura, even thought processes are constructed according to the vampire's desired identity. The power can be used to impersonate an existing individual, or it can project the semblance of a completely fictional identity with perfect clarity.
System : A vampire working with Create Name must spend three hours a night in relatively uninterrupted quiet to establish a new personality by means of this power. The player makes an extended roll of Intelligence + Acting (difficulty 8), one roll per night. A total of 20 successes are necessary to construct a new identity, while a botch removes five successes from the vampire's total. Once a new identity has been successfully created, however, the character can step into it at any time without any sort of roll. Any outside observer without Auspex 9 or the equivalent sees the artificial identity. The character's face, aura, Nature, Demeanor, even thought and Psychological Merits and Flaws all appear to be those selected and crafted by the character.
The only way to pierce this disguise, other than Auspex 9, is to notice any discrepancies between the assumed identity and the Abilities it by all rights ought to posses. A character with no dots in Medicine should have a hard time pulling off a created neurosurgeon, for example. The Storyteller should make a secret roll of Perception + Alertness (difficulty 9) for each character who should catch a slip made by the impostor.
Obtenebration
The bailiwick of the Lasombra, the Obtenebration Discipline grants its users power over darkness. The precise nature of the “darkness” invoked is a matter of much debate among the Keepers. Some believe it to be shadows, while others, perhaps more correctly, believe the power grants a Kindred control over the stuff of her soul, allowing her to coax it tangibly forth.
In any event, the effects of Obtenebration are terrifying, as waves of enveloping blackness roil out from the vampire, washing over their targets like an infernal tide. Blatant uses of this power are obvious breaches of the Masquerade – of course, any Camarilla neonate or ancilla caught using the Discipline had better have an impeccable explanation.
System : Lasombra vampires can see through the darkness they control, though other Lasombra cannot. Dreadful tales of rival Keepers struggling to blind and smother each other with the same wisps of darkness circulate among young members of the clan, though no elders have come forth to substantiate these claims.
Lvl 1 Shadow Play
This power grants the vampire a limited control over the shadows and other ambient darkness. Though the vampire cannot truly “create” darkness, she can overlap and stretch existing shadows, creating patches of gloom. This power also allows Kindred to separate shadows from their casting bodies and even shape darkness into the shadows of things that are not truly there.
System : This power requires no roll, but a Blood Point must be spent to activate it. Shadow Play lasts for one scene and requires no active concentration. Kindred cloaking themselves in shadow gain an extra die in their Stealth dice pools and add one to the difficulties of ranged weapon attacks against them. Vampries who use the darkness to make themselves more terrifying add one die to Intimidation dice pools. Opponents plagued by flapping shadows and strangling darkness subtract one die from soak and Stamina dice pools. Mortals, ghouls and other airbreathers reduced to zero Stamina in this manner begin to asphyxiate; vampires lose all appropriate dice but are otherwise unaffected. Only one target or subject may be affected by this power at any given time, though some modicum of concealment is offered to a relatively motionless group.
The unnatural appearance of this power proves extremely disconcerting to mortals and animals (and, at Storyteller's discretion, Kindred who hve never seen it before). Whenever this power is invoked within a mortal's vicinity, that individual must make a Courage roll (difficulty 8) or suffer a one-die penalty to all dice pools for the remainder of the scene, due to fear of the monstrous shadows.
Lvl 2 Shroud of Night
The vampire can create a cloud of inky blackness. The cloud completely obscures light and even sound to some extent. Those who have been trapped within it (and survived) describe the clouds as viscous and unnerving. This physical manifestation lends credence to the tales of those Lasombra who claim that the darkness is something other than mere shadow.
The tenebrous cloud may even move, if the creating Kindred so wishes, though willing this requires complete concentration.
System : The player rolls Manipulation + Occult (difficulty 7). Success on the roll generates darkness roughly 10 feet in diameter, though the amorphous cloud constantly shifts and undulates, sometimes even extending shadowy tendrils. Each additional success doubles the diamter of the cloud (though the vampire may voluntarily reduce the area she wishes to cover). The cloud may be invoked at a distance of up to 50 yards, though creating darkness outside the vampire's line of sight ads two to the difficulty of the roll and requires a Blood Point's expenditure.
The tarry mass actually extinguishes light sources it engulfs (with the exception of fire), and muffles sounds to the point of indistinguishability. Those within the cloud lose all sense of sight and feel as though they've been immersed in pitch. Sound also warps and distorts within the cloud. Even those possessed of Heightened Senses or Eyes of the Beast suffer +2 difficulty penalties for most actions. Additionally, being surrounded by the Shroud of Night reduces Stamina-based dice pools by two dice, as the murk smothers and agitates the victims (this effect is not cumulative with Shadow Play). More than one unfortunate mortal has “drowned” in darkness.
Mortals and animals surrounded by the Shroud of Night must make Courage rolls per Shadow Play, above, or panic and flee.
Lvl 3 Arms of the Abyss
Refining his control over darkness, the Kindred can create prehensile tentacles that emerge from patches of dim lighting. These tentacles may graps, restrain and constrict foes.
System : The player spends a Blood Point and makes a simple (never extended) Manipulation + Occult roll (difficulty 7)ss enables the creation of a tentacle. Each tentacle is six feet long and possessed Strength and Dexterity ratings equal to the invoking vampire's Obtenebration Trait. If the vampire chooses, she may spend a Blood Point either to increase a single tentacle's Strength or Dexterity by one or to extend its length by six feet. Each tentacle has four health levels (and is affected by fire and sunlight as a vampire) and soaks bashing and lethal damage using the vampire's Stamina + Fortitude. Aggravated damage may not be soaked. Tentacles may constrict foes, inflicting Strength +1 lethal damage per turn. Breaking the grasp of a tentacle requires the victim to win a resisted Strength roll against the tentacle (difficulty 6 for both).
All tentacles need not emanate from the same source – so long as there are multiple patches of suitable darkness, there are sources for the Arms of the Abyss. Controlling the tentacles does not require complete concentration; if the Kindred is not incapacitated or in torpor, she may control tentacles while carrying out other actions.
Lvl 4 Black Metamorphosis
The Lasombra calls upon his inner darkness and infuses himself with it, becoming a monstrous hybrid of matter and shadow. His body becomes mottled with spots of tenebrous shade, and wispy tentacles extrude from his torso and abdomen. Though still humanoid, the Lasombra takes on an almost demonic appearance, as the darkness within him bubbles to the surface.
System : The player spends two Blood Points and makes a Manipulation + Courage roll (difficulty 7). Failure indicates the vampire cannot undergo the Black Metamorphosis (though he spends the Blood Points nonetheless); a botch inflicts two unsoakable health levels of damage on the vampire, as darkness ravages his undead body.
While under the effects of the Black Metamorphosis, the vampire possesses four tentacles similar to those evoked via Arms of the Abyss (though their Strength and Dexterity ratings are equal to the vampire's own Attributes). These tentacles, combined with the bands of darkness all over the Lasombra's body, subtract two dice from the Stamina and soak dice pools of opponents physically touched in combat, for as long as the vampire remains in contact with the victim. The vampire may make an additional attack without penalty by using the tentacles (for a total of two attacks, not one additional attack per tentacle). Additionally, the vampire can sense his surroundings fully even in pitch darkness.
The vampire's head and extremities sometimes appear to fade away into nothingness, while at other times they seem swathed in otherworldly darkness. This, combined with the wriggling tentacles writhing from his body, creates an unsettling sight. Mortals, animals and other creatures not accustomed to this sort of display must make Courage rolls (difficulty 8) or succumb to a panic that amounts to Rötschreck (though it is inspired by the darkness rather than fire). Many Lasombra cultivate this devilish aspect, and the Black Metamorphosis adds three dice to the invoking Kindred's Intimidation dice pools.
Lvl 5 Tenebrous Form
At this level, the Kindred's mastery of darkness is so extensive that she may physically become it. Upon activation of this power, the vampire becomes an inky, amoeboid patch of shadow. Vampires in this form are practically invulnerable and may slither through cracks and crevices. In addition, the shadow-vampire gains the ability to see in utter darkness.
System : The transformation costs three Blood Points and occurs over three turns. The vampire is immune to physical attack while in the tenebrous form (though she still takes aggravated damage from fire and sunlight), but may not herself physically attack. She may, however, envelop and ooze over others, affecting them in the same manner as Shroud of Night, above, in addition to using Mental Disciplines. Vampires in Tenebrous Form may even slither up walls and across ceilings or “drip” darkness upward – they have no mass and are thus unaffected by gravity. Rötschreck difficulties from fire and sunlight do increase by one for vampires in this form, as the light is even more painful to their shadowy bodies.
Mortals and others not used to such displays who witness the vampire transform into unholy shadow require Courage rolls (difficulty 8) in order not to suffer the debilitating terror described under Black Metamorphosis.
Lvl 6 The Darkness Within
This power allows the Lasombra to call forth the darkness contained in her black soul. This enormous, turbulent shadow vomits from the Lasombra's mouth, though some Keepers are said to cut themselves and let the darkness seep from their veins. The shadow-cloud engulfs a chosen target, burning it with a soul-scarring chill and sihponing its blood away in torrents.
System : The player makes a Willpower roll and spends a Blood Point. The resulting shadow envelops the target and, though it does not physically harm the victim, it may strike terror into him. Individuals observing the Darkness Within, whether as targets or onlookers, may suffer the shadow Rötschreck, unless they are familiar with the Lasombra's power over darkness.
Individuals touched by the Darkness Within lose one point of blood per turn, though players may resist this effect by succeeding on a Stamina roll (difficulty 6) each turn the vampire remains in contact with the cloud.
The Cainite invoking the Darkness Within must devote all her attention toward maintaining the cloud. If the vampire is attacked, the darkness immediately returns to her, through whatever orifice it originiated. The Cainite can summon the darkness back at any time, gaining a number of Blood Points equal to one-half the number the shadow siphoned from is victims (round up). Taking blood from another in this fashion is similar to drinking from that vampire – blood bonds may result if it happens enough. Additionally, the Darkness Within may take blood from only one individual per turn, though it may be in contact with many.
Lvl 6 Shadowstep
The vampire has such fine ctrol over the darkness that he may become it briefly and reform himself from other darkness close by. The vampire may Shadowstep through walls, floors and even mystical barriers. The Cainite simply steps “into” a shadow and re-emerges from another shadow a short distance away.
System : The player rolls Dexterity + Occult, and on a successful roll, the character may emerge from another shadow no more than 50 feet away. Failing the roll means simply that the character cannot step through the shadow-realm, while a botch signifies the character has become trapped between shadows (which fiendish Storytellers should have a heyday with). Pulling another individual through the shadows requires a Strength + Occult roll, with consequences for failure similar to failing by oneself.
Lvl 7 Shadow Twin
The vampire's control over darkness has progressed to such a degree that he may bestow it with a limited degree of sentience. By animating his own shadow or that of another, the Lasombra can actually “set free” the shadow cast by light. While this power is active, the subject casts no shadow, as it has left to pursue the Lasombra's commands.
Needless to say, this power unnerves mortals and even a few inexperienced vampires. The Lasombra commands the individual's shadow, and some vampires report having seen mortals literally scared to death, as their shadows leapt away to taunt or menace them.
System : The player spends a blood point and makes a Willpower roll (difficulty 8). If the roll succeeds, the shadow springs to unholy freedom for one hour per success on the roll (though it disappears at sunrise regardless of how many successes the Lasombra had). The Shadow Twin has Attributes and Ability ratings equal to half those of its parent body; they won't do much talking or thinking, so Mental and Social Traits don't matter much, though Wits may come into play. Additionally, the Shadow Twin has an Obtenebration score equal to one-half of that of the Lasombra who animated it (rounded down).
The twin may seperate itself from the parent and travel up to 50 feet away, crawling through crevices or sliding up walls. It may attack and be attacked, though it takes and does only half-damage (again, rounded down); flame and supernatural attacks (werewolf claws, vampire fangs, magical spells, etc.) do full damage, however. If the Shadow Twin is killed, its parent loses half her Willpower pool and must roll to avoid Rötschreck (difficulty 9).
Lvl 8 Oubliette
By creating a “chamber” of pure darkness, the Lasombra may entrap or smother her enemies. No air exists in this shadow-trap, and mortals suffocate within its chilling void. Even vampirs have little recourse once trapped – they may leave only at their captor's whim. The Oubliette appears as a dense patch of shadow, unaffected by ambient light around it.
System : The vampire spends a blood point, but no roll nis necessary to create the Oubliette. The actually create the Oubliette around someone requires a contested Wits + Security roll against the target's Dexterity + Occult (difficulty 7 for both rolls). Mortals suffocate within a number of minutes equal to their Stamina (though the Lasombra may choose to leave their head exposed or trap a quantity of air inside as well), while vampires are simply suspended impotently in darkness and may not use Disciplines or take other actions. The Oubliette vanishes instantly when touched by sunlight – which as left more than one vampire under the sun's unforgiving rays – or when the Lasombra chooses to relax it. A vampire may maintain only one Oubliette at a time, which leads some Cainite philosophers to argue that it is a prison created form the vampire's very soul, and thus limited to a single incarnation.
Lvl 9 Ahriman's Demesne
This power allows the vampire to summon a darkness so obliviating that it extinguishes the light of life – or unlife – of any victim trapped within it. Ahriman's Demesne creates a 50-foot radius of void that issues from the Cainite's hand and takes away the bodies of those it claims when it vanishes. The overwhelming darkness destroys friend and foe alike, claiming anyone unfortunate enough to be within its circumference.
System : The player spends two point of Willpower and concentrates for three turns. Furing this time, the blackness billows out of the character's hand, growing to fill the area. At the end of the third turn, the player rolls Manipulation + Occult (difficulty 6). Everyone in the darkness' area suffers that many health levels of damage (aggravated, if the victims are vampires) outright – six successed yield six levels of damage, not six dice of damage. After Ahriman's Demesne does its damage, it collapses, taking with it the bodies of any who died when they came in contact with the dreadful shadow.
Potence
Vampires endowed with this Discipline possess preternatural strength. Potence enables vampires to leap tremendous distances, lift massive weights and strike opponents with terrifying force. Even the lowest ranks of this power gift the Kindred with physical might beyond mortal bounds. More powerful immortals have been known to leap so far they seem to be flying, toss cars aside like tin cans, and punch through concrete as if it were cardboard. While the mental Disciplines are awe-inspiring, Potence's brute effectiveness is formidable in its own right.
Clans Brujah, Giovanni, Lasombra and Nosferatu are the primary possessors of this Discipline. Still, members of other clans often make a point to search out someone who can enlighten them in the ways of Potence.
System : The player rolls all Strength-related tests normally, but then adds an automatic success for each point he has in Potence. Thus, the character succeeds at most Strength feats without needing to make a roll at all. In melee and brawling combat, the automatic successes are applied to the damage roll results.
While flesh and blood have their limits, undead sinews and vitae have a bit more latitude when it comes to feats of strength. Vampires who are close to Caine in descent are sometimes capable of strength-based maneuvers that awe even other vampires. A product of blood and will as much as of muscle and bone, mastery of Potence gives a vampire the ability to do far more than just lift progressively heavier objects – if the vampire himself is willing to learn an alternate way.
Advanced Potence powers can be purchased in the same fashion as advanced Celerity or Fortitude powers. A character can choose to learn an alternate power instead of advancing along the Discipline's normal progression, and can later go back and re-purchase what he's missed.
Lvl 6 Imprint
A vampire with extensive knowledge of Potence can squeeze very, very hard. As a matter of fact, she can squeeze (or press, or push) so hard that she can leave an imprint of her fingers or hand in any hard surface up to and including solid steel. A use of Imprint can simply serve as a threat, or it can be used, for example, to dig handholds into sheer surfaces for purposes of climbing.
System : Imprint requires a point of blood to activate. The power remains active for the duration of a scene. The depth of the imprint the vampire creates with Imprint is up to the Storyteller – decisions should take into account how much force the vampire can bring to bear, the toughness of the material and its thickness. If the object the vampire grasps is thin enough, at Storyteller option the vampire might simply be able to push through it (in the case of a wall) or tear it off (in the case of a spear or pipe).
Lvl 6 The Gentle Rebuke
Facetiously named, this power allows the Kindred to physically knock another character away from herself with the slightest of touches. Although this power does not damage in and of itself, its use is quite humbling, and certainly, to be hurled away from an elder in a social setting has its embarrassing repercussions. Some Kindred who use this power do so surreptitiously, touching their victims and sending them reeling across the room. Others use this power as a not-so-subtle display of their might, giving their victim a casual slap that has overwhelming results.
System : The player spends a blood point and the character must physically touch her target (which may require a Dexterity + Brawl roll in certain situations). The character on the receiving end of this power is immediately thrown a number of yards equal to the invoking character's Potence rating. The results of this vary by situation, and are left to the Storyteller – a character hurled into a wall may well sustain damage, while a character tossed haphazardly away might have to succeed on a Dexterity roll (difficulty 6) to remain standing.
Lvl 6 Relentless Pursuit
With thispower, the Kindred becomes capable of truly impressive physical displays. He may leap from rooftop to rooftop over entire streets, jump to a fire escape a few dozen feet over his head and other feats of athleticism. This is useful both for pursuit and evasion, but is quite a breach of the Masquerade, should anyone see this power in use.
System : Characters without thispower may leap a distance of two vertical feet or four horizontal feet per success on a Strength or Strength + Athletics roll (diifficulty 3). With this power, the character can jump four feet vertically or six feet horizontally per dot of Potence he possesses, needing only to succeed on a Dexterity + Athletics roll (difficulty 4) to land correctly. If this last roll fails, circumstances dictate the results – the character may overshoot a building ledge or simply land less than gracefully.
Lvl 7 Earthshock
According to some pundits, Potence is merely the art of hitting something very, very hard. But what do you do when your target is too far away to hit directly? The answer is, of you're sufficiently talented with the Discipline, to employ Earthshock. On its simplest level, Earthshock is the ability to hit the ground at point A, and subsequently have the force of the blow emerge from the ground at point B, some distance away.
System : The use of Earthshock requires the expenditure of two blood points, as well as a normal Dexterity + Brawl roll. The vampire punches (or stamps on, depending on personal style) the ground, and, if the attack is a success, the force of the blow emerges from the ground as a geyser of rock, stone and whatnot directly underneath the target. The attack can be dogded at a +2 difficulty, as it's a great deal more difficult to time a move away from an underground pulse than it is to duck a punch.
The range on Earthshock is 10 feet for every level of Potence the vampire has, up to the limits of visibility. A failure on the attack roll means that the strike goes errant and is liable to explode anywhere within range; a botch means that the vampire pulverizes the ground beneath him and may wel dig himself into a hole in the process.
Lvl 8 Flick
It is a truism that “the great ones always make it look easy”. In the case of Flick, that saying stops being a truism and becomes literal truth. With this power, a master of Potence can make the slightest gesture – a wave, a snap of the fingers, the toss of a ball – and have it unleash the full, devastating impact of a dead-on strike. The attack can come without warning, limiting the target's ability to dodge or anticipate, and thus making Flick one of the most feared applications of Potence known.
System : Flick costs a point of blood, and mandates a Dexterity + Brawl roll (difficulty 6). It also requires that the vampire make some sort of gesture directing the blow. What the gesture is remains up to the player – anything from a snap of the fingers to a blown kiss has worked in the past.
Flick's range is equal to the limit of the Kindred's perception, and the blow struck does damage equal to a normal puch (including all bonuses).
Presence
This is the Discipline of supernatural attraction. Kindred who develop Presence can inspire zealous fervor, devoted passion or unspeakable terror in mortal and immortal alike. This subtle power os one of the most useful Disciplines a vampire can have.
Presence is notable since, unlike virtually all other Disciplines, some of its powers can be used on entire crowds at a time. The vampire may bring large groups under her sway, so long as her face is visible to those she wishes to affect – Presence doesn't even require eye contact. Further, this Discipline transcends race, religion, gender, class and (most importantly) supernatural nature. In theory, the powers have the same chance of affecting a Methuselah as they do a cab driver. In practice, while Presence can sway virtually any immortal, older and more canny Kindred are much more likely to notice the influence and resist with preternatural will.
Quite aside from its deliberate uses, Presence conveys upon the vampire an indescribable mystique. She stands out in any crowd, drawing the interest (and often desire) of those around her even when she's merely standing still. The higher the vampire's Presence, the greater this allure and the more powerful its impact on others.
Anyone can resist Presence for one turn by spending a Willpower point and succeeding on a Willpower roll (difficulty 8), but the affected individual must keep spending points until he can no longer see the vampire (or, in case of Summon, until the effect wears off). The simplest way to deal with this is to turn around and stop looking. Those who don't understand that they're dealing with supernatural influences (as is the case with most mortals) seldom think of this tactic, but it's a simple assumption for vampires. Vampires three or more generations lower than the wielder need only spend a single Willpower point to ignore the Presence for an entire sccene and need not roll Willpower to do so.
The major drawback of Presence is that it controls only the emotions. It causes others to feel a certain way toward the vampire, but does not give her outright control over them. While people weigh strongly the orders that the vampire declares, their minds are still their own. Suicidal or ridiculous directives don't sound any more sensible just because the person giving them is unusually fascinating. Still, inspired eloquence or significant wealth used in combination with this Discipline can enable the vampire to urge others along a desired course.
The Brujah, Followers of Set, Toreador and Ventrue clans are all adept in this Discipline. The Ventrue are arguably the most skilled with its application, however, due to their ability to use Presence and Dominate in efficient combination.
Lvl 1 Awe
Awe amplifies the sublime magnetism this Discpline gives the vampire. Those near the vampire suddenly desire to be closer to her and are very receptive to her point of view. Awe is extremely useful for mass communication. It matters little what is said – the hearts of those affected lean toward the vampire's opinion. The weak want to agree with her; even if the strong-willed persist, they soon find themselves outnumbered. Awe can turn a chancy deliberation into a certain resolution in the vampire's favor almost before her opponents know that the tide has turned.
Despite the intensity of this attraction, those so smitten do not lose their sense of self-preservation. Danger breaks the spell of fascination, as does leaving the area. Those subject to Awe will remember how they felt in the vampire's presence, however. This will influence their reactions should they ever encounter her again.
System : The player rolls Charisma + Performance (difficulty 7). The number of successes rolled determines how many people are affected, as noted on the chart below. If there are more people present than the character can influence, Awe affects those with lower Willpower scores first. The power stay sin effect for the remainder of the scene or until the character chooses to drop it.
1 success One person
2 successes Two people
3 successes Six people
4 successes 20 people
5 successes Everyone in the vampire immediate vicinity (an entire auditorium, a mob)
Those affected can use Willpower points to overcome the effect, but must continue spending Willpower every turn for as long as they remain in the same area as the vampire. As soon as an individual spends a number of Willpower points equal to the successes rolled, he shakes off the Awe completely and remains unaffected for the scene.
Lvl 2 Dread Gaze
While all Kindred can frighten others by physically revealing their true vampiric natures – baring claws and fangs, glaring with malevolence, hissing loudly with malice – this power focuses these elements to insanely terrifying levels. Dread Gaze engenders unbearable terror in its victims, stupefying them into madness, immobility or reckless flight. Even the most stalwart individual will fall back from the vampire's horrific visage.
System : The player rolls Charisma + Intimidation (difficulty of the victim's Wits + Courage). Success indicates the victim is cowed, while failure means the target is startled but not terrified by the sight. Three or more successes means he runs away in abject fear; victims who have nowhere to run claw at the walls, hoping to dig a way out rather than face the vampire. Moreover, each success subtracts one from the target's action dice pools next turn.
The character may attempt Dread Gaze once per turn, though she may perform it as an extended action, adding her successes in order to subjugate the target completely. Once the target loses enough dice that he cannot perform any action, he's so shaken and terrified that he curls up on the ground and weeps. Failure during the extended action means the attempt falters. The character loses all her collected successes and can start over next turn, while the victim may act normally again.
A botch at any time indicates the target is not at all impressed – perhaps even finding the vampire's antics comical – and remains immune to any further uses of Presence by the character for the rest of the story.
Lvl 3 Entrancement
This power bends others' emotions, making them the vampire's willing servants. Due to what these individuals see as true and desiring devotion, they heed the vampire's every desire. Since this is done willingly out of love (albeit a perversion of it) instead of through sapping the subjects' wills, these servants retain their creativity and individuality.
While these obedient minions ar emore pleasant and spirited than the mind-slaves created by Dominate, they're also somewhat unpredictable. Further, since Entrancement is of a temporary duration, dealing with a lapsed servant can be troublesome. A wise Kindred either disposes of those she entrances after they serve their usefulness, or binds them more securely by a blood bond (made much easier by the minion's willingness to serve).
System : The player rolls Appearance + Empathy (difficulty of the target's permanent Willpower); the number of successes determines how long the subject is entranced (see the chart below). The Storyteller may wish to make the roll instead, since the character is never certain of her strength or her hold on the victim. The vampire may try to keep the subject under her thrall, but can do so only after the initial Entrancement wears off. Attempting this power while Entrancement is already in operation has no effect.
1 success One hour
2 successes One day
3 successes One week
4 successes One month
5 successes One year
Lvl 4 Summon
This impressive power enables the vampire to call to herself any person whom she has ever met. This call can go to anyone, mortal or supernatural, across any distance within the physical world. The subject of the summons comes as fast as he is able, possibly without even knowing why. He knows intuitively how to find his summoner – even if the vampire moves to a new location, the subject redirects his own course as soon as he can. After all, he's coming to the vampire herself, not to some predetermined site.
Although this power allows the vampire to call someone across a staggering distance, it is most useful when use dlocally. Even if the desired person books the next available flight, getting from Kyoto from Milwaukee can still take far longer than the vampire needs. Obviously, the individual's financial resources are a factor; if he doesn't have the money to travel quickly, it will take him a far greater time to get there.
The subject thinks mainly of reaching the vampire, but does not neglect his own well-being. This is less of a consideration if he only has to cross a room, unless, hem ust get through a gang of gun-wielding punks to do so. The individual retains his survival instincts, and while he shirk physical violence to reach the vampire's side, he won't subject himself to suicidal situations.
The summoning dissipates at dawn. Unless the subject is trained to continue toward the vampire after the first call, the immortal must summon each night until the target arrives. Still, as long as the vampire is willing and able, she is assured to greet her desired subject some night – a long as nothing happens to him along the way, of course.
System : The player rolls Charisma + Subterfuge. The base difficulty is 5; this increases to difficulty 7 if the subject is virtually a stranger. If the character used Presence successfully on the target in the past, this difficulty drops to 4 – however, if the attempt was unsuccessful, then the difficulty is 8.
The number of successes indicates the subject's speed and attitude in responding:
1 success Subject approaches slowly and hesitantly.
2 successes Subject approaches reluctantly and is easily thwarted by obstacles.
3 successes Subject approaches with reasonable speed
4 successes Subject comes with haste, overcoming any obstacles in the way
5 successes Subject rushes to the vampire, doing anything to get to her.
Lvl 5 Majesty
At this stage, the vampire can augment her supernatural mien a thousandfold. The attractive become paralyzingly beautiful; the homely become hideously demonic. Majesty inspires universal respect, devotion, fear – or all of those emotions at once – in those around the vampire. The weak scramble to obey her every whim, and even the most dauntless find it almost impossible to deny her.
People affected find the vampire so formidable that they dare not risk her displeasure. Raising their voices to her is difficult; raising a hand against her is unthinkable. Those few who shake off the vampire's potent Mystique enough to oppose her are shouted down by the many under her thrall, before the immortal need even respond.
Under Majesty's influence, hearts break, power trembles, and the bold shake. Wise Kindred use this power with caution against mortal and immortal alike. While Majesty an cow influential politicians and venerable primogen, the vampire must be careful that doing so doesn't come back to haunt her later. After all, a dignitary brought low before others loses his usefulness quickly, while a humiliated Kindred has centuries to plan revenge.
System : No roll is required on the part of the vampire, but she must spend a Willpower point. A subject must make Courage roll (difficulty of the character's Charisma + Intimidation) if he wishes to be rude or simply contrary to the vampire. Success allows the individual to act normally for the moment, although he feels the weight of the vampire's displeasure crushing down on him. A subject who failes the roll aborts his intended action and even goes to absurd lengths to humble himself before the vampire, no matter who else is watching. The effects of Majesty last for one scene.
Lvl 6 Love
The blood bond is one of the most potent tools in an elder's inventory. However, more and more childer are aware of how to avoid being bound, so alternatives are needed. The Presence power called Love is one such alternative, as it simulates the effects of the bond without any of the messy side effects. While heither as sure a method of control as a true blood bond, nor as long-lasting, Love is still an extremely potent means of command.
System : The player rolls Charisma + Acting (difficulty equal to the target's Willpower). Success on the roll indicates that the victim feels as attached to the character as if he were blood bound to her. Each success also reduces the victim's dice pool for any Social rolls to be made against the character. A botch makes the target immune to all of the character's Presence powers for the rest of the night. This power lasts for one scene and can be applied to the same victim over multiple scenes in the same night.
Lvl 6 Paralyzing Glance
Some elders have honed their mastery of Dread Gaze to such a degree that they are said te be able to slay with but a look. Paralyzing Glance is not quite as effective as all that, but its impact isn't anything to sneeze at, either. The power's name is something of a misnomer, as victims of this power are not precisely paralyzed in a physical sense, but rather frozen with sheer terror.
System : The character must make eye contact with her intended victim. The player then rolls Manipulation + Intimidation (difficulty equal to the target's Willpower). Success renders the victim so terrified that he falls into a whimpering catatonic state, unable to take any actions except curling into a fetal position and gibbering incoherently. The condition lasts for a length of time determined by the number of successes rolled. If the victim's life is threatened (by assault, impending sunrise, etc.), the poor wretch may attempt to break out of his paralysis with a Courage roll (difficulty of the character's Intimidation +3). One success ends the paralysis. A botch sends the victim into a continous state of Rötschreck for the rest of the night.
No. of successes Duration
1 success Three turns
2 successes Five minutes
3 successes Remainder of the scene
4 successes One hour
5 successes Rest of the night
6+ successes A week (or more, at Storyteller discretion)
Lvl 6 Spark of Rage
A vampire possessing this power can shorten tempers and bring old grudges and irritations to the boiling point with a minimum of effort. Spark of Rage causes disagreements and fights, and can even send other vampires into frenzy.
System : The player rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty 8). The number of individuals affected is determined by how many successes are rolled. If this power is used in a crowd, those affected are the people in closest proximity to the character. A vampire affected by this power must spend a Willpower point or roll Self-Control (difficulty equal to the character's Manipulation + Subterfuge); failure sends the target into a frenzy. A botch sends the character into immediate frenzy.
No. of successes Duration
1 success Two people
2 successes Four people
3 successes Eight people
4 successes 20 people
5 successes Everyone in the character's immediate vicinity
Lvl 6 Temptation
This power lets a Setite tempt the victim into some action that he normally wouldn't do. This is usually some sinful action, but that's up to the Setite: Temptation works just as well to provoke unwonted generosity as greed, or chastity as well as lust. The Setite must talk to the victim for at least a minute and allude to the action she wants the victim to perform.
System : To goad the victim, the character must receive a successful Manipulation + Leadership roll (difficulty of the target's Humanity or Path of Enlightenment rating). A simple success results in a change to the victim's personality and goals for a scene. If the number of successes exceeds the victim's Conscience or Conviction rating, the change lasts indefinitely (although the victim may overcome it with time and expenditure of Willpower, like a Derangement).
The Setites have created many variations on this power, such as:
Obsession: The victim suffers an overpowering lust for a certain substance, action or condition. She may fly unto a rage (the victim receives a frenzy check) if she cannot possess or experience the object of his desire before his next sleep.
True Will: For a time, the victim is persuaded to act on any passing desire, or according to his Nature, without self-restraint.
Lvl 6 Absent Sway
Some Toreador have learned to leave a “residual” Presence in their wake. Artists of the clan can imbue their artwork with certain emotions; territorial Toreador may leave palpable claims to domain wherein it “feels” as if they are a constant, looming threat. When this power is used, the Toreador can inspire those emotions in those who are not even within her presence. Art works it effect on those who view it and an area “marked by the Kindred” resonates with emotional undercurrents. The art or area must also be designed or appointed with the intent of inspiring that emotion in mind – in other words, an author is unlikely to be able to inspire hope in those who read his graphic account of World War I battlefield atrocities. Thus, the Kindred may produce a photograph of an emaciated chiled that makes viewers intensely sad or decorate his sanctum with such opulence that those within it doubt their own worth.
System : The character begins this process when he undertakes a work of art or decides to imbue a room with his essence. He must decide ahead of time which single emotion he wishes to inspire. The player then spends a blood point (which the character mixes into his paint or ink, or secretes in the general area) and rolls Manipulation + Expression (difficulty 7). Success indicates that whoever experiences the work or visits the area feels intensely the emotion the Toreador wishes to inspire. Obviously, roleplaying is the best way to illustrate this; much of this power is left in the hands of the Storyteller, and its effects are best handled by players. Storytellers may wish to mechanically “assist” players whose characters do not react appropriately to the power's effect – now allowing belligerent characters to spend Willpower in the presence of a frieze that inspires dread, for instance.
Lvl 7 Cooperation
Any elder knows that Kindred are the most difficult beings in existence to force to work together. Peaceful coexistence is not a common tenet of vampiric society. With that in mind, this power can be used to nudge those affected by it into a fragile spirit of camaraderie. Some cynical (or realistic) Ventrue claim that their clan's mastery of this Presence effect is the sole reason that anything is ever accomplished in Camarilla conclaves. Ventrue who voice this opinion too loudly also tend to have numerous chances to test just how effective Cooperation is.
System : To invoke Cooperation, the player rolls Charisma + Leadership (difficulty 8). The number of individuals affected is determined by how many successes the player rolls. Cooperation lasts for the remainder of the sene in which it is invoked, though particularly strong users of Presence may create longer-lasting feelings of non-aggression (at Storyteller discretion) by spending Willpower. Whilet his power is in affect, all those under its influence are more favorably disposed toward one another and are more willing to extend trust or make cooperative plans.
For the most part, players should simply roleplay Cooperation's effects, but there are some concrete ramifications to the power's use. Self-Control difficulties to resist frenzy in response to insults from within the target group are decreased by three. The game effects of appropriate Intolerance Flaws are removed, and Hatred Flaws are treated as if they were Intolerances.
No. of successes Duration
1 success Two people
2 successes Four people
3 successes Eight people
4 successes 20 people
5 successes Everyone in the character's immediate vicinity
Lvl 7 Phobia
By talking to her victim, the Setite can instill an irrational fear of a certain object, substance, person or condition. The object of the hobia can be broad (cars) or very specific (pink '79 Fords) – although the victim must be able to recognize and distinguish what the vampire wants him to fear. The latter example, for instance, would not work on a person who was colorblind.
System : Implanting the Phobia requires success on a Manipulation + Intimidation roll (difficulty of the target's Courage +3). A simple success confers a Phobia that lasts a single scene. Rolling more successes than the victim's Courage results in a Phobia that lasts indefinitely, although the victim may overcome the Phobia as if it were a Derangement.
Lvl 7 Scourging the Instinct
Used by elder firebrands of nights long past, this power is a bit too dangerous to see much modern usage, since the destruction it can engender is appreciable. Like a firebrand, the Kindred stands before his assembled followers and whips them into a righteous frenzy using the power of his personality and the force of his charisma. Those who heed his call succumb to the rages of the Beast that dwells deep in all of them, hopefully placing it on a short leash that allows them some control over their fury.
System : The player rolls Charisma + Leadership (difficulty 7). If he is successful, those who hear him speak h is words of revolution allow their Beasts to rise to the fore. Those affected are considered to be “riding the wave” of frenzy regardless of whether they have Instinct of Self-Control as their Virtue.
The number of successes scored on the roll indicate how many Kindred are swayed by the revolutionary fervor.
1 success One person
2 successes Two people
3 successes Six people
4 successes 20 people
5 successes Everyone in the Kindred's immediate vicinity (an auditorium filled with people; a gathered mob)
Lvl 8 Ironclad Command
Any individual can normally resist the powers of Presence or a brief time through an effort of will. Some elder Toreador and Ventrue have developed such force of personality that their powers of Presence cannot be resisted without truly heroic efforts.
System : This power is always in effect once it has been learned. A mortal may not spend Willpower to resist the character's Presence (for purposes of this power, the definition of “mortal” does not include supernatural active humans such as ghouls, hedge magicians or those who possess True Faith). A supernatural being must roll Willpower (difficulty of the character's Willpower +2; difficulties over 10 mean that the roll cannot even be attempted) the first time he attempts to spend a Willpower point to overcome the character's Presence. He may then spend a maximum number of Willpower points for the rest of the scene equal to the number of successes he rolled. A botch doubles the character's Presence dice pools against the hapless victim for the remainder of the scene.
Lvl 8 Corruption
This terrible power enables a Setite to break down the mental barriers between the target's Beast and libido. As a result, the victim becomes addicted to sadism as he takes pleasure in rage and aggression. The Setite can also reverse the connection, so that pleasure might rouse the Beast to frenzy. These two effects produce a spiral of desire and violence dragging the victim to madness.
System : To corrupt a victim, the player must pit the Setite's Manipulation + Empathy vs. the victim's Humanity (or Path of Enlightenment). If the Setite can accumulate net successes equl to the victim's Humanity or Path rating, the victim suffers the Corruption effect. A character with a humanity greater than 3 will automatically lose a point of Humanity for using this power (generally not a problem for the few elder Setites who know this power).
A corrupted victim must receive a frenzy check for anything that gives her pleasure, from sex to her favorite food. Like a frenzying vampire seeking blood, the victim will try to indulge her lust in the most brutal and immediate way. Note that Corruption works on mortals as well as vampires (although the human Beast is weaker, resulting in lower difficulties to resist frenzy). Conversely, a frenzying vampire might seek out more than blood in her rage. This may result in bizarre situations such as a maddened vampire smashing into a record store to hear his favorite music and killing anyone who tries to stop him.
The victim cannot overcome the Corruption by expending Willpower: Corruption is no mere induced derangement, but a fundamental alteration to the Curse of Caine. The Inconnu might know how to remove a Corruption – if they really do know the secret of Golconda. The Setie who laid the Corruption could remove it at will, but the Setites would probably urge the victim to view the Corruption as an opportunity for self-discovery.
Lvl 9 Pulse of the City
A Methuselah who has developed her Presence to this terrifying degree can control the emotional climate of the entire region around her, up to the size of a large city. This power is always in effect on a low level, attuning those who live in the area to the Methuselah's mood, but it can also be used to project a specific emotion into the minds of every being in the area. Pulse of the City affects residents much more strongly than tourists, and also has a significant impact on those individuals who might be elsewhere at the time but who still have strong ties to the affected city.
System : The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Charisma + Area Kowledge (difficulty 10, and the Area Knowledge used must apply to the city or region in which the power is being used). The number of successes indicates how long mortal residents are affected by the particular emotion that the character broadcasts; visitors with no ties to the area and supernatural beings are affected for a duration one success step lower. The character can choose to terminate this effect at any time before it expires.
No. of successes Duration
1 success One minute
2 successes 10 minutes
3 successes One hour
4 successes One day
5 succcesses One week
Pulse of the City can be used by a character in torpor.
Presence Overrides
Any vampire with Presence 6 or higher may employ Presence upon a character with the Merit: Blasé, but at a +2 difficulty. Presence 7 reduces this to +1 difficulty, and Presence 8 or higher allows the character to apply Presence to Blasé victims as if they did not possess the Merit at all.
Protean
This Discipline allows the vampire to manipulate his physical form. Some Kindred view this power as a heightened connection to the natural world, while others see it as a magnification of the mark of Caine. Whatever its basis, vampires who develop this Discipline can grow bestial claws, assume the forms of wolves and bats, transform into mist and meld into the earth.
Vampires can generally use other Disciplines while transformed – Kindred in wolf form can still read auras and communicate with other animals. However, there are some situations in which the Storyteller may decide that the immortal cannot use a certain Discipline. After all, a vampire in mist form cannot use Dominate, since he has no eyes with which to make contact. The vampire's clothes and personal items also change when he transforms, presumably absorbed within his very substance. Kindred cannot transfigure large objects or other beings; Protean is a very personal expression of undead power.
A vampire who has been staked, thereby trapping his soul within the mortal coil, cannot transform. Some Kindred claim that truly powerful Gangrel – those who have mastered the highest levels of Protean – can deny even this limitation.
Clan Gangrel lays claim to this Discipline, although other individual vampires have learned some of Protean's secrets from these bestial Kindred.
Lvl 1 Eyes of the Beast
The vampire sees perfectly well in pitch darkness, not requiring a light source to notice details in even the darkest basement or cave. The vampire's Beast is evident in his red glowing eyes, a sight sure to disturb most mortals.
System : The character must declare his desire to call forth the Eyes. No roll is necessary, but the change requires a full turn to complete. While manifesting the eyes, the character suffers a +1 difficulty to all Social rolls with mortals unless he takes steps to shield his eyes (sunglasses are the simplest solution).
A vampire without this power who is immersed in total darkness suffers difficulty of +2 to perform most feats. At the Storyteller's option, ranged attacks, extended actions and percision tasks (those requiring more than one success to succeed) cannot be performed successfully at all.
Lvl 2 Feral Claws
The vmapire's nails transform into long, bestial claws. These talons are wickedly sharp, able to rend flesh with ease and carve stone and metal with little trouble. The Beast is prominent in the claws as well, making them fearsome weapons against other immortals. It's rumored that some Gangrel have modified this power to change their vampiric fangs into vicious tusks.
System : The claws grow automatically in response to the character's desire, and can grow from both hands and feet. The transformation requires the expenditure of a blood point and takes a single turn to complete.
The character attacks normally in combat, but the claws inflict Strength + 1 aggravated damage. Other supernaturals cannot soak this damage, although a power such as Fortitude may be used. Additionally, the difficulties of all climbing rolls are reduced by two.
Lvl 3 Earth Meld
One of the most prized powers the Gangrel possess, Earth Meld enables the vampire to become one with the earth. The immortal literally sinks into the bare ground, transmuting his substance to bond with the earth.
Though a vampire can immerse himself fully into the ground, he cannot move around within it. Further, it is impossible to meld into earth through another substance. Wood slats, blacktop, even artificial turf blocks Earth Meld's effectiveness – of course, it's a relatively simple matter for a vampire at this level of power to grow claws and rip apart enough of the flooring to expose the raw soil beneath.
By interring himself in the ground, the vampire gains full protection from daylight when outdoors. It is also the method of choice for those Kindred who wish to sleep away the centuries; these vampires lock themselves in the earth's embrace, gaining strength and power as they rest. Suyperstitious and paranoid Kindred whisper that thousands of Ancients sleep within the ground and will awaken on the night of Gehenna.
While so interred, the vampire is in a transitional state between flesh and earth. His physical presence exists between the physical world and the astral plane. As such, the vampire is difficult to sense, even through supernatural means. However, a disruption to the soil that the immortal occupies, or to his presence on the astral realm, returns him immediately to the physical world (and to full wakefulness), showering dirt outward as his body displaces the soil.
System : No roll is necessary. Although the character must spend a blood point. Subsuming into the earth is automatic and takes a turn to complete. The character falls into a state one step above torpor during this time, sensing his surroundings only distantly. The player must make a Humanity roll (difficulty 6) for the character to rouse himself in response to danger prior to his desired time of emergence.
Since the character is in an in-between state, any attempts to locate him (catching his scent, scanning for his aura, traveling astrally) are made at +2 difficulty. Astral individuals cannot affect the vampire directly, instead meeting with a kind of spongy resistance as their hands pass through him. Similarly, digging in the material world encounters incredibly hard-packed earth as dense as stone.
Attempts at violence upon the submerged vampire from either side return him to his physical nature, expelling the soil with which he bonded in a blinding spray (all Perception-based rolls are at +2 difficulty for the turn). The character himself subtracts two from his initiative for the first turn after his restoration, due to momentary disorientation. Once expelled from the earth, the vampire may act normally.
Lvl 4 Shape of the Beast
This endows the vampire with the legendary ability to transform into a wold or bat. A Kindred changed in this way is a particularly imposing representative of the animal kingdom. Indeed, he is far superior to normal animals, even ones possessed by Subsume the Spirit. He retains his own psyche and temperament, but can still call upon the abilities of the beast form – increased senses for the wolf and flight for the bat.
Some vampires are reputed to change into other animal form better suited to their environment – jackals in Africa, dholes in Asia, even enormous rats in urban environments.
System : The character spends one blood point to assume the desired shape. The transofmration requires three turns to complete (spending additional blood points reduces the time of transformation by one turn per blood point spent, to a minimum of one). The vampire remains in his beast form until the next dawn, unless he wishes to change back sooner. Clothing and small personal possessions transform with the vampire.
While in the animal's shape, the vmapire can use any Discipline he possesses except Necromancy, Serpentis, Thaumaturgy or Vicissitude. Furthermore, each form gives the character the abilities of that creature. In wolf form, the vampire's teeth and claws inflict Strength +1 aggravated damage, he can run at double speed, and the difficulties of all Perception rolls are reduced by two. In bat form, the vampire's Strength is reduced to 1, but he can fly at speeds of up to 20 miles per hour, difficulties for all hearing-based Perception rolls are reduced by three, and attacks made against him are at +2 difficulty due to his small size.
The Storyteller may allow a vampire to assume a different animal shape, but should establish the natural abilities it grants the character.
Lvl 5 Mist Form
This truly unsettling power enables the vampire to turn into mist. His physical shape disperses into a hazy cloud, but one still subject entirely to the immortal's will. He floats at a brisk pace and may slip under doors, through screens, down pipes and through other tiny openings. Although strong winds can blow the vampire from his chosen course, even hurricane-force winds cannot disperse his mist shape.
Some Kindred feel that this power is an expression of the vampire's ultimate control over the material world, while others believe that it is the immortal's soul made manifest (damned though it may be).
System : No roll is required, although a blood point must be spent. The transformation takes three turns to complete, although the character may reduce this time by one turn for each additional blood point spent (to a minimum of one turn). Strong winds may buffet the character about; only his rating in Potence (if any) may be used to resist this influence.
The vampire is immune to all mundane physical attacks while in mist form, although supernatural attacks affect him normally. Also, the vampire takes one fewer level of damage from fire and sunlight. The character may not attack other physically while in this state – this includes encountering another vampire in mist form. He may use Disciplines that do not require physical substance, though.
Lvl 6 Earth Control
An Earth Melded character with this power is no longer confined to the resting place she selected the night before. She can pass through the ground as if it were water, “swimming” through the earth itself. Some elders use this as a means of unobstructed and unobtrusive travel, while others find it a highly effective means of maneuvring in battle.
System : This power is in effect whenever a character is Earth Melded, with no additional roll or expenditure necessary. While in the ground, a vampire can propel herself at half of her normal walking speed. She cannot see, but gains a supernatural awareness of her undreground surroundings out to a range of 50 yards. Water, roch, tree roots and cemet all effectively block her progressl she can only move through earth and substances of similar consistency, such as sand or fine gravel. If two or more vampires attempt to interact underground, only direct physical contact is possible. All damage dice pools in this case are halved, and doged and parry attempts are at -2 difficulty. If an underground chase takes place, it is resolved with an extended contested Strength + Athletics roll.
Lvl 6 Flesh of Marble
Tales have long spoken of the combat prowess of Gangrel elders and of their inhuman resilience. Poorly informed individuals believe the stories of swords shattering and bullets flattening against immortal skin to be exagerated reports of the effects of Fortitude. Those with more reliable information know that such tales result from encounters with Gangrel who have developed Flesh of Marble. The skin of an elder with Flesh of Marble becomes in essence a sort of flexible stone, although it appears no different than normal skin and muscle. Indeed, flesh transformed thus even feels normal to a casual touch.
System : The player spends three blood points to activate Flesh of Marble, which goes into effect instantly. The effects of the power then last for the remainder of the scene. While the power is functioning, the damage dice pools of all physical attacks made against the character are halved (round down). That includes assaults made with fists, claws, swords, firearms and explosions, but not fire, sunlight or magic (unless the magical effect in question is a direct physical attack, such as a rock hurled by means of Movement of the Mind). Additionally, while this power is in effect, a character can attempt to parry melee attacks with his bare hands as if he were holding some form of weapon.
Lvl 6 Shape Mastery
Gangrel who have mastered this level of shapeshifting may use the power of their blood to force other shapechangers to resume their normal forms. For the power to function, the Gangrel must have some portion of her blood in contact with the target, whether unwillingly or willingly. One Gangrel wag has referred to using this power on the Tzimisce Bloodform as “throwing good blood after bad”.
System : The Gangrel must first place her blood on the target. If the target has successfully attacked the Gangrel with natural weapons, or with a short weapon like a knife, this requirement is fulfilled. Otherwise, the Gangrel must smear at least one blood point worth of her vitae on the target by making a successful attack or sprinkle it surreptitiously on an unsuspecting target. This may be done in advance, but the blood must still be wet for the power to work. The Gangrel activates the power of her blood by spending an additional blood point and making a Perception + Survival roll (difficulty 7). Two successes are required to force the target out of his shapeshifted form.
The power persists for a full scene, or until the target removes the Gangrel's vitae from his body, whichever is sooner. The amount of time necessary to clean up the blood is subject to the Storyteller's discretion, taking into account the quantity of blood and the availability of cleaning supplies. The process should take at least one full turn of action even with large quantities of water available. If the target has actually consumed the Gangrel's blood, tough luck – the power will persist for the full scene. The target must reactivate his shapeshifting ability when and if he chooses to resume his adapted form, reincurring any associated costs.
This power is effective on the shapeshifted forms of the following Disciplines at Level Six and below: Obtrenebration, Protean, Serpentis, thaumatirgy, and Vicissitude. Most importantly, it also confounds the native shapeshifting abilities of Lupines and other werecreatures.
Lvl 7 Restore the Mortal Visage
The Gangrel are of two opinions regaring this power. Those who are politically active, or who associate extensively with mortals, view it as both necessary and acceptable. Those Kindred who embrace their more feral sides, however, see it as a disgusting defiance of the very nature of vampirism. The schism comes because the power allows the elder who possesses it to temporarily return his appearance to what it was before the Embrace, removing the bestial features he has accumulated over the centuries. Restore the Mortal Visage has only been displayed by Gangrel; several Nosferatu elders have attempted to develop it, and it is whispered that they met spontaneous, grotesque Final Deaths when they attempted to take their mortal forms.
System : The player spends three blood points and a Willpower point and rolls Willpower (difficulty 8). Success restores the character's appearance to what it was just before he was first Embraced, erasing all animalistic features gained from frenzies. The power also affects the character's Social Attritubes, returning them to their original values (asuming those were highter than the character's current rating). A botched Willpower roll earns the character another animal feature. Restore the Mortal Visage lasts for the remainder of the scene once activated.
Lvl 7 Shape of the Beast's Wrath
Users of this power are often mistaken for Tzimisce employing the Vicissitude power Horrid Form. The base effect is similar, although no Gangrel who possesses this power takes such a suggestion lightly. A vampire eomploying this power shifts into a huge, monstrous form, gaining half her height again and tripling her weight. Her overall shape flows into an unholy amalgamation of her own form and that of the animal she feels the closest kinship to (wolves, rats and great cats are the most common manifestations, though ravens, serpents, bats and stranger beasts have been reported). The vampire's new shape does bear some vague resemblance to the war-forms of the werecreatures, but the difference quickly becomes apparent.
System : The player spends three blood points, the expenditure of which triggers the change. The character's transformation takes three turns (the player may spend additional blood points to reduce this time at a cost of one point per turn of reduction). Once transformed, the character remains in this form until sunrise or until she shifts back voluntarily.
The precise Traits of this form are determined when the character first learns this power, as is the animal whose appearance the character takes on. The vampire's new form adds a total of seven dots to the character's Physical Attributes. At least one dot must go in each Physical Attribute, meaning that no more than five can go in any one (so a character could have +5 Strength, +1 Dexterity, and +1 Stamina, but not +2 Strength and +5 Dexteroty). These bonuses are always the same once they are selected; a different allocation requires that the character buy this power a second time and thus purchase another alternate form. Additionally, the character inflicts Strength + two dice of aggravated damage with both bite and claw attacks when in monstrous form. She also gains an extra Hurt lealth level, and doubles her normal running speed. Finally, the character's perceptions are also heightened. She is assumed to have both the Auspex power Heightened Senses and the Protean power Eyes of the Beast after transformation, with all of the benefits and drawbacks of each.
This form does carry two drawbacks. The first is a lack of communication ability. The character's Social Attributes all drop to 1, or to 0 if they already were 1 (except when making Intimidation rolls) when the transformation occurs. The second problem that a character in this form encounters is the sudenly heightened power of her Beast. All difficulties of rolls to resist frenzy are increased by two for the duration of the power's effect, and the player may not spend Willpower points on such rolls.
Lvl 7 Spectral Body
This powerful variation on Mist Form allows a Gangrel to take a shape with most of the advantages of the lesser power but fewer of the disadvantages. A vampire who assumes Spectral Form retains his normal appearance, but becomes completely insubstantial. He walks through walls and bullets with equal ease, and can pass through the floor on which he stands if he chooses to. Although his lungs are no longer solid, the vampire can still speak, a fact in which some elders of the Daughters of Caciphony bloodline have epressed great interest.
System : The player spends three blood points. The transformation takes one turn to complete, and lasts for the rest of the night unless the character decides to reverse it. When the power takes hold, the character becomes completely insubstantial, but remains fully visible. Henceforth, he is unaffected by any physical attacks, and he doubles his dice pool to soak damage from fire and sunlight. The vampire may even ignore gravity if he chooses to do so, rising and sinking through solid objects of he does not wish to stand on them (although he may move no faster than his normal walking speed while “flying” in this manner). While in this form, the character may also use any Disciplines that do not require physical contact or a physical body. On the down side, while in Spectral Form a vampire can physically manipulate his environment only through the use of Movement of the Mind.
Lvl 7 Animal Swarm
Upon activating this power, the Gangrel dissolves into a swarm of small creatures such as rats, crows or scorpions. The creatures remain under the Gangrel's control, and he may direct them in unison or as individuals. The vampire may reform from all or any of the creatures, but forfeits the blood carried by any creatures that do not rejoin the whole.
System : The Gangrel may disperse into as many creatures as he has blood points, with each creature carrying that one blood point; he may choose to form fewer creatures, in which case the blood points are divided as evenly as possible among them. The creatures may act in concert, or individually follow a simple plan such as “scatter and hide”. The Gangrel may pay close attention to only one component creature at a time. For example, he may listen in on a conversation using the body of one rat, while directing the dozen others to keep moving and avoid being seen.
This power lasts until sunrise, or until the Gangrel chooses to retake his humanoid form . At that time, all of the component creatures present are re-absorbed into the Gangrel's body, along with the blood points they carried. If this leaves the vampire with less than three blood points, he must check immediately for frenzy – the Gangrl who is forced to re-incorporate himself from a crow carrying a single point of his blood is potentially in bad shape. Creatures who do not rejoin the Gangrel's body may be re-absorbed through the course of the night. Any creatures left running around at dawn instantly dissolve into small piles of ash and blood, whether they are in direct sunlight or not. The vampire must reform at sunrise, even if only from a single creature, although he may choose which creature to re-incorporate from.
The vampire may use the following Disciplines while in this myriad form: Auspex, Celerity, Fortitude, Obfuscate, and Potence. Any Disciplines that require the expenditure of blood must be fuled from the individual creature that uses he power; component creatures reduced to zero blood points are immediately destroyed.
Lvl 7 Turnabout
Calling upon the shapeshifting powers of the Protean Discipline, the anarch melds with the earth, only to emerge from it on the other side of a foe. This tactic was originally one of the ones used by the Eastern European Gangrel and Tzimisce though the anarchs adapted it for use as a guerilla tactic during the Anarch Revolt and the marauding night of the early antitribu. Tonight, it is rarely seen, but a few ostentatious anarch elders keep it in practice. Mostly to impress their fellows and inspire fledglings with.
System : The player spends two blood points. On the turn after the character sinks into the ground, she emerges either behind or to either side of whichever enemies she left behind (theoretically, there's nothing stopping her from emerging in the same spot where she disappeared, but it sort of defeats the purpose). If the character wishes, she may choose not to emerge immediately, in which case this power is little more than an expensive version of Earth Meld. The primary difference, however, is that the character may move through the earth that surrounds her, traveling as much as 50 feet in any direction in the single turn spent under the surface of the soil. Moving any further, however, regardless of time spent underground, is a different permutation of the Protean Discipline. Turnabout's focus is diving into and emerging quickly from the ground.
Lvl 8 Purify the Impaled Breast
Camarilla records indicate that a disproporionately small number of Gangrel elders were killed by mortals and anarchs during the Inquisition and the Anarch Revolt. This power is one of the primary reasons for the survival of these Kindred. Until recently, the clan parcticed a less powerful version of Purify the Impaled Breast, one which only allowed very limited movement. In recent nights, knowledge of a long-lost, stronger version of the power has been disseminated through the clan. An elder Gangrel with this Protean power can expel foreign objects from her body with great force, even excising stakes that transfix her heart.
System : The player spends three blood points and rolls Willpower (difficulty 6, or 8 if the vampire is paralyzed by an object impaling her heart). One success is sufficient to remove all foreign objects and substances from the character's body. Dirt, bullets, even stakes through the heart are instantly and violently removed. The larget the object, the farther away it is hurled by this power. Objects expelled thus are considered to have an attack dice pool of three for any bystanders, and to have a dice pool of one to four (depending on size) for damage.
If the character wishes to leave an object in his body (such as a prostethic limb) or partially in (expelling a stake from his heart but leaving it sticking out of his breastbone as a ruse), the player must spend a Willpower point when this power is activated.
Lvl 8 Mythic Form
Using this power, the Gangrel transforms himself into a creature of myth, complete with the terrifying abilities that such creatures must have possessed. The mythical beast form usually has roots in the Gangrel's cultural tradition: e.g. Ancient Scythian vampires often cose the form of the griffin, Egyptian Gangrel may choose the sphinx, and Native American vampires may opt for the form of the thunderbird. In addition to the great size and terrifying mien of these creatures, the Gangrel also acquires any special abilities commonly attributes to the mythic beast; a griffin, for example, would have the ability to fly and a devastating claw attack.
System : The player spends three blood points to trigger the change. The transformation requires three turns (additional blood points may not be spent to speed the change, but the Gangrel may continue to act without penalty as the transformation occurs). The transformation lasts until the next sunrise, or until the vampire voluntarily returns to her natural form. Note that characters hailing from cultures that have no mythic tradition, such as modern American cultures, cannot assume any mythic form.
The mythic beast represented and the Physical Traits of the form must be determined when the vampire first learns this ability, and may not be changed at a later time. The mythic form adds a total of nine points to the character's Physical Attributes; at least +1 must be added to each Physical Attribute. The character also gains two Bruised health levels and two Hurt health levels. The character's powers of perception are greatly enhanced in the mythic form; the vampire gains the effects of the Auspex power Heightened Senses and the Protean power Eyes of the Beast upon assuming the mythic form, along with the drawbacks associated with these powers. While transformed, the character retains the ability to speak, although her voice will be changed to refleect the nature of the assumed form. Finally, the vampire in mythic beast form radiates an aura of legendary force that acts as the Presence power Awe. Offensive action taken by the vampire nullifies the Awe effect as per the standard rules.
The special abilities of the mythic form are subject to the Storyteller's approval, as they can and should be dramatic and terrifying. As a guideline, the mythic form should have one enhanced movement ability, one dfensive ability, several close combat attacks, and one special power, including ranged attacks.
Enhanced movement abilities include flight, swimming, running at incredible speeds or even tunneling.
Armor (3-5 points) is the standard defensive ability, but certain mythic creatures may instead by invulnerable to strictly defined forms of damage (excluding fire, sunlight, and Faith).
Close combat attacks cause aggravated damage at a minimum of Strength +2. Having more than one close combat attack, such as both claws and teeth, does not grant additional combat actions; the vampire must split her dice pools normally, or use Celerity.
Ranged attacks cause three levels of aggravated damage per blood point spent for the attack. The range of such attacks is the vampire's Stamina x2, and the area of effect is a diameter of her Stamina rating in feet. Dexterity + Athletics (difficulty 6) should be rolled to hit; extra successes do not add to damage.
Other special powers, like the mesmerizing ability of the sphinx's riddle game or the purifying power of the unicorn's horn, must be worked out in detail with the Storyteller on a case-by-case basis.
Sample Mythic Form : Dragon
+3 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +4 Stamina. Flight at normal running movement rate. Three dice of armor usable against aggravated damage. Bite and claw attacks at Strength +2 aggravated damage. Fiery breath as per standard ranged attacks above.
Lvl 9 Inward Focus
This power has no outwardly visible effects whatsoever. Indeed, its very existence is unknown othose dozen or so Gangrel Methuselahs who have developed it. The internal effects of this razor-sharp honing of Protean, however, are in some ways more dramatic than any external manifestation. A vampire with this power can heighten the efficiency of his undead body's internal workings to levels undreamed of by lesser Kindred, withstanding inconceivable amounts of injury and moving with blinding speed and shattering strength.
System : The player spends four blood points to activate this power and an additional two blood points for every turn past the first that Inward Focus is maintained. There are three effects of this power. First, the character gains a number of extra actions during each turn equal to his unmodified (by alternate forms of blood point expenditure) Dexterity score. Second, the damage of his physical attacks is increased by three dice per dice pool. Finally, all damage inflicted on the character is halved and rounded down after the soak roll is made (so an attack that inflicts five health levels after soak is reduced to two health levels).
This power may be used in conjunction with other Protean powers that modify the character's combat abilities, such as Shape of the Beast's Wrath (above). It may also be used in conjunction with Celerity, Fortitude and Potence, turning a Gangrel who has mastered this power into a truly terrifying opponent.
Quietus
Quietus, the Discipline of silent death, is practiced by the assassins of Clan Assamite. Using the principles of poison, vitae control and pestilence, this blood-based Discipline focuses on the destruction of its target through varying means. Quietus does not always cause a quick death; the Assassins rely upon its secret lethality to hide their involvement with their victims.
Lvl 1 Silence of Death
Many Assamites claim never to have heard their targets' death screams. Silence of Death imbues the Assamite with a mystical silence that radiates from her body, muting all noise within a certain vicinity. No sound occurs inside this zone, though sounds originating outside the area of effect may be heard by anyone within it. Rumors abound of certain skilled Assamite viziers who have the ability to silence a location rather than a circumference that follows them, but no proof of this has been forthcoming.
System : This power costs one Blood Point to activate, which maintains a 20-foot radius of utter stillness around the Assamite for one hour.
Lvl 2 Scorpion's Touch
By changing the properties of her blood, an Assamite may create powerful venom that strips her prey of his resilience. This power is greatly feared by other Kindred, and all manner of hideous tales concerning methods of delivery circulate among trembling coteries. Assamites are known to deliver the poison by coating their weapons with it, blighting their opponents with a touch, or spitting it like a cobra. An apocryphal account speaks of a proud prince who discovered an Assamite plotting her exsanguination and began to diablerize her would-be assassin. Halfway through the act, she learned that she had ingested a dire quantity of tainted blood and was then unable to resist the weakened hashashiyyin's renewed attack.
System : To convert a bit of her blood to poison, the Assamite's player spenda at least one Blood Point and rolls Willpower (difficulty 6). If this roll is successful, and the Assamite successfully hits (but not necessarily damages) her opponent, the target loses a number of Stamina points equal to the number of Blood Points converted into poison. The victim may resist the poison with a Stamina + Fortitude roll (difficulty 6); successes achieved on the resistance roll subtract from the Assamite's successes to affect the target. The maximum number of Blood Points an Assamite may convert at any one time equals her Stamina. The number of successes scored indicates the duration of the Stamina loss.
1 success One turn
2 successes One hour
3 successes One day
4 successes One month
5 successes Permanently (though Stamina may be bought back up with experience)
If a mortal's Stamina falls to zero through use of Scorpion's Touch, she becomes terminally ill and loses immunity to diseases, her body succumbing to sickness within the year unless she somehow manages to increase her Stamina again. If a Kindred's Stamina falls to zero, the vampire enters torpor and remains that way until one of her Stamina points returns. If a Kindred is permanently reduced to zero Stamina, she may recover from torpor only through mystical means.
To afflict her target with the poison, the Assamite must touch her target's flesh or hit that target with something that carries the venom. Many Assamites lubricate their weapons with the excretion, while others pool the toxin in their hands (or flesk their lips with the poison, for a “kiss of death”) and press it to their opponents. Weapons so envenomed must be of the melee variety – arrows, sling stones, bullets and the like cannot caryy enough of the stuff to do damage, and it drips off in flight. Players whose Assamites wish to spit at their targets must make a Stamina + Athletics roll (difficulty 6). No more than two Bood Points' worth of poison may be expectorated, and a Kindred may spit a distance of 10 feet for each point of Strength and/or Potence the character possesses. Assamites are immune to their own poison, but not the blood-venom of other Assamites.
Lvl 3 Dagon's Call
This terrible and recently rediscovered power allows an Assamite to drown her target in his own blood. By concentrating, the Assamite bursts her target's blood vessels and fills his lungs with vitae that proceeds to strangle him from within. The blood actually constricts the target's body from the inside as it floods through his system; thus, it works even on unbreathing Kindred. Until the target collapses in agony of death throes, this power has no visible effect, and many Assamites prefer it because it leaves no trace of their presence.
System : The Assamite mus touch her target prior to u sing Dagon's Call. Within an hour thereafter, the Assamite may issue the call, though she need not be in the presence or even in the line of sight of her target.
Invoking the power costs one Willpower point. The Assamite's player makes a contested Stamina roll against the target's Stamina; the difficulty of each roll is equal to the opponent's permanent Willpower score. The number of successes the Assamite achieves is the amount of damage, in health levels, the victim suffers. For an additional point of Willpower spent in the next turn, the Assamite may continue using Dagon's Call by engaging in another contested Stamina roll. Damage from Dagon's Call is considered lethal. So long as the Assamite's player continues to spend Willpower, the character may continue rending her opponent from within.
Lvl 4 Baal's Caress
The penultimate use of blood as a weapon (short of diablerie itself), Baal's Caress allows the Assamite to transmute her blood into a virulent ichor that destroys any living or undead flesh it touches. In nights of yore, when Assamites led the charges of Saracen legions, the Assassins were often seen licking their blades, slicing open their tongues and lubricating their weapons with this foul secretion.
Baal's Caress may be used to augment any bladed weapon; everything from poisoned knives and swords to tainted fingernails and claws has been reported.
System : Baal's Caress does not increase the damage done by a given weapon, but that weapon inflicts aggravated damage rather than normal. No roll is necessary to activate this power, but one Blood Point is consumed per hit. For example, if an Assamite poisons his knife and strikes his opponent (even if he inflicts no damage), one Blood Point's worth of lubrication disappears. For this reason, many Assamites choose to coat their weapons with a significant quantity of blood. If the Assamite misses, no tainted blood is consumed.
Lvl 5 Taste of Death
A refinement of Baal's Caress, Taste of Death allows the Assamite to spit caustic blood at her target. The blood coughed forth with this power burns flesh and corrodes bone; some Assamites have bene reported to vomit voluminous streams of vitae that reduce their targets to heaps of sludge.
System : The vampire may spit up to 10 feet for each dot of Strength and/or Potence he possesses. Hitting the target requires a Stamina + Athletics roll (difficulty 6). Each Blood Point spewed at the target inflicts two dice of aggravated damage, and thee is no limit (other than the vampire's capacity and per-turn expenditure maximum) to the quantity of blood with which a target may be deluged.
Lvl 6 Blood Sweat
Although vampires do not have functioning sebaceous glands, they are still capable of sweating at times of extreme stress. This “sweat” is actually a thin sheen of blood on the Cainite's forehead and palms. Most Kindred see blood sweat as an admission of fear or guilt. The Assamite who has mastered Blood Sweat is capable of inducing these feelings in a subject to a preternatural degree. The victim experiences a torrential outpouring of vitae if he harbors the tiniest shred of remorse for any action he has ever undertaken.
System : The character must be within line of sight of the subject and spend three turns in concentration. The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Manipulation + Intimidation (difficulty of the target's Willpower). The target loses one bloo dpoint per success. Mortals sustain injury as if they has lost blood from being fed upon. The target actually “sweats out” the lost blood in a sudden rush of sanguinary perspiration that soaks his clothes. Larg amounts may even form puddles at his feet. Blood lost through this process is considered ead, inert mortal blood and provides minimal nutrition (half normal) for Cainites desperate enough to lick it up from the floor or wring it our of towels. It provides no sustenance for the individual from whom it most recently emerged.
In addition to the blood loss, the victim is overcome by a sense of remorse and guilt for his pasat transgressions (if he has a strong conscience) or an overwhelming compulsion to brag (if he is of sufficiently coarse moral character). The severity of this impulse depends on the number of successes rolled; one success causes a slight twinge of conscience, while five successes may result in a proud declaration of the subject's crimes. This effect is more storytelling-oriented than mechanical, and the Storyteller is the final authority on what the victim feels compelled to confess or boast.
Note that his power's existence is not widely known. Vampires and mortals alike tend to shrink away from someone who begins spontaneously sweating blood, and experiencing such an affliction may panic even the staunchest individual.
Lvl 6 Selective Silence
Although Silence of Death is an effective tool for the battlefield and the court alike, it is indiscriminate in its effects. The assassin who uses it in preparation for firing a shotgun also silences the radio over which her comrades might warn her of an oncoming guard. The courtier who surpresses a room full of dissenting voices is likewise unable to speak her own mind. Selective Silence allows the skilled Assamite to overcome these limitations by silencing only those individuals or objects that she wants to silence.
When using this power, most individuals exhale a thin mist of blood that clings to the selected subjects, gradually evaporating as Selective Silence's effects fade. Some Assamites also use a similar technique when invoking Silence of Death, in which case the mist surrounds them and moves with them.
System : The player spends two blood points and rolls Stamina + Stealth (difficulty 7). Each success is one individual or object that the characte can silence with the use of this power. Each subject must be within 20 yards of the character. Objects larger than a man count as two, a car as three, and a small aircraft as five. Objects larger than a private jet or creatures larger than an elephant cannot be silenced through the use of this power.
Each subject is completely silenced for a number of minutes equal to the character's permanent Willpower. Nothing it does generates sound, though the secondary effects of its actions will do so normally. For example, a gun silenced with this power will not produce an audible explosion when fired, but its bullets still make noise as they break the sound barrier. A silenced victim can scream all he likes and not make a sound, but may be able to summon help by smashing a window.
Lvl 6 Ripples of the Heart
According to Assamite lore, this technique originated with a Byzantine scholar who wanted to protect his herd from the thirst of other Cainites. Ripples of the Heart allows a Cainite to leave emotions within the bloodstream of any mortal from whom he feeds. Any other vampire who subsequently drinks from that mortal experiences those same emotions as if they were his own.
System : The character drinks at least one blood point from the subject mortal and then spends a minute in physical contact with the subject while concentrating on the emotion he wishes to leave in her blood. The player spends a point of Willpower and rolls Charisma + Empathy (difficulty 7 under normal circumstances, 5 if the character is currently experiencing the intended emotion, 9 if he is currently experiencing a strong opposite emotion). The subject's blood carries the weight of the intended emotion for one lunar month per success rolled. A mortal's blood can only carry one emotion at a time. Subsequent attempts to use Ripples of the Heart on the same individual have no effect until the previous application has worn off.
Any vampire who drinks from a vessel under the effects of Ripples of the Heart must succeed in a Self-Control roll (difficulty of the mortal's Willpowr) as soon as she swallows the first blood point. If she fails this roll, the vitae-born emotion immediately overtakes her. The strength of the emotion depends on how many blood points she drinks. One blood point results in a momentary mood swing, two cause a significant shift in demeanor, and three or more generate a complete change in emotional state. Depending on the circumstances and the precise emotion, the effects of this may be spectacular or catastrophic. A vampire overtaken by romantic passion may temporarily believe she is in love with the mortal (or any other convenient bystander). One who drinks from a hate-infused vessel may rend her prey to shreds, and one who takes a draught of a mortal couched with fear may run away screaming. The vampire remains subject to the emotionmber of hours equal to the mortal's Willpower, though she is still subject to other feelings after the initial rush of sensation.
The mortal who is u nder the effects of Ripples of the Heart is unaware of the power's effects on him, though he is slightly predisposed toward the emotion in question while the power is in effect. The vampire who used Ripples of the Heart on a mortal is immune to any of its effects he places on targets through the use of this power.
Lvl 6 Purification
Although most mortal cultures affix negative connotations to the spilling of blood, most Assamites – indeed, most vampires – have quite the opposite reaction to it. For them, blood is an unlife-affirming and reinvigorating substance. Purification works on this principle, using the power of vitae to cleanse and restore. Rather than purging foreign taints from the body, Purification allows its wielder to clean other individuals' minds and souls of stains, including those left by the mind control of other Kindred. The vampire using this power expels his own blood through his skin and allows it to soak through his subject, slowly dissipating. As it does so, it carries away spiritual impurities and outside influences.
System : The character touches the forehead of her intended subject, and both parties spend a minimum of five minutes in deep concentration. The player spends a number of blood points equal to the subject's Willpower. The subject rolls Willpower once for every external supernatural influence (a vampiric Discipline, usually, though other supernatural creatures may have their own unique powers) to which his mind has been subjected (difficulty of the level of the power in question +4, with a difficulty of 7 if the power has no level). A success nullifies that effect.
Purification has its limits. It can remove directly intrusive influences such as Dominate-implanted commands,
Dementation-generated derangements or the imperatives caused by elder vampires' Presence. It cannot dispel influences that are transmitted by blood, including a blood bond or the dispositions imparted by one's clan or bloodline, nor can it erase those caused by purely mundane techniques such as persuasion, hypnosis or brainwashing, or genuine emotional states such as love and hate. It can remove mind-altering blood magic effects, but either the character wielding Purification or the power's beneficiary must have a level of Thaumaturgy equal to or greater than that with which the effect was placed. A character cannot use Purification on herself.
Lvl 6 Deed the Heart's Desire
This subtle but potent power cuts the user off from unwanted distractions, allowing him to better focus and to gain a heightened awareness of both himself and his surroundings. Elder Assamite antitribu use it as a way of isolating themselves, regaining lost mental fortitude and quickly crafting elaborate plans. Among such individuals, the power has become something of a localized Hand tradition – a custom of blood, exclusive to their bloodline. Some Hand members outside the Assamites who have heard of the power call it “the Fortress of Silence”. This is a powerful ability and, unknown to many, capable of being used on others as well. When used on vampires, it causes delirium and confusion, debilitating even the sturdiest-willed opponents. Used on mortals, it causes escalating disturbance to the point of insanity, as they hear their own blood flowing in every vein and artery with a distinct and maddening thrum.
System : To activate the power on oneself, all that is required is the expenditure of a single blood point and a place to meditate. Upon activation, a zone of silence spreads outward from the character's “center”, allowing him to push away all unwanted distractions. While the character meditates inside this zone, he suffers a +2 penalty to all Perception-based difficulties. His mind is too preoccupied with his own thoughts to give full attention to the outside world. This preoccupation, however, allows him to refocus his will, rejuvenating it at the rate of one lost Willpower point every 15 minutes. He need not meditate until he has regained all spent Willpower, nor must he cease meditation once all Willpower is restored. When the character does emerge from the zone, he will be at -1 difficulty to all Willpower rolls and all rolls involving a Mental Attribute for the remainder of the scene of the evening.
If the user opts to target an unsuspecting opponent with this power, his player must spend a blood point and roll Stamina + Occult (difficulty of the opponent's Willpower). The number of successes is the number of dice the target will be penalized for the duration of the scene on any roll involving Dexterity or any Mental Attribute. The target may reduce this number by spending willpower on a one-for-one basis. If the user achieves more successes on his roll than a target has permanent Willpower, then the target acquires a derangement as well. If the target is mortal, this derangement is permanent. Otherwise, it goes away at the end of the scene or evening.
Lvl 7 Baal's Bloody Talons
The toxin generated by Baal's Caress is not enough to significantly harm some truly fearsome foes. This progressive development of that lesser technique allows its user to envenom his weapon with a blood-based poison so potent that it corrodes the very weapon that bears it, eating away at the strongest metal in a minute or less. However, its effects on its victims are spectacular enough to make the loss of even the most treasured blades worthwhile. This power's effects are of very limited duration, as the substance it creates will quickly evaporate away if it does not neutralize itself as it dissolves everything with which it comes in contact.
System : The character coats an edged weapon with her own blood, as per Baal's Caress. The player spends one or more blood points and rolls Willpower (difficulty 7). The weapon now does aggravated damage. It also gains a number of additional damage dice equal to the number of successes rolled plus the number of blood points spent. These xtra dice fade at a rate of one per turn as the poison dissipates, drips off and reacts with the weapon's material. Once the extra damage dice are all gone, the weapon's base damage dice begin to fade at the same rate. The weapon breaks if used when its base damage is reduced to the wielder's Strength. The only weapons that can resist this corrosion are those created with a supernatural power of a level equal to or greater than the character's Quietus rating, and even this is subject to the Stsoryteller's discretion.
Baal's Bloody Talons is subject to the same limitations as Baal's Caress, except the limit on the number of successful strikes that do aggravated damage. A weapon affected by Baal's Bloody Talons does aggravated damage with every successful attack until it is destroyed.
At the Storyteller's discretion, the character may use the venom this power produces for other purposes, such as burning through a padlock or destroying an incriminating tape. He may not, however, store this poison for later use – even if a container proves resistant to it, the substance becomes inert within a few minutes of leaving its creator's body.
Lvl 7 Poison the Well of Life
Beyond just leaving emotional traces in a subject's blood, the master of this Quietus power can now taint that same vitae, making it into a deadly poison for any other Cainite who drinks from that mortal. Some Assamites use Poison the Well of Life to guard their own herds against “poachers” or to ward specific vessels against indiscriminate feeding. Others have been known to employ it as a subtle trap for other vampires, turning herds against their owners. Rumor has it that this power sprang from the clan's studies of the Tremere curse.
System : The character touches the mortal he wishes to taint and smears a streak of his own vitae on the victim's skin. The player spends three blood points and rolls Stamina + Occult (difficulty 7). For a number of months equal to the number of successes, any other vampire who drinks that mortal's blood sustains two health levels of aggravated damage for every blood point imbibed. This damge manifests as a combination of acid burns and something akin to toxic shock.
While a mortal is poisonous to vampires, his body's alchemical balance is slightly altered toward toxicity. He gains two extra points of Stamina for the purposes of resisting the effects and damage of the poisons and acids. However, his bodily excretions, espeically his sweat, are slightly more noxious than normal. He suffers a one-die penalty to all Social dice pools if whomever he chooses to interact with has a particularly sensitive nose and is close enough to smell him.
Lvl 8 Songs of Distant Vitae
Many Assamite scholars believe this ancient power to have been in use as early as the Assamite judges' inception in the Second City, originally used as a powerful technique for punishing Cainites who fed improperly or with excessive cruelty. Blood magic practitioners and individuals skilled with Auspex have long known that vitae can carry residual impressions of emotion and personality. This power invokes those impressions to overwhelm its victim with “remembered” images and sensations drawn from the vesels who held that blood before the vampire fed from them. Particularly strong-willed or hardened subjects may shrug off these visions as daydreams, but those who are less self-possessed can be permanently changed by the experience. A side effect of the use of this power is the partial destruction of the vitae from which the images are drawn. Some viziers theorize that this is the result of motes of the vessels' consciouness making an effort to escape their usurper.
System : The character touches his target and spends a turn in concentration. The player spends four blood points and rolls Wits + Intimidation in a contested roll against the victim's permanent Willpower (difficulty 7). If the target has commited diablerie within a number of nights equal to the character's Perception, the attacker gains one automatic success. The result depends on the number of net successes the attacker rolls. Not that in all invocations of this power, the sensations that the subject relives are expressly negative and terifying – for example, he experiences none of the pleasure that would normally accompany the Kiss when he flashes back to such an event.
In addition to the successes listed below, the subject of a successful attack loses a number of blood points equal to the number of successes rolled. This vitae erupts from his body in warm red trickles that do no damage but are certain to terrify onlookers.
Botch The attacker enters a flashback sequence in which he relives his last feeding from the vessel's point of view. If the player rolled three or more 1s, the character acquires a permanent derangement related to feeding.
Failure The target is unharmed and immune to this power for a number of nights equal to his Willpower.
1 success The target experiences a brief (10 seconds/3 turns) flashback sequence in which he relives his last feeding from the vessel's point of view. During this time, he is at +2 difficulty to all rolls.
2 successes The target experiences a brief montage (15 seconds/5 turns) of flashbacks during which his viewpoint flashes between various feedings from the vessels' points of view. During this time, he is at +3 difficulty to all rolls. Once the initial rush of sensation passes, he is unsettled and at +1 difficulty to all rolls until he succeeds on a Self- Control roll (difficulty 8), which he may attempt once per scene.
3 successes The target experiences a composite memory, assembled by his own subconscious, of the terror that various vessels felt while being stalked and fed upon. He must succeed in a Courage roll (difficulty 8) or instantly enter Rötschreck. If he succeeds in this roll, he is still at +3 difficulty on all actions for the rest of the scene due to the distraction that his visions impose.
4 successes The target is stunned and completely unable to act for a number of turns equal to 8 - his Self-Control as he is bombarded by a sequence of the most terrifying memories of his various vessels. Once this initial onslaught subsides, he must roll Courage (difficulty 9) or enter Rötschreck. If he fails this roll, he must roll Self- Control (difficulty 8) or gain the Sanguinary Animism derangement.
5 successes The target is thrown into a nightmarish reenactment of the greatest fears of every individual upon whom he has ever fed. He must roll Self-Control (difficulty 9) or fall into torpor for 10 - the target's Stamina nights, at the end of which he loses half his permanent Willpower and gains the derangement Sanguinary Animism. If he succeeds on the Self-Control roll, he enters Rötschreck for the rest of the night, during which time his greatest fear is of his own image. At the end of the night, he must roll Willpower (difficulty 9) or lose a permanent Willpower point and gain the derangement Sanguinary Animism.
Lvl 9 Condemn the Sins of the Father
Although the Second City's judges recognized that heritage does not equate to guilt, they also encountered many situations in which a vampire's entire brood had committed the same crime. In such cases, the judges often decreed the same punishment for all transgressors. This technique, which modern viziers believe to have originated at that time, allows its wielder to administer such overeaching punishments. Through Condemn the Sins of the Father, a Cainite can apply lesser Quietus powrs to an entire lineage. Some rumors within Alamut state that ur-Shulgi used Condemn the Sins of the Father as the core of the ritual that enacted the Breaking, though no one has yet explained how (or where) the Shepherd managed to find Haqim to use as the ritual's focus.
System : After successfully using any lesser Quietus power on another vampire, the player spends a permanent Willpower point and 10 blood points and rolls Stamina + Occult. The difficulty of this roll is equal to four plus the number of generations of the original target's descendants that the player wants to affect, up to a maximum of 10. If the roll succeeds, every descendant of the original target within the specified range of generations suffers the same effects that the original target experienced, resisting with his own relevant Traits. The player may exempt a number of potential subjects from this effect equal to twice the character's Wits, but the character must know their faces or have tasted their vitae.
Example: Ur-Shulgi is displeased with a certain Ventrue prince and wants to use Dagon's Call on him and all his descendants. The prince is of the seventh generation. To be certain of making a clean sweep, ur-Shulgi chooses to extend the blight all the way down to the 13thgeneration, or six generations of descendants. Ur-Shulgi's player (and why the hell are you playing ur-Shulgi, anyway?) must roll against a difficulty of 10. If the player makes the roll, every character who can trace his vampiric lineage to that prince, whether or not he's aware of his heritage, is subject to the same effects that the prince suffered from ur-Shulgi's use of Dagon's Call.
Rift
The Gaki's personal nightmares, so horrible they avoid sleep at all costs, remain a part of them even in their waking hours. These nightmares are no mere constructs of their own brittle psyches; they manifest a actual dimensional rifts, personalized for the individual Gaki. Since making contact with the West, some Gaki have compared their own situations with that of the Christian damned, cught up in an individual hell.
Each rift differs substantially from any other. Based on the Gaki's own traumas, fears, shame and guilt, the rift epitomizes all the tragedy of his/her existence. When they sleep, their mind fills with images from this realm – demons, fears, shames; all the travesties they have perpetrated return to them a hundredfold.
However, the Gaki manifest at least some control of their rifts. Young Gaki learn to extend their rift out to touch other people. A they grow older, they learn to draw others in. Using the realm of one's own nightmares can be a terrifying experience. Use of any of the powers below, successful or not, requires a Courage roll against a difficulty of the power's level; failure costs the Gaki a minimum of one Willpower point, and botches can send the Gaki writhing in disgust at her own sins.
Lvl 1 The Joining
Sometimes called tsutaeru by the Gaki, this power allows them to silently communicate with both those around them and other Gaki. While this does not allow mind reading, attempts to communicate with Gaki are automatically successful unless the other Gaki is blocking such contact, and can be made over any distance. Communicating with non-Gaki requires the user of this power to be within eyesight of his target and make a Wits + Linguistics roll against a difficulty of 7.
Lvl 2 Glimpse of the Pain
With the second level of Rift, the Gaki begins to draw others into his/her realm of agony, if only for a moment. This power, called tsukamu, allows (forces) a target to see the Gaki's own rift. This look at a whole microverse of guilt, sin, frustration and horror is often more than most can handle. Being blind or closing one's eyes can lessen the agony, but the rift is a complete sensory and psychic experience, so the victim may still be affected (Storyteller's discretion).
The target, if a vampire or Gaki, must make a Courage roll with a difficulty of his own Humanity +2 not to fall into a Courage frenzy. For others, the Gaki must make a Perception + Intimidation roll with a difficulty of 6, resisted by the target's Willpower roll against the same difficulty. Each additional success the Gaki achieves means the target is incapacitated for one turn, frozen with horror at the monstrosity just seen.
Lvl 3 Crossing the Iron Bridge
At his stage in a Gaki's development he/she begins to deal with her own inner demons. This power allows her to enter into her rift, confronting all that which makes it such a hell. The Gaki actually disappears from the place she was, and will reappear there shortly.
This is by no means a pleasant experience, and the character must make a Self-Control roll with a difficulty of her own Conscience for every turn he/she remains there. Some Gaki use this power for protection, some use it to deal with their own guilt, and some are rumored to have entered into their rift, never to return again.
Lvl 4 Journeying the Iron Bridge
When a Gaki first becomes able to Cross the Iron Bridge, all he can take with him are those inanimate items which have a personal connection – clothes, keepsakes, etc. - and these for just a short time. With the fourth level of this Discipline, the Gaki can take anything with him, but he must make a Stamina + Survival roll against a difficulty of 6. Failure means any item brought in falls from wherever the Gaki was holding it. In addition, the Gaki can stay in the rift for as long as he wants...or can.
Lvl 5 Passing the Inner Realm
At this time the Gaki begins to learn how to manipulate the rift, usig this horror to his own advantage. While th rift is not infinite, it is subject only to the limits placed on it by the Storyteller. Thus the Gaki can travel through it, invisible to the outside world, to any point he could see before entering the rift. She can even enter the rifts of other Gaki she could see before using this power.
This movement takes as long as crossing the distance physically would, but the Gaki can avoid barriers, reappear behind foes, avoid attacks, etc. To use this power before an attack can hit requires a Wits + Dodge roll against the opponent's Dexterity +1.
Lvl 6 Collection
Now the Gaki can manipulate objects without having to enter the rift. Collection allows him to send inanimate objects he touches into the rift or call back items which have been stored there.
Lvl 6 Transport
Similar to Collection, a Gaki able to Transport can touch an object and send it through her rift to any point she can see. Targeting with this power requires a Dexterity + Athletics roll against a difficulty of 7. Botches may mean something else comes out.
Lvl 7 Eyes of a Thief
An offshoot of Collection, this power lets the Gaki take any object he can see and send it into his rift. This requires a Perception + Alertness roll against a difficulty of 7.
Lvl 7 Doorway to Hell
Generally a Gaki's rift comes with her wherever he goes. However, with the Doorway to Hell, the Gaki can create a physical entrance to his rift somewhere, one that anyone can enter. Setting up the doorway requires a location with an entrance way and the loss of a Willpower point – permanently. Note that the Gaki can still Cross the Iron Bridge normally, and can then exit the rift through the doorway instead of having to reappear at the spot she first went in. Others entering through the doorway are affected as though they had a Glimpse of the Pain.
Lvl 8 Touch of Sin
Now the Gaki can actually grab others and bring them involuntarily into his rift with a Manipulation + Brawl roll against the target's Humanity +2. Those brought in by this power experience the same effects as someone getting a Glimpse of the Pain, but each turn she remains in the rift, the difficulty of her Willpower roll increases by one and the Gaki's decreases by one. Every time the victim botches a Willpower roll, she gains a Derangement. The victim can leave if she gains more successes on her roll, or the Gaki leaves the rift.
Lvl 8 Gateway
With Gateway, the Gaki can send other through his rift just like he does when he uses Passing the Inner Realm. This costs two Willpower points (one to send the target into the rift and one to get her back out), and the target must deal with a Glimpse of the Pain along the way. The Gaki must make a targeting roll of Perception + Empathy to get the target to the right place, and must first touch her.
Lvl 9 Imprison
A victim imprisoned by the Gaki is caught in the rift until the Gaki cares to release him (or the victim manages to find a Doorway, if there is one). Imprisoning a victim in the rift requires the Gaki make a Manipulation + Intimidation roll against the Willpower of whoever it is she holds. Three successes means the victim is sent to the Gaki's rift as in Touch of Sin, except the Gaki need not spend Willpower to keep him there. Note that since many who are imprisoned are guaranteed to go mad if left in a rift too long, this is a good for a Gaki to lose Humanity.
Lvl 10 Manifest the Horror
Now the Gaki can not only pull others into his rift, but can open his rift on to the outside world. The actual effects of this power vary based on the individual Gaki, but he can loose any sort of torments found in his rift.
This can include oni (demons), Hima, giant multi-headed, lightning-breathing lobster eagles, whirling tornadoes of fire and light or anything else te Storyteller's fiendish imagination can come up with. However, everything that enters the world from the Gaki's rift costs the Gaki a Willpower point, and may even be hostile to him (it is from his own version of hell, after all). However, the Gaki can usually control the manifestations with a Charisma + Empathy roll with a difficulty of 7.
Sadhana
Sadhana paths all call for Willpower rolls. A sadhu evokes all Path magic by sheer force of will because that's how she believes ascetic magic works. If you gain enough merit through your austerities, what you wish comes true. Most Sadhana rituals call for an Intelligence + Occult roll from the player, just like every other style of Thaumaturgy. The exceptions, the Rakta-Maya rituals of hypnotic illusions, are noted above and described below.
Unlike a Hermetic magus, a sadhu needs to learn an additional Ability besides Occult. Sadhana's austerities demand that a practitioner also develop the Secondary Ability of Meditation. A sorcerer cannot employ Path magic at a higher level than her Meditation Trait, though she may perform rituals of higher level. She still knows her primary Path to the level of her full Thaumaturgical mastery; she simply lacks the spiritual force or focus to use it. When her player raises the character's Meditation Trait, she can use the Path to the higher level.
Meditation has many uses in its own right, in accordance with an Indian adept's overmastering will. At the Storyteller's option, a sadhu's player can substitute an Intelligence + Meditation roll for a Path power's Willpower roll – but at the cost of the power taking as much time as a ritual of the same level. Meditation is not quick.
The Path of Blood Nectar
Amrita is the Nectar of Divinity that grants perfect bliss and immortality to all who drink it. At the creation of the world, the gods needed the help of the asuras to obtain the Amrita. The demon-gods demanded a share of the nectar, but cunning Vishnu tricked them out of their portion. Those demons who became incarnate as Kindred eventually learned to create their own nectar of divinity. All Kindred can confer a fraction of undead power upon mortals by feeding them vitae, turning them into ghouls. Through the Path of Blood Nectar, an undead sadhu can do much more – turning her blood into a potion that briefly confers any one of her powers on a mortal or another vampire.
A few sorcerers of the Assamite clan also know this Path, and find it a useful adjunct to Quietus. Other practitioners of
Dur-An-Ki have not yet learned to produce Blood Nectar.
System : Blood Nectar requires one minute of concentration per level of the potion created. In this time, the vampire engages in yogic and vitae-shifting exercises and meditation. The character's player needs a single success on a Willpower roll, at the usual difficulty for a Path power. At the end of this period, the alchemist opens a vein to release the blood nectar. Another person must drink the blood nectar immediately to gain its effects. The nectar loses potency within one minute of leaving the sorcerer's body.
Unlike most Paths, Blood Nectar costs one blood point per level to use.
Each dose of Blood Nectar confers one of the sadhu's Powers upon the imbiber for a single scene. The sorcerer can cofer either Disciplines or Thaumaturgical Path powers, but not the effects of rituals. Of course, a sorcerer cannot impart a Discipline at a higher level than she herself knows.
Someone who imbibes a Blood Nectar gains that Discipline or Path, up to the level the sorcerer chose to store. For instance, a level three nectar of Dominate would enable the imbiber to use the first three powers of that Discipline. If the imbiber already knows the Discipline to as high or higher level than the potion carries, the Blood Nectar has no effect except to grant the person one blood point's worth of vitae. Each dose of Blood Nectar counts as one blood point, no matter how much vitae its creation consumed.
A person who drinks Blood Nectar does not gain any of the sorcerer's Abilities, so he might not be very good at using the powers gained. On the other hand, he might possess more innate talent (represented by a higher Attribute + Ability pool) than the sadhu herself.
Only one Path cannot be stored as Blood Nectar potion: the Path of Blood Nectar itself. The inscrutable God of Logic, before whom even gods, demons and Buddhas bow, forbids it on grounds that it could create an infinite regress.
A character can also wield the effects of only one Blood Nectar potion at a time. If a person imbibes a second nectar, the higher-level potion instantly cancels out the lower-level potion. Nectars of equal level cancel each other out, leaving nothing.
The enchanted vitae does not lose the power to turn a mortal into a ghoul, or to forge a blood bond. Anyone who plans on “borrowing” powers through Blood Nectar had best keep careful track of how often they imbibe potions, and from what sadhu.
As mastery of the Path of Blood Nectar increases, a sorcerer can store a Discipline to higher levels.
Lvl 1 Confer one level of a Discipline or Path
Lvl 2 Confer two levels of a Discipline or Path
Lvl 3 Confer three levels of a Discipline or Path
Lvl 4 Confer four levels of a Discipline or Path
Lvl 5 Confer five levels of a Discipline or Path
The Path of Karma
Knowledge of other people's pasts is one of the most common powers claimed for Indian magicians, even to knowing a person's previous incarnations. Any mystic worth his title can remember his own past lives. Knowledge of the future is nearly as easy. Through the Siddhi of Karma, an Indian sorcerer can learn many secrets about another person's life, both past and yet to come. At higher levels, a sadhu can call upon the Abilities from his past lives. A true master can wrench control of the cycle of reincarnation to change destinies in this life and beyond.
Each power requires the expenditure of one blood point.
Lvl 1 Threads of the Past
The first siddhi of this Path is knowledge of the important events of another person's past – the events that made her who she is tonight, and brought her to her present place.
System : For each success rolled by the player, the character receives one brief impression of an important event in the target's past. As a guideline, the Storyteller should describe each impression in one short paragraph of pure description, like a snapshot. The sadhu does not receive these impressions in any particular order; he can only guess at their interpretation. If the sadhu uses this power on a Kindred, however, the list of impressions always includes the subject's Embrace as the single most important event in that person's existence. The sorcerer also learns the taret's common name (though not his True Name).
Lvl 2 Weave of the Future
The sadhu can receive brief impressions of potentially important events within the nect year of the subject's existence. The events may be good or bad, dangers or opportunities. A person can try to avoid foreseen dangers, but this is never reliable. Sometimes the very action taken to avoid an event causes it to take place.
A sadhu can use this power for his own benefit, but only rarely. He cannot learn about events from his own future until all the events previously foreseen either have taken place or he has successfully avoided them.
System : For each success the player rolls, the sadhu sees one brief scene from the target's future (or his own). Again, the Storyteller should describe these in one image, like a snapshot, with no explanation of contect or meaning, though the character can see if the subject faces obvious danger.
Lvl 3 Certain Fate
At this level, a sadhu can farther and pick out the events, people and forces that inexorably shape the person's future. The magician gains more detailed knowledge, but the subject has less chance to change the future. The events grow from the whole shape of the person's life and, Hindus believe, past lives. Once again, these aren't necessarily bad things, but the Certain Fate often presents dire but obscure warnings. A sadhu cannot use this power on herself.
System : For each success rolled, the character receives one fact about the subject's entire future existence; for instance, an important conflict he will face, or a person who will become important to him in some way. As is the way with prophecies, the sorcerer sees the setup of future situations but generally not how they turn out. If the sadhu receives three or more successes, the visions include a scene of the subject's most probable death and whether or not a mortal subject is destined to become a Kindred, wraith or kuei-jin.
Lvl 4 Past Lives
At this level, a sadhu obtains moderately detailed, capsule biographies of a person's previous incarnations. A sorcerer can examine her own past lives, too. In india, people believe that events in this life reward and punish their deeds in past lives, so knowing previous incarnations can help one cope with this life's trails. The sooner you expiate tour sins, the sooner you can acumulate merit for a better life in your next incarnation.
On a more practical level, a sadhu can use this power to temporarily gain Abilities that she knew in her past lives. She can thus gain virtually any skill she wants.
System : Each use of this power provides an overview of one of the subject's past lives. By itself, this has no immediate, practical benefit, but it's a great way to impress one's aptitudes on other people. They instinctively know that the sadhu tells them the truth.
A sadhu can also use this power to “remember” Abilities from her own past lives. For each success her player rolls, the sadhu gains one dot to place in any Ability she wants, subject only to the limitation she cannot raise any Ability above thre dots. The Abilities last a single scene. Note that the Ability comes from a past life, and are thus limited by the age of the Cainite in question. For example, a thousand-year-old sadhu would not be able to call upon her past lives for potential with the Computer Knowledge.
Lvl 5 Master of Samsara
Samsara is the cycle of birth, death and rebirth. A master of Karma can not only look ahead to see a person's nextr incarnation, he can shape that incarnation to some degree. Even more amazingly, he has a limited power to reverse the wheel of samsara and briefly restore people to a previous incarnation.
System : All applications of this power require only a single success on the player's roll, but demand that the player spend one point of permanent Willpower. For this, the sadhu not only receives a capsule description of the person's next life, he can perform one of the following feats:
* Ordain one fact about that person's future life (nearly anything, comparable in power to imposing a Dark Fate but it could just as easily be a good thing).
* Preordain that a person becomes a wraith or Cathayan vampire upon death...or not.
* Transform a mortal (not a vampire) into whoever or whatever she was in a previous life for one scene. The target character retains only a dreamlike awareness of her “current” self. The subject temporarily becomes a different character. The sadhu can choose among the incarnations revealed by the Past Lives power, transform the subject in her immediately previous incarnation, or leave it all to chance and the Storyteller's whim.
* Transform a mortal (not a vampire) into whoever or whatever he will be in his hext life; or
* Set the circumstances of his own next incarnation.
An undead ashipu can view and select his own future existence after his destruction as a vampire, but cannot use any of the other powers on himself. A sadhu who uses Master of Samsara often takes a rather casual attitude to the prospect of Final Death, since the sadhu had already sleected a comfortable next incarnation...possibly including revenge on his enemies.
The Path of Praapti
Many Indian manuals of magic promise to teach Praapti, the power of instantaneous travel. The sadhus developed a Path devoted to this power. At low levels, a sorcerer can travel only short distances, but at the higher levels of mastery a practitioner can move hundreds of miles. Some Cathayan vampires command a magical power to teleport long distances along lines of mystical force; Indian Kindrd needed some way to match their mobility.
In legend, a master of Praapti could travel to the moon. Three centuries ago, the sorcerer Raivata devised an ancillary ritual that enabled him to perform this feat...but Raivata was a better mystic than astronomer. He forgot that he could see his lunar destination because it was in sunlight. No sorcerer since then has performed Raivata's ritual.
The Indian Tremere helped their European colleagues develop a Hermetic version of this Path., called the Path of Mercury.
System : Individual levels of the Praapti Path do not require special description. The chart below describes the Path level needed to teleport a given range.
To use this Path safely, the sadhu must see his destination or know it very well. She can use a telescope, but TV images or magazine pictures will not suffice. If the character can distinctly see the target location, a failed roll results in nothing worse than some wasted vitae (and a lost point of permanent Willpower, if the player rolls a botch). Likewise, a magician faces little risk in teleporting to the other side of a wall.
When performing a long-distance “blind teleport”, however, rolling a botch means that the character succeeded in working the magic...but reappeared interpenetrating a solid object. This inflicts one health level of aggravated damage to the vampire for every “1” rolled. Losing three or more health levels indicates that so much of the sorcerer's body fused with other objects (usually the ground) that she can free herself only with great difficulty – if at all. Fortitude enables a vampire to soak damage from a botched blind teleport.
Blind teleports can modify a Praapti power's difficulty depending on the thaumaturge's familiarity with the target location:
Familiarity Difficulty Modifier
Intimately familiar (own haven) -1
Moderately familiar (visited regularly) +0
Unseen, but an understood spatial relationship +0
(“On the other side of this wall”)
Not very familiar (visited a few times; hazy on +1
spatial relationship)
Unfamiliar (a point on a map) +2
Even if the Willpower roll succeeds, a blind teleport rarely lands a sorcerer exactly on target. Accuracy varies with the number of successes. Four to five successes means arriving exactly on target, while one success gives an error of 10% of the distance traveled, in any direction. For instance, a teleport of 400 miles could result in an error of up to 40 miles.
Lvl 1 Teleport up to 10 yards;
Lvl 2 Teleport up to 50 yards;
Lvl 3 Teleport up to 500 yards;
Lvl 4 Teleport up to 5 miles;
Lvl 5 Teleport up to 500 miles.
Rasayana
Thaumaturgy has some roots in the early practices of Hermetic alchemy, which concerned itself with changing the properties of given ideals. Indeed, much of Thaumaturgy's codified structure and basic principles are very similar to those of alchemy.
In the near-millennium that has passed since the Tremere's earliest efforts with blood magic, alchemy has fallen by the wayside, however. Modern technology makes possible almost anything this Path can do and far more – it is easier and more reliable to mine for gold, for example, than it is to create it by transmuting other materials. Still, old habits die hard among vampires, and the Tremere are no exception. A few elders still practice this Path, and of these, some still teach it to their childer to illustrate the basic tenets of modern blood magic.
System : The number of successes on the activation roll determines how radically a thaumaturge may alter a given compound's form. He need not use all his successes – a thaumaturge wishing to effect only a simple change of form need not turn lead into gold if he accumulates five successes. The thaumaturge must, however, acquire at least the minimum number of successes suggested by the table below to generate the effect he seeks.
Changing one element into another requires familiarity with both elements. One cannot suddenly decide he wants to change a balloon's worth of helium into a sphere of solid titanium if he has never dealt with either of those elements before. Simply knowing an atomic number is not enough to warp the laws of nature so radically. It is worthwhile to note, however, that Alchemy makes no distinction between naturally occurring and man-made elements – if affects Einsteinium as readily as it affects carbon.
Note also that this Path has fallen out of practice because it is less useful in modern nights than it was in the past. Transmutations create Hermetic “ideals” rather than perfect real-world resources which cannot be broken down into lesser constructs. A hunk of gold is a hunk of gold – an attempt to cast coins with it will reduce the hunk into a pile of sludge. Before you ask – yes, this means your Tremere anarch will not be able to create nuclear bombs by turning the prince's shoes into uranium. There's nothing wrong with converting lead into gold and selling that hunk of gold to someone else, however – caveat emptor!
Note : Storytellers are encouraged to applyt his principle to the use of the Path of Conjuring as well. Characters who try to conjure “antimatter” or create weapons of mass destruction magically should be subtly but reasonably discouraged.
Also, use of this Path assumes the thaumaturge works with the elements in a laboratory-style (or at least controlled) environment. No vampire will be able to walk down the street and turn the iron in people's blood to helium with a simple touch.
A vampire's knowledge of Alchemy determines how greatly she may change a given element.
Lvl 1 Simple changes in form – solid to liquid, liquid to gas, etc.
Lvl 2 Complex changes to form – liquid to a specific shape of solid, water to separate hydrogen and oxygen clouds, etc.
Lvl 3 Complicated changes to form – wate r to breathable O2 and loose H2, compounds into seperate elements, etc.
Lvl 4 Minor shifts in composition, such as adjusting an element's atomic number up to five greater or less than its original destination.
Lvl 5 Miraculous shifts in composition, such as turning lead into gold or nitrogen into radium.
Lakshmi's Wishes
Although the corrupt dream-magic of the Path of Morpheus had been used by the Sabbat for decades, the original augury that it was based upon has been a long-held secret by the Tremere. Oneiromancy, divination rooted in the somnolent state of consciousness, is actually based upon ancient Greek philosophies of prophecy. The Tremere, adopting these ancient sortileges, developed them into the thaumaturgical path of Oneiromancy shortly after their transformation to vampiric magi.
With the recent loss of the Sabbat's Tremere antitribu, the Path of Morpheus has since fallen from common knowledge, and Oneiromancy no longer carries the stigma once associated with its practitioners. With the approaching of Gehenna, the elders of Clan Tremere have again rethought their disdain of Oneiromancy in the clan in an effort to gain more information on unfolding events.
Use of any of these powers requires at least five minutes of reading the signs during which the Warlock goes into a trance similar to sleep. Awareness of his surroundings is limited, and he can “awaken” from the trance at any time but will suffer the same penalties as if awakening during the day for three turns (macimum dice pool equals Humanity rating). Oneiromancy powers can also be used while the thaumaturge is in torpor.
Lvl 1 Portents
From the ephemeral fragments of his own dreams, the magus may attempt a personal reading of the near future. While asleep, the oneiromancer draws upon the dream imagery flittering in the uncinscious. Upon waking from the divination, the Cainite may scrutinize the meaning of the visions. Although these vision of the present and future are invariably hazy, they often prvide important glimpses into significant events.
System : This power of Oneiromancy must be used immediately after awakening and takes the thaumaturge 10 minutes to read the signs. With a successful activation roll, the Storyteller relates disjoined dream images allegorically (or sometimes literally) concerning one forthcoming personal event to the oneiromancer. This event is completely up to the Storyteller's discretion, and multiple uses of Portens may well result in the same vision occuring over and over again. The Portent should always be fragmented and cryptic, althouh the more successes scored on this activation roll, the more information the Storyteller should relay the player.
Lvl 2 Foresee
Foresee lets the Warlock look into the mind of a sleeping individual, interpreting her dreams as clues to future events involving that individual. Used by thaumaturges in soothsaying, oneiromancers sometimes gain the trust of people while gleaming unconscious secrets from the targets.
System : This power behaves similar to Portents, but the imagery comes from the dreams of the target and the divination concerns an event for that person. The subject must be within the presence of the oneiromancer and asleep for Foresee to work, though Psychic Projection also works if the thaumaturge is not physically present. Additionally, if a Kindred is the subject of this power, the thaumaturge must spend a Willpower point to successfully see and understand the prognostication.
Lvl 3 Dreamspeak
The oneiromancer can now send messages to others in dream form. Although these messages appear while the target is asleep, the subject remembers them clearly after waking. Since these messages are dreams, those unfamiliar with this power may discount them as such. More nefarious uses have included sending nightmares and threats to a victim.
System : Dreamspeak sends a static dream message, determined at the time of sending, to anyone the oneiromancer has previously met. If the subject is not asleep at thet ime this power is used, the Dreamspeak has no effect. While using this power, magi drop into a trance as with the other divinations of Oneiromancy. One turn's worth of dreams can be sent per success of the activation roll – this won't allow the thaumaturge to haunt her victim for a full night, but it will allow her to leave messages, impart warnings, etc.
Lvl 4 Augury
Refining the power of somnolent divination, the oneiromancer is able to seek answers to questions and problems. While specific information can be sought by the oneiromancer, the dream images providing that knowledge have the same disjoined and confusing quality. Augury is helpful in seeking answers to problems, possibly providing the required breakthrough with a dilemma.
Since fortune-telling and prophesy is convoluting and bewildering, Augury may not provide any answer that is useful to the thaumaturge, and has been known to be completely misleading, as is often the case with dream-symbols. Let the diviner beware.
System : here broken and unguided imagery is the hallmark of Portents, Augury provides more direction and continuity. The augury comes to the Warlock in the same dreamlike imageries but the events are better understood. Thaumaturges who achieve this level of skill in the Path of Oneiromacy often have little use for lesser powers.
Note that the subject must have the knowledge the thaumaturge seeks, or the power is useless. The Storyteller has the final say on whether an Augury provides any beneficial information, and should not provide any revelations that will ruin a chronicle or plot.
Lvl 5 Reveal the Heart's Dreams
This power of divination works on a much more immediate means, the thaumaturge gaining an immediate insight into the dreams of desires of a person just by observing them directly. The innermost desire of the target becomes instantly apparent to the magus. With this information, a magus is able to approach a person with offers that are next to impossible to deny. It is hard to say no to the thing that you desire most. According to legens, even the hero-king Gilgamesh left his people in his desire for immortality.
This revelation of the soul occasionally reveals even more information about the target – that of his greatest of fears. It is this aspect of revelation that some say is the power the Followers of Set use to destroy the souls and virtue of their victims.
System : This power requires the expenditure of a point of Willpower (two, in the case of Kindred subjects) in addition to the normal Blood Point to activate and the subject must be within sight of the thaumaturge. If any successes are scored on the activation roll, the innermost desire of the target is revealed to the oneiromancer. Additionally, if more successes are gained on the activation roll than the subject has Willpower, the oneiromancer gains an even deeper understanding of the target's soul and lears the victim's innermost fear. The subject's reaction to being confronted with this information is up to the Storyteller (or the player), but remember that it is their ultimate driving passion.
When confronted with her inner horror, the subject may be completely paralyzed with fear, or she may frenzy in the tradition of Rötschreck. Again, the exact results are up to the Storyteller, but they should be consistent with confronting one's own fears.
Temptation of Mara
Setites love debasement of all kinds, but have developed a special taste for the self-destruction of others. Although the modern concept of addiction exists far from the ancient Egyptian worldview, tonight's Setites confidently believe that their god would approve. Even is he doesn't care for their favorite pursuit, they're not about to stop. After all, it's habit-forming.
Lvl 1 First Taste
The Setite uses this power while his target is conducting some minor, repetitive action. The power makes him unconsciously associate is action with pleasure, so he'll want to do it again. And again. And again. Creative-minded Setites can addict their victims to thoroughly bizarre substances or behaviors.
System : The player rolls Manipulation + Seduction against a difficulty to the subject's Willpower. The number of successes determines the strength of the induced compulsion. Whenever the target sees another chance to repeat the triggering behavior, he must make a Willpower roll (difficulty equals the Setite's Willpower) to stop himself from doing so. The victim loses his compulsion entirely if he scores five successes while attempting to resist.
Lvl 2 Cross – Addiction
The Setite temporarily changes the focus of an addict or compulsive's dependency to a substance or behavior of her own choosing. For example, a cocaine addict could be made to crave the act of sex while on the rush, or a compulsive gambler may become a kleptomaniac as well.
System : While the Setite is in the victim's company, the player rolls Manipulation + Seduction (difficulty equals the target's Willpower). If successful, the target switches fixations for a number of scenes equal to the Setite's successes. By spending a blood point, the vampire can extend the period for the same number of scenes.
Lvl 3 The Jones
The Setite reinforces a victim's pre-existing addiction or compulsion, so that he'll set aside all of his moral impulses and ethical beliefs to satisfy his craving.
System : While the Setite is in the presence of the target, the player rolls Manipulation + Seduction against a difficulty equal to the target's Willpower and spends a blood point. If successful, any qualms the victim might have about removing the barriers to the satisfaction of her cravings melt away – she may not even spend Willpower points to overcome the addiction, and she'll gladly leave her office during the middle of work to score a hit. The effect lasts for one scene per blood point spent.
Lvl 4 Fatal Compulsion
The Seite twists a victim's dependency, turning it into a literal hunger. If the subject doesn't satisfy his addiction, he starves to death.
System : The Setite must be in the target's presence, and the player rolls Manipulation + Seduction against a difficulty equal to the target's Willpower and spends 3 blood points. Whenever she oes for three consecutive nights without indulging her addiction or compulsion, the subject suffers one health level of unsoakable lethal damage. The only way to regain health levels lost in this way is to satisfy the compulsion; the character recovers all of them immediately and the power's influence ends.
Lvl 5 Temperance
The final power of the Snake Inside puzzles Setites who do not fully understand their clan's seductive ways. What's the point of preventing addictions? Forcing an addict to abstain, however, can shatter many habits and force a complete lifestyle (or unlifestyle) change – not just an easily visible addiction.
Temperance renders a victim unable to take pleasure from satisfying an addiction. The physical or psychological craving still exists, but the substance or behavior that once gave such pleasure now provokes pain and disgust.
System : While the character is near the target, the player rolls Manipulation + Seduction (difficulty of the target's Willpower) and spends a blood point. The number of successes determines the duration of the Temperance effect.
1 success 1 scene
2 successes 1 night
3 successes 1 week
4 successes 1 month
5 successes 1 year
The victim suffers one health level of bashing damage from the nausea and pain of satusfying her addiction. Storytellers may impose other problems, too, based on the nature of the victim's addiction. For instance, an alcoholic forced to go cold turkey might need a successful Willpower roll to avoid vomiting when he drinks. Storytelelrs may also wish to impose withdrawal symptoms on those whose addictions would likely produce such a result for “coming off the junk”.
The sorcerer's player must select one and only one craving for Temperance to affect. The character may use the power more than once, however, to block multiple addictions. Temperance does not work against true physiological necessities such as food (for mortals) or blood (for vampires).
Echo of Nirvana
Developed by a Tremere Kabbalah scholar, this little-known path of Thaumaturgy had been around for a few centuries and remains in practice by a select few. Practitioners of the Focused Mind greatly enhance their mental alactiry and readiness, allowing better comprehension of problems and situations. Thaumaturges, already disciplined of mind, become frightfully powerful in the realm of the cerebral when mastering this path.
Unlike most Thaumaturgy, the powers of this path do not require an action to invoke, although they still require the normal blood expenditure and Willpower activation roll. Each of these powers is usable only once per turn.
Lvl 1 Readiness
Using Readiness makes the caster able to gain a quicker understanding on a predicament. Enhanced lucidity enlightens the chaster, allowing better reactions to chaing situations and increased cleverness.
System : This power is only usable on the thaumaturge himself. Every success on the activation roll adds one die to a special dice pool for the remainder of the turn. These dice may be used on any Wits-related rolls or actions that the magus performs during this turn. Alternatively, each die removed from the dice pool adds one to the caster's initiative rating.
Lvl 2 Centering
By invoking this power, the thaumaturge causes a sudden, intense calmness in the subject by whispering soothing words to her. While this serenity, the target is able to better focus on tasks at hand, ignoring distractions and annoyances, including grave bodily harm.
Magi in fear of frenzy often use this power on themselves to achieve a state of tranquility, as emotions are stifled.
System : This power is usable on any subject within earshot of the thaumaturge and lasts for one turn per success on the activation roll. During this period the target is unaffected by any effect that reduces his dice pools. This includes wound penalties, situational modifiers and Disciplines. Midifications to difficulty numbers still apply during this time, though.
In addition, due to the unnatural serenity that his power bestows, the target receives two additional dice in all attempts to avoid or break frenzy. Lupines may even be calmed from their murderous rampages if five or more successes are scored on the activation roll.
Lvl 3 One-Tracked Mind
By extending his powers to other individuals, the thaumaturge is able to fixate the subject on one action. This single-mindedness of the target is such that they ignore everything else that occurs around them. Guards are easily distracted with this power, as their attention becomes fixated elsewhere, and research becomes a dedicated, focused task. Use of this power is sometimes colloquially referred to as “railroading someone”.
System : This power may affect anyone who can hear the thaumaturge. Successful invocation makes the target unable to split any dice pools for extra actions and unable to change tactics after actions have been declared. As a side benefit, reduce the difficulty of the action by one. Additional actions that the victim takes (from Celerity, for example) during the duration of this power must follow their initial action, as the concentrate wholly upon this one idea. The duration of One-Tracked Mind is one scene if used outside of combat, otherwise it is reduced to one turn per success on the activation roll.
Lvl 4 Dual Thought
With the rigors of concentration required to learn Thaumaturgy, many Tremere are able to take quick and complete control of a situation. With this power, the thaumaturge is able to divide his attention to two completely separate tasks without problems. As One-Tracked Mind forces the subject's attention into a single objective, Dual Thought expands the thaumaturge's concentration to the point that focus upon two goals is possible.
System : Successful use of Dual Thought allows the caster to take an extra action during this turn. This is restricted to mental actions, be it the use of Disciplines such as the use of Auspex or Thaumaturgy, or the contemplation of some problem. If the character is using both actions to solve a problem, he has two separate dice pools to draw from. These two actions happen at the same time, as determined by the initiative rating of the character.
Lvl 5 Perfect Clarity
Perfect Clarity brings about a Zenlike moment of unimpeded insight for the thaumaturge. Pur focus is achieved, thought and action become one, and complete serenity of mind descends upon the Kindred magus. This lucidity protects the thaumaturge from influences both internal and external; even the Beast within is unable to rage forth.
Some practitioners have likened use of this power with the state of Golconda (theoratically, of course), but the upper Tremere hierarchy denies this rumor as much as they deride the existence of Golconda itself.
System : This power lasts for the duration of one scene. For this period the thaumaturge has the difficulties of all actions reduced by two. The Kindred is immune to frenzy and Rötschreck from all sources, even by supernatural means. Finally, any means to control or influence the thaumaturge suffer +2 difficulty, including the powers of Presence and Dominate.
Brahma-Vidya
Invoking objects “out of thin air” has been a staple of occult and supernatural legend since long before the rise of the Tremere. This thaumaturgical Path enables powerful conjurations limited only by the mind of the practitioner.
Objects summoned via this Path bear two distinct characteristics. They are uniformly “generic” in that each object summoned, if summoned again, would look exactly as it did at first. For example, a knife would be precisely the same knife if created twice; the two would be indistinguishable. Even a specific knife – the one a character's father used to threaten her – would appear identical every time it was conjured. A rat would have repeated “tiled” patterns over its fur, and a garbage can would have the exact same fluted texture over its surface. Additionally, conjured objects bear no flaws. Weapons hav eno dents or scratches, tools hav eno distinguishing marks, and computers have featureless casings.
The limit on the size of conjured objects appears to be that of the conjurer; nothing larger than the thaumaturge can be created. The conjurer must also have some degree of familiarity with the object he wishes to call forth. Simply working from a picture or imagination calls for a higher difficulty, while objects with which the character is intimately familiar (such as the knife described above) may actually lower the difficulty, at the Storyteller's discretion.
When a player rolls to conjure something, the successes gained on the roll indicate the quality of the summoned object. One success yields a shoddy, imperfect creation, while five successes garner the thaumaturge a nearly perfect replica.
Lvl 1 Summon the Simple Form
At this level of mastery, the conjurer may create simple, inanimate objects. The object cannot have any moving parts and may not be made of multiple materials. For example, the conjurer may summon a steel baton, a lead pipe, a wooden stake of a chunk of granite.
System : Each turn the conjurer wishes to keep the object in existence, another Willpower point must be spent or the object vanishes.
Lvl 2 Permanency
At this level, the conjurer no longer needs to pay Willpower costs to keep an object in existence. The object is, as th is level's name suggests, permanent, though simple objects are still all that may be created.
System : The player must invest three blood points in an object to make it real.
Lvl 3 Magic of the Smith
The Kindred may now conjure complex objects of multiple components and with moving parts. For example, the thaumaturge can create guns, chainsaws or cellular phones.
System : Objects created via Magic of the Smith are permanent items and cost five blood points to conjure. Particularly complex items often require a Knowledge roll (Crafts, Science, etc.) in addition to the basic roll.
Lvl 4 Reverse Conjuration
This power allows the conjurer to “banish” into nonexistence any object previously called forth via this Path.
System : This is an extended success roll. The conjurer must accumulate as many successes as the original caster received when creating the object in question.
Lvl 5 Power Over Life
This power cannot create true life, though it can summon forth some truly impressive simulacra. Creatures (and people) summoned with this power lack the free will to act on their own, instead mindlessly following the simple instructions of their conjurer.
System : The player spends 10 blood points. Imperfect and impermanent, creatures u mmoned via this Path are too complex to exist for long. Within a week after their conjuration, the simulacra vanish into insubstantiality.
Hand of Mahakala
This Path is practiced almost exclusively by the thaumaturges of the Sabbat. Though it is not widely seen outside that sect, a few Camarilla Tremere have managed to learn the secrets of this Path over the centuries. The Hands of Destruction has an infamous history, and some Tremere refused to practice it due to rumors that it is demonic in origin.
'Brutal and painful, this Path provides thaumaturges with offensive capabilities not found in other, less martial Paths. It mbodies the violent nature of its Sabbat wielders, existing solely to cause entropy and decay.
Lvl 1 Decay
This power accelerates the decripitude of its target, causing it to wither, rot or otherwise break down. The target must be inanimate, though dead organic matter can be affected.
System : If the roll is successful, the inanimate ovject touched by the thaumaturge ages 10 years for every minute the Kindred touches it. If the vampire breaks physical contact and wishes to age the object again, another blood point must be spent and another roll must be made.
Lvl 2 Gnarl Wood
This power warps and bends wooden objects. Though the wood is otherwise undamaged, this power often leaves the objects completely useless. This power may also be used to swell or contract wood, in addition to bending it into unwholesome shapes. Unlike other powers of this Path, Gnarl Wood requires merely a glance rather than physical contact.
Lvl 3 Acidic Touch
The thaumaturge secretes a bilious, acidic fluid from any portion of his body. The viscous acid corrodes metal, destroys wood and cuases horrendous chemical burns to living tissue.
System : The player spends blood to create the acid – the blood literally transmutes into the volatile secretion. One blood point creates enough acid to burn through a quarter-inch of steel plate or three inches of wood. The damage from an acid-augmented hand-to-hand attack is aggravated and costs one blood point per turn to use. A thaumaturge is immune to her own acidic touch.
Lvl 4 Atrophy
This power withers a victim's limb, leaving only a desiccated, almost mummified husk of bone and skin. The effects are instantaneous; in mortals, they are also irreversible.
System : The victim may resist the effects of Atrophy by scoring three or more successes on a Stamina + Athletics roll (difficulty 8). Failure means the limb is permanently and completely crippled. Partial resistance is possible. One success indicates that difficulties involving the use of the arm increase by two, though these effects are still permanent with regard to mortals. Two successes signify that difficulties increase by one. Vampires afflicted by this power may spend five blood points to rejuvenate atrophied limds. Mortals are permanently crippled. This power affects only limbs (arms and legs); it does not work on victims' heads, torsos, etc.
Lvl 5 Turn to Dust
This fearsome power accelerates decripitude in its victims. Mortals literally crumble to dust at the mere touch of a skilled thaumaturge, aged beyond death and into putrefaction.
System : Each success on the roll ages the victim by 10 years. A potential victim may resist with a Stamina + Courage roll (difficulty 8), but must accumulate more successes than the thaumaturge's activation roll – it's an all-or-nothing affair. IF the victim succeeds, he does not age at all. If he does not acquire more successes than the thaumaturge, he ages the full amount. Obviously, this power, while it affects vampires, has no detrimental effect on them (they're immortal). At most, a Kindred victim withers lightly (-1 to Appearance) for one night.
Rishi's Hand
This Path gives the thaumaturge the ability to move objects telekinetically through the mystic power of blood. At higher levels, even flight is possible (but be careful who sees you...). Objects under the character's control may be manipulated as if she held them – they may be lifted, spun, juggled or even “thrown”, though creating enough force to inflict actual damage requires mastery of the fourth level or greater. Some thaumaturges skilled in this Path even use it to guard their havens, animating swords, axes and firearms to ward off intruders.
This Path may frighten and diconcert onlookers. Many people are quite put off when the pages of a book turn by themselves!
System : The number of successes indicates the duration of the thaumaturge's control over the object (or subject). Each success allows one turn of manipulation, though the Kindred may attempt to maintain control after this time by making a new roll (she need not spend additional blood to maintain control). If the roll is successful, control is maintained. If a thaumaturge loses or relaxes control over an object and later manipulates it again, her player must spend another blood point, as a new attempt is being made.
If this power is used to manipulate a living being, the subject may attempt to resist. In this case, the thaumaturge and the subject make opposed Willpower rolls each turn the control is exercised.
Like the Lure of Flames, individual power levels are not provided for this Path – consult the chart below to see how much weight a thaumaturge may control. Once a Kindred reaches Level Three, she may levitate herself and “fly” at approximately running speed, no matter how much she weighs, though the weight restrictions apply if she manipulates other objects or subjects. Once a Kindred achieves Level Four, she may “throw” objects at a Strength equal to her level of mastery.
Lvl 1 One pound
Lvl 2 20 pounds
Lvl 3 200 pounds
Lvl 4 500 pounds
Lvl 5 1000 pounds
Yaksha-Vidya
This Path allows a thaumaturge limited control over and communion with inanimate objects. Mistakenly believed by may to be related to the four elements (earth, air, fire and water), this Path is actually closer to an amalgamation of Spirit Manipulation and the Path of Conjuring. Elemental Mastery can only be used to affct the unliving – a vampire could not cause a tree to walk by using Animate the Unmoving, for instance. Thaumaturges who seek mastery over living things generally study Biothaumaturgical Experimentation or the Green Path.
Lvl 1 Elemental Strength
The vampire can draw upon the strength and resilience of the earth, or of the objects around him, to increase this physical prowess without the need for large amounts of blood.
System : The player allocates a total of three temporary bonus dots between the character's Strength and Stamina. The number of successes on the roll to activate the power are the number of turns these dots remain. The player may spend a Willpower point to increase this duration by one turn. This power cannot be “stacked” - one application must expire before the next can be made.
Lvl 2 Wooden Tongues
A vampire may speak, albeit in limited fashion, with the spirit of any inanimate object. The conversation may not be incredibly interesting, as most rocks and chairs have limited concern for what occurs around them, but the vampire can get at least a general impression of what the subject has “experienced”. Note that events which are significant to a vampire may not be the same events that interest a lawn jockey.
System : The number of successes dictates the amount and relevance of the information that the character receives. One success may yield a boulder's memory of a forest fire, while three may indicate that it remembers a shadowy figure running past, and five will cause the rock to relate a precise description of a local Gangrel.
Lvl 3 Animate the Unmoving
Objects affected by this power move as the vampire using it dictates. An object cannot take an action that would be completely inconceivable for something with its form – for instance, a door could not leap from its hinges and carry someone across a street. However, semingly solid objects can become flexible within reason. Barstools can run with their legs, guns can twist out of their owners' hands or fire while holstered, and statues can move like normal humans.
System : This power requires the expenditure of a Willpower point with less than four successes on the roll. Each use of this power animates one object; the thaumaturge may simultaneously control a number of animate objects equal to his Intelligence rating. Objects animated by this power stay animated as long as they are within the caster's line of sight or up to an hour.
Lvl 4 Elemental Form
The vampire can take the shape of any inanimate object of a mass roughly equal to her own. A desk, a statue or a bicycle would be feasible, but a house or a pen would be beyond this power's capacity.
System : The number of successes determines how completely the character takes the shape she wishes to counterfeit. At least three successes are required for the character to use her senses or Disciplines while in her altered form. This power lasts for the remainder of the night, although the character may return to her normal form at will.
Lvl 5 Summon Elemental
A vampire may summon one of the traditional spirits of the elements: a salamander (fire), a sylph (air), a gnome (earth) or an undine (water). Some Tremere claim to have contacted elemental spirits of glass, electricity, blood and even atomic energy, but such reports remain unconfirmed (even as their authors are summoned to Vienna for questioning). The thaumaturge may choose what type of elemental he wishes to summon and command.
System : The character must be near some quantity of the classical element corresponding to the spirit he wishes to invoke. The spirit invoked may or may not actually follow the caster's instructions once summoned, but generally will at least pay rough attention to what it's being told to do. The number of successes gained determines the power level of the elemental.
The elemental has three dots in all Physical and Mental Attributes. One dot may be added to one of the elemental's Physical Attributes for each success gained by the caster on the initial roll. The Storyteller should determine the elemental's Abilities, attacks and damage, and any special powers it has related to its element.
Once the elemental has been summoned, the thaumaturge must exert control over it. The more powerful the elemental, the more difficult a task this is. The player rolls Manipulation + Occult (difficulty of the number of successes scored on the casting roll +4, and the player may substitute Spirit Lore for Occult if he so desires).
No. of successes Result
Botch The elemental immediately attacks the thaumaturge.
Failure The elemental goes free and may attack anyone or leave the scene at the Storyteller's discretion.
1 success The elemental probably does not attack its summoner.
2 successes The elemental behaves favorably toward the summoner and may perform a service in exchange for payment (determined by the Storyteller).
3 successes The elemental performs one service, within reason.
4 successes The elemental performs any one task for the character that does not jeopardize its own existence.
5 successes The elemental performs any task that the caster sets for it, even one that may take several nights to complete or that places its existence at risk.
Asura-Raja
Not to be confused with, or perhaps derived form the ancient Path of Spirit Thaumaturgy, Spirit Manipulation is a relatively recent innovation of the Tremere. Created to replace the rituals practiced by the clan in the days when it was a band of mortal wizards, Spirit Manipulation is the art of forcing spirits into actions and situations that would normally be anathema to them. Spirit Manipulation simulates many effects that can be created by Lupine and shamanic mages, but does so by forcing the spirits involved into a grotesque mockery of their normal behaviors. Any botch with Spirit Manipulation not only inflicts the normal loss of Willpower involved with thaumaturgical mishaps but also turns the full force of the spirit's wrath against the offending vampire.
Lvl 1 Hermetic Sight
The vampire can perceive the spirit world, either by gazing deeply into it or by seeing the presence of nearby spirits as a hazy overlay on the material world. This power does not allow the thaumaturge to see into the realms of the dead or into the realms of the fae.
System : One success on the roll is needed for the thaumaturge to perceive spirits, while two allow him to view the spirit realm. With less than four successes, the thaumaturge is at +2 difficulty to all actions performed while using this power due to the distraction of divided perceptions. Hermetic Sight lasts for the duration of the scene or until the thaumaturge deactivates it.
Lvl 2 Astral Cant
The languages of the spirit world are infinitely varied and mainly incomprehensible to mortal (or immortal) minds. Astral Cant does not teach the thaumaturge the tongues of the spirits, but it does allow him to understand them as they speak to him and to reply in their own languages – in effect, a universal translator for the spirit world. Imprecise use of this power can be disastrous, particularly when a thaumaturge is bargaining with a powerful spirit. The use of this power is not always necessary; many spirits speak human tongues but choose to feign ignorance when dealing with vampires.
System : The number of successes determines the accuracy of the translation.
No. of successes Effect
1 success Pidgin spirit language; very simple words and phrases can be comprehended
2 successes Simple sentences are possible; “trade language”
3 successes Fluent conversation; sufficient for most conversations
4 successes Complex issues such as metaphysics can be discussed
5 successes Even the most obscure idiomatic expressions and forms of humor come through
Lvl 3 Voice of Command
This is perhaps the most dangerous power in the Spirit Manipulation arsenal, for the consequences if a thaumaturge fails can be most unpleasant. Voice of Command allows a vampire to issue orders to a spirit, compelling it to heed her biding whether or not it desires to do so.
System : The player makes the normal Willpower roll; the target spirit resists with Willpower (difficulty of the thaumaturge's Manipulation + Occult or Manipulation + Lore: Spirits). The degree of success the thaumaturge attains determines the complexity and severity of the command that she can issue.
No. of successes Effect
Botch The spirit is immune to the character's commands for the rest of the night. It reacts however the Storyteller deems appropriate.
Failure The spirit is unaffected, and further attempts to command it are made at +1 difficulty (cumulative). It may ignore, taunt or even attack the character at the Storyteller's discretion.
1 success The spirit obeys a very simple command that is no great inconvenience to it.
2 successes The spirit heeds a relatively straight forward command that it is not innately opposed to performing.
3 successes The spirit agrees to perform a moderately complex task that does not violate its ethics.
4 successes The spirit consents to an extended or intricate task that does not place it in immediate danger.
5 successes The spirit accepts a lengthy or nigh-impossible task, or one that may mean its destruction.
Crafty Storytellers should note that spirits compelled by this power are fully aware that they are being forced into these actions, and may well seek revenge on their erstwhile masters at a later time.
Thaumaturges who issue commands above and beyond what their spirit servants are compelled to perform may find themselves ignored or mocked. Even worse, a spirit in such a situation may “agree” to follow orders without following through, leaving the thaumaturge in a situation of potentially fatal embarassment.
Lvl 4 Entrap Ephemera
This power allows a thaumaturge to bind a spirit into a physical object. This can be done to imprison the target, but is more often performed to create a fetish, an artifact that allows a user to channel a portion of the spirit's power through it to affect the physical world. Fetishes created by this power are often recalcitrant and fail at inappropriate moments, as the spirits within are most displeased with their situation and will take any opportunity to escape or thwart their captor.
System : The number of successes rolled determines the power level of the fetish to be created. A fetish is activated by rolling the user's Willpower (difficulty of the fetish's power level +3). A botch on this roll destroys the physical compoent of the fetish and frees the spirit that was trapped inside.
For more complete guidelines to fetish powers, refer to pages 273-275 of Werewolf : The Apocalypse. The Storyteller is always the final authority in determining the powers and mechanics of a fetish created through the use of this power.
Lvl 5 Duality
The thaumaturge can now fully interact with the spirit world. While using this power, he exists on both planes of existence at once. He is able to pick up objects in the physical world and place them in the spirit world and vice versa. Beings and landscapes features in both realms are solid to him, and he can engage in any manner of interaction. He can even unse Thaumaturgy and other Disciplines in either world. This is not without its dangers, however. One misstep and the vampire can find himself trapped in the spirit realm with no way to return home. Several incautious thaumaturges have starved into torpor while trapped on the other side of the barrier that spearates the physical and spirit realms.
System : The number of successes dictates how long the vampire can interact with the spirit world.
No. of successes Duration
1 success One turn
2 successes Three turns
3 successes 10 turns
4 successes 10 minutes
5 successes The remainder of the scene
Duality can only be used while the character is in the physical world. Note that while Duality is in effect the character is also susceptible to attacks from both realms. Additionally, the player must roll Perception + Occult (difficulty 8) when this power is actiated; a roll with less than three successes indicates that all rolls made while this power is active are at +2 difficulty due to the distraction of the character's dual perceptions. The character is still considered to be in the physical world for purposes of basic physics and common sense – for instance, his feet rest on the ground in the physical world, not the ground in the spirit world, and the could this walk across a spiritual chasm if a physical parking lot overlaid the same place.
A botch on the roll to activate this power tears the vampire out of the physical world and traps him in the spirit realm. The way back to the physical realm, if there is one, is left to the Storyteller's discretion, and may constitute an entire adventure in and of itself.
Path of Yama
Through the Path of Yama, a practitioner of Sadhana conjures the attributes of the netherworld and inflicts them upon an enemy. The effects are mental and hypnotic rather than physical; an observer sees no physical cause for the victim's malady.
Each power within the Path calls for a Willpower roll. Except for the last power, the effect lasts as long as the magician concentrates upon maintaining it. This means that the magician cannot engage in any violent physical activity, or employ other Path or ritual magic.
Lvl 1 A Sending of Serpents
Serpents, the spawn of Apep, haunt the 12 caverns of Duat. They swim in the river and coil about the limbs of the unredeemed dead. Through this power, the magician makes her victim hallicunate about snakes. The victim starts by seeing a single asp slithering nearby. No matter what the victim does, the snake comes closer. If he runs, another snake drops down before him or slithers from behind the furniture. If he attacks the snake, it vanishes but another serpent takes its place. Before long, more serpents appear, and one manages to coil around his body...Although the snakes look real and deadly, they never actually bite. They can only frighten the victim.
Other people, of course, do not see these phantom serpents and might assume that a frightened victim is on drugs or has lost his mind.
System : The Willpower roll has a difficulty of 4.
Lvl 2 Darkness of Duat
The dead in Duat exist in darkness, relieved only by the nightly passage of the ship of Ra. This power casts the darkness of Duat into a victim's eyes, rendering him blind. The victim also hears the soft lapping of the River of Death as it flows through the Underworld.
System : If the Willpower roll succeeds, the victim sees nothing for as long as the magician concentrates upon her. Blinded characters are at +2 difficulty on Dexterity-based actions, or tasks that involve sight (such as searching for an object, typiong at a keyboard, etc.). Those who attack a blind character receive +2 dice to their attack rolls.
Lvl 3 Suffocation of the Tomb
Along with their other torments, the dead in Duat cannot breathe or speak. The “Opening of the Mouth” funerary ritual was meant to deliver the deceased from this unhappy condition. Through this power, a magician renders a victim as breathless and mute as the dead.
System : If the player succeeds in the dice roll, the victim can neither breathe nor speak for as long as the vampire concentrates upon her. For vampires, muteness is a minor inconvenience: they do not, of course, need to breathe. For a mortal, loss of breath will kill and deliver him to the netherworld in truth if the magician persists long enough. Mortals can survive a few minutes of suffocation, but immediately drop to Injured. For each turn of energetic action that a mortal attempts while suffocating, the player rolls Stamina + Athletics (difficulty 6). Failure means that the character suffers another health level of bashing damage. Once a mortal loses consciousness from this attack, she can live as many minutes as her Stamina Trait rating before suffocating to death.
Lvl 4 The Narrow House
The dead in Duat rest in coffins that open only when the sun-god Ra makes his nightly passage. At this level, the magician makes her victim feel that he is trapped in a coffin, unable to move.
System : A successfully paralyzed victim can take no action at all so long as the magician concentrates upon her, unless her player spends a Willpower point. In that case, the victim can act for that single turn, at a dice penalty equal to the number of successes the magician's player rolled. This power affects vampires, other corporeal supernatural entities and wraiths, but not other sorts of spirits.
Lvl 5 Consignment to Duat
The ultimate power of this Path sends the victim's entire consciousness to Duat. For a mortal, this means death. For a vampire, it merely means torpor – but since the victim is at the magician's mercy, in all likelihood Final Death soon follows anyway.
System : Unlike the other powers in this Path, the magician's player spends a Willpower point. The victim, feeling himself die, can also expend Willpower to stay active for another turn. While doing this, the victim suffers a -2 dice penalty to all dice pools, as if attempting to do two things at once. The victim's player spends an other Willpower point each turn to keep the character alive (or undead, at least), but the magician's player does not have to expend more Willpower points to continue the attack. To survive the attack, the victim needs some way to break the magician's concentration or escape her line of sight.
Torpor induced by Consignment to Duat lasts the normal duration set by the victim's Humanity or Path of Enlightenment rating – barring further action by the magician.
Sanguinus
Sanguinus is the unwholesome Discipline granted to the Blood Brothers by the Tzimisce who created them. A curious relative of Vicissitude, Sanguinus allows vampires who practice it to combine parts of their bodies, loan them out to others and coordinate their minds and appendages. Even low levels of it are unsettling (at best ) to watch. Use of the higher levels is disgusting, indeed, as flesh parts and exposed organs, atrophied by the Blood Brothers' state of undeath, merge and pulse. Mortals observing the spectacle of this Discipline's more obvious powers must make Courage rolls (difficulty 4), spend a point of Willpower or flee the area in nausea.
Lvl 1 Brother's Blood
The Blood Brothers sharea mystical bond established at their creation. The blood of one courses through the undead veins of all members of a certain circle. By using his own blood, a Brother may heal the wounds of another in his circle. In this manner, Blood Brothers can heal great amounts of damage without exceeding their generational blood-expenditure limits, and they may have one of their number withdrawn from combat so that he may heal others without concentration.
System : The player spends a blood point, which may be used to heal any member of the circle, regardless of distance from the character. The Blood Brother may also “bank” blood, spending five points to heal another's aggravated wound over the course of several turns. This power takes place automatically; no roll is necessary.
Lvl 2 Octopod
This grotesque powr allows the Blood Brothes to share limbs and appendages. The organs so “borrowed” travel mystically over a distance, and some vampires have told stories of fighting single members of Blood Brother circles who grew extra arms to carry weapons or extra legs to brace themselves from falling. The most unsettling aspect of this power is not the additional limbs acquired by the recipient, however; rather, the quadriplegic, eyeless or mouthless Blood Brothers littering the battlefield when this power is invoked is a far more grisly sight.
System : The “donor” player spends a blood point ach limb or organ he wishes to loan to the other circle member. The may only be done among circle members, but only the donor needs to have this level of mastery of Sanguinus. The loaned organs appear at the end of that turn, in whatever location the recipient wishes – eyes on the back of heads or on the ends of hands have been seen, as have entire heads located between a Blood Brother's legs. Use of this power does not impart any extra attacks inherently, but it may allow for additional sensory input, more blood to be consumed in a single turn or extra hands to hold weapons or pin down foes. Only external organs may be loaned in this manner – hearts, stomachs and brains cannot.
Lvl 3 Gestalt
The Blood Brothers may activate the unique ties of blodo that bind them, establishing a “hive mind” of sorts. This expanded consciousness allows them to perform efficient and powerful attacks, avoid surprise attacks and even communicate with each other telepathically.
System : This power confers several benefits on the Blood Brothers. For this power to work, however, every Blood Brother in the circle must spend a blood point. If even one member cannot or refuses to spend a blood point, this power fails. Once a Blood Brother has met Final Death, he is no longer a part of the circle, so the power continues to function among the still-undead members of the group. Gestalt lasts for one scene. While this power is active:
- Dominate, Presence, etc. take effect against the highest Willpower score in the circle. For example, if a vampire attempts to Dominate a Blood Brother under the influence of Gestalt, she must roll against the highest Willpower score any of the vampires in the circle possesses, even if her subject has the lowest Willpower score in the circle. Additionally, a Blood Brother affected in this manner drops out of the Gestalt, though the power remains active for others. The Tremere supposedly created this mental “fuse” to prevent the entire circle from being Dominated by a vampire looking into the eyes of one Blood Brother.
- Perception difficulties for all Blood Brothers in the circle decrease by three, as they share the sensory input of other vampires in the circle.
- By taking no action other than concentrating, a Blood Brother may “loan” an Ability to another brother. For example, a wounded vampire with Melee 4 may stop out of combat and loan a circle-mate with Melee 2 his mastery of that Skill. The “borrowing” vampire makes Ability checks against the loaned Trait as if it were his own.
- Blood Brothers in the Gestalt share open, two-way telepathic communication with other members of the circle. This is not a chance to read the minds of other Blood Brothers, but simple, silent communication.
Note that not all Blood Brothers need possess Sanguinus at this level to gain the benefits of Gestalt. Players of vampires of the circle who have not mastered Sanguinus to this level, however, must make a Wits + Occult roll (difficulty 7) to gain the benefits of the link. This roll is made before the Gestalt becomes active – no “loaning” Occult for this roll! If they fail this roll, they may not gain the benefits of the Gestalt for the scene, though their applicable Traits may be used (high Willpower) or laoned (but not borrowed).
Lvl 4 Walk of Caine
By using this power, a Blood Brother may concentrate his own blood by drawing on the inherent Cainite curse in other members of the circle. In effect, he may lower his generation temporarily at the expense of raising the generation of other members of the circle. Some Blood Brothes have used this power to terrifying effect, lowering their generation to such a degree that they can perform truly monstrous feats, such as greatly increasing their strength or healing grievous wounds in the blink of an eye.
System : A Blood Brother may temporarily borrow one generation from other members of his circle. No vampire may loan more than one level of generation in this manner. For each level of generation he borrows from a member of the circle, the vampire using this power lowers his own generation by one level, while the Blood Brother from whom he borrowed it increases his generation by one. The Brothers loaning generations need not have Sanguinus at this level, but if they don't, they must make Stamina + Occult rolls (difficulty 7) to loan their generation. If this power takes a Blood Brother to 14thgeneration, he is considered to have the Flaw “14thgeneration” and apply all penalties thereof to the Cainite in question. This power lasts for one scene.
Lvl 5 Coagulated Entity
This frightening power allows the Blood Brothers of a given circle to unite physically as well as mentally. The vampires combine into one monstrous heap of undead flesh, exposing entrails, spraying fould fluids and flailing dead limbs. These horrid mounds have proven effective in more than one Sabbat siege, sweeping over enemy vampires or smashing their way into fortified havens.
System : Every vampire in the circle who wishes to become part of the Coagulated Entity spends three blood points. Three turns after the process begins, the monster becomes complete and able to act. The vampire of the lowest generation who is part of the construct guides the creature's actions. The actual generation of the creature itself, however, is the highest generation of any vampire present in the construct, less one for each additional vampire present in the construct. The creature's Strength, Stamina and Perception are equal to the lowest-generation vampire's in the construct +1 for every additional vampire contained within (though generational limits do not apply to this creature – through sheer size, a Coagulated Entity may have a Strength of 7 or even more). All physical actions undertaken by the monstrosity gain one extra die to the pool for each vampire beyond the first present in the construct (before splitting dice pools). Only one vampire in the circle needs to possess Sanguinus at Level Five for this power to work. Body parts tend to shift during the creating of a Coagulated Entity – fanged maws at the ends of hands and eyes atop fleshy stalks have been reported by terrified survivors. Storytellers should feel free to give any bonuses (or penalties, as some legs may be too weak to support the creature, or arms may be too short to strike effectively) to the construct they see fit. Sanguinus is an imperfect practice, obviously.
A Coagulated Entity may not be staked, as it has too many hearts in unconventional places for any but the blindest of luck to impale. It has a vampire's normal seven health levels, plus two for each additional vampire who becomes part of the entity (treat these extra health levels as Bruised). The entity remains congealed for one scene.
Serpentis
Serpentis is the legacy of Set, his gift to his children. The Followers of Set carefully guard this Discipline's secrets, teaching the reptilian art only to those they deem worthy (almost never outsiders). Most Cainites fear the Setites purely because of this Discipline, the way of the serpent and the tempter. Serpentis can evoke an almost primordial fear in others, particularly those who recall the tale of Eden. Afet all, hiss the Setites, the serpent was an evil older than even Caine himself.
Lvl 1 The Eyes of the Serpent
This power grants the Setite the legendary hypnotic gaze of the serpent. The Setite's eyes become gold with large black irises, and mortals in the character's vicinity find themselves strangely attracted to him. A mortal who meets the vampire's beguiling gaze is immobilized. Until the character takes his eyes off h is mortal victim, the person in frozen in place.
System : No roll is required, but this power can be avoided if the mortal takes care not to look into the Setite's eyes. Vampires and other supernatural creatures (Lupines, mages, et al.) can also be affected by this power if the Setite's player makes a Willpower roll (difficulty 9). If attacked or otherwise harmed, supernatural creatures can spend a point of Willpower to break the spell.
Lvl 2 The Tongue of the Asp
The Setite may lengthen her tongue at will, splitting it into a fork like that of a serpent. The tongue may reach 18 inches, and makes a terrifyingly effective weapon in close combat.
System : The tongue's razor fork opens aggravated wounds (difficulty 6, Strength damage). If the Setite wounds her enemy, she may drink blood from the target on the next turn as though she had sunk her fangs into the victim's neck. Horrifying though it is, the tongue's caress is very like the Kiss, and even strikes mortal victims helpless with fear and ecstasy. Additionally, the tongue is highly sensitive to vibrations, enabling the vampire to function effectively in the darkness the clan prefers. By flickering her tongue in and out of her mouth, the vampire can half any penalties relating to darkness.
Lvl 3 The Skin of the Adder
By calling upon her Blood, the vampire may transform her skin into a mottled, scaly hide. A vampire in this form becomes more supple and flexible. The Path of the Warrior (a line of Setites who adhere to the ancient warrior-codes of Egypt) makes much use of this power.
System : The vampire spends one blood point and one Willpower point. The vampire's skin becomes scaly and mottled; this, combined with the character's increased flexibility, reduces soak difficulties to 5. The vampire may use her Stamina to soak aggravated damage from claws and fangs, but not from fire, sunlight or other magical energies. The vampire's mouth widens and fangs lengthen, enabling her bite to inflict an extra die of damage. Finally, the vampire may slip through any opening wide enough to her head through.
The vampire's Appearance drops to 1, and she is obviously inhuman if observed with any degree of care, though casual passersby might not notice if the vampire is in darkness or wearing heavy clothing.
Lvl 4 The Form of the Cobra
The Setite may change his form into that of a huge black cobra. The serpent weighs as much as the vampire's human form, stretches over 10 feet long, and is as thick as a woman's thigh. The Form of the Cobra grants several advantages, including a venomous bite, the ability to slither through small holes, and a greatly enhanced sense of smell. The character may use any Discipline while in this form save those that require hands (such as Feral Claws).
System : The Setite spends one blood point; the change is automatic, but takes three turns. Clothing and small personal possessions transform with the vampire; the vampire remains in serpent form until the next dawn, unless he desires to change back sooner. The Storyteller may allow the Setite bonus dice on all Perception rolls related to smell, but the difficulties for all hearing are increased by two. The cobra's bite inflicts damage equal to the vampire's but the vampire does not need to grapple his victim; furthermore, the poison delivered is fatal to mortals.
Lvl 5 The Heart of Darkness
The Setite with mastery of Serpentis may pull hear heart from her body. She can even use this ability on other Cainites, although this requires several hours of gruesome surgery. Only the new moon, the invisible moon, may grant this power success. If performed under any other moon, the rite fails. Upon removing her heart, the Setite places it in a small clay urn, and then carefully hides or buries the urn. She cannot be staked by any wood that pierces her breast, and finds it easier to resist frenzy. The heart is the seat of all emotion, after all, and so the difficulties of all rolls to resist frenzy are two lower.
Setites are careful to keep their hearts safe from danger. If someone seizes her heart, the Setite is completely at that person's mercy. The Setite heart can be destroyed only by casting it into a fire or exposing it to sunlight. If this happens, however, the Setite dies where she stands, boiling away into a blistering heap of ash and blackened bone. Plunging a wooden stake into an exposed heart drives the Setite into instant torpor.
A Setite may carry hear heart with her, or have several false hearts buried in different places. A Setite often avoids hear heart's hiding place, to deter discovery. Those wise in Setite lore whipser that the corrupt elders of the clan often hold their underlings' hearts, the better to control the errant hatchlings.
System : This power requires no roll. Those who sitness a Setite pull his heart from his breast (or cut the heart from another vampire) must make Courage rolls. Failure indicates anything from strong uneasiness to complete revulsion, possibly even Rötschreck.
Lvl 6 Cobra Fangs
A character using From of the Cobra gains a venomous bite along with his serpentine form. Unfortunately, huge black cobras tend to make people run away as fast as they can. This Serpentis power enables a Setite to gain the deadly bite without the full-body transformation, making it more useful for taking victims by surprise. The police do ask questions when someone dies from a cobra bite under unlikely circumstances, so Cobra Fangs still requires some discretion in its use.
System : The Setite expends one blood point, and in one turn his fangs become hollow, more slender and venomous. The vampire injects venom when he bites. He must still grapple with the victim to deliver a bite attack, and the bite does the usual amount of damage; the venom, however, kills morals within one minute. Bitten vampires or other supernaturally resilient creatures suffer ten health levels of aggravated damage, minus one per dot of Stamina, over the course of five minutes.
Lvl 7 Divine Image
Many of the low-generation Setite elders no longer need the illusion of Obfuscate to appear as a god. Through this Serpentis power, a Setite can physically metamorphose into the form of a god. Male Followers of Set generally take the form of Set himself: a muscular man with the head of the “Typhonic Beast”, an animal with a long, narrow snout and upstanding, square-topped ears. Less often, they take the form of the crocodile-headed god Sobek, whom the Egyptians often linked to Set, or the wolf-headed war-god Wepwawet, often identified with Set's son Anubis. Female Setites generally assume the form of the cobra-headed goddess Renenet, wife of Sobek, or the hippopotamus-goddess Taweret, sometimes considered a consort of Set. Both were goddesses of pregnancy and childbirth. Setite doctrine labels all four deities as Set's eldest childer.
While assuming the Divine Image, the vampire becomes stronger, tougher and more impressive. More importantly, perhaps, the Setite's will becomes more powerful as he identifies with a divine forbear.
System : The character expends three blood points and transforms into the Divine Image in one turn. In the Divine Image, the vampire gains two dots each of Strength and Stamina and a dot each of Charisma and Manipulation, but her Appearance drops to 1. Thse can push the vampire over his generational limit. The character also gains two full dots of Willpower (to a maximum of 10). The Setite can stay in the Divine Image for a full scene.
Lvl 8 Heart Thief
The Serpentis power Heart of Darkness normally takes hours to perform upon other vampires, and only works at the dark of the Moon. Some Setite elders, however, can pull the heart from another vampire's chest with a quick snatch of the hand. This does not destroy the vampire...unless the Setite then destroys the stolen heart. Heart Thief is not an easy power to use despite its speed, but few Discipline effects can place one vampire in another's power so suddenly and completely.
System : The character must expend one Willpower point. Removing the heart of a reluctant vampire is a difficult feat, comparable to staking a vampire through the heart; the attacker must receive at least three successes on a Dexterity + Brawl attack (difficulty 9). The victim may use Fortitude to “soak” the attacker's successes, but mundane Stamina has no effect against this magical attack.
A vampire who loses his heart this way takes one unsoakable level of aggravated damage, and receives all the benefits and problems of the Heart of Darkness power. Resisting frenzy becomes easier (-2 to difficulties) and he cannot be staked by wood that impales his breast. On the other hand, thrusting a stake through the removed heart will instantly force the vampire into torpor and exposing the heart to fire or sunlight will burn the vampire to ash; even biting into the heart will cause aggravated wounds to the vampir ein question.
Lvl 9 Shadow of Apep
Only Set and Set's own childer can perform this terrifying power. These ancient monsters can take the form of Set's defeated enemy, Apep. The vampire becomes a giant serpent of fluid, glittering darkness – not mere shadow, but anti-light, like the black force commanded by Obtenebration. In this form, physical force cannot harm the vampire: not claws nor fangs, not bullets, not explosions, not anything except fire, sunlight or magic. Physical barriers cannot easily stop the vampire, whose shadowy form can sep through even the tiniest crack. The vampire, however, can still exert physical and supernatural force quite freely.
System : Taking the form of Apep costs a Willpower point; the vampire stays in this form for a scene. The transformation takes three turns to complete. In this form, the vampire takes no damage from any physical attack: fists, weapons or falling buildings pass through the vampire as if she were a shadow. Fire and sunlight inflict the normal aggravated damage, however, and magic still affects the transformed vampire. The vampire itself gains three dots in each Physical Attribute. Ignore generational limits for this purpose, so the vampire could have Strength, Dexterity or Stamina greater than 10. The transformed vampire can use its Strength to make normal close c0mbat attacks and can bite for Strength +2 dice of damage. The vampire can also employ any Discipline that does not require hands.
Spiritus
Spiritus is a Discipline that is unique to the Ahrimanes. Its powers stem from the ritual that transforms them and without undergoing this ritual, no vampire can learn the Discipline.
Lvl 1 Speak with Spirits
The Ahrimane can speak to nearby spirits for the duration of the scene. This will not change the spirit's reaction to the Ahrimane. The Ahrimane communicates telepathically with the spirit. The Ahrimane may also try to see spirits in the area, although this requires intense concentration.
System : The speaker rolls Wits + Linguistics (difficulty 6). One success allows the speaker to communicate with whatever spirits are around. Of course, this does not require sprits to respond, although most spirits view Ahrimanes more favorably than other vampires. Viewing spirits requires a Perception + Occult, difficulty of the local Gauntlet.
Lvl 2 Summon Spirit Beasts
The Ahrimane can call on the spirits of dead animals, known to Garou and Magi as animal Naturae, to aid them. They will be predisposed to helping the caller, and follow simple telepathic commands. The spirits can take any actions they were capable of in normal life.
System : The summoner must roll Charisma + Animal Ken (difficulty 7). The difficulty of this roll may be decreased if the Ahrimane possess and appropriate Material Correspondence for the spirit (basically an item appropriate to the spirit's nature, or something like bones, feathers or a tooth of the animal in question).
The location also matters; if the animal being called is local to the region it will be easier to summon spirits, if they come from the other side of the world, or a very different habitat it will be tougher. Use common sense, a rat will be easier to summon in a city, but it will be difficult to summon a polar bear in the desert.
Every success on the roll allows the animal spirit to Materialize for a longer period of time.
1 success One turn
2 successes Five turns
3 successes One hour
4 successes One night
5 successes One week
Spirits called by this ability do not have to spend Power to Materialize and may do so even if they do not possess the Charm, and ignore the normal restrictions for materialised spirits and the local Gauntlet rating. In this case, the spirit will have the Attributes and health levels of a normal animal of whatever type. Spirits with the Charm Appear or Materialize may be persuaded to remain after the power's duration, although this will require some bargaining on the Ahrimane's part.
Rather than have them remain in the pysical world, the Ahrimane can ask them to perform tasks in the spirit world or Umbra. In spirit terms a “typical” Naturae mght be Rage 5, Gnosis 6, Willpower 6, Power 30 with a number of appropriate Charms. This should be modified as befits the animal; an Owl-spirit, for example, is likely to have a high Gnosis score, whereas a Buffalo-spirit may have a high Rage. Examples of animal spirits, and how to deal with them, can be found in Axis Mundi: The Book of Spirits.
It is possible to call upon the spirits of extinct animals, but the longer the animal has been extinct the harder it will become. Calling upon a Sabretooth Tiger will be harder than a modern Tiger, calling upon a Dinosaur may be so difficult that the Storyteller can decide that it is effectively impossible.
For those without access to the spirit rules, assume spirits have the Attributes of a normal animal but are somewhat smarter. They may stay for longer than allowed by the power if a bargain can be reached. Some also have some additional powers, so a
Falcon-spirit may have the equivalent of Presence Level One or a Snake-spirit Serpentis Level One for instance.
While the spirits summoned may look like animals, they are not. Powers that work against animals will be ineffective against them, although powers that affect spirits will work. If another mystic tries to command the spirits, they must beat the successes the Ahrimane scored when summoning them. Finally, as supernatural creatures, attacks from their teeth and claws do aggravated damage.
Lvl 3 Aspect of the Beast
The Ahrimane can gain powers similar to those possessed by animals y calling on the spirit of that particular animal to grant her the power. In essence the Ahrimane is channeling the spirits she calls on into herself, and the spirit is employing the power. If another vampire views the Arhimane's aura while this power is being employed, they will see a ghostly image of the spirit being invoked overlaying it.
System : The Ahrimane must make a Manipulation + Occult roll (difficulty 7) and spend a blood point to gain the power. The power lasts for one turn per success. Even if the spirit fails to grant the power, the vampire must still expend the blood point. If the Ahrimane employs a sensory power its possible to use that to try to penetrate another vampire's Obfuscate. Compare the Ahrimane's Spiritus rating to the opponent's Obfuscate rating, just as if she were employing Auspex.
Here are some of the possible spirit powers, although this power is not limited to these here:
Armadillo's Skin The Ahrimane gains a additional to dice for soak damage, including aggravated damage.
Falcon's Eye The Ahrimane can see great distances as if she had the eyes of a falcon.
Sounds of the Cricket This grants the power to produce an annoying, grating sound low enough to deafen those nearby for a few hours.
Swiftness of the Stag The Ahrimane can move at twice her normal running speed.
Strength of the Bear This gives the Ahrimane two extra levels of Strength.
Ferocity of the Cougar All Courage rolls are made at one less difficulty.
Beaver's Bite This makes the Ahrimane's bite strong and sharp enough to cut through almost any substance, add +1 bite damage and biting through tcugh substances can be done with a Strength roll, difficulty set by the Storyteller.
Serpent's Venom The Ahrimane's bite transforms a venomous toxin tat causes two health levels of damage in living victims per turn. The damage continues until the toxin is removed or nullified until the Ahrimane's spirit power ends.
Chameleon's Colors The Ahrimane becomes a chameleon, capable of changing color to suit the environment, and gains +5 stealth dice, but only if the Ahrimane moves at half speed or less.
Leapfrog This grant the Ahrimane the ability to leap three times her normal height and distance.
Ears of the Hare The Ahrimane can hear as well as a rabbit, reducing the difficulty of Perception rolls involving hearing by two.
Nose of the Hound The Ahrimane's sense of smell is far greater than that of a mortal. She can even track by scent on a Perception + Survival roll (difficulty set by Storyteller), smell related Perception rolls have their difficulty reduced by two.
Squirrel Balance The Ahrimane can move about in the branches and limbs of trees or across tihtropes with little fear of falling. All such Dexterity rolls have their difficulties reduced by two.
Skin of the Frog The Ahrimane's skin becomes slick and slippery. Attempts to pin or grapple the Ahrimane suffer a +3 difficulty and it becomes easier to slip through tight spaces.
Shock of the Eel With a touch the Ahrimane can deliver a potent electric shock. This will do as many dice in damage as the Ahrimane scores on her Manipulation + Occult roll to activate the power.
Charge of the Buffalo This power can only be used if the Ahrimane is running towards an opponent or target. When used the Ahrimane will slam into the target with great force without being harmed herself, doing Strength +2 damage.
Spit of the Cobra The Ahrimane can spit a blinding contact poison. The hit roll is Stamina + Athletics, difficulty 6.
Mole's Tunneling Mole gives the Ahrimane the power to tunnel through the earth. The Ahrimane must roll Strength + Athletics to determine how far she can go, with the difficulty depending upon how hard the earth is.
Stench of the Skunk The Ahrimane can generate a truly foul smell that will distract anyone in the vicinity. A
Self-Control roll is required to get close to the Ahrimane or to stay close to her. She stops generating the smell when the power wears off, but is likely to stink for some time to come.
Lvl 4 Engling Fury
This power allows an Ahrimane to use an animal Engling, a spirit of mystical energy, to replenish her Willpower. When the power is invoked the spirit is summoned although it does not appear immediately in the physical world. The Ahrimane then has a choice: she can either take the power from the spirit straight away, or she can honour the spirit with a hunt.
If the Ahrimane chooses to simply force the energy from the spirit, it dissipates immediately before even materialising. If she chooses to hunt it, it will materialize as an animal, and the Ahrimane will have to pursue, catch and kill it, at which point she must then say a small prayer of thanks to the spirit.
System : To simply take the energy the player rolls Manipulation + Intimidation (difficulty 8). Every success allows her to regain a point of Willpower. However, each use of this power destroys the spirit. Obviously this can damage the Ahrimane's reputation in the spirit world.
Summoning a spirit to hunt requires a Charisma + Occult roll (difficulty 8) at which point the spirit will materialise. The player will then have to make whatever rolls the Storyteller thinks are appropriate to hunt and catch the animal, depending upon the terrain she must hunt it through. If the hunt is successfully completed then the Ahrimane must say the prayer of thanks. If this is done the spirit will reform elsewhere afterwards.
Note that knowledge of the Discipline does not automatically grant knowledge of how to perform the hunt and the prayer. The Storyteller may require this to be learnt as a ritus, as to require the character to have at least a point in Rituals.
Lvl 5 The Wildform
The Ahrimane has the power to channel spirtual energies to fuel a physical transformation, taking on a larger and tougher feral state and granting her special physical powers. She also takes on a more catlike appearance, and animals react poorly to this shape. The exact appearance can vary; some Ahrimanes just grow bulkier, acquire a thin layer of fur and look rather more feline, while other turn into a fullblown Cat-woman. Unlike Protean, the transformation does not affect the Ahrimane's clothing or items she carries; clothes are simply shredded.
System : The change is automatic, happening whenever the Ahrimane wishes it, raising the vampire's Strength by 3 and Dexterity by 2. Stamina also increases by 2, and can be used to soak aggravated damage from physical attacks. Appearance goes to 0 and Manipulation is reduced by 3; however, Strength can be used instead for Intimidation rolls.
The vampire's claws and fangs cause an extra die of damage; she no longer needs to hold, tackle or clinch before biting, and her claws are retractable like a cat's. Both fangs and claws do aggravated damage. Smelling, hearing and night vision improve to roughly twice her normal (double Perception dice for appropriate rolls). Finally all rolls for interacting with animals are at +2 difficulty.
Lvl 6 Blessing of the Beast
This power is a more potent version of Aspect of the Beast. Through her greater understanding the Ahrimane can hold the spirit energies within herself for a longer period of time.
System : This power works in all respects like Aspect of the Beast, except the invoked power lasts for one scene per success rather than one turn. The Ahrimanes cannot employ more powers through this level of Spiritus at any one time than her Animal Ken rating. Also at the Storyteller's discretion powers from animals that would conflict, such as dog and cat, cannot be employed at the same time. The spirits of such creatures refuse to be in each other's proximity for any length of time.
Temporis
While Troile stole the blood of Brujah, she did not steal his most prized Discipline – Temporis. Now the True Brujah carefully guard Temporis, for those who understand the Discipline can manipulate time itself.
Lvl 1 Time Sense
The vampire can sense contractions and dilations in time. In addition, she can sense the use of Temporis or other time-altering powers. She also has an internal clock which keeps perfect track of time. This is particularly useful with the higher level powers of this Discipline, as it allows the vampire to know just what she is capable of doing with her powers, how long the effects will last, etc.
System : No roll is required and the effects are constant.
Lvl 2 Ramble On
The vampire has the power to cause a single subject to continuously repeat his own actions, without ever realizing he has been repeating himself. The subject gets so caught up that he pays no heed to events around him unless they are obvious and dangerous. For example, a subject may be walking along when the vampire uses this power on him. The subject may have been intending to go to the store, but gets so carried away that he finds he has been walking for an hour and is now far away from both his home and the store. If the subject had walked out in front of a car, he would have been less likely to notice it, but if he did, the trance-like effects would have been broken.
System : Roll the character's Manipulation + Empathy (difficulty of the subject's Willpower). An obviously dangerous situation will snap the victim out of this trance if he succeeds in a Perception + Alertness roll (difficulty 6).
1 success One turn
2 successes One minute
3 successes 10 minutes
4 successes One hour
5 successes One day
Lvl 3 Zombie's Curse
The vampire can cause one subject to perceive time as having sped up. The victim moves at half speed, and everything she says comes out slowly and in a deep pitch. The subject will hve trouble communicating and even more trouble in combat. While bullets, once fired, move at normal speed, punches, kicks, sword swings and other attacks that require personal speed in order to add kinetic force do only half their normal damage dice pool and have their difficulty to hit increased by two.
System : Roll Charisma + Intimidation (difficulty of the target's Willpower). The duration of the effect varies with the number of successes.
1 success One turn
2 successes One minute
3 successes 10 minutes
4 successes One hour
5 successes One day
Lvl 4 Cowalker
The vampire can stop time for a moment, allowing her to appear in two places at once. The vampire appears to teleport or blink from one place to the next, but she is actually slipping out of the normal flow of time and space. The vampire cannot affect objects within the same time stream, so the vampire could not attack someone while using this power. Instead she could move behind an opponent, hit him and then blink away again.
System : This power costs a point of Willpower. The vampire cannot open doors or otherwise affect physical objects, though she can move about freely.
Lvl 5 Frozen Object
The vampire can stop time for an inanimate object for a predetermined length of time. The vampire could only throw a knife into the air and stop time on it, only to later let it continue on its course. The vampire could freeze time on a light switch and then turn it on. When it re-entered time, the light would come on. This power can be used on bullets and other projectile and missile weapons, but not on objects touching animate beings. In addition, objects lose no energy during the time stop, so anyone touching the bullet frozen in flight would burn her hand, and the slug would have the same velocity when it re-entered time.
System : Roll Dexterity + Occult (difficulty 6) to freeze time for an object. The numer of successes determines how long time may be stopped.
1 success One turn
2 successes One minute
3 successes 10 minutes
4 successes One hour
5 successes One day
To stop time for projectiles, the character must see and stop them before they reach their destination. Therefore, the vampire make a Wits + Alertness roll (difficulty 6 to stop thrown weapons, difficulty 8 to stop a single bullet) before using the power.
Lvl 6 Control Aging
The vampire can slow down and speed up the process if aging. The vampire must be in physical contact with the target, and he can only affect one object or subject at a time.
System : Roll Stamina + Occult (difficulty equals the victim's willpower, or 6 for inanimate objects). For each success, the character can age or reduce in age a target by ten years. This power may only be used once per scene on the same individual, but an object can be affected as many times as the character likes. Vampires targeted with this power may become unable to gain sustenance from drinking animal or even human blood.
1 success One year
2 successes Five years
3 successes 10 years
4 successes 50 years
5 successes 100 years
Lvl 7 Domain of Evernight
The vampire can dilate time in an area so that a day passes in the blink of an eye, and night seems to come minutes after it left. This is highly useful in a haven. Hunters who enter will realize only too late, though it should be noon, it is 11 p.m., and the master is awake. The vampire would probably use this only in her private chamber, as prolonged exposure to such effects would drive her servants insane. This power can also be used as an invaluable weapon, causing morning to arrive unexpectedly and leaving vampiric victims in a terrible situation.
System : Roll Intelligence + Alertness (difficulty 7). The character can make a number of hours pass equal to her current Willpower. The number of successes determines how fast time passes.
1 success One hour = 10 minutes
2 successes One hour = five minutes
3 successes One hour = one minute
4 successes One hour = 30 seconds
5 successes One hour = 10 seconds
Lvl 7 Outside the Hourglass
The vampire can step fully outside the time stream and take whatever actions he pleases. Everything is frozen in time – matter, energy, life, etc. Mechanical devices are also frozen and cannot be operated, except manually. Thus, cars will not run, phones will not work, and computers will not function. The vampire could fire a gun, but the bullet would not leave the chamber until the vampire re-enters time. The vampire's own kinetic energy still functions outside time, so a thrown knife would hit and penetrate a target. However, the subject would not suffer the effects until the vampire re-enters time.
System : Roll Stamina + Occult (difficulty 8). For each success, the character can step outside time for one full hour.
Lvl 8 Pocket out of Time
The vampire can cause an entire area to leave the time stream. All those in the Pocket out of Time can interact at normal speed, but everything outside Pocket out of Time seems frozen.
System : Roll Manipulation + Security (difficulty 7). The radius is 10 feet around the caster per success. Characters in the affected area cannot leave until the one who created the Pocket wills it closed or is destroyed.
Lvl 8 Rewind Time
The vampire can turntime back to a certain point, where it will commence again. The vampire will remain wherever he is standing before using this power, though everything else will return to where it was before. Once rewound, events may be changed by the vampire. The vampire may also cause others to change their actions. However, unless the vampire actually motivates others into different actions, they will take the same actions and their actions will have the exact same results.
System : Roll Strength + Alertness (difficulty 8). The number of successes determines how far back time may be rewound.
1 success One turn
2 successes One minute
3 successes 10 minutes
4 successes One hour
5 successes One day
If successful, the character remains wherever he was when he used this power, not where he was at the previous time. In addition, the character can change his actions, knowing everything that will occur if he does exactly the same thing.
Lvl 9 Summon History
The vampire can pull a pocket of space and time from the past. The vampire can concentrate on bringing a certain time forth, but not a particular event. Those inside the summoned area do not see and cannot interact with the present, unless the have Time Sense. At least one True Brujah may have tried to summon Brujah himself in this manner, but this attempt is believed to have failed horribly. Should such an event occur, the effets upon reality remain unknown.
System : Roll Manipulation + Occult (difficulty 7). The number of successes determines the maximum possible range of the power.
1 success One year
2 successes 100 years
3 successes 500 years
4 successes 1000 years
5 successes 5000 years
Thanatosis
This Discipline is an exclusive development of the Samedi bloodline, and it is tied intrinsically to the Stiffs' identity and history. Although Thanatosis appears to deal closely with death and the energies of decay, no Giovanni have ever claimed mastery of this power. The clan would undoubtedly be most interested in learning this Discipline. However, the Giovanni view the Samedi with distrust and loathing, while the Samedi take on the Giovanni is usually expressed by muttering a curse on the clan and spitting blood. This, the possibility of an exchange of information approaches nil.
Lvl 1 Hags' Wrinkles
The character can expand or contract her skin and the outer layer of faty tissue that underlies it. This can be used to change the character's general appearance or to create pockets like a kangaroo's pouch for the concealment of small objects. This power is most effective when used by characters who skin dcondition is already deteriorating, as additional distortion is less likely to be visible. If a character other a Samedi or a Nosferatu uses this power, large wrinkles or bulges may be readily visible in her skin.
System : This power requires one turn to shape the wrinkles and the expenditure of a blood point. If the power is used to distort a character's features, the Samedi player must roll Stamina + Acting (difficulty 8, or 7 is the Secondary Skill Disguise is substituted for Acting). Success raises the difficulty to visually identify the character by one and lasts for one hour per success rolled. If the character is attempting to hide a small object (a wallet, a letter, a small pistol), the roll and duration are the same, but all rolls made to see if the object is detected (for example, a pat-down search or a security guard's visual inspection) are at +2 difficulty.
Lvl 2 Putrefaction
This power allows the character to cause supernaturally rapid decomposition in a living or undead target. The victim loses skin and hair, teeth loosen, blisters and cysts appear, and fungus develops. Needless to say, the psychological impact of this power can be as devastating as the physical.
System : This power first requires that the character touch his intended target. The player then rolls Dexterity + Medicine (difficulty of the target's Stamina + Fortitude) and spends a blood point. Success inflicts one health level of lethal damage on the target and removes one point of the victim's Appearance. This Appearace loss returns to vampires at the rate of one point per night, but it is permanent for mortals (though plastic surgery can correct mortal's physical disfigurement). If a mortal suffers three or more health levels of damage from repeated use of this power in once scene, gangrene or other ailments may occur.
This power can also be used on plants, in which case the target becomes blighted and withered. It cannot, however, be used on inanimate objects such as cars or wooden stakes.
Lvl 3 Ashes to Ashes
Ashes to Ashes allows the character to transform herself into a thick, sticky powder, about a double handful in volume (what would be left after a cremation). The character takes no damage from sunlight or flames while in this form, and most physical attacks are ineffectual. However, the character is only dimly cognizant of her surroundings while in ash form, and separation of the ashes can prove catastrophic when the Samedi tries to reform.
System : The transformation to ashes requires one turn and the expenditure of two blood points. While the character is in ash form, the player must make a Perception + Alertness roll (difficulty 9) for any scene in which she wishes her character to be aware of her surroundings. Reforming from the heap of ashes takes one turn. If the character is in a confined space (such as an urn), she explodes from it in a suitably dramatic manner as she brings herself back to full size.
If a Samedi is scattered while in this form, one health level and one blood point are lost for each tenth (roughly) of the character that has been dissipated. Five blood points are required to heal each health level lost in this manner. At the Storyteller's discretion, the Samedi may bemissing limbs or vital organs (thgou never the head or the heart) until the missing health levels are healed.
Lvl 4 Withering
Many vampires, accustomed to their forms remaining ageless, have been aghast to discover the effects of this power. Withering allows the Samedi to shrink and warp a victim's limbs, rendering them immobile and causing extreme pain. Some particularly vicious Samedi take shrunken parts of their opponents as trophies or for use in ritual magic.
System : The Samedi must touch the limb he intends to shrivel. The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Manipulation + Medicine (difficulty of the victim's Stamina + Fortitude). Three successes are required for this power to shrink a limb. With one or two successes, the victim take sone health level of bashing damage, which may be soaked normally, but is otherwise unaffected. If the Withering attempt is successful, the subject suffers no health level of damage, but rather the withering of the limb itself). The effects of Withering fade after one night if a vampire or other supernatural creature is the victim, but mortals (including mages) are permanently aflicted unless some type of supernatural healing is used.
If this power is used on an arm of leg, the limb instantly becomes useless. If this power is used on an opponent's head, mortal victims die instantly. Kindred lose two points from all Mental Attributes while their heads are shrunken and are unable to use any Disciplines except Celerity, Potence and Fortitude. Multiple uses of this power on the same appendage have no additional effect.
Lvl 5 Necrosis
Although its effects appear similar to those of Putrefaction, the impact of Necrosis on affected characters is much greater. Necrosis causes living (or undead) tissue to decompose and slough off, exposing bones and organs and leaving the victim open to infection.
System : The Samedi must make contact with the victim. The player spends two blood points and rolls Dexterity + Medicine (difficulty of the target's Stamina + Fortitude). The victim takes a number of health levels of lethal damage equal to the number of successes rolled and suffers additional effects as listed below.
1 success No additional effects
2 successes Lose a point of Appearance
3 successes Lose a point each of Appearance and Dexterity
4 successes Lose a point each of Appearance, Dexterity, and Strength
5 successes Lose two points of Appearance and one each of Dexterity and Strength
Attributes lost in this manner are regained when all damage from the Necrosis attack is healed. If a victim is reduced to zero Strength or Dexterity, he is unable to move except for weak flailing and crawling but may still use Disciplines and spend blood points normally.
Lvl 6 Creeping Infection
Putrefaction,. Withering and Necrosis normally take effect instantly. Some elder Samedi have developed such control over these powers that they can delay the eruption of infections and spontaneous decomposition until they are well away from their victims. Mercenary Stiffs are suspected to apply this power with a handshake to give themselves insurance in the event that a “partner” refuses to honor a deal.
System : The player muyst successfully roll for a use of Putrefaction, Withering or Necrosis, as above, and may delay the effect for a number of months equal to the Samedi's Stamina. The player may spend a blood point at any time during this period in order to activate the dormant power. If the Creepiong Infection is not used before the end of its duration, it fades away with no effect.
Lvl 7 Dust to Dust
This power allows a character in ash form (see Ashes to Ashes, above) to maintain both cohesion and consciousness, as well as allowing him limited movement. While adopting the form of a pile of dust may not seem to be a wise tactical decision, enough elder Samedi have found creative uses for this power that it is still taught.
System : While a pile of ash, the Samedi remains fully conscious and may use any Discipline powers that being a pile of dust would permit (Command the Wearied Mind, for instance, is rather difficult to employ without eyes, but Majesty will make the pile of dust very impressive and no maid in her right mind would dare sweep it up). The character cannot be blown apart by high winds, and any deliberate attempt to separate the pile of ash may be resisted with the character's combined Strength, Stamina, Potence and Fortitude. The character may move voluntarily at a speed no higher than that at which a pile of normal dust would be blown by the wind, even if he is indoors. He does not have to move in the direction of the prevailing air currents, and may “flatten” himself by spreading his ahses thinly so as to slip under doors and through cracks. This power functions like Ashes to Ashes in all other respects.
Lvl 8 Putrescent Servitude
Although the Samedi are not the only Kindred who are responsible for the creation of zombies, this power allows them to both raise the bodies of the recently dead and enslave mortals who are still alive. Corpses animated through this power appear as they did at the time they were raised, which is to say, pale and decayed. Mortals affected gain much the same appearance, although they are generally more intact than their formerly corpse counterparts. Zombies created through this power are unable to speak, think with cognizance, or move at more than a slow trot, but are extremely strong and resilient.
System : The first application of this power allows the Samedi to feed some of her blood to a recently dead corpse (maximum time since death equal to Samedi's Stamina in weeks) in order to animate it. Three blood points must be spent to bring the corpse back to a semblance of life. A reanimated corpse has the same Physical Atrributes as it did in life. It is capable of limited reasoning (reduce all Mental Attributes by one), but free thought is beyond it and the only person it can clearly under stand is its master or an individual who its master has directed it to obey. Reanimated corpses possess two levels of Fortitude and three extra health levels. They suffer no dice pool penalties from wounds until they lose their last health level, at which point they collapse and cannot be reanimated.
A reanimated corpse crumbles to dust at the third sunrise after its creation. Its “lifespan” can be extended by feeding it more blood when it is created – one blood point per extra night.
This power can also be used on a mortal. The Samedi creates a ghoul in the normal fashion, by feeding the subject one blood point. The player then rolls Manipulation + Medicine (difficulty of the mortal's Willpower). Three or more successes are required to turn the mortal into a zombie. If the roll succeeds, the mortal loses all free will, becoming completely subjugated to the Samedi's command. The mortal may try to break free once per night by rolling his permanent Willpower (difficulty of the Samedi's Manipulation + Leadership). If the mortal frees himself, he is still considered a ghoul but retains his free will and normal Mental and Social Attributes (see below). A mortal who botches his Willpower roll or who becomes blood bound to the Samedi may never again attempt to break free.
A mortal under the influence of Putrescent Servitutde becomes pale and corpselike. He loses one point from all Social and Mental Attributes (to a minimum value of one). He gains three extra health levels and takes no dice pool penalties from unjuries until he reaches Incapacitated, at which point he collapses. One more wound will kill him once he reaches this point. The mortal also gains one level of Potence, as a normal ghoul wouls, and has the potential to learn other Disciplines if the Samedi feels inclined to teach him.
A ghoul zombie who goes a month without vampiric bloos loses all benefits of being a ghoul, as would normally occur. He also loses all effects of th is power and regains his free will, though he may still be blood bound to his master.
Thaumaturgy
The Discipline of Thaumaturgy encompasses blood magic and other sorcerous arts. Thaumaturgy is the unique possession of the Tremere and one of its most jealously guarded secrets. Certain Kindred rumors even speak of mystic cabals of Tremere that hunt down those thaumaturges who are not members of the Warlocks' clan.
Clan Tremere created this Discipline by combining mortal wizardry with the power of vampiric vitae. Though its existence is not widely known by mortal mages and wizards, it is seen as a disreputable aberration of true magick by thosew familiar with it.
Thaumaturgy is a versatile and powerful Discipline. Like Necromancy, its practice is divided into two parts: paths and rituals. Thaumaturgical paths are applications of the vampire's knowledge of blood magic, allowing her to create effects at her whim. Rituals are more formulaic in nature, most akin to the ancient magical “spells” of bygone nights. Because so many different paths and rituals are available to the arcane Tremere, one never knows what to expect when confronted with a practitioner of this Discipline.
When a character first learns Thaumaturgy, the player selects a path for the character. That path is considered the character's primary path, and she automatically receives one dot in it, as well as one Level One ritual. Thereafter, her score in the primary path increases by one as well. Rituals are learned separately, as part of a story; players need not pay experience points for the characters to learn rituals, though they must find someone to teach the ritual in question.
Path ratings never exceed Level Five, though the overall Thaumaturgy score may. If a character reaches Level Five in her primary path and increases her Thaumaturgy score afterwards, she may allocate her “free” path dot to a different path. Thaumaturges may create their own paths (through player and Storyteller collaboration) once they achieve the sixth level of Thaumaturgy.
Many vampires (wisely) fear the Discipline of Thaumaturgy. It is a very potent and mutable Discipline, and almost anything the Kindred wishes may be accmplished through its magic.
Thaumaturgical Paths
Paths define the types of magic a vampire can perform. A vampire typically learns his primary path from his sire, though it not unknown for some vampires to study under many different tutors and learn all their secrets.
As mentioned before, the first path a character learns is considered her primary path and increases automatically as the character advances in the Discipline itself. Secondary paths may be learned once the character has acquired two or more dots in her primary path, and they must be raised separately with experience points. Furthermore, a character's rating in her primary path must always be at least one dot higher than any of her secondary paths until she has mastered her primary path. Once the character has achieved mastery of the fifth level of her primary path, secondary paths may be increased to that level.
Each time the character invokes one of the powers of a Thaumaturgical path, the thaumaturge's player myst spend a Blood Point and make a Willpower roll against a difficulty of the power's level + 3. Only one success is required to invoke a path's effect – path levels, not successes, govern the power of blood magic. Failure on this roll indicates that the blood magic fails, while a botch signifies that the character loses a permanent Willpower point. Obviously, Thaumaturgy is not an art in which one mererly “dabbles”.
The Path of Blood
Almost every Tremere studies the Path of Blood as her primary Path. It encompasses some of the most fundamental principles of Thaumaturgy, based as it is on the manipulation of Kindred vitae. If a player wishes to select another Path as her character's primary Path, she'd better have a good reason (though choosing a different Path is by no means unheard of).
Lvl 1 A Taste for Blood
This power was developed as a means of testing a foe's might – an extremely important ability in the tumultuous early nights of Clan Tremere. By merely tasting the blood of his subject, the thaumaturge may determine how much vitae remains in the subject and, if the subject is a vampire, how recently he has fed, his approximate generation and, with three or more successes, whether he has recently committed diablerie.
System : The number of successes achieved on the roll determines how much information the thaumaturge gleans and how accurate it is.
Lvl 2 Blood Rage
This power allows a vampire to force another Kindred to expend blood against his will. The thaumaturge must touch her subject for this power to work, though only the lightest contact is necessary. A vampire affected by this power might feel a physical rush as the thaumaturge heightens his Physical Attributes, or may even find himself on the brink of frenzy as his stores of vitae are mystically depleted.
System : Each success forces the subject to spend one blood point immediately in the way the thaumaturge desires. Note that blood points forcibly spent in this manner may exceed the normal “per turn” maximum indicated by the victim's generation. Each success gained also increases the subject's difficulty to resist frenzy by one.
Lvl 3 Blood of Potency
The thaumaturge gains such control over his own blood that he may effectively “concentrate” it, making it more powerful for a short time. In effect, he may temporarily lower his own generation with this power. This power may be used only once per night.
System : Successes earned on the Willpower roll must be spent both to decrease the vampire's generation and to maintain the change. One success allows the character to lower generation by one step for one hour. Each success grants the Kindred either one step down in generation or one hour of effect. If the vampire is diablerized while this power is in effect, it wears off immediately and the diablerist gains power appropriate to the thaumaturge's actual generation. Furthermore, any mortals Embraced by the thaumaturge are born to the generation appropriate to their sire's original generation (e.g., a 10th-generation Tremere who has reduced his effective generation to eight still produces 11th-generation childer).
Once the effect wears off, any blood over the character's blood pool maximum dilutes, leaving the character at his regular blood pool maximum. Thus, is a 12th-generation Tremere (maximum blood pool of 11) decreased his generation to ninth (maximum blood pool 14), ingested 14 blood points, and has this much vitae in his system when the power wore off, his blood pool would immediately drop to 11.
Lvl 4 Theft of Vitae
A thaumaturge using this power siphons vitae from her subject. She need never come in contact with the subject – blood literally streams out in a physical torrent from the subject to the Kindred (though it is often mystically absorbed and need not enter through the mouth).
System : The number of successes determines how many blood points the Tremere transfers from the subject. The subject must be visible to the thaumaturge and within 50 feet. Using this power is like drinking from the subject – used three times on the same Kindred, it creates a blood bond on the part of the thaumaturge! This power is obviously quite spectacular, and Camarilla princes justifiably consider its public use abreach of the Masquerade.
Lvl 5 Cauldron of Blood
A thaumaturge using this power boils her subject's blood in his veins like water on a stove. The Kindred must touch her subject, and it is this contact that simmers the subject's blood. This power is always fatal to mortals, and causes great damage to even the mightiest vampires.
System : The number of successes gained determines how many blood points are brought to boil. The subject suffers one health level of aggravated damage for each point boiled (individuals with Fortitude may soak this damage using only their Fortitude dice). A single success kills any mortal, though some ghouls are said to have survived.
The Lure of Flames
This Path grants the thaumaturge the ability to conjure forth mystical flames – small fires at first, but skilled magicians may create great conflagrations. The Lure of Flames is greatly feared, as fire is one of the surest ways to bring Final Death upon a vampire.
Fire created by this Path is not “natural”. In fact, many vampires believe the flames to be conjured from Hell itself.
Fire conjured by the Lure of Flames must be released for it to hav eany effect. Thus, a “palm of flame” does not burn the vampire's hand and cause an aggravated wound – it merely produces light. Once the flame has been released, however, it burns normally and the character has no control over it.
System : The number of successes determines how accurately the thaumaturge places the flame in his desired location. One success is all that is necessary to conjure a flame in one's hand, while five successes place a flame anywhere in the Kindred's line of sight.
Individual descriptions are not provided for each level of this Path – fire is fire, after all. The chart below describes the Path level required to generate a specific amount of flame. To soak the damage at all, of course, a vampire must have the Fortitude Discipline.
Lvl 1 Candle (difficulty 3 to soak, one health level of aggravated damage/turn)
Lvl 2 Palm of flame (difficulty 4 to soak, one health level of aggravated damage/turn)
Lvl 3 Campfire (difficulty 5 to soak, two health levels of aggravated damage/turn)
Lvl 4 Bonfire (difficulty 7 to soak, two health levels of aggravated damage/turn)
Lvl 5 Inferno (difficulty 9 to soak, three health levels of aggravated damage/turn)
Movement of the Mind
This Path gives the thaumaturge the ability to move objects telekinetically through the mystic power of blood. At higher levels, even flight is possible (but be careful who sees you...). Objects under the character's control may be manipulated as if she held them – they may be lifted, spun, juggled or even “thrown”, though creating enough force to inflict actual damage requires mastery of the fourth level or greater. Some thaumaturges skilled in this Path even use it to guard their havens, animating swords, axes and firearms to ward off intruders.
This Path may frighten and diconcert onlookers. Many people are quite put off when the pages of a book turn by themselves!
System : The number of successes indicates the duration of the thaumaturge's control over the object (or subject). Each success allows one turn of manipulation, though the Kindred may attempt to maintain control after this time by making a new roll (she need not spend additional blood to maintain control). If the roll is successful, control is maintained. If a thaumaturge loses or relaxes control over an object and later manipulates it again, her player must spend another blood point, as a new attempt is being made.
If this power is used to manipulate a living being, the subject may attempt to resist. In this case, the thaumaturge and the subject make opposed Willpower rolls each turn the control is exercised.
Like the Lure of Flames, individual power levels are not provided for this Path – consult the chart below to see how much weight a thaumaturge may control. Once a Kindred reaches Level Three, she may levitate herself and “fly” at approximately running speed, no matter how much she weighs, though the weight restrictions apply if she manipulates other objects or subjects. Once a Kindred achieves Level Four, she may “throw” objects at a Strength equal to her level of mastery.
Lvl 1 One pound
Lvl 2 20 pounds
Lvl 3 200 pounds
Lvl 4 500 pounds
Lvl 5 1000 pounds
The Path of Conjuring
Invoking objects “out of thin air” has been a staple of occult and supernatural legend since long before the rise of the Tremere. This thaumaturgical Path enables powerful conjurations limited only by the mind of the practitioner.
Objects summoned via this Path bear two distinct characteristics. They are uniformly “generic” in that each object summoned, if summoned again, would look exactly as it did at first. For example, a knife would be precisely the same knife if created twice; the two would be indistinguishable. Even a specific knife – the one a character's father used to threaten her – would appear identical every time it was conjured. A rat would have repeated “tiled” patterns over its fur, and a garbage can would have the exact same fluted texture over its surface. Additionally, conjured objects bear no flaws. Weapons hav eno dents or scratches, tools hav eno distinguishing marks, and computers have featureless casings.
The limit on the size of conjured objects appears to be that of the conjurer; nothing larger than the thaumaturge can be created. The conjurer must also have some degree of familiarity with the object he wishes to call forth. Simply working from a picture or imagination calls for a higher difficulty, while objects with which the character is intimately familiar (such as the knife described above) may actually lower the difficulty, at the Storyteller's discretion.
When a player rolls to conjure something, the successes gained on the roll indicate the quality of the summoned object. One success yields a shoddy, imperfect creation, while five successes garner the thaumaturge a nearly perfect replica.
Lvl 1 Summon the Simple Form
At this level of mastery, the conjurer may create simple, inanimate objects. The object cannot have any moving parts and may not be made of multiple materials. For example, the conjurer may summon a steel baton, a lead pipe, a wooden stake of a chunk of granite.
System : Each turn the conjurer wishes to keep the object in existence, another Willpower point must be spent or the object vanishes.
Lvl 2 Permanency
At this level, the conjurer no longer needs to pay Willpower costs to keep an object in existence. The object is, as th is level's name suggests, permanent, though simple objects are still all that may be created.
System : The player must invest three blood points in an object to make it real.
Lvl 3 Magic of the Smith
The Kindred may now conjure complex objects of multiple components and with moving parts. For example, the thaumaturge can create guns, chainsaws or cellular phones.
System : Objects created via Magic of the Smith are permanent items and cost five blood points to conjure. Particularly complex items often require a Knowledge roll (Crafts, Science, etc.) in addition to the basic roll.
Lvl 4 Reverse Conjuration
This power allows the conjurer to “banish” into nonexistence any object previously called forth via this Path.
System : This is an extended success roll. The conjurer must accumulate as many successes as the original caster received when creating the object in question.
Lvl 5 Power Over Life
This power cannot create true life, though it can summon forth some truly impressive simulacra. Creatures (and people) summoned with this power lack the free will to act on their own, instead mindlessly following the simple instructions of their conjurer.
System : The player spends 10 blood points. Imperfect and impermanent, creatures u mmoned via this Path are too complex to exist for long. Within a week after their conjuration, the simulacra vanish into insubstantiality.
Hands of Destruction
This Path is practiced almost exclusively by the thaumaturges of the Sabbat. Though it is not widely seen outside that sect, a few Camarilla Tremere have managed to learn the secrets of this Path over the centuries. The Hands of Destruction has an infamous history, and some Tremere refused to practice it due to rumors that it is demonic in origin.
'Brutal and painful, this Path provides thaumaturges with offensive capabilities not found in other, less martial Paths. It mbodies the violent nature of its Sabbat wielders, existing solely to cause entropy and decay.
Lvl 1 Decay
This power accelerates the decripitude of its target, causing it to wither, rot or otherwise break down. The target must be inanimate, though dead organic matter can be affected.
System : If the roll is successful, the inanimate ovject touched by the thaumaturge ages 10 years for every minute the Kindred touches it. If the vampire breaks physical contact and wishes to age the object again, another blood point must be spent and another roll must be made.
Lvl 2 Gnarl Wood
This power warps and bends wooden objects. Though the wood is otherwise undamaged, this power often leaves the objects completely useless. This power may also be used to swell or contract wood, in addition to bending it into unwholesome shapes. Unlike other powers of this Path, Gnarl Wood requires merely a glance rather than physical contact.
Lvl 3 Acidic Touch
The thaumaturge secretes a bilious, acidic fluid from any portion of his body. The viscous acid corrodes metal, destroys wood and cuases horrendous chemical burns to living tissue.
System : The player spends blood to create the acid – the blood literally transmutes into the volatile secretion. One blood point creates enough acid to burn through a quarter-inch of steel plate or three inches of wood. The damage from an acid-augmented hand-to-hand attack is aggravated and costs one blood point per turn to use. A thaumaturge is immune to her own acidic touch.
Lvl 4 Atrophy
This power withers a victim's limb, leaving only a desiccated, almost mummified husk of bone and skin. The effects are instantaneous; in mortals, they are also irreversible.
System : The victim may resist the effects of Atrophy by scoring three or more successes on a Stamina + Athletics roll (difficulty 8). Failure means the limb is permanently and completely crippled. Partial resistance is possible. One success indicates that difficulties involving the use of the arm increase by two, though these effects are still permanent with regard to mortals. Two successes signify that difficulties increase by one. Vampires afflicted by this power may spend five blood points to rejuvenate atrophied limds. Mortals are permanently crippled. This power affects only limbs (arms and legs); it does not work on victims' heads, torsos, etc.
Lvl 5 Turn to Dust
This fearsome power accelerates decripitude in its victims. Mortals literally crumble to dust at the mere touch of a skilled thaumaturge, aged beyond death and into putrefaction.
System : Each success on the roll ages the victim by 10 years. A potential victim may resist with a Stamina + Courage roll (difficulty 8), but must accumulate more successes than the thaumaturge's activation roll – it's an all-or-nothing affair. IF the victim succeeds, he does not age at all. If he does not acquire more successes than the thaumaturge, he ages the full amount. Obviously, this power, while it affects vampires, has no detrimental effect on them (they're immortal). At most, a Kindred victim withers lightly (-1 to Appearance) for one night.
Elemental Mastery
This Path allows a thaumaturge limited control over and communion with inanimate objects. Mistakenly believed by may to be related to the four elements (earth, air, fire and water), this Path is actually closer to an amalgamation of Spirit Manipulation and the Path of Conjuring. Elemental Mastery can only be used to affct the unliving – a vampire could not cause a tree to walk by using Animate the Unmoving, for instance. Thaumaturges who seek mastery over living things generally study Biothaumaturgical Experimentation or the Green Path.
Lvl 1 Elemental Strength
The vampire can draw upon the strength and resilience of the earth, or of the objects around him, to increase this physical prowess without the need for large amounts of blood.
System : The player allocates a total of three temporary bonus dots between the character's Strength and Stamina. The number of successes on the roll to activate the power are the number of turns these dots remain. The player may spend a Willpower point to increase this duration by one turn. This power cannot be “stacked” - one application must expire before the next can be made.
Lvl 2 Wooden Tongues
A vampire may speak, albeit in limited fashion, with the spirit of any inanimate object. The conversation may not be incredibly interesting, as most rocks and chairs have limited concern for what occurs around them, but the vampire can get at least a general impression of what the subject has “experienced”. Note that events which are significant to a vampire may not be the same events that interest a lawn jockey.
System : The number of successes dictates the amount and relevance of the information that the character receives. One success may yield a boulder's memory of a forest fire, while three may indicate that it remembers a shadowy figure running past, and five will cause the rock to relate a precise description of a local Gangrel.
Lvl 3 Animate the Unmoving
Objects affected by this power move as the vampire using it dictates. An object cannot take an action that would be completely inconceivable for something with its form – for instance, a door could not leap from its hinges and carry someone across a street. However, semingly solid objects can become flexible within reason. Barstools can run with their legs, guns can twist out of their owners' hands or fire while holstered, and statues can move like normal humans.
System : This power requires the expenditure of a Willpower point with less than four successes on the roll. Each use of this power animates one object; the thaumaturge may simultaneously control a number of animate objects equal to his Intelligence rating. Objects animated by this power stay animated as long as they are within the caster's line of sight or up to an hour.
Lvl 4 Elemental Form
The vampire can take the shape of any inanimate object of a mass roughly equal to her own. A desk, a statue or a bicycle would be feasible, but a house or a pen would be beyond this power's capacity.
System : The number of successes determines how completely the character takes the shape she wishes to counterfeit. At least three successes are required for the character to use her senses or Disciplines while in her altered form. This power lasts for the remainder of the night, although the character may return to her normal form at will.
Lvl 5 Summon Elemental
A vampire may summon one of the traditional spirits of the elements: a salamander (fire), a sylph (air), a gnome (earth) or an undine (water). Some Tremere claim to have contacted elemental spirits of glass, electricity, blood and even atomic energy, but such reports remain unconfirmed (even as their authors are summoned to Vienna for questioning). The thaumaturge may choose what type of elemental he wishes to summon and command.
System : The character must be near some quantity of the classical element corresponding to the spirit he wishes to invoke. The spirit invoked may or may not actually follow the caster's instructions once summoned, but generally will at least pay rough attention to what it's being told to do. The number of successes gained determines the power level of the elemental.
The elemental has three dots in all Physical and Mental Attributes. One dot may be added to one of the elemental's Physical Attributes for each success gained by the caster on the initial roll. The Storyteller should determine the elemental's Abilities, attacks and damage, and any special powers it has related to its element.
Once the elemental has been summoned, the thaumaturge must exert control over it. The more powerful the elemental, the more difficult a task this is. The player rolls Manipulation + Occult (difficulty of the number of successes scored on the casting roll +4, and the player may substitute Spirit Lore for Occult if he so desires).
No. of successes Result
Botch The elemental immediately attacks the thaumaturge.
Failure The elemental goes free and may attack anyone or leave the scene at the Storyteller's discretion.
1 success The elemental probably does not attack its summoner.
2 successes The elemental behaves favorably toward the summoner and may perform a service in exchange for payment (determined by the Storyteller).
3 successes The elemental performs one service, within reason.
4 successes The elemental performs any one task for the character that does not jeopardize its own existence.
5 successes The elemental performs any task that the caster sets for it, even one that may take several nights to complete or that places its existence at risk.
The Green Path
The Green Path deals with the manipulation of plant matter of all sorts. Anything more complex than an algae bloom can theoretically be controlled through the appropriate application of this Path. Ferns, roses, dandelions and even ancient redwoods are all qeually valid targets for this Path's powers, and living and dead plant matter are equally affected. While not as immediately impressive as some other more wickedly practiced Paths, the Green Path (sometimes disparagingly referred to as “Botanical Mastery”) is as subtle and powerful as the natural world which it affects.
The origins of the Green Path are thought to lie with the Order of the Naturists, a druidic sect within Clan Tremere. Most practitioners of the Path are members of the order, and those who are not were more than likely mentored by one. According to those who are familiar with Tremere history, the Green Path is a blood magic-bases derivation of some magickal workings formerly practiced by House Diedne, an order of mortal mages destroyed by the Tremere during the Dark Ages.
Lvl 1 Herbal Wisdom
With but a touch a vampire can commune with the spirit of a plant. Conversations held in this manner are often cryptic but rewarding – the wisdom and experience of the spirits of some trees surpasses that of the oracles by legend. Crabgrass, on the other hand, rarely has much insight to offer, but it might reveal the face of the last person who trod upon it.
System : The number of successes rolled determines the amount of information that can be gained from the contact. Depending on the precise information that the vampire seeks, the Storyteller might require the player to roll Intelligence + Occult or Intelligence + Intuition in order to interpret the results of the communication.
No. of Successes Result
1 success Fleeting cryptic impressions
2 successes One or two clear images
3 successes A concise answer to a simple query
4 successes A detailed response to one or more complex situations
5 successes The sum of total of the plant-spirit's knowledge on a given subject
Lvl 2 Speed the Season's Passage
This power allows a thaumaturge to accelerate a plant's growth, causing roses to bloom in a matter of minutes or trees to shoot up from saplings overnight. Alternately, she can speed a plant's death and decay, withering grass and crumbling wooden stakes with but a touch.
System : The character touches the target plant. The player rolls normally, and the number of successes determines the amount of growth or decay. One success gives the plant a brief growth spurt or simulates the effects of harsh weather, while three noticeably enlarge or wither it. With five successes, a full-grown plant springs from a seed or crumbles to dust in a few minutes, and a tree sprouts fruit or begins decaying almost instantaneously. If this power is used in combat, three successes are needed to render a wooden weapon completely useless. Two successes suffice to weaken it, while five cause it to disintegrate in the wielder's hand.
Lvl 3 Dance of Vines
The thaumaturge can animate a mass of vegetation up to his own size, using it for utilitarian or combat purposes with equal ease. Leaves can walk along a desktop, ivy can act as a scribe, and jungle creepers can strangle opponents. Intruders should beware of Tremere workshops that harbor potted rowan saplings.
System : Any total amount of vegetation with a mass less than or equal to the character's own may be animated through this power. The plants stay active for one turn per success rolled on the score, and are under the complete control of the character. If used for combat purposes, the plants have Strength and Dexterity ratings equal to half the character's current Willpower (rounded down) and Brawl ratings one lower than that of the character.
Dance of Vines cannot make plants uproot themselves and go stomping about. Even the most energetic vegetation is incapable of pulling out of the soil and walking under the effect of this power. However, 150 pounds of kudzu can cover a considerable area all by itself...
Lvl 4 Verdant Haven
This power weaves a temporary shelter out of a sufficient amount of plant matter. In addition to providing physical protection from the elements (and even sunlight), the Verdant Haven also establishes a mystical barrier which is nigh-impassable to anyone the caster wishes to exclude. A Verdant Haven appears as a six-foot-tall hemisphere of interlocked branches, leaves and vines with no discernible opening, and even to the casual observer it appears to be an unnatural construction. Verdant Havens are rumored to have supernatural healing properties, but no Kindred have reportted experiencing such benefits from a stay in one.
System : A character must be standing in a heavily vegetated area to use this power. The Verdant Haven springs up around the character over the course of three turns. Once the haven is established, anyone wishing to enter the haven without the caster's permission must achieve more than the caster's original number of successes on a single roll of Wits + Survival (difficulty equal to the caster's Willpower). The haven lasts until the next sunset, or until the caster dispels or leaves it. If the caster scores four or more successes, the haven is impenetrable to sunlight unless physically breached.
Lvl 5 Awaken the Forest Giants
Entire trees can be animated by a master of the Green Path. Ancient oaks can be temporarily given the gift of movement, pulling their roots from the soil and shaking the ground with their steps. While not as versatile as elementals or other summoned spirits, trees brought to ponderous life via this power display awesome strength and resilience.
System : The character touches the tree to be animated. The player spends a blood point and rolls normally. If the roll succeeds, the player myst spend a blood point for every success. The tree stays animated for one turn per success rolled; once this time expires, the tree puts its roots down wherever it stands and cannot be animated again until the next night. While animated, the tree follows the character's verbal commands to the best of its ability. An animated tree has Strength and Stamina equal to the caster's Thaumaturgy rating, Dexterity 2 and a Brawl rating equal to the caster's own. It is immune to bashing damage, and all non-aggravated damage fice pools are halved due to its size.
Once the animating energy leaves a tree, it puts down roots immediately, regardless of what it is currently standing on. A tree re-establishing itself in the soil can punch through concrete and asphalt to find nourishing dirt and water underneath, meaning that it is entirely possible for a particular sluggish sycamore to set up shop in the middle of a road without any warning. Abuses or misuses of this power can easily lead to breaches of the Masquerade, and the thaumaturge who leaves a row of maples across a major traffic artery is unlikely to have the opportunity to make the same mistake twice.
Neptune's Might
Vampires are rarely associated with the ocean in most mythologies, and most Kindred have nothing to do with water in large quantities simply because they have no reason to do so. Nevertheless, Neptune's Might has enjoyed a small, but devoted, following for centuries among Camarilla thaumaturges. This Path is based primarily around the manipulation of standing water, although some of is more disturbing effects depart from this principle.
Once a character reaches the third level of Neptune's Might, the player may choose to specialize in either fresh water or salt water. Such specialization lowers all Neptune's Might difficulties by one when dealing with the chosen medium but raises them by one when dealing with the opposite. Blood is considered neither fresh nor salty for this purpose, and difficulties in manipulating it are unaffected.
Lvl 1 Eyes of the Sea
The thaumaturge may peer into a body of water and view events that have transpired on, in or around it from the water's persepctive. Some older practitioners of this art claim that the vampire communes with the spirits of the waters when using this power; younger Kindred scoff at such claims.
System : The number of successes rolled determines how far into the past the character can look.
No. of successes Range of effect
1 success One day
2 successes One week
3 succecces One month
4 successes One year
5 successes 10 years
The Storyteller may require a Perception + Occult roll for the character to discern very small details in the transmitted images. This power can only be used on standing water; lakes and puddles qualify, but oceans, sewers and wineglasses do not.
Lvl 2 Prison of Water
The thaumaturge can command a sufficiently large quantity of water to animate itsel;f and imprison a subject. This power requires a significant amount of fluid to be fully effective, although even a few gallons can be used to shape chains of animated water. Mortals subjected to this power's effects can drown if the thaumaturge is not careful (or if she so desires it), and even vampires can be crushed by extreme pressure thus brought to bear.
System : the number of successes scored on the roll is the number of successes the victim must score on a Strength roll (difficulty 8; Potence adds to successes) to break free. A subject may be held in only one prison at a time, although the thaumaturge is free to invoke multiple uses of this power upon separate victims and may dissolve her own prisons at will.
If a sufficient quantity of water (at least a bathtub's worth) is not present, the difficulty of the Willpower roll to activate this power is raised by one.
Lvl 3 Blood to Water
The thaumaturge has now attained engouh power over water that she can transmute other liquids to this basic element. The most commonly seen use of this power is as an assault; with but a touch, the victim's blood transforms to water, weakening vampires and killing mortals in moments.
System : The character must touch her intended victim. The player rolls normally. Each success converts one of the victim's blood points to water. One success kills a mortal within minutes. Vampires who lose blood points to this power also suffer dice pool penalties as if they had received an equivalent number of health levels of injury. The water left in the target's system by this attack evaporates out at a rate of one blood point's worth per hour, but the lost blood does not return.
At the Storyteller's discretion, other liquids may be turned to water with this power (the difficulty for such an action is reduced by one unless the substance is particularly dangerous or magical in nature). The character must still touch the substance or its container to use this power.
Lvl 4 Flowing Wall
Tales of vampire's inability to cross running water may have derived from garbled accounts of this power in action. The thaumaturge can animate water to an even greater degree than is posible with the use of Prison of Water, commanding it to rise up to form a barrier impassable to almost any being.
System : The character touchessurface of a standing body of water; the player spends three Willpower points and the normal required blood point and rolls normally. Successes are applied to both width and height of the wall; each success “buys” 10 feet in one dimension. The wall may be placed anywhere within the character's line of sight, and must be formed in a straight line. The wall lasts until the next sunrise. It cannot be climbed, though it can be flown over. To pass through the barrier, any supernatural being (including beings trying to pass the wall on other levels of existence) must score at least three successes on a single Willpower roll (dificulty 9).
Lvl 5 Dehydrate
At this level of mastery, the thaumaturge can directly attack living and inliving targets by removing the water from their bodies. Victims killed by this power leave behind hideous mummified corpses. This powers can also be used tor less aggressive purposes, such as drying out wet clothes – or evaporating puddles to keep other practitioners of this Path from using them.
System : This power can be used on any target in the character's line of sight. The player rolls normally; the victim resists with a roll of Stamina + Fortitude (difficulty 9). Each success gained by the thaumaturge translates into one health level of lethal damage inflicted on the victim. This injury cannot be soaked (the resistance roll replaces the soak for this attack) but can be healed normally. Vampires lose blood points instead of health levels, though if a vampire has no blood points this attack inflicts health level loss as it would against a mortal. The victim of this attack must also roll Courage (difficulty of the number of successes scored by the thaumaturge +3) to be able to act on the turn following the attack; failure means he is overcome with agony and can do nothing.
The Path of Corruption
The origins of this Path are hotly debated among those who are familiar with its intricacies. One theory holds that its secrets wwere taught to the Tremere by demons and that use of it brings the practitioner dangerously close to the infernal powers. A second opinion has been advanced that the Path of Corruption is a holdover from the days when Clan Tremere was still mortal. The third primary theory, and the most disturbing to the Tremere, is that the Path originated with the Followers of Set, and that knowledge of its workings was sold to the Tremere for an unspecified price. This last rumor is, of course, vehemently denied by the Tremere, which automatically makes it the favorite topic of discussion when the matter comes up.
The Path of Corruption is primarily a mentally and spiritually oriented Path centered on influencing the psyches of other individuals. It can be used neither to issue commands like Dominate nor to change emotions of the moment like Presence. Rather, it produces a gradual and subtle twisting of the subject's actions, morals and thought processes. This Path deals intimately with deception and dark desires, and those who work through it must understand the hidden places of the heart. Accordingly, no character may have a higher rating in the Path of Corruption than he has in Subterfuge.
Lvl 1 Contradict
The thaumaturge can interrupt a subject's thought processes, forcing the victim to reverse his current course of action. An archon may be caused to execute a prisoner she was about to exonerate and release; a mortal lover might switch from gentle and caring to sadistic and demanding in the middle of an encounter. The results of Contradict are never precisely known to the thaumaturge in advnace, but they always take the form of a more negative action than the subject had originally intended to perform.
System : This power may be used on any subject within the character's line of sight. The player rolls as normal. The target rolls Perception + Subterfuge (difficulty of the number of successes scores by the thaumaturge +2). Two successes allow the subejct to realize that she is being influenced by some outside source. Three successes let her pinpoint the source of the effect. Four successes give her a moment of hesitation, neither performing her original action not its inverse, while five allow her to carry through with the original action.
The Storyteller dictates what the subject's precise reaction to this power is. Contradict cannot be used in combat or to affect other actions (Storyteller's discretion) that are mainly physical and reflexive.
Lvl 2 Subvert
This power follows the same principle as does Contradict, the release of a subject's dark, self-destructive side. However, Subvert's effects are longer-lasting than the momentary flare of Contradict. Under the influence of this power, victims act on their own surpressed temptations, pursuing agendas that their morals or self-control would forbid them to follow under normal circumstances.
System : This power requires the character to make eye contact with the intended victim. The player rolls normally. The target resists with a roll of Perception + Subterfuge (difficulty of the target's Manipulation + Subterfuge). If the thaumaturge scores more successes, the victim becomes inclined to follow repressed, shameful desire for the length of time described below.
No. of successes Duration of effect
1 success Five minutes
2 successes One hour
3 successes One night
4 successes Three nights
5 successes One week
The Storyteller determines the precise desire or agenda that the victim foloows. It should be in keeping with the Psychological Flaws that she possesses or with the negative aspects of her Nature (for example, a Londer desiring isolation to such an extent that she becomes violent if forced to attend a social function). The subject should not become fixated on following this new agenda at all times, but should occasionally be forced to spend a Willpower point if the opportunity to succumb arises and she wishes to resist the impulse.
Lvl 3 Dissociate
“Divide and conquer” is a maxim that is well-understood by the Tremere, and Dissociate is a pwoerful tool with which to divide the clan's enemies. This power is used to break the social ties of interpersonal relationships. Even the most passionate affair or the oldest friendship can be cooled through use of Dissociate, and weaker personal ties can be destroyed althogether.
System : The character must touch the target. The player rolld normally. The target resists with a Willpower roll (difficulty of the thaumaturge's Manipulation + Empathy). The victim loses three dice from all Social rolls for a period of time determined by the number of successes gained by the thaumaturge.
No. of successes Duration of effect
1 success Five minutes
2 successes One hour
3 successes One night
4 successes Three nights
5 successes One week
This penalty applies to all rolls that rely on Social Attributes, even those required for the use of Disciplines. If this power is used on a character who has participated in the Sabbat Vaulderie or a similar ritual, that character's Vinculum ratings are reduced by three for the duration of Dissociate's effect.
Dissociate's primary effect falls under roleplaying rather than game mechanics. Victims of this power should be played as withdrawn, suspicious and emotionally distant. The Storyteller should fele free to require a Willpower point expenditure for a player who does not follow these guidelines.
Lvl 4 Addiction
This power is a much stronger and more potentially damaging form of Subvert. Addiction creates just that in the victim. By simply exposing the target to a particular sensation, substance or action, the thaumaturge creates a powerful psychological dependence. Many Tremere ensure that their victims become addicted to substances or thrills that only Warlocks can provide, this creating both a source of income and potential blackmail material.
System : The subject must encounter or be exposed to the sensation, substance or action to which the character wants to addict him. The thaumaturge then touches his target. The player rolls normally; the victim resists with a Self-Control roll (difficulty equal to the number of successes scored by the thaumaturge +3). Failure gives the subject an instant addiction to the object desired by the character.
An addicted character must get his fix at least once a night. Every night that he goes without satisfying his desire imposes a cumulative penalty of one die on all of his dice pools (reduced to a minimum of one die). The victim must roll Self-Control (difficulty 8) every time he is confronted with the object of his addiction and wishes to keep from indulging. Addiction lasts for a number of weeks equal to the thaumaturge's Manipulation score.
An individual may try to break the effect of Addiction. This requires an extended Self-Control roll (difficulty of the thaumaturge's Manipulation + Subterfuge), with one roll made per night. The addict must accumulate a number of successes equal to three times the number of successes scored by the thaumaturge. The victim may not indulge in his addiction over the time needed to accumulate these succcesses. If he does so, all accumulated successes are lost and he must begin anew on the next night. Note that the
Self-Control dice pool is reduced every night that the victim goes without feeding his addiction.
Lvl 5 Dependence
Many former pawns of Clan Tremere claim to have felt a strange sensation similar to depression when not in the presence of their masters. This isusually attributed to the blood bond, but is often the result of the thaumaturge's mastery of Dependence. The final power of the Path of Corruption enables the vampire to tie he victim's soul own, engendering feelings of lethargy and helplessness when the victim is not in her presence of acting to further her desires.
System : The character engages the target in conversation. The player rolls normally. The victim rolls Self-Control (difficulty of the number of successes scored by the thaumaturge +3). Failure means that the victim's psyche has been subtly bonded to that of the thaumaturge for one night per success rolled by the thaumaturge.
A bonded victim is no less likely to attack his controller, and he feels no particular positive emotions toward her. However, he is psychologically addicted to her presence, and suffers a one-die penalty to all rolls when he is not around her or performing tasks for her. Additionally, he is much less resistant to her commands, and his dice pools are halved when he attempts to resist her Dominate, Presence or Social rolls. Finally, he is unable to regain Willpower when he is not in the thaumaturge's presence.
The Path of Technomancy
The newest Path to be accepted by the Tremere hierarchy as part of the clan's official body of knowledge, the Path of Technomancy is a relatively recent innovation. It was developed in the latter half of the 20thcentury, and has not yet spread far beyond the North American Pontifices. The Path focuses on the control of electronic devices, from wristwatches to computers, and its proponents maintain that it is a prime example of the versatility of Thaumaturgy with regards to a changing world. More conservative Tremere, however, state that mixing Tremre magic with mortal science borders on treason or even blasphemy, and some European Regents have gone so far as to declare knowledge of Technomancy grounds for expulsion from their chantries. The Inner Council did approve the introduction of the Path into the clan's grimoires, but has yet to voice any opinion on the conservative opposition to Technomancy.
Lvl 1 Analyze
Mortals are constantly developing new innovations, and any vampire who would work Technomancy must be able to understand that upon which he practices his magic. The most basic power of this Path allows the Tremere to project his perceptions into a device, granting him a temporary understanding of its purpose, the principles of its functioning and its means of operation. This does not grant permanent knowledge, only a momentary flash of insight which fades within minutes.
System : A character must touch the device in order to apply this power. The number of successes rolled determines how well the character understands this particular piece of equipment. One success allows a basic knowledge (on/off and simple functions), while three successes grant competence in operating the device, and five successes show the character the full range of the device's potential. The knowledge lasts for a number of minutes equal to the character's Intelligence.
This power can also be used to understand a non-physical technological innovation – in other words, a new piece of computer software – at +2 difficulty. The character must touch the computer on which the software is installed – simply holding the CD-ROM is not enough.
Lvl 2 Burnout
It is usually easier to destroy than to create, and sensitive electronics are no exception to this rule. Burnout is used to ause a device's power supply, either internal or external, to surge, damaging or destroying the target. Burnout cannot be used to directly injure another individual, although the sudden destruction of a pacemaker or a car's fuel injection control chip can create a definite health hazard.
System : A character can use this power at a range of up to 10 times her Willpower in yards, although a +1 difficulty is applied if she is not touching the target item. The number of successes determines the extent of the damage.
No. of successes Result
1 success Momentary interruption of operation (one turn), but no permanent damage.
2 successes Significant loss of function; +1 difficulty to use the device for the rest of the scene.
3 successes The device breaks and is inoperable until repaired.
4 successes Even after repairs, the device's capabilities are diminished (permanent +1 difficulty to use).
5 successes The equipment is a total write-off; completely unsalvageable.
Large enough systems, such as mainframe computers or passenger aircrafts, impose a +2 to +4 difficulty (at Storyteller discretion) to afect with this power. Additionally, some sustems, such as military and banking computers, may be hardened against power surges and spikes, and thus possess one to five dice (Storyteller discretion again) to roll to resist the power. Each success on this roll (difficulty 6) takes away one success from the Thaumaturgy roll.
Burnout may be used to destroy electronic data storage, in which case three successes destroys all information on the target item and five erase it beyond any hope of non-magical recovery.
Lvl 3 Encrypt/Decrypt
Electronic security is a paramount concern of governments and corporations alike. Those Tremere who are techno-savvy enough to understand the issues at stake have become quite enamored of this power, which allows the thaumaturge to scramble a device's controls mystically, making it inaccessible to anyone but him. Encrypt/Decrypt also works on electronic media; a videotape under the influence of this power displays just snow and static if played back without the owner's approval.
System : The character touches the device or data container which he wishes to encrypt. The player rolls normally. The number of successes scores is applied as a dificulty modifier for anyone who attempts to use the protected equipemtn or access the scrambled information without the assistance of the character. The thaumaturge can dispel the effect at any time by touching the target item; this countermanding costs a point of Willpower.
This power may also be used to counter another thaumaturge's use of Encrypt/Decrypt. The player rolls at +1 difficulty; each success negates one of the “owner's”.
The effects of Encrypt/Decrypt last for a number of weeks equal to the character's permanent Willpower rating.
Lvl 4 Remote Access
With this power, a skilled thaumaturge can bypass the need for physical contact to operate a device. This is not a form of telekinesis; the vmapire does not manipulate the item's controls, but rather touches it directly with the powr of his mind.
System : This power may be used on any electronic device within the character's line of sight. The number of successes rolled are the maximum number of dice from any relevant Ability that the character may use while remotely controlling the device. For instance, if Fritz has Computer 5 and scores three successes when using Remote Access on an automated teller machine, he can only apply three dots of his Computer rating to any rolls that he makes through any use of the power. Remote Access lasts for a number of turns equal to the number of successes rolled, and can only be used on one item at a time.
If an item is destroyed while u nder the effects of Remote Access, the character takes five dice of bashing damage due to the shock of having his perceptions rudely shunted back into his own body.
Lvl 5 Telecommute
A progressive derivation of Remote Access, Telecommute allows a thaumaturge to project her consciousness into the global telecommunication network, sending her mind through satellite uplinks and ISDN lines and fiber-optic phone cables at the speed of light. While immersed in the networks, she can use any other Technomancy power on the devices with which she makes contact.
System : The character touches any form of communications device: a cellular telephone, network card-equipped computer, fax machine or anything else that is connected directy or indirectly to the global network. The player rolls normally and spends a Willpower point. Telecommute lasts for five minutes per success rolled, and may be extended by 10 minutes with the expenditure of another Willpower point. The number of successes indicates the maximum range that the character can project her consciousness away from her body.
No. of successes Result
1 success 25 miles
2 successes 250 miles
3 successes 1000 miles
4 successes 5000 miles
5 successes Anywhere in the world, including telecommunications satellites
While in the network, the character can apply any other Path of Technomancy power to any device or data with which she comes in contact. A loss of connection, usually through the shutdown or destruction of a part of the network through which the character's connection runs, hurls her consciousnes back to her body and inflicts eight dice of bashing damage.
A chaacter traveling through the Net by means of this power can use her Path of Technomancy powers at normal difficulty. Using any other abilities or powers while engaged this is done at a +2 difficulty. Furthermore, there are other denizens of the Net who may not take kindly to Tremere intrustion, and who may well take steps to remove the riffraff from their electronic doorsteps.
Spirit Manipulation
Not to be confused with, or perhaps derived form the ancient Path of Spirit Thaumaturgy, Spirit Manipulation is a relatively recent innovation of the Tremere. Created to replace the rituals practiced by the clan in the days when it was a band of mortal wizards, Spirit Manipulation is the art of forcing spirits into actions and situations that would normally be anathema to them. Spirit Manipulation simulates many effects that can be created by Lupine and shamanic mages, but does so by forcing the spirits involved into a grotesque mockery of their normal behaviors. Any botch with Spirit Manipulation not only inflicts the normal loss of Willpower involved with thaumaturgical mishaps but also turns the full force of the spirit's wrath against the offending vampire.
Lvl 1 Hermetic Sight
The vampire can perceive the spirit world, either by gazing deeply into it or by seeing the presence of nearby spirits as a hazy overlay on the material world. This power does not allow the thaumaturge to see into the realms of the dead or into the realms of the fae.
System : One success on the roll is needed for the thaumaturge to perceive spirits, while two allow him to view the spirit realm. With less than four successes, the thaumaturge is at +2 difficulty to all actions performed while using this power due to the distraction of divided perceptions. Hermetic Sight lasts for the duration of the scene or until the thaumaturge deactivates it.
Lvl 2 Astral Cant
The languages of the spirit world are infinitely varied and mainly incomprehensible to mortal (or immortal) minds. Astral Cant does not teach the thaumaturge the tongues of the spirits, but it does allow him to understand them as they speak to him and to reply in their own languages – in effect, a universal translator for the spirit world. Imprecise use of this power can be disastrous, particularly when a thaumaturge is bargaining with a powerful spirit. The use of this power is not always necessary; many spirits speak human tongues but choose to feign ignorance when dealing with vampires.
System : The number of successes determines the accuracy of the translation.
No. of successes Effect
1 success Pidgin spirit language; very simple words and phrases can be comprehended
2 successes Simple sentences are possible; “trade language”
3 successes Fluent conversation; sufficient for most conversations
4 successes Complex issues such as metaphysics can be discussed
5 successes Even the most obscure idiomatic expressions and forms of humor come through
Lvl 3 Voice of Command
This is perhaps the most dangerous power in the Spirit Manipulation arsenal, for the consequences if a thaumaturge fails can be most unpleasant. Voice of Command allows a vampire to issue orders to a spirit, compelling it to heed her biding whether or not it desires to do so.
System : The player makes the normal Willpower roll; the target spirit resists with Willpower (difficulty of the thaumaturge's Manipulation + Occult or Manipulation + Lore: Spirits). The degree of success the thaumaturge attains determines the complexity and severity of the command that she can issue.
No. of successes Effect
Botch The spirit is immune to the character's commands for the rest of the night. It reacts however the Storyteller deems appropriate.
Failure The spirit is unaffected, and further attempts to command it are made at +1 difficulty (cumulative). It may ignore, taunt or even attack the character at the Storyteller's discretion.
1 success The spirit obeys a very simple command that is no great inconvenience to it.
2 successes The spirit heeds a relatively straight forward command that it is not innately opposed to performing.
3 successes The spirit agrees to perform a moderately complex task that does not violate its ethics.
4 successes The spirit consents to an extended or intricate task that does not place it in immediate danger.
5 successes The spirit accepts a lengthy or nigh-impossible task, or one that may mean its destruction.
Crafty Storytellers should note that spirits compelled by this power are fully aware that they are being forced into these actions, and may well seek revenge on their erstwhile masters at a later time.
Thaumaturges who issue commands above and beyond what their spirit servants are compelled to perform may find themselves ignored or mocked. Even worse, a spirit in such a situation may “agree” to follow orders without following through, leaving the thaumaturge in a situation of potentially fatal embarassment.
Lvl 4 Entrap Ephemera
This power allows a thaumaturge to bind a spirit into a physical object. This can be done to imprison the target, but is more often performed to create a fetish, an artifact that allows a user to channel a portion of the spirit's power through it to affect the physical world. Fetishes created by this power are often recalcitrant and fail at inappropriate moments, as the spirits within are most displeased with their situation and will take any opportunity to escape or thwart their captor.
System : The number of successes rolled determines the power level of the fetish to be created. A fetish is activated by rolling the user's Willpower (difficulty of the fetish's power level +3). A botch on this roll destroys the physical compoent of the fetish and frees the spirit that was trapped inside.
For more complete guidelines to fetish powers, refer to pages 273-275 of Werewolf : The Apocalypse. The Storyteller is always the final authority in determining the powers and mechanics of a fetish created through the use of this power.
Lvl 5 Duality
The thaumaturge can now fully interact with the spirit world. While using this power, he exists on both planes of existence at once. He is able to pick up objects in the physical world and place them in the spirit world and vice versa. Beings and landscapes features in both realms are solid to him, and he can engage in any manner of interaction. He can even unse Thaumaturgy and other Disciplines in either world. This is not without its dangers, however. One misstep and the vampire can find himself trapped in the spirit realm with no way to return home. Several incautious thaumaturges have starved into torpor while trapped on the other side of the barrier that spearates the physical and spirit realms.
System : The number of successes dictates how long the vampire can interact with the spirit world.
No. of successes Duration
1 success One turn
2 successes Three turns
3 successes 10 turns
4 successes 10 minutes
5 successes The remainder of the scene
Duality can only be used while the character is in the physical world. Note that while Duality is in effect the character is also susceptible to attacks from both realms. Additionally, the player must roll Perception + Occult (difficulty 8) when this power is actiated; a roll with less than three successes indicates that all rolls made while this power is active are at +2 difficulty due to the distraction of the character's dual perceptions. The character is still considered to be in the physical world for purposes of basic physics and common sense – for instance, his feet rest on the ground in the physical world, not the ground in the spirit world, and the could this walk across a spiritual chasm if a physical parking lot overlaid the same place.
A botch on the roll to activate this power tears the vampire out of the physical world and traps him in the spirit realm. The way back to the physical realm, if there is one, is left to the Storyteller's discretion, and may constitute an entire adventure in and of itself.
Thaumaturgical Countermagic
This is less of a Path than it is a separate Discipline, as the power to resist Thaumaturgy can be taught independently of Thaumaturgy, even to those Kindred who are incapable of mastering even the simplest ritual. However, the techniques of Thaumaturgical Countermagic are not officially taught outside clan Tremere, for obvious reasons. Any non-Trmere who displays the ability to resist Thaumaturgy quickly bcomes the subject of potentially fatal scrutiny form the entirety of clan Tremere.
System : Thaumaturgical Countermagic is treated as a separate Discipline. It cannot be taken as a character's primary Path, and a rating in it does not allow the character to perform rituals. The use of Thaumaturgical Countermagic is treated as a free action in combat and does not require a split dice pool. To oppose a Thaumaturgy power or ritual, a character must have a Thaumaturgical Countermagic rating equal to or greater than the rating of that power or ritual (which means that rituals ol Level Six or greater cannot ever be countered with this power). The player spends a blood point and rolls the number of dice indicated by the character's Thaumaturgical Countermagic rating (difficulty equal to the difficulty of the power in use). Each success cancels one of the opposing thaumaturge's successes.
Thaumaturgical Countermagic can only be used against Tremere Thaumaturgy at full effectiveness. It works with halved dice pools against non-Tremere blood magic and mortal “hedge wizardry”, and is completely ineffective against non-vampiric magics and powers.
Thaumaturgical Countermagic can be learned by characters who are unable to learn Thaumaturgy (e.g. Those with the Merit Magic Resistance). Any non-Tremere character with a rating in this power automatically gains the Flaw Clan Enmity (Tremere), receiving no freebie points for it. This power cannot be taken during character creation and cannot be spontaneously developed. It costs the same as any other non-clan Discipline to learn.
Lvl 1 Two dice of countermagic. The character can attempt to cancel only those powers and rituals that directly affect him and his garments.
Lvl 2 Four dice of countermagic.
Lvl 3 Six dice of countermagic. The character can attempt to cancel a Thaumaturgy power that affects anyone or anything in physical contact with him.
Lvl 4 Eight dice of countermagic.
Lvl 5 Ten dice of countermagic. The character can now attempt to cancel a power or ritual that targets anything within a radius equal to his Willpower in yards, or one that is being used or performed within that same radius.
Weather Control
Command over the weather has long been a staple power of wizards both mortal and immortal, and this Path is said by many to predate the Tremere by millennia. The proliferation of usage of this Path outside the clan tends to confirm this theory; Weather Control is quite common outside the Tremere, and even outside the Camarilla. Lower levels of this Path allow subtle manipulations, while higher stages of mastery allow a vampire to call up raging storms. The area affected by this power is usually rather small, no more than three or four miles in diameter, and the changes the power wreaks are not always immediate.
System : The number of successes rolled indidcates how long it takes the weather magic to take effect. One success indicates an entire day may pass before the weather changes to the thaumaturge's liking, while a roll with five successes brings an almost instant effect.
The difficulty of the Willpower roll necessary to invoke this power may change depending on the current local weather conditions and the weather the character is attempting to create. The Storyteller should impose a bonus (-1 or -2 difficulty) for relatively minor shifts, such as clearing away a light drizzle or calling lightning when a severe thunderstorm is already raging. Conversely, a penalty (+1 or +2 difficulty) should be applied when the desired change is at odds with the current conditions, such as summoning the same light drizzle in the middle of the Sahara Desert or calling down lightning from a cloudless sky.
If the character tries to strike a specific target with lightning, the player must roll Perception + Occult (difficulty 6 if the target is standing in open terrain, 8 if he is under shelter, or 10 is he is inside but near a window) in addition to the base roll to use Thaumaturgy. Otherwise the bolt goes astray, with the relative degree of failure of the roll determining where exactly the lightning strikes.
Effects of the power default to the maximum area available unless the thaumaturge states that he's attempting to affect a smaller area. At Storyteller discretion, an additional Willpower roll (difficulty 6) may be required to keep the change in the weather under control.
Individual power descriptions are not provided for this Path, as the general principle is fairly consistent. Instead, the strongest weather phenomenon possible at each level is listed.
Lvl 1 Fog : Vision is slightly impaired and sounds are muffled; a +1 difficulty is imposed on all Perception rolls that involve sight and hearing, and the effective ranges of all ranged attacks are halved.
Light breeze : A +1 difficulty is imposed on all Perception rolls that involve smell.
Minor temperature change : It is possible to raise or lower the local temperature by up to 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
Lvl 2 Rain or snow : Precipitation has the same effect as Fog, but Perception rolls are impaired to a much greater extent; the difficulty modifier for all such rolls rises to +2. In addition, the difficulty on all Drive rolls increases by two.
Lvl 3 High winds : The wind speed rises to around 10 miles per hour, with gusts of up to twice that. Ranged attacks are much more difficult: +1 to firearm attacks, +2 to thrown weapons and archery. In addition, during fierce gusts, Dexterity rolls (difficulty 6) may be required to keep characters from being knocked over by the winds. Needless to say, when gale-force winds are in effect, papers go flying, objects get picked up by the winds and hurled with abandon, and other suitably cinematic effects are likely.
Moderate temperature change : The local temperature can be raised or lowered by up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit.
Lvl 4 Storm : This has the effects of both Rain and High Winds.
Lvl 5 Lightning Strike : This attack inflicts 10 dice of lethal damage. Body armor does not add to the target's dice pool to soak this attack.
The Path of Mars
The few Sabbat who have retained Thaumaturgical talents have turned their focus to the assistance of the sect in times of war. This Path has proven useful to Sabbat War Parties, and it has turned the tides of several confrontations with elder vampires. It is quite unusual among Thaumaturgical Paths, in that it adopts a very martial stance, whereas other blood magics tend to have subtler, less violent effects.
Lvl 1 War Cry
A vampire on the attack can focus his will, making him less susceptible to battle fear or the powers of the undead. The vampire shouts a primal scream to start the effect, though some thaumaturges have been known to paint their faces or cut themselves open instead.
System : For the duration of one sene, the vampire adds one to his Courage Trait. Additionally, for the purposes of hostile effects, his Willpower is considered to be one higher (though this bonus applies only to the Trait itself, not the Willpower pool). A character may only gain the benefits of War Cry once per scene.
Lvl 2 Strike True
The vampire makes a single attack, guided by the unholy power of her Blood. This attack strikes its foe infallibly.
System : By invoking this power, the player need not roll to see of the vampire's attack hits – it does, automatically. Only Melee or Brawling (or Martial Arts) attacks may be made in this manner. These attacks are considered to be one-success attacks; they offer no additional damage dice. Also, they may be dodged, blocked or parried normally, and the defender needs only one success (as the attacks' number of success is assumed to be one). Strike True has no affect if attempted on multiple attacks (dice pool splits) in a single round from one character.
Lvl 3 Wind Dance
The thaumaturge invokes the power of the winds, moving in a blur. She gains preternatural edge in avoiding her enemies' blows, moving out of their way before the enemy has a chance to throw them.
System : The player needs not split her dice pool if she wishes to make multiple dodges in a single round. This advantage applies only to dodges – if the character wishes to attack and dodge, the player must split her dice pool. This power lasts for one scene.
Lvl 4 Fearless Heart
The vampire temporarily augments his abilities as a warrior. Through the mystical powers of blood magic, the character becomes a potent fighting force.
System : Fearless Heart grants the vampire an extra point in each of the Physical Attributes (Strength, Dexterity and Stamina). These Traits may not exceed their generational maximums, though the player may use blood points to push the character's Traits even higher. The effects last for one scene, and a character may gain its benefits onle once per scene.
The vampire must calm down for two hours following the use of Fearless Heart, or he loses a blood point for every 15 minutes until he rests.
Lvl 5 Comrades at Arms
This ability extends the power of the previous abilities in the Path. It allows any of the earlier effects to be applied to a group such as a pack or War Party.
System : The player chooses one of the lower-level powers in the Path, invoking it as normal. Afterward, he touches another character and (if the roll for Comrades at Arms is successful) bestows the benefit on her as well. The same power may be delivered to any number of packmates, as long as the rolls for Comrades at Arms are successful and the thaumaturge pays the appropriate blood point costs.
The Path of the Father's Vengeance
This Path, based loosely on powerful thaumaturge's interpretations of the Book of Nod, devotes itself to delivering justice to the race of Cainites. Each power supposedly has some precedent in the parables of the ancient book, and focuses on teaching the lessons of Caine via the power of blood magic. Use of this Path is hotly debated in the Sabbat, as some consider it tantamount to claiming to hold Caine's right over all vampires oneself.
The power of this Path comes not only from the magic of blood, but also incantation of verses from the Book of Nod. For any of these powers to take effect, the thaumaturge must speak the actual condemnation. For example, to invoke the third-level power, the caster must state plainly to his target that she may eat only ashes. Obviously, the subject must be able to hear the thaumaturge for these powers to take effect, though writing them and showing them to the subject will do.
These powers apply to Cainites only. They do not affect, Lupines, mortals or ghouls.
Lvl 1 Zillah's Litany
Zillah, the wife of Caine, unknowingly drank from her husband and sire three times, thus becoming bonded to him. This power reeals existing blood bonds and Vinculi to the thaumaturge.
System : If the subject has any blood bonds or Vinculi to other vampires, this power reveals them to the caster. Although the caster may not know the vampires in question, this power does reveal the names and gives rough psychic impressions of the individuals in question.
Lvl 2 The Crone's Pride
This power inflicts the curse of the crone, who bound Caine to her as he fled his wife's spurning. Hideously ugly, the crone had to resort to trickery to get others to help or serve her.
System : This power reduces the target's Appearance to zero. All Social rolls during this time generally fail, unless the character attempts to intimidate or browbeat the subject. This power lasts for one night.
Lvl 3 Feast of Ashes
Primarily used against wanton or excessive vampires, this power temporarily removes a vampire's dependency on blood. While some would say this negates the Curse of Caine, it reduces the vampire to little more than a wretched scavengers, as he must consume literal ashes, though he gains little sustenance from them.
System : The victim of this power can no longer consume blood, vomiting it as he would mortal food or drink. Instead, the victim can only eat ashes, and the “blood points” he gains from this may be used only to rise each night. Ashen “blood points” may not be used to power Disciplines, raise Attributes or feed ghouls (though actual blood points in the character's body at the time this power is invoked may still be used for such). One blood point's worth of ash is roughly one pint, and any ash will do – cigarette ash, campfire leftovers or vampire corpses destroyed by fire or sunlight. This power lasts for one week.
Lvl 4 Uriel's Disfavor
This power onvokes the darkness of the Angel of Death. All but the dimmest of light causes the subject excruciating pain, and some artificial forms of bright light may even damage the vampire. Uriel delivered God's curse on Caine, shielding him in the blackness of his wings.
System : The presence of any light makes the subject uncomfortable, and bright light of any kind – flashlights, neon beer lamps, headlights, etc. - inflict one health level of aggravated damage on the character for every turn he remains under its direct focus. Most vampires who su ffer this curse elect to sleep for the duration, hiding away in the darkness of thei havens until they can walk again among the living without pain. This power lasts for one week.
Lvl 5 Valediction
Many Sabbat rightfully fear this power, though none has ever seen it used. It levies a punishment for breaking one of Caine's greatest commandments – the ban against diablerie. As most Sabbat attain their power and station through some measure of diablerie, they must reconcile their beliefs with the admonitions of Caine, and this power engenders a great sense of humility.
System : When this power takes effect, the subject immediately reverts to her original generation. This change may entail losing points in certain Traits due to generational maximums. This power lasts for one week, after which any Traits reduced to
higher-generation maximums return to normal. It takes three turns to speak the full verse that implements this power's effects.
Path of the Levinbolt
Medieval Tremere experimented with harnessing lightning itself, but their understanding proved only rudimentary. Without knowledge of electricity, thaumaturges could only rely on a simple ability to hold and discharge energy. Furthermore, other Paths like the Lure of Flames proves more useful in the struggle to establish the clan's place. For these reasons, the Path of the Levinbolt faded to obscurity through the Dark and Middle Ages, and remained hidden away in grimoires until the Victorian Age.
The birth of science and understanding of electricity revitalized the Path of the Levinbolt – the combination of mystical astrology with a rational understanding allowed thaumaturges to rebuild and rechannel its principles. No longer did thaumaturges have only some limited skill in charging themselves with lightning; now they could arc, focus and handle the very elements! Older practitioners spent minutes collecting the energy necessary to charge this Path's discharges, but modern thaumaturges could gather the electricity in mere seconds, to direct as they chose.
As a thaumaturge collects the energy of the Levinbolt, she often takes on an electrical aspect: sparks fingertips, or a purplish halo may seem to surround her hands as a warning of storms to come. Mighty discharges often result in a sort of flaring afterimage like a photo negative as the powerful lightning makes a stark contrast to surrounding darkness.
Lvl 1 Spark
Novice thaumaturges can build up a tiny static charge, enough to make a noticeable snap with a touch. Such a discharge poses little threat to healthy targets, though the energy can ruin delicate electronics or stun an unlucky victim.
System : The thaumaturge simply touches a target (after the requisite blood expenditure and Willpower roll by the player) and releases the spark. The electricity can snap from any part of the caster's body, so a thaumaturge might give an unpleasant surprise to someone touching her. The resulting discharge inflicts two dice of electronic damage (generally lethal). The time required to draw out the electricity varies with the successes scored: with one success, the vampire might need a turn or three to accumulate the energy; with three successes, only a couple of seconds; with five successes, instantly. The caster must use the power immediately after invoking the magic.
Lvl 2 Illuminate
Neonates sometimes derogatively refer to this effect as the “40-watt Tremere”, right up until they've felt its sting. The thaumaturge summons enough electricity to cover her hand or arm in arcing bolts. This power can charge a battery or briefly run a small device, or even leave a nasty burn on a touched subject.
System : Each success scored on the player's Willpower roll translates to approximately one turn of power sufficient to run a handful of lights or a small electrical device. Alternately, the thaumaturge can shock someone by touch, as with the Spark power, but for four dice of (lethal) electrical damage; such a use immediately discharges the energy. The current created with this power is not strong enough to force its way through less-than-ideal conductors, though, and simply inflicts electrical damage on raw metals, woods or other matter in the form of a burn. The thaumaturge can alternately allow the electricity to spark about her hand, eyes, head or the like; this creates illumination about equal to a dim light bulb, and obviously gives a two-point bonus to Intimidation rolls against unassuming victims (like mortals). In conjunction with a Dexterity + Crafts roll (difficulty 7), the thaumaturge could even use his fingers to perform crude metal welding, though this can easily heat metal enough to inflict aggravated damage to the caster...
Lvl 3 Power Array
Like a looming thundercloud, the thaumaturge holds the waiting fury of lightning. Although the vampire cannot create or direct a charge strongly enough or accurately enough to launch actual bolts of electricity, she can conduct power through other substances or even absorb nearby energies.
System : As with lesser levels of this Path, the thaumaturge can discharge a shock of electricity, this time up to six dice of lethal damage; the charge remains active for a number of turns equal to the number of successes scored by the player on the initial roll. With this power, the thaumaturge can also send the power through any conductive substance touched; a metal sword (with a similarly metal handle) could carry the thaumaturge's electric touch – the bolts of lightning would literally snap across the blade into the target touched. The thaumaturge could also briefly power a large device or continue to power a small device for the duration of the effect. Though perhaps an ignominious use, a sorcerer could conceivably find himself needing just a minute to look into an unpowered computer's files, to override an electrical lock or to start a dead car battery. Other power sources offer alternatives: the thaumaturge can choose to channel other electrical energies through herself if desired, which let her draw power out of a car battery or power line without injury and without counting against er own power generation. By touching both power source and subject, the thaumaturge can act as a near-perfect conductor without any harm to herself.
Lvl 4 Zeus' Fury
Accomplished thaumaturges cannot only absorb electrical power, but shape and redirect it. The vampire may arc lightning from her body to nearby targets or hold a potent charge that raises hair on end and sparks with surpressed energy.
System : The successes scored by the player determine the number of turns that the vampire can harness Zeus' Fury. The character holds a total of 10 dice of electrical power, which can be discharged through touch or in arced bolts in any combination desired – so the player could choose to spend four dice of damage in a touch attack, and then arc the remaining six dice into a bolt of lightning the next turn. As with lesser levels of power, a touch can fuel or overload electrical devices. The thaumaturge directs hurled bolts with Perception + Science (difficulty of 6 plus the range in yards – up to a maximum of 10, at the maximum range of four yards).
Lvl 5 Eye of the Storm
The thaumaturge becomes a shifting, sparkling pillar of electrical power. Her merest glance can prove dangerous, her touch explosively fatal. The energy channeled in the Eye of the Storm can tear apart a mortal body or spectacularly detonate all but the most heavily shielded electrical components. Wood, metal, plastic and similar materials combust dramatically with contact, burn or even sublimate.
System : At this level of mastery, the vampire can discharge 14 dice of damage by touch, or launch lesser bolts of electricity as with Zeus' Fury, above. Materials or entities that come in contact with the thaumaturge automatically suffer one die of lethal electrical damage each turn (this does not count against the usual dice pool, and adds to touch damage). The sparking, glowing form of the thaumaturge becomes a veritable halo of energy, and onlookers suffer from the excessively bright light and flashing afterimages (which can increase the difficulty of most tasks simply due to the distraction). The nimbus discharges at a rate of one die per turn unless otherwise spent, or unless a number of turns elapse equal to the successes scored by the player on the initial roll.
The Path of Shadowcrafting
Although the Tremere have long been enemies of the Tzimisce, a chantry of 17thcentury Protuguese Tremere once turned their talents to specialized means of combating the treacherous Lasombra of neighboring Spain. In the modern nights, however, Tzimisce-Lasombra ties in the Sabbat mean that the Tremere must sometimes bring their attentions to the depradations of the lords of shadow. Indeed, some Tremere wryly comment that for every sorcerous Tzimisce counselor who advises a Lasombra bishop, a cunning Tremere councels an insidious Ventrue. With the Camarilla's recet upturn in clashes with the Sabbat, the Tremere have needed a means to blunt the Sabbat's edges.
Students of the Path of Shadowcrafting learn to manipulate shades, but not in the same fashion as the Lasombra. While Shadowcrafting tugs at the absence of light, Tremere who have fought the Lasombra firsthand come away with the distinct impression that Obtenebration manipulates something else – a tangible darkness, a sort of abyssal nothingness coaxed into the material world. What this bodes, even the Tremere do not know, and the few Lasombra antitribu certainly aren't forthcoming. In the meantime, the Tremere hope to refine the Path into a means of controlling or duplicating the Lasombra's power, while keeping their failures quietly away from influential Camarilla ears. As is, the Path is relatively weak, but those exploring it hope to make breakthroughs any night now...
This Path does not function for Kindred with the Flaw: Cast No Reflection.
Lvl 1 Out Light
The first rule of shade: darkness overcomes all light. Eventually, every light gutters and fades. A neophyte thaumaturge can exert this property of darkness, bringing a sordid mortality to lights nearby. The lights may flicker and dim or even snuff completely, depending upon their strength and the thaumaturge's will.
System : The thaumaturge can focus darkness upon any one light source within her range of sight. Only lights up to the strength of a torch, light bulb or modern neon sign can be affected, but complete success snuffs a light permanently (light bulbs and neon signs burn out; candles go out, but could be re-lit later). Successes scored on the casting roll determine the strength of the fading.
Successes Effect
1 Momentary flicker
2 Pronounced guttering for several seconds
3 Source produces only dim flickers erratic light for two turns
4 Light source blacks out completely for two turns, then resumes
5+ Totally extinguished
Lvl 2 Shadow Taunt
A wholly unnerving power, Shadow Taunt allows a thaumaturge to take command of a distant shadow. By sympathetically linking it to his body, the thaumaturge makes the distant shadow obey his own shadow's motion. The caster can jape, threaten or move about and cause the faraway shadow to behave in similar fashion. If the shadow belongs to a person, it follows tht thaumaturge's actions. Shadows of other than anthropomorphic shape contort as best they can, stretching, elongating and moving in a semblance of the caster's motion. A shadow controlled in this fasion cannot actually do harm, nor does it harm its source, but it certainly proves unnerving. On at least one occasion, a Tremere novice managed to humiliate an opponent simply by making the Kindred's shadow subtly berate him; when the bereaved Kindred brought the matter to the attention of the harpies, he found himself rundly scathed - “Afraid of your own shadow now?”
System : Successes scored on the Willpower roll for this effect determine how many turns the caster can control a distant shadow. Only one shadow at a time may be so influenced. Shadows animated in this fashion can move and even pantomime as they follow the thaumaturge's actions, but they cannot make sound, nor do they actually break away from their casting source (so, if the thaumaturge leaves, the shadow moves as if running in place). The caster must be able to see the shadow that he wishes to manipulate, and it must be a natural shadow, not one created with Obtenebration.
Lvl 3 Coruscating Shadow
How would shadow appear if it hovered in the air? A discoloration? A dimness in the atmosphere? A hole in space? A commanding Tremere can peal the very shade from surrounding surfaces and bend it into floating forms that whip about. These airborn shadows conceal the caster and create a roiling sphere of confusion. The unnatural display manifests as an ephemeral globe that encompasses the caster at about arm's length, though it contract and expands rapidly while the shadows flit about its surface.
System : Under the effects of Coruscating Shadow, the Tremere gains partial concealment due to the rapidly strobing passage of shadowy shapes. The ball of shadows that surrounds the caster has no physical substance but expands and contracts, writhes and spins and generally makes matters difficult for anyone trying to observe the thaumaturge. Raise the difficulties of actions that affect the caster, including attacks, by one while this power is in effect. Furthermore, the heavier prevalence of shadow helps when blendng into darkened areas, giving the player a two-die bonus to Stealth rolls for the character. The sphere lasts for one turn per success garnered on the roll.
Lvl 4 Night's Veil
Shadows seem to devour the landscape hungrily as night falls. Where any shadow lies, the power of night remains – through that synpathetic power the Tremere can invoke the strength of night in any place. Mortals who have observed this bizarre power have left the experience “touched”, talking of shadows impossible in the current light and non-Euclidian geometries casting horrid shades.
System : Like other Shadowcrafting powers, the Tremere must extend existing shadows. Typically, the caster stands within a shadowed corner and invokes this power. In each successive turn, the shadow slowsly expands to cover greater ground. Such mystically enhanced shade can even reach out into sunlit stretches. The shade extends about a yard beyond its normal distance for each success scored on the roll. For the rest of the scene, the shade counts as an area uhe province of night: the Tremere can act normally without hindrance from daytime and avoid the sun's rays. Should the caster step outside the shadow (whether accidentally or purposefully), though, the effect ends immediately – quite possibly stranding the Tremere, dizzy and disoriented, in burning sunlight.
Lvl 5 Abyssal Pact
Mastery of the Path of Shadowcrafting allows a Tremere to imbue his shades with some semblance of substance. At this level of expertise, the Path truly takes on some characteristics of tangible nightmares. While smothered in darkness, the Tremere lets loose something that seems hungry and malevolent. Mastery of such shade creations also gives the Tremere a small chance to counter the Obtenebration Discipline, though such hope perhaps leads more to overconfidence than to conquest.
The creator of the Shadowcrafting Path, now a chattering invalid, maintains during brief moments of lucidity that strange shadow entities wait in every darkened corner. Certainly the shades conjured by this Path give some credence to such notions, but the Kindred in question asserts that these beings devour light and feed upon the very essences of those who would dare truck with them. If these are, perhaps, the primal fiends that deal with the Lasombra's fluid darkness, then perhaps their secrets are best left hidden – their unnatural kin were never meant to withstand the light.
System : To summon the final powers of Shadowcrafting, both the Tremere and the target must be within the same patch of darkness – two individuals in a closet, or both out on the street on a moonless night. The Tremere does no need to see the individual, but must somehow sense the victim's presence, whether by hearing, touch or some other apprehension. Furthermore, the darkness must be total or near-total; simple shadows do not suffice. Conjuring the esurient shadow costs five blood points (total, not in addition to the usual Thaumaturgy cost).
Once created, the shade-form assaults the victim and drains vitality. Tangible shadow attacks envelop the victim in a smothering blanket of darkness that bites like a school of barracuda. Every two successes scored on the casting roll cause the victim to loose one health level of lethal damage; additionally, the victim loses one point of Stamina for the remainder of the scene, as the hungry shadows suck out the very essence of living vitality (note that Kindred can use their blood to restore such losses until the next scene). Subsequent attacks are cumulative, so it's possible to wear a victim down over multiple turns, , though that's certainly expensive and time-consuming for all but the most proficient thaumaturges.
The abyssal shades conjured with this power can be used to fight against Obtenebration, but they seeem reluctant to do so. Instead of inflicting damage upon an opponent, the caster can direct the shadow power so that every two successes scored by the player removes one succecss from an Obtenebration effect. This can negate a power entirely or reduce its efficacy. Of course, the Lasombra can simply reactivate the appropriate Obtenebration powers, probably without nearly as much effort, but the surprise alone can prove invaluable.
Should the thaumaturge botch the casting roll, the shades still manifest but attack him instead, in addition to the normal Thaumaturgy botch penalty of one permanent Willpower point. Roll six dice and apply the resulsts as specified above for every two successes.
Soul of the Serpent
Thanks in part to the living asp residing in her stomach, the acting Tremere regent in Cairo has developed a Thaumaturgical Path of her own over several decades of intense study and experimentation – a discovery she firmly believes to be her own. The Path exemplifies and embodies the perfection of the serpent's form, and it is functionally the same as any other Thaumaturgical Path.
Lvl 1 Serpentine Sense
The most basic level allows the thaumaturge to access the considerable olfactory prowess of the serpent, granting acute sensitivity to all smells for the duration of the scene. The possible effects are varied, from allowing the thaumaturge to identify poisons and poisoned food by smell, to effectively letting her “see” in the dark.
System : Although supernatural darkness (such as Obtenebration) still affects the character, it does so to a much lesser extent, simply imposing upon her a mere one-die penalty to all actions taken within the area of effect. Note that use of this power causes the ophidian character's hearing to suffer commensurately, imposing a +2 difficulty on all related challenges until the Serpentine Sense is no longer employed.
Lvl 2 Scaleskin
When this application of the Path is invoked, the user's outer layers of skin become smooth and scaly like those of an anaconda or other river snake, allowing for greater flexibility on land as well as considerable freedom of movement through water.
System : The character's effective Dexterity increases by one dot (potentially exceeding normal Attribute maximums), and she gains the ability to pass through any opening large enough for her head. In addition, swimming in this form is exceptionally efficient, allowing the user to travel through water at normal land speed. While use of this power is obvious (to say the least) it does allow for some nick-of-time escapes from handcuffs and other difficult situations.
Lvl 3 Venom Curse
The Tremere can transform her own vitae into a deadly poison capable of blinding the eyes of nearby opponents, like that of a spitting cobra.
System : The character coughs a point of vitae into her mouth, where it transforms mystically into a deadly blood-venom. The vampire then spits the venom at any one o pponent within range (equal to three feet per dot of Strength + Potence). The player rolls Dexterity + Athletics (difficulty 7) to target the eyes, and the opponent may attempt to dodge. If the attack roll succeeds, the target must immediately engage in a resisted Stamina + Occult roll (difficulty 6) with the Warlock. If the target accumulates more successes, he overcomes the venom's effects and retains his eyesight. If not, he remains blind until the venom has run its course.
The blindness lasts for one hour per net success on the resisted Stamina + Occult roll (that is, the Tremere's successes minus the target's successes). Supernatural targets can conceivably shorten this time. Vampires may spend blood points to reduce the duration on a one-for-one basis. Lupines will regenerate the blindness in short order, reducing the duration to accumulations of minutes rather than hours. The blood-venom is extremely toxic to mortals, however, who are blinded for life unless they receive immediate medical attention (within an hour). Thankfully, this supernatural venom is quite thin, and its potency cannot be maintained outside of the thaumaturge's body.
Lvl 4 Touch of Typhon
The blood wizard can now metamorphose her entire forearm and hand into a deadly asp, complete with a writhing, venomous snake head.
System : Effective range is only five feet, but the bite of the serpent “arm” is deadly, doing Strength + 1 dice of aggravated damge to anyone struck in combat (on a standard Brawl attack, although successes beyond the first do not add to the damage dice pool). Mortals bitten thus must immediately succeed in a Stamina roll (difficulty 7) or die within Stamina + 5 minutes from the snake head's virulent toxin.
If a mortal is killed in this way, the venom begins to seep out of the corpse's wounds shortly thereafter, carrying the unfortunate mortal's essence along with it. The blood-venom then pools nearby, slowly coagulating to form a small supernatural asp under the control of the Warlock. From that point onward, that mortal's soul knows no peace until such time as its new “body” is killed, thus freeing the tortured spirit within.
Lvl 5 Form of the Hydra
This powerful incantation – the ultimate plateau of achievement for one studying this Path – allows the Warlock to transform instantly into a writhing mass of vipers, her body erupting in a spectacular shower of black, red, green and gold.
System : The player must spend two blood points to effect the change, which takes three turns to complete. During this time, the character may take no other action, and no transition of any kind is apparent in her form. At the end of the turn, her body simply bursts into a number of vipers equal to the maximum number of blood points the character can hold. For example, an 8thgeneration Tremere using this power would explode into 15 separate snakes. Alternatively, the player may opt to transform instantaneously, but she does so at a cost of five blood points rather than two.
Individuals assuming the Form of the Hydra are nearly impossible to destroy. Every lats viper must first be located, as the thaumaturge may reform later if even a single serpent remains. This transformation lasts until the Warlock wills herself to assume normal form once again, which takes another three turns.
Alchemy
Thaumaturgy has some roots in the early practices of Hermetic alchemy, which concerned itself with changing the properties of given ideals. Indeed, much of Thaumaturgy's codified structure and basic principles are very similar to those of alchemy.
In the near-millennium that has passed since the Tremere's earliest efforts with blood magic, alchemy has fallen by the wayside, however. Modern technology makes possible almost anything this Path can do and far more – it is easier and more reliable to mine for gold, for example, than it is to create it by transmuting other materials. Still, old habits die hard among vampires, and the Tremere are no exception. A few elders still practice this Path, and of these, some still teach it to their childer to illustrate the basic tenets of modern blood magic.
System : The number of successes on the activation roll determines how radically a thaumaturge may alter a given compound's form. He need not use all his successes – a thaumaturge wishing to effect only a simple change of form need not turn lead into gold if he accumulates five successes. The thaumaturge must, however, acquire at least the minimum number of successes suggested by the table below to generate the effect he seeks.
Changing one element into another requires familiarity with both elements. One cannot suddenly decide he wants to change a balloon's worth of helium into a sphere of solid titanium if he has never dealt with either of those elements before. Simply knowing an atomic number is not enough to warp the laws of nature so radically. It is worthwhile to note, however, that Alchemy makes no distinction between naturally occurring and man-made elements – if affects Einsteinium as readily as it affects carbon.
Note also that this Path has fallen out of practice because it is less useful in modern nights than it was in the past. Transmutations create Hermetic “ideals” rather than perfect real-world resources which cannot be broken down into lesser constructs. A hunk of gold is a hunk of gold – an attempt to cast coins with it will reduce the hunk into a pile of sludge. Before you ask – yes, this means your Tremere anarch will not be able to create nuclear bombs by turning the prince's shoes into uranium. There's nothing wrong with converting lead into gold and selling that hunk of gold to someone else, however – caveat emptor!
Note : Storytellers are encouraged to applyt his principle to the use of the Path of Conjuring as well. Characters who try to conjure “antimatter” or create weapons of mass destruction magically should be subtly but reasonably discouraged.
Also, use of this Path assumes the thaumaturge works with the elements in a laboratory-style (or at least controlled) environment. No vampire will be able to walk down the street and turn the iron in people's blood to helium with a simple touch.
A vampire's knowledge of Alchemy determines how greatly she may change a given element.
Lvl 1 Simple changes in form – solid to liquid, liquid to gas, etc.
Lvl 2 Complex changes to form – liquid to a specific shape of solid, water to separate hydrogen and oxygen clouds, etc.
Lvl 3 Complicated changes to form – wate r to breathable O2 and loose H2, compounds into seperate elements, etc.
Lvl 4 Minor shifts in composition, such as adjusting an element's atomic number up to five greater or less than its original destination.
Lvl 5 Miraculous shifts in composition, such as turning lead into gold or nitrogen into radium.
Biothaumaturgy
This bizarre Path reputedly has its roots in the secret tomes of the inscrutable Black Hand. Over the past few years, its esoteric secrets have spread among certain cabals of Tremere, who regard it as a curious mixture of Hermetic science and genetics. Biothaumaturgy concerns itself with the manipulation of life energies. In the laboratories of inspired biothaumaturges may be found strange creatures almost out of myth, veritable Frankenstein's monsters and less wholesome creatures. Although it is not considered a “taboo” Path, Biothaumaturgy is nonentheless strange and unsettling to those who observe its results.
Biothaumaturgy does not require the expenditure of blood points to create its magic. Rather, the powers of this Path take one week per level to complete at Levels One and Two, and one month per level to complete at Levels Three through Five. For example, the Level One power takes one week to work, while the Level Three power takes three months for the biothaumaturge's experiments to come to fruition.
Biothaumaturgy also requires the thaumaturge to have a laboratory where he may conduct his experiments. This need be nothing more complex than a doctor's table and a few sharp knives, but it may be as complex as the “mad scientist” affairs or pulp fiction, with steaming alembics and crackling generators. The Storyteller should feel free to modify a character's Biothaumaturgy difficulties if he has an excellent laboratory resources or his facilities are utterly lacking. Working with a crude lab may add two to the difficulty while a high-grade facility may lower his difficulties by two.
Lvl 1 Thaumaturgical Forensics
The thaumaturge may take a tissue sample from a living, dead or undead creature and ascertain its distinguishing characteristics. A wealth of information may be gleaned from this sample, including information that “normal” forensics and genetics would not yield, such as age, generation, clan, etc.
System : Each success on the activation roll yields one piece of simple information about the subject, which may be any living, undead or dead entity (but not an inanimate object), including plants. This information is limited to physical characteristics of the subject – Thaumaturgical Forensics can be used to determine gender, clan, traces of diablerie and the like, but it will not reveal if a given subject killed an individual or where she kept her trove of personal belongings.
Lvl 2 Thaumaturgical Surgery
The thaumaturge uses his knowledge of magic and physiology to aid a body in its regenerative capacity. Even the most grievous wounds may heal more quickly if aided by this sorcerous art.
System : Each success on the player's roll allows the thaumaturge to “convert” one health level of damage to a lesser type. Aggravated damage becomes lethal, lethal damage becomes bashing and bashing damage becomes easily slept-off fatigue (and vanishes completely). Note that the actual surgery does not take the above-mentioned two weeks to finish, but recuperation times account for that period.
Lvl 3 Lesser Animation
The thaumaturge mystically endows a dead lifeform with magical energy and imparts to it a rudimentary set of instructions. The resultant creations carry out their orders to the letter; biothaumaturges use this power to populate their havens with deathless guard dogs and other, quirkier “pets”.
System : This power affects plants and simple animals – nothing more than a single tree or dog per use. If the effect is successful, the animated creation may be given a one-sentence command, which it will fulfill until destroyed. Minor variations on the subject may even be made – a thorn thicket could be animated to move slowly toward intruders to entangle them, or an animate cat could be given a set of larger, permanently extended claws that do additional damage. Specifics should be worked out with the Storyteller.
Creatures animated in this manner have their original Strength and Stamina Traits, while their Dexterity drops by one (but never below 1). Social and Mental Attributes are considered to be at zero. Each creation has a number of health levels equal to half those it had in life (round up).
Creatures animated in this fashion immediately crumble to dust if stricken by sunlight, and suffer double damage from fire.
Lvl 4 Greater Animation
At this level, the thaumaturge has refined her knowledge to allow her to animate more complex creatures. Even human corpses and large animals may be given the “spark of life” with this power – one biothaumaturge in Egypt is rumored to have a pair of animated elephants with which he terrorizes his enemies.
System : This power works the same way as Lesser Animation, but allows the vampire to animate more complex creatures. Certain lifeforms are probably beyond the capacity of this power – zombie whales sound fairly foolish – but the only limit is what the Storyteller chooses to allow. This power also allows minor changes to be made to the subjects, or allows major changes to be made to lesser subjects. For example, an animate human corpse may wield a bone-hook instead of a hand, or a rat might be able to fly with a pair of leathery gargoyle-wings made from the bones and skin of birds and infants.
A human animated in this manner retains none of his original “self”. This power merely animates the corpse; it does not reunite the spirit with the body.
Lvl 5 Cognizant Construction
The pinnacle of Biothaumaturgy, this power bestows a dead creature animated through one of the lesser powers of this Path with a semblance of the intelligence it had in life. Animated animals possess a malicious cunning while higher lifeforms gain a shrewd ability to reason deductively rather than satisfy rote commands.
System : Although this power gives an animation a base intelligence, the creature nonetheless sstill serves the orders it is given by its creator. A creature animated via Cognizant Construction has Mental Attributes of one less than it possessed in life (but never below 1). This won't be creating any undead geniuses, but the story effect is that it creates an animated monster capable of reasoning. A Cognizant Construction won't mindlessly fight to its second death if it sees a better or cleverer way of routing foes, and it will be capable of other deductive tasks as well.
The Focused Mind
Developed by a Tremere Kabbalah scholar, this little-known path of Thaumaturgy had been around for a few centuries and remains in practice by a select few. Practitioners of the Focused Mind greatly enhance their mental alactiry and readiness, allowing better comprehension of problems and situations. Thaumaturges, already disciplined of mind, become frightfully powerful in the realm of the cerebral when mastering this path.
Unlike most Thaumaturgy, the powers of this path do not require an action to invoke, although they still require the normal blood expenditure and Willpower activation roll. Each of these powers is usable only once per turn.
Lvl 1 Readiness
Using Readiness makes the caster able to gain a quicker understanding on a predicament. Enhanced lucidity enlightens the chaster, allowing better reactions to chaing situations and increased cleverness.
System : This power is only usable on the thaumaturge himself. Every success on the activation roll adds one die to a special dice pool for the remainder of the turn. These dice may be used on any Wits-related rolls or actions that the magus performs during this turn. Alternatively, each die removed from the dice pool adds one to the caster's initiative rating.
Lvl 2 Centering
By invoking this power, the thaumaturge causes a sudden, intense calmness in the subject by whispering soothing words to her. While this serenity, the target is able to better focus on tasks at hand, ignoring distractions and annoyances, including grave bodily harm.
Magi in fear of frenzy often use this power on themselves to achieve a state of tranquility, as emotions are stifled.
System : This power is usable on any subject within earshot of the thaumaturge and lasts for one turn per success on the activation roll. During this period the target is unaffected by any effect that reduces his dice pools. This includes wound penalties, situational modifiers and Disciplines. Midifications to difficulty numbers still apply during this time, though.
In addition, due to the unnatural serenity that his power bestows, the target receives two additional dice in all attempts to avoid or break frenzy. Lupines may even be calmed from their murderous rampages if five or more successes are scored on the activation roll.
Lvl 3 One-Tracked Mind
By extending his powers to other individuals, the thaumaturge is able to fixate the subject on one action. This single-mindedness of the target is such that they ignore everything else that occurs around them. Guards are easily distracted with this power, as their attention becomes fixated elsewhere, and research becomes a dedicated, focused task. Use of this power is sometimes colloquially referred to as “railroading someone”.
System : This power may affect anyone who can hear the thaumaturge. Successful invocation makes the target unable to split any dice pools for extra actions and unable to change tactics after actions have been declared. As a side benefit, reduce the difficulty of the action by one. Additional actions that the victim takes (from Celerity, for example) during the duration of this power must follow their initial action, as the concentrate wholly upon this one idea. The duration of One-Tracked Mind is one scene if used outside of combat, otherwise it is reduced to one turn per success on the activation roll.
Lvl 4 Dual Thought
With the rigors of concentration required to learn Thaumaturgy, many Tremere are able to take quick and complete control of a situation. With this power, the thaumaturge is able to divide his attention to two completely separate tasks without problems. As One-Tracked Mind forces the subject's attention into a single objective, Dual Thought expands the thaumaturge's concentration to the point that focus upon two goals is possible.
System : Successful use of Dual Thought allows the caster to take an extra action during this turn. This is restricted to mental actions, be it the use of Disciplines such as the use of Auspex or Thaumaturgy, or the contemplation of some problem. If the character is using both actions to solve a problem, he has two separate dice pools to draw from. These two actions happen at the same time, as determined by the initiative rating of the character.
Lvl 5 Perfect Clarity
Perfect Clarity brings about a Zenlike moment of unimpeded insight for the thaumaturge. Pur focus is achieved, thought and action become one, and complete serenity of mind descends upon the Kindred magus. This lucidity protects the thaumaturge from influences both internal and external; even the Beast within is unable to rage forth.
Some practitioners have likened use of this power with the state of Golconda (theoratically, of course), but the upper Tremere hierarchy denies this rumor as much as they deride the existence of Golconda itself.
System : This power lasts for the duration of one scene. For this period the thaumaturge has the difficulties of all actions reduced by two. The Kindred is immune to frenzy and Rötschreck from all sources, even by supernatural means. Finally, any means to control or influence the thaumaturge suffer +2 difficulty, including the powers of Presence and Dominate.
The Hearth Path
For those Tremere who maintain private havens, secrecy is paramount. The Hearth Path seems to have evolved from a collection of rituals designed to proect the integrity of a vampire's sanctum sanctorum. Havens protected by these powers often acquire reputations as “haunted” houses and the like. The Tremere are quick to point out, however, that these reputations help to strengthen the Masqeurade rather than jeopardize it. When people find out that the house is just a house with a spooky atmosphere, they chastise themselves for being so foolish as to believe in ghosts.
Lvl 1 Guest's Herals
This power, when used ona door or other portal, creates an audible or visual effect that notifies the Tremere that someone has crossed it. In this way, the vampire knows when someone has entered her haven and can deal with the interloper as she sees fit.
System : This power lasts for 24 hours. The signal may be anything af the thaumaturge's choosing – a particularly noisy creak, a tendency to stay ajar or even something wholly unconnected, like the rotation of a decanter in another room. In all cases, the effect is static – it looks or sounds exactly the same every time it happens. Any point at which someone other than the thaumaturge crosses a warded area, the effect takes place. Whether or not the vampire is present to observe it is a different matter.
Note that complex chains of events are outside the purview of this power. The ritual will not tirgger an elaborate Rube Goldberg-style “trap” (though is may set off the first part of one), nor will it aim and fire a shotgun at the door. These are simple, subtle, brief effects.
Lvl 2 Master's Orders
In his own haven, the thaumaturge knows where every last article lies. He knows where he placed an important book, he knows the drawer that the keyes to his safe occupy, and he knows where his ensorcelled wooden stake rests. He even knows these things when he doesn't....
System : As long as this ritual is successful, for the duration of the scene, the thaumaturge knows exactly where any given object has been placed, as long as it is in his haven. This knowledge applies only to inanimate objects – he may not locate his childe in this manner. Also, the object must belong to the Tremere himself; an assassin's knife will not be found by this power, nor will the objects on another's person. Something the Tremere has stolen will turn up without difficulty, however.
This power works only in the Tremere's haven, where he has spent at least one day's rest prior to invoking the power.
Lvl 3 Rhyme of Discord
The vampire may create a miasma of confusion in her haven. This power plays upon intruders' minds, causing them to become lost in the vampire's haven, to lose their direction and misremember specific details such as objects in rooms and their location.
System : Characters other than the thaumaturge find themselves hopelessly lost in her haven, no matter how small it is. Additionally, they are unable to remember any but the smallest details regarding the place once inside. Even if an intruder attempts to follow or chase the Kindred through the haven, she will lose track of direction, make wrong turns, etc. This effect lasts for one full
24-hour period, but the confused memories an intruder takes with her last until she visits the haven when it is not under this protective ensorcellment.
Lvl 4 Temportal
As master of her haven, a vampire may briefly reshape it so that doorways lead to rooms other than those to which they are connected. For example, the door to the bedroom may suddenly open into the study, while the deepest catacomb of a Transylvanian castle dungeon might lead to a tower elsewhere in the castle. Thaumaturges find this useful both as a convenience – how better to retrieve a book from the basement when one is on the third floor? – and as an escape route.
System : This power works until sunrise. At the thaumaturge's whim, he may walk through any doorway in his haven and be immediately transported to any room of his choice that is also in his haven. Anyone who follows him through the door will find themselves in the room the doorway naturally connects to.
Lvl 5 The Cauldron's Rede
This power bestows a primitive awareness upon the magus' haven. While her haven is under this sending, the thaumaturge may ask any of the items in her haven about specific events taking place therein. A bedroom mirror may whisper of guests conspiring in the foyer, a divan may discolse bedchamber indiscretions, and the lowliest kitchen rug may reveal high treachery taking place in a salon. Anything occuring within the haven (or within eyeshot of the outside, as the windows can “see” as well) can be relayed to an inquisitive magus by the common items inside.
System : This power lasts until the sunrise after the vampire invokes it. The vampire must verbally ask questions of her haven's accouterments, should she desire information from them. Only in case of extreme danger, such as a pending attack or a haven set ablaze will the voices of the haven call out to the Kindred.
Mastery of the Mortal Shell
A thaumaturge practicing Mastery of the Mortal Shell explores the fundamental functions of the body, granting control over the physical workings of a subject. Lesser powers of this Path are clumsy in their control of the body, but become increasingly precise and complete.
In the early nights, Mastery of the Mortal Shell was created to assist in the hunting of the Tzimisce and Gangrel enemies of the Tremere, but its uses were expanded to enforce subservience among enslaved Gargoyles after their first revolt. The powers of this Path form the foundation for may tales of witches' curses and possession in folklore.
Unless otherwise stated, the powers of Mastery of the Mortal Shell last a number of turns equal to the number of successes a thaumaturge scores on his activation roll.
Lvl 1 Vertigo
The thaumaturge induces a minor disorientation and dizziness through subtle manipulations in the subject's body. Although the physical discomfort is temporary and minor, Tremere have been known to use it on social rivals at the most inopportune times, causing them to lose their aplomb.
System : A touch from the thaumaturge (possibly requiring a Brawl attack, with Storyteller discretion) invokes disorientation in her victim. All of the subject's physical actions are at +1 difficulty for the duration of Vertigo. Further uses of this Path may extend the duration, though the difficulty will not increase beyond +1. The Storyteller may impose any other desirable effects, such as acrophobia or agoraphobia.
Lvl 2 Contortion
With but a touch, the thaumaturge causes her opponent's muscles to contract involuntarily, reducing her to twitching fits. This effect is extremely disconcerting to the subject, rendering the affected limb unusable.
System : By making physical contact with one of the limbs of the target, the thaumaturge renders it useless for the duration of Contortion. Targeting rules apply for selecting a specific extremity, should contact not be guaranteed. A leg rendered useless may make it difficult to remain standing. A controted arm hangs lifeless at the subject's side. A useless head causes loss of speech and increases the difficulty of all Social rolls by three as the facial muscles spasm out of control.
The thaumaturge can affect himself, causing his muscles to tighten like a vise. Each success increases the difficulty by one to break his grasp or hold. This is very useful during a bite of choke attack, making futile any attempt to flee, and may also be used on others in this “beneficial” manner.
Lvl 3 Seizure
Like a nervous disorder, this power causes the body to “lock up” in a fit of convulsions. All the muscles throughout the body tighten uncontrollably, the victim foams at the mouth and spasms rack him with agony. A mortal may even choke to death as her tongue cuts off her air supply.
System : A light touch visits upon any target the very unpleasant effects of this power. For the duration of the seizure, a target's body writhes, tormenting him to the point of incapacitation. Victims suffer a four-dice penalty to all actions. The victim also suffers one level of bashing damage every turn, though this damage is soakable, as her body helplessly twists itself unnaturally.
Lvl 4 Body Failure
Thaumaturges wielding this frightful power gain devastating insights into the workings of the body, allowing a complete shutdown of its systems. This sudden biological overload often proves fatal to mortals and damaging to other supernatural beings. Body Failure has been used throughout the ages to afflict victims in “natural” and inconspicuous ways. Many cases of “fatal palsy” and natural death may indeed be the result of a skilled thaumaturge.
System : This power can affect any target the thaumaturge can see. A successful activation of this power grants effects similar to Seizure, except that damage is lethal (and thus not soakable by mortals) due to complete organ failure. Additionally, the victim suffers a five-dice penalty to all actions. Kindred ewise affected by Body Failure, as their muscles spasm and brain activity becomes erratic. As Kindred, they may soak the damage this power inflicts on them.
Lvl 5 Marionette
The thaumaturge invoking Marionette gains such mastery over the body that he can magically seize control of another being and manipulate her actions to suit his own whims. Although this control is not as fine as the direct and personal command of the Dominate power of Possession, the thaumaturge's true body is not as vulnerable during the manipulation. Once established, the Marionette victim is under the complete sway of the thaumaturge, forced to perform as the thaumaturge's macabre pawn. As Gepetto once moved Pinocchio's strings, so the thaumaturge bends his target to his will.
System : The thaumaturge may affect any target within his line of sight and he must keep visual contact with the victim at all times to maintain this effect. A subject may resist the effects of Marionette on a Stamina + Fortitude roll (difficulty equal to the thaumaturge's Willpower) when the thaumaturge attempts to take control. Each success he gains on this roll reduces the duration of Marionette by one turn. Victims lacking Fortitude do not have the physical resistance to defy this effect.
For the duration of this power, the thaumaturge can cause the victim to perform any physical action. However, due to the nature of this control, the difficulties of all the actions of the victim increase by two. The concentration this power requires also increases the thaumaturge's own difficulties by two for all actions undertaken while manipulating the victim. Another application of this power extends the duration of this arcane control.
Marionette does not rob the victim of his cognizance, only his physical control over his body. During this time of the thaumaturge's mastery, the target remains aware that some outside force is manipulating his actions, conscious that they are not his own.
Oneiromancy
Although the corrupt dream-magic of the Path of Morpheus had been used by the Sabbat for decades, the original augury that it was based upon has been a long-held secret by the Tremere. Oneiromancy, divination rooted in the somnolent state of consciousness, is actually based upon ancient Greek philosophies of prophecy. The Tremere, adopting these ancient sortileges, developed them into the thaumaturgical path of Oneiromancy shortly after their transformation to vampiric magi.
With the recent loss of the Sabbat's Tremere antitribu, the Path of Morpheus has since fallen from common knowledge, and Oneiromancy no longer carries the stigma once associated with its practitioners. With the approaching of Gehenna, the elders of Clan Tremere have again rethought their disdain of Oneiromancy in the clan in an effort to gain more information on unfolding events.
Use of any of these powers requires at least five minutes of reading the signs during which the Warlock goes into a trance similar to sleep. Awareness of his surroundings is limited, and he can “awaken” from the trance at any time but will suffer the same penalties as if awakening during the day for three turns (macimum dice pool equals Humanity rating). Oneiromancy powers can also be used while the thaumaturge is in torpor.
Lvl 1 Portents
From the ephemeral fragments of his own dreams, the magus may attempt a personal reading of the near future. While asleep, the oneiromancer draws upon the dream imagery flittering in the uncinscious. Upon waking from the divination, the Cainite may scrutinize the meaning of the visions. Although these vision of the present and future are invariably hazy, they often prvide important glimpses into significant events.
System : This power of Oneiromancy must be used immediately after awakening and takes the thaumaturge 10 minutes to read the signs. With a successful activation roll, the Storyteller relates disjoined dream images allegorically (or sometimes literally) concerning one forthcoming personal event to the oneiromancer. This event is completely up to the Storyteller's discretion, and multiple uses of Portens may well result in the same vision occuring over and over again. The Portent should always be fragmented and cryptic, althouh the more successes scored on this activation roll, the more information the Storyteller should relay the player.
Lvl 2 Foresee
Foresee lets the Warlock look into the mind of a sleeping individual, interpreting her dreams as clues to future events involving that individual. Used by thaumaturges in soothsaying, oneiromancers sometimes gain the trust of people while gleaming unconscious secrets from the targets.
System : This power behaves similar to Portents, but the imagery comes from the dreams of the target and the divination concerns an event for that person. The subject must be within the presence of the oneiromancer and asleep for Foresee to work, though Psychic Projection also works if the thaumaturge is not physically present. Additionally, if a Kindred is the subject of this power, the thaumaturge must spend a Willpower point to successfully see and understand the prognostication.
Lvl 3 Dreamspeak
The oneiromancer can now send messages to others in dream form. Although these messages appear while the target is asleep, the subject remembers them clearly after waking. Since these messages are dreams, those unfamiliar with this power may discount them as such. More nefarious uses have included sending nightmares and threats to a victim.
System : Dreamspeak sends a static dream message, determined at the time of sending, to anyone the oneiromancer has previously met. If the subject is not asleep at thet ime this power is used, the Dreamspeak has no effect. While using this power, magi drop into a trance as with the other divinations of Oneiromancy. One turn's worth of dreams can be sent per success of the activation roll – this won't allow the thaumaturge to haunt her victim for a full night, but it will allow her to leave messages, impart warnings, etc.
Lvl 4 Augury
Refining the power of somnolent divination, the oneiromancer is able to seek answers to questions and problems. While specific information can be sought by the oneiromancer, the dream images providing that knowledge have the same disjoined and confusing quality. Augury is helpful in seeking answers to problems, possibly providing the required breakthrough with a dilemma.
Since fortune-telling and prophesy is convoluting and bewildering, Augury may not provide any answer that is useful to the thaumaturge, and has been known to be completely misleading, as is often the case with dream-symbols. Let the diviner beware.
System : here broken and unguided imagery is the hallmark of Portents, Augury provides more direction and continuity. The augury comes to the Warlock in the same dreamlike imageries but the events are better understood. Thaumaturges who achieve this level of skill in the Path of Oneiromacy often have little use for lesser powers.
Note that the subject must have the knowledge the thaumaturge seeks, or the power is useless. The Storyteller has the final say on whether an Augury provides any beneficial information, and should not provide any revelations that will ruin a chronicle or plot.
Lvl 5 Reveal the Heart's Dreams
This power of divination works on a much more immediate means, the thaumaturge gaining an immediate insight into the dreams of desires of a person just by observing them directly. The innermost desire of the target becomes instantly apparent to the magus. With this information, a magus is able to approach a person with offers that are next to impossible to deny. It is hard to say no to the thing that you desire most. According to legens, even the hero-king Gilgamesh left his people in his desire for immortality.
This revelation of the soul occasionally reveals even more information about the target – that of his greatest of fears. It is this aspect of revelation that some say is the power the Followers of Set use to destroy the souls and virtue of their victims.
System : This power requires the expenditure of a point of Willpower (two, in the case of Kindred subjects) in addition to the normal Blood Point to activate and the subject must be within sight of the thaumaturge. If any successes are scored on the activation roll, the innermost desire of the target is revealed to the oneiromancer. Additionally, if more successes are gained on the activation roll than the subject has Willpower, the oneiromancer gains an even deeper understanding of the target's soul and lears the victim's innermost fear. The subject's reaction to being confronted with this information is up to the Storyteller (or the player), but remember that it is their ultimate driving passion.
When confronted with her inner horror, the subject may be completely paralyzed with fear, or she may frenzy in the tradition of Rötschreck. Again, the exact results are up to the Storyteller, but they should be consistent with confronting one's own fears.
Path of the Blood's Curse
Elder vampires have forever flaunted their powers over their lessers, the ancillae and neonates. With the approaching threat of Gehenna, young Kindred actively pursue ways to circumvent the stranglehold these powerful elders possess in the Jyhad. With this desire driving their ambitions, a few rogue Pander and Caitiff thaumaturges gathered together and developed this thaumaturgical Path as a means of ousting those above them.
These rebels resorted to a very basic concept for this Path of Thaumaturgy by exposing the inherent disadvantages that accompany the vampiric Embrace. The elders' paranoia has only increased exponentionally due to this movement toward a new method of usurping their power and vitae. These new thaumaturges give rise to the whisperings of the Day of Reckoning soon at hand on the courts of Elysium.
Lvl 1 Ravages of the Beast
From the moment a Kindred is Embraced, he suffers the rage and instincts of a primal Beast; it is the first bane to accompany the Change. If provoked, the Beast Within sends a vampire into a mindless, berserk fury. Some Kindred struggle to keep their Beasts in check, whileothers enjoy riding the waves of this violent rage. A thaumaturge invoking this power coaxes the Beast to surface within his target, unleashing a rampant killer.
System : The subject of this power must make a frenzy roll (Self-Control, difficulty 7). If the victim cannot resist the Beast, he immediately enters a frenzy the Storyteller deems appropriate to the situation, whether rage, Rötschreck, hunger, etc. A thaumaturge may affect any target within her line of sight.
Lvl 2 Weight of the Sun
A concomitant curse of the Embrace is an inability to remain awake during the daytime. Forced to maintain a surreptitious existence at night, a Kindred loses the opportunity to ever again see the sun. As that fiery white globe rises in the east, Kindred feel it pressing weight as it drives them down into slumber. This power allows a thaumaturge to invoke the same type of lethargy that the sun imposes during the long hours of the day.
Sytem : This power lasts for one scene per success on the thaumaturge's Willpower roll. Suffering the same penalty as if awake during daytime, a Kindred reduces his maximum dice pool to equal his Humanity (or Path of Enlightenment). Characters who have achieved Golconda are immune to this power.
Lvl 3 Abated Tooth
All vampires require blood to survive; they depend on mortal vessels for sustenance and the Kiss to maintain their unlives. When Kindred do feed, they usually extend their fangs, to more easily pierce their victim's flesh. By invoking this power, a thaumaturge mystically dulls a subject's fangs, robbing him of the ability to use them effectively. His fangs become so severely blunted that it becomes nearly impossible to effectively pierce flesh, causing affected Kindred to search for alternate methods of feeding.
System : Each success the thaumaturge scores dulls the fangs of his subject for a night. Victims may make a Stamina (plus Fortitude, if any) roll (difficulty 8) to subtract successes from the thaumaturge. While affected by this power, a Kindred may not use the Bite close combat maneuver, and her Kiss ceases to cause ecstasy, instead becoming a “normal” bite.
Storytellers may decide to throw as many obstacles as deemed necessary at the victim in this sticky situation. The police do not look kindly on psychopaths who bite opthers in the middle of a Rack, and anyone who feeds carelessly is almost sure to arouse the ire of Kindred interested in maintaining the Masquerade.
Lvl 4 Treacherous Bonds
One of the msot potent properties of Kindred vitae is the ability to create a blood bond. A regnant offering his blood to a victim on three separate nights floods a thrall with a powerful attraction and devotion to him. Under a blood bond, the thrall becomes amost loyal and subservient tool of the regnant and will do anything to appease him.
Traditionally when the connection of a bond becomes unstable or weak, emotions of hate may cloud the mind of the thrall, though it may possibly span lifetimes before these feelings become evident. The thaumaturge invoking this power incites an instantaneous, hate-induced emotional state within a regnant's thrall; where once there was love, now only loathing drives his emotions. This power creates a backlash in that target's blood, temporarily twisting any bonds he is under, from the newest to ones over years' time.
System : The vampire must touch his intended subject for this power to take effect. For the duration of one night per success a thaumaturge scores on his Willpower roll, and depending on whether the magus chooses to affect a regnant or his thrall, a blood bond becomes corrupt and unstable. Should a thaumaturge direct this power at a thrall, only the thrall's bond is corrupt, consumed by hate for as many nights as successes. However, if the thaumaturge chooses to invoke this power in a regnant, one of the regnant's thralls is affected per success. Should a regnant also be in thrall to someone else while under this effect, she too will feel only malignity for her regnant.
This power is mistrusted widely by vampires of clan Tremere, and had the Ventrue and Lasombra any real knowledge of it, they would likely balkt, too (when they weren't inflicting it upon their enemies). More than one regnant has levied extreme censure on vampires learning this power, and an apocryphal story tells of a European prince putting a Tremere to Final Death after learning that he had used this power to turn her ghouls against her.
Lvl 5 The Withering of Ages
This devastating power warps the blood within vampires, temporarily suspending the properties sustaining their immortality. A thaumaturge making physical contact with a victim may strip her of her agelessness and render her briefly decrepit. Within moments, the body of the target will reveal the truth of her true age, shriveling and shrinking to reflect the weight of her years. Additionally, the fangs of the victim become elongated, and other facial features accentuate his vampiric nature. Ancient vampires become crippled, as their bodies become their own worst enemies.
System : After the thaumaturge makes physical contact with the victim, the player engages in a contested Willpower roll (difficulty 8). Should he accumulate more successes than his target, the victim begins to grow physically older until he resembles his true age.
A character will lose one Physical Attritube point per 10 years of age he physically gains, to a minimum of 0. Vampires who sink to scores of 0 in Physical Traits are so enfeebled that they must have help moving, feeding, etc. and can barely be heard or understood. This effect lasts for one night, after which the victim rapidly sheds his physical years and is restored to the full potency of his vampiric blood. The affected Kindred can also restore himself by spending five blood points and one Willpower point, though his lbood must be spent on the same turn he becomes afflicted. Once the duration of this power has expired, the victim will appear as youthful as or as old as he was the night of his Embrace.
Path of Curses
Mankind learned early in history to hate, envy, lust and wish malice upon itself. In such spitefulness curses were born. Most were just plain words and gestures, but some, spoken with such vehemence and spite, became tangible and formed true curses. In the dark depths of passionate hate, curses gained more weight, more substance, until people could use the evil eye or a spoken word to afflict such banes upon their fellow men.
Early in the history of Thaumaturgy, the Path of Curses was developed and refined. It is still known by its early names in certain circles: Maleficium, Hexen-Kraft, the Evil Eye. Victims of this Path, often called accursed, are subject to extreme treatment and psychological feelings of inadequacy, often to the point of becoming social outcasts. When accursed are afflicted, friends and society tend to distance themselves from the victim, creating a social schism and driving the accursed toward alienation.
When cursing a victim, the thaumaturge is obvious – curses must be spoken aloud and directly toward the target of their ill effects, although the curse itself is often comprised of dead languages and sounds like gibberish. In modern, industrialized countries, many tend to discount the verbal telltales of being cursed, while some areas of the world might see a witch who acts so brazenly outright assaulted. Additionally, the thaumaturge requires can be hair, blood, flesh or any other part of the victim. This link binds the myustic energies brgingin the malison to the accursed.
Because of the severe psychological effects on a victim, the target may attempt to resist all the powers of this Path with a Willpower roll (difficulty 7, unless stated otherwise). This is the victim asserting his own strength of will and personality to throw off the yoke of anathema. The thaumaturge can lift the curse that she brings down at any time she wishes, which makes an excellent bargaining chip.
Lvl 1 Stigma
The most basic of curses, the victim is stricken with an invisible stigma that manifests only in the eyes of those around them. Few can describe its actual form. People shy away from interacting with the marked victim, and will have a hard time taking him seriously. Social interaction becomes difficulty, and frustration quickly follows for the accursed.
System : The stigma lasts until the next sunset, during which time the victim is doomed to frustration when performing any Social actions. All of the victim's Manipulation, Charisma and Appearance rolls are at +1 difficulty (maximum 10) during this curse. Unlike the ritual Devil's Touch, this power also works on Kindred.
Lvl 2 Malady
The thaumaturge causes the victim to suffer intense illness and discomfort, not unlike the plagues and pestilences of history. During the Dark Ages, this power was used to strike down rivals and force them into subservience to the thaumaturge. Cainites likewise feel the pain and suffering from the sickness instilled by this curse. For elder Kindred, this is one of the worst curses – to be stricken down with illness as if a common mortal!
System : If this power is successfully invoked, the accursed suffers the effects of severe illness for a number of nights equal to the thaumaturge's Willpower. This intensity of this sickness equals the successes the thaumaturge scores on the activation roll. Each success reduces the victim's Strength, Dexterity and Stamina dice pools by one (with a maximum reduction of three dice). The afflicted character may also attempt to see if she breaks the curse nightly – as soon as she succeeds in resisting, the Malady will not afflict her unless invoked again.
Lvl 3 Pariah
This curse touches upon one of the most feared elements of society, that of becoming an outcast. This power goes beyond cursing the victim with simple social ostracism – while under the effects of Pariah, the accursed appears to be the most hated of enemies to everyone they encounter. This alteration of perception is only in body and form, the victim still acts and speaks as normal. But then again, few are willing to listen to the ranting and ravings of a despised foe.
System : This nasty curse sustains its baneful effects upon the subject for a period of one night per success. Similar to the power Mask of a Thousand Faces, this power influences the perceptions of those around the accursed, leading observers to believe that the subject is a dire rival. This will not necessarily result in attack – indeed, in most cases, it shouldn't – but will cause antagonism in whatever is most appropriate to the onlooker. Most people will just leave the vampire's presence with a look of disdain, but some may snub her, insult her of even throw the first punch. Unlike with the Obfuscate power, Auspex cannot see through this involuntary disguise for the duration.
Lvl 4 Corrupt Body
This poweful curse is invoked by the thaumaturge, who approaches the victim and denounces his physical form. Over the course of seconds, the victim's body distorts and perverts into a parody of itself. During this transformation, the victim suffers extreme pain that wracks his body. This defilement leaves behind a victim scarred both physically and mentally. Recently, Camarilla princes have had this power used upon violators of the Traditions to enforce their will; a graceful Kindred dancer reduced to an uncoordinated oaf is not likely to forget his mistakes.
System : During the three turns that the physical change occurs, the target suffers a three-dice penalty to dice pools. For the duration of the Corrupt Body, the accursed suffers a one-die penalty to all dice pools, as if she were wounded. This is cumulative with other wounds.
The thaumaturge chooses Strength, Dexterity, Stamina or Appearance to warp. This drops the appropriate Attribute to 1 for the duration. The Storyteller should add any additional effects to aid in how nasty this power is. Only one Corrupt Body can affect a victim at any one time. The number of successes determines the duration of Corrupt Body, as follows:
1 success One night
2 successes One week
3 successes One month
4 successes One season
5 successes One year
Lvl 5 Fall From Grace
The magus is now able to curse his victim with supreme ineptitude, causing a loss in confidence and failings in any and all tasks. Striking a combination of mystical dread and self-loathing in the victim, failure becomes almost a certainty. Fate and circumstance now conspire to prevent prosperity. Victims of this power often retire from the normal activities of their lives as nothing goes right; relationships fall apart, jobs crumble around them, and accidents seem to become commonplace.
System : The victim can contest the effects of this power with a Willpower roll against a difficulty of 8. All actions have one automatic botch die that must be overcome to accomplish anything (treat this as a phantom die that came up as a “1”). Additionally, even when the victim successfully performs an action, it will be mediocre at best. At most, any action can have a maximum of two successes; drop additional successes beyond two, including any from expenditure of Willpower.
Unless the subject botches the contested Willpower roll, the number of successes determines the duration of this penultimate failure, as follows:
1 success One night
2 successes One week
3 successes One month
4 successes One season
5 successes One year
Path of Transmutation
Thaumaturges practicing the art of Alchemy can manipulate the forms of solids, liquids and gases. Guns and knives melt into pools of metal, wood petrifies and becomes brittle, and common boundaries such as walls and doors transmute to vapor. The laws of chemistry do not bind Warlocks employing the powers of transmutation, as materials shift their state regardless of their temperature. Effects similar to those achieved by true alchemy can be achieved by using the Path of Transmutation. This Path is looked upon somewhat unfavorably among the Tremere, as it reflects a “quick and dirty” effect rather than true mastery of alchemical transmutation.
Lvl 1 Fortify the Solid Form
By fortifying a solid object, a magus increases the strength and integrity of an item. A thaumaturge mystically transmutes a feather to become a crude blunt object, pencils become makeshift stakes, and a car becomes as tough as a tank.
System : This power increases the offensive and defensive capabilities of an object. For each success the player scores, an object will absorb one health level of damage. Similarly, a thaumaturge wielding the same object offensively will inflict one extra die of damage per two successes the player scores on the activation roll. In either case, an object may absorb or inflict a maximum of five health levels or dice of damage, respectively. The effects of fortifying an object last for one scene, and must either be offensive or defensive – the Platonic ideal of attack is not the same as for defence.
Note : This power cannot be used to increase the structure of a living creature. However, a thaumaturge may use Fortify the Solid Form in conjunction with the Level Two power Crystalize the Liquid Form to make a very solid piece of ice, molten metal, etc.
Lvl 2 Crystalize the Liquid Form
Tremere designed this power to prevent other Kindred from taking vitae. This can also be used to solidify water and molten metal. Liquids within living bodies may not be altered, though blood exiting the body may be solidified. Kindred may not consume solidified blood.
System : For every success the player scores on the Willpower roll, the vampire may transform one blood point (or about two pints of a liquid) into solid form for a scene. This substance will not change in temperature; solidified molten steel still burns and melts other material. The liquid must be within the thaumaturge's line of sight.
Lvl 3 Liquefy the Solid Form
A thaumaturge may “melt” solid objects and leave them in a liquidlike state. By employing this power, attackers could find their weapons in small pools at their feet. Stakes rot away at a rapid pace, and blades corrode into soft, nondescript puddles. Some wily thaumaturges might even transmute bullets before they impact an intended target.
System : The thaumaturge may transform an object within his line of sight. When the object reforms from a liquid, it will likely assume a deformed state and be rendered useless. A transformed object remains in a liquid state for one scene, after which it resumes its original shape (which many thaumaturges claim is a rcent improvement over an older, more dated version of this power). The size of the object that may be changed depends upon the success of the player's roll.
1 success A lighter
2 successes A telephone
3 successes A computer
4 successes An automobile
5 successes A railroad car
As much as many Tremere would like it, Liquefy the Solid Form may not be used on living (or unliving) creatures.
Lvl 4 Gaol
When a Warlock onvokes this power, he solidifies the air into an opaque, indestructible object. A crude shimmering prism forms around a victim's body, encasing him within unbreakable material. Doorways become impenetrable baries as the air between a doorjamb condenses to a resilient barrier.
System : A Warlock may solidify the air within 50 yards of his person. One success on a Willpower roll solidifies an amount of air equivalent to a brick where five successes will form a solid block of air that can encompass a telephone booth. Once the air condenses, it becomes completely indestructible; this effect lasts for one scene. Victims trapped within the solid air will not be able to break through this barrier (not even with Potence), though mortals will not suffocate.
The oxygen within the block is breathable, though liquidlike. These victims will experience an uncomfortable sensation in their lungs from the alien dependency on the oxygenated fluid, and they may reject it altogether. When the effect of Gaol expires, the barrier around the subject dissipates into its original gaseous state. The oxygen within the target's lungs, however, will remain a fluid and, though breathable, must be purged from the body – coughed out – before it can transmute back into a gas. Subjects suffer one level of bashing damage from this overexertion.
Lvl 5 Ghost Wall
After attaining this level of mastery, a thaumaturge finds herself no longer hindered by common barriers such as walls and rock formations. With but a thought, solid objects shift to vaporous state and may be traversed with little difficulty. The Warlock passes beyond walls, as they are insubstantial and will not obstruct movement. Targets fall through a gaseous floor, and vaporous parachutes are useless in slowing the travel speed of a skydiver.
System : A thaumaturge may make vaporous any nonliving body within his line of sight. For every success he scores on his Willpower roll, a larger amount of material transmutes in this manner. It takes a single success to transmute a laptop computer into vapor, while it takes five successes to transmute a city bus. A transumted object loses its shape and becomes transparent. This effect lasts for one scene, after which the object in question reforms as if nothing has ever happened. Needless to say, this is an outrageous breach of the Masquerade if any inappropriate eyes observe it.
Should a victim occupy the same space as the object after this power expires, he suffers a number of unsoakable health levels of aggravated damage the Storyteller determines appropriate to the circumstance. For example, a rock reforming within a body might inflict a single level of damage, where a person trapped within a tree trunk should suffer at least five levels of damage. Objects that reform partially within another object will remain this way until physically removed, or invoked to be vaporous again.
The Vine of Dionysus
Years before the rise of the mighty Roman Empire, pagan sects dedicated to the Greek god Dionysus thrived. Small cults of vampires worshipped the lord of rebirth as a release from the burdens of undeath. Symbolized in oinos, or wine, and orgy, the cults of Dionysus spread their intoxicating practices throughout Eastern Europe. In practice, members of the cult of Dionysus would gather at night and debauch themselves with oinos, orgies and other euphoric activities. When the ecstasy rose to fever-pitch, the rites might culminate in castration or even cannibalism.
Any practitioner of the Vine of Dionysus often refers to himself/herself as a thyrsus (females are occasionally called “maenads”, preferably from a safe distance). These Warlocks sometimes wear jewelry or other accouterments with ivy and/or pinecone motifs as symbols of their dedication.
Lvl 1 Methyskein
By making physical contact with a subject, the thyrsus causes him to act as if he were drunk. While intoxicated, the subject falls into a slight euphoric episode, including slurred speech and clouded judgement.
System : A victim suffers a one-die penalty to all Dexterity and Intelligence dice pools for one scene per success the thaumaturge scores. However, a victim may make a Stamina roll (difficulty 6) to subtract successes scored by the Warlock. Failure on the part of the thyrsus will not alert her victim to this attempt at intoxication, though a slight “buzz” may momentarily cause a target to become disoriented.
Note : A mortal, if affected with Methyskein for three consecutive nights, loses the ability to willingly resist this euphoria. Only with the expenditure of a Willpower point can he initiate a Stamina roll (difficulty 6). Kindred react differently should they be exposed to this influence for an equal amount of time. For every three consecutive nights of intoxication under Methyskein, a Kindred's difficulty to resist on a Stamina roll (difficulty 6) raises by one, to a maximum of 9.
Lvl 2 Omophagy
According to myth, Dionysus has the ability to incite animal urges within anyone he pleased. The thyrsus invoking Omophagy creates a ravenous hunger in a target, overwhelming all sense of reason and reality. To the victim, the only thing that matters is devouring raw flesh and hot blood, and he is not choosy about his potential targets.
System : Once the thaumaturge makes eye contact with a subject, and successfully invokes this power, a target gains the derangement Gluttony. Whenever consuming food, the subject will gorge himself until physically unable to eat more. Kindred affected by Omophagy not only drain a vessel completely of blood, but may also attempt to devour the victim's body. Vampires will also frenzy when confronted with the sight, smell or taste of blood when hungry (blood pool of three or less). This effect lasts for the remainder of the night. A victim may resist this effect by spending a point of Willpower to ignore Omophagy for a scene. Note that this power does not impart vampires with the ability to digest food – any flesh or food they eat will immediately be vomited forth unless other circumstances prevail.
Lvl 3 Hamartia
Far less subtle than Methyskein, Hamartia grants the thyrsus the power to cause an extremely dangerous euphoric episode within a target, to the point of delirium, perversity and possibly torpid stupor. Cultists of Dionysus claim to gain superhuman vigor while in a similar state of intoxication on oinos.
System : For each success on the activation roll, a subject remains under the effects of Hamartia for a scene. Victims affected lower all dice pools by two, though they gain two dice to Strength-related pools. Targets can resist this effect by scoring more successes on a Stamina roll (difficulty 7). The Storyteller should decide how a character reacts to this type of intoxication, as a character's Nature may dictate actions. Some might stand very still and glassy-eyed, while others might choose to engage in conjugal relations with the people around them (gender notwithstanding). This power lasts for one scene.
Lvl 4 Enthousiasmós
A thyrsusmay exude a pheromone into the air all about her person. Those affected fall into a druglike stupor as the empathogenic toxin induces visions of all sorts of ephemeral creatures: fauns chasing nymphs, angels inflight, sprites dancing in the corners of one's eye, and the like. The pheromone induces a happiness within the affected targets, who are likely to dance around in glee to fictitious music with make-believe creatures.
System : A thaumaturge successfully invoking this power affects any target within a 10-foot radius of herself. Victims suffer a two-dice penalty to all Dexterity and Intelligence dice pools for one scene. Furthermore, victims under the effects of Enthousiasmós are passive, content to while away their time in the euphoric haze. Anyone wishing to take any action must spend a point of Willpower to shrug off its effects for a turn.
Lvl 5 Oinos Aimatos
Many thaumaturges suspect that his power is not the original apex of this Path, but rather a variation suited to a Dionysian cult headed by a vampire passing himself off as an incarnation of the god. When the thyrsus invokes this power, her blood takes on the properties of potent oinos. Whether this was intended as a deterrent to diablerists or to drive feeding ghouls into euphoric ecstasy is unknown.
System : For the duration of one sene, anyone drinking even the tiniest drop of the thyrsus' blood is affected as per Enthousiasmós. The thaumaturge's player need only spend a point of blood and make a Willpower roll when the character first invokes this power – thereafter, anyone who drinks the blood suffers the effects without any further expenditure on the part of the vampire.
The Faux Path
From the diaries of Constantin Addams, Regent of the Sixth Circle.
We walk the nights of a new age, brothers and sisters of the Pyramid. Since Gutenberg, our tomes are no longer handwritten, and hence much less rare. With the rise of public libraries, many “secret works” are now available for public consumption. Since the rise of the personal computer, any apprentice with a scanner, printer and the “Internet” can acquire a minimal occult library in weeks, rather than the years spent in ages past.
Once digitized, a complete set of the Books of al-Az the Elder will fit upon a collection of CD-ROMs approximately the size of a sandwich, rather than the 29 volumes with which most of us are familiar. And no longer do younger Kindred guard the “secrets of the clans”. An understanding of the limitations, effects, and abilities of most common Disciplines is available to anyone who asks, and even those rare Disciplines, such as those of the Samedi, are often recognizable to at least one person in a domain. Only Thaumaturgy is treated as precious knowledge, and the other clans hold it against us. New means must be used to guide our fellow Kindred into heeding our superior advice.
For this purpose, I have developed what I humbly call the Faux Path. It commands little actual power. Few rituals that will affect another are contained within. However, the clever thaumaturge may use the Faux Path to great effect by plahing on the fears and preconceived notions of his or her fellow Kindred. At the highest levels, the lines between falsity and reality blur, but wise Tremere take heed: most Kindred do not take well to being openly deceived.
Enough talk. Step with me onto the Faux Path.
Lvl 1 Hello, Goodbye
The thaumaturge has a bsic understanding of the magic of falsity. She may cause any one true statement she makes to be perceived as a lie for the duration of the evening. At dawn, all Kindred affected will be able to make their own judgments about the statement. She cannot make lies appear to be true, however.
System : With successful invocation, this power causes any listeners who hear the true statement immediately disbelieve it. This magic does not affect aura readings, a Bone of Lies or other Discipline usage of greater power than this Discipline.
Lvl 2 Disciplinary Identification
One of the primary skills of the deceiver is the ability to recognize when she is being deceived. With sufficient training, the thaumaturge can identify which Disciplines are being used in front of her, and, with a sufficient explanation or by looking at the results (such as a ghoul's arm affected by Vicissitude), can even identify Disciplines not directly witnessed.
System : The thaumaturge can identify the Discipline in any situation. Only Disciplines may be identified directly, whereas the powers of other supernatural creatures (but not hedge magic) are identified only as “powers belonging to someone else”. A Storyteller may allow a bonus to Kindred possessing one or more of the skills of Kindred, Camarilla or Sabbat Lore (where appropriate). A Kindred cannot concentrate long enough to identify them later. Regardless of specifics, at this level all “thaumaturgical” effects, whether hedge magic, True Faith, Dark Thaumaturgy or even other uses of the Faux Path register os “thaumaturgy”.
Note that a character may not identify a Discipline with which she is not at least somewhat familiar. For example, a character is unlikely to know of the more esoteric Disciplines of certain minor bloodlines, while Dominate should be fairly obvious. Also, this is not a “catalogue” of Disciplines, as the information is gained mystically. A Camarilla Kindred may never have seen another Kindred using Telepathy, but would be able to identify it using this power through familiarity with Auspex.
Lvl 3 Thaumaturgical Nomenclature
Once the chaff has been separated from the wheat, so to speak, identification of the most versatile Discipline of Thaumaturgy remains. Despite the frustrated thoughts of some young Tremere, no limit exists to the number of Paths a thaumaturge may learn. However, some of the most common elements of Thaumaturgy can be identified.
System : A power described as “Thaumaturgy” be Disciplinary Identification can be further identified as to the Path, power of ritual, or even as true magic, if this is the case. In case of a truly obtuse, unique or unknown Path, a result of “unquantified” is not uncommon. Note that if an effect is incorrectly assumed to be Thaumaturgy (without using the Level Two power), the resulsts of this Discipline will be incorrect as well. For example, a Kindred who has caught his hand on fire and is using Fortitude to resist the damage may be incorrectly identified as using the Lure of Flames.
Lvl 4 Ritual Madness
By now, many Kindred are aware that most powers and rituals have a limited range. With the public and private transportation options available to most Kindred, even the dreaded Splinter Servant holds little terror if the victim can stave off his attacker for a mere minute. A clever thaumaturge can use this knowledge against her enemies.
System : Using this power, any thaumaturgical effect a vampire extemporizes can be “modified” to supply only a physical sensation, but no actual effect. For example, a Warlock may cause Kindred approaching him to feel “vague discomfort and uneasiness” with no explanation, though a successful Aura Perception might discover sparkles indicative of any other magical effect. Likewise, a vampire may “Engage the Vessel of Non-Transference”, which causes another Kindred to feel a cold shiver if she touches a certain object. The much-vaunted “Ward versus Fools” causes an individual to feel as though he is approaching a ward designed against his “Creature type”, whether Lupine, ghoul, mortal, ghost, Kindred. A cagey Kindred can evne claim “next time, it'll be the real thing”, regardless of his or her true powers. This is an uncommonly versatile Path power, but its effects are always mental (and psychomatic) in nature.
Lvl 5 Sanguinary Affectation
Once a careful study has been made of various Disciplines, the thaumaturge can then seek to duplicate the outward effects upon his own self. For example, a Tremere's hands may seem to grow claws, he can make others seem to bow to his whim, or his hands may crackle with the lambent fires of an unmastered but familiar Path. Of course, his nails are merely long and cause nod amage beyond normal, the patsy was going to do what the vampire said anyway, and his hands couldn't light a cigarette.
System : After a successful roll, the player sends a Willpower point, and can then successfully duplicate the outward effect of almost any Discipline, Path or ritual of Level Five or below upon h is or her own person, by fulfilling the normal prerequisites of the Discipline (blood expenditure, Willpower costs, etc.), for one turn. Note that a Kindred duplicating Celerity, for example, could not actually move faster than a normal Kindred, but she could perform parlor tricks with Faux Celerity, such as “snatching the pebble from the hand of the Master” and the like. Of course, to snatch the pebble from the hand of someone with Celerity may well require her to spend the extra blood, and evn then she would likely have to win a contested roll. But convincing a convocation of other Kindred that she has this speed might be worth the cost, even though she could never even outrun Kindred with only one dot in Celerity using this Path's powers.
Biothaumaturgical Experimentation
This is almost a “dark science” unto itself. Practitioners of this path need a laboratory and all sorts of strange equipment to carry out their experiments. The average cost of experimentation is $1,000 per week times the rating of the Thaumaturgical power. It costs no Blood Points to use the powers of this path, but it does require one full week of work for each roll made.
Lvl 1 Thaumaturgical Forensics
The vampire can study the blood, hair or remains of subjects to determine various information about them, such as type of creature, whether they were natural or supernatural, age, sex, race, clan, tribe, generation, whether or not they were diabolists, signs of Vicissitude infection, Garou Gifts and vampiric Disciplines.
System : Roll Intelligence + Medicine (difficulty 5). For each success, the character gains one piece of information, such as a Discipline or Gift the deceased possessed.
Lvl 2 Animal Experimentation
The vampire can Thaumaturgically alter lesser life forms. The vampire can change the size, Attributes, Abilities, instincts, nature, ecology, and internal makeup and appearance of animals and other creatures less complex than humans.
System : Roll Intelligence + Medicine (difficulty 8). For each success, one Attribute dot, two Ability dots, one instinct, one behavior pattern, one aspect of the creature's ecology (such as diet or climate) or some physical feature (such as a leg, tentacle, set of feelers, etc.) may be added, subtracted or altered. The Storyteller must approve all modifications.
Lvl 3 Thaumaturgical Surgery
The vampire can perform Thaumaturgical surgery on petients using all sorts of wickedly shaped tools. The surgery can heal all sorts of wounds in both natural and supernatural creatures, including aggravated wounds.
System : Roll Wits + Medicine (difficulty 7). For each success, two levels of normal damage or one level of aggravated damage can be healed. Surgery cannot be performed on the same patient more than once per injury. Note that this surgery does not necessarily require one week to perform, but it takes at least that long to recover from.
Lvl 4 Human Experimentation
The vampire can perform alterations on humans just as she can on animals.
System : Treat as Animal Experimentation, except that it functions on humans.
Lvl 5 Supernatural Experimentation
The vampire can perform alterations on supernatural creatures, such as vampires, Lupines, Mummies, mages, faeries, and wraiths, just as she can on animals and humans.
System : Treat as Animal Experimentation, except that it functions on supernatural creatures.
Gift of Morpheus
This Path of Thaumaturgy allows the vampire to put others to sleep and enter their dreams. The Path does not allow the vampire to enter a real dream dimension, but rather the mind of the sleeping mortal via some unexplained type of telepathic link. The Path has a mental effect, and other mind-influencing Disciplines, such as Auspex, Dominate and Presence, may be used in conjunction with this Path.
Lvl 1 Cause Sleep
The vampire is able to make a person within her line of sight sleepy juswt by concentrating. The person may still be awakened by loud noise or someone trying to rouse him.
System : The vampire must make roll using her own Manipulation + Empathy (difficulty equals her opponent's Willpower +3, to a maximum of 10). Three successes put the target to sleep, while one or two reduces the victim's dice pools by that amount for the next turn. This power only affects vampires if the user spends a Willpower point.
Lvl 2 Mass Slumber
The vampire can put several individuals to sleep at once. This power only affects mortals, and only those the vampire can see.
System : The vampire makes a Charisma + Leadership roll (difficulty 8). The number of successes indicates the amount of sleepiness as per Cause Sleep, but each target is affected to the same extent.
Lvl 3 Enchanted Slumber
The vampire can cause mortals and even Kindred to fall into an enchanted slumber from which they cannot awaken until a certain task has been performed (such as a kiss from Prince Charming). The vampire must decide what special condition must be met for the victim to awaken. Wile the condition does not have to be easy, it should not be impossible.
System : The vampire must roll to determine how long the person can be kept under the enchantment before it wears off on its own. The number of successes on an Intelligence + Subterfuge roll (difficulty equal to the victim's Willpower) determines the maximum duration should the task to break the enchantment remain unfulfilled. The user must also spend a point of Willpower to affect vampires.
1 success One turn
2 successes One night
3 successes One week
4 successes One month
5 succcesses One year
Lvl 4 Dreamscape
This power lets the vampire telepathically project his own image into the mind of a sleeper. The vampire has no real control over the dream, but may utilize any Disciplines or Abilities he possesses in real life while inside the dream. The sleeper may or may not remember the vampire in her dreams, depending on how well she usually remembers her dreams.
System : The vampire must possess something belonging to the target and succeed in a Wits + Dexterity roll (difficulty equal to the target's Willpower, even if the victim is willing). The effect lasts for the length of one dream.
Lvl 5 Master of Dreams
The Master of Dreams controls the dreams of the shaping them as she wills. The vampire is able to make the person remember or forget the dreams. She may manipulate them in any way she can imagine, evn inducing the death of the dreamer from sheer terror. Combat can be handled normally; the vampire may use all her Disciplines as if she were awake. If either dies, the death is permanent.
System : The vampire enters the dream as per Dreamscape, but must roll Manipulation + Dreaming (difficulty 7) to affect ehe dream in any substantial way. Note that once the vampire begins trying to manipulate the dream, the victim can do the same, making the same roll. Whoever has the most accumulated successes in any one turn determines what course the dream will take. The Master of Dreams must spend a point of Willpower to enter the dreams of other Kindred (and must make a Humanity or Path roll to remain “awake” during the day).
Valeren
According to Salubri antitribu, Valeren is a forgotten Discipline unearthed in their research into their progenitor's history. While the mainstream Salubri practice a healing Discipline, the antitribu instead follow the warrior's path, dedicating themselves to one of the many faces of their inscrutable father.
Valeren is a Discipline of righteous wrath, originally developed by the demon-slayers and questing knights of the Salubri from nights long past. It shares a bit in common with the Obeah Discipline upheld by the Salubri, but it quickly diverges into its own focus and ideology. Salubri antitribu walk the road of the crusader, and they refuse to become soul-stealers or sacrifical lambs.
Like Obeah, Valeren imparts its practitioners with the fabled eye of Saulot. The third eye appears at the time the vampire masters the second level of Valeren. The precise nature of the eye, as well as its purpose, are all but unknown to vampires outside the Salubri antitribu. Some suspect the eye grants them sight beyond sight, while others venture that the eye allows them to see the infernal taint in the non-Sabbat Salubri themselves.
Lvl 1 Sense Vitality
The vampire can feel the flow of a subject's life force after touching him. Sense Vitality may be used to determine how much damage a person can withstand before death, which can be useful in sizing up a potential opponent. It can also aid in medical diagnosis or feeding, as it can reveal infections and diseases.
System : The Salubri antitribu must touch the target to see how close to death she is. This action also requires a Perception + Empathy roll (difficulty 7). One success on this roll identifies a subject as mortal, vampire, ghoul or other creature (or none of the above). Two successes tell how full the subject's blood pool is (if a mortal or other blood-bearing form of life). Four successes reveal any diseases in the subject's bloodstream, such as hemophilia or HIV. A player may opt to learn the information yielded by a lesser degree of success – for example, a player who accumulates three successes may learn whether or not a subject is a vampire as well as the contents of his blood pool.
Alternately, this power may be used as a sort of limited “aftersight”, revealing to the Cainite how the subject came to be in her current state. Each success on this roll allows the player to ask the Storyteller one question about the subject's health or health levels. “Was he drugged?” or, “Are his wounds aggravated?” are valid question, but “Did vampires do this?” or, “What did the Lupine who killed him look like?” are not. The Salubri antitribu may use this power on herself if she has injuries but has somehow lost the memory of how she received the wounds.
Lvl 2 Anesthetic Touch
This power may be used to block a voluntary subject's pain from wounds or disease, or to put a mortal to sleep. As with Sense Vitality, physical contact is required to anaesthesize someone. This power may not be used to block the Cainite's own pain.
System : If the subject is willing to undergo this process, the player needs to spend a Blood Point to block the subject's pain and make a Willpower roll (difficulty 6). this power allows the subject to ignore all wound penalties for one turn per success. A second application of this power may be made once the first one has expired, at the cost of another Blood Point and another Willpower roll. If the subject is unwilling for some reason, the player must make a contested Willpower roll against the subject (difficulty 8).
To put a mortal to sleep, the same system applies. The mortal sleeps for five to 10 hours – whatever his normal sleep cycle is – and regains one temporary Willpower point on awakening. He sleeps peacefully and does not suffer nightmares or the effects of any derangements while asleep. He may be awakened normally (or violently).
Cainites are unaffected by this power – their corpselike bodies are to tied to death.
Lvl 3 Burning Touch
The vampire touches his subject, shocking her with a searing pain. This power causes no actual damage to the subject, though prolonged exposure to this unnatural pain sometimes leaves victims traumatized. The Salubri antitribu use this power to extract information from their enemies, and also sometimes to cause additional pain to those who have hunted and persecuted them before delivering true Final Death.
System : The vampire must touch his subject for this power to take effect, and the effects diminish reapidly after he removes his hand. Also, the player spends at least one Blood Point to activate this power. This power is often used in conjunction with Interrogation and Torture, wearing down the subject's resistance and rendering him much more tractable.
Lvl 4 Ending the Watch
The watch referred to in this power's name is the death watch. An ancient tale unearthed by the Salubri antitribu refers to two Salubri who prowled the streets of Caine's Second City, granting merciful release to those who suffered and rotted in the streets. If a person truly wishes to die because of great grief or unbearable illness, these Salubri would bestow the gift of death. Particulary revered by the street urchins, the “Death Angels” were seen as truly divine entities by those who sought their solace. In modern nights, the Salubri antitribu use this power frequently, as many nihilistic and desperate individuals seek any escape they can from the be\leakness of the Final Nights.
System : To End the Watch, the vampire places his hand over the subject's heart, and the player spends a Willpower point. The subject must be willing to end his life; if she struggles or harbors a spark of hope, this power fails. Otherwise, the subject's heart slowly ceases to beat, and death comes like an eternal sleep, restful and painless. Subjects of Ending the Watch may not be subsequently Embraced, and none has ever been reported to have become a wraith.
Lvl 5 Vengeance of Samiel
By invoking the names of mighty Salubri warriors of nights past, the Salubri antitribu strikes his foe with inhuman force and augury. This power causes the third eye to open and glow with a baleful redness. Some Salubri antitribu who use this power close their normal eyes, signifying their disdain for their foes and horrifying them at the same time.
System : This power costs three Blood Points. Any single attack made by the vampire automatically hits the target as mystic forces guide the blow. Attacks made in this manner may not be dodged, though they may be blocked, parried and soaked as normal. The blow strikes as if the Salubri antitribu had succeeded with all of his Dexterity + Melee or Brawling dice pool (which makes for signifcant damage). This power may be used only once per turn, and only when the Salubri antitribu's sole action is the attack. Additionally, this power does not work for ranged weapons, only bare hands or melee weapons.
Lvl 6 Blissful Agony
The vampire may cause pain with a mere touch, as per Burning Touch, but this pain lingers and swells even after the Fury has removed her hand. It is believed that his power was originally used to acclimate warrior
Salubri to the pain they would experience in battle, but among the Sabbat Salubri, Blissful Agony has been turned to more brutal uses. If applied with enough intensity, Blissful Agony can drive vampires to the point of frenzy, incapacitate Lupines and even kill mortals outright.
System : The player makes a Willpower roll (difficulty 8) and spends a Blood Point. The power lasts for one scene, though this duration may be prolonged if the Salubri antitribu wishes with a subsequent Willpower roll (though no additional Blood Points need be spent). The character must touch her subject for the power to take effect initially.
At the vampire's option, she may cause actual physical damage to the victim at the rate of one health level per Blood Point spent, though touch must be maintained for this to happen. Damage to vampires and other supernatural creatures in this fashion vanishes at the next sunset, but mortals must heal the damage normally. This damage is considered lethal damage, and it may not be soaked by mortals (though vampires and other supernatural entities may).
To induce a frenzy in a victim, the Salubri must cause damage in excess of the subject's Willpower. At that point, the subject must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 6) or succumb to frenzy.
Vicissitude
Vicissitude is the signature power of the Tzimisce and is almost unknown outside the clan. Similar in some respects to Protean, Vicissitude allows the Fiends to shape and sculpt their own or others' flesh and bone. When a Tzimisce uses Vicissitude to alter mortals, ghouls and vampires of higher generation, the effects of the power are permanent; vampires of equal or lower generation may heal the effects of Vicissitude as though they were aggravated wounds. Naturally, a wielder can always reshape her own flesh.
Note that while this Discipline permits powerful and horrific effects, the wielder must obtain skin-to-skin contact and myst often physically sculpt the desired result. This even applies to the use of the power on oneself. Tzimisce skilled in Vicissitude are often inhumanly beautiful; those less skilled are simply inhuman.
Note : Nosferatu always “heal” back Vicissitude alterations, at least the ones that make them better-looking. The ancient curse of the clan may not be circumvented through Vicissitude, except possibly by the Antediluvian of the Tzimisce clan (who is rumored to have been destroyed anyway).
Lvl 1 Malleable Visage
A vampire with this power may alter her own bodily parameters: height, build, voice, facial features and skine tone, among other things. Such changes are cosmetic and minor in scope – no more than a foot of height gained or lost, for example. She must physically mold the alteration, literally shaping her flesh into the desired result.
System : The player must spend a blood point for each body part to be changed, then roll Intelligence + Body Crafts (difficulty 6). To duplicate another person or voice requires a Perception + Body Crafts roll (difficulty 8), and five successes are required for a flawless copy; fewer successes leave minute, or not-so-minute, flaws. Increasing one's Appearance Trait is difficulty 10, thus usually requiring Willpower expenditure for even minimal success, and a botch permanently reduces the Attribute by one.
Lvl 2 Fleshcraft
This power is similar to Malleable Visage, above, but allows the vampire to perform drastic, grotesque alterations on other creatures. Tzimisce often use this power to transform their servitors into monstrous guards, the better to frighten foes. Only flesh (skin, muscle, fat and cartilage, but not bone) may be transformed.
System : The vampire must grapple the intended victim, while her player makes a successful Dexterity + Body Crafts roll (difficulty variable: 5 for a crude yank-and-tuck, up to 9 for precise transformations). A vampire who wishes to increase another's Appearance Trait does so a described under Malleable Visage; reducing the Attribute is considerably easier (difficulty 5), though truly inspired disfigurement may dictate a higher difficulty. In either case, each success increases/reduces the Attribute by one.
A vampire may use this power to move clumps of skin, fat and muscle tissue, thus providing additional padding where needed. For each success scored on a Dexterity + Body Crafts roll (difficulty 8), thje vampire may increase the subject's soak dice pool by one, at the expense of either a point of Strength or a health level (vampire's choice).
Lvl 3 Bonecraft
This terrible power allows a vampire to manipulate bone in the same manner that flesh is shaped. In conjunction with Fleshcraft, above, this power enables a Vicissitude practitioner to deform a victim (or herself) beyond recognition. This power should be used in conjunction with the flesh-shaping arts, unless the vampire wants to inflict injury on the victim (see below).
System : The vampire's player makes a Strength + Body Crafts roll (dificulty as above). Bonecraft may be used without the flesh-shaping arts, as an offensive weapon. Each success scored on the Strength + Body Crafts roll (difficulty 7) inflicts one health level of lethal damage on the victim, as his bones rip, puncture and slice their way out of his skin.
The vampire may utilize this power (on herself or others) to form spikes or talons of bone, either on the knuckles as an offensive weapon or all over the body as defensive “quills”. If bone spikes are used, the vampire or victim takes one health level of lethal damae (the vampire's comes from having the very sharp bone pierce though his skin – this weaponry doesn't come cheap). In the case of quills, the subject takes a number of health levels equal to five minus the number of successes (a botch kills the subject or sends the vampire into torpor). These health levels may be healed normally. Knuckle spikes inflict Strength +1 damage, while defensive quills inflict a hand-to-hand attack or more successes on the attack roll (the defender still takes damage normally). Quills also enable the vampire or altered subject to add two of all damage inflicted via holds, clinches or tackles.
A vampire who scores five or more successes on the Strength + Body Crafts roll may cause a rival vampire's rib cage to curve inward and pierce his heart. While this does not send a vampire into torpor, ot does cause the affected vampire to lose half his blood points, as the seat of his vitae ruptures in a shower of gore.
Lvl 4 Horrid Form
The Tzimisce use this power to become hideous monsters; naturally, this provides great advantages in combat. The vampire's stature increases to a full eight feet; the skin becomes apelike and ropy, tipped with ragged black nails; and the face warps into something out of a nightmare. A row of spines sprouts from the vertebrae, and the external carapace exudes a foul-smelling grease.
System : The Horrid Form costs two blood points to awaken. All Physical Attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Stamina) increase by three, but all Social Attributes drop to zero, save when dealing with others also in Horrid Form. However, a vampire in Horrid Form who is trying to intimidate someone may substitute Strength for a Social Attribute. Damage inflicted in brawling combat increases by one due to the jagged and bony knobs creasing the creature's hands.
Lvl 5 Bloodform
A vampire with this power can physically transform all or parts of her body in sentient vitae. This blood is in all respects identical to the vampire's normal vitae; she can use it to nourish herself or others, create ghouls or establish blood bonds. If all this blood is imbibed or otherwise destroyed, the vampire meets Final Death.
System : The vampire may transform all or part of herself as she deems fit. Each leg can turn into two blood points worth of vitae, as can the torso; each arm, the head and the abdomen convert to one blood point. The blood can be reconverted to the body part, provided it is in contact with the vampire. If the blood has been utilized or destroyed, the vampire must spend a number of blood points equal to what was originally created to regrow the missing body part.
A vampire entirely in this form may not be staked, cut, bludgeoned or pierced, but can be burned or exposed to the sun. The vampire may ooze along, drip up walls and flow through the narrowest cracks, as though she were in Tenebrous Form.
Mental Disciplines may be used, provided no eye contact or vocal utterance is necessary – and if a vampire in this form “washes” over a mortal or animal, that mortal must make a Courage roll (difficulty 8) or fly in panic.
Lvl 6 Chiropteran Marauder
Similar to the lesser Vicissitude power of Horrid Form, the Chiropteran Marauder is a terrifying, bipedal bat, bearing a wickedly fanged maw and veined, leathery wings. This power confers all of the benefits of the Horrid Form, in addition to a few others. The mere sight of the maurader is enough to make mortals or weak-willed vampires flee in horror.
System : The vampire gains all the effects of the Horrid Form. Further, the fluted wings allow flight at 25 mph, during which the vampire may carry, but not manipulate, objects of reasonable size. If the vampire wishes, the player may make a Strength + Body Crafts roll (difficulty 6) to extend bony claws at the end of the wings, where the hands would be. The claws inflict Strength +2 aggravated damage. Also, the vampire subtracts two from all hearing-based Perception rolls (though he adds one to vision-based Wits and Perception rolls). Assuming the mantle of the Chiropteran Marauder costs three blood points.
Lvl 6 Acid Blood
At this level of mastery, the vampire has converted his blood to a viscous acid. Any blood he consumes likewise becomes acid, which is corrosive enough to burn human (and vampiric) flesh as well as wood. This effect is particular potent when the vampire assumes the Bloodform. One of the side effects of this power is the complete inability to create new vampires and ghouls, or give blood to another vampire – the acid would corrode them as they drank it. The obvious benefit, however, is that would-be diablerists are likewise unable to devour the Cainite's blood.
System : Each blood point that comes incontact with something other than the vampire himself does five dice worth of aggravated damage. If the vampire is injured in combat, his blood may spatter on an opponent – foes must make Dexterity + Dodge rolls to avoid the blood, which must be accomplished by splitting their dice pools. Obviously, unless an opponent knows the vampire has this power, she's unlikely to split her dice pool on her first attack, which causes many Tzimisce to cackle with glee even as their own vitae sprays out of their bodies and disfigures their foes.
Lvl 6 Ecstatic Agony
For a Tzimisce who can experience Ecstatic Agony, pain becomes power. The more wounded he is, the more potent he becomes. The Fiend delights in every slash, punch, bullet or burn and channels his pain into physical prowess or incredible displays of Caine's Gifts.
System : After the player spends two Willpower points, the character becomes even more powerful when experiencing pain. For all non-relfexive actions involving a Physical Attribute or use of a Discipline, add his wound penalties to the dice pool. For example, add two dice at the Wounded health level. As the character heals, this bonus wanes. Treat Incapacitated and Final Death normally. This power lasts for one scene.
Lvl 7 Cocoon
The Cainite can form an opaque cocoon from blood and other ffluids excreted from her body. The cocoon hardens after a few moments, turning into a tough, white shell shaped vaguely like a rounded coffin. This cocoon provides considerable protection to the vampire, even shielding her from sunlight and, to a limited degree, fire.
System : A vampire may only cocoon herself, and the process takes 10 minutes to perform. Additionally, creating a cocoon costs three blood points. The cocoon offers complete protection from sunlight, and provides a number of dice of soak equal to twice the vampire's normal Stamina (blood augmentation doesn't help) against all damage, aggravated or otherwise. It lasts as long as the Cainite wishes, and she may dissolve it into a pulpy, bloody paste at her whim, from which she emerges. A vampire contained within a cocoon may still use mental Disciplines, though they may still require eye contact or other conditions to be met.
Lvl 8 Breath of the Dragon
The Tzimisce becomes like on of the terrible draculs of the Old World, able to exhale a deadly gout of flame. This flame does not hurt the vampire himself, though he may become trapped in flames that start if his fire engulfs flammable objects.
System : The flaming cloud affects a six-foot area, doing two dice of aggravated damage to any in the flames' circumference. This fire may cause combustible items to ignite, and it may ignite victims who suffer fire damage as per the fire rules.
Lvl 9 Earth's Vast Haven
This power, developed in the nights when the Tzimisce were the terrible masters of Eastern Europe, allows the vampire to sink into and disperse himself through the very ground itself. Unlike the Protean power of Earth Meld, however, the vampire actually dissolves his body into the ground; nothing short of a wide-area explosion can affect him, nor may he be dug up bodily. In addition, during the nighttime hours, the vampire may see and hear everything in her environment through his mystical connection to the land. The mere fact that this power exists terrifies many Tzimiscce, who are secretly unsure of whether or not the diablerie of their Antediluvian was successful.
System : This power costs six blood points to activate, and it lasts as long as the vampire wished to remain contained within the soil. As per the Cocoon, the vampire may use mental Disciplines that do not require physical solvency or eye contact. He may communicate mentally with anyone who wanders into the area under which he rests.
Visceratika
The exclusive possession of the Gargoyle bloodline, Visceratika is an extension of the Gargoyles' natural affinity for stone, earth and things made thereof. Certain Visceratika powers also closely resemble some aspect of Protean and, to a lesser extent, Vicissitude. Tremere in a position to know insist that this is pure coincidence, but the few among the Gargoyles who retain scholarly aspirations maintain that the Gangrel and Tzimisce blood used to create the bloodline still maintains a certain hold over its members.
Clan Tremere recently released a report stating that, contrary to popular belief, the appearance and wings of the Gargoyles are results of the Gargooyle Embrace or creation process, not the side effects of the Visceratika as was previously believed. The implication is that other Kindred can learn Visceratika and retain human appearance. The Gargoyles, however, are understandably unwilling to share one of the primary survival tools, and few other Kindred are willing to risk it in any case.
Lvl 1 Skin of the Chameleon
This basic power has saved countless Gargoyles from committing breaches of the Masquerade – and has allowed just as many to ambush unsuspecting intruders. When Skin of the Chameleon is in effect, the Gargoyle's skin takes on the color and texture of the surrounding environment. This coloration changes reflexively as long as the Gargoyle maintains a walking pace or slower speed. More rapid movement causes the Gargoyle's appearance to blur, negating the camouflaging effect. If this power is used while the Gargoyle is in flight, his skin becomes a reasonable fascimile of the night sky (though it will not shift to mimic nearby skyscrapers or star patterns, and a black silhouette against a brightly lit skyline is likely to be noticed).
System : The player spends one blood point. For the rest of the scene, the Gargoyle's Stealth dice pool is increased by five dice. This power is subject to the limitations described above; any ground movement faster than a walk negates this power's effect, as does flight (at the Storyteller's discretion).
Lvl 2 Scry the Hearthstone
The backbone of the Gargoyle's strength as guardians of havens and chantries, this power allows the user to maintain vigilance over part or all of an enclosed structure. The Gargoyle gains an innate sense of where all beings are located within the structure, even those who are hidden by Obfuscate or other supernatural concealment.
System : The player spends a Willpower point to activate this power, which remains in effect as long as the Gargoyle is within or in contact with the target structure, or until the next sunset. Scry the Hearthstone may be used on anything up to the size of a large castle, including a cave complex, a theatre, a parking garage or a mansion. The character gains an innate sense of the location and approximate size and physical condition of all living (or unliving) beings with this power. To pinpoint a specific individual's location with this power, the player must succeed in a Perception + Alertness roll (difficulty 6). If the subject is attempting to hide, he may oppose this roll with a roll of Wits + Stealth (difficulty 6).
Scry the Hearthstone may be used to detect the presence of characters who are under the concealment of Obfuscate or similar powers. In this case, the Gargoyle only knows that there is someone present – she cannot actually see the individual in question. To determine the Gargoyle's ability to detect Obfuscated characters, compare the relative levels of the Gargoyle's Visceratika minus one and the intruder's Obfuscate as per the rules for Auspex.
Lvl 3 Bond with the Mountain
Similar to the Protean power of Earth Meld, Bond with the Mountain allows a Gargoyle to seek shelter within stone (or building materials that are stonelike, such as cement). The merge produced by this power is not as complete as that made by Earth Meld, however. A faint outline of the Gargoyle's shape can be seen by the sharp-eyed observer.
System : The player spends two blood points, and the merge, whiich may only be performed upon bare rock or a similar substance, takes four turns to complete. This power functions in a fashion similar to the Protean 3 power of Earth Meld. However, the Gargoyle does not sink fully into the substance with which he merges, and his outline can be detected within the stone with a successful Perception + Alertness (difficulty 9) roll. A Gargoyle attacked while Bonded with the Mountain has triple his normal soak dice pool against all forms of attack. However, is he sustains three lethal health levels of damage from a single attack, he is forced out of his bond and suffers disoreientation similar to that experienced by an Earth Melded character whose slumber is interrupted.
Lvl 4 Armor of Terra
This power, combined with the unnatural resilience granted by Fortitude, is the source of the Gargoyle's ability to withstand assaults that would tear lesser Kindred to shreds. An individual who has reached this level of Visceratika finds her skin to have become measurably tougher than it once was, and gains a higher pain threshold. She also acquires a limited amount of immunity to fire (though she is no less terrified of it).
System : This power is automatic and requires no roll; it is always in effect. A vampire with Armor of Terra has one extra soak die for all aggravated and lethal attacks and two for all bashing attacks, reduces all wound penalties by one, and halves the damage dice pool of any fire-based source of injury.However, the difficulty of all touch-based Perception rolls is increased by two due to the desensitization of the character's skin.
Lvl 5 Flow Within the Mountain
A Gargoyle who has attained this level of Visceratika is no longer confined to the olcation in which he Bonded with the Mountain (above). He may now travel through stone and concrete as if they were no denser than a thick liquid. Gargoyle guardians use this power to devastating effect when intercepting intruders, while more subtle individuals find it to be a highly effective method of gaining access to “secure” construction than it was when buildings were made of solid stone, but it still sees nightly use.
System : Once the character has used Bond with the Mountain, the player spends two more blood points to activate Flow Within the Mountain for the duration of the scene. The Gargoyle can move within stone and cement under the same rules used for a character under the effect of Protean 6 power of Earth Control, with the exception of the medium through which the character can “swim”.
The character can also use his power to walk through a stone wall and emerge on the other side without first using Bond with the Mountain. In this case, the player spends one blood point and rolls Strength (difficulty 8, Potence adds successes normally). The Gargoyle may flow through a maximum thickness in feet equal to the number of successes rolled. If the wall or barrier is thicker than this, the character is trapepd within it until he is chiseled out or used Flow Within the Mountain to escape.
Gargoyle Flight
The Gargoyles' ability to fly is one of their more noticealbe traits. Although Gargoyles do gain enormous strength via Potence or converted, their enhanced body density (some Gargoyles have been recorded as weighing over 800 pounds) makes natural flight an impossible proposition – they don't have enough thrust-to-weight ratio to do more than glide like a brick with a couple of sheet-metal wings roped on. The more biology-minded among the Kindred have been wondering about this for some time.
The truth of the matter is that Gargoyles shouldn't be able to fly. Their ability to perform aerial maneuvers is unnatural (even for the Kindred) and is a direct result of Tremere experimentation. The initial thaumaturgical process that created the Gargoyles incorporated a highly refind variant of Movement of the Mind as a fundamental component of the subject's magical makeup, making one application of this one thaumaturgical path second nature to them. This instinctive magical ability has been passed along through their blood for centuries. The Tremere scholar who gave the Gargoyles their flight capability in this manner was destroyed in the Gargoyle Revolt, and it's unknown whether anyone else knew what he did. This, the secret of Gargoyle flight is most likely lost forever.
For characters with more natural airborne forms, such as Gangrel in bat-form, Flight is a specialty of the Athletics Talent, or at Storyteller discretion can be listed as a Secondary Ability instead. Gargoyles, however, use a unique Discipline called Flight that is only available to them. All Gargoyles start with one dot in Flight in addition to their initial three Discipline dots; further levels of Flight must be bought like any other clan Discipline. As the character's Flight rating increases, so does her maximum speed.
Lvl 1
The character cannot fly per se, but can soar like a vulture or a hang-glider – as long as he's not trying to carry anything. Maximum speed equals the prevailing winds, or 15 miles per hour in calm air.
Lvl 2
The character can make running takeoffs and can carry a maximum payload of 20 pounds. Maximum speed equals 30 miles per hour.
Lvl 3
The character can perform a straight vertical ascent if encumbered, or can make longer takeoff runs carrying up to 50 pounds. Maximum speed equals 45 miles per hour.
Lvl 4
The character can carry up to 100 pounds aloft, though vertical takeoff is impossible with more than 50 pounds of baggage. Maximum speed equals 60 miles per hour.
Lvl 5
The character can lift up to 200 pounds, which should be sufficient for most player characters – or prey. Maximum speed of 75 miles per hour.
Every dot in Flight past the fifth adds an additional 100 pounds and 20 miles per hour to the Gargoyle's maximums. Celerity cannot be used to enhance flight speed. Although Flight did originiate as a modification of Movement of the Mind, it is not considered Thaumaturgy; Gargoyles with high Flight ratings may have slightly effervescent auras, but they certainly can't perform rituals using Flight. Remember – only Gargoyles can learn this Discipline, and they're not aware that it's a Discipline at all. To the character, her wings and her ability to fly are just part and parcel of her existence as a Gargoyle.
Players who want to know what their characters are capable of doing to devastate opponents from the skies are directed to page 82 of the Book of Storyteller Secrets for Vampire : The Dark Ages.
Wanga
Wanga is often a group activity. Although most of its rituals can be performed alone, they prove easier and more effective when cast as part of a ceremony involving numerous participants. Only the primary caster need follow the steps of the ritual itself; all others are involved primarily in the drumming, singing and dancing common to these religious. These other participants need not be wangateurs or even Kindred, but they must be true believers in an Afro-Caribbean faith, they must be willing paticipants (no Dominated dnacers, though thralls subjected to blood bonds are common among certain less-savory wangateurs), and they must know the true purpose of the tirual. If the number of participants is at least twice the level of the ritual, the difficulty of the Intelligence + Occult roll is reduced by 1.
Note the downside to this. Rituals invoked this way take substantially longer to cast. Although the standard casting time for a ritual is five minutes per level, the casting time for Wanga rituals that are cloaked in these ceremonies is half an hour per level. Of course, nothing forces the wangateur to make use of other participants if she's in a hurry.
The Paths of Wanga
Several standard Paths of Thaumaturgy are available to practitioners of Wanga. Particularly popular are the Path of Blood, the Path of Conjuring, the Path of Corruption, Spirit Manipulation and the Path of Curses. In addition, Wanga claims at least three unique Paths. Unless stated othewise, these Paths are activated in the standard manner (with the expenditure of one blood point), require the same roll to determine succcess (Willpower vs. the power level +3), and carry the same results for botching (loss of a permanent Willpwoer point). In addition, the wangateur must call aloud (though it need not be at great volume) upon the power of an appropriate spirit (orisha, loa, Enkisi or the like), and may require the presence of specific items or components.
The Flow of Ashé
Kindred who master the Flow of Ashé learn to draw power from sources of ashé other than vitae. The wangateur can perform supernatural feats without the need to spend the blood in his system. He instead draws the power – a “phantom blood point”, if you will – from components carried on his person. These materials are consumed in the process. Unlike other thaumaturgical Paths, the Flow of Ashé does not require the expenditure of blood to invoke, as that would largely defeat the purpose. If, however, the player fails or botches the Willpower roll, the character loses two points of blood, in addition to standard penalties.
The player musdt invoke this Path the turn immediately before he wishes to spend the substitute blood point (except for the level five power the Gift of Ashé). If the “blood” is not used in the turn immediately following, it is lost, and the Path must be attempted again; the herbs and other components are still consumed. The Flow of Ashé can create only one “phantom blood point” at a time. Powers that require more than one blood point to activate are not affected by this Path.
Most requisite powders and herbs are relatively rare and require that the wangateur frequent occult and specialty shops in order to obtain them.
Lvl 1 Touch of Life
The wangateur may perform the most minor feats of blood – causing his skin to flush, causing his heart to beat and the like – without actually spending a blood point.
System : The character must have in her possession two handfuls of herbs and powdered minerals, including aroeira (a Brazilian herb used to treat skin ailments) and copper shavings. The character may either cause her heart to beat of her skin to flush or any other single effect, as though she'd spent a blood point. This effect lasts for one scene.
Lvl 2 Strength of Root and Stone
The wangateur may use the Flow of Ashé to power an increase in either Stength, Dexterity or Stamina, as though she'd spent one blood point to raise the given Attribute.
System : The components required include two handfuls of herbs and powdered minerals, i ncluding jurubeba (an herb often used to cure stomach and liver ailments, and for the treatment of general weakness) and pure iron fillings. Otherwise, the effect is identical to that achieved by spending blood to raise an Attribute, and lasts for one scene.
Lvl 3 Breath of Life
The wangateur calls upon the powers of Ashé to heal injuries to himself. Wounds close as though he'd spent a blood point to repair the damage. Note that this power does not allow the Kindred to heal aggravated damage; it has only the effectiveness of a normal blood point spent on a normal bashing- or lethal-damage wound.
System : In order to use this power, the character must smear a paste on the wound. This paste includes crushed cambara (a shrub once used for the treatments of cuts and skin injuries), powdered human bone and at least a few drops of blood (this blood may be animal or human, and need not amount to even a single blood point's worth; it cannot, however, come from the wangateur himself). The ingredients must be mixed into paste immediately prior to the invocation of the Path. If it dries for more than a minute or so after mixing, the power fails to function. Unlike normal healing, a wangateur may not use this power to heal while engaged in any other activity; all her attention for the turn must be concentrated on applying the salve and activating its power.
Lvl 4 Favor of the Orishas
At this level, the wangateur may substitute other sources of Ashé even when powering Disciplines, including other Thaumaturgy Paths (but not rituals). This power may be used only to activate a Discipline; it cannot be used to maintain a power already active.
System : The wangateur must possess several leaves of tobacco (this must be pure; a box of cigarettes won't do) and a handful of powdered ivory. In addition, the mixture must include at least a few drops of blood (though not an entire blood point's worth). The wangateur may not shed her own blood to invoke this power, though the blood of a foe struck in melee combat is acceptable.
Once Favor of the Orishas has been used to power another Discipline, all rules and systems of that Discipline – including rolls required, maintenance costs, duration and so forth – apply as normal.
Lvl 5 Gift of Ashé
At this level, the powders or pastes created by levels 1 through 3 of the Flow of Ashé may be imbued with enough tpower that they hold their magic for a time, and need not be used the following turn. Furthermore, the ashé in these components may be granted to other Kindred for their use if the wangateur chooses to do so.
System : The effects of the power may be delayed for an entire scene. At any point, the character may activate the stored power, either on her own person or on another Kindred. For instance, a wangateur who anticipates combat might invoke the Breath of Life and mix the paste, then give the paste to a companion, allowing him to heal a single wound level without spending blood should he be forced to do so. A wangateur may have a number of pastes and powders prepared at any time equal to her Intelligence.
Orisha 's Fortune
Orisha's Fortune (or Loa's Fortune, or Enkisi's Fortune, depending on the wangateur) allows the thaumaturge to manipulate the whim of luck, the vagaries of random chance. By spending his own blood in sacrifice, the wangateur beseeches the spirits to bring fortune to himself and his allies, and misfortune to his foes.
Orisha's Fortune follows most standard rules for Thaumaturgical Paths. The blood point required cannot merely be spent, however; it must be physically shed by the wangateur when the power is activated, and many practitioners carry a small ritual blade on their person for this purpose. The wound required need not be large enough to inflict even a single health level of damage; it is the act of wangateurs slicing open a palm and symbolically fling the blood at their target, though this is by no means required.
For those who are concerned about such things, the vitae cannot be retrieved by other thaumaturges for use against the character. The blood point is consumed by the magic seconds after it is spilled.
The wangateur can target anyone in his line of sight.
Lvl 1 Sheltering Hand
At this level, the wangateur can use Orisha's Fortuanted just a bit of extra fortune; he may still fail, but he finds disaster occuring far less frequently.
System : The wangateur chooses his subject – either himself or an ally. The next action attempted by the subject is less likely to botch; the number of 1's rolled must exceed the caster's successes for a botch to occur. Thus, if the player rolls 3 succcesses when invoking Sheltering Hand, his next roll must come up with at least four 1's (and no successes) to be considered a botch. Botches avoided in this fashion still carry all the results of a normal failure; this power prevents disaster, but it cannot turn a failure into a success. It applies only to the next action taken by the subject, or for the first turn if the action is extended. If the roll to invoke this power indicates a botch, the subject suffers the opposite effects; every 1 rolled by the player counts as an aaded botch on the subject's own action.
Lvl 2 Fortune's Blessing
The wangateur requests the orisha's aid for herself or an ally. Luch is with her; tasks become simpler and less likely to fail and the recipient may even find herself capable of feats that would normally prove too difficult to perform.
System : The specific task – hacking, driving, shooting or any other mundane action – must be declared when the power is invoked. For the duration of the scene, the recipient finds the difficulty of the specified task lowered by 1 (to a minimum of 4).
Multiple uses of this power are not cumulative, nor can a poor roll be superceded or replaced by a better one. Any attempt to use it on someone already under its influence automatically fails.
Lvl 3 Fortune's Curse
The reverse of Fortune's Blessing, this power allows the wangateur to inflict minor misofrtune upon an enemy, making a single task more difficult and likely to fail.
System : The caster must declare a specific sort of action – brawling, sneaking or the like – when the power is invoked. The target of the spell finds his difficulty increased by 1 (maximum 9) when attempting that action; this power lasts for one scene.
This power is not cumulative, and should be considered a failure if used on someone already under its influence.
Lvl 4 Fortune's Favor
The wangateur calls upon the spirits to perform some truly hefty twisting of the laws of probability. Blows that should land, contests that clearly favor the opposition – all seem to shift inexplicably in favor of the wangateur.
System : At the moment of casting, the caster must choose a specific individual against whom this power operates. Once this power is invoked, the wangateur is protected by an effect that seems to combine aspects of the previous two powers. All of the target's rolls are at +1 difficulty (maximum 10). All the caster's rolls are at -1 difficulty (minimum 4), but only when in direct opposition to the target (attack rolls, dodges and contested actions). Fortune's Favor lasts for a number of turns equal to the wangateur's successes.
The caster cannot use Fortune's Favor while under the effects of Fortune's Blessing, nor can she use it against anyone already influenced by Fortune's Curse.
Lvl 5 Smiting Hand
A truly nasty magic, Smiting Hand sets the power of the orishas directly against a foe, transforming almost any attempted task into a catastrophic failure.
System : Every success achieved by the caster becomes a “phantom botch” that the target must overcome on his next roll. Thus, if the caster achieves 3 successes, the target's next roll is considered to have 3 extra dice that all came up 1. Furthermore, any failure while under the influence of this power is considered a botch, rather than a mere failure. For example, if the aforementioned victim rolled 10, 7, 3, 2 and 2, that would normally be a failure – the phantom's 1's cancel out the 7 and the 10. Because of the power of Smiting Hand, however, the result is a botch even though successes were rolled. The Storyteller is encouraged to have such botches result in truly catastrophic results, even as compared to “normal” botches; those who threaten the favored of the orishas deserve what happens to them.
Voice of the Wild
A hooldover from the ancient Yoruba Kindred, this is possibly the oldest Wanga Path practiced in the modern nights. Originally intended to grant influence over the predators of the savannas and jungles, it is often overlooked in a culture of sidewalks and skyscrapers. Enough creative wangateurs have found the Path sufficiently useful, however, that is has not died out.
In addition to vitae, Voice of the Wild requires the use of materials, much like certain rituals and the Flow of Ashé. These components are consumed by the magic during casting.
A wangateur may attempt to influence the same animal as another Kindred utilizing Animalism. Assuming successful rolls on both sides, control goes to whomever has the highest level on their respective Discipline. If the Voice of the Wild and Animalism scores are tied, victory goed to the user of Animalism.
Lvl 1 Scent of the Beast
The magician can produce scents and pheromones appropriate to a particular species of animal. Used in ancient nights to attract game and ward off predators, it finds similar use tonight among the more creative wangateurs.
System : The caster must have in her possession a sample (tuft of fur, whisker, tooth, drop of blood, etc.) from the animal she wishes to smell like. If successful, the Kindred gives off a scent identical to that of the target animal for the remainder of the scene. Three successes allow the wangateur to smell like that animal in a particular emotional state; she could, for instance, duplicate the scent of a scared cat or a dog in heat. With five successes, the power is effective enough to fool an animal ghoul. Five successes will also permit the caster to fool Lupines, Kindred in animal form, or Kindred using Auspex, but these received an opposed Perception + Alertness roll (difficulty 6). If this opposed roll is successful, the Lupine or Kindred notices something subtly off about the caster's scent, and may well investigate further.
Any attempt to attract an animal must achieve at least three successes to inspire the creature to overcome its instinctive aversion to vampires; fewer successes mean that the animal will approach to within a few yards, but no closer. Any attempt to create a scent strong enough to affect a human or a Kindred not using Auspex (duplicating the spray of a skunk, for instance) also requires three successes.
Lvl 2 Hide from Hunter's Eyes
The cities of the 21stcentury may house vicious guard dogs rather than hungry lions, but the effect of this power is much the same as it was in nights past. With this power, the Kindred causes animals to overlook her completely. This applies to scent and hearing as well as sight. Although few animals willingly attack Kindred, this is powerful protection against those that will. Perhaps more importantly, it prevents dogs and other guard animals from rousing the neighbors.
System : The wangateur must have a body part (fur, hair or a tooth will suffice) from the kind of animal she wishes to hide from, and a pinch of pepper, drop of perfume or any other strong scented material. This must be rubbed on the sample as the blood is spent. For the remainder of the scene, animals of the specified variety (dogs being the most common in modern cities) somply don't notice the Kindred's presence unless she specifically does something to attract attention (touching an animal, making any noise louder than low conversation or the like).
This power requires five successes to fool Lupines or Kindred in animal form, but they receive an opposed Perception + Alertness roll to see through it (difficulty 6). It functions on animal ghouls regardless of the number of successes, but they too are allowed an opposed Wits + Alertness roll (difficulty 7 for ghouls).
Lvl 3 Marking the Prey
Working off the premise, “I don't have to run faster than the bear, I just have to run faster than you”, this power allows the caster to fix the attention of a given variety of animal on a specific target. The beast in question will focus only on that individual, unless someone else makes a concerted effort to get their attention. This power does not automatically make an animal hostile.
System : The caster must have a bit of hair or other sample from the variety of animal to be influenced, and a pinch or drop of something that animal might find attractive (catnip for cats, the fur of a small rodent for snakes, etc.). These must be combined at the time the blood is spent to invoke the magic. The target must be visible to the wangateur. If the roll succeeds, all animals of the chosen variety in the area will focus exclusively on the target for the duration of the scene, or until the target is able to escape their immediate vicinity (and avoid pursuit) for several minutes. Distracting their attention requires physical contact or an actual attack; shouting at them accomplishes nothing. Friendly animals will frolic and play around the target, whereas hostile animals will attack.
Lvl 4 Guiding Spirit
This power allows the wangateur to manipulate the emotional state of an animal. This means more than just “angry” or “sad”. The caster can achieve a specific degree of control by causing the animal to react one way to some stimuli, and entirely differently to another. Although not as particular as the control granted by Animalism, Guiding Spirit can create some truly impressive results.
System : The caster must have in his possession some body part (again, fur or the like is fine) from the type of animal to be influenced. The caster must make eye contact or direct physical contact with the animal as he spends vitae to invoke this power. The animal may resist with Willpower (difficulty 7) only if the wangateur is influencing it to do something totally against its instincts or training (attempting to make a loyal dog attack its owner, for instance). Animal Willpower can be found in the appendix of Vampire : The Masquerade. For every success, the caster maintains control over the animal's emotional state for a scene.
The target can be mae to calm down, grow enraged enough to attack a specific target, become playful or any other emotional effect on which the player and Storyteller can agree. The animal cannot be made to perform specific tricks for which it has not been trained (like shaking paws or fetching keys), nor can it be made to place itself in the path of certain harm (though it can be made to take risks). The exact limits of this power are deliberately vague, as animals react on a much more emotional and instinctive level than humans. It is ultimately the Storyteller's call as to what is and is not possible with Guiding Spirit.
Lvl 5 Mantle of the Beast
The caster may assume a single physical characteristic of an animal. The eyes of a cat allow vision in areas of very low lighting (though not complete darkness). The claws of a bear are sufficient for shredding opponents, and aid in climbing to boot. The nose of a bloodhound can tell you exactly where that snooping reporter ran off to. And though Kindred aren't built for flight, a set of wings will at least break your fall, allowing you to glide to (relative) safety.
System : The character must have on her person a sample (as above) of the animal whose feature she wishes to duplicate. This power duplicates a single feature only. Thus, the caster could not take a snake's ability to wriggle through small places, because that is a factor of the snake's body structure and not a specific feature; she could, however, take the complressible ribcage of a mouse and accomplish much the same thing, as that is a single physical feature of the animal.
Claws created with Mantle of the Beast do Strength +1 aggravated damage. They also reduce climbing difficulty by 2. Wings require a roll of Stamina + Athletics against difficulty 7 to use properly. Kindred can glide for a distance of 100 yards per success rolled (further with a strong tailwind), and she can safely fall almost any distance without taking damage. A protective covering like a turtle's shell or an insect's carapace adds 2 to the character's soak pool; these dice can be used to soak aggravated damage. Advantages for taking other features are at Storyteller's discretion.