Vampire/Disciplines

AnimalismAuspexCelerityChimeristryDementationDominateFlightFortitudeMelpomineeMytherceriaNecromancyObfuscateObtenebrationPotencePresenceProteanQuietusSerpentisThaumaturgyVisceratikaVicissitude

Animalism

V20 Core, pg 127

The Beast resides within all creatures, from scuttling cockroaches to scabrous rats up through untamed wolves and even powerful Kindred elders. Animalism allows the vampire to amplify his intensely primordial nature. He can not only communicate with animals, but can also force his will upon them, directing such beasts to do as he commands. As the vampire grows in power, he can even control the Beast within mortals and other supernaturals.
Beasts grow distinctly agitated in the presence of a vampire who lacks this Discipline or the Skill of Animal Ken, often to the point of attacking or running from the vampire. In contrast, vampires possessing Animalism exude a dominant vibe to lower creatures, which attracts them.
Animalism is commonly found with vampires of the Gangrel and Nosferatu Clans. Manipulation and Charisma are important for the use of Animalism powers; the stronger the vampire’s personality, the more influence he has over animals.

[+/-] Feral Whispers

Feral Whispers
V20 Core, pg 129

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 re-establish contact to continue communication.

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 are just too simple to connect with.

Feral Whispers provides no guarantees 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 often bully smaller beasts into heeding commands, but he’s better off couching orders for large predators as requests.

If the vampire successfully uses the power, the 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 guide its behavior for sometime.

System: No roll is necessary to talk with an animal, but the character must establish eye contact (see p. 152) first. Issuing commands requires a Manipulation + Animal Ken roll. The difficulty depends on the creature: Predatory mammals (wolves, cats, vampire bats) are difficulty 6, other mammals and predatory birds (rats, owls) are difficulty 7, and 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 an individual 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 approaches these conversations. The character might try intimidating, teasing, cajoling, or rationalizing. The player should understand that he does not simply play his character in these situations, but the Beast Within as well.

Using this power cannot force an animal to do something against its nature, or to force a creature to risk its life. While the aforementioned grizzly would stand guard to the vampire’s haven and even fight for it, it would not do so against obviously superior numbers or something overwhelmingly supernatural. A predatory bird might be convinced to harry a target, but would definitely not hold ground. A docile dog or skittish cat would have no problem with reporting something it had seen, but it wouldn’t enter combat unless given no other option — though it would likely agree to stand and fight and then flee at the first opportunity, if a harsh Kindred demanded it.

[+/-] Beckoning

Beckoning
V20 Core, pg 130

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, shrilling 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, and some percentage of them will heed the Beckoning if it is successful. While the vampire has no further control over the beasts who answer, the animals who do are favorably disposed toward him and are at least willing to listen to the Kindred’s concerns. (The vampire can then use Feral Whispers on individual animals to command them, which may be at a decreased difficulty at Storyteller discretion.)

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 notched ear he saw the other night.

Successes	Result
1 success	A single animal responds.
2 successes	One-quarter of the animals within earshot respond.
3 successes	Half of the animals respond.
4 successes	Most of the animals respond.
5 successes	All of the animals respond.

[+/-] Quell the Beast

Quell the Beast
V20 Core, pg 130

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, strong emotions — hope, fury, love, fear — within the target. The Kindred must either touch his subject or stare into her eyes to channel his will effectively.

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, though the effect itself is identical. Tzimisce call it Cowing the Beast, since they force the mortal’s weaker spirit to shrivel 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 down the Beast through fear, or Manipulation + Empathy if soothing it into complacency. The difficulty of the roll is 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 not affect that subject’s Beast for the remainder of the scene.

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 believes her life is truly threatened. To recover from this power, the mortal’s player rolls Willpower (difficulty 6) once per day until she accumulates enough successes to equal the vampire’s Willpower. Kindred cannot be affected by this power.

Though a vampire’s Beast cannot be cowed with this ability, the Storyteller may allow characters to use the “soothing” variation of this power to pull a vampire out of frenzy. With three or more successes, the frenzying vampire may roll again to pull herself out of frenzy, using the same difficulty as the stimulus that caused the frenzy originally.

[+/-] Subsume the Spirit

Subsume the Spirit
V20 Core, pg 131

By locking his gaze with that of an animal, the vampire may mentally possess the creature. Some elders believe that since animals don’t have souls but spirits, the vampire can move his own soul into the animal’s body. Many younger vampires think it a matter of transferring one’s consciousness into the animal’s mind. In either case, it’s agreed that the beast’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.

Some haughty Tzimisce eschew 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 in connecting to the natural world in this way. They delight in sampling different animals’ natures.

System: The player rolls Manipulation + Animal Ken (difficulty 8) as the character looks into the animal’s eyes (see sidebar on p. 152). The number of successes allows the character to employ some mental Disciplines while possessing the animal, as noted below.

Successes	Result
1 success	Cannot use Disciplines
2 successes	Can use Auspex and other sensory powers
3 successes	Can also use Presence and other powers of emotional manipulation
4 successes	Can also use Dementation, Dominate, and other powers of mental manipulation
5 successes	Can also use Chimerstry, Necromancy, Thaumaturgy, and other mystical powers

This power entwines the character’s consciousness closely with the animal’s spirit, so much so that the character may continue to think and feel like that animal even after breaking the connection. This effect continues until the character spends a total of seven nights or three Willpower points to resist and finally overcome the animal nature. This should be roleplayed, though the character will be affected to a lesser degree if the player chooses to spend Willpower.

At the end of any particularly 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 returns the character to his body, and also sends him into frenzy.

The character may travel as far from his own physical body as he chooses while possessing the animal. The character 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 must be awake to do so, requiring a successful roll to remain awake (see p. 262). If the character leaves the animal’s body (by choice, if his body falls asleep, or 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 animal’s body sustains is also applied to the character’s body, though the Kindred body may soak as normal. If the animal 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, but some Kindred believe that the vampire’s soul is cast adrift during this time and must find its way back to the body.

[+/-] Drawing Out the Beast

Drawing Out the Beast
V20 Core, pg 132

At this level of Animalism, the Kindred has a keen understanding of the Beast Within, and is able to release his feral urges upon another mortal or vampire. 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 unleashing their Beasts onto others. Gangrel do so to stir their ghouls into inspired heights of savagery during combat. Tzimisce care less about who receives their Beast than retaining their own composure.

System: The player must announce his preferred target (since it must be someone within sight, Drawing Out the Beast cannot be used if the vampire is alone), then roll Manipulation + Self-Control/Instinct (difficulty 8). Refer to the table below for the results:

Successes	Result
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. Alternatively, the character may act normally during the turn, but must spend a Willpower point or suffer a single level of lethal damage.
3+ successes	The character transfers the Beast successfully.

If the attempt fails, the character himself immediately enters frenzy. 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 exponentially. Botching this roll is even more catastrophic; the heightened frenzy grows so extreme that not even expending Willpower curbs its duration or effects. The character is a hapless victim to the terrible fury of his Beast, and may well hurl herself into a savage, flesh-rending rampage that leaves the Masquerade (and unfortunate nearby onlookers) in tatters.

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 coax the Beast into its proper vessel. 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).

Auspex

V20 Core, pg 134

Auspex gives the vampire uncanny sensory abilities. She starts with the capacity to heighten her natural senses significantly, but as she grows in power, she can perceive psychic auras and read the thoughts of another being. Auspex can also pierce through mental illusions such as those created by Obfuscate — see the sidebar “Seeing the Unseen” on p. 142 for more.

However, a vampire with Auspex needs to be careful. Her increased sensory sensitivity can cause her to be drawn in by beautiful things or stunned by loud noises or pungent smells. Sudden or dynamic events can disorient an Auspex-using character unless her player makes a Willpower roll to block them out (difficulty of at least 4, although 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. While the Malkavians and Toreador are more prone to these kinds of distractions, the Tremere and Tzimisce aren’t immune.

Dots in Perception are very useful for using Auspex powers, as more successes help the character gain more sensory information.

Seeing the Unseen - Sidebar
V20 Core, pg 142

Auspex enables Kindred to perceive many things beyond the limits of lesser senses. Among its many uses, Auspex can detect the presence of a supernatural being who is hidden from normal sight (a vampire using Obfuscate, for example, or a ghost) or pierce illusions created by the Discipline of Chimerstry. Note: “Normal sight” includes regular, non-Auspex use of the Awareness skill.

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, and she succeeds at a Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty equals 7 minus the number of dots by which her Auspex exceeds his Obfuscate). Conversely, if the target’s Obfuscate outranks her Auspex, he remains undiscovered. If the two ratings are equal, both characters make a resisted roll of Perception + Awareness (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). The Auspex-user and Chimerstry-wielder then compare relative ratings, per Obfuscate, above. The process is otherwise identical to piercing Obfuscate.

Other Powers: Since the powers of beings like magi 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 + Awareness, while the subject rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge. Again, the difficulty is 7, and the character with the most successes wins.

[+/-] Heightened Senses

Heightened Senses
V20 Core, pg 134

This power increases the acuity of all of the vampire’s senses, effectively doubling the clarity and range of sight, hearing, and smell. While her senses of taste and touch extend no farther than normal, they likewise become far more distinct; 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 this power. In addition to the possibility for distraction, an especially sudden or potent stimulus (like the glare of a spotlight or a clap of thunder) can blind or deafen the Kindred for an hour or more.

System: It takes a reflexive action to activate this ability, but no roll or other cost is required. In certain circumstances, dice rolls associated with using the character’s sense (such as Perception + Alertness) decrease in difficulty by a number equal to the character’s Auspex rating when the power is engaged.

The Storyteller may also use this power to see if the character perceives a threat. In this case, the Storyteller privately rolls the character’s unmodified Auspex rating, applying whatever difficulty he feels best suits the circumstances. For example, sensing that a pistol is pointed at the back of the character’s head may require a roll of difficulty 5, while the sudden realization that a rival for Primogen is planning her assassination may require a 9. Note that even this “precognition” comes only as a result of interpreting details the Kindred is able to notice. It’s not an all-purpose insight or miraculous revelation.

At the character’s discretion, she may selectively heighten one specific sense, rather than leaving them all on. In these cases, the difficulty to perceive stimuli using that sense drops by one, but the difficulty to avoid distraction or temporary bedazzlement increases by one.

This power does not let characters see in pitch darkness, as does Eyes of the Beast (p. 199), but it does reduce difficulty penalties to act in such 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.

[+/-] Aura Perception

Aura Perception
V20 Core, pg 135

Condition	Aura Colors
Afraid	Orange
Aggressive	Purple
Angry	Red
Bitter	Brown
Calm	Light Blue
Compassionate	Pink
Conservative	Lavender
Depressed	Grey
Desirous or Lustful	Deep Red
Distrustful	Light Green
Envious	Dark Green
Excited	Violet
Generous	Rose
Happy	Vermilion
Hateful	Black
Idealistic	Yellow
Innocent	White
Lovestruck	Blue
Obsessed	Green
Sad	Silver
Spiritual	Gold
Suspicious	Dark Blue
Anxious	Auras appear scrambled like static or white noise
Confused	Mottled, shifting colors
Diablerist	Black veins in aura
Daydreaming	Sharp flickering colors
Frenzied	Rapidly rippling colors
Psychotic	Hypnotic, swirling colors
Vampire	Aura colors are pale
Ghoul	Pale blotches in the aura
Magic Use	Myriad sparkles in aura
Werebeast	Bright, vibrant aura
Ghost	Weak, intermittent aura
Faerie	Rainbow highlights in aura

Using this power, the vampire can 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 emotional states, vampires use Aura Perception to detect supernatural beings. The colors in Kindred auras, while intense, are quite pale; mage halos often flare and crackle with arcane power; the race of shapeshifters has strikingly bright, almost frantic, auras; ghosts have weak auras that flicker fitfully like a dying flame; and faerie creatures’ radiance is shot through with capricious rainbow hues.

System: After the character stares at the subject for at least a few seconds, 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 failure indicates that the play of colors and patterns yields no prevailing impression. A botch indicates a false or erroneous interpretation. The Storyteller may wish to make this roll, thus keeping the player in the dark as to the veracity of the character’s interpretation.

Successes	Result
1 success	Can distinguish only the shade (pale or bright).
2 successes	Can distinguish the main color.
3 successes	Can recognize the color patterns.
4 successes	Can detect subtle shifts.
5 successes	Can identify mixtures of color and pattern.

The Aura Colors chart offers some example ideas of common colors and the emotions they reflect that Storytellers can use. Note that it is nearly impossible to determine with certainty if a particular character is lying or not with this power – vampires are inherently deceitful by nature, but even mortals might react with anxiety to questions while still being truthful. It is, however, helpful in determine the target’s emotional state, which might lead the vampire to decide that a particular target is suspicious.

A character may choose to perform a very cursory aura scan of a large area like a nightclub’s dance floor or the audience in a gallery. In this case, the player decides which characteristic of auras she’s looking for, and that’s the only information she’s able to glean if the roll is successful. (At the Storyteller’s discretion, on this general scan roll, more successes on the roll may more quickly yield what the character seeks.) For example, the player may specify, “Who’s the most nervous person in attendance?” or “Are there any vampirically pale auras among the CEO’s entourage?” Thereafter, the player may narrow down her scrutiny of a single individual, with an additional roll as normal.

The character may focus in on a particular subject’s aura only once per scene 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 24 hours, 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. Refer to "Seeing the Unseen," W20 Vampire Core, pg 142, for more information.

[+/-] The Spirit's Touch

The Spirit's Touch
V20 Core, pg 136

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. (For these purposes, a corpse counts as an “object” and can be read accordingly.) 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 a murder hours ago may require a 4, while learning who owned a bloodstained puppet fashioned a century ago might be a 9.

The greater the individual’s emotional connection to the object, the stronger the impression he leaves on it — and the more information the Kindred can glean from it. Events involving strong emotions (a gift-giving, a torture, a long family history) likewise leave stronger impressions than short or casual contact do. Assume that each success offers one piece of information, as per the chart below.

Successes	Information
Botch	The character is overwhelmed by psychic impressions for the next 30 minutes and unable to act.
Failure	No information of value.
1 success	Very basic information: the last owner’s gender or hair color, for instance.
2 successes	A second piece of basic information.
3 successes	More useful information about the last owner, such as age and state of mind the last time he used the item.
4 successes	The person’s name.
5+ successes	A wealth of information: nearly anything you want to know about the person’s relationship with that object is available.

At the Storyteller’s discretion, some impressions on objects may be so strong — a knife plunged into Caesar’s breast, the tip of the Spear of Destiny, a fang pulled from the maw of Dracula — that any use of this power may be deemed a success.

[+/-] Telepathy

Telepathy
V20 Core, pg 137

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 directing their mortal followers with silent precision.

System: The player rolls Intelligence + Subterfuge (difficulty of the subject’s current Willpower points). Projecting thoughts into the target’s mind requires one success. The subject recognizes that the thoughts come from somewhere other than his own consciousness, though he cannot discern their actual origin without a successful Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty equal to the vampire’s Manipulation + Subterfuge).

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.

Reading thoughts with Telepathy does not commonly work upon the undead mind. A character may expend a Willpower point to make the effort, making the roll normally afterward. Likewise, it is equally difficult to read the thoughts of other supernatural creatures. However, the character may project her thoughts without expending a Willpower point. These thoughts, however, are still obviously intrusions into the target’s mind, but the character may attempt to disguise her mental “voice” with a roll of Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty equals the target’s Perception + Awareness) so the target doesn’t recognize her as the “speaker.”

Storytellers are encouraged to describe thoughts as flowing streams of impressions and images, rather than as a sequence of prose (powers such as Telepathic Communication are of more use for that). Instead of making flat statements like “He’s planning on killing his former lover’s new boyfriend,” say “You see a fleeting series of visions: 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, but they also force the player to interpret for herself what her character gleans. After all, understanding minds — especially highly emotional or deranged minds — is a difficult and often puzzling task.

[+/-] Psychic Projection

Psychic Projection
V20 Core, pg 138

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 ghosts, 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 will accomplish 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 + Awareness roll. Difficulty varies depending on the distance and complexity of the intended trip; 5 is within sight, 7 is nearby or to a familiar location, and 9 reflects 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, arriving in a place where the sun is active (necessitating a frenzy roll, although the sunlight doesn’t do any damage), or hurtling toward the desired destination so forcefully that the silver cord snaps.

The player may spend a point of Willpower to activate this power, and an additional point of Willpower to gain the success necessary to perform the jaunt. This is an exception to the normal rule where a player may not spend more than a single point of Willpower per turn. Each scene in Psychic Projection 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 roughly 1000 miles per hour or 1500 kilometers 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 ghost-like 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 some or all Animalism, Dementation, Dominate, Necromancy, Obtenebration, Presence, Thaumaturgy, and similar non-corporeal powers she has, though this typically requires a minimum of three successes on the initial Psychic Projection roll.

If 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 character remains in the reflection of the mortal world, she may venture further into the spirit realms, especially if she becomes lost. Other beings with particular sensitivity to psychic activity, such as ghosts, werewolves, and even some magi, travel the astral plane as well, and can interact with a vampire’s psychic presence normally (although the astrally projected character is not considered a “ghost” for powers such as Necromancy). The observing character notices the astrally projecting vampire with a Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty 8), requiring more successes than the Psychic Projection activation roll. Even those who do notice you won’t be able to identify you; you are merely an immaterial shade hovering in the general area. 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 their earthly appearances.

Celerity

V20 Core, pg 142

Not all vampires are slow, meticulous creatures. When needed, some vampires can move fast — really fast. Celerity allows Assamites, Brujah, and Toreadors to move with astonishing swiftness, becoming practically a blur. The Assamites use their speed in conjunction with stealth to strike quickly and viciously from the shadows before they are noticed. Brujah, on the other hand, simply like the edge that the power gives them against overwhelming odds. The Toreador are more inclined to use Celerity to provide an air of unnatural grace to live performances or for an extra push to complete a masterpiece on time, but they can be as quick to draw blood as any assassin or punk when angered.

System: Each point of Celerity adds one die to every Dexterity-related dice roll. In addition, the player can spend one blood point to take an extra action up to the number of dots he has in Celerity at the beginning of the relevant turn; this expenditure can go beyond her normal Generation maximum. Any dots used for extra actions, however, are no longer available for Dexterity-related rolls during that turn. These additional actions must be physical (e.g., the vampire cannot use a mental Discipline like Dominate multiple times in one turn), and extra 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 divide their dice if she wants to take multiple actions in a single turn, as per p. 248. 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, however.

Chimerstry

V20 Vore, pg 144

The Ravnos are known as masters of illusion, although the reason why is lost to history. Rumors abound of Ravnos ghûls, rakshasas, and shapeshifters, but whatever its origins, Chimerstry remains a potent and powerful weapon for the Deceivers. The Discipline is, fundamentally, an art of conjuration that converts the vampire’s will into phantoms that confound the senses and technology alike. Even vampires fall under the sway of the Ravnos’ illusory world, unless they have a strong enough grasp of Auspex (see p. 142). The Ravnos often use this power to swindle and seduce their victims into acts that work out badly for the victim (but great for the Ravnos).

Illusions created by Chimerstry can 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 effectively banishes the illusion), and explicitly incredible illusions are seen as false immediately (e.g., dragons breathing fire or gravity working in reverse). Sometimes, frequent targets of Chimerstry end up attempting to disbelieve everything around them, leading to derangements (and, quite often, to the amusement of the Ravnos).

[+/-] Ignis Fatuus

Ignis Fatuus
V20 Core, pg 144

The vampire may conjure a minor, static mirage that confounds one sense. For instance, he may evoke a sulfurous stench, the appearance of stigmata, or the shatter of broken glass. Note that though 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. Similarly, the vampire must know the characteristics of what he’s creating. While it’s easy enough to estimate what a knife wound might look like, falsifying a person’s voice or a photograph of a childhood home requires knowledge of the details.

System: The player spends a point of Willpower for the vampire to create this illusion. The volume of smells, ambient lighting, smoke clouds, and the like are limited to roughly 20 cubic feet (half a cubic meter) per dot the vampire has in Chimerstry. The illusion lasts until the vampire 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 with no effort.

[+/-] Fata Morgana

Fata Morgana
V20 Core, pg 144

The Cainite can now create illusions that appeal to all the senses, though they remain static. For example, the vampire could make a filthy cellar appear as an opulent ballroom, though she could not create a glittering chandelier or a score of graceful dancers. Again, the illusion has no solid presence, though it’s easy enough to fool an enraptured visitor with suggestions of what she might expect. A bucket of brackish water is as cool as chilled champagne, after all.

System: The player spends a Willpower point and a blood point to create the illusion. These static images remain until dispelled, in much the same way that an Ignis Fatuus illusion does.

[+/-] Apparition

Apparition
V20 Core, pg 144

Not really a power unto itself, Apparition allows a vampire to give motion to an illusion created with Ignis Fatuus or Fata Morgana. Thus, the Cainite could create the illusion of a living being, running water, fluttering drapes, or a roaring fire.

System: The creator spends one blood point to make the illusion move in one significant way, or in any number of subtle ways. For example, the vampire could create the illusion of a lurking mugger lurching at her victim, or she could create the illusion of a desolate street, down which a chill wind blows trash while a streetlamp flickers and hums. Taking complicated actions besides maintaining the illusion — that is, anything that would require a dice roll — first requires success on a Willpower roll, resulting in the dissolution of the false construct if the roll fails.

Once the creator stops concentrating on the illusion, it can continue in simple, repetitive motions – roughly speaking, anything that can be described in a simple sentence, such as a guard walking back and forth in front of a steel door. After that, the vampire cannot regain control over the illusion – she can either allow it to continue moving as ordered, or let it fade as described under Ignis Fatuus.

[+/-] Permanency

Permanency
V20 Core, pg 145

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 (including “programmed” illusions like those created by Apparition).

[+/-] Horrid Reality

Horrid Reality
V20 Core, pg 145

Rather than create simple illusions, the vampire can now project hallucinations directly into a victim’s mind. The target of these illusions believes completely that the images are real; a hallucinatory fire can burn him, an imaginary noose can strangle him, and an illusory wall can block him. This power affects only one person at a time; though others can see the illusion, it doesn’t impact them in the same way. Other people can try to convince the victim that his terrors are not real, but he won’t believe them. Note that targets with enough dots in Auspex can still attempt to roll for Seeing the Unseen (p. 142).

System: A Horrid Realty illusion costs two Willpower points to set in motion and lasts for an entire scene (though 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/Instinct). Each success inflicts one health level of lethal damage on the victim that cannot be soaked — the Cainite assaults the victim’s mind and perceptions, not his body. If the player wishes to inflict less damage or change it to bashing, he may announce a maximum amount of damage before rolling the dice. Secondary effects (such as frenzy rolls for illusory fire) may also occur.

The victim heals all his damage instantaneously if he can be convinced that the damage he took was illusory, but convincing him may take some doing, such as with at least two successes on a Charisma + Empathy roll (difficulty equal to the Manipulation + Subterfuge of the Cainite using Horrid Reality). The target must be convinced of the attack’s illusory nature within 24 hours of its taking place, or it becomes too well established in his memory, and he will have to heal the damage using blood (if a vampire) or over time (if mortal).

This power cannot actually kill its victims (though a target with a heart condition may well die from fright). A victim “killed” by an illusory attack loses consciousness or enters torpor.

Dementation

V20 Core, pg 147

Dementation is the Discipline that allows a vampire to focus and channel madness into the minds of those around him. Though it’s the natural legacy of the Malkavians, practitioners of Dementation need not actually be mad to use the Discipline… but it helps.

Disturbingly, Dementation doesn’t actually make their victims mad, but rather it seems to break down the doors to the hidden darkness of the target’s mind, releasing into the open whatever is found there. The Malkavians claim that this is because insanity is the next logical step in mental evolution, a transhumanist advancement of what modern people consider consciousness. Other Kindred scoff that this reasoning is an outright justification for the chaos that Dementation brings. They don’t scoff too loudly, however, lest the Malkavian advance their consciousness next.

[+/-] Passion

Passion
V20 Core, pg 148

The vampire stirs 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 inflame mild irritation into quivering rage or atrophy true love into casual interest.

System: The character talks to her victim, and the vampire’s player rolls Charisma + Empathy (difficulty equals the victim’s Humanity or Path rating). 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 subtractions to difficulties of frenzy rolls, Virtue rolls, rolls to resist Presence powers, etc.

Successes	Result
1 success	One turn
2 successes	One hour
3 successes	One night
4 successes	One week
5 successes	One month
6+ successes	Three months

[+/-] The Haunting

The Haunting
V20 Core, pg 148

The vampire manipulates 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 Dementation 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 memories, or anything else that the Storyteller finds dramatically appropriate. The effects are never pleasant or unobtrusive, however. The Storyteller should let her imagination run wild when describing these sensory impressions; the victim may well feel as if she is going mad, or as if the world is.

System: After the vampire speaks to the victim, the player spends a blood point and rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty of his victim’s Perception + Self-Control/Instinct). 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.

Successes	Result
1 success	One night
2 successes	Two nights
3 successes	One week
4 successes	One month
5 successes	Three months
6+ successes	One year

[+/-] Eyes of Chaos

Eyes of Chaos
V20 Core, pg 148

This peculiar power allows the vampire to take advantage of the fleeting clarity hidden in insanity. She may scrutinize the “patterns” of 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, or the patterns of fate.

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, and an established ally a 6. The vampire 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.

This is a potent power, subject to adjudication. Storytellers, this power is an effective way to introduce plot threads for a chronicle, reveal an overlooked clue, foreshadow important events, or communicate critical information a player seeks. Important to its use, though, is delivering the information properly. Secrets revealed via Eyes of Chaos are never simple facts; they’re tantalizing symbols adrift in a sea of madness. Describe the results of this power in terms of allegory: “The man before you appears as a crude marionette, with garish features painted in bright stage makeup, and strings vanishing up into the night sky.” Avoid stating plainly, “You learn that this ghoul is the minion of a powerful Methuselah.”

[+/-] Voice of Madness

Voice of Madness
V20 Core, pg 149

By merely addressing his victims aloud, the Kindred 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, though 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, though 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 this power, though his difficulty to resist is one lower than normal. If the initial roll to invoke this power is a failure, however, the roll to resist the frenzy is one higher than normal. If the roll to invoke this power is a botch, the frenzy or Rötschreck response is automatic.

[+/-] Total Insanity

Total Insanity
V20 Core, pg 149

The vampire coaxes the madness from the deepest recesses 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 Kindred 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 current Willpower points). If the roll is successful, the victim is afflicted with five derangements of the Storyteller’s choice (see p. 290). The number of successes determines the duration.

Successes	Result
1 success	One turn
2 successes	One night
3 successes	One week
4 successes	One month
5+ successes	One year

On a botch… well, the Storyteller can decide what a vampire inflicts upon herself by attempting to incite the primal hells lurking within the darkest recesses of a victim’s mind.

The victim (or the target of a botch) can spend a number of Willpower points equal to the successes rolled to end the duration prematurely. The Storyteller decides when such Willpower points can be spent (such as after a therapy session or after a friend has managed to prove a particular delusion to be false).

Dominate

V20 Core, pg 151

Dominate is one of the most dreaded of Disciplines. It is a vampire’s ability to influence another person’s thoughts and actions through her own force of will. Dominate requires that the vampire capture her victim’s gaze (see p. 152); as such, it may be used against only one subject at a time. Further, commands must be issued verbally, although simple orders may be made with signs — for example, a pointed finger and forceful expression to indicate “Go!” However, the subject won’t comply if he can’t understand the vampire, no matter how powerful the Kindred’s will is.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, vampires to which Dominate comes naturally tend to be from willful, domineering Clans. The Giovanni, Lasombra, Tremere, and Ventrue all consider an iron will to be a boon, and are ea- ger to impose that iron will on any who would move against them.

Eye Contact - Sidebar
V20 Core, pg 152

Many myths and stories exist about a vampire’s mystical ability to put people under her spell by looking deeply into her victim’s eyes. The persistence of such stories through the ages isn’t surprising, since a number of Kindred Disciplines powers (most notably Dominate) require eye contact in order to work. Other vampires, learning of this requirement, have attempted everything from wearing mirrored sunglasses to gouging out their own eyes in order to prevent an elder from exerting his will upon them.

But Kindred are not so easily thwarted.

The need for eye contact stems from the aggressor Kindred’s need to see his victim’s soul, and the eyes are the traditionally known as the windows to the soul. While the vampire needs to capture his target’s attention, the target’s eyes need not be present for such a power to work (although the arts of the Tzimisce make this somewhat challenging at times) — they only need to find the soul of his victim laid bare.

A target trying to avoid eye contact can make a Willpower roll against a difficulty equal to Dominate user’s Manipulation + Intimidation (or other appropriate combination for other Disciplines or specific situations, at the Storyteller’s discretion). The difficulty may be reduced for mitigating factors: -1 in the case of the target obscuring his eyes slightly (such as closing her eyes or wearing dark sunglasses) up to a -3 for the eyes being completely unseen (such as with a thick blindfold or having her eyes torn out). Ultimately, however, it is up to the Storyteller to decide whether eye contact is established in a particular case.

[+/-] Command

Command
V20 Core, pg 152

The vampire locks eyes with the subject and speaks a one-word command, which the subject must be obey instantly. The order must be clear and straightforward: run, agree, fall, yawn, jump, laugh, surrender, stop, scream, 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 harmful to 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 is likely to attribute the utterance and the subsequent action to bizarre coincidence.

System: The player rolls Manipulation + Intimidation (difficulty equals the target’s current Willpower points). 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, scream uncontrollably).

Remember, too, that being commanded to against one’s Nature confounds the use of this power. Being told to “sleep!” in a dangerous situation or “attack!” in police custody may not have the desired effect, or indeed, any effect at all.

[+/-] Mesmerize

Mesmerize
V20 Core, pg 152

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, though the two need to maintain eye contact only 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). It is not useful for planting illusions or false memories (such as seeing a rabbit or believing yourself to be on fire). A subject can have only one suggestion implanted at any time.

System: The player rolls Manipulation + Leadership (difficulty equal to the target’s current Willpower points). 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 steal a car). 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 governs in the target’s behavior; the other suggestion is wiped clean. If the successes rolled are equal, the newer command supplants the old one.

[+/-] The Forgetful Mind

The Forgetful Mind
V20 Core, pg 153

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 strongly the new memories take hold, since the victim’s subconscious mind resists the alteration. 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 thought about texting your girlfriend while you were in line at the new movie theater, but you knew you’d have to turn your phone off once you got inside. 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 knowing what the subject did that evening. Doing so leaves a gap in the victim’s mind, however — 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 original thoughts held.

As such, this power isn’t always completely effective. The victim may remember being bitten, but believe 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 sense when a subject’s memories were altered through use of this power, and even restore them, as a hypnotist draws forth suppressed thoughts.

System: The player states what sorts of alteration he wants to perform, then rolls Wits + Subterfuge (difficulty equal to the target’s current Willpower points). 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 her. The table below indicates the degree of modification possible to the subject’s memory. 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.

Successes	Result
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 removed 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. In that situation, the player must make a Wits + Empathy roll (difficulty equal to the original vampire’s permanent Willpower rating) and score more successes than his predecessor did. However, the Kindred cannot use The Forgetful Mind to restore his own memories if they were stolen in such a way.

[+/-] Conditioning

Conditioning
V20 Core, pg 154

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 Kindred. 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 equal to the target’s current Willpower points) once per scene. Conditioning is an extended action, for which the Storyteller secretly determines the number of successes required. It typically requires between five and 10 times the subject’s Self-Control/Instinct rating. Targets with more empathic Natures may require a 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 (including taking actions that would injure herself), as long as her master can communicate with her verbally. No command roll is necessary unless the subject is totally isolated from the vampire’s presence (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, simply because her master wishes it.

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 permanent Willpower rating (so a person with 5 Willpower must stay away from the vampire for just under five months). The subject regains her personality slowly during this time, though she may still lapse into brief spells of listlessness, despair, or even anger. If the vampire encounters the target before that time passes, a single successful Charisma + Leadership roll (difficulty of the target’s current Willpower points) on the part of the vampire completely reasserts the dominance.

If the subject makes it through the time period without intervention 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 now predisposed to falling under the Kindred’s mental control. New attempts require half the total number of successes than the last bout of conditioning did (which means the subject reaches the threshold for reduced difficulties sooner, as well).

[+/-] Possession

Possession
V20 Core, pg 155

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, but the vampire must capture the victim’s gaze. During the psychic struggle, the contestants’ eyes are locked on one another.

Once the Kindred overwhelms the subject’s mind, the vampire moves his 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 own 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. Supernatural creatures also cannot be possessed in this way, although ghouls that have drunk from the vampire using Possession can.

System: The vampire must completely strip away the target’s Willpower prior to possessing her. The player spends a Willpower point, then rolls Charisma + Intimidation, while the subject rolls his Willpower in a resisted action (difficulty 7 for each). For each success the vampire obtains over the victim’s total, the target loses a point of temporary Willpower. Only if the attacker botches can the subject escape her fate, since this makes the target immune to any further Dominate attempts by that vampire for the rest of the story.

Once the target loses all her temporary Willpower, her mind is open. The vampire rolls Manipulation + Intimidation (difficulty 7) to determine how fully he assumes control of the mortal shell. Similar to the Animalism power Subsume the Spirit, multiple successes allow the character to utilize some mental Disciplines, noted on the chart below. (Vampires possessing ghouls can use the physical Disciplines the ghoul possesses, but not the mental ones.)

Successes	Result
1 success	Cannot use Disciplines
2 successes	Can use Auspex and other sensory powers
3 successes	Can also use Presence and other powers of emotional manipulation
4 successes	Can also use Dementation, Dominate, and other powers of mental manipulation
5 successes	Can also use Chimerstry, Necromancy, Thaumaturgy, and other mystical powers

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 in the mortal form. However, the vampire’s own body must be awake to do so, requiring a successful roll to remain awake (see p. 262). If the vampire leaves the mortal shell (by choice, if his body falls asleep, through supernatural expulsion, after sustaining significant injury, etc.), 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 (though 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, though some Kindred believe that the vampire’s soul is cast adrift during 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. A vampire trapped in a mortal body may not be “re-Embraced.” If the Embrace occurs to such a creature, he simply meets Final Death.

Resisting Dominate - Sidebar
V20 Core, pg 158

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, as 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 extraordinary mental resolve, can shrug off this Discipline’s effects. Only a foolish vampire ignores the potential threat such human beings represent. (See p. 372 for more information about True Faith, for example.)

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. Scholars of the Kindred condition suspect that this is one of the protections Caine put in place to protect himself from the whims of his willful childer. A faction of those who believe this theory also maintain that this implies that Caine himself employed the Discipline of Dominate.

Nature: A character’s Nature can have a distinct impact on how easily Dominate influences her. A vampire might easily control subjects with inherently empathic Natures (Caregiver, Child, Conformist), 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 required difficulty or number of successes by one or two when the player rolls against those subjects with “weaker” Natures, or raise them by a similar amount for “stronger” Natures. On the other hand, “strong” Natures might be more easiliy 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.

Botches: If a Dominate roll botches, the target is rendered immune to future attempts by the same vampire for the rest of the story.

Flight

V20 Core, pg 447

Gargoyles possess a fourth in-clan Discipline, called Flight. All Gargoyles start with a free dot, and it can be increased like any other Discipline. As the Gargoyle gains dots of Flight, he becomes capable of flying faster, as follows:

Points	Description
	The character cannot actually fly, but can soar like a hang-glider. He also cannot carry anything (he needs his hands to help steer). Maximum speed is equal to prevailing winds, or 15 miles/25 kilometers per hour in calm air.
	The character can make a running takeoff and carry 20 pounds/10 kilograms while flying. Maximum speed is 30 miles/50 kilometers per hour.
	The character can make a straight, vertical takeoff if unencumbered, or can make a running take-off carrying up to 50 pounds/25 kg. Maximum air speed is 45 miles/70 kilometers per hour.
	The character can now make a vertical takeoff with up to 50 pounds/25 kg of baggage, but can carry up to 100 pounds/45 kg while flying. Maximum speed is 60 miles/95 kilometers per hour.
	The character can now carry up to 200 pounds/90 kg, easily enough to carry away an adult person (or vampire). Maximum speed is 75 miles/120 kilometers per hour.

Further dots in the Discipline add 100 pounds/45 kg of weight and 20 miles/30 kilometers per hour to the speed. Gargoyles don’t think of Flight as a Discipline. To them, it’s just flight, part and parcel to being a Gargoyle, and may be baffled by notions such as teaching it to other vampires.

Fortitude

V20 Core, pg 158

Although all vampires have an unnatural constitution that make them much sturdier than mortals, Fortitude bestows a resilience that would make an action movie hero envious. Vampires with this Discipline can shrug off agonizing trauma and make the most bone-shattering impact look like a flesh wound. The power even offers protection against the traditional banes of vampires, such as sunlight and fire, and the Gangrel, Ravnos, and Ventrue all find that edge incredibly useful.

System: A character’s rating in Fortitude adds to his Stamina for the purposes of soaking normal damage (bashing and lethal). A character with this Discipline may also use his dots in Fortitude to soak aggravated damage, though Kindred cannot normally soak things like vampire bites, werewolf claws, magical effects, fire, sunlight, or massive physical trauma. See p. 272, for further details on soaking and damage.

Melpominee

V20 Core, pg 452

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 record Melpominee effects, send them across radio waves, or have them streamed over the Internet.

Daughters of Cacophony can use some of the powers of the Melpominee Discipline in concert, as it were. If more than one Siren uses the same level of this Discipline simultaneously, the difficulty for the roll falls by one for each Daughter involved beyond the first. The difficulty cannot fall lower than 3, however. The Discipline levels that can benefit from this rule are noted below.

[+/-] The Missing Voice

The Missing Voice
V20 Core, pg 453

The character can “throw” her voice anywhere within her line of sight. This enables the Daughter to carry on surreptitious conversations, sing duets with herself, or cause any number of distractions. This power can also be combined with other Melpominee powers to disguise their source (and some Daughters use it to conceal the fact that Melpominee powers do not function through recorded media).

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.

[+/-] Phantom Speaker

Phantom Speaker
V20 Core, pg 453

The Daughter can project her voice to any individual she has personally met. Distance is no object, but it must be night wherever the target presently is. The vampire can sing, talk, or otherwise project her voice in any way she sees fit (including other uses of Melpominee), but she cannot hear what she is saying, and therefore suffers a +1 difficulty to any rolls accompanying her utterance. For instance, the vampire could project her voice to an enemy in an attempt to intimidate him, but would suffer a +1 to the difficulty of the Charisma + Intimidation roll.

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.

[+/-] Madrigal

Madrigal
V20 Core, pg 453

Music has the power to sway the listener, engendering specific emotions through artful lyrics, pounding crescendo, or haunting melody. The Daughters of Cacophony can tap into music’s power, forcing listeners to feel whatever they wish. The emotion becomes so powerful that the listener must act, though what a listener does isn’t something the Siren can directly control.

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 well she sings “High Hopes,” but they might if she performs “I Predict a Riot.” 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. Multiple Daughters may use this Discipline in concert.

[+/-] Siren's Beckoning

Siren's Beckoning
V20 Core, pg 454

The Daughters of Cacophony don’t spread madness as surely (or as visibly) as the Malkavians, but their songs are definitely detrimental to one’s sanity. With this power, the Daughter can drive any listener to madness. Most of the time, the victim is too fascinated to realize that he should leave the area and block out the music from his mind.

System: Siren’s Beckoning requires an extended, resisted roll. The player rolls Manipulation + Performance (difficulty equal to the target’s current Willpower); the victim resists with a Willpower roll (difficulty equal to 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, with an additional night per success over five. With a total of 20 net successes, the Daughter can make it permanent. Multiple Daughters may use this Discipline in concert.

[+/-] Virtuosa

Virtuosa
V20 Core, pg 454

Most of the low-level Melpominee powers can only be used on one target at a time. When the Daughter reaches this level of mastery in her Discipline, she can “entertain” a wider audience. Each member of the audience hears the same message.

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.

Mytherceria

V20 Core, pg 455

Whatever odd commingling of blood which produced the Kiasyd has led to a number of weird effects, not least of which is the Mytherceria Discipline. This collection of powers mimics the abilities of faeries — or at least, that’s the best guess of the Kindred who are familiar with it. The Kiasyd use this power to alter and beguile the minds of their foes, as well as to force others to tell the truth. The Kiasyd do not, in general, teach this Discipline to those outside the bloodline, and supposedly it would require oaths sworn on the lifeblood of the student to learn.

[+/-] Folderol

Folderol
V20 Core, pg 455

The Kiasyd can cleave truth from lies. The exact effect varies from vampire to vampire. Some Kiasyd experience bleeding from the eyes or ears when they hear a lie, while some Weirdlings’ eyes glow when told a falsehood. Whatever the effect, this power detects lies, not mistakes, meaning that a target has to know he is lying in order for this power to work.

System: The character knows when a target is deliberately lying. No roll or expenditure is necessary for this power to work, but the character must deliberately activate it. Note that this power does not provide any insight into what the truth might be, nor does it enable the vampire to tell if a target is simply stating something false that he believes to be true.

[+/-] Fae Sight

Fae Sight
V20 Core, pg 455

The Kiasyd’s knowledge of magic isn’t just theoretical. Their strangely-colored eyes are capable of detecting the arcane energies of the fae, as well as magic from other, more esoteric sources. They are not, however, capable of using this power to detect the residue of ghosts or vampiric magic.

System: The Kiasyd sees faeries and other fae-touched mortals for what they really are, with no roll required. Additionally, the player can detect any form of magic that does not stem from ghosts or the undead, including magic from mages, werewolves, and other such odd sources. The character can recognize these for what they truly are, provided he has seen similar effects before.

[+/-] Aura Absorbtion

Aura Absorbtion
V20 Core, pg 455

The Kiasyd is capable of seeing images of events and emotions past by touching an object or an area. However, unlike the Auspex Power The Spirit’s Touch, this power absorbs the images, making them harder for other beings with similar powers to access. Anyone attempting to use this power, Spirit’s Touch, or a similar ability to see what the Kiasyd has seen finds that the images are hard to hold, slipping through his mind’s eye like minnows through a stream.

System: The player must make a Perception + Empathy roll. The difficulty is determined by the Storyteller based on 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. One 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 impression at all. The first Kiasyd’s successes subtract from the number of successes scored by anyone trying to read the object thereafter.

[+/-] Chanjelin Ward

Chanjelin Ward
V20 Core, pg 455

The vampire inscribes a ward on an object, a location, or a person. That ward disorients and befuddles anyone that sees it, meaning that even if an intruder can penetrate a Weirdling’s security and steal an object of value, he’s unlikely to be able to find his way to the exit. Spiteful Kiasyd use these wards as punishment — one story tells of a Weirdling that drew a ward on an enemy’s shirt as dawn approached, and then watched (from safety) as the unfortunate vampire burned in the sun, unable to remember which way to run.

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 + Larceny (difficulty 7 for inanimate objects, or the subject’s current Willpower +2). Anyone entering the warded area or touching the warded object loses two dice from her Intelligence dice pools as long as she maintains contact with or proximity to the ward. Additionally, anyone seeing the ward becomes addled and lost unless she succeeds on a Wits + Investigation roll (difficulty 8). The Kiasyd is immune to his own wards. The glyphs last for a duration indicated by the number of successes on the Intelligence + Larceny roll:

Successes	Result
1 success	One hour
2 successes	One night
3 successes	One week
4 successes	One month
5 successes	One year

[+/-] The Riddle Phantastique

The Riddle Fantastique
V20 Core, pg 456

The Kiasyd whispers a riddle to an opponent, and the riddle consumes his mind. The target can do nothing until he solves the riddle, and no one can help him — answers provided by others, even correct answers, fail to counteract this affliction.

System: The player rolls Manipulation + Occult (difficulty of the victim’s current 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 all successes from the accumulated total. This damage cannot be healed until the Riddle has been solved. The riddler can end this trance by telling the victim the answer, but no one else can.

Necromancy

V20 Core, pg 159

Necromancy is both a Discipline and a school of blood magic devoted to the command of the souls of the dead. It’s similar to Thaumaturgy in that it has several “paths” and accompanying “rituals” rather than a strict linear progression of powers. The study of Necromancy is not widespread among the Kindred, and its practitioners — primarily the Giovanni — are shunned and despised for their foul practices (until those practices become useful, of course).

Over the centuries, the various schools of vampiric Necromancy have evolved and diversified from an earlier form of death magic, leaving several distinct paths of necromantic magic available to Cainites. Nearly all modern necromancers learn the Sepulchre Path first before extending their studies to other paths. The primary Necromancy path increases automatically as the character increases her overall Necromancy rating. Other paths must be bought separately, using the experience costs for secondary paths.

Like Thaumaturgy, Necromancy has also spawned a series of rituals. While not nearly so immediate in effect as the basic powers of Necromancy, Necromantic rituals can have impressive long-term effects. Unsurprisingly, the elements of Necromantic ritual are things like long-buried corpses and hands from the cadavers of hanged men, so obtaining suitable materials can be quite difficult.

System: A Cainite necromancer must learn at least three levels in his primary path before learning his first level in a secondary Necromancy path. He must then master the primary path (all five levels) before acquiring any knowledge of a third path.

As with Thaumaturgy, advancement in the primary path costs the normal experience amount, while study of additional Necromantic paths incurs an additional experience-point cost (see p. 124). 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 commonly-learned Sepulchre Path is presented first, with the remaining paths presented in alphabetical order.

Statistics for ghosts may be found in Chapter Nine, V20 Core, pg 385.

Necromantic Paths

Lost Clans and bloodlines, such as the Cappadocians and the Lamia, had access to an ancient Discipline known as Mortis. Some Kindred scholars claim that Mortis and Necromancy are distinct Disciplines, but for ease the three Mortis paths presented in this book are listed as Necromancy paths. The Cappadocians (see p. 418) specialized in either the Corpse in the Monster or the Grave’s Decay, while the Lamia (see p. 422) generally took the Path of the Four Humors as their primary path. Rumors are that the Harbingers of Skulls (see p. 402) in the Sabbat have relearned the Corpse in the Monster and the Grave’s Decay, claiming them collectively as the “Mortuus Path,” but they still tend to follow most modern necromancers and choose Sepulchre Path as their primary path before learning Grave’s Decay or the Corpse in the Monster.

[+/-] The Sepulchre Path

V20 Core, pg 160

Through the Sepulchre path, the vampire can witness, summon, and command the spirits of the dead. At higher levels, the necromancer can force the ghost to remain in a particular place or object, or even damage wraiths directly. Since many other areas of Necromancy involve dealing with ghosts, this is the most common path for necromancers to start with.

Note: If a Kindred uses a Sepulchre Path power in the presence of something of great importance to the ghost the power affects, the chances for success in the summoning increase dramatically (reduce the difficulty by 2). This might be the bathtub in which the ghost’s mortal body was drowned, the rusted-out wreck of the car where the ghost’s physical body was trapped alive, or something unrelated to the ghost’s demise, such as a favorite book or a child-ghost’s beloved nursery.

[+/-] Witness of Death

Witness of Death
V20 Core, pg 160

Before it is possible to control the dead, one must perceive them. This power allows just that, attuning a vampire’s unliving senses to the presence of the incorporeal.

Under its effects, a necromancer sees ghosts as translucent phantoms gliding among the living and hears their whispers and moans. She feels the spectral cold of their touch and smells their musty hint of decay. Yet one cannot mistake the dead for the living, as they lack true substance, and appear dimmer and less real than creatures of flesh and blood. When a vampire uses this power, her eyes flicker with pale blue fire that only the dead can see.

Ghosts resent being spied upon, and more powerful shades may use their own powers to inflict their displeasure on the incautious.

System: The player rolls Perception + Awareness (difficulty 5). Success allows the vampire to perceive ghosts as described for the rest of the scene (in the mortal world — seeing ghosts in the land of the dead requires Shroudsight, on p. 163). Failure has no special effect, but a botch means the vampire can see only the dead for the scene; everything else appears as shapeless, dim shadows. While the vampire’s other senses remain attuned to the living, he is all but blind in this state and suffers a +3 difficulty to most vision-based Perception rolls and attacks. Ghosts notice the glowing eyes of a vampire using this power only with a successful Perception + Alertness roll (difficulty 7).

[+/-] Summon Soul

Summon Soul
V20 Core, pg 161

The power of Summon Soul allows a necromancer to call a ghost back from the Underworld, for conversational purposes only. In order to perform this feat (and indeed, most of the feats in this path), the vampire must meet certain conditions:

The necromancer must know the name of the wraith in question, though an image of the wraith obtained via Witness of Death (see above), Shroudsight (see p. 163), Auspex, or other supernatural perception will suffice.

An object with which the wraith had some contact in life must be in the vicinity, though it need not be something of significant importance to the ghost’s living consciousness. A piece of the ghost’s corpse works well for this purpose (and even provides a -1 difficulty modifier).

Certain types of ghosts cannot be summoned with this power. Vampires who achieved 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: The player spends one blood point and rolls Manipulation + Occult (difficulty equal to 7 or the ghost’s Willpower, whichever is higher). The vampire must know the name of the ghost and have on hand an object the ghost had contact with in life. Provided that the target has died and become a ghost, success means the shade appears before the necromancer as described above. Not everyone becomes a ghost — it requires a strong will to persevere in the face of death, and souls that have found peace pass on to their eternal rewards. Moreover, it is possible for the dead to suffer spiritual dissolution and destruction after they become ghosts. The Storyteller should consider all these factors when deciding whether a particular ghost exists for a vampire to summon.

Vampires know if their summons should have succeeded by a feeling of sudden, terrifying descent as they reach too far into the great Beyond, so this power can be used to determine whether a soul has endured beyond death. While a failure means the vampire wastes blood, a botch calls a spirit other than the one sought — usually a malevolent ghost known as a Spectre (see p. 385). Such a fiend torments the one who summoned it with every wicked power at its disposal.

Once a ghost is summoned, it may not deliberately move out of sight of the vampire, though it can take any other actions, including direct attack. The vampire’s player may spend a Willpower point to dismiss the ghost at any time (unless he rolled a botch). Otherwise, at the end of the scene, shadows engulf the spirit once more and return it to its original location.

[+/-] Compel Soul

Compel Soul
V20 Core, pg 161

With this power, a vampire can command a ghost to do his bidding for a while. Compulsion of the soul is a perilous undertaking and, when used improperly, can endanger vampire and wraith alike.

System: The vampire locates and approaches the intended ghost or calls it to his presence with Summon Soul. As with the previous power, he must have the ghost’s name and an object it handled in life. His player then spends one blood point and rolls Manipulation + Occult in a resisted roll against the ghost’s Willpower (difficulty 6 for both rolls).

If the vampire wins, the number of net successes determines the degree of control he has over the ghost (as described below). Moreover, the vampire’s control keeps ghosts that have been called with Summon Soul from returning to their original locations at the end of the scene. If the ghost wins, the vampire loses a number of Willpower points equal to the ghost’s net successes. On a tie, the roll becomes an extended contest that continues each turn until one side wins. If the vampire botches at any point, the ghost is immune to any use of the vampire’s Necromancy for the rest of the scene. If the ghost botches, it must obey as if the vampire’s player had rolled five net successes.

Successes	Result
1 success	The ghost must perform one simple task for the vampire that does not place it in certain danger. It must attend to this task immediately, although it can delay the compulsion and pursue its own business at a cost of one Willpower point per scene. The ghost may not attack the vampire until this task is complete. It is possible to issue the task of answering one question, in which case the ghost must answer truthfully and to the best of its knowledge.
2 successes	The vampire may issue two orders or ask two questions as outlined for one success. Alternatively, the vampire may demand a simple task with a real possibility of danger, as long as the danger is not certain. The ghost may delay this compulsion with Willpower.
3 successes	The vampire may issue three orders as outlined for one success. Alternatively, he may demand the ghost fulfill one difficult and dangerous task or a simple assignment that has an extended duration of up to one month. The ghost may delay such orders with Willpower.
4 successes	The vampire may issue four orders, as outlined for one success, or assign two tasks, as for two successes. Alternatively, the vampire may command the ghost to perform one complex assignment that puts the ghost at extreme risk, or perform any number of non-threatening tasks as the vampire’s slave for up to one month (or, if the necromancer spends a permanent point of Willpower, for a year and a day). It is possible for ghosts to delay individual tasks, but not put off enslavement.
5+ successes	The vampire may issue multiple orders that have a sum complexity or danger of five successes’ worth. Instead, the vampire may order the ghost to perform any one action that it is capable of executing within one month. Such a task can place the ghost in immediate peril of destruction, or even force it to betray and assault loved ones. It is not possible for ghosts to delay a task of this magnitude with Willpower — they must obey.

[+/-] Haunting

Haunting
V20 Core, pg 162

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 destruction.

System: The player spends one blood point while standing at the location for the haunting or touching the intended prison. She then has the ghost brought to her by whatever means she desires, though Summon Soul is quickest and most reliable. Her player then rolls Manipulation + Occult (difficulty is equal to the target’s current Willpower points if resisted, to a minimum of 4; otherwise it is 4). The difficulty rises by one if the vampire wishes to place the ghost in an object. As usual, the difficulty decreases by one if the necromancer has a part of the spirit’s corpse in addition to knowing its name (minimum difficulty 3).

Each success binds the ghost within the location or object for one night. This duration extends to one week if the player spends a Willpower point or a year and a day for a dot of permanent Willpower. A wraith attempting to leave the area of a haunting must make an extended Willpower roll (difficulty 9, four cumulative successes necessary in a single scene) or take a level of aggravated damage for each roll. If the wraith runs out of health levels, it is hurled deep into the Underworld to face destruction.

[+/-] Torment

Torment
V20 Core, pg 162

It is through the use of this power that powerful necromancers convince bound 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.

System: The player rolls Stamina + Empathy (difficulty equal to the wraith’s current Willpower points), and the vampire reaches out to strike the wraith. Each success inflicts a level of lethal damage on the wraith. Should the wraith lose all health levels, it immediately vanishes into what appears to be a doorway to some hideous nightmare realm. Ghosts “destroyed” thus cannot reappear in or near the real world for a month.

[+/-] The Ash Path

V20 Core, pg 162

The Ash Path allows necromancers to peer into the lands of the dead, and even affect things there. Of the 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.

[+/-] Shroudsight

Shroudsight
V20 Core, pg 163

Shroudsight allows a necromancer to see through the Shroud, the mystical barrier that separates the living world from the Underworld. By using this power, the vampire can spot ghostly buildings and items, the landscape of the so-called Shadowlands, and even wraiths themselves. However, an observant wraith may notice when a vampire suddenly starts staring at him, which can lead to unpleasant consequences.

System: A simple roll of Perception + Awareness (difficulty 7) allows a necromancer to utilize Shroudsight. The effects last for a scene.

[+/-] Lifeless Tongues

Lifeless Tongues
V20 Core, pg 163

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 the 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.

[+/-] Dead Hand

Dead Hand
V20 Core, pg 163

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 that 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 hostilities they might have.

System: The player spends a point of Willpower and makes a successful Wits + Occult roll (difficulty 7) to activate Dead Hand for one scene. For each additional scene the vampire wishes to remain in contact with the Underworld, he must spend a point of blood.

[+/-] Ex Nihilo

Ex Nihilo
V20 Core, pg 163

Ex Nihilo allows a necromancer to enter the Underworld physically. While in the lands of the dead, the vampire is essentially a particularly solid ghost. He maintains his normal number of health levels, but can be hurt only by things that inflict aggravated damage on ghosts (weapons forged from souls, certain ghostly powers, etc.). A vampire physically in the Underworld can pass through solid objects in the real world (at the cost of one health level) and remain “incorporeal” for a number of turns equal to her 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 realm of the dead 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. (The vampire may draw doors ahead of time for exactly this purpose.) The player must then expend two points of Willpower and two points of blood before making 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 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 feed upon ghosts without the use of another power; their only sustenance is the blood they bring with them.

[+/-] Shroud Mastery

Shroud Mastery
V20 Core, pg 164

Shroud Mastery offers the Kindred 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 wraiths’ attempts to cross the Shroud in any way 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.

[+/-] The Bone Path

V20 Core, pg 164

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.

Zombie Statistics - Sidebar
V20 Core, pg 164

Corpses animated by a necromancer of the Bone Path have Strength 3, Dexterity 2, Stamina 4, Brawl 2, and always act last in a turn (unless there are mitigating circumstances). They have zero Willpower points to spend, but resist attacks as if they have Willpower ratings of 10. All Mental and Social ratings are zero for a reanimated corpse, and zombies never attempt to dodge. Zombies’ dice pools are not affected by damage, except that caused by fire or the claws and teeth of supernatural creatures. Most zombies have 10 health levels, but they are incapable of healing any damage they suffer. They have no minds or personalities to affect, so they are immune to uses of powers such as Dominate and Presence. Unless otherwise noted, they likewise cannot be usurped from the control of the necromancer invoking them.

[+/-] Tremens

Tremens
V20 Core, pg 164

Tremens allows a necromancer to make the flesh of a corpse shift once. An arm might suddenly flop forward, a cadaver might sit up, or dead eyes might abruptly open. 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 that are achieved, the more complicated an action can be effected in 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 up and open its eyes.”). Under no circumstances can Tremens cause a dead body to attack or cause damage.

[+/-] Apprentice's Brooms

Apprentice's Brooms
V20 Core, pg 164

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 is setting his zombies. The cadavers turn themselves to their work until they finish the job (at which point they collapse) or something (including time) destroys them.

Corpses animated in this way have no initiative of their own, and are unable to make value judgments. They respond to very literal instruction. Thus, a zombie could be told “sweep this room every day until all the dust and cobwebs are gone” or “transcribe this manuscript” with an expectation of reasonable results, while a more open-ended command such as “fix this motorcycle” or “research this Necromantic ritual and write down the results” would be doomed to failure.

Bodies energized by this power continue to decay, albeit at a much slower rate than normal.

[+/-] Shambling Hordes

Shambling Hordes
V20 Core, pg 165

Shambling Hordes creates obvious results: reanimated corpses with the ability to attack, albeit neither 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 spends a point of Willpower. The player then must succeed on a Wits + Occult roll (difficulty 8). Each success allows the vampire to raise another corpse from the grave, and costs one blood point. If the player cannot or chooses not to pay the blood point cost of additional zombies past a certain number, the extra successes are simply lost. Each zombie 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 their mystically animated bones, the zombies will wait and wait and wait, still able to perform their duties.

[+/-] Soul Stealing

Soul Stealing
V20 Core, pg 165

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 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. It has no effect on Kindred or other supernatural creatures (except ghouls) until such creatures are dead – in the case of vampires, this means Final Death.

[+/-] Daemonic Possession

Daemonic Possession
V20 Core, pg 165

Daemonic Possession lets a vampire insert a soul into a freshly dead body. This does not turn the reanimated corpse into anything other than a reanimated corpse, one that will irrevocably decay after a week, but it does give either a wraith or 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. However, most ghosts would gladly seize the opportunity. 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 roll against the original owner of the body. Otherwise, the interloper is denied entrance.

Note: The soul can use whatever physical abilities (Athletics, Brawl, Potence) his new fleshy home possesses, and whatever mental abilities (Computer, Law, Presence) he already possessed. He cannot use the physical abilities of his old form, or the mental abilities of his new one.

[+/-] The Cenotaph Path

V20 Core, pg 166

Practitioners of the Cenotaph Path are primarily concerned with discovering or forging links between the living world and the Shadowlands. It functions on the principle that a Kindred, already a corpse, is an unnatural bridge between the living and the dead, and the necromancer can use this to find other, similar linkages. 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 focusing unsavory passions or commanding this world and the Shadowlands together.

[+/-] A Touch of Death

A Touch of Death
V20 Core, pg 166

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 ghostly 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 + Awareness (difficulty 6). If successful, the necromancer can determine whether a ghost has exerted any sort of power on the subject, or even crossed nearby, to the duration detailed below.

Successes	Result
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 successes	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 an image of the spirit 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.

[+/-] Reveal the Catene

Reveal the Catene
V20 Core, pg 166

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 similarly intense emotion. Many necromancers can detect such catene through the use of rituals (see Ritual of the Unearthed Fetter, p. 181). With this power, though, the necromancer can determine a fetter with just a few moments of handling. The Kindred simply runs 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) ghost(s). Successful identification of a connected ghost is not exclusive; that is, if the vampire determines that the object is important to a given wraith, he can also determine if there are other ghosts 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 holds 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 a 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 ghost and, with three or more successes, the identity of at least one such ghost (which allows the Kindred to use the Sepulchre Path on that wraith, if desired). If the necromancer already knows any of the ghosts involved, their ties are revealed with their identity — so, if the necromancer already knows 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 ghost, in addition to any other impressions gained.

If a botch is scored, the necromancer can never successfully use this power on the item being examined.

[+/-] Tread Upon the Grave

Tread Upon the Grave
V20 Core, pg 167

The extended awareness granted with the Cenotaph Path allows the necromancer to find locations where the Shadowlands and the living world 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 vampire 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 ghosts. 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 intent to sense the Shroud in an area and makes a Willpower roll (difficulty 8). Success reveals whether the location is highly attuned to the Shadowlands, about average (not particularly close to the world of the dead), or far removed from the realm of death. A failing attempt at using 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 necromancer into inaction for a full turn and costs him a temporary Willpower point, as he is overcome by shivers and a sense of overwhelming despair.

With three or more successes, the necromancer can determine whether the Shroud’s strength has been artificially altered in the area.

[+/-] Death Knell

Death Knell
V20 Core, pg 167

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 to the pull that occurs when a soul escapes from a body only to hover in wait, enslaved by its desires. The weight of desperation becomes like a tangible tug, and some necromancers 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 necromancer to easily discern and test names.

System: Whenever someone dies and becomes a ghost within a half-mile or kilometer of the necromancer, she automatically senses 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 ghost 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 or half a kilometer. With five successes, the necromancer immediately senses the location of the new ghost to within one foot or 30 cm. A failure carries no penalty but a botched attempt sends the necromancer scurrying off in the wrong direction.

The Storyteller may rule that disturbances in the Underworld, intervening magic, or other similar phenomena cloud this sensation, simply to prevent overburdening a chronicle with constant ghost-hunting and dice rolling.

[+/-] Ephemeral Binding

Ephemeral Binding
V20 Core, pg 168

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 Binding turns an otherwise mundane object or person into a depository for his own necromantic energy. The undying Curse transforms the subject into a sort of linkage between the living and dead. The necromancer 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 necromancer must be able to see or sense the ghost (with Witness of Death, 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 Necromancy powers, the vampire 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 vampire might turn an unwitting ghoul into a consort for a wraith familiar with possession…). The ghost 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 Willpower increases this duration to a week per success, whereas spending a permanent dot of Willpower extends the duration to a year and a day.

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.

[+/-] The Corpse in the Monster

V20 Core, pg 168

This path enhances the necromantic understanding of the unliving form and allows the user to fully experience the corpse as a gateway between life and death. The path lets the vampire apply some of a corpse’s traits to a vampire, and she can enhance or reduce these traits at various levels of the power.

[+/-] Masque of Death

Masque of Death
V20 Core, pg 168

The character with this ability can assume a visage of death or inflict that shape on another vampire. The victim’s flesh becomes pallid and thin (if it is not already), and skin pulls tight against bone. This ability can be very useful, as it allows one to hide in plain sight in a tomb or crypt at any time (though the character remains as vulnerable to sunlight and fire as ever). When a necromancer uses this power on another Kin- dred, the victim gains the same corpselike demeanor. In this sense, the ability works as something of a minor curse.

System: The player spends one blood point for the character to gain the form described. Those afflicted with the Masque of Death lose two points of Dexterity and Appearance (minimum of 1 in Dexterity and 0 in Appearance) for the duration of the power. The player also gets two extra dice to his Intimidation dice pool, should he wish to terrify any onlookers. Further, if the character remains perfectly still, observers must roll five successes on a Perception + Medicine roll (difficulty 7) to distinguish the character from a normal corpse. The player doesn’t need to roll anything to have the character stop moving — vampires have no autonomic functions.

If the user inflicts Masque of Death on another vampire, he must spend a blood point, touch the target, and then make a Stamina + Medicine roll (difficulty equal to the target’s Stamina + 3). The Masque of Death lasts until the next sunset, unless the character who created the masque wishes to extinguish its effects earlier.

[+/-] Cold of the Grave

Cold of the Grave
V20 Core, pg 169

The dead feel no pain, though most undead do. With this ability, the character can temporarily take on the unfeeling semblance of the dead, in order to protect herself from physical and emotional harm. When assuming the Cold of the Grave, the vampire’s skin becomes unusually cold. When she speaks, her breath mists even in warm air — those with exceptional senses might even see a slight red tinge to the breath.

The power brings a sense of lethargy over the character, as a mortal might feel under the influence of a mildly unpleasant disease. It becomes difficult to rouse oneself to action, and very little seems important enough to really worry about. A corpse has no worries, after all.

System: The player spends one Willpower point. For the remainder of the scene, the character takes no wound penalties, and the player gains an additional die to all dice pools that involve resisting emotional manipulation, such as Intimidation or Empathy. However, the player also loses a die from dice pools to emotionally manipulate others. The character is a cold fish to those she interacts with, and they do not respond readily to her. The Cold of the Grave does not protect the character against the depredations of the Beast. She may be emotionally cold on the surface, but if others taunt and anger her sufficiently, she is still subject to frenzy as normal.

[+/-] Curse of Life

Curse of Life
V20 Core, pg 169

The Curse of Life inflicts some of the undesirable traits of the living upon the undead, removing their corpselike nature and creating a false life to remind them of the worst things about being alive. Targets of this power regain only the unpleasant aspects of life, as culled from the memory of the Discipline’s user. This may include mundane hunger and thirst, sweat and other excretions, the need to urinate and defecate, a decrease in sensory acuity, and a particular vulnerability to attacks that the character might normally shrug off.

<font color=redSystem: The player spends one Willpower and rolls Intelligence + Medicine (difficulty 8) to affect a target within line of sight and no farther than 20 yards or meters from the character. If the roll succeeds, the target suffers the weaknesses of the living without gaining any benefit from that state. He does not become immune to sunlight or holy artifacts, for instance. However, he does become badly distracted by mundane needs, with the net result that his player suffers a +2 difficulty penalty to all rolls. He can ignore these distractions at the cost of one Willpower point per scene. Additionally, the victim cannot use blood to raise his Physical Attributes while this power is in effect, and Willpower cannot eliminate this penalty. The power remains in effect until the next sunset.

[+/-] Gift of the Corpse

Gift of the Corpse
V20 Core, pg 138

This power, one of the most potent on the Corpse in the Monster path, enables a necromancer to ignore most of her race’s inherent weaknesses for a short time. A dead body is not particularly vulnerable to sunlight, holy artifacts, frenzy, or being staked through the heart, after all, and so it is with a vampire using the Gift of the Corpse. As with the Cold of the Grave, above, the character using this power takes on an even more deathlike mien. It lasts for less than a minute, typically, but that time may be enough to enable a character to charge through a burning building without fearing frenzy or instant death.

System: The player spends one Willpower and rolls Stamina + Occult (difficulty 8). For every success, the character can spend one turn in a state in which he is more akin to an animated corpse than a vampire. Holy artifacts and sanctified ground have no effect, and the character is immune to frenzy and Rötschreck. Sunlight does only bashing damage, and then only if bare skin is exposed on a clear day. Being staked through the heart is only as much of a danger as getting stabbed through his dead spleen would be. Fire harms him only as it would a mortal — causing lethal damage instead of aggravated.

Should the character end the power’s duration while exposed to any of the aforementioned harmful things, he immediately takes their full effect. If he is staked, he become immobilized; if he is on or near fire, he begins to take the damage a Cainite should take, and he must immediately roll against Rötschreck.

[+/-] Gift of Life

Gift of Life
V20 Core, pg 170

With the Gift of Life, the character can experience the best and most positive things about being alive. The overwhelming hunger for blood temporarily abates, allowing the character to consume and enjoy food and drink. She can also enjoy sex as she wishes, and the sun does not burn her. The Gift of Life comes with a dark, terrible cost, however. Its use is almost sure to result in the death of a mortal, as the vampire must expend an enormous quantity of vitae in order to initiate it. The Discipline’s effects last until the midnight after the character uses the power, so it is in her best interests to use it just after midnight.

System: The player spends 12 blood points, burning as much blood as possible each turn until she meets that level. She then rolls Stamina + Occult (difficulty 6) and needs only one success for the power to work. A botch has catastrophic effects. The character might be instantly killed or might inadvertently Embrace her victim, for example. If it takes longer than one turn to spend the necessary blood to enact this ability, it does not take effect until all 12 points have been spent. However, the blood must be spent continuously — the vampire cannot burn five, run off and feed, then burn seven more an hour later. On the other hand, she may feed as she activates the power — in one turn she might burn one blood point while drinking three. Since few Kindred above the Seventh Generation can easily expend such an amount of blood, the most efficient way to activate this power is to have a human nearby who can be sacrificed to power the transformation.

After her transformation, the character gains many traits of an ordinary human. She is largely immune to the scorching effects of the sun (Fortitude difficulties to soak damage from direct sunlight are halved, and she takes no damage if she is sufficiently covered), and she can experience and enjoy many of the fine things about human life. She retains a few of her vampiric benefits, however. Fortitude and Auspex abilities remain in place if she has either of those Disciplines, and the Storyteller may allow her to retain other Disciplines as well if he deems them dramatically appropriate. She also retains a vampire’s benefits when it comes to handling bashing damage. However, she is still vulnerable to holy artifacts, human faith, and being staked. Her blood remains vitae, not human blood. Use of this ability — which creates a mockery of human life — may interfere with a character’s Path advancement, at the Storyteller’s discretion.

The vampire is no more vulnerable to fire than any other mortal while in this half-alive state, but she still suffers somewhat from the Beast. Frenzy and Rötschreck difficulties are halved (round up). She can remain active during the day without Humanity or Path-based dice pool caps, although she is certainly tired during the day, since that is not her usual time of activity.

Her Beast exacts a dangerous retribution when her day of “life” is done. Although its influence is greatly suppressed during this power’s duration, the Beast has its way with the vampire for the next six nights, as all difficulties to resist frenzy increase by three. The wise necromancer hides herself away somewhere during that period, but, depending on morality and temperament, enforced isolation might drive her to frenzy on its own.

[+/-] The Grave's Decay

V20 Core, pg 171

This path is derived from the observation of the working of time on all things mortal. Stone crumbles and the corpse rots away to nothing, a process of endless fascination to the lost Cainites known as Cappadocians. Indeed, for the undying, the process of decay is a fascinating disease that afflicts everyone and everything save them. Under this path, a practitioner of Necromancy channels that force.

[+/-] Destroy the Husk

Destroy the Husk
V20 Core, pg 171

Cainites who kill their victims, rather than just feeding upon them, frequently find themselves in need of a quick way to dispose of a corpse. While there are many ways to make sure that a corpse is not found — feed it to a pack of hounds or weigh it down and throw it in a river — many of these methods do involve risk to the vampire and are not guaranteed to succeed. Destroy the Husk, by contrast, is foolproof. Use of this power simply turns one human corpse to a pile of about 30 pounds (13 kilograms) of unremarkable dust, roughly the size and shape of that body.

System: The player spends one blood point as the vampire drips her vitae onto the corpse. The player then rolls Intelligence + Medicine (difficulty 6). One success is all that is needed to render the corpse into dust, although the process takes a number of turns equal to five minus the successes.

[+/-] Rigor Mortis

Rigor Mortis
V20 Core, pg 171

One of the first changes that comes over a dead body is rigidity; the corpse becomes stiff as a board, frozen in a single pose. The Cainite who wields Rigor Mortis is able to push a living or undead body to that frozen point using only his will and understanding of the forces of decay. She forces her target to become rigid and unable to move without enormous effort of will, as his very muscles betray him.

System: The player spends a point of Willpower and rolls Intelligence + Medicine (difficulty 7). Each success freezes the target in place for one turn. A failure simply indicates the loss of the Willpower point, while a botch renders the target immune to powers in the Grave’s Decay path for the next 24 hours. The target must be visible and within about 25 yards or meters for this ability to take effect. A frozen target is treated as though he has been staked (see p. 280). With a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) and two successes, the target can break out of the rigor on her turn. Failure causes her a level of bashing damage and means another turn wasted and frozen.

[+/-] Wither

Wither
V20 Core, pg 171

Reminiscent of some of the powers of Vicissitude, Wither allows a vampire to cripple an opponent’s limb. Whether the foe is living or undead, muscle shrivels away, skin peels, and bone becomes brittle. The target is unable to exert any noteworthy strength in the crippled limb. This injury lasts for far longer than most injuries trouble vampires, and in mortals it simply does not heal.

Wither doesn’t have to be used on a limb, although that is its usual purpose. It can also be used simply to affect the target’s face and hair, making him appear far older than his years. It could also be applied to a target’s eye or ear, killing the sense in that organ (and thus requiring two uses to permanently blind or deafen). Wither cannot be used as an “instant-kill” power — necromancers cannot wither internal organs — but it can inflict a wide variety of injuries on a foe.

System: The player spends a Willpower point. The character chooses a limb on the target and then touches that limb. If the target is trying to avoid contact, the invoker’s player rolls Dexterity + Brawl to hit as normal. If the character succeeds in touching the intended limb, the target suffers two aggravated wounds. Unless the target soaks both wounds (such as with Fortitude), the struck limb is crippled and unusable until both of those wounds have healed. Kindred heal the wounds as they would any other aggravated wound (see p. 285).

Mortals are incapable of healing aggravated wounds, so they suffer throughout their lives unless they are healed through supernatural means. A withered limb does not degenerate further, even on a mortal. The character may be crippled for life, but the limb won’t become infected or gangrenous.

The effects of the withering depend on the affected limb. A crippled arm has a Strength of 0, cannot benefit from Potence, and cannot carry anything heavier than about half a pound (200 grams). A crippled leg prevents the character from moving faster than a stuttering hop or dragging limp. The character suffers the effects of the Lame Flaw (see p. 482). A single withered eye or ear imposes a +1 difficulty to relevant Perception rolls. Losing both eyes or both ears imposes the effects of the Blind or Deaf Flaws (see pp. 484 and 483). A withered tongue imposes the effects of the Mute Flaw (p. 483), while a withered face reduces the target’s Appearance by one for each aggravated wound suffered.

[+/-] Corrupt the Undead Flesh

Corrupt the Undead Flesh
V20 Core, pg 172

Corrupt the Undead Flesh blurs the line between life and undeath, turning an undead creature into something just living enough to carry and suffer from disease. The disease inflicts the target, causing lethargy, dizziness, loss of strength, clumsiness, and the inability to keep blood in his system. This pernicious influence is extremely virulent among mortals. They pick the disease up simply by spending a few hours near the victim. Other vampires have a harder time acquiring the disease. They must consume the victim’s blood to do so, but afterward, they suffer just as much as the original target — including passing the affliction on to others.

The disease fades after roughly a week.

System: The player chooses a target within her character’s line of sight and no more than 20 yards or meters away. She rolls Intelligence + Medicine (difficulty 6) and spends a point of Willpower. The victim’s player must roll Stamina (+ Fortitude, if appropriate) against a difficulty equal to the attacker’s Willpower. If the player scores more successes than the victim, he acquires a virulent disease immediately. The disease has the following effects:

The victim’s Strength and Wits are halved (round down).
The victim loses one point of Dexterity.
The victim’s player must spend one additional blood point every evening for the vampire to rouse himself to consciousness. Mortals lose one health level per day instead.
The victim’s player must roll Self-Control or Instinct each time the character feeds (difficulty 8). On a failure, the vampire cannot keep the blood he just ingested inside his body, and he vomits it up in great horrifying gouts of gore, losing any benefit the blood might have provided. Humans vomit up food.

Every evening at sunset, the victim has a chance to throw off the plague. The victim’s player rolls Stamina, with a difficulty equal to 10 minus the number of sunsets since acquiring the plague. On a successful roll, the character fights the disease to a standstill and begins to recover. He instantly regains his ability to manage blood, and he heals back one lost Attribute point per hour until all have returned.

[+/-] Dissolve the Flesh

Dissolve the Flesh
V20 Core, pg 172

This ability brings the Grave’s Decay path full circle, as it causes Destroy the Husk to apply to vampires. Dissolve the Flesh allows a necromancer to attempt to turn vampiric flesh to dust or ash, as though the target had been burned or left out in the sun.

System: The player spends two blood points and a Willpower point as the vampire extracts a quantity of her vitae charged with the power of the grave. If she drips it onto a single Kindred victim anytime within the next few turns (most of the blood must reach the victim, so flinging a few drops is ineffective), it causes whole chunks of the victim’s body to crumble to ash. The player rolls Willpower against a difficulty of the victim’s Stamina + 3. For every success, the target takes one aggravated wound.

The undead flesh damaged by this power turns to dust (gone for the time being), and it must be regenerated painstakingly by the victim, should he survive. That dust doubtlessly has mystical properties that various sorcerers might be able to take advantage of. Every wound inflicted by this ability represents the loss of about one-eighth of the target’s weight; the Storyteller chooses where the loss comes from. (It might also be shed from all over, leaving the victim a bit gaunter or missing chunks of flesh.)

Regenerating body parts occurs naturally while healing aggravated wounds at the normal rate (see p. 285).

[+/-] Path of the Four Humors

V20 Core, pg 173

Philosophically, the four humors represent different qualities, split along two axes: hot and cold, and wet and dry. Blood is hot and wet; phlegm is cold and wet; yellow bile is hot and dry; and black bile is cold and dry. Historically, when a mortal was out of sorts or ill, it was said that his humors were out of balance, and a philosopher or physician would try to heal him by bringing his humors back into balance. Ancient necromancers believed that in their undead forms, all four humors were held in a mystical stasis, and that they could tap into all four of them instead of merely tapping into blood in the form of vitae as other vampires did.

This antiquated path was primarily considered the knowledge of the Lamia bloodline, and certainly very few necromancers have learned this path without tutoring from a Lamia. Since the loss of the Lamia, elder necromancers have searched everywhere (both in this world and the next) for clues to its existence.

[+/-] Whispers to the Soul

Whispers to the Soul
V20 Core, pg 173

The necromancer with this ability can let slip a little of her own undead bilious humor as she speaks to another being (whether mortal or Kindred). The wicked vapor slips into the target’s ear and whispers nightmares to the target throughout the day and night. The target has a harder time sleeping, and becomes irritable and distracted during his waking hours.

System: The character must whisper the target’s name (as she knows it) into his ear. The victim rolls Willpower (difficulty 8). If the roll fails, the victim suffers from nightmares and hears mad, wicked mutterings while awake, for a number of full days equal to the necromancer’s Manipulation. The victim loses one die from all dice pools while thus afflicted, and at the Storyteller’s discretion, the difficulty to resist Rötschreck may be increased by one at the same time.

[+/-] Kiss of the Dark Mother

Kiss of the Dark Mother
V20 Core, pg 173

Kiss of the Dark Mother allows the necromancer who uses it to mix her vitae with black bile, turning it into a noxious poison. The necromancer forces it into her mouth as saliva might once have come; the vitae tastes acrid and bitter, as though it had been scorched. Once the necromancer coats her teeth and lips with it, she can inflict terrible damage with her bite.

System: The player spends one blood point; activating this power is a reflexive action, but it must be done before making a bite attack. If the bite hits, the aggravated damage inflicted by a single bite is doubled before soak is calculated. This power does not affect the character’s ability to drain blood from the target, nor does it increase the amount of damage done by blood loss. The necromancer’s bite remains potent until this ability is discharged by a successful hit or she spends one turn cleansing the dark blood from her mouth.

[+/-] Dark Humors

Dark Humors
V20 Core, pg 173

The vampire can exude a coat of a particular humor onto her skin, causing all that touch it to experience the most intense form of that humor. After a necromancer has used this power, she generally feels the opposite of the sensation the humor usually conveys: Using blood leaves her depressed and pessimistic; using yellow bile renders her calm and placid; using black bile leaves her optimistic; and using phlegm makes her aroused and angry.

System: The player spends two blood points. The necromancer chooses which humor she wishes to excrete. The humor can simply coat the skin — in which case touching the victim’s skin lets the humor take effect — or it can act as a poison if placed in a beverage (or in vitae). The victim must make a Stamina roll (difficulty 8) to resist the effects of the humor:

Phlegm: Target becomes lethargic; all dice pools are reduced by two for the remainder of the scene.
Blood (vitae): Target becomes prone to excessive bleeding, and any lethal or aggravated wounds he suffers deal an additional health level of damage on the turn after they originally occur. Vitae altered by Dark Humors will not turn a human into a ghoul if ingested, nor will it initiate a blood bond.
Black Bile: Target suffers a number of health levels of damage equal to the necromancer’s Stamina. This damage is considered lethal and can be soaked (if the victim is normally capable of soaking such damage), though armor does not protect against it.
Yellow Bile: Target becomes melancholic and is plagued with visions of death. He cannot spend Willpower for the remainder of the scene, and all Willpower rolls receive a +2 difficulty.

[+/-] Clutching the Shroud

Clutching the Shroud
V20 Core, pg 173

Blood, the sanguine humor, was regarded by philosophers as being both hot and wet. Blood from a cold corpse has been transubstantiated into a dead form — a cold incarnation of a hot, wet element. This transformation of the living into death holds great power; the necromancer knows how to infuse her own being with the blood of a cold corpse and transform herself into something not wholly vampiric. Instead, the necromancer edges closer to being an animated corpse in fact as well as name. She grows distant and chill, as though possessed by the spirit of Death itself; she has to work to push her attention into the physical world.

System: The character must drink, and then spend, five blood points from a cold corpse (one dead for 24 hours or more, but generally less than three days). It will generally take at least two turns to consume that blood, and the power is not activated until the character can spend all of it. For example, if the character is Twelfth Generation, Clutching the Shroud takes at least seven turns total to activate (two to consume the blood and five to spend it).

After the power is active and for the rest of the scene, the necromancer gains several benefits. First, she receives two additional soak dice, which may be used to soak any sort of damage, even if the character does not possess Fortitude. Second, she gains a mystic sense of how far those in the area are from death — whether they are healthy or infirm, suffer from diseases, or are undead, ghouls, or mortals. Finally, a Manipulation + Occult roll lets her speak with ghosts freely. The difficulty for this roll depends on how attuned to death a locale is; a cemetery would be difficulty 5, while a cozy apartment might be difficulty 7. However, this ability makes the necromancer much more susceptible to the effects of powers used by ghosts, which means that she must act carefully.

[+/-] Black Breath

Black Breath
V20 Core, pg 174

A necromancer who has mastered this path can harness the undead black bile that festers at the core of her being; she pulls that melancholy to her lungs and lets it mingle with her outgoing breath. She then exhales the dark mist, letting it engulf those nearby. The necromancer feels curiously lightheaded and optimistic after using this power, as she has forced some of her most depressed nature out into the world; those caught in the black vapors grow despairing and hopeless.

System: The player spends one Willpower and one blood point, and rolls Stamina + Athletics (difficulty 7). Black Breath allows the character to exhale a dark cloud of vapor that is five yards or meters in diameter per success rolled. Those caught in the mists may attempt a Dexterity + Athletics roll to escape it if they have an available action; otherwise, they may be overwhelmed by depression to the point of suicide. Those who can not escape the mists must immediately roll Willpower (difficulty 8 for mortals, 7 for supernatural beings) and achieve more successes than the invoker did. Mortals who fail in this actively attempt to kill themselves on their next turn. They do not attempt such ludicrous suicides as praying for a lightning bolt or holding their breath; they use the most effective means at hand to end their own lives. If prevented from suicide, they attempt it again as soon as an opportunity presents itself. This impulse lasts for the rest of the scene, and the Storyteller may impose flare-ups over the next day or so at his discretion. Those who succeed on the Willpower roll still become enchanted with the prospect of death, whether mortal or Kindred, and lose two dice from all dice pools for the rest of the scene.

Kindred who fail the Willpower roll do not attempt suicide; as they are already dead, the malign influences of undead humors do not have as strong an effect on them. Instead, the affected vampire sinks into torpor. The duration of this torpor is based on the vampire’s Humanity or Path rating, just as if lethal wounds had forced him into it.

[+/-] Vitreous Path

V20 Core, pg 174

The Vitreous Path allows a necromancer to control and influence the energies pertaining to death. This extremely rare path manipulates entropy, a force that even most necromancers are uncomfortable harnessing. A development of the Nagaraja bloodline (p. 406, although they sometimes call the path “Nihilistics”), the Vitreous Path makes a formidable complement to the necromantic craft, and those obsessed with mastery over death and souls — such as the Harbingers of Skulls — would certainly risk much to uncover this path’s secrets.

Like most necromancers, Nagaraja generally learn the Sepulchre Path before any others. The Vitreous Path is usually their second focus of study.

[+/-] Eyes of the Dead

Eyes of the Dead
V20 Core, pg 174

The necromancer employing the Eyes of the Dead can see with the perceptions of the Restless Dead (called Deathsight). To such a manipulator of ghostly energies, the auras of surrounding beings give off tell-tale hints as to their health and even their ultimate fate; the necromancer can see the energies of death flowing through everyone, just as ghosts can. 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. The information thus gained is not exact by any means, but it gives the necromancer an edge over those she scrutinizes.

System: The player rolls Perception + Occult, difficulty 6. One success lets a necromancer determine whether someone is injured, diseased, or dying, as well as whether the individual labors under any sort of curse or baleful magic.

Further, the vampire can divine the target’s eventual demise, depending on the successes scored. One success means the character can guess how long the target has to live to within a few weeks. Three successes means the character can estimate how long the target has to live and what the probable source of death will be, as the entropic markings 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 marks on the target’s soul.

This ability lasts for one scene, though the necromancer may choose to end the power early. It can be used to read the fate of only one target at a time. Storytellers should exercise judgment with this power, since the markings of death are typically unavoidable. He may decide to roll the dice himself, so that the player has no way of knowing whether her insight is correct.

[+/-] Aura of Decay

Aura of Decay
V20 Core, pg 175

The necromancer can strengthen the feeling of entropy around her to the point where it breaks down nonliving objects and machines. It can gnarl wood, rust metal, crack silicon chips, and erode plastic, glass, and dead organic material. This power has a range of one yard or meter from the necromancer’s body, but all those in the presence of the vampire can feel her corruption as an icy wind.

System: No roll is required, but this power does cost at least one blood point. Objects subjected to this Aura of Decay break down and become useless after being targeted. How the object gives out, as well as the exact mechanism of failure, is up to the Storyteller. Corrosion, metal fatigue, or sheer brittleness are all suitably likely for any given item’s demise, but the in-game effect of using a doomed item is as if the owning character rolled a botch. The speed at which an item breaks down depends on how many blood points are spent.

Blood Spent	Time to Breakdown
One	One week
Two	One day
Three	End of scene
Four	Five turns
Five	One turn

Note that since this power requires the expenditure of blood points, a character cannot cause an Aura of Decay while staked.

[+/-] Soul Feast

Soul Feast
V20 Core, pg 175

Just as the necromancer can release entropic energies from within, she may also pull them into herself as a source of power. Soul Feasting allows the caster to either draw on the ambient death energies around her or to actively feed on a ghost, stealing the wraith’s substance and mystically transforming that energy into sustenance.

System: The player spends one Willpower point 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. Generally, the necromancer can draw anywhere from one to four points of entropy from such a location, although the difficulty in using all Necromancy and similar deathly powers within the area increases by an equal amount for a number of nights equal to the points taken. The energies of such an area may only be drained once until the area’s entropy replenishes.

In cases when the necromancer feeds on a ghost, 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 ghost might make, even those that do not normally affect the physical world; while feeding, the vampire is essentially in a half-state, existing in both the living 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 (difficulty 6 for both sides). 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 just like blood in every respect except for when the vampire rises for the night. It can activate Disciplines, heal wounds, boost Attributes, etc. Botching this power renders the vampire unable to feed through the Shroud for the rest of the night. However, she 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 she hovers between worlds, unable to function effectively in either.

[+/-] Breath of Thanatos

Breath of Thanatos
V20 Core, pg 176

The Breath of Thanatos allows the necromancer to draw out entropic energy and focus it upon an area or person by taking a deep breath and then forcefully exhaling a fog of necromantic energy. This cloud of virulence is completely invisible to anyone without the ability to see the passing of entropy. The energy of this cloud is like a beacon for Spectres, and they are drawn to the entropic force like moths to a flame.

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 more sinister purposes. Channeled into an object or person, the death-mist inflicts the subject with a debilitating, wasting illness. Furthermore, the focused energies are tainted and eerie, and though generally invisible (except to powers such as Aura Perception), they tend to cause people and animals to feel uncomfortable 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 (400 meters) in radius, centered around the necromancer. The range increases by an additional one-quarter mile or 400 meters for every additional blood point expended.

Spectres summoned with this power will ignore the summoning necromancer for the duration of the power unless provoked, but may well go out of their way to wreak havoc on anyone else in the vicinity. The necromancer can then use other Necromancy powers (such as those in the Sepulchre Path) to manipulate and affect these Spectres. Ghosts so targeted may then interact with the necromancer as normal, although the other Spectres in the area will continue to ignore both the vampire and the targeted ghost. This energy disperses after a scene, after which the Spectres leave to find new prey. Mechanics for Spectres can be found on p. 385.

If the cloud is directed toward a particular target, the necromancer must either touch the target or 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 sudden illness or decay. The target’s social difficulties while interacting with those unfamiliar with the touch of death — most normal humans, as well as some supernatural creatures — increase by 2. Furthermore, supernatural perceptions indicate the target is tainted with decay, which can be dangerous. This form of taint lasts until sunrise; 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 may subject the necromancer to the possibly dangerous attention of provoked Spectres and other creatures from beyond the grave.

[+/-] Night Cry

Night Cry
V20 Core, pg 176

The breath of entropic energy becomes a scream of pure chaos. The necromancer can issue an unearthly cry (heard both in the living world and in the Shadowlands). The howl pours icy oblivion into a target or group of targets — either sweeping away the inherent entropy or collecting that destruction and unleashing it.

System: The vampire chooses a number of targets within one yard or meter per dot of Necromancy and invokes Night Cry with a terrible scream. The player spends a Willpower point and a blood point for each target beyond the first. (In other words, she spends no blood if only going after one target, or one blood for two targets. Generational blood limits apply, and the vampire may not “pre-spend” blood prior to using Night Cry.)

The player then chooses whether the vampire will aid or harm the targets, and rolls Manipulation + Occult (difficulty 6). If she chooses to aid the target or targets, each success gives each affected target a -2 difficulty modifier to all of his actions for one turn per success. If she instead chooses harm, each success causes an aggravated wound to each target. Targets may be any kind of living creature, including supernatural ones.

No matter the result, the Night Cry is heard on both sides of the Shroud, attracting the attention of anyone nearby. On a botch, the necromancy may summon unruly ghosts or Spectres, similar to Breath of Thanatos (although the ghosts are under no compulsion to ignore the necromancer…).

---

Necromantic Rituals

V20 Core, pg 177

The rituals connected with Necromancy are a hodgepodge lot. Some have direct relations to the paths, while others seem to have been taught by ghosts themselves, for whatever twisted reason. All beginning necromancers gain one Level One ritual automatically, but any others learned must be gained through in-game play. Necromantic rituals are otherwise identical to Thaumaturgy rituals (pp. 230-240) and are learned in similar fashion, though the two are not at all compatible.

System: Casting times for necromantic rituals vary widely; see the description for particulars. The player rolls Intelligence + Occult (difficulty 3 + the level of the ritual, maximum 9). Success indicates the ritual proceeds smoothly, failure produces no effect, and a botch indicates something has gone horribly wrong.

[+/-] Level One Rituals

V20 Core, pg 177

Call of the Hungry Dead
Call of the Hungry Dead takes only 10 minutes to cast and requires a hair from the target’s head. The ritual climaxes with the burning of that hair in the flame of a black candle, after which the victim becomes able to hear snatches of conversation from across the Shroud. If the target is not prepared, the voices come as a confusing welter of howls and unearthly demands; he is unable to make out anything intelligible, and may go briefly mad.

Eldrich Beacon
Eldritch Beacon takes 15 minutes to cast. The material component is a green candle, the melted wax from which must be collected and molded into a half-inch (1.5 cm) sphere. Whoever carries this sphere, whether in his hand or in a pocket, is highlighted in the Shadowlands with a sickly-glowing green-white aura. All ghostly powers affect this individual with greater ease and severity. The sphere retains its power for one hour per success on the casting roll.

Insight
This ritual 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. The player rolls as normal as the vampire stares into the target’s eyes for five minutes. The number of successes on the roll determines the clarity of the vision. A botch shows the necromancer his own Final Death, which can provoke a Rötschreck roll (see p. 299).

This power cannot be used on the corpses of vampires who have reached Golconda, or on bodies in which both eyes are missing or advanced decomposition has already occurred.

Successes	Result
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 perception of the hour leading up to the target’s death

Knowing Stone
By use of her own blood and the proper rituals, a necromancer can mark a person’s spirit, allowing the vampire to see where her subject is at any time, even after he has died. In this fashion many of the spirit-haunted vampires keep tabs on their close kin and their enemies.

The necromancer cuts her skin or otherwise bleeds herself, and then uses the vitae to paint the name of the target on a consecrated stone. If the ritual is successful, she can afterward learn the target’s current whereabouts by dancing around the stone in a trance state until one of the spirits whispers the desired information into her ear. The stone loses its powers on the night of All Saints Day unless the vampire spends a blood point.

Minestra di Morte
The necromancer obtains a piece of a dead body and simmers it in a pot with half a quart (or half a liter) of vampiric vitae. To this stew, the necromancer adds rosemary (for remembrance), basil (the funerary herb), and salt (the alchemic principle of clarification). After bringing the concoction to a full boil, the necromancer eats it.

If the roll to activate this ritual is successful, the character discovers whether the subject of the grisly rite became a wraith or Spectre after death, or if indeed she became either. Unfortunately, this information can be learned only about the person from whose body the “stew meat” was taken.

The blood component is spent progressively through the ritual: If the Necromancer takes the blood from another Kindred, she doesn’t become partially bound from drinking it, nor does she add a point to her blood pool. Similarly, if she uses her own blood, her pool decreases by a point but does not increase when she consumes the soup.

Necromantic vampires without the Eat Food Merit (see p. 480) can’t keep the soup down, but can still use the ritual and gain the information.

Ritual of the Smoking Mirror
This ritual allows the necromancer to use an obsidian mirror to see as ghosts do. By gazing into the mirror’s ebony depths, the vampire may discover an object’s flaws, assess the general health of mortals, or even read a being’s aura.

At the start of the ritual, the Kindred decides which of the ritual’s two aspects she will use — she may not use both at the same time. With Lifesight, the necromancer may read auras as if she had the level two Auspex power Aura Perception. Deathsight, on the other hand, grants the necromancer the ability to see ghosts and the Shadowlands. It also shows the stain of oblivion on the living, as per Eyes of the Dead (p. 174). At the Storyteller’s discretion, the Kindred may make a similar study of an inanimate object’s flaws and how to repair them, if that object has a strong link to either life- or death-energies (such as a murderer’s knife or a window box used to grow healing herbs).

To perform the ritual, the necromancer grasps an obsidian mirror that has had its edge sharpened so that it cuts the flesh of whoever takes hold of it. As the vitae flows onto the mirror’s surface, it allows the mirror’s reflective power to bridge the worlds of the living and the dead, much as it allows the necromancer herself to do. The player then rolls to activate the ritual as normal. If successful, the Necromancer may view the world as a ghost does via the reflective surface of the mirror, for one scene. On a botch, the vampire may well invoke the ire of the spirits upon whom she calls.

[+/-] Level Two Rituals

V20 Core, pg 179

Eyes of the Grave
This ritual, which takes two hours to cast, causes the target to experience intermittent visions of her death over the period of a week. The visions come without warning and can last up to a minute. The caster of the ritual has no idea what the visions contain, as only the victim sees them. Each time a vision manifests, the target must roll Courage (difficulty 7) or be reduced to quivering panic. The visions, which come randomly, can also interfere with activities such as driving, studying, shooting, and so on.

Eyes of the Grave requires a pinch of soil from a fresh grave.

Hand of Glory
The Hand of Glory is a mummified hand used by the necromancer to anesthetize a home’s residents and, thereby, allow him free rein to do what he will in the residence. To create one, the necromancer wraps the severed hand of a condemned murderer in a shroud, draws it tight to squeeze out any remaining blood, and preserves the hand in an earthenware jar with salt, saltpeter, and long peppers. After a fortnight, the vampire removes the hand and dries it in an oven with vervain and fern. At the end of this process, if the roll to activate the ritual garners any successes, the creation is viable.

To use the Hand of Glory, the vampire first coats the fingertips of the mummified hand with a flammable substance derived from the fat of a hanged man and sets the fingers alight. The necromancer then recites the phrase, “Let all those who are asleep be asleep, and let those who are awake be awake.” All mortals within a household who are affected fall into a deep sleep and cannot be roused (the hand has no effect on supernatural creatures). For each unaffected occupant of a home, one finger of the hand will refuse to light. Botches may result in all of the fingers being lit but no one in the home being asleep. The hand may be extinguished at any time by the necromancer who created it. Anyone else wishing to douse the hand must use milk to do so — nothing else works. Once made, the Hand of Glory may be reused indefinitely. Effects last for one scene.

Occhio d’Uomo Morto
To cast this ritual, the necromancer needs an eye from a corpse whose absent soul became a ghost or Spectre. The eye is ritually prepared in a process involving incense, the new moon, and a period of midnight chanting. The chanting climaxes when the necromancer removes one of her own eyes and replaces it with the one from the corpse (fresher is better). Kindred healing takes over at that point, sealing the eye within the socket.

If the ritual succeeds, the Necromancer permanently gains the Shroudsight ability (see p. 163). This ability is always active and does not require a roll. Furthermore, if it was a Spectre’s corpse, the vampire can hear the vague murmuring of any Spectres in the area. This ability isn’t very precise; rather than mind reading, it’s more like trying to overhear a low-voiced conversation in the next room. With a Perception + Occult roll, the Necromancer can glean a very vague impression of what nearby Spectres are up to. Botching this roll may well earn the necromancer a new derangement (at the Storyteller’s discretion), as the whispers creep into the caster’s subconscious.

This ritual has some major drawbacks, the first being that its proper result is hideously ugly. Unless the vampire wears sunglasses or finds some other way to conceal her eye, her Appearance is reduced by one dot.

Also, dead or rotted tissue is not the best for normal perception. Any mundane visual Perception rolls are at +1 difficulty (possibly more if the corpse had bad eyesight in life). On the other hand, since the eye offers a window into a different soul than the necromancer, it offers some protection against powers requiring eye contact. These Disciplines are used against the dead-eyed necromancer at +1 difficulty.

Most importantly, however, the ghost whose body was desecrated knows it, and very likely hates it. The ghost can find the necromancer possessing his eye anywhere, and all ghostly powers used against the necromancer by that particular ghost are at –1 difficulty.

Puppet
Used primarily to facilitate conversations with the recently departed, though also applied as a method of psychological torture, Puppet prepares a subject (willing or unwilling) as a suitable receptacle for ghostly possession. Over the course of one hour, the necromancer smears grave soil across the subject’s eyes, lips, and forehead. For the remainder of the night, any wraith attempting to take control of the subject gains two automatic successes. The ritual’s effects remain even if the soil is washed off.

The Ritual of Pochtli
This ritual cannot be cast by itself, but only in conjunction with another Necromantic ritual, or with the heavily ritualized use of a Necromantic path. The action of the ritual is this: Two or more Kindred necromancers restrain a mortal vessel and inflict incisions in the shape of blasphemous symbols (typically subverted Egyptian hieroglyphs or Aztec symbols). They then drink from these injuries. Each participating Necromancer must make his own cut and drink from no other cut. Thereafter, the Necromantic power the Kindred seek to employ gains the benefit of all the participants’ knowledge. This ritual makes it possible for Necromancers to create truly fearsome feats of death magic.

The player rolls to activate this ritual as normal. If the roll succeeds, the Kindred who have participated in the ritual may work together on the path or ritual the Ritual of Pochtli is intended to assist, and players share successes. Note that the primary application of Necromancy requires its own roll, and that successes (and failures) garnered by the group are pooled. All Kindred participating in the ritual must know the Ritual of Pochtli as well as the ritual or path power the group seeks to enact.

The downside of this power is that a single player’s botch negates the successes of the entire group, resulting in a horrific failure for all the ritual workers.

Two Centimes
The necromancer ceremonially “kills” a mortal, laying him out on a pallet and putting pennies on his eyes. The mortal’s soul journeys to the Underworld, which he perceives, initially at least, as a way-station. The mortal can interact with the souls of the dead and travel elsewhere in the Underworld, while also retaining the power to speak to the vampire and describe what he’s experiencing. While in the Underworld, however, the subject’s soul cannot affect the environment. Although he may talk to other spirits, he may not physically interact with them or their surroundings — he is a “ghost among ghosts,” as it were. Minions may voluntarily undergo the ritual to assist necromancers, or the vampire may use Two Centimes to terrify unwilling victims.

[+/-] Level Three Rituals

V20 Core, 180

Blood Dance
The Blood Dance allows a ghost to communicate with a living relative. Necromancers sometimes perform this ritual for people in exchange for money or favors.

The vampire must dance and chant for two hours, calling forth the right spirit and entreating all other ghosts to leave the area. While dancing, the vampire pours colored sands and ocean salt on the ground in a precise pattern and then makes the link between the living person and the deceased. If successful, the ghost “appears” within the necromancer’s sand-sigil and the living person can communicate with her for one hour. Failure means the spirit could not be contacted.

Divine Sign
Upon learning a person’s birth date, the necromancer’s player may roll to activate this ritual. If successful, the Kindred may use this to predict the target’s next course of action, allowing him to deal with it accordingly. The effect on ghosts is quite different: Instead, the ritual imparts upon the necromancer so intimate an understanding of the wraith in question that it acts as a connection to the ghost, making it easier to invoke other Necromancy effects on that spirit. For story purposes, it’s the equivalent to holding one of that wraith’s fetters (see Ritual of the Unearthed Fetter, below).

Din of the Damned
This ritual is similar to the Level One Ritual Call of the Hungry Dead (see p. 177) in that it makes the sounds of the Underworld audible in the physical realm. However, Din of the Damned is an area-effecting ritual used to ward a room against eavesdropping. Over the course of half an hour, the necromancer draws an unbroken line of ash from a crematorium along the room’s walls (this line may pass over doorframes to allow entrance and egress). For the rest of the night, any attempt to listen in on events inside the room, whether simple (such as a glass to the wall), electronic (like a laser microphone), or mystic (including powers such as Heightened Senses), requires the eavesdropper to score more successes in a Perception + Occult roll (difficulty 7) than the caster of the ritual scored. Failure to beat this mark gives the listener an earful of ghostly wailing and moaning and the sound of howling winds; a botch deafens him for the rest of the night.

Nightmare Drums
The necromancer using this ritual sends the dead to haunt the dreams of an enemy, using the ghosts to drive an opponent slowly insane. Once the ritual is cast, the vampire has no control over this power, except to stop it from continuing. The shape of the nightmares and the images that assault the target are not under the control of the necromancer; they are under the control of the ghosts who actually do the haunting.

The necromancer uses his own blood and a personal possession of the target’s in this ritual. Once the item has been coated with blood, the vampire must burn the item, sending a ghostly icon of it to the Shadowlands both as an identifying badge and as a reward to the ghosts who agree to haunt the target. While the item burns, the necromancer (and assistants, if available) pound out a relentless beat on gigantic drums of human skin. The drums are inaudible in this realm but thunderous in the home of the dead. To silence the deafening drums, the ghosts resignedly agree to negotiate with the necromancer. They promise to send nightmares to the victim for as long as the vampire demands, in return for a favor. Their request normally runs along the lines of passing a message to a living relative or exacting revenge against someone who slighted them.

Ritual of The Unearthed Fetter
This ritual requires that a necromancer have a finger bone from the skeleton of the particular ghost he’s interested in. When the ritual is cast, the finger bone becomes attuned to something vitally important to the wraith, the possession of which by the necromancer makes the casting of Necromantic powers against that ghost much easier (see the Sepulchre Path, p. 160, for an example). Most necromancers take the attuned finger bone and suspend it from a thread, allowing it to act as a sort of supernatural compass and following it to the special item in question.

Ritual of the Unearthed Fetter takes three hours to cast properly. It requires both the name of the ghost targeted and the finger bone already mentioned, as well as a chip knocked off a gravestone or other marker (not necessarily the marker of the bone’s former owner). During the course of the ritual the stone crumbles to dust, which is then sprinkled over the finger bone.

Tempesta Scudo
Unlike most rituals, Tempesta Scudo can be cast speedily. The necromancer performs a short and awkward dance that ends with her biting through her own lip and spitting the blood in a circle around her. All ghosts’ actions within the circle of blood are made at +2 difficulty.

To cast this ritual successfully, the necromancer must spend one combat turn performing the dance. At the end of the turn, she makes a Dexterity + Performance roll against difficulty 7 (if done outside of combat, the difficulty is only 6). During the next combat turn, she bites through her own lips (taking a level of bashing damage) and spits (spending one blood point). Then the normal ritual roll is made to see whether the power takes effect.

[+/-] Level Four Rituals

V20 Core, pg 181

Baleful Doll
A baleful doll is a powerful figure that is linked directly to the spirit of the target. This doll must be handcrafted, and is only finished when it has been painted with the blood of the necromancer and dressed in some article of clothing from the victim (which should be unwashed for a better connection). Once the doll has been cursed, the vampire can use it to cause physical damage to the target. If the doll is injured (often with pins or other items), the victim takes six dice of bashing damage. If the doll is destroyed, the target suffers six dice of lethal damage.

The necromancer must craft the doll, using ritual chants throughout the process. This normally takes four to five hours. The player rolls Stamina + Crafts (difficulty 8) to succeed in this part of the ritual — a doll that does not resemble its victim is useless for the purposes of this ritual, though some necromancers sell failures as “authentic voodoo dolls” to tourists.

Bastone Diabolico
Casting this ritual is tricky because it requires the removal of a leg bone from a living person. The donor must survive the removal, at least for a little while. The bone is then submerged in molten lead. Once it cools, the thin lead coating is inscribed with various runes. The necromancer then uses this metal-shod bone to beat its donor to death while repeating a droning Greek chant.

With a successful roll, this ritual produces a bastone diabolico or “devil stick.” The stick can be activated by anyone who holds it and expends a point of Willpower. Activation lasts for a scene, and during that time any ghost hit with the devil stick loses a point from its Passion pool (see p. 385). In addition to its normal effects, this club does an additional die of damage when used against the walking dead (not vampires), and such damage is aggravated.

Unfortunately for the necromancer, ghosts can sense that the bastone diabolico is bad news, even if they don’t know exactly what the thing does. They tend to stay away from anybody carrying one, which means that all rolls for such a character to use powers that summon or attract ghosts occur at +1 difficulty.

Cadaver’s Touch
By chanting for three hours and melting a wax doll in the shape of the target, the necromancer turns a mortal target into a corpselike ruin. As the doll loses the last of its form, the target becomes cold and clammy. His pulse becomes weak and thready, and his flesh pale and chalky. For all intents and purposes, he becomes a reasonable facsimile of the walking dead. This can have some adverse effects in social situations (+2 difficulty on all Social rolls). The effects of the ritual wear off only when the wax of the doll is permitted to solidify. If the wax is allowed to boil off, the spell is broken.

Peek Past the Shroud
This hour-long ritual enchants a handful of ergot fungi mold to act as a catalyst for second sight. By eating a pinch of the mold, a subject gains the benefits of Shroudsight (p. 163) for a number of hours equal to the necromancer’s Stamina score. Three doses of the enchanted ergot are created for every success on the roll. Ergot is normally poisonous to some degree; this ritual removes its toxic properties. However, a botch renders the ergot highly and instantaneously toxic, inflicting eight dice of lethal damage on any subject who ingests it — including vampires.

Ritual of Xipe Totec
To perform the ritual, the Kindred removes his victim’s top layer of skin with an obsidian dagger, taking care to damage the skin as little as possible in the process. The victim must survive this process (though she may well die of blood loss shortly after the ritual if not seen to properly). He then drains the victim’s blood into a large ceremonial golden bowl. There the blood is mixed with octli, amaranth flower, and other ingredients. When imbibed by the necromancer, this mixture causes him to sweat a glistening sheen of blood (equal to one blood point). The Kindred then dons the skin of his victim, which on a successful roll absorbs the Kindred vitae and begins to heal, forming a second skin over the vampire’s own. The victim needs to be of similar stature — otherwise, the features become distorted and the disguise is rendered useless. This power also has no effect on supernatural creatures (although it can affect ghouls).

Under normal visual scrutiny, the ruse is flawless. Of course, it imparts none of the victim’s knowledge or mannerisms (and does nothing to mask the Kindred’s own undead nature). Therefore, it works best for situations in which contact with friends and family may be minimized. To preserve the skin’s condition, the Kindred must bathe it in a blood point’s worth of vitae nightly. When the necromancer removes the skin (which causes one level of unsoakable lethal damage to the user and must be done with the same knife used to flay the victim in the first place), it is ruined in the process.

[+/-] Level Five Rituals

V20 Core, pg 183

Chill of Oblivion
Performed over the course of 12 hours (reduced by one hour per success on the casting roll), this ritual infuses the necromancer or a willing subject with the chill of the grave. The ritual’s material component is a one-foot (half-meter) cube of ice, which is slowly melted on the subject’s chest (inflicting three health levels of bashing damage on mortal subjects). The subject must lie naked on bare earth for the entire duration of the ritual. Once the ritual is completed, its effects remain for a number of nights equal to the caster’s Occult rating.

An individual affected by Chill of Oblivion treats aggravated damage from fire and high temperatures as if it were lethal damage. Furthermore, he may attempt to extinguish any fire by rolling Willpower (difficulty 9); each success reduces the fire’s soak difficulty (see p. 297) by 1, and a fire with a soak difficulty of 2 dwindles to glowing embers.

However, this ritual has several drawbacks. First and foremost, the subject’s aura is laced with writhing black veins that resemble those left by diablerie, and may well be mistaken for such by any observer who is not familiar with this ritual. The subject also radiates a palpable aura of cold that extends to about arm’s length from him; this can be extremely disconcerting to mortals, though it causes no damage, and its game effects mirror those of the Flaws Touch of Frost (p. 494) and Eerie Presence (p. 495). Finally, the mystical nimbus of the ritual draws hostile ghosts to the subject, who may plague him with unwholesome acts.

Dead Man’s Hand
The necromancer takes a rag stained in the blood, sweat, or tears of the intended victim. She takes a freshly severed human hand (which can come either from a corpse or a living “donor”) and closes it around the rag. As the hand decomposes, so does the victim. His flesh bloats, turns gray and then green, then starts to slough off. The victim’s brain remains fresh until the very end, so he can see the maggots writhe in the putrescent rack of meat that once was his healthy body.

The necromancer makes the standard roll and spends two blood points for each point of Stamina (and Fortitude) possessed by the victim. The victim loses health levels according to the timetable below. Only the removal of the rag from the hand can stop the process. If this happens, health levels return, also according to the chart below.

Health Level	Time Untill Next Loss
Bruised	12 hours
Hurt	12 hours
Injured	Six hours
Wounded	Three hours
Mauled	One hour
Crippled	30 minutes
Incapacitated	12 hours

Mortal characters who suffer more than 12 hours of incapacitation die, while Kindred who remain Incapacitated for more than 12 hours succumb to torpor.

Esilio
Like Tempesta Scudo, Esilio is a quick and dirty ritual. The necromancer simply speaks five syllables. No one can identify the casting language, but according to the ritual’s oblique history, the language is what God gave humankind before the confusion of Babel. The legend further states that while the particular meaning of the words is lost, they are what Caine’s father said to him while exiling him to Nod.

Regardless of the truth of the matter, the Words of Exile are not spoken lightly. When the ritual is cast successfully, it opens a hole within reality itself — a rip between the lands of the living and the darkest depths of the Underworld. This tear is invisible to normal vision, but to Witness of Death or Shroudsight it looks like a black vortex opening within the vampire’s own body (the very few unfortunate enough to look into the gap with high levels of Auspex are generally unwilling or unable to discuss it). Any ghost clutched to the Kindred’s chest is instantly torn to shreds. Grabbing a ghost in this fashion requires a Clinch or Tackle maneuver. Destroyed spirits don’t come back for at least a month, if ever. A wraith destroyed in this fashion tends to return as a Spectre, if it returns at all.

The necromancer may clutch and destroy a number of spirits equal to the number of successes she rolled. After that, the vortex closes. It closes at the end of the scene if it hasn’t already.

Of course, using one’s body as a portal between our world and what some people might call Hell is neither simple nor healthy. For starters, it costs a blood point and a point of Willpower (which does not give an automatic success on the ritual roll). More importantly, each success rolled inflicts a level of unsoakable lethal damage on the necromancer. Most significantly, every use of Esilio permanently reduces the necromancer’s Humanity by one point if he follows that morality, and may impact other Paths at the Storyteller’s discretion.

Grasp the Ghostly
Requiring a full six hours of chanting, this ritual allows a necromancer to bring an object from the Underworld into the real world. It’s not simple, however — a wraith may object to having his possessions stolen and fight back. Furthermore, the object taken must be replaced by a material item of roughly equal mass, otherwise the target of the ritual snaps back to its previous, ghostly existence.

Objects taken from the Underworld tend to fade away after about a year. Only items recently destroyed in the real world (called “relics” by ghosts) may be recaptured in this manner. Artifacts created by wraiths themselves were never meant to exist outside the Underworld, and vanish on contact with the living world.

Obfuscate

V20 Core, pg 184

Obfuscate is the uncanny ability for Kindred to conceal themselves from sight, sometimes even in full view of a crowd. An Obfuscated vampire doesn’t actually become invisible, however — rather, he is able to delude observers into believing that he has vanished. Obfuscate also allows Kindred to change their features and conceal other people or objects. Typically vampires using Obfuscate must be within a short range of their witnesses (approximately five yards or meters per dot of Wits + Stealth) for their power to be effective.

Unless the Kindred chooses to make herself seen, she can remain obscured for as long as she wills it. At higher levels, the vampire can actually fade from sight so subtly that those nearby can’t actually recall the moment at which she left.

Usually, few mortals or supernaturals (even those trained in Awareness) can pierce through the fog of Obfuscate. Animals, who rely more on their instincts than their normal senses, can sometime perceive (and be frightened by) the vampire’s presence. Children and those to whom deception is foreign may also be able to pierce the illusion, at the Storyteller’s discretion. Finally, the Auspex Discipline enables Kindred to see through Obfuscate. Even that is not guaranteed, however; refer to “Seeing the Unseen,” p. 142, for more details. (Storytellers needing a die roll for animals or children can use this quick and dirty guideline: treat them as if they had Auspex 1 in terms of contesting Obfuscate. They do not have the Auspex 1 power, but are considered to have it when determining whether a vampire is noticed.)

Since Obfuscate clouds the mind of the viewer, vampires can’t use it to hide their presence from electronic or mechanical devices. Video and photo cameras, for example, capture the vampire’s image accurately. Even so, the person using, say, her cell phone to record an Obfuscated vampire will still have her mind impacted by the power, and she won’t see the Kindred’s image until she views the video at a later date (if even then).

Several Clans cultivate this power — the Assamites, Followers of Set, and Malkavians, for example — but the Nosferatu are particularly known for this Discipline. Some elder Kindred believe that 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 until the vampire ceases maintaining them. Once evoked, they require very little mental effort to keep in place.

[+/-] Cloak of Shadows

Cloak of Shadows
V20 Core, pg 184

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 (such as a curtain, bush, door frame, lamp post, or alley), and out of direct lighting. The immortal’s concealment vanishes if he moves, attacks, or falls under direct light. Furthermore, the vampire’s deception cannot stand up to 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 enough Auspex rating will see him.

[+/-] Unseen Presence

Unseen Presence
V20 Core, pg 185

With experience, the vampire can move around without being seen. Shadows seem to shift to cover him, and people automatically avert their gazes as he passes by. Others 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 or he inadvertently 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 over 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. Upon success, the vampire, all her clothing, and objects that could fit into a pocket are concealed.

Some things are beyond the power of Unseen Presence to conceal. 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 + Awareness 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 had been visible the entire time.

[+/-] Mask of a Thousand Faces

Mask of a Thousand Faces
V20 Core, pg 185

The vampire can influence the perception of others, causing them to see a face different from his. Although the Kindred’s physical form does not change, any observer who cannot sense the truth sees whomever the vampire wishes her 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 simpler 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. Vampires wishing to mask themselves as a person more attractive than they are must pay additional blood points equal to the difference between the vampire’s Appearance rating and the Appearance of the mask (which means that younger vampires may need to take longer in order to spend the blood necessary).

Successes	Result
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, a vastly different age, or an extreme change of size).

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.

[+/-] Vanish From the Mind's Eye

Vanish From the Mind's Eye
V20 Core, pg 186

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 in front of 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 Kindred looks like a profoundly disturbing ghostly shape). A failed roll results in a +2 difficulty modifier (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 intoshadows, 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, vampires 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.

[+/-] Cloak the Gathering

Cloak the Gathering
V20 Core, pg 186

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 power drop for everyone.

Obtenebration

V20 Core, pg 188

The signature power of the Lasombra, Obtenebration grants the vampire power over darkness itself. The nature of the darkness invoked by Obtenebration is a matter of intense debate among Kindred. Some believe it to be merely shadows, while others feel that the power gives control over the stuff of the vampire’s soul, coaxing it tangibly outward.

Regardless, the effects of Obtenebration are terrifying, as waves of darkness roil out from the Cainite, enveloping those in their path like an infernal wave. As Obtenebration is mostly known as a Sabbat Discipline, any Camarilla vampire caught using the power had better have a damned good explanation.

Note: Vampires using Obtenebration can see through the darkness they control, though other vampires (even those that also have Obtenebration) cannot. Dreadful tales of rival Lasombra 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.

[+/-] Shadow Play

Shadow Play
V20 Core, pg 188

This power grants the vampire limited control over 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 there.

Once a Kindred takes control of darkness or shadow, it gains a mystical tangibility. By varying accounts cold or hellishly hot and cloying, the darkness may be used to aggravate or even smother victims. Certain callous Lasombra claim to have choked mortals to death with their own shadows.

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. Vampires 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 all Stamina dice pools (including soak). Mortals, ghouls, and other air-breathers reduced to zero Stamina by strangling shadows 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 the Storyteller’s discretion, Kindred who have 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.

[+/-] Shroud of Night

Shroud of Night
V20 Core, pg 189

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 cloud as viscous and unnerving. This physical manifestation lends credence to those Lasombra who claim that their darkness is something other than mere shadow.

The tenebrous cloud may even move, if the creating Kindred wishes, though this requires complete concentration.

System: The player rolls Manipulation + Occult (difficulty 7). Success on the roll generates darkness roughly 10 feet (three meters) in diameter, though the amorphous cloud constantly shifts and undulates, sometimes even extending shadowy tendrils. Each additional success doubles the diameter 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/meters, though creating darkness outside the vampire’s line of sight adds 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 until they are indistinguishable. 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, making it nearly impossible to accomplish anything (+2 difficulty, as per Blind Fighting on p. 274). Even those possessed of Heightened Senses, Eyes of the Beast, Tongue of the Asp, and similar powers suffer the penalty for blindness due to the unnatural darkness. 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, although targets asphyxiate as per Shadow Play if they reach 0 Stamina; 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.

[+/-] Arms of the Abyss

Arms of the Abyss
V20 Core, pg 189

Refining his control over darkness, the Kindred can create prehensile tentacles that emerge from patches of dim lighting. These tentacles may grasp, restrain, and constrict foes.

System: The player spends a blood point and makes a simple (never extended) Manipulation + Occult roll (difficulty 7); each success enables the creation of a single tentacle. Each tentacle is six feet (two meters) long and possesses Strength and Dexterity ratings equal to the invoking vampire’s Obtenebration Trait — Potence and Celerity dots are added to these Strength and Dexterity ratings, respectively. 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 another six feet or two meters. Each tentacle has four health levels, is affected by fire and sunlight as if it were 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 each). However, tentacles cannot be used for any kind of manipulation, such as typing or driving.

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.

[+/-] Black Metamorphosis

Black Metamorphosis
V20 Core, pg 189

The Cainite 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 vampire 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) — vampires of lower Generation may have to take two turns to make the transition. Failure indicates the vampire cannot undergo the Black Metamorphosis (though he spends the blood points nonetheless). A botch inflicts two unsoakable health levels of lethal 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, including dice from Celerity and Potence). These tentacles, combined with the bands of darkness all over the Kindred’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. This is not cumulative with other powers in Obtenebration, although targets can asphyxiate at Stamina 0, as per Shadow Play. 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 Kindred cultivate this devilish aspect, and the Black Metamorphosis adds three dice to the invoking Kindred’s Intimidation dice pools.

[+/-] Tenebrous Form

Tenebrous Form
V20 Core, pg 190

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 natural darkness.

System: The transformation costs three blood points (which may need to occur over three turns, depending on the vampire’s Generation). The vampire is immune to physical attacks 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 a Shroud of Night, 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 to avoid the debilitating terror described under Black Metamorphosis.

Potence

V20 Core, pg 192

Kindred endowed with Potence possess unnatural strength. This Discipline enables vampire to leap massive distances, lift tremendous weights, and strike opponents with brutal force. Even low ranks of this power can give Kindred physical power beyond mortal bounds. More powerful Kindred can leap so far that they appear to be flying, toss cars like soda cans, and punch through walls like cardboard. While the more subtle mental Disciplines can be awe-inspiring, the brutal effectiveness of Potence is formidable in its own right.

The Brujah, Giovanni, Lasombra, and Nosferatu are naturally gifted with this Discipline, but members of other Clans often make a point to find someone who can teach them the awesome power of Potence.

System: Each dot that the vampire has in Potence adds one die to all Strength-related dice rolls. Further, the player can spend one blood point and change his Potence dice into an equal number of automatic successes to all Strength-related rolls for the turn. In melee and brawling combat, successes from Potence (either rolled or automatic) are applied to the damage roll results.

Presence

V20 Core, pg 193

Presence is the Discipline of emotional manipulation. Vampires with this power can inspire passionate fervor or unreasoning terror in mortals and Kindred alike. In addition, unlike most Disciplines, some of Presence’s powers can be used on entire crowds at one time. Presence can transcend race, religion, gender, class, and (most importantly) supernatural nature. As such, this subtle power is one of the most useful Disciplines a vampire can possess.

Anyone can resist Presence for one scene by spending a Willpower point and succeeding on a Willpower roll (difficulty 8), but the affected individual must keep spending points until he is no longer in the presence of the vampire (or, in the case of Summon, until the effect wears off). Vampires three or more Generations lower than the wielder need only spend a single Willpower to ignore the Presence for an entire night 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.

[+/-] Awe

Awe
V20 Core, pg 193

Those near the vampire suddenly desire to be closer to her and become 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 resist, 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 spends a blood point and 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 ratings first. The power stays in effect for the remainder of the scene or until the character chooses to drop it.

Successes	Result
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)

Those affected can use Willpower points to overcome the effect, but must continue spending Willpower every scene 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 rest of the night.

[+/-] Dread Gaze

Dread Gaze
V20 Core, pg 194

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 victim, stupefying him 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 equal to 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 against a single target, though she may also 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.

[+/-] Entrancement

Entrancement
V20 Core, pg 195

This power bends others’ emotions, making them the vampire’s willing servants. Due to what these individuals see as true and enduring devotion, they heed the vampire’s every desire. Since this is done willingly, instead of having their wills sapped, these servants retain their creativity and individuality.

While these obedient minions are more personable 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 spends a blood point and rolls Appearance + Empathy (difficulty equal to the target’s current Willpower points); the number of successes determines how long the subject is Entranced, as per the chart below. (Subjects can still spend Willpower to temporarily resist, like any other Presence power.) The Storyteller may wish to make the roll instead, since the character is never certain of the strength of 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.

Successes	Result
Botch	Subject cannot be entranced for the rest of the story.
Failure	Subject cannot be entranced for the rest of the night.
1 success	One hour
2 successes	One day
3 successes	One week
4 successes	One month
5 successes	One year

[+/-] Summon

Psychic Projection
V20 Core, pg 195

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 used locally. Even if the desired person books the next available flight, getting to 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 he must get through a gang of gun-wielding punks to do so. The individual retains his survival instincts, and while he won’t 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 — as long as nothing happens to him along the way, of course.

System: The player spends a blood point and rolls Charisma + Subterfuge. The base difficulty is 5; this increases to difficulty 7 if the subject was met only briefly. If the character used Presence successfully on the target in the past, this difficulty drops to 4, but if the attempt was unsuccessful, the difficulty rises to 8. The number of successes indicates the subject’s speed and attitude in responding:

Successes	Result
Botch	Subject cannot be Summoned by that vampire for the rest of the story.
Failure	Subject cannot be Summoned by that vampire for the rest of the night.
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 his way.
5 successes	Subject rushes to the vampire, doing anything to get to her.

[+/-] Majesty

Majesty
V20 Core, pg 196

At this stage, the vampire can augment her supernatural mien a thousandfold. The attractive become paralyzingly beautiful; the homely become hideously twisted. Majesty inspires universal respect, devotion, fear — or all 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 can cow influential politicians and venerable Primogen, the vampire must be careful that doing so doesn’t come back to haunt her. 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 a Courage roll (difficulty equal to the vampire’s Charisma + Intimidation, to a maximum of 10) 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 fails 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.

Protean

V20 Core, pg 199

Protean allows the Kindred the mystical ability to manipulate his physical form. Some vampires believe the power stems from a heightened connection to the natural world, while others consider it to be a magnification of the mark of Caine. Whatever its basis may be, those that develop this Discipline can grow bestial claws, take on the forms of bats and wolves, turn themselves into mist, and even meld into the very earth itself.

Transformed Kindred can generally use other Disciplines — vampires in wolf form can still read auras and communicate with other animals, for example. However, the Storyteller may rule that certain Disciplines may not be used in specific situations. The Kindred’s clothes and personal possessions also change when he transforms (presumably absorbed within his very substance), although armor and the like do not provide any benefit while transformed.

Vampires cannot change or transform large objects or other beings; Protean is a personal expression of power. A Kindred who has been staked (thereby trapping his soul within his body) cannot transform. Some vampires believe that those who have mastered the highest levels of Protean can deny this limitation, however. The Gangrel Clan is well known for their mastery of Protean, although other Kindred have learned some of this Discipline’s secrets from these bestial Cainites.

[+/-] Eyes of the Beast

Eyes of the Beast
V20 Core, pg 199

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 blind-fighting penalties as per p. 274.)

[+/-] Feral Claws

Feral Claws
V20 Core, pg 199

The vampire’s nails transform into long, bestial claws. These talons are wickedly sharp, able to rend flesh with ease and even 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, takes a single turn to complete, and lasts for a scene.

The character attacks normally in combat, but the claws inflict Strength + 1 aggravated damage. Other supernaturals cannot normally soak this damage, although a power such as Fortitude may be used. Additionally, the difficulties of all climbing rolls are reduced by two.

[+/-] Earth Meld

Earth Meld
V20 Core, pg 199

One of the most prized powers within Protean, 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 — then again, 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. Superstitious and paranoid Kindred whisper that thousands of Ancients sleep within the ground and will awaken when Gehenna arrives.

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. Sinking 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 or Path 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, and so on) 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 hardpacked earth, virtually 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.

[+/-] Shape of the Beast

Shape of the Beast
V20 Core, pg 200

This endows the vampire with the legendary ability to transform into a wolf 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. Gangrel are reputed to change to other animal forms better suited to their environment — jackals in Africa, dholes in Asia, and even enormous rats in urban environments — a feat that other Clans learning Protean cannot seem to duplicate.

System: The character spends one blood point to assume the desired shape. The transformation requires three turns to complete (spending additional blood points reduces the time of transformation by one turn per 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.

While in the animal’s shape, the vampire can use any Discipline he possesses except Necromancy, Serpentis, Thaumaturgy, or Vicissitude (as well as any others the Storyteller deems unavailable). 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 Gangrel to assume a different animal shape, but should establish the natural abilities it grants the character.

[+/-] Mist Form

Mist Form
V20 Core, pg 200

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, although Disciplines such as Potence may be used to resist them. Vampires in Mist Form can perceive their surroundings normally, although they can not use powers that require eye contact.

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 die of damage from fire and sunlight. The character may not attack others physically while in this state — this includes encountering another vampire in mist form. He may use Disciplines that do not require physical substance, however.

Quietus

V20 Core, pg 203

The Discipline of silent death, Quietus is practiced by those of Clan Assamite. Based on elements of blood, poison, vitae control, and pestilence, Quietus focuses on the destruction of a target through a variety of means. This Discipline doesn’t always cause a quick death, but the Assamites rely on its lethality to hide their involvement with their victims.

[+/-] Silence of Death

Silence of Death
V20 Core, pg 1203

Many Assamites claim never to have heard their targets’ death screams. Silence of Death imbues the vampire 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 in 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 (which costs one blood point to activate) maintains a 20-foot (6-meter) radius of utter stillness around the Kindred for one hour.

[+/-] Scorpion's Touch

Scorpion's Touch
V20 Core, pg 203

By changing the properties of her blood, a vampire 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. Kindred with Quietus 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 Kindred’s player spends at least one blood point and rolls Willpower (difficulty 6). If this roll is successful, and the vampire 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 — vampires attempting to drink the blood of the Kindred with Scorpion’s Touch are automatically considered to be “successfully hit.”

The victim may resist the poison with a Stamina + Fortitude roll (difficulty 6); successes achieved on the resistance roll subtract from the vampire’s successes. The maximum number of blood points a Kindred may convert at any one time is equal to her Stamina. The number of successes scored indicates the duration of the Stamina loss.

Successes	Result
1 success	One turn
2 successes	One hour
3 successes	One day
4 successes	One month
5 successes	Permanently (though Stamina maybe 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 any 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 someone with the poison, the Cainite must touch her target’s flesh or hit him with something that carries the venom. Many Assamites lubricate their weapons with the excretion, while others pool the toxin in their hands (or fleck 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, thrown weapons, and the like cannot carry enough of the stuff to do damage, or it drips off in flight. Players whose vampires wish to spit at their targets must make a Stamina + Athletics roll (difficulty 6). No more than two blood points’ worth of poison may be expectorated, and a Kindred may spit a distance of 10 feet (3 meters) for each point of Strength (and Potence) the character possesses. Vampires with Quietus are immune to their own poison, but not the blood-venom of other Kindred with this power.

[+/-] Dagon's Call

Dagon's Call
V20 Core, pg 204

This terrible power allows a vampire to drown her target in his own blood. By concentrating, the Kindred bursts her target’s blood vessels and fills his lungs with vitae that strangles 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 or death throes, this power has no visible effect, and many Kindred like it because it leaves no trace of their presence.

System: The vampire must touch her target prior to using Dagon’s Call. Within an hour thereafter, the vampire 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 Kindred’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 rating. The number of successes the vampire using Dagon’s Call achieves is the amount of lethal damage, in health levels, the victim suffers. For an additional point of Willpower spent in the next turn, the vampire may continue using Dagon’s Call by engaging in another contested Stamina roll. So long as the Kindred’s player continues to spend Willpower, the character may continue rending her opponent from within.

[+/-] Baal's Caress

Ball's Caress
V20 Core, pg 204

The penultimate use of blood as a weapon (short of diablerie itself), Baal’s Caress allows the Kindred 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 a Cainite 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 vampires choose to coat their weapons with a significant quantity of blood. If the vampire misses, no tainted blood is consumed.

[+/-] Taste of Death

Taste of Death
V20 Core, pg 205

A refinement of Baal’s Caress, Taste of Death allows the Cainite to spit caustic blood at her target. The blood coughed forth with this power burns flesh and corrodes bone; some vampires have been reported to vomit voluminous streams of vitae that reduce their targets to heaps of sludge.

System: The vampire may spit up to 10 feet (3 meters) for each dot of Strength and 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 there 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.

Serpentis

V20 Core, pg 209

Serpentis is believed to be the legacy of Set himself, a gift to his children. The Followers of Set are very careful to guard this Discipline’s secrets, only teaching the art to those who they deem worthy. Most vampires fear the Setites because of the powers of Serpentis and its connection to snakes and reptiles; this Discipline can evoke a primordial fear in others, particularly those who recall the tale of Eden.

[+/-] The Eyes of the Serpent

The Eyes of the Serpent
V20 Core, pg 209

This power grants the vampire the legendary hypnotic gaze of the serpent. The Kindred’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 his victim, the person is frozen in place.

System: No roll is required, but this power can be avoided if the mortal takes care not to look into the vampire’s eyes. Vampires and other supernatural creatures can also be affected by this power if the Cainite’s player succeeds on a Willpower roll (difficulty 9). If attacked or otherwise harmed, supernatural creatures can spend a point of Willpower to break the spell.

Note: This is different than normal eye contact detailed on p. 152. The target must be able to see the vampire’s eyes for Eyes of the Serpent to work.

[+/-] The Tongue of the Asp

The Tongue of the Asp
V20 Core, pg 209

The vampire may lengthen her tongue at will, splitting it into a fork like that of a serpent. The tongue may reach 18 inches or half a meter, and makes a terrifyingly effective weapon in close combat.

System: The lash of the tongue’s razor fork causes aggravated wounds (difficulty 6, Strength damage). If the Kindred 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 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 flicking his tongue in and out of his mouth, the vampire can halve any penalties relating to darkness (p. 274).

[+/-] The Skin of the Adder

The Skin of the Adder
V20 Core, pg 210

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.

System: The vampire spends one blood point and one Willpower point. Her 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 supernatural 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 fit 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.

[+/-] The Form of the Cobra

The Form of the Cobra
V20 Core, pg 210

The Cainite 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 or three meters long, and is about 20 inches (50 cm) around. The Form of the Cobra grants several advantages, including a venomous bite, the ability to slither through small spaces, and a greatly enhanced sense of smell. The character may use any Disciplines while in this form save those that require hands (such as Feral Claws).

System: The vampire 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 rolls 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.

[+/-] The Heart of Darkness

The Heart of Darkness
V20 Core, pg 210

A Kindred with mastery of Serpentis may pull her heart from her body. She can even use this ability on other Cainites, although this requires several hours of gruesome surgery. This power can only be invoked during a new moon. If performed under any other moon, the rite fails. Upon removing her heart, the vampire places it in a small clay urn, and then carefully hides or buries the urn. While her heart is hidden, she cannot be staked by any wood that pierces her breast. Moreover, because the heart is the seat of emotion, the difficulties of all her rolls to resist frenzy are two lower while this power is in effect.

Cainites are careful to keep their hearts safe from danger. If someone seizes her heart, the vampire is completely at that person’s mercy. The heart can be destroyed only by casting it into a fire or exposing it to sunlight. If this happens, the Kindred 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 vampire into instant torpor.

A vampire may carry her heart with her, or have several false hearts buried in different places. A smart Kindred often avoids her heart’s hiding place, to deter discovery. Those wise in Setite lore whisper that the corrupt elders of the Clan often hold their underlings’ hearts as yet another method of control.

System: This power requires no roll. Those who witness a vampire 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.

Thaumaturgy

V20 Core, pg 212

Thaumaturgy encompasses blood magic and other sorcerous arts available to Kindred. The Tremere Clan is best known for their possession (and jealous hoarding) of this Discipline. The Tremere created Thaumaturgy by combining mortal wizardry with the power of vampiric vitae, and as a result it is a versatile and powerful Discipline. Although there are whispers of the existence of Tremere antitribu in the Sabbat, other Clans in the Sword of Caine have also researched and developed access to such mystical might. Nevertheless, the Tremere of the Camarilla remain this Discipline’s masters.

Like Necromancy, the practice of Thaumaturgy is divided into paths and rituals. Thaumaturgical paths are applications of the vampire’s knowledge of blood magic, allowing her to create effects on a whim. Rituals are more formulaic in nature, most akin to ancient magical “spells.” 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, whenever the character increases her level in Thaumaturgy, her rating in the primary path increases by one as well. Additional rituals are learned separately, as part of a story; players need not pay experience points for their characters to learn rituals up to the level equal to their overall rating in Thaumaturgy, though they must find someone to teach the rituals in question. Path ratings never exceed 5, though the overall Thaumaturgy score may. If a character reaches a rating of 5 in her primary path and increases her Thaumaturgy score afterward, she may allocate her “free” path dot to a different path. (Experience costs are covered on p. 124.)

Many Kindred fear crossing the practitioners of Thaumaturgy. It is a very potent and mutable Discipline, and almost anything the Kindred wishes may be accomplished 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 is not unknown for some vampires to study under many different tutors.

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 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 must spend a blood point and make a Willpower roll against a difficulty equal to 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 magic fails. A botch causes some kind of loss or catastrophic backfire, such as losing a Willpower point (or dot!), spontaneous combustion, or accidentally letting a living statue run rampant. Thaumaturgy is an unforgiving art.

Various Sects and Clans have different access to each path, but unless the Storyteller decides otherwise, it is assumed the Tremere have some access to all of them. (“Having access” does not mean the same thing as “easily gained,” especially within the Tremere power structure.) The paths start with one of the most common (The Path of Blood), and thereafter are presented in alphabetical order. (The unusual “path” of Thaumaturgical Countermagic is also presented, although it is considered a separate Discipline – see p. 228 for details.)

[+/-] The Path of Blood

V20 Core, pg 213

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, the Storyteller may require additional reasoning (though choosing a different path is by no means unheard of).

[+/-] A Taste for Blood

A Taste for Blood
V20 Core, pg 213

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 touching the blood of his subject, the caster 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 ever committed diablerie.

System: The number of successes achieved on the roll determines how much information the thaumaturge gleans and how accurate it is.

[+/-] Blood Rage

Blood Rage
V20 Core, pg 213

This power allows a vampire to force another Kindred to expend blood against his will. The caster 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, might find himself suddenly looking more human, 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 caster desires (which must go towards some logical expenditure the target vampire could make, such as increasing Physical Attributes or powering Disciplines). 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. The thaumaturge may not use Blood Rage on herself to circumvent generational limits.

[+/-] Blood of Potency

Blood of Potency
V20 Core, pg 213

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: One success on the Willpower roll allows the character to lower his Generation by one step for one hour. Each additional success grants the Kindred either one step down in Generation or one hour of effect. Successes earned must be spent both to decrease the vampire’s Generation and to maintain the change (this power cannot be activated again until the original application wears off). If the vampire is diablerized while this power is in effect, it wears off immediately and the diablerist gains power appropriate to the caster’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 Tenth-Generation Tremere who has reduced his effective Generation to Eighth still produces Eleventh-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, if a Twelfth-Generation Tremere (maximum blood pool of 11) decreased his Generation to Ninth (maximum blood pool 14), ingested 14 blood points, and had this much vitae in his system when the power wore off, his blood pool would immediately drop to 11.

[+/-] Theft of Vitae

Theft of Vitae
V20 Core, pg 214

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 caster transfers from the subject. The subject must be visible to the thaumaturge and within 50 feet (15 meters). Using this power prevents the caster from being blood-bound, but otherwise counts as if the vampire ingested the blood herself. This power is spectacularly obvious, and Camarilla princes justifiably consider its public use a breach of the Masquerade.

[+/-] Cauldron of Blood

Cauldron of Blood
V20 Core, pg 214

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 with access to Fortitude are said to have survived after soaking all of the aggravated damage.

[+/-] Elemental Mastery

V20 Core, pg 214

This path allows a vampire limited control over and communion with inanimate objects. Elemental Mastery can only be used to affect 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 paths such as The Green Path (p. 215).

[+/-] Elemental Strength

Elemental Strength
V20 Core, pg 214

The vampire can draw upon the strength and resilience of the earth, or of the objects around him, to increase his 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 is 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.

[+/-] Wood Tongues

Wooden Tongues
V20 Core, pg 214

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 gnome.

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.

[+/-] Animate the Unmoving

Animate the Unmoving
V20 Core, pg 214

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, seemingly 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 humanoid 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 no larger than human-sized; the caster 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, although the thaumaturge can take other actions during that time.

[+/-] Elemental Form

Elemental Form
V20 Core, pg 214

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.

[+/-] Summon Elemental

Summon Elemental
V20 Core, pg 215

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 thaumaturges 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 caster 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 on the Willpower roll 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 number of successes determines the degree of control:

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 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 caster 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

V20 Core, pg 215

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 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 widely practiced paths, the Green Path (sometimes disparagingly referred to as “Botanical Mastery”) is as subtle and powerful as the natural world which it affects.

[+/-] Herbal Wisdom

Herbal Wisdom
V20 Core, pg 215

With 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 of legend. Crabgrass, on the other hand, rarely has much insight to offer, but might reveal the appearance 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 in order to interpret the results of the communication.

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 questions
5 successes	The sum total of the plant-spirit’s knowledge on a given subject

[+/-] Speed of the Season's Passing

Speed of the Season's Passing
V20 Core, pg 216

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.

[+/-] Dance of Vines

Dance of Vines
V20 Core, pg 216

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 scored on the roll, and are under the complete control of the character. If used for combat purposes, the plants have Strength and Dexterity ratings each equal to half the character’s 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, 200 pounds (100 kilograms) of kudzu can cover a considerable area all by itself….

[+/-] Verdant Haven

Verdant Haven
V20 Core, pg 216

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 nearly impassable to anyone the caster wishes to exclude. A Verdant Haven appears as a six-foot-tall (two-meter-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, hut no Kindred have reported 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 scored four or more successes, the haven is impenetrable to sunlight unless physically breached.

[+/-] Awaken the Forest Giants

Awaken the Forest Giants
V20 Core, pg 217

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 must 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 lethal damage dice 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 sycamore to root itself in the middle of a road without any warning.

[+/-] Hands of Destruction

V20 Core, pg 217

This Path is practiced most commonly by the various 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 refuse to practice it due to rumors that it is demonic in origin.

[+/-] Decay

Decay
V20 Core, pg 217

This power accelerates the decrepitude 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 object 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. This power does not affect vampires.

[+/-] Gnarl Wood

Gnarl Wood
V20 Core, pg 217

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.

System: Fifty pounds or twenty-five kilograms of visible wood may be gnarled for each blood point spent on this power (the thaumaturge may expend as much blood as she likes on this power, up to her per-turn generational maximum). It is also possible to warp multiple visible objects — like all the stakes a team of vampire-hunters wields.

[+/-] Acidic Touch

Acidic Touch
V20 Core, pg 217

The vampire secretes a bilious, acidic fluid from any portion of his body. The viscous acid corrodes metal, destroys wood, and causes horrendous chemical burns to living tissue.

System: The player spends one blood point to create the acid — the blood literally transmutes into the volatile secretion. One blood point creates enough acid to burn through a quarter-inch or half a centimeter of steel plate or three inches (seven centimeters) 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.

[+/-] Atrophy

Atrophy
V20 Core, pg 217

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 the difficulty of any roll involving the use of the arm increases 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 limbs. Mortals are permanently crippled. This power affects only limbs or parts of limbs (arms, legs, hands); it does not work on victims’ heads, torsos, etc.

[+/-] Turn to Dust

Turn to Dust
V20 Core, pg 218

This fearsome power accelerates decrepitude in its victims. Mortals literally age at the mere touch of a skilled thaumaturge, gaining decades in moments.

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 caster’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 grows paler and withers slightly (-1 to Appearance) for one night.

[+/-] Lure of Flames

V20 Core, pg 218

This path grants the thaumaturge the ability to conjure forth mystical flames — small fires at first, but skilled magicians may create great conflagrations. Fire created by this path is not “natural.” In fact, many vampires believe the flames to be conjured from Hell itself. The Lure of Flames is greatly feared, as fire is one of the surest ways to bring Final Death upon a vampire. See “Fire” (p. 297) for more information on how vampires suffer from flame.

Fire conjured by The Lure of Flames must be released for it to have any effect. Thus, a “palm of flame” does not burn the vampire’s hand and cause an aggravated wound (nor does it cause the caster to frenzy) — 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 vampire places the flame in his desired location (declared before the roll is made). 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. Less successes mean that the flame appears somewhere at the Storyteller’s discretion — as a rough rule of thumb, the thaumaturge can accurately place a flame within 10 yards or meters of themselves per success.

Individual descriptions are not provided for each level of this path — fire is fire, after all (including potentially causing frenzy in other vampires witnessing it). The chart below describes the path level required to generate a specific amount of flame. To soak the damage at all, a vampire must have the Fortitude Discipline. Fire under the caster’s control does not harm the vampire or cause him to frenzy, but fires started as a result of the unnatural flame affect the thaumaturge normally.

Candle (difficulty 3 to soak, one health level of aggravated damage/turn)
Palm of flame (difficulty 4 to soak, one health level of aggravated damage/turn)
Campfire (difficulty 5 to soak, two health levels of aggravated damage/turn)
Bonfire (difficulty 7 to soak, two health levels of aggravated damage/turn)
Inferno (difficulty 9 to soak, three health levels of aggravated damage/turn)

[+/-] Neptune's Might

V20 Core, pg 218

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 its 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.

[+/-] Eyes of the Sea

Eyes of the Sea
V20 Core, pg 219

The thaumaturge may peer into a body of water and view events that have transpired on, in, or around it from the water’s perspective. 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.

Successes	Result
1 success	One day
2 successes	One week
3 successes	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 he used on standing water; lakes and puddles qualify, but oceans, rivers, sewers, and wine glasses do not.

[+/-] Prison of Water

Prison of Water
V20 Core, pg 219

The thaumaturge can command a sufficiently large quantity of water to animate itself 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.

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 can add to this roll) to break free. A subject may be held in only one prison at a time, although the caster is free to invoke multiple uses of this power upon separate victims and may dissolve these 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.

[+/-] Blood to Water

Blood to Water
V20 Core, pg 219

The thaumaturge has now attained enough 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 Willpower 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.

[+/-] Flowing Wall

Flowing Wall
V20 Core, pg 219

Tales of vampires’ inability to cross running water may have derived in part from garbled accounts of this power in action. The thaumaturge can animate water to an even greater degree than is possible with the use of Prison of Water, commanding it to rise up to form a barrier impassable to almost any being.

System: The character touches the surface 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/three meters 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, such as ghosts) must score at least three successes on a single Willpower roll (difficulty 9).

[+/-] Dehydrate

Dehydrate
V20 Core, pg 219

At this level of mastery, the thaumaturge can directly attack living and unliving targets by removing the water from their bodies. Victims killed by this power leave behind hideous mummified corpses. This power can also be used for 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 caster translates into one health level of lethal damage inflicted on the victim. This injury cannot be soaked (the resistance roll replaces 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 equal to the number of successes scored by the caster + 3) to be able to act on the turn following the attack; failure means he is overcome with agony and can do nothing.

[+/-] Movement of the Mind

V20 Core, pg 220

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 at least the fourth level of this path. Some casters 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 disconcert onlookers.

System: The number of successes indicates the duration of the caster’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. Five or more successes on the initial roll means the vampire can control the object for duration of the scene.

If this power is used to manipulate a living being, the subject may attempt to resist. In this case, the caster 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 a rating of 3, 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 4, she may “throw” objects at a Strength equal to her level of mastery of this path.

One pound/one-half kilogram
20 pounds/10 kilograms
200 pounds/100 kilograms
500 pounds/250 kilograms
1000 pounds/500 kilograms

[+/-] The Path of Conjuring

V20 Core, pg 220

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 a completely uniform fluted texture over its surface. Additionally, conjured objects bear no flaws: Weapons have no dents or scratches, tools have no distinguishing marks, and cellphones all look like they just came out of their packaging.

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 caster a nearly perfect replica.

[+/-] Summon the Simple Form

Summon the Simple Form
V20 Core, pg 221

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, or 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.

[+/-] Permanency

Permanency
V20 Core, pg 221

At this level, the conjurer no longer needs to pay Willpower costs to keep an object in existence. The object is 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.

[+/-] Magic of the Smith

Magic of the Smith
V20 Core, pg 221

The Kindred may now conjure complex objects of multiple components and with moving parts. For example, the thaumaturge can create guns, bicycles, chainsaws, or cellphones.

System: Objects created via Magic of the Smith are automatically permanent and cost five blood points to conjure. Particularly complex items often require a Knowledge roll (Crafts, Science, Technology, etc.) in addition to the basic roll.

[+/-] Reverse Conjuration

Reverse Conjuration
V20 Core, pg 221

This power allows the conjurer to “banish” into non-existence 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. This can also be used by the thaumaturge to banish object she created herself with this Path.

[+/-] Power Over Life

Power Over Life
V20 Core, pg 221

This power cannot create true life, though it can summon forth impressive simulacra. Creatures (and people) summoned with this power lack the free will to act on their own, mindlessly following the simple instructions of their conjurer instead. People created in this way can be subject to the use of the Dominate power Possession (p. 155), if desired.

System: The player spends 10 blood points. Imperfect and impermanent, creatures summoned via this path are too complex to exist for long. Within a week after their conjuration, the simulacra vanish into insubstantiality.

[+/-] The Path of Corruption

V20 Core, pg 221

The origins of this path are hotly debated among those who are familiar with its intricacies. One theory holds that its secrets were 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 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 vehemently denied by the Tremere, which automatically makes it a 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 in 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.

[+/-] Contradict

Contradict
V20 Core, pg 221

The vampire 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 advance, 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 per normal. The target rolls Perception + Subterfuge (difficulty equal to the number of successes scored by the caster + 2). Two successes allow the subject 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 nor 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 (at the Storyteller’s discretion) that are mainly physical and reflexive.

[+/-] Subvert

Subvert
V20 Core, pg 222

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 Contradiction. Under the influence of this power, victims act on their own suppressed 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 (see p. 152) with the intended victim. The player rolls normally. The target resists with a roll of Perception + Subterfuge (difficulty equal to the target’s Manipulation + Subterfuge). If the thaumaturge scores more successes, the victim becomes inclined to follow a repressed, shameful desire for the length of time described below.

Successes	Result
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 follows. It should be in keeping with the Psychological Flaws that she possesses or with the negative aspects of her Nature (for example, a Loner 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.

[+/-] Dissociate

Dissociate
V20 Core, pg 223

“Divide and conquer” is a maxim that is well-understood by the Tremere, and Dissociate is a powerful 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 altogether.

System: The character must touch the target. The player rolls 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 caster:

Successes	Result
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 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 feel free to require a Willpower point expenditure for a player who does not follow these guidelines.

[+/-] Addiction

Addiction
V20 Core, pg 223

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 caster creates a powerful psychological dependence. Many thaumaturges ensure that their victims become addicted to substances or thrills that only the mystic can provide, thus 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/Instinct roll (difficulty equal to the number of successes scored by the caster + 3). Failure gives the subject an instant addiction to that object.

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 (to a minimum pool of one die). The victim must roll Self-Control/Instinct (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 effects of Addiction. This requires an extended Self-Control/Instinct roll (difficulty of the caster’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 caster. The victim may not indulge in his addiction over the time needed to accumulate these successes. If he does so, all accumulated successes are lost and he must begin anew on the next night. Note that the Self-Control/Instinct dice pool is reduced every night that the victim goes without feeding his addiction.

[+/-] Dependence

Dependence
V20 Core, pg 223

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 is usually attributed to the blood bond, but is sometimes the result of the vampire’s mastery of Dependence. The final power of the Path of Corruption enables the vampire to tie her victim’s soul to her own, engendering feelings of lethargy and helplessness when the victim is not in her presence or acting to further her desires.

System: The character engages the target in conversation. The player rolls normally. The victim rolls Self-Control/Instinct (difficulty equals the number of successes scored by the caster + 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 caster.

A bonded victim is no less likely to attack his controller, and 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 other mental or emotional control powers), or mundane Social rolls. Finally, he is unable to regain Willpower when he is not in the thaumaturge’s presence.

[+/-] The Path of Mars

V20 Core, pg 224

Those rare 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, turning the tides of several confrontations with elder vampires. The path adopts a very martial stance, whereas other blood magics tend to have subtler, less violent effects. It is rumored that some Camarilla Tremere have learned this path, but very few of them have the right temperament to wield this path effectively.

[+/-] War Cry

War Cry
V20 Core, pg 224

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 scene, 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.

[+/-] Strike True

Strike True
V20 Core, pg 224

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 if the vampire’s attack hits — it does, automatically. Only Melee or Brawl 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 effect if attempted on multiple attacks (dice pool splits) in a single turn from one character.

[+/-] Wind Dance

Wind Dance
V20 Core, pg 224

The thaumaturge invokes the power of the winds, moving in a blur. She gains a preternatural edge in avoiding her enemies’ blows, moving out of their way before the enemy has a chance to throw them.

System: The player can dodge any number of attacks with her full dice pool in a single turn. This advantage applies only to dodges — if the character wishes to attack and dodge, the player must still split her dice pool. This power lasts for one scene.

[+/-] Fearless Heart

Fearless Heart
V20 Core, pg 224

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 only once per scene. The vampire must spend two hours in a calm and restful state following the use of Fearless Heart, or lose a blood point every 15 minutes until he rests.

[+/-] Comrades at Arms

Comrades at Arms
V20 Core, pg 224

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 costs.

[+/-] The Path of Technomancy

V20 Core, pg 224

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, developed in the latter half of the 20th century. The path focuses on the control of electronic devices, from cellphones to laptops, 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 Tremere 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.

[+/-] Analyze

Analyze
V20 Core, pg 225

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 thaumaturge 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 — generally a piece of software — at +2 difficulty. The character must touch the computer on which the software is installed — simply holding the flash drive or CD-ROM is not enough. Software applied remotely to a device (such as through an app store) also cannot be analyzed until it is installed.

[+/-] Burnout

Burnout
V20 Core, pg 225

It is usually easier to destroy than to create, and sensitive electronics are no exception to this rule. Burnout is used to cause 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 certainly create a health hazard.

System: A character can use this power at a range of up to 10 times her Willpower in yards or meters, although a +1 difficulty is applied if she is not touching the target item. The number of successes determines the extent of the damage:

Successes	Result
1 success	Momentary interruption of operation (one turn), but no permanent damage.		2 successes	Significant loss of function; +1 difficulty to use using 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 a server cluster or a passenger aircraft, impose a +2 to +4 difficulty (at Storyteller discretion) to affect with this power. Additionally, some systems, such as military and banking networks, may be protected against power surges and spikes, and thus possess one to five dice (Storyteller discretion again) to roll to resist this 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 destroy all information on the target item, and five erase it beyond any hope of non-magical recovery.

[+/-] Encrypt/Decrypt

Encrypt/Decrypt
V20 Core, pg 225

Electronic security is a paramount concern of governments and corporations alike. Those thaumaturges who are techno-savvy enough to understand the issues at stake have become quite enamored of this power, which allows them to scramble a device’s controls mystically, making it inaccessible to anyone else. Encrypt/Decrypt also works on electronic media; a DVD under the influence of this power displays just snow and static if played back without the owner’s approval. Some neonates have taken to calling this power “DRM.”

System: The character touches the device or data container that he wishes to encrypt. The player rolls normally. The number of successes scored is applied as a difficulty modifier for anyone who attempts to use the protected equipment or access the scrambled information without the assistance of the character. The caster can dispel the effect at any time by touching the target item and spending 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.

[+/-] Remote Access

Remote Access
V20 Core, pg 226

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 vampire does not manipulate the item’s controls, but rather touches it directly with the power 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 is the maximum number of dice from any relevant Ability that the character may use while remotely controlling the device. (For instance, if Fritz has Technology 5 and scores three successes while using Remote Access on a keypad lock, he can only apply three dots of his Technology 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 under 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.

[+/-] Telecommute

Telecommute
V20 Core, pg 226

A progressive derivation of Remote Access, Telecommute allows a thaumaturge to project her consciousness into the Internet, sending her mind through network connections as fast as they can transfer her. While immersed in the network, 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 cellphone, 3G-equipped netbook, Wi-Fi tablet, or anything else that is connected directly or indirectly to the Internet. 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:

Successes	Result
1 success	25 miles/40 kilometers
2 successes	250 miles/400 kilometers
3 successes	1000 miles/1500 kilometers
4 successes	5000 miles/8000 kilometers
5 successes	Anywhere in the world

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, either through the destruction of a part of the network or simply a loss of cell signal, hurls her consciousness back to her body and inflicts eight dice of bashing damage.

A character traveling through the Internet by means of this power can use her Path of Technomancy powers at a normal difficulty. Using any other abilities or powers while engaged thus is done at a +2 difficulty.

[+/-] The Path of the Father's Vengeance

V20 Core, pg 226

This path, based loosely on a 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. Camarilla vampires don’t have the same knowledge of the Book of Nod that the Sabbat do, but the path is not entirely unheard of in Tremere chantries.

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 caster 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. The subject must generally be able to hear the caster for these powers to take effect, though writing them and showing them to the subject will do.

These powers apply to vampires only. They do not affect mortals, ghouls, or any other supernatural creatures.

[+/-] Zillah's Litany

Zillah's Litany
V20 Core, pg 226

Zillah, the wife of Caine, unknowingly drank from her husband and sire three times, thus becoming bonded to him. This power reveals 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.

[+/-] The Crone's Pride

The Crone's Pride
V20 Core, pg 227

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.

[+/-] Feast of Ashes

Feast of Ashes
V20 Core, pg 227

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 scavenger, 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 up as he would mortal food or drink. Instead, the victim can eat only 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 or half-liter, and any ash will do — cigarette ash, campfire leftovers, or vampire corpses destroyed by fire or sunlight. This power lasts for one week.

[+/-] Uriel's Disfavor

Uriel's Disfavor
V20 Core, pg 227

This power invokes 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, headlights, etc. — inflict one health level of aggravated damage on the character for every turn he remains under its direct focus. Most vampires who suffer this curse elect to sleep for the duration, hiding away in the darkness of their havens until they can walk again among the living without pain. This power lasts for one week.

[+/-] Valediction

Valediction
V20 Core, pg 228

Many Sabbat rightfully fear this power, though very few have 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.

---

[+/-] Thaumaturgical Countermagic

V20 Core, pg 228

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 the simplest ritual. Though the techniques of Thaumaturgical Countermagic are not officially taught outside Clan Tremere, unofficial methods are likely to exist. Any non-Tremere who displays the ability to resist Thaumaturgy quickly becomes the subject of potentially fatal scrutiny from the entirety of Clan Tremere.

System: Thaumaturgical Countermagic is treated as a separate Discipline, although it uses the usual rules for Thaumaturgy (including experience costs and the fact that it is limited to only five levels). 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. 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 is only at full effectiveness when used against Thaumaturgy. It works with halved dice pools against Necromancy and other mystical Disciplines, 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. Whether the character has Thaumaturgy as an in-Clan power or not, it costs the same as any other non-Clan Discipline to learn.

Two dice of countermagic. The character can attempt to cancel only those powers and rituals that directly affect him, his garments, and objects on his person.
Four dice of countermagic.
Six dice of countermagic. The character can attempt to cancel a Thaumaturgy power that affects anyone or anything in physical contact with him.
Eight dice of countermagic.
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 meters, or one that is being used or performed within that same radius.

[+/-] Weather Control

V20 Core, pg 228

Command over the weather has long been a staple power of wizards both mortal and immortal, and this path is said 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 (five to six kilometers) in diameter, and the changes the power wreaks are not always immediate.

System: The number of successes rolled indicates 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 if 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 caster 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.

Weather Control is not the sort of power that lends itself well to indoor application. While certain of the path’s uses (changes of temperature, high winds, and possibly even fog) do make a certain amount of sense in interior settings, others (precipitation of any sort, lightning) don’t. The difficulty for all rolls to use Weather Control indoors is at +2, and the Storyteller should feel free to disallow any proposed uses that don’t make sense.

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.

Successes	Result
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 range 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 or 5 degrees Celsius.
2	Rain or snow: 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.
3	High Winds: The wind speed rises to around 30 miles per hour or 50 kilometers per hour, with gusts of up to twice that. Ranged attacks are much more difficult: + 1 to firearm attacks and +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. 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 or 10 degrees Celsius.
4	Storm: This has the effects of both Rain and High Winds.
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.

---

Thaumaturgical Rituals

V20 Core, pg 230

Rituals are Thaumaturgical formulas, meticulously researched and prepared, that create powerful magical effects. Rituals are less versatile than paths, as their effects are singular and straightforward, but they are better suited to specific ends.

All thaumaturges have the ability to use rituals, though each individual ritual must be learned separately. By acquainting herself with the arcane practice of blood magic, the caster gains the capacity to manipulate these focused effects.

Thaumaturgical rituals are rated from 1 to 5, each level corresponding to both the level of mastery of Thaumaturgy the would-be caster must possess and the relative power of the ritual itself. Unless stated otherwise, a ritual requires five minutes per level to cast. Casting rituals requires a successful Intelligence + Occult roll, for which the difficulty equals 3 + the level of the ritual (maximum 9). Only one success is required for a ritual to work, though certain spells may require more successes or have variable effects based on how well the caster’s roll goes. Should a roll to activate a ritual fail, the Storyteller is encouraged to create strange occurrences or side effects, or even make it appear that the ritual was successful, only to reveal its failure at a later time. A botched ritual roll may even indicate a catastrophic failure or summon an ill-tempered demon.

Rituals sometimes require special ingredients or reagents to work — these are noted in each ritual’s description. Common components include herbs, animal bones, ceremonial items, feathers, eye of newt, tongue of toad, etc. Acquiring magical components for a powerful ritual may form the basis for an entire story.

At the first level of Thaumaturgy, the vampire automatically gains a single Level One ritual. To learn further rituals, the thaumaturge must find someone to teach him, or learn the ritual from a scroll, tome, or other archive. Learning a new ritual can take anywhere from a few nights (Level One ritual) to months or years (Level Five ritual). Some mystics have studied individual rituals for decades, or even centuries.

Other Warding Circle Rituals - Sidebar
V20 Core, pg 234

The Tremere have access to several other Warding Circle rituals: Warding Circle versus Lupines (Level Three), Warding Circle versus Kindred (Level Four), and Warding Circles versus Spirits, Ghosts, and Demons (Level Five). Each Warding Circle ritual must be learned separately. The material components required for each warding circle are the same as those needed for the corresponding ward, but in larger amounts. The effects against the targeted beings are the same as for Warding Circle versus Ghouls.

[+/-] Level One Rituals

V20 Core, pg 230

Bind the Accusing Tongue
This ancient ritual is said to have been one of the first developed by the Tremere and a primary reason for the lack of cohesive opposition to their expansion. Bind the Accusing Tongue lays a compulsion upon the subject that prevents him from speaking ill of the caster, allowing the thaumaturge to commit literally unspeakable acts without fear of reprisal.

System: The caster must have a picture or other image or effigy of the ritual’s target, a lock of the target‘s hair, and a black silken cord. The caster winds the cord around the hair and image while intoning the ritual’s vocal component. Once the ritual is complete, the target must score more successes on a Willpower roll (difficulty of the caster‘s Thaumaturgy rating + 3) than the caster scored in order to say anything negative about the caster. The ritual lasts until the target succeeds at this roll or the silk cord is unwound, at which point the image and the lock of hair crumble to dust.

Blood Rush
This ritual allows the vampire to create the sensation of drinking blood in himself without actually feeding. The ritual can be used for pleasure, but it is more often used to prevent frenzy when confronted with fresh blood. The vampire must carry the fang of a predatory animal on his person for this ritual to work.

System: Performance of the ritual results in the Beast being kept in check automatically. Blood Rush allows the vampire to resist hunger-based frenzy for up to one hour, at which point the Cainite feels hungry again (assuming he did before). This ritual takes only one turn to enact.

Communicate with Kindred Sire
By enacting this ritual, the caster may join minds with her sire, speaking telepathically with him over any distance. The communication may continue until the ritual expires or until either party ends the conversation. The caster must possess an item once owned by her sire for the ritual to work.

System: The caster must meditate for 30 minutes to create the connection. Conversation may be maintained for 10 minutes per success on the activation roll.

Defense of the Sacred Haven
This ritual prevents sunlight from entering an area within 20 feet (six meters) of this ritual’s casting. A mystical darkness blankets the area, keeping the baleful light at bay. Sunlight reflects off windows or magically fails to pass through doors or other portals. To invoke this ritual’s protection, the caster draws sigils in her own blood on all the affected windows and doors. The ritual lasts as long as the thaumaturge stays within the 20-foot (6-meter) radius.

System: This ritual requires one hour to perform, during which the caster recites incantations and inscribes glyphs. One blood point is required for this ritual to work.

Deflection of Wooden Doom
This ritual protects the caster from being staked, whether she is resting or active. While this ritual is in effect, the first stake that would pierce the vampire’s heart disintegrates in the attacker’s hand. A stake merely held near the caster is unaffected; for this ritual to work, the stake must actively be used in an attempt to impale the vampire.

System: The caster must surround herself with a circle of wood for a full hour. Any wood will work: furniture, sawdust, raw timber, 2’ x 4’s, whatever. The circle must remain unbroken, however. At the end of the hour, the vampire places a wooden splinter under her tongue. If this splinter is removed, the ritual is nullified. This ritual lasts until the following dawn or dusk.

Devil’s Touch
Thaumaturges use this ritual to place curses upon mortals who earn their ire. Using this ritual marks an individual invisibly, causing all those who come in contact with him to receive him poorly. The mortal is treated as the most loathsome individual conceivable, and all who deal with him do everything in their power to make him miserable. Even bums spit at an afflicted individual, and children taunt him and barrage him with vulgarities.

System: The effects of this ritual last one night, disappearing as the sun rises. The mortal (it doesn’t work on vampires) must be present when the ritual is invoked, and a penny must be placed somewhere on his person (in a pocket, shoe, etc.).

Domino of Life
A vampire wanting or needing to simulate a human characteristic can do so once Domino of Life is cast. For one entire night, the vampire can eat, breathe, maintain a normal body temperature, assume a human flesh tone, or display some other single trait of humankind she desires. Note that only one trait can be replicated in this fashion. The vampire must have a vial of fresh human blood on his person to maintain this ritual.

System: Using this ritual adds one die to the caster’s dice pools when attempting to pass as human. Unless onlookers are especially wary, the Domino of Life should fool them into thinking the caster is mortal — not that they should have any reason to suspect otherwise.

Engaging the Vessel of Transference
This ritual enchants a container to fill itself with blood from any living or unliving being who holds it, replacing the volume of blood taken with an equal amount previously held inside the container. When the ritual is enacted, the vessel (which must be between the size of a small cup and a one-gallon/four-liter jug) is sealed full of the caster’s blood and inscribed with the Hermetic sigil which empowers the ritual. Whenever an individual touches the container with his bare skin, he feels a slight chill against his flesh but no further discomfort. The container continues to exchange the blood it contains until it is opened. The two most common uses of this ritual are to covertly create a blood bond and to obtain a sample of a subject’s blood for ritual or experimental purposes.

System: This ritual takes three hours to enact (reduced by 15 minutes for each success on the casting roll) and requires one blood point (although not necessarily the caster’s blood), which is sealed inside the container. The ritual only switches blood between itself and a subject if it is touched with bare skin — even thin cotton gloves keep it from activating.

Individuals with at least four dots in Occult recognize the Hermetic sigil with two successes on an Intelligence + Occult roll (difficulty 8).

Illuminate the Trail of Prey
This ritual causes the path of the subject’s passing to glow in a manner that only the vampire can see. The tracks shine distinctly, but only to the eyes of the caster. Even airplane trajectories and animal tracks shine with unhealthy light. The ritual is nullified if the target wades through or immerses himself in water, or if he reaches the destination of his journey. The caster must burn a length of white satin ribbon that has been in her possession for at least 24 hours for this ritual to take effect.

System: The thaumaturge must have a mental picture of or know the name of her prey. The individual’s wake glows with a level of brightness dependent on how long it has been since he passed that way — old tracks burn less brightly, while fresh tracks blaze.

Incantation of the Shepherd
This ritual enables the caster to mystically locate all members of his herd. While intoning the ritual’s vocal component, he spins in a slow circle with a glass object of some sort held to each of his eyes. At the end of the ritual, he has a subliminal sense of the direction and distance to each of his regular vessels.

System: This ritual gives the character the location (relative to him) of every member of his Herd. If he does not have the Herd Background, Incantation of the Shepherd locates the closest three mortals from whom the caster has fed at least three times each. This ritual has a maximum range of 10 miles or 15 kilometers times the character’s Herd Background, or five miles (eight kilometers) if he has no points in that Background.

Purity of Flesh The caster cleanses her body of all foreign material with this ritual. To perform it, she meditates on bare earth or stone while surrounded by a circle of 13 sharp stones. Over the course of the ritual, the caster is slowly purged of all physical impurities: dirt, alcohol, drugs, poison, bullets lodged in the flesh, and tattoo ink are equally affected, slowly rising to the surface of the caster’s skin and flaking away as a gritty gray film that settles within the circle. Any jewelry, makeup, or clothes that the caster is wearing are also dissolved.

System: The player spends one blood point before rolling. Purity of Flesh removes all physical items from the caster’s body, but does not remove enchantments, mind control, or diseases of the blood.

Wake with Evening’s Freshness
This ritual allows a vampire to awaken at any sign of danger, especially during the day. If any potentially harmful circumstances arise, the caster immediately rises, ready to face the problem. This ritual requires the ashes of burned feathers to be spread over the area in which the Kindred wishes to sleep.

System: This ritual must be performed immediately before the vampire goes to sleep for the day. Any interruption to the ceremonial casting renders the ritual ineffective. If danger arises, the caster awakens and may ignore the Humanity/Path dice pool limit rule for the first two turns of consciousness. Thereafter, the penalty takes effect, but the thaumaturge will have already risen and will be able to address problematic situations.

Widow’s Spite
This ritual causes a pain, itch, or other significant (but not deadly) sensation in the subject. Similar in effect to legendary “voodoo doll” effects, this ritual is used more out of scorn or malice than actual enmity. In fact, it requires a wax or cloth doll that resembles the target, which bleeds when the power takes effect.

System: The ceremonial doll must resemble, however rudely, the victim of the ritual. It produces no mechanical effect, other than a simple physical stimulus. The caster may determine where on the subject’s body the pain or itch appears.

[+/-] Level Two Rituals

V20 Core, pg 232

Blood Walk
A thaumaturge casts this ritual on a blood sample from another vampire. Blood Walk is used to trace the subject’s Kindred lineage and the blood bonds in which the subject is involved.

System: This ritual requires three hours to cast, reduced by 15 minutes for each success on the roll. It requires one blood point from the subject. Each success allows the caster to “see back” one Generation (to a limit of the Fourth Generation — the Third Generation do not give up their secrets so easily), giving the caster both the true name of the ancestor and an image of his face. The caster also learns the Generation and Clan or bloodline from which the subject is descended. With three successes, the caster also learns the identities of all parties with whom the subject shares a blood bond, either as regnant or thrall.

Burning Blade
Developed during Clan Tremere’s troubled inception, Burning Blade allows a caster to temporarily enchant a melee weapon to inflict unhealable wounds on supernatural creatures. While this ritual is in effect, the weapon flickers with an unholy greenish flame.

System: This ritual can only be cast on melee weapons. The caster must cut the palm of her weapon hand during the ritual — with the weapon if it is edged, otherwise with a sharp stone. This inflicts a single health level of lethal damage, which cannot be soaked but may be healed normally. The player spends three blood points, which are absorbed by the weapon. Once the ritual is cast, the weapon inflicts aggravated damage on all supernatural creatures for the next few successful attacks, one per success rolled. Multiple castings of Burning Blade cannot be “stacked” for longer durations. Furthermore, the wielder of the weapon cannot choose to do normal damage and “save up” aggravated strikes — each successful attack uses one aggravated strike until there are none left, at which point the weapon reverts to inflicting normal damage.

Donning the Mask of Shadows
This ritual renders its subject translucent; her form appears dark and smoky, and the sounds of her footsteps are muffled. While it does not create true invisibility, the Mask of Shadows makes the subject much less likely to be detected by sight or hearing.

System: This ritual may be simultaneously cast on a number of subjects equal to the caster’s Occult rating; each individual past the first adds five minutes to the base casting time. Individuals under the Mask of Shadows can only be detected if the observer possesses a power (such as Auspex) sufficient to penetrate Obfuscate 3. The Mask of Shadows lasts a number of hours equal to the number of successes rolled when it is cast or until the caster voluntarily lowers it.

Eyes of the Night Hawk
This ritual allows the vampire to see through the eyes of a bird, and to hear through its ears. The bird chosen must be a predatory bird, and the vampire must touch it when initiating this ritual. At the end of this ritual, the caster must put out the bird’s eyes, or suffer blindness herself.

System: The vampire is able to mentally control where the bird travels for the duration of the ritual. The bird will not necessarily perform any other action than flight — the caster cannot command it to fight, pick up and return an object, or scratch a target. The bird returns to the vampire after finishing its flight. If the vampire does not put out the bird’s eyes, she suffers a three-night period of blindness. This ritual ceases effect at sunrise.

Machine Blitz
Machines go haywire when this ritual is cast. It takes effect instantly and lasts as long as the vampire concentrates on it. This ritual may be used to kill car engines, erase flash drives, drain the battery of a cellphone, stop life-support machines, et cetera. Essentially, Machine Blitz stops any machine more complex than a rope-and-pulley. The thaumaturge must have a scrap of rusted metal in her possession for this ritual to work, though some vampires use a variant that requires a knot steeped in human saliva to be untied.

System: This ritual only stops machines; it does not grant any control over them. The effects of this ritual are invisible and appear to be coincidental.

Principal Focus of Vitae Infusion
This ritual imbues a quantity of blood within an object small enough for the vampire to carry in both hands. (The object may not be any larger than this, though it may be as small as a dime.) After the ritual is conducted, the object takes on a reddish hue and becomes slick to the touch. At a mental command, the caster may release the object from its enchantment, causing it to break down into a pool of blood. This blood may serve whatever purpose the vampire desires; many thaumaturges wear enchanted baubles to ensure they have emergency supplies of vitae.

System: An object may store only one blood point of vitae. If a Kindred wishes to make an infused focus for an ally, she may do so, but the blood contained within must be her own. (If the ally then drinks the blood, he is one step closer to the blood bond). The ally must be present at the creation of the focus.

Recure of the Homeland
The vampire calls on the power of the earth to heal grave wounds she may have received. The thaumaturge must use at least a handful of dirt from the city or town of her mortal birth and recite a litany of her mortal family tree as she casts this ritual.

System: The Cainite must mix the earth with two points of her own blood to make a healing paste. One handful will heal one aggravated wound, and only one handful can be used per night. This ritual can only be used on the vampire who knows it.

Ward Versus Ghouls
Wary Tremere created this ritual to protect themselves from the minions of vengeful rivals. By invoking this ritual, the caster creates a glyph that causes great pain to any ghouls who come in contact with it. The Kindred pours a point’s worth of blood over the object he wishes to ward (a piece of parchment, a coin, a doorknob, etc.), and recites the incantation, which takes 10 minutes. In 10 hours, the magical ward is complete, and will inflict excruciating pain on any ghoul unfortunate enough to touch the warded object.

System: Ghouls who touch warded objects suffer three dice of lethal damage. This damage occurs again if the ghoul touches the object further; indeed, a ghoul who consciously wishes to touch a warded object must spend a point of Willpower to do so.

This ritual wards only one object — if inscribed on the side of a car, the ward affects only that door or fender, not the whole car. Wards may be placed on weapons, even bullets, though this usually works best on small-caliber weapons. Bullets often warp upon firing, however, and for a ward to remain intact on a fired round, the player needs five successes on the Firearms roll.

Warding Circle versus Ghouls
This ritual is enacted in a manner similar to that of Ward versus Ghouls, but creates a circle centered on the caster into which a ghoul cannot pass without being burned. The circle can be made as large and as permanent as the caster desires, as long as she is willing to pay the necessary price. Many Tremere chantries and havens are protected by this and other Warding Circle rituals.

System: The ritual requires three blood points of mortal blood. The caster determines the size of the warding circle when it is cast; the default radius is 10 feet/3 meters, and every 10-foot/3-meter increase raises the difficulty by one, to a maximum of 9 (one additional success is required for every increase past the number necessary to raise the difficulty to 9). The player spends one blood point for every 10 feet/3 meters of radius and rolls. The ritual takes the normal casting time if it is to be short-term (lasting for the rest of the night) or one night if it is to be long-term (lasting a year and a day).

Once the warding circle is established, any ghoul who attempts to cross its boundary feels a tingle on his skin and a slight breeze on his face — a successful Intelligence + Occult roll (difficulty 8) identifies this as a warding circle. If the ghoul attempts to press on, he must roll more successes on a Willpower roll (difficulty of the caster’s Thaumaturgy rating + 3) than the caster rolled when establishing the ward. Failure indicates that the ward blocks his passage and inflicts three dice of bashing damage, and his next roll to attempt to enter the circle is at +1 difficulty. If the ghoul leaves the circle and attempts to enter it again, he must repeat the roll. Attempts to leave the circle are not blocked.

[+/-] Level Three Rituals

V20 Core, pg 235

Clinging of the Insect
This ritual allows the caster to cling to walls or ceilings, as would a spider. She may even crawl along these surfaces (as long as they can support her). Use of this power seriously discomfits mortal onlookers. The character must place a live spider under her tongue for the duration of the ritual (though the spider may die while in the thaumaturge’s mouth without canceling the power).

System: The character may move at half her normal rate while climbing walls or ceilings. This power lasts for one scene, or until the vampire spits out the spider.

Flesh of Fiery Touch
This defensive ritual inflicts painful burns on anyone who deliberately touches the subject’s skin. It requires the subject to swallow a small glowing ember, which does put off some vampires with low pain thresholds. Some vain thaumaturges use this ritual purely for its subsidiary effect of darkening the subject’s skin to a healthy sun-bronzed hue.

System: Flesh of Fiery Touch takes two hours to cast (reduced by 10 minutes per success). It requires a small piece of wood, coal, or other common fuel source, which ignites and is swallowed at the end of the ritual. The subject who swallows the red-hot ember receives a single aggravated health level of damage (difficulty 6 to soak with Fortitude). Until the next sunset, anyone who touches the subject’s flesh receives a burn that inflicts a single aggravated health level of damage (again, difficulty 6 to soak with Fortitude). The victim must voluntarily touch the subject; this damage is not inflicted if the victim is touched or accidentally comes in contact with the subject.

This ritual darkens the subject’s skin to that which would be obtained by long-term exposure to the sun in a mortal. The tone is slightly unnatural and metallic, and is clearly artificial to any observer who succeeds in a Perception + Medicine roll (difficulty 8).

Incorporeal Passage
Use of this ritual allows the thaumaturge to make herself insubstantial. The caster becomes completely immaterial and thus is able to walk through walls, pass through closed doors, escape manacles, etc. The caster also becomes invulnerable to physical attacks for the duration of the ritual. The caster must follow a straight path through any physical objects, and may not draw back. Thus, a Kindred may walk through a solid wall, but may not walk down through the earth (as it would be impossible to reach the other side before the ritual lapsed). This ritual requires that the caster carry a shard from a shattered mirror to hold her image.

System: This ritual lasts a number of hours equal to the number of successes scored on a Wits + Survival roll (difficulty 6). The caster may prematurely end the ritual (and, thus, her incorporeality) by turning the mirror shard away so that it no longer reflects her image.

Mirror of Second Sight
This object is an oval mirror no less than four inches (10 cm) wide and no more than 18 inches (45 cm) in length. It looks like a normal mirror, but once created, the vampire can use it to see the supernatural: It reflects the true form of Lupines and faeries, and enables the owner to see ghosts as they move though the Underworld. The caster creates the mirror by bathing an ordinary mirror in a quantity of her own blood while reciting a ritual incantation.

System: The ritual requires one point of the vampire’s blood. Thereafter, the mirror reflects images of other supernatural creatures’ true forms — werewolves appear in their hulking man-wolf shapes, magi glow in a scintillating nimbus, ghosts become visible (in the mirror), and so on. Sometimes, the mirror also reveals those possessed of True Faith in clouds of golden light.

Pavis of Foul Presence
The Tremere joke privately that this is their “ritual for the Ventrue.” Kindred who invoke the Presence Discipline on the subject of this ritual find the effects of their Discipline reversed, as if they had used the power on themselves. For example, a vampire using Presence to instill fear in a Kindred under the influence of this ritual feels the fear herself; a vampire summoning the caster is instead drawn to the thaumaturge’s location. This ritual is an unbroken secret among the Tremere, and the Warlocks maintain that its use is unknown outside their Clan. The magical component for this ritual is a length of blue silken cord, which must be worn around the caster’s neck.

System: This ritual lasts against a number of effects equal to the successes rolled, or until the sunrise after it is enacted. Note that the Presence Discipline power must actually succeed before being reversed by the ritual. As such, only powers that specifically target the caster (and thus, require a roll to succeed) can be reversed — “passive” powers such as Majesty are not affected.

Sanguine Assistant
Thaumaturges often need laboratory assistants whom they can trust implicitly. This ritual allows the intrepid vampire to conjure a temporary servant. To cast the ritual, the thaumaturge slices open his arm and bleeds into a specially prepared earthen bowl. The ritual sucks in and animates whatever random unimportant items the wizard happens to have lying around his workshop — glass beakers, dissection tools, pencils, crumpled papers, semiprecious stones — and binds the materials together into a small humanoid form animated by the power of the ritual and the blood. Oddly enough, this ritual almost never takes in any tool that the caster finds himself needing during the assistant’s lifespan, nor does it take the physical components of any other ritual nor any living thing. The servant has no personality to speak of at first, but gradually adopts the mannerisms and thought processes that the thaumaturge desires in an ideal servant. Sanguine Assistants are temporary creations, but some vampires become fond of their tiny accomplices and create the same one whenever the need arises.

System: The player spends five blood points and rolls. The servant created by the ritual stands a foot (30 cm) high and appears as a roughly humanoid shape composed of whatever the ritual sucked in for its own use. It lasts for one night per success rolled. At the end of the last night, the assistant crawls into the bowl used for its creation and falls apart. The assistant can be reanimated through another application of this ritual; if the caster so desires, it re-forms from the same materials with the same memories and personality.

A Sanguine Assistant has Strength and Stamina of 1, and Dexterity and Mental Attributes equal to those of the caster. It begins with no Social Attributes to speak of, but gains one dot per night in Charisma and Manipulation until its ratings are equal to those of the caster. It has all of the caster’s Abilities at one dot lower than his own. A Sanguine Assistant is a naturally timid creature and flees if attacked, though it will try to defend its master’s life at the cost of its own. It has no Disciplines of its own, but has a full understanding of all of its master’s Thaumaturgical knowledge and can instruct others if so commanded. A Sanguine Assistant is impervious to any mind-controlling Disciplines or magic, so completely is it bound to its creator’s will.

Shaft of Belated Quiescence
This ritual turns an ordinary stake of rowan wood into a particularly vicious weapon. When the stake penetrates a vampire’s body, the tip breaks off and begins working its way through the victim’s flesh to his heart. The trip may take several minutes or several nights, depending on where the stake struck. The stake eludes attempts to dig it out, burrowing farther into the victim’s body to escape surgery. The only Kindred who are immune to this internal attack are those who have had their hearts removed by Serpentis.

System: The ritual takes five hours to enact, minus 30 minutes per success. The stake must be carved of rowan wood, coated with three blood points of the caster’s blood, and blackened in an oak-wood fire. When the ritual is complete, the stake is enchanted to act as described above.

An attack with a Shaft of Belated Quiescence is performed as with a normal stake: a Dexterity + Melee roll (difficulty 6, modified as per the normal combat rules; the attack does not need to specifically target the heart) with a lethal damage rating of Strength + 1. If at least one health level of damage is inflicted after the target rolls to soak, the tip of the stake breaks off and begins burrowing. If not, the stake may be used to make subsequent attacks until it strikes deep enough to activate.

Once the tip of the stake is in the victim’s body, the Storyteller begins an extended roll of the caster’s Thaumaturgy rating (difficulty 9), rolling once per hour of game time. Successes on this roll are added to the successes scored in the initial attack. This represents the tip’s progress toward the victim’s heart. A botch indicates that the tip has struck a bone and all accumulated successes are lost (including those from the initial attack roll). Removing the part of the body where the tip impacted (such as a Tzimisce turning into blood or a vampire cutting off their arm) may stop the tip’s progress, depending on the number of successes acquired and the Storyteller’s discretion. When the shaft accumulates a total of 15 successes, it reaches the victim’s heart. This paralyzes Kindred and is instantly fatal to mortals and ghouls.

Attempts to surgically remove the tip of the shaft can be made with an extended Dexterity + Medicine roll made once per hour (difficulty 7 for Kindred and 8 for mortals). The surgeon must accumulate a number of successes equal to those currently held by the shaft in order to remove the tip. Once surgery begins, however, the shaft begins actively evading the surgeon’s probes, and its rolls are made once every 30 minutes for the duration of the surgery attempt. Each individual surgery roll that scores less than three successes inflicts an additional unsoakable level of lethal damage on the patient.

Shaft of Belated Quiescence may be performed on other wooden impaling weapons, such as spears, arrows, practice swords, and pool cues, provided that they are made of rowan wood. It may not, however, create a Bullet of Belated Quiescence.

Ward versus Lupines
This wards an object in a manner identical to that of the Level Two ritual Ward Versus Ghouls, except that it affects werewolves.

System: Ward versus Lupines behaves exactly as does Ward versus Ghouls, but it affects werewolves rather than ghouls. The ritual requires a handful of silver dust rather than a blood point.

[+/-] Level Four Rituals

V20 Core, pg 237

Bone of Lies
This ritual enchants a mortal bone so that anyone who holds it must tell the truth. The bone in question is often a skull, though any part of the skeleton will do — some casters use strings of teeth, necklaces of finger joints, or wands fashioned from ribs or arms. The bone grows blacker as it compels its holder to tell the truth, until it has turned completely ebony and has no magic left.

This ritual binds the spirit of the individual to whom the bone belonged in life; it is this spirit who wrests the truth from the potential liar. The spirit absorbs the lies intended to be told by the bone’s holder, and as it compels more truth, it becomes more and more corrupt. If summoned forth, this spirit reflects the sins it has siphoned from the defeated liar (in addition to anger over its unwilling servitude). For this reason, anonymous bones are often used in the ritual, and the bone is commonly buried after it has been used to its full extent. A specific bone may never be used twice for this ritual, though different bones from the same corpse can.

System: The bone imbued with this magical power must be at least 200 years old and must absorb 10 blood points on the night that the ritual is cast. Each lie the holder wishes to tell consumes one of these blood points, and the holder must speak the truth immediately thereafter. When all 10 blood points have been consumed, the bone’s magic ceases to work.

Firewalker
This ritual imbues the vampire with an unnatural resistance to fire. Only a foolish vampire would actually attempt to walk on or through fire, but this ritual does grant an advanced tolerance to flame. Some Sabbat use this ritual to show off, while other thaumaturges use it only for martial concerns. To enact the ritual, the caster must cut off the end of one of his fingers and burn it in a Thaumaturgical circle.

System: Cutting off one’s finger does not do any health levels of damage, but it hurts like hell and requires a Willpower roll to perform. This ritual may be cast on other vampires (at the expense of the caster’s fingertips...). If the subject has no Fortitude, he may soak fire with his Stamina for the duration of this ritual. If the vampire has Fortitude, he may soak fire with his Stamina + Fortitude for the duration of the ritual. This ritual lasts one hour.

Heart of Stone
A vampire under the effect of this ritual experiences the transformation suggested by the ritual’s name: his heart is completely transmuted to solid rock, rendering him virtually impervious to staking. The subsidiary effects of the transformation, however, seem to follow the Hermetic laws of sympathetic magic: The vampire’s emotional capacity becomes almost nonexistent, and his ability to relate to others suffers as well.

System: This ritual requires nine hours (reduced by one hour for every success). It can only be cast on oneself. The caster lies naked on a flat stone surface and places a bare candle over his heart. The candle burns down to nothing over the course of the ritual, causing one aggravated health level of damage (difficulty 5 to soak with Fortitude).

At the end of the ritual, the caster’s heart hardens to stone. The caster gains a number of additional dice equal to twice his Thaumaturgy rating to soak any attack that aims for his heart and is completely impervious to the effects of a Shaft of Belated Quiescence (see p. 237). Additionally, the difficulty to use all Presence or other emotionally manipulative powers on him is increased by three due to his emotional isolation. The drawbacks are as follows: the caster’s Conscience/Conviction and Empathy scores drop to 1 (or to 0 if they already were at 1) and all dice pools for Social rolls except those involving Intimidation are halved (including those required to use Disciplines). All Merits that the character has pertaining to positive social interaction are neutralized. Heart of Stone lasts as long as the caster wishes it to.

Splinter Servant
Another ritual designed to enchant a stake, Splinter Servant is a progressive development of Shaft of Belated Quiescence. (The two rituals, however, are mutually exclusive.) A Splinter Servant consists of a stake carved from a tree which has nourished itself on the dead. The stake must be bound in wax-sealed nightshade twine. When the binding is torn off, the Splinter Servant leaps to life, animating itself and attacking whomever the wielder commands — or the wielder, if she is too slow in assigning a target. The servant splits itself into a roughly humanoid form and begins single-mindedly trying to impale the target’s heart. Its exertions tear it apart within a few minutes, but if it pierces its victim’s heart before it destroys itself, it is remarkably difficult to remove, as pieces tend to remain behind if the main portion is yanked out.

System: The ritual requires 12 hours to cast, minus one per success, and the servant must be created as described above. When the binding is torn off, the character who holds it must point the servant at its target and verbally command it to attack during the same turn. If this command is not given, the servant attacks the closest living or unliving being, usually the unfortunate individual who currently carries it.

A Splinter Servant always aims for the heart. It has an attack dice pool of the caster’s Wits + Occult, a damage dice pool of the caster’s Thaumaturgy rating, and a maximum movement rate of 30 yards or meters per turn. Note that these values are those of the caster who created the servant, not the individual who activates it. A Splinter Servant cannot fly, but can leap its full movement rating every turn. Every action it takes is to attack or move toward its target; it cannot dodge or split its dice pool to perform multiple attacks. The servant makes normal stake attacks that aim for the heart (difficulty 9), and its success is judged as per the rules for a normal staking (see p. 280). A Splinter Servant has three health levels, and attacks directed against it are made at +3 difficulty due to its small size and erratic movement patterns.

A Splinter Servant has an effective life of five combat turns per success rolled in its creation. If it has not impaled its victim by the last turn of its life, the servant collapses into a pile of ordinary, inanimate splinters. Three successes on a Dexterity roll (difficulty 8) are required to remove a Splinter Servant from a victim’s heart without leaving behind shards of the stake.

Ward versus Kindred
This warding ritual functions exactly as do Ward versus Ghouls and Ward versus Lupines, but it inflicts injury upon Cainites.

System: Ward versus Kindred behaves exactly as does Ward versus Ghouls, but it affects vampires rather than ghouls. The ritual requires a blood point of the caster’s own blood and does not affect the caster.

[+/-] Level Five Rituals

V20 Core, pg 239

Blood Contract
This ritual creates an unbreakable agreement between the two parties who sign it. The contract must be written in the caster’s blood and signed in the blood of whoever applies their name to the document. This ritual takes three nights to enact fully, after which both parties are compelled to fulfill the terms of the contract.

System: This ritual is best handled by the Storyteller, who may bring those who sign the blood contract into compliance by whatever means necessary (it is not unknown for demons to materialize and enforce adherence to certain blood contracts). The only way to terminate the ritual is to complete the terms of the contract or to burn the document itself — attempts to add a clause forbidding burning the contract have resulted in the contract spontaneously combusting upon completion of the ritual. One blood point is consumed in the creation of the document, and an additional blood point is consumed by those who sign it.

Enchant Talisman
This ritual is the first taught to most Tremere once they have attained mastery of their first path. Create Talisman allows the caster to enchant a personal magical item (the fabled wizard’s staff) to act as an amplifier for her will and thaumaturgical might. Many talismans are laden with additional rituals (such as every ward known to the caster). The physical appearance of a talisman varies, but it must be a rigid object close to a yard or a meter long. Swords and walking sticks are the most common talismans, but some innovative or eccentric thaumaturges have enchanted violins, shotguns, pool cues, and classroom pointers.

System: This ritual requires six hours per night for one complete cycle of the moon, beginning and ending on the new moon. Over this time, the vampire carefully prepares her talisman, carving it with Hermetic runes that signify her true name and the sum total of her thaumaturgical knowledge. The player spends one blood point per night and makes an extended roll of Intelligence + Occult (difficulty 8), one roll per week. If a night’s work is missed or if the four rolls do not accumulate at least 20 net successes, the talisman is ruined and the process must be begun again.

A completed talisman gives the caster several advantages. When the character is holding the talisman, the difficulty of all magic that targets her is increased by one. The player receives two extra dice when rolling for uses of the character’s primary path and one extra die when rolling for the character’s ritual castings. If the talisman is used as a weapon, it gives the player an additional die to roll to hit. If the thaumaturge is separated from her talisman, a successful Perception + Occult roll (difficulty 7) gives her its location.

If a talisman is in the possession of another individual, it gives that individual three additional dice to roll when using any form of magic against the talisman’s owner. At the Storyteller’s discretion, rituals that target the caster and use her talisman as a physical component may have greatly increased effects.

A thaumaturge may only have one talisman at a time. Ownership of a talisman may not be transferred — each individual must create her own.

Escape to a True Friend
Escape to a True Friend allows the caster to travel to the person whose friendship and trust she most values. The ritual has a physical component of a yard-wide/meter-wide circle charred into the bare ground or floor. The caster may step into the circle at any time and speak the true name of her friend. She is instantly transported to that individual, wherever he may be at the moment. She does not appear directly in front of him, but materializes in a location within a few minutes’ walk that is out of sight of any observer. The circle may be reused indefinitely, as long as it is unmarred.

System: This ritual takes six hours a night for six nights to cast, reduced by one night for every two successes. Each night requires the sacrifice of three of the caster’s own blood points, which are poured into the circle. Once the circle is complete, the transport may be attempted at any time. The caster may take one other individual with her when she travels, or a maximum amount of “cargo” equal to her own weight.

Paper Flesh
This dreadful ritual enfeebles the subject, making her skin brittle and weak. Humors rise to the surface and flesh tightens around bones and scales away at the slightest touch. Used against physically tough opponents, this ritual strips away the inherent resilience of the vampiric body, leaving it a fragile, dry husk. The thaumaturge must inscribe his subject’s true name (which is much harder to discern for elders than it is for young vampires) on a piece of paper, which he uses to cut himself and then burns to cinders.

System: This ritual causes the subject’s Stamina and Fortitude (if any) to drop to 1 each. For every Generation below Eighth, the subject retains one extra point of Stamina or Fortitude (keeping Fortitude first, though she may not exceed her original scores). For example, a vampire of the Fourth Generation with Fortitude targeted by Paper Flesh would drop to a Stamina + Fortitude score of 6 (assuming the score was 6 or more to begin with). This ritual lasts one night.

Ward versus Spirits
This warding ritual functions exactly as Ward versus Ghouls, but it inflicts injury upon spirits. Several other versions of this ward exist, each geared toward a particular type of non-physical being.

System: Ward versus Spirits behaves exactly as does Ward versus Ghouls, but it affects spirits (including those summoned or given physical form by Thaumaturgy Paths such as Elemental Mastery). The material component for Ward versus Spirits is a handful of pure sea salt. The other versions of this ward, also Level Five rituals, are Ward versus Ghosts and Ward versus Demons. Each of these three Level Five wards affects its respective target on both the physical and spiritual planes. Ward versus Ghosts requires a handful of powdered marble from a tombstone, while Ward versus Demons requires a vial of holy water.

Vicissitude

V20 Core, pg 241

Vicissitude is the signature power of the Tzimisce, and is rarely shared outside the Clan (though it is known to some other Cainites of the Sabbat). Similar to Protean in some ways, Vicissitude allows vampires to shape and sculpt flesh and bone. When a Kindred uses Vicissitude to alter mortals, ghouls, and vampires of higher Generation, the effects of the power are permanent; vampires of equal or lower Generation can choose to heal the effects of Vicissitude as though they were aggravated wounds. A wielder of Vicissitude can always reshape her own flesh.

The wielder must establish skin-to-skin contact and must often manually sculpt the desired result for these powers to take effect. This also applies to the use of the power on oneself. Tzimisce skilled in Vicissitude are often inhumanly beautiful; those less skilled are simply inhuman.

There are rumors that Vicissitude is a disease rather than a “normal” Discipline, but only the Fiends know for sure, and they aren’t talking.

Note: Nosferatu always “heal” Vicissitude alterations, at least the ones that make them better-looking. The ancient curse of the Clan may not be circumvented through Vicissitude. The same applies to physical deformities from the Gangrel Clan weakness.

Body Crafts - Sidebar
V20 Core, pg 241

Vampires who wish to use Vicissitude well often specialize their knowledge of Medicine in an art known as Body Crafts. This specialization enables its possessor to make all manner of alterations to living and dead flesh and bone. It also gives insight into more mundane techniques; many Tzimisce are skilled at flaying, bone-carving, embalming, taxidermy, tattooing, and piercing.

[+/-] Malleable Visage

Malleable Visage
V20 Core, pg 241

A vampire with this power may alter her own bodily parameters: height, build, voice, facial features, and skin tone, among other things. Such changes are cosmetic and minor in scope — no more than a foot (30 cm) 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 + Medicine (difficulty 6). To duplicate another person or voice requires a Perception + Medicine 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 has a difficulty of 9, and the vampire must spend an additional blood point for each dot of Appearance increased beyond their natural total. A botch permanently reduces the Attribute by one.

[+/-] Fleshcraft

Fleshcraft
V20 Core, pg 241

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: After spending a blood point, the vampire must grapple the intended victim. The player of the Flescrafting vampire makes a successful Dexterity + Medicine 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 as 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 or 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 + Medicine roll (difficulty 8), the 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).

[+/-] Bonecraft

Bonecraft
V20 Core, pg 241

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 must spend a blood point and make a Strength + Medicine roll (difficulties as above). Bonecraft may be used without the flesh-shaping arts, as an offensive weapon. Each success scored on the Strength + Medicine 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 damage (the vampire’s comes from having the very sharp bone pierce through his skin — this weaponry doesn’t come cheaply). 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 lethal damage. Defensive quills inflict a hand-to-hand attacker’s Strength in lethal damage unless the attacker scores three or more successes on the attack roll (in which case the attacker takes no damage); the defender still takes damage normally. Quills also enable the vampire or altered subject to add two to all damage inflicted via holds, clinches, or tackles.

A vampire who scores five or more successes on the Strength + Medicine roll may cause a rival vampire’s rib cage to curve inward and pierce the heart. While this does not send a vampire into torpor, it does cause the affected vampire to lose half his blood points, as the seat of his vitae ruptures in a shower of gore.

[+/-] Horrid Form

Horrid Form
V20 Core, pg 242

Kindred use this power to become hideous and deadly monsters. The vampire’s stature increases to a full eight feet (two and a half meters), the skin becomes a sickly greenish-gray or grayish-black chitin, the arms become apelike and ropy 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 increase by three, but all Social Attributes drop to zero, except 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 ridges and bony knobs creasing the creature’s hands.

[+/-] Bloodform

Bloodform
V20 Core, pg 242

A vampire with this power can physically transform all or part of her body into 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 each. 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 (p. 190).

Mental Disciplines may be used, provided no eye contact or vocal utterance is necessary, although the vampire can perceive her surroundings just fine (but the perceptions are always centered on the largest pool of blood). If a vampire in this form “washes” over a mortal or animal, that mortal must make a Courage roll (difficulty 8) or fly into a panic.