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= '''LEVEL 2''' = | = '''LEVEL 2''' = | ||
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== COMMUNICATE WITH KINDRED SIRE == | |||
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'''Blood Sorcery''' •• | |||
''The caster uses the bond between sire and childe to open a bridg e between minds, allowing the childe to create a telepathic link for the purpose of long-distance communication. As with some other Rituals, this one sees a resurgence in these nights of wiretaps and electronic surveillance.'' | |||
'''Ingredients:''' An object previously possessed by the sire and a silver bowl filled with clear water. | |||
'''Process:''' The caster submerges the object in water and lets their Blood drip into the bowl, concentrating upon the last memory of their sire for up to 30 minutes. | |||
'''System:''' Make the ritual roll after 15 minutes have passed. A win allows for ten minutes of two-way silent mental communication once 15 more minutes have passed. A critical win allows immediate communication. Any major disturbance on either end breaks the connection. | |||
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''<sub>Core Book, pg. 277</sub>'' | |||
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== EYES OF BABEL == | |||
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'''Blood Sorcery''' •• | |||
''By ingesting the tongue and an eye of a person the caster gains the ability to read and speak any language known by the victim.'' | |||
'''Ingredients:''' A fresh eye and tongue of a person | |||
'''Process:''' Plucking the ingredients fresh from the victim, the vampire chews and swallows them. (This most likely incurs a Stain.) | |||
'''System:''' The Rouse Check required for this ritual allows for the supernatural dissolution of the ingredients once swallowed. Once this is done, make the Ritual roll. A win gives the caster the ability to read and speak any language known by the victim, at the same skill level for a week. A critical win extends the duration to a month. | |||
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''<sub>Core Book, pg. 277</sub>'' | |||
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== ILLUMINATE THE TRAIL OF PREY == | |||
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'''Blood Sorcery''' •• | |||
''The ritual allows the caster to perceive the previous whereabouts of a designated person as a subtly glowing trail, visible only to them.'' | |||
'''Ingredients:''' A white satin ribbon. | |||
'''Process:''' The performer of the ritual soaks the ribbon in their own Blood, setting it alight. | |||
'''System:''' If the Ritual roll is a win the ribbon catches fire despite being wet, burning fiercely like a fuse. Once consumed, the ritual takes effect. While the ritual remains active, the caster can follow faint traces of the target even in areas where they left no tracks, such as crowded cities. To follow the tracks, the caster makes an Intelligence + Survival roll against a Difficulty equal to 6 minus the margin on the ritual test. The target must be known by face by the caster, who sees the path travelled by the victim over the previous 24 hours. The path remains visible for the entire night; a critical win extends this to two nights. | |||
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''<sub>Core Book, pg. 277</sub>'' | |||
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== TRUTH OF BLOOD == | |||
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'''Blood Sorcery''' •• | |||
''Until recently known only to Banu Haqim viziers, this Ritual creates a mystic potion capable of sifting lies from truth. This Ritual has power enough even to sometimes uncover facts unknown to the speaker.'' | |||
'''Ingredients:''' One pint of blood from the subject. | |||
'''Process:''' The performer of the Ritual mixes their own Blood with that of the subject in a vessel large enough to allow for the dipping of the finger. | |||
'''System:''' Instead of the regular Ritual roll, the caster immerses their finger in the mixture and makes a Resolve + Blood Sorcery vs Composure + Occult roll for every statement made by the subject. The first failed contest ends the Ritual. A Win tells them whether that statement is true, as far as the subject knows. On a critical win by the caster, the subject involuntarily expands upon their answer, providing more information, including details they glancingly saw or subconsciously forgot. (The Storyteller should inform the caster if there is no more information about that topic.) The mixture bubbles and seethes during the process, turning completely to ash at the end of the scene. | |||
This Ritual cannot pierce Cloud Memory, the Forgetful Mind, or other memorywiping powers. The caster may well guess the cause of a blank or foggy recollection, but cannot recover the actual memory. | |||
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''<sub>Core Book, pg. 277</sub>'' | |||
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== WARD AGAINST SPIRITS == | |||
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'''Blood Sorcery''' •• | |||
''This Ritual wards an item against incorporeal beings suchs as wraiths, ghosts, and elemental spirits. Any attempt by them to manipulate or pass through the item triggers the effect. This ward uses the standard rules for Wards (p. 275).'' | |||
'''Ingredients:''' A handful of salt (in some versions, a handful of brick dust) mixed with the Blood. | |||
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''<sub>Core Book, pg. 278</sub>'' | |||
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== WARDING CIRCLE AGAINST GHOULS == | |||
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'''Blood Sorcery''' •• | |||
''This Ritual creates a circular Ward on the floor or ground, intended to prevent the passage of ghouls. This ward uses the standard rules for Wards (p. 275).'' | |||
'''Ingredients:''' The caster draws the Warding circle with a human bone dipped in the Blood. | |||
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''<sub>Core Book, pg. 278</sub>'' | |||
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== UNSEEN UNDERGROUND == | |||
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'''Blood Sorcery''' •• | |||
''After performing this ritual, the user gains invisibility and causes no sounds, allowing them to scurry around and hide like a rat.'' | |||
'''Ingredients:''' Rat’s blood and eyes. | |||
'''Process:''' The caster drains a rat completely dry and removes its eyes from its skull, before throwing them into the nearest shadowed or unlit place. The caster can only perform this ritual on themselves. | |||
'''System:''' A successful ritual yields the ability to go completely invisible for an hour. The ritual immediately ends if the caster ventures above ground. The only thing that can end the ritual early is violent intent. Should the user attack another individual, the effect immediately ends. The victim may make a Wits + Awareness roll against a difficulty equal to the number of successes obtained on the ritual’s activation roll to react in time and defend themselves. If they fail this roll, treat the first attack as a Surprise Attack (VtM, page 300). As per Obfuscate, a user of this Ritual can be detected with Sense the Unseen (Auspex 1), however Blood Sorcery is used instead of Obfuscate. | |||
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''<sub>Fall of London, pg. 128</sub>'' | |||
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== ISHTAR'S TOUCH == | |||
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'''Blood Sorcery''' •• | |||
''The blood sorcerer can convert a dose of their own vitae into a touch activated narcotic that renders a victim uninhibited and vulnerable to Disciplines such as Presence and Dominate, along with attempts at mundane manipulation, coercion and interrogation.'' | |||
'''Ingredients:''' A small amount of hashish or other narcotic substance | |||
'''Process:''' The chosen substance is mixed with the user’s Blood and rubbed between their fingers as the incantation is read (or whispered). The Ritual only takes a couple of minutes to prepare. | |||
'''System:''' The user makes a Ritual roll vs. the Stamina + Resolve of the target mortal or vampire after they make contact with the affected vitae. For the remainder of the scene, the victim suffers a dice penalty equal to the margin of win on the Ritual roll on all resist pools involving Composure or Resolve. (Apply the penalty only once in case the pool involves both Attributes.) The narcotic vitae retains its potency until it is touched, up until the end of the scene. | |||
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''<sub>Camarilla Sect Book, pg. 166</sub>'' | |||
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== CALLING THE AURA'S REMNANTS == | |||
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'''Blood Sorcery''' •• | |||
''This ritual allows the caster to speak with the residual psychic aura of someone who has died.'' | |||
'''Ingredients:''' A human corpse or the corpse of a destroyed vampire. | |||
'''Process:''' The ritual must be cast within ten feet of a human corpse or the corpse of a destroyed vampire. | |||
'''System:''' A successful Ritual test allows the caster to speak with the animate reflection of the deceased for one scene as if they were still alive. This communication is not with the deceased spirit and only has access to the memories of the deceased up to the time of death. A Critical Win extends the duration of the speech to an entire evening. | |||
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''<sub>Chicago by Night, pg. 171</sub>'' | |||
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= '''LEVEL 3''' = |
Revision as of 21:07, 26 September 2021
BLOOD SORCERY
Thaumaturgy | Quietus | Koldunism | Akhu | Nahuallotl | Sadhana
The Tremere maintain that Blood Sorcery, or “Thaumaturgy” as they call it, was their invention. To hear the Banu Haqim give their version, “Quietus” was their blood right long before the Tremere became vampires. Other clans make the same statements. While its origins are murky, the dreaded nature of Blood Sorcery is not. Few Kindred trust the wielders of a power that can manipulate the vitae in their veins and turn Blood into poison.
Unlike other Disciplines, which could be described as advancing organically through the victims chosen by the vampire, practitioners of Blood Sorcery require teachers. The Tremere once relied on their pyramidic clan hierarchy to arrange tutelage for neonate apprentices, while the Banu Haqim stress the sire-childe relationship as being the best form of mentorship. These nights, many a Child of Haqim washes up in Europe or America far from their sire, and with the Pyramid broken Tremere neonates frantically search through moldy tomes and palimpsests for scraps of true lore. Genuine masters of this Discipline develop their own Rituals, though many guard them from others, revelling in the mystery surrounding their unknown cache of abilities. To practice Blood Sorcery is to twist one’s own Blood into submission. Any form of this power reminds a vampire that they’re far from human, as no mortal could wield magic in this way.
CHARACTERISTICS
- Type: Sorcery
- Masquerade Threat: Low - High.
The individual appearance of the powers and Rituals in Blood Sorcery varies as widely as their effects.
- Blood Resonance: Sanguine.
Although not inherent in the Blood itself, Blood Sorcery responds eagerly to blood from human occultists, sorcerers, and cult leaders, as well as hemophiles and bibliophiles.
Blood Sorcery is a special Discipline in that it both confers powers, like other Disciplines, and also unlocks the ability to perform Rituals up to and including the level the user holds in the Discipline. Ghouls of Blood Sorcerers or thin-bloods drinking from Sanguine temperaments gain temporary access to the Discipline powers, but not to Rituals. Its regular powers seem comparatively weak, but the versatility of the Rituals more than compensates, assuming the user can learn them. At character creation, a player can choose one Level 1 ritual if they have at least one dot in Blood Sorcery. Characters can buy new rituals at the cost of the ritual’s level x 3 experience points. Learning new Rituals during play requires both experience and time. Expect a Ritual to take at least the square of its rating in weeks to learn.
LEVEL 1
CORROSIVE VITAE
A TASTE FOR BLOOD
SHAPE THE SANGUINE SACRAMENT
LEVEL 2
EXTINGUISH VITAE
LEVEL 3
BLOOD OF POTENCY
SCORPION'S TOUCH
LEVEL 4
THEFT OF VITAE
LEVEL 5
BAAL'S CARESS
CAULDRON OF BLOOD
RITUALS
Unless otherwise noted, performing a ritual requires a Rouse Check, five minutes per level to cast, and a winning Intelligence + Blood Sorcery test (Difficulty = Ritual level + 1). Rituals usually require additional ingredients, though some need only the uninterrupted concentration of the user, and often involve the mingling of Blood with ingredients chosen according to the principles of sympathetic magic or alchemy. Unless otherwise stated the caster can only perform beneficial rituals on themselves.
Wards:
The Tremere employ Wards extensively, basing them on their Hermetic traditional sigils. Banu Haqim Wards usually involve gematriac or abjadic writing, rather than occult symbols, but the methodology remains the same in both cases. Wards consist of a glyph or line of script keyed to repel a single type of supernatural, called “the trespasser” in these rules. When touched, they cause something like an electric shock to the trespasser’s mind and body, imparting both physical burns and a sudden bout of sheer terror. The ward does not work on forced contact – a warded sword will not trigger the ward when striking a trespasser, but it will if a trespasser tries to pick it up.
Wards can only cover a space about a meter across: for example, a caster cannot ward a whole car, but they can ward a steering wheel.
Do not make the Ritual roll until the first time the trespasser touches the Ward, triggering its effect. Gloves or other garments offer no protection. If the caster wins the Ritual test, the victim suffers one point of Aggravated Health damage. On a critical win, damage for this Ward is three points of Aggravated damage. The caster does not need to make the Ritual roll for each trespasser touching the Ward, only the first. Anyone affected who wants to touch the warded object again must spend a point of Willpower and then win a Stamina + Resolve test (Difficulty 4, or 7 for a critical-success Ward) to make the attempt.
Sense the Unseen (Auspex 1) can detect a Ward with a contest of Intelligence + Auspex vs the caster’s Intelligence + Blood Sorcery.
Warding Circles:
A Warding circle resembles a regular Ward, painted on the ground or floor. It requires three times the ritual ingredients of a regular Ward of the same type. Knowledge of one Ward does not convey knowledge of its corresponding Warding circle, or vice versa. Trespassers who attempt to cross a Warding circle suffer its effect. Unless the caster inscribes the Warding circle “pointing inward” around the trespasser in the first place, it does not block attempts to leave the circle.
Its rules differ from regular Wards in a few respects: It costs three Rouse Checks worth of Blood to paint the circle and pentacles, which can cover up to a three-meter radius. It takes one full night to cast and a Ritual roll made at the time (at +2 to Difficulty) if the caster wants it to last a year and a day; otherwise it dissipates at dawn.
When the trespasser attempts to cross the circle, roll a contest of Intelligence + Blood Sorcery vs the trespasser’s Willpower. (If the Storyteller or player wrote down the result of the original Ritual roll used to cast a year-long Warding circle, they can use that result here.) If the Warding circle fails, the trespasser can enter it. If the caster wins, the trespasser takes three points of Superficial Health damage (three points of Aggravated damage on a critical win) and cannot enter. The trespasser must spend a point of Willpower to attempt to enter the circle again. If the trespasser wins the contest, enters the circle and leaves it again, they must repeat their half of the contest (the caster’s initial result remains) to re-enter it.
LEVEL 1
BLOOD WALK
CLINGING OF THE INSECT
CRAFT BLOODSTONE
WAKE WITH EVENING'S FRESHNESS
WARD AGAINST GHOULS
COAX THE GARDEN
DAMPEN THE FEAR
LETTER WARD
BLOODY MESSAGE
HERD WARD
LEVEL 2
COMMUNICATE WITH KINDRED SIRE
EYES OF BABEL
ILLUMINATE THE TRAIL OF PREY
TRUTH OF BLOOD
WARD AGAINST SPIRITS
WARDING CIRCLE AGAINST GHOULS
UNSEEN UNDERGROUND
ISHTAR'S TOUCH
CALLING THE AURA'S REMNANTS