Blood Sorcery

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 — requiring the square of its level in weeks, though a good teacher or excellent grimoire may shorten this period.

LEVEL 1

A TASTE FOR BLOOD

Blood Sorcery •

By tasting a drop of blood, the user can discern certain basic traits of the one to whom it belongs.

Cost: Free

Dice Pools: Resolve + Blood Sorcery

System: The user dabs the blood on their tongue and makes a Resolve + Blood Sorcery roll (Difficulty 3). With a win, the user can determine the resonance and intensity of the blood if human. They can also identify whether the blood belongs to a mortal, ghoul, vampire, or other supernatural creature (it may not necessarily be able to identify the supernatural creature if not Kindred or ghoul). Tasting vitae also determines the relative Blood Potency (and thus the likely generation band) of the vampire. A critical win also reveals whether the subject has ever committed diablerie, and the generation (within one) of the vampire. If the user knows of the supernatural creature in question, they can identify the specific supernatural creature on a critical win after tasting the blood.

Duration: N/A

_{Core Book, pg. 273}

CHAINS OF MORPHEUS

Blood Sorcery •

You can trap a mortal in their dreams, making it nearly impossible to awaken them until day break.

Cost: Free

Dice Pools: None or Wits + appropriate Craft

System: After placing a drop of your blood on a sleeping mortal, they enter a deep and dream filled sleep. They cannot be awakened from this sleep unless they are wounded, though they can be carefully fed upon by vampires without risking awakening them. The caster can guide what kind of dreams or nightmares the mortal experiences with a Wits + Craft roll, though crafting a specific dream is usually Difficulty 3 or higher. At the Storyteller's discretion, these dreams can temporarily change the sleeping mortal's Blood Resonance or Desire.

Duration: One night

_{The Black Hand, pg. 88}

CORROSIVE VITAE

Blood Sorcery •

Altering the properties of some of their own Blood, the user can make it highly corrosive to dead substances, able to corrode most items down to steaming sludge, given enough time and Blood shed.

Cost: One or more Rouse Checks

System: No additional skill roll is required. The user concentrates for a turn and forces Blood through an open, usually self-inflicted, wound. The user then spills their Blood on a nonliving object (except unliving flesh such as that of the Kindred) to corrode and decompose it. Each Rouse Check corrodes approximately 35 cm of matter in all directions from the splash; this takes approximately five minutes (longer on soft metals like copper or cast iron). Harder metals such as alloys and steel merely scar and pit; whether they meaningfully weaken remains at the Storyteller's discretion. (This power might corrode through handcuff chains given enough time and vitae.)

Duration: N/A

_{Core Book, pg. 272}

KOLDUNIC SORCERY

Blood Sorcery •

The postulant koldun opens a vein and plunges their arm into the earth (or water, fire, or air), establishing — or so the koldun claim — a Blood Bond with the earth. Kolduny choose their elemental thrall at this time: Water, Fire, Air, or Earth. A koldun character can command multiple elements only by taking the Koldunic Sorcery power multiple times.

Cost: One Rouse Check, and some Aggravated Health damage.

Dice Pools: Resolve + Blood Sorcery

System: After making the Rouse Check, the koldun opens the old cut of their initiation. They may inflict 1 point of Aggravated Health damage to themselves per dot of Blood Sorcery they possess. For each point lost, the koldun extends their senses farther out.

Points Lost	Perception Radius
1	15 meters
2	90 meters
3	500 meters
4	1.5 kilometers
5	8 kilometers

Their perceptions focus through their chosen element. For example, a fire bonded koldun sees, smells, hears, and feels through flames, stoves, furnaces, heater coils, lit cigarettes, etc., within their radius of effect. Koldunic Sorcery can perceive mystically-hidden beings such as Obfuscated vampires with a successful contest of Resolve + Blood Sorcery against Wits or Resolve + Obfuscate (or other relevant supernatural Trait).

Duration: One scene, although the koldun can renew this power at its previous level at any time that night by making another Rouse Check and losing 1 point of Aggravated Health damage. The power expires completely at sunrise.

About Koldunic Sorcery...

To become a koldun, a Blood sorcerer of the Tzimisce, a postulant vampire of that clan must take this Level 1 power with their first dot in Blood Sorcery. This requires a lengthy period of time (a week or more) spent in a wild place – usually guided by a senior koldun, often the new sorcerer's sire. The wild place must either be connected by a vein of the earth to the Kupala demon-field of the Carpathians or to a territory already established by one of the Old Clan. Kolduny consider the new moon the ideal time for this initiation, both for ritual reasons and because the chances of lupine attack are somewhat diminished.

_{Blood Sigils, pg. 61}

ROOTS OF POWER

Blood Sorcery •

The user creates a conduit between her and the essence of the land through her own Blood. The anima of the earth share their power with those that are able to please them. This rare power is rarely taught outside of heretical blood cults, such as the Bahari witches and the Koldunic sorcerers.

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: The Sorcerer cuts the soles of her feet, bleeding the equivalent of a Rouse Check worth of blood on natural soil while standing barefoot on it. For the rest of the Scene and as long as at least one foot is in direct contact with the earth, the user benefits from a Blood Surge to a physical pool (their choice when activating).

This power does not work on concrete, asphalt, or other artificial surfaces. The user of the power can move at walking speed and perform other actions as per usual but if at any point both feet lose contact, the power ends immediately.

Duration: One Scene or until contact is broken.

_{Homebrew, pg. XX}

SHAPE THE SANGUINE SACRAMENT

Blood Sorcery •

Learned only by the most ostentatious of Tremere, this power is used to manipulate blood or vitae into finely crafted images — whether entertaining your fellows at Elysium with gaudy magician's tricks or diverting flowing rivulets into painstakingly precise Hermetic sigils.

Cost: Free (or One Rouse Check if using own Blood)

Dice Pools: Manipulation + Blood Sorcery

System: Using a measure of blood or vampiric vitae, the user may channel their master of Blood Sorcery to influence the very essence of the blood itself, to obey the user's whim. By making a successful Manipulation + Blood Sorcery roll, the user may craft the blood into any shape or image they desire. Complexity of the image varies by difficulty — a simple message of "Help!" or a basic polygonal shape may only be at Difficulty 2, while a lengthy diatribe or an intricate sculpture may be Difficulty 4 or higher. Failure on this roll means the blood fails to form the desired shape or does not respond at all — a Critical Success not only form the desired image, bu negates the need for any further rolls to change its shape for the duration of the scene.

Duration: For the remainder of the scene, unless dispelled by the user.

_{Winter's Teeth, vol. 3}

LEVEL 2

EXTINGUISH VITAE

Blood Sorcery ••

The user can intentionally remove the unlife-giving properties of some of the Blood in another vampire, stoking their Hunger as the victim's inner reserves curdle into impotence.

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Intelligence + Blood Sorcery vs Stamina + Composure

System: The user rolls a contest of Intelligence + Blood Sorcery vs the Stamina + Composure of a target vampire in line of sight while concentrating for a turn and gesturing subtly. A win increases the target's Hunger by one while a critical win increases it by two. The victim can discern who afflicts them if they can see the user while making an Intelligence + Occult vs Wits + Subterfuge roll.

Duration: N/A

_{Core Book, pg. 273}

SANGUINUS

Blood Sorcery ••

Amalgam: Fortitude •

Pioneered by Koldunic sorcerers and refined by the Tremere antitribu of House Goratrix. Sanguinus forms the basis for Blood Brothers and fleshweld ghouls alike, allowing one to call upon the vitae in their own veins to empower another in their Circle. Through this exchange of vitae, individuals are able to become so much more...

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: No roll required.

System: The user can Rouse their blood in order to Mend the damage of another character, or to provide a Blood Surge for them. Each character must share a Blood Bond for this to function. Make a Rouse check as per the normal rules for the Blood Sruge or type of damage being Mended. A character may only benefit from this power once per Round, though they may still Rouse their own blood in order to Mend further damage if they should desire to do so. The Blood Potency of the one making the Rouse Check is used to determine the effectiveness of the action performed.

_{Homebrew, pg. XX}

SCOUR SECRETS

Blood Sorcery ••

The Blood Sorcerer unleashes rivulets of their Blood primed to search for information on a subject of their choosing. The Blood washes over the object of their search, allowing the Blood Sorcerer to investigate vast amounts of text and volumes in a matter of minutes. The object investigated bears a telltale bloodstain thereafter.

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: The user makes the Rouse Check and tests Intelligence + Blood Sorcery against a Difficulty set by the Storyteller: anything from 2 for a single letter in a regular office up to 5 for encrypted information hidden in a vast library. If the information has been supernaturally concealed the Difficulty increases further. The time spent depends on the size of the area to be searched: A single room might be scoured in minutes, while a library requires hours, if not the whole night. Additionally, the power does not impart the ability to parse the information if it comes in an unknown language or in a cipher.

If the knowledge sought is stored in non-written formats, such as painting, music, or on old floppy disks, the power works at the Storyteller's discretion, though the Difficulty is likely higher.

Duration: One night or until the information is found or the search comes up short, whichever comes first.

_{Players Guide, pg. 98}

LEVEL 3

BLOOD OF POTENCY

Blood Sorcery •••

The vampire can concentrate their Blood, increasing its potency temporarily.

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Resolve + Blood Sorcery

System: The user makes a Resolve + Blood Sorcery roll against a Difficulty of 2 + their Blood Potency. A win increases their Blood Potency by one for that scene; a critical win increases it by two. The vampire can use this power to exceed their generation limit on Blood Potency during its duration.

Duration: One scene or one night

_{Core Book, pg. 273}

SCORPION'S TOUCH

Blood Sorcery •••

The vampire can transmute some of their Blood into a paralyzing poison, capable of affecting mortals and vampires alike. They can use this ichor to coat bladed weapons, or even spit it at a target. Scorpionated Blood incapacitates affected mortals, while hampering vampires if not necessarily rendering them helpless. Specific breathing and biofeedback exercises practiced by some secret societies form the best defense against this Blood, aside from Fortitude.

Cost: One or more Rouse Checks

Dice Pools: Strength + Blood Sorcery vs Stamina + Occult or Fortitude

System: The user concentrates for a turn and forces Blood through an open, usually self inflicted, wound. Each Rouse Check worth of poison made takes a turn and emits enough Blood to coat one bladed melee weapon stickily or to fill one mouthful to be spat at a foe. Spitting poison at someone involves a Dexterity + Athletics attack roll (which can be dodged like any ranged attack), although vampires have been known to French kiss a victim and transfer the poison that way. Even more subtle vampires scorpionate their Blood to poison would-be diablerists: drinking poisoned Blood from the vein guarantees a hit! Aside from such vein-to-fang transmission, however, scorpionated Blood is a contact poison that sublimes away in liquids and is too viscous to inject with a syringe. The user cannot poison beverages with it or (thanks to the pressure differential) inject it by their own bite. Arrowheads and bullets carry too little Blood to use this power with ranged weapons; the effect does not last long enough for the user to fill hollow bullets with scorpionated Blood.

If the poison hits, the user rolls a contest of Strength + Blood Sorcery vs Stamina + Occult. (Vampires with Fortitude may resist with Stamina + Fortitude.) If the user wins, the poison does the margin in Aggravated Health damage to mortals and in non-halved Superficial Health damage to vampires. A mortal who takes even one point of damage collapses unconscious.

Duration: The poison remains potent for one scene

_{Core Book, pg. 273}

TRANSITIVE BOND

Blood Sorcery •••

The user is able to extend the Blood Bonding properties of their vitae, enabling it to retain its ensnaring properties when stored, or even when present in the body of a ghoul. Anyone drinking the stored vitae or from the ghoul will be affected just as if they'd imbibed it directly from the user's wrist. Developed by the Tremere in a failed attempt to alleviate their Bane, the power has resurfaced in the Sabbat, where the Discipline is less limited by clan lineage, and has been used to great effect in some of their longer schemes.

Cost: One or more Rouse Checks

Dice Pools: None

System: The user activates this power when calling upon their Blood, either for storing or when giving it to a ghoul. Each use empowers three Rouse Checks' worth of Blood. Anyone ensnared by the Transitive Bond will be unaware of its effect until they lay eyes on their eventual Regnant, but they might become restless and catch glimpses of them in dream-like visions during daysleep. The Blood Bond otherwise functions as described in Vampire: The Masquerade, pp. 233-234).

Duration: n/a

_{Sabbat Sect Book, pg. 49}

LEVEL 4

INFIRM INTENT

Blood Sorcery ••••

The user can strip other Kindred of their ability to heal damage. By infecting the target with a mere touch and whispered curse, the sorcerer causes the target's blood to resist the call to mend wounds or reknit flesh and bone.

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Wits + Blood Sorcery vs Resolve + Blood Potency

System: The user must first touch their target successfully. If the target is unwilling or actively attempting to avoid the touch, the blood sorcerer must make a grapple challenge to establish contact. Once the target has been successfully touched, the caster whispers a small curse and infects the target, prompting the opposed roll of Wits + Blood Sorcery vs the target's Resolve + Blood Potency.

If the blood sorcerer is successful, the next time their target attempts to Rouse the blood to mend, they will not be able to do so. The target still attempts to Rouse the blood, but no damage is healed. All successive attempts to heal are successful.

Duration: One scene for each margin of success

_{Homebrew Content, pg. XX}

BLOOD AEGIS

Blood Sorcery ••••

The vampire can will their vitae to form a physical protective barrier. The barrier manifests as a quivering sheet of Blood, the fluid moving of its own accord to intercept and catch incoming projectiles.

Cost: One or more Rouse Checks

System: The user expends Blood equal to one or more Rouse Checks. For each Check the floating barrier can reduce damage from incoming ranged attacks by five. The effect is automatic as the vitae intercepts each incoming projectile in a shower of Blood, only to reform as long as the power remains active. Once the protection is spent the Blood turns inert as it lies splattered over the zone of conflict.

Duration: One scene or until damage levels are spent, whichever comes first.

_{Players Guide, pg. 98}

THEFT OF VITAE

Blood Sorcery ••••

Through mystical means the vampire opens a wound in a major artery of a mortal victim, blood shooting out through the air in a stream toward the open mouth of the user. This has the additional effect of keeping the mortal subdued as if in the throes of the Kiss, and the wound closes by itself once the effect ends, whether the victim expired or not. This power is extremely spectacular and a potential Masquerade breach while in progress, but once ended leaves no traces.

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Wits + Blood Sorcery vs Wits + Occult

System: The user makes a beckoning gesture toward a mortal target in line of sight and rolls their Wits + Blood Sorcery vs Wits + Occult. A win opens an arterial wound, and the vampire can start feeding from across the room. (A target wearing full-body protection such as a hazmat suit merely bleeds ecstatically out into the suit.) The user can do nothing else while feeding, but they can feed at twice the normal speed (at triple speed on a critical win) thanks to the sorcerous pressure of this power.

Duration: One feeding

_{Core Book, pg. 274}

LEVEL 5

BAAL'S CARESS

Blood Sorcery •••••

The vampire can transmute their Blood into an extremely aggressive poison, lethal to mortal and Kindred alike.

Cost: One or more Rouse Checks

Dice Pools: Strength + Blood Sorcery vs Stamina + Occult or Fortitude

System: This power uses the same system (and its poison has the same restrictions) as Scorpion's Touch (p. 273), with increased damage.

If the poison hits, the user rolls a contest of Strength + Blood Sorcery vs Stamina + Occult. (Vampires with Fortitude may resist with Fortitude in lieu of the Occult Skill.) If the user wins, the poison does the margin in Aggravated Health damage to mortals and vampires alike. A mortal who takes even one point of damage dies instantly.

If a vampire target takes Aggravated damage from this poison, the user rolls the contest again; on a win, the vampire enters torpor when next they go to sleep.

Duration: The poison remains potent for one scene

_{Core Book, pg. 274}

CAULDRON OF BLOOD

Blood Sorcery •••••

This gruesome power lets the user boil the blood of a victim in their own veins, causing massive damage and excruciating pain. While there are more efficient ways to kill, few methods approach this level of cruelty.

Cost: One Rouse Check and gain one (or more) Stains

Dice Pools: Resolve + Blood Sorcery vs Composure + Occult or Fortitude

System: The user pays the cost and touches the victim (Dexterity + Athletics in combat or similar situations), rolling a contest of Resolve + Blood Sorcery vs Composure + Occult. (Vampires with Fortitude may resist with Composure + Fortitude.) On a win, each point of margin causes one point of Aggravated damage in the victim. Mortals taking at least one point of damage die screaming. Vampire victims add 1 Hunger per point of damage inflicted, until Hunger is at 5.

Duration: One turn

_{Core Book, pg. 274}

COAGULATED ENTITY

Blood Sorcery •••••

Amalgam: Fortitude •••

Prerequisite: Sanguinus

The culmination of all that is gruesome about the Blood Brothers, this power turns useful shock troops into a deadly mass of flesh and bone — a siege engine rivaling even the Tzimisce Vozhd of nights past. Rather than being sculpted, the participants fuse together in a formless horror of limbs, eyes, and mouths.

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Resolve + Fortitude

System: As the user transforms, those Blood Bound to them may choose whether or not to join, though few pass up the opportunity to achieve this form. The transformation takes as many turns as their are participants, though it may be sped up with additional Rouse Checks on a one-for-one basis.

The host makes a Resolve + Fortitude roll with a Difficulty of 3 + the total number of participants. If successful they physically meld with the others. The Coagulated Entity uses the highest Attributes available among the participants, and has Health equal to the highest rating among the participants + 1 per total participants involved. Brawl damage is increased by +1 per total participants and all attacks deal Aggravated Health Damage to mortals. Superficial Health Damage inflicted from Coagulated Entity is not halved.

Duration: Until deactivated. Having the power active for longer stretches of time (more than a scene) might necessitate all participants spending Willpower, at the Storyteller's discretion.

_{Homebrew, pg. XX}

RECLAMATION OF VITAE

Blood Sorcery •••••

No matter the distance, Blood calls to Blood. Working on that principle, this power allows a vampire to reclaim Blood that has been yielded to create ghouls, reclaiming that which has been given. Regardless of where they are, ghouls of the vampire will find the life-giving vitae in their veins rebelling within them, returning through mystical means to its source, while their bodies suffer catastrophic damage. Sabbat elders have been known to keep ghouls for this express purpose, an emergency reserve available anywhere at any time, at the trifling cost of a few mortal lives.

Cost: One or more Stains (when called to return)

Dice Pools: None

System: The user concentrates for a turn and choses which of their servants are to repay their Blooddebt. The ghouls do not need to be present, and distance doesn't matter. The vampire sates two Hunger for each ghoul, while the ghoul suffers five levels of aggravated damage as their body ages irregularly and rapidly, the undead Blood inside them feeling as if it were attempting to violently vacate them.

While the power does not require the vampire to Rouse the Blood it should, if ever learned by someone outside the Sabbat, merit Stains to employ.

Duration: n/a

_{Sabbat Sect Book, pg. 50}

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.

CHAINED RITUALS

Blood sorcerers can achieve workings of power beyond that of ordinary Level 5 Rituals by gathering and casting compatible rituals, letting their power spill into each other and coalesce into a greater force. These chained rituals comprise a set of at least three Rituals of any level, with one Level 5 Ritual serving as its linchpin. Each component of a chained ritual, including the linchpin Level 5 Ritual, have their own individual effects. When sorcerers cast all the rituals in a chained ritual within 10 meters of each other, the chained effect of the linchpin Level 5 Ritual activates instead of the individual effects of the rituals in the chain. All rituals must succeed for the chained ritual to take effect: a single failure breaks the chain.

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

ASTROMANCY

Blood Sorcery •

The stars write the natures of those on earth below them, or perhaps they reflect them. Combining astrology and hematomancy, the sorcerer draws out true information about allies, enemies, and mortals that catch their interest.

Ingredients: The night sky; a silver mirror or platter; the blood, hair, spit, or flesh of the target

Process: In the middle of the night, the caster goes to an area with a clear view of the stars in the sky and places their target's biological material on the silver surface and spreads a Rouse Check's worth of blood over the surface. The caster spends up to a half hour watching their blood shape itself into patterns and images regarding the answers they seek about the subject.

System: A win on the Ritual roll reveals the target's greatest aptitudes (i.e., any Attribute or Skill 4 or higher) and their current Ambition. A critical win also reveals their current Desire and at least one of their Convictions. If the sorcerer knows the correct birth date or Embrace date of the target, they can add one die to the Ritual pool. Knowing both still only adds one die.

_{Blood Sigils, pg. 59}

BEELZEBEATIT

Blood Sorcery •

This ritual causes lower-order living creatures to find the ritual area repellent. Animals avoid the area, vermin scuttle away from it, and even plants may take on a pitiful appearance. Used as a low-level precaution against Animalism spies, this ritual also prevents infestations of the sorts of creatures who would be drawn to gore, carrion, and the other sorts of remains the Sabbat often leaves in its wake.

Ingredients: Vinegar or alcohol

Process: The ritualist sprinkles the vinegar or alcohol on the floor and turns counterclockwise, visually circumscribing the area in which the lesser creatures are to be expelled.

System: If the ritual is successful, living creatures of animal intellect and below hastily vacate the area of about a hundred meters square. Thereafter, nothing prevents a directed or controlled creature from returning (but such things may be visible, and stand out due to their active expulsion), but such creatures won't do it of their own volition unless enraged or no other option to traverse it exists. The effects last for one scene or one night, whichever comes first.

_{Sabbat Sect Book, pg. 50}

BIND THE ACCUSING TONGUE

Blood Sorcery •

The Tremere developed this ritual early in their ascent to power, which may help explain that ascent. Bind the Accusing Tongue prevents the target from speaking ill of the caster, ensuring the sorcerer's unspeakable acts remain that way.

Ingredients: A picture, effigy, or image of the target, a lock of the target's hair, a black silken cord.

Process: The caster winds the cord around the hair and image while intoning the ritual charm.

System: A win on the Ritual roll prevents the target from saying, writing, or otherwise directly communicating anything negative or harmful — even, or rather especially, if it's true — about the caster without a Composure + Resolve test (Difficulty equals the caster's Blood Sorcery rating +2). On a critical win, the Difficulty of the test equals the caster's Blood Sorcery rating +3. The ritual lasts until the target succeeds on their test, or until the cord unwinds, at which point the hair and image crumble into dust.

_{Blood Sigils, pg. 60}

BLOOD APOCRYPHA

Blood Sorcery •

Kindred sorcerers have learned to embed messages into their blood, or a vessel when feeding. Though there may be difficulties in sending the messenger to the recipient, the message is much less likely to be intercepted: this old art has come into vogue since the advent of the Second Inquisition.

Ingredients: A drop of mercury and one rouse check’s worth of blood.

Process: The Kindred whispers a message to the mercury, which carries it through the blood collected in a ceremonially prepared bowl.

System: The Kindred encodes about one minute of speech into one Rouse Check worth of blood in a ritual bowl. The ritualist then designates one or more intended recipients of the message whose blood they have tasted. As part of the ritual, a Kindred, mortal, or beast messenger must consume the blood to transfer the message to their own body, otherwise the blood—and message—will rapidly sour.

The first person to consume the ensorcelled blood from the messenger automatically receives the message mentally if they are the intended recipient or possess A Taste for Blood. Any other imbiber must succeed on a Wits + Occult roll (Difficulty 3) to understand the message.

Duration: One month plus another month for each point of the margin of success.

_{Book of Nod Apocrypha, pg. 34}

BLOOD WALK

Blood Sorcery •

This Ritual expands upon the power A Taste for Blood allowing the user to learn more details about the subject studied, assuming the subject is a vampire.

Ingredients: A silver cup filled with Blood from the subject. (One Rouse Check's worth).

Process: The user mixes their Blood with the subject's and repeats an incantation over the cup, spending an roughly an hour.

System: A win on the Ritual roll (see General Systems) allows the user to learn the generation and name of the subject as well as the subject's sire. A Critical Win also informs the user of any Blood Bonds active on the subject, as regnant or thrall.

_{Core Book, pg. 276}

BLOODY MESSAGE

Blood Sorcery •

Ingredients: Mirror, sufficient human blood to write the message, UV light.

Process: The practitioner designates a type of individual in their mind — e.g., mortal, ghoul, vampire, male, a child, unemployed — and bathes a mirror in UV light. The sorcerer writes a message on the mirror with a fingertip, using human blood as the ink. The message appears on another reflective surface (a mirror, polished glass, water) the practitioner has seen before and can mentally recall, when the designated type of individual passes by.

System: The sorcerer makes the Ritual roll when enchanting the designated surface. For every success the practitioner rolls, the message will repeat for each new individual of the chosen type who passes the surface. The message clears itself from the surface as soon as it's been read once. It appears in the handwriting and language in which the sorcerer wrote it.

_{Let the Streets Run Red, pg. 77}

COAX THE GARDEN

Blood Sorcery •

This Ritual allows the caster to bring plant life, such as roots, grass, and tree branches to act in their defense.

Ingredients: Human blood, poppy seeds.

Process: The vampire casts a concoction of human blood and poppy seeds onto the earth, and in doing so rouses all plant life within a 5 yard/meter diameter. While these plants are rarely lethal in their attacks, they can successfully disable and alarm their victims.

System: A win on the Ritual roll following the casting of the Ritual ingredients animates the plant life. The affected flora causes a two-dice penalty to physical dice pools for those caught in the range of the Ritual, as plants trip and grip them. Victims who stay in the area for longer than a turn must make a Dexterity + Athletics roll (Difficulty 3), or be grappled and suffer one point of Superficial Health damage for each turn ensnared. If the caster achieves a critical win, the damage from plant attacks doubles. On a total failure, the plants attack the caster. The plants will target anyone who isn't the caster. They remain active until the end of the scene.

_{Cults of the Blood Gods, pg. 55}

CLINGING OF THE INSECT

Blood Sorcery •

The vampire gains the ability to cling to walls like a grotesque insect or spider.

Ingredients: A living spider.

Process: The caster fills a vial with their own Blood and crushes the spider into it, mixing the ground bits with the Blood before ingesting it. (This does not refund any Hunger gained.) The caster can only perform this ritual on themselves; others gain no benefit from drinking the mixture.

System: A successful Ritual yields the ability to cling to walls and ceiling for a scene, while a critical win extends the duration to a whole night. The caster must cling to the surface with both hands and feet; they move at approximately half their usual rate.

_{Core Book, pg. 276}

CRAFT BLOODSTONE

Blood Sorcery •

This Ritual results in a Bloodstone, a magical tracker to which the caster always knows the direction as well as general distance. As the Camarilla retreats from modern technology, this previously neglected Ritual has seen a resurgence in use.

Ingredients: A pebble of iron ore or a small magnet and a liter of blood from any source in a silver bowl.

Process: The user spills their Blood into the blood in the bowl and then recites a chant over it for an hour, repeating the chant over the next two nights. The pebble (or magnet) absorbs the blood over the three nights; upon successful completion, the liquid appears translucent.

System: Make the Ritual roll at the end of the third night. On a win the caster attunes their mind to the Bloodstone. The caster can unerringly sense the direction and distance to the stone. This effect lasts until the Bloodstone is destroyed or a week has passed. A caster can have and keep track to a number of stones up to their Resolve.

_{Core Book, pg. 276}

DOUSE THE FEAR

Blood Sorcery •

This Ritual allows the caster to briefly douse their natural vampiric fear of fire.

Ingredients: A holy object such as a crucifix, Bible, or Qur'an.

Process: The vampire must expose the holy symbol to a flame. The object does not need to be completely destroyed, just touched by the fire.

System: A successful Ritual roll following the burning of the holy object grants the character two additional dice on all rolls relating to resisting Rötschreck. A critical win results in the character needing to make no terror Frenzy rolls at all. The effect lasts for one night.

_{Players Guide, pg. 99
Replaces} Dampen the Fear

ENRICH THE BLOOD

Blood Sorcery •

This Ritual increases the potency of a human's blood, allowing the Kindred to take the same sustenance from a smaller quantity of blood. Performing this ritual is central to club activities, allowing more mouths to taste from the same vessel and facilitating comparative culinary critique. Only humans can be targeted by this ritual; it has no effect on the Blood of Kindred.

Ingredients: A half-full vial of the target's blood, five liters of unprocessed human blood no more than three hours old.

Process: The caster slowly pours the unprocessed blood into the vial, which never fills up so long as the vampire retains concentration. Once all the blood is added, the resulting half-vial of blood must be fed back to the target.

System: A successful Ritual roll makes the target's blood unusually rich and flavorsome. A sip from their veins slakes two levels of Hunger rather than one. On a Critical Win, two vampires can slake to Hunger 0 if they share the kill. If left alive, the effect on the target wanes after one week.

This Ritual makes the human's blood thick and hypercoagulable, prone to numerous medical complications. A second casting renders the blood too thick to drink and kills the target.

_{Forbidden Religions, pg. 76}

HERD WARD

Blood Sorcery • or •••

Ingredients: Scorpion poison, sufficient vitae to provoke a Rouse Check.

Process: The sorcerer mixes scorpion poison with their own vitae to draw the ward. The vampire can ward a single kine at level 1, or at level 3 inscribe the ward on a door so all who stay within the ward for that night are protected.

System: The sorcerer makes the Ritual roll when another vampire tries to feed on the warded kine. The transgressor suffers one point of Aggravated Health damage if the caster wins the Ritual roll, or three points of Aggravated damage on a critical win.

Once the Herd Ward is triggered, a Kindred still trying to drink from the kine must roll Stamina + Resolve against Difficulty 4 for a normal Ward, or 7 for a critical-success Ward.

_{Let the Streets Run Red, pg. 77}

LETTER WARD

Blood Sorcery •

Ingredients: Pigeon blood, wax, dog blood.

Process: The letter writer, who need not be the sorcerer, pens a missive in pigeon blood and clearly addresses the recipient. The sorcerer then melts wax and mixes it with dog's blood to seal the letter.

System: The sorcerer makes the Ritual roll when anyone other than the recipient opens the letter. The victim suffers one point of Aggravated Health damage if the caster wins the Ritual roll, or three points of Aggravated damage on a critical win, and the letter destroys itself in a burst of flame.

Once the Letter Ward is triggered, anyone wanting to open the letter must roll Stamina + Resolve at Difficulty 4 for a normal Ward, or Difficulty 7 for a critical-success Ward.

_{Let the Streets Run Red, pg. 77}

SEAL THE BRAND

Blood Sorcery •

Normally tattoos, scars, and other changes to vampire flesh fade during the day's sleep. Yet some Kindred seek to make a mark on their own flesh, and give that mark permanence.

Ingredients: Molten silver poured over a tattoo, brand, or other body modification.

Process: The vampire casting the ritual pours the molten silver over the target's tattoo, brand, or body modification. The target suffers damage from the molten silver, but once mended, the affected modification remains permanent.

System: A successful Ritual yields a permanent body modification for the target. This modification cannot be removed by any other means and is now considered part of the target's undying body. Pouring the molten silver onto the body modification inflicts one point of Superficial damage, which may be mended as normal.

_{Players Guide, pg. 99}

WAKE WITH EVENING'S FRESHNESS

Blood Sorcery •

Performed before dawn, this ritual allows the caster to awake at any sign of danger, fully alert as if awake during the night.

Ingredients: The burnt bones and feathers of a rooster.

Process: The caster mixes the ashes with their own Blood, drawing a circle with the mixture around their place of sleep.

System: Do not make a Ritual roll unless true danger appears. If the caster is threatened during the day, make the Ritual roll then, with the caster rousing on a win. For the duration of the scene the vampire ignores the daytime penalties for staying awake. On a critical win, the effects last until the following dawn.

_{Core Book, pg. 276}

WARD AGAINST GHOULS

Blood Sorcery •

Wary Tremere created this ritual to protect themselves from the minions of vengeful rivals. This ward uses the standard rules for Wards (p. 275).

Ingredients: Nothing apart from the usual requirement of the caster's Blood.

_{Core Book, pg. 276}

LEVEL 2