Post by Andrei on Jun 11, 2007 17:11:51 GMT
Giovanni (Sepulchre path is the path everyone begins with, if you want to learn another path you need to seek another Giovanni who will be RP'd by a member of staff.)
Sepulchre Path
1 • Insight
This power allows you to look into the eyes of a corpse and see the last thing those eyes beheld. No one but the necromancer can see the vision.
2 • Summon Soul
You are able to summon the spirit of a dead mortal or extinguished (but not Diablerized) vampire for conversation. You must know the name of the spirit, although a psychic impression obtained through Object Reading will suffice. There must be some person or object in the room which had a personal connection to the spirit during its time on earth.
3 • Compel Soul
This power allows you to master a summoned spirit. Must be performed several times on a spirit to get more truthful answers and force it to remain. Wraith can use Pathos to resist. Can last one turn to one night to a year and a day.
4 • Haunting
You can bind a spirit into a place or object, and keep it from returning to the Shadowlands.
5 • Torment
It is through the use of this power that elder Giovanni convince bound ghosts to behave--or else. Torment allows the vampire to strike a wraith and inflict damage on the wraith's form. The vampire remains in the real world, however, so the wraith can't strike back.
6 • Zombie (VPG)
The use of this power allows a character to empower a newly dead body with motion. This will work if body is less than 8 hours dead.
7 • Severing the Ties of Death (Clanbook: Giovanni)
Allows the Necromancer to remove a wraith wholly from the Shadowslands against the spirit's will and put them in a holding vessel. The wraith, in essence, no longer exists in the UnderWorld. The wraith can't be rescued by other wraiths, carried away by the Tempest or affected by other inconvenient eventualities. This does not protect a wraith from the Shadow and the wraith may sink into oblivion during her incarceration.
8 • Soul Exchange (VPG)
This power allows transference of two spirits from physical creatures into each other's bodies. Both targets must be less than 10 feet apart and within eyesight of the Necromancer.
9 • Possession (VPG)
After summoning a spirit, the Necromancer may place it in a recently dead body. The spirit may inhabit the body as long as it pleases. The body must be no more than 30 minutes dead and the spirit willing to transfer to it. This can also be used on vampires.
9 • Inurement (Clanbook: Giovanni)
The vampire may give up her soul the moment before Final Death voluntarily becoming a wraith. The vampire must use an object of great sentimental value to her. This will be her Fetter. During preparation of the object, 20 blood points must be invested (over time and a number of posts) while the Kindred comtemplates the meaning of the object and its value to her soul. Thereafter, the vampire may spend bloodpoint to become a wraith if faced with Final Death.
Note: Wraith's may not be introduced at all at a later date, so this is basically sidestepping Final Death. A second unlife if you will.
10 • Death Pact(VPG)
This power allows the vampire to act as if he were the Prince of Darkness himself. The vampire drafts a written pact with a target, in which the target agrees to serve as needed. The pact is sealed with a drop of blood. If the vampire upholds his part of the bargain, the victim's spirit becomes a complete slave to the vampire upon death.
The Bone Path (VtM 3rd)
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.
1 • Tremens
Tremens allows a necromancer to make the flesh of a corpse shift once. An arm might suddenly flop forward, a cadaver might situp, or dead eyes might abruptly open. To use Tremens, the necromancer spends a single blood point. One turn 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.
2 • Apprentice's Brooms
With Apprentice’s Brooms, the necromancer can make a dead body rise and perform a simple function. For example, the corpse could be set to carrying heavy objects, digging, or just shambling from place to place. The cadavers thus animated do not attack or defend themselves if interfered with, but instead attempt to carry out their given instructions until such time as they’ve been rendered inanimate. Generally it takes dismemberment, flame or something similar to destroy a corpse animated in this way. Bodies energized by this power continue to decay, albeit at a much slower rate than normal.
3 • Shambling Hordes
Shambling Hordes creates exactly what you think it might: 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. Each zombie (for lack of a better term) can follow one simple instruction, such as “Stay here and guard this graveyard against any intruders,” or “Kill them!”
4 • Soul Stealing
This power affects the living, not the dead. It does, however, temporarily turn a living soul into a sort of wraith, as it allows a necromancer to strip a soul from a living — or vampiric body. A mortal exiled from his body by this power becomes a wraith with a single tie to the real world: his now-empty body. The body itself remains autonomically alive but catatonic. This power can be used to create suitable hosts for Daemonic Possession. Every turn gives one hour.
5 • Daemonic Possession
Daemonic Possession lets a vampire insert a soul into a freshly dead body and inhabit it for the duration. This does not turn the reanimated corpse into anything other than a reanimated corpse, and one that will irrevocably decay after a week, but it does give either a wraith or a free-floating soul (say, that of a vampire using Psychic Projection) a temporary home in the physical world. The body in question must be no more than 30 minutes dead, and the new tenant must agree to inhabit it. Should the vampire, for whatever reason, wish to insert a soul into another vampire’s corpse (before it crumbles to ash), this takes 5 posts. The soul can use whatever physical abilities (Dodge, Brawl, Potence) his new home possesses, and whatever mental abilities (Computer, Law, Presence) he possesses in his current existence. He cannot use the physical abilities of his old form, or the mental abilities of his new one.
The Ash Path (VtM 3rd)
The Ash Path allows necromancers to peek into the lands of the dead and even to affect things there. Of the three Paths of Necromancy, the Ash Path is the most perilous to learn, because many of the Path’s uses increase a necromancer’s vulnerability to wraiths.
1 • Shroudsight
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, the odds are that an observant wraith will notice when a vampire suddenly starts staring at him, which can lead to unpleasant consequences. The effects last for a page.
2 • Lifeless Tongues
Where Shroudsight allows a necromancer to see ghosts, Lifeless Tongues allows her to converse with them effortlessly. Once Lifeless Tongues is employed, the vampire can carry on a conversation with the denizens of the ghostly Underworld without spending blood or causing the wraiths to expend any effort. This power also grants the effects of Shroudsight, so the vampire can see with whom, or what, she is conversing.
3 • Dead Hand
Similar to the Sepulchre Path power Torment, Dead Hand allows a necromancer to reach across the Shroud and affect a ghostly object as if it were in the real world. Ghosts are solid to necromancers using this power, and can be attacked. Furthermore, the necromancer can pick up ghostly items, scale ghostly architecture (giving real-world bystanders the impression 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 weapons they might have.
4 • Ex Nihilo
Ex Nihilo allows a necromancer to enter the Underworld physically. While in the lands of the dead, the vampire is essentially an extra-solid ghost. He maintains his normal number of health levels, but can 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 (at the cost of one health level). On the other hand, vampires present in the Underworld are subject to all of the Underworld’s perils, including ultimate destruction. A vampire killed in the Deadlands is gone forever, beyond even the reach of other necromancers. Using Ex Nihilo takes a tremendous toll on the necromancer. To activate this power, the vampire must first draw a doorway with chalk or blood on any available surface.(Note: Doors can be drawn ahead of time for exactly this purpose.) The player must then expend four blood points as the vampire attempts to open the chalk door physically, the door opens and the vampire steps through into the Underworld. When the vampire wishes to return to the real world, he needs merely to concentrate and spend another blood point. Vampires who wander too far into the lands of the dead may be trapped there forever. Vampires in the Underworld cannot feed upon ghosts; their only sustenance is the blood they bring with them.
5 • Shroud Master
A bit of an exaggeration, Shroud Mastery is the ability to manipulate the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead. By doing so, a necromancer can make it easier for bound wraiths in his service to function, or make it nearly impossible for ghosts to contact the material world. To exercise Shroud Mastery, the necromancer expends two blood points, then states whether he is attempting to raise or lower the Shroud. The Shroud reverts to its normal strength at a rate of one point per hour thereafter.
Necromantic Rituals
The rituals connected with Necromancy are a hodgepodgelot. Some have direct relations to the paths; others seem to have been taught by wraiths themselves, for whatever twisted reason. Necromantic rituals are otherwise identical to Thaumaturgy rituals and are learned in similar fashion, though the two are by no means compatible.
Level 1 •
Call of the Hungry Dead (V)
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 might well go briefly mad.
Eldritch Beacon (GS)
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 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 wraithly powers affect this individual with greater ease and severity. The sphere retains its power for one hour per success.
Circle of Cerberus (BMST)
The necromancer bathes, fasts and abstains from all physical comforts and pleasures for a night. Then she dons well-maintained, high quality robes or other clothing. She draws a circle on the floor in a place of safety. She may then proceed to use other necromantic powers, confident that her protection against ghosts and spirits has been enhanced. Necromancer must remain within the circle.
Rape of Persephone (BMST)
A team of surgeons trained in the unpleasant ways of Necromancy performs an elaborate operation on a freshly dead or well-preserved corpse. From the cadaver's dead tissues, they create up to seven new penises, vaginas or other sexual apparatuses. The necromancer engages in intercourse with the corpse's new genitalia. He then will have half the difficulty in using necromancy for the rest of the night (except in ways affecting ghosts, spectres and so on). If a number of necromancers perform the ritual together, they may freely trade blood points between one another for the rest of the night. During this time, one participant may experience the tactile sensations of another by concentrating for a few seconds and spending a blood point, regardless of the distance separating them. No more than seven necromancers can perform the ritual together.
Level 2 •
Eyes of the Grave (V)
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 — only the victim sees them, after all. The visions, which come randomly, can also interfere with activities such as driving, shooting and so on. Eyes of the Grave requires a pinch of soil from a fresh grave.
Puppet (GS)
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 can attempting to take control of the subject. The ritual’s effects remain even if the soil is washed off.
Spirit Deacon (ClB Giovanni)
This ritual is designed to draw wraiths to a particular area. It requires the head of a man forsaken by God; this acts as a beacon to all wraiths with the region. It is said that an unholy radiance pours forth from the eyes, mouth and ears of the head by those who see it in the Shadowlands.
Judgment of Rhadamanthus (BMST)
The necromancer chooses a wraith she will later summon, using the Summon Soul power of the Sepulchre Path. In a cleansed bronze brazier, she burns several pages of a law book and a religious text matching the faith the wraith held in life. She mixes the ashes of the books with silver powder and uses the mixture to make her Circle of Cerberus. When the wraith appears, the necromancer tells him that she has the power to send him to the real afterlife, the one he believed in when he was alive. If the ritual works, the wraith believes her. If the wraith fears judgment and hellfire, she can induce him to do what she wants by threatening to use her power. If he yearns for Heaven and escape from the bizarre existence of the underworld, she can secure his cooperation by promising to use it. Since she can't make good on the promise, Judgment of Rhadamanthus won't work twice on the same Heaven-seeking wraith. Wraiths who were atheists while alive, or didn't believe in life after death, automatically resist this ritual.
Level 3 •
Ritual of the Unearthed Fetter (V)
This ritual requires that a necromancer have a fingerbone from the skeleton of the particular wraith he’s interested in. ‘When the ritual is cast, the fingerbone becomes attuned to something vitally important to the wraith, the possession of which by the necromancer makes the casting of Sepulchre Path powers much easier. Most necromancers take the attuned fingerbone 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 wraith targeted and the fingerbone 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 fingerbone.
Din of the Damned (GS)
This ritual is similar to the Level One Ritual Call of the Hungry Dead in that it makes the sounds of the underworld audible in the physical realm. However, Din of the Damned is an area-effect 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, be it simple (a glass to the wall), electronic (a laser microphone), or mystic (Heightened Senses), gives the listener an earful of ghostly wailing and moaning and the sound of howling winds.
Drink of Styx's Water (BMST)
The necromancer robs a grave and steals the corpse's skull. He saws off the top of the skull; the sawn-off piece, flipped over, forms a cup shaped piece of bone. He covers this with clay, making a bowl, which he proceeds to fire in a kiln. If any blood descendants of the corpse eats from the bowl during a meal with the necromancer, any promises the subject makes to the necromancer gains otherworldy enforcement. If the subject fails to live up to them, he is visited by a Spectre, which torments him relentlessly unless he makes good on them or offers the necromancer acceptable compensation. In addition to robbing the grave, the modeling and firing of the bowl takes at least 4 hours, depending on how fancy the necromancer wants it to be look. It may be reused until destroyed.
Level 4 •
Cadaver's Touch (V)
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 mockery of himself. As the doll loses the last of its form, the target becomes cold and clammy. His pulse becomes weak and thready, his flesh pale and chalky. For all intents and purposes, he becomes a reasonable facsimile of the walking dead. The effects of the ritual wear off only when the wax of the doll is permitted to resolidify. If the wax is allowed to boil off, the spell is broken.
Peek Past the Shroud (GS)
This hour-long ritual enchants a handful of ergot (a mold that grows on grains prior to harvest in cold, damp weather) to act as a catalyst for second sight. By eating a pinch of the magical mold, a subject gains the benefits of Shroudsight (Ash Path Necromancy Level One) for a several hours. Three doses of the enchanted ergot are created for every success. 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.
Call Upon the Shadow's Grace (ClB Giovanni)
Use of this invasive ritual allows the Giovanni to peer into the aura of death that surrounds all living things. This ritual temporarily opens a channel for speaking with the Shadow of its subject. Not as powerful as the Shadow of a Wraith, it can reveal damning aspects of the person's actions and can drive the person to acts of desperation.
Drink of Lethe's Waters (BMST)
The necromancer acquires an object once owned by, or symbolic of, a particular wraith. The object must be able to be damaged by water; the necromancer leaves destroys it by leaving it to soak in water. During the soaking, her periodically spits in the water. After the object has been destroyed, the necromancer conjures up the wraith or otherwise arranges to be in her presence. The wraith loses all memory of her identity, becoming highly susceptible to suggestion on the part of the necromancer. The wraith's memory loss continues for one night per attempt. It may not use Pathos point to counter any action from the necromancer.
Level 5 •
Grasp the Ghostly (V)
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 as simple as all that, however — a wraith might well 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 wraiths) may be recaptured in this manner.
Chill of Oblivion (GS)
Performed over the course of 12 hours, this ritual infuses the Necromancer or a willing subject with the very cold of the grave. The ritual’s material component is a one-foot 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 night per success. An individual affected by the 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. 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 minor those of the Flaws: Touch of Frost and Eerie Presence. Finally, the mystical nimbus of the ritual draws hostile ghosts to the subject, who may plague him, with unwholesome acts.
Chair of Hades (BMST)
The necromancer acquires a corpse's femur and tibia bones--decreasing the difficulty of the casting if he robs the grave himself. He wraps the bones in coarse cloth and then encases them in wood or metal so the their lengths match and they become capable of bearing weight. He then builds a chair, each encased bone forms one of its legs. If a blood descendant of the corpse sits in the chair, she loses all desire to do anything but sit in the chair. She leaves the chair only to quickly fulfill basic bodily needs. Even if the victim is forcibly removed from the chair, she does everything she can to sit in it once more. Lasts until the chair is destroyed. In addition to the time it takes to acquire the bones, the construction of the chair takes at least 8 hours.
Sepulchre Path
1 • Insight
This power allows you to look into the eyes of a corpse and see the last thing those eyes beheld. No one but the necromancer can see the vision.
2 • Summon Soul
You are able to summon the spirit of a dead mortal or extinguished (but not Diablerized) vampire for conversation. You must know the name of the spirit, although a psychic impression obtained through Object Reading will suffice. There must be some person or object in the room which had a personal connection to the spirit during its time on earth.
3 • Compel Soul
This power allows you to master a summoned spirit. Must be performed several times on a spirit to get more truthful answers and force it to remain. Wraith can use Pathos to resist. Can last one turn to one night to a year and a day.
4 • Haunting
You can bind a spirit into a place or object, and keep it from returning to the Shadowlands.
5 • Torment
It is through the use of this power that elder Giovanni convince bound ghosts to behave--or else. Torment allows the vampire to strike a wraith and inflict damage on the wraith's form. The vampire remains in the real world, however, so the wraith can't strike back.
6 • Zombie (VPG)
The use of this power allows a character to empower a newly dead body with motion. This will work if body is less than 8 hours dead.
7 • Severing the Ties of Death (Clanbook: Giovanni)
Allows the Necromancer to remove a wraith wholly from the Shadowslands against the spirit's will and put them in a holding vessel. The wraith, in essence, no longer exists in the UnderWorld. The wraith can't be rescued by other wraiths, carried away by the Tempest or affected by other inconvenient eventualities. This does not protect a wraith from the Shadow and the wraith may sink into oblivion during her incarceration.
8 • Soul Exchange (VPG)
This power allows transference of two spirits from physical creatures into each other's bodies. Both targets must be less than 10 feet apart and within eyesight of the Necromancer.
9 • Possession (VPG)
After summoning a spirit, the Necromancer may place it in a recently dead body. The spirit may inhabit the body as long as it pleases. The body must be no more than 30 minutes dead and the spirit willing to transfer to it. This can also be used on vampires.
9 • Inurement (Clanbook: Giovanni)
The vampire may give up her soul the moment before Final Death voluntarily becoming a wraith. The vampire must use an object of great sentimental value to her. This will be her Fetter. During preparation of the object, 20 blood points must be invested (over time and a number of posts) while the Kindred comtemplates the meaning of the object and its value to her soul. Thereafter, the vampire may spend bloodpoint to become a wraith if faced with Final Death.
Note: Wraith's may not be introduced at all at a later date, so this is basically sidestepping Final Death. A second unlife if you will.
10 • Death Pact(VPG)
This power allows the vampire to act as if he were the Prince of Darkness himself. The vampire drafts a written pact with a target, in which the target agrees to serve as needed. The pact is sealed with a drop of blood. If the vampire upholds his part of the bargain, the victim's spirit becomes a complete slave to the vampire upon death.
The Bone Path (VtM 3rd)
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.
1 • Tremens
Tremens allows a necromancer to make the flesh of a corpse shift once. An arm might suddenly flop forward, a cadaver might situp, or dead eyes might abruptly open. To use Tremens, the necromancer spends a single blood point. One turn 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.
2 • Apprentice's Brooms
With Apprentice’s Brooms, the necromancer can make a dead body rise and perform a simple function. For example, the corpse could be set to carrying heavy objects, digging, or just shambling from place to place. The cadavers thus animated do not attack or defend themselves if interfered with, but instead attempt to carry out their given instructions until such time as they’ve been rendered inanimate. Generally it takes dismemberment, flame or something similar to destroy a corpse animated in this way. Bodies energized by this power continue to decay, albeit at a much slower rate than normal.
3 • Shambling Hordes
Shambling Hordes creates exactly what you think it might: 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. Each zombie (for lack of a better term) can follow one simple instruction, such as “Stay here and guard this graveyard against any intruders,” or “Kill them!”
4 • Soul Stealing
This power affects the living, not the dead. It does, however, temporarily turn a living soul into a sort of wraith, as it allows a necromancer to strip a soul from a living — or vampiric body. A mortal exiled from his body by this power becomes a wraith with a single tie to the real world: his now-empty body. The body itself remains autonomically alive but catatonic. This power can be used to create suitable hosts for Daemonic Possession. Every turn gives one hour.
5 • Daemonic Possession
Daemonic Possession lets a vampire insert a soul into a freshly dead body and inhabit it for the duration. This does not turn the reanimated corpse into anything other than a reanimated corpse, and one that will irrevocably decay after a week, but it does give either a wraith or a free-floating soul (say, that of a vampire using Psychic Projection) a temporary home in the physical world. The body in question must be no more than 30 minutes dead, and the new tenant must agree to inhabit it. Should the vampire, for whatever reason, wish to insert a soul into another vampire’s corpse (before it crumbles to ash), this takes 5 posts. The soul can use whatever physical abilities (Dodge, Brawl, Potence) his new home possesses, and whatever mental abilities (Computer, Law, Presence) he possesses in his current existence. He cannot use the physical abilities of his old form, or the mental abilities of his new one.
The Ash Path (VtM 3rd)
The Ash Path allows necromancers to peek into the lands of the dead and even to affect things there. Of the three Paths of Necromancy, the Ash Path is the most perilous to learn, because many of the Path’s uses increase a necromancer’s vulnerability to wraiths.
1 • Shroudsight
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, the odds are that an observant wraith will notice when a vampire suddenly starts staring at him, which can lead to unpleasant consequences. The effects last for a page.
2 • Lifeless Tongues
Where Shroudsight allows a necromancer to see ghosts, Lifeless Tongues allows her to converse with them effortlessly. Once Lifeless Tongues is employed, the vampire can carry on a conversation with the denizens of the ghostly Underworld without spending blood or causing the wraiths to expend any effort. This power also grants the effects of Shroudsight, so the vampire can see with whom, or what, she is conversing.
3 • Dead Hand
Similar to the Sepulchre Path power Torment, Dead Hand allows a necromancer to reach across the Shroud and affect a ghostly object as if it were in the real world. Ghosts are solid to necromancers using this power, and can be attacked. Furthermore, the necromancer can pick up ghostly items, scale ghostly architecture (giving real-world bystanders the impression 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 weapons they might have.
4 • Ex Nihilo
Ex Nihilo allows a necromancer to enter the Underworld physically. While in the lands of the dead, the vampire is essentially an extra-solid ghost. He maintains his normal number of health levels, but can 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 (at the cost of one health level). On the other hand, vampires present in the Underworld are subject to all of the Underworld’s perils, including ultimate destruction. A vampire killed in the Deadlands is gone forever, beyond even the reach of other necromancers. Using Ex Nihilo takes a tremendous toll on the necromancer. To activate this power, the vampire must first draw a doorway with chalk or blood on any available surface.(Note: Doors can be drawn ahead of time for exactly this purpose.) The player must then expend four blood points as the vampire attempts to open the chalk door physically, the door opens and the vampire steps through into the Underworld. When the vampire wishes to return to the real world, he needs merely to concentrate and spend another blood point. Vampires who wander too far into the lands of the dead may be trapped there forever. Vampires in the Underworld cannot feed upon ghosts; their only sustenance is the blood they bring with them.
5 • Shroud Master
A bit of an exaggeration, Shroud Mastery is the ability to manipulate the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead. By doing so, a necromancer can make it easier for bound wraiths in his service to function, or make it nearly impossible for ghosts to contact the material world. To exercise Shroud Mastery, the necromancer expends two blood points, then states whether he is attempting to raise or lower the Shroud. The Shroud reverts to its normal strength at a rate of one point per hour thereafter.
Necromantic Rituals
The rituals connected with Necromancy are a hodgepodgelot. Some have direct relations to the paths; others seem to have been taught by wraiths themselves, for whatever twisted reason. Necromantic rituals are otherwise identical to Thaumaturgy rituals and are learned in similar fashion, though the two are by no means compatible.
Level 1 •
Call of the Hungry Dead (V)
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 might well go briefly mad.
Eldritch Beacon (GS)
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 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 wraithly powers affect this individual with greater ease and severity. The sphere retains its power for one hour per success.
Circle of Cerberus (BMST)
The necromancer bathes, fasts and abstains from all physical comforts and pleasures for a night. Then she dons well-maintained, high quality robes or other clothing. She draws a circle on the floor in a place of safety. She may then proceed to use other necromantic powers, confident that her protection against ghosts and spirits has been enhanced. Necromancer must remain within the circle.
Rape of Persephone (BMST)
A team of surgeons trained in the unpleasant ways of Necromancy performs an elaborate operation on a freshly dead or well-preserved corpse. From the cadaver's dead tissues, they create up to seven new penises, vaginas or other sexual apparatuses. The necromancer engages in intercourse with the corpse's new genitalia. He then will have half the difficulty in using necromancy for the rest of the night (except in ways affecting ghosts, spectres and so on). If a number of necromancers perform the ritual together, they may freely trade blood points between one another for the rest of the night. During this time, one participant may experience the tactile sensations of another by concentrating for a few seconds and spending a blood point, regardless of the distance separating them. No more than seven necromancers can perform the ritual together.
Level 2 •
Eyes of the Grave (V)
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 — only the victim sees them, after all. The visions, which come randomly, can also interfere with activities such as driving, shooting and so on. Eyes of the Grave requires a pinch of soil from a fresh grave.
Puppet (GS)
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 can attempting to take control of the subject. The ritual’s effects remain even if the soil is washed off.
Spirit Deacon (ClB Giovanni)
This ritual is designed to draw wraiths to a particular area. It requires the head of a man forsaken by God; this acts as a beacon to all wraiths with the region. It is said that an unholy radiance pours forth from the eyes, mouth and ears of the head by those who see it in the Shadowlands.
Judgment of Rhadamanthus (BMST)
The necromancer chooses a wraith she will later summon, using the Summon Soul power of the Sepulchre Path. In a cleansed bronze brazier, she burns several pages of a law book and a religious text matching the faith the wraith held in life. She mixes the ashes of the books with silver powder and uses the mixture to make her Circle of Cerberus. When the wraith appears, the necromancer tells him that she has the power to send him to the real afterlife, the one he believed in when he was alive. If the ritual works, the wraith believes her. If the wraith fears judgment and hellfire, she can induce him to do what she wants by threatening to use her power. If he yearns for Heaven and escape from the bizarre existence of the underworld, she can secure his cooperation by promising to use it. Since she can't make good on the promise, Judgment of Rhadamanthus won't work twice on the same Heaven-seeking wraith. Wraiths who were atheists while alive, or didn't believe in life after death, automatically resist this ritual.
Level 3 •
Ritual of the Unearthed Fetter (V)
This ritual requires that a necromancer have a fingerbone from the skeleton of the particular wraith he’s interested in. ‘When the ritual is cast, the fingerbone becomes attuned to something vitally important to the wraith, the possession of which by the necromancer makes the casting of Sepulchre Path powers much easier. Most necromancers take the attuned fingerbone 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 wraith targeted and the fingerbone 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 fingerbone.
Din of the Damned (GS)
This ritual is similar to the Level One Ritual Call of the Hungry Dead in that it makes the sounds of the underworld audible in the physical realm. However, Din of the Damned is an area-effect 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, be it simple (a glass to the wall), electronic (a laser microphone), or mystic (Heightened Senses), gives the listener an earful of ghostly wailing and moaning and the sound of howling winds.
Drink of Styx's Water (BMST)
The necromancer robs a grave and steals the corpse's skull. He saws off the top of the skull; the sawn-off piece, flipped over, forms a cup shaped piece of bone. He covers this with clay, making a bowl, which he proceeds to fire in a kiln. If any blood descendants of the corpse eats from the bowl during a meal with the necromancer, any promises the subject makes to the necromancer gains otherworldy enforcement. If the subject fails to live up to them, he is visited by a Spectre, which torments him relentlessly unless he makes good on them or offers the necromancer acceptable compensation. In addition to robbing the grave, the modeling and firing of the bowl takes at least 4 hours, depending on how fancy the necromancer wants it to be look. It may be reused until destroyed.
Level 4 •
Cadaver's Touch (V)
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 mockery of himself. As the doll loses the last of its form, the target becomes cold and clammy. His pulse becomes weak and thready, his flesh pale and chalky. For all intents and purposes, he becomes a reasonable facsimile of the walking dead. The effects of the ritual wear off only when the wax of the doll is permitted to resolidify. If the wax is allowed to boil off, the spell is broken.
Peek Past the Shroud (GS)
This hour-long ritual enchants a handful of ergot (a mold that grows on grains prior to harvest in cold, damp weather) to act as a catalyst for second sight. By eating a pinch of the magical mold, a subject gains the benefits of Shroudsight (Ash Path Necromancy Level One) for a several hours. Three doses of the enchanted ergot are created for every success. 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.
Call Upon the Shadow's Grace (ClB Giovanni)
Use of this invasive ritual allows the Giovanni to peer into the aura of death that surrounds all living things. This ritual temporarily opens a channel for speaking with the Shadow of its subject. Not as powerful as the Shadow of a Wraith, it can reveal damning aspects of the person's actions and can drive the person to acts of desperation.
Drink of Lethe's Waters (BMST)
The necromancer acquires an object once owned by, or symbolic of, a particular wraith. The object must be able to be damaged by water; the necromancer leaves destroys it by leaving it to soak in water. During the soaking, her periodically spits in the water. After the object has been destroyed, the necromancer conjures up the wraith or otherwise arranges to be in her presence. The wraith loses all memory of her identity, becoming highly susceptible to suggestion on the part of the necromancer. The wraith's memory loss continues for one night per attempt. It may not use Pathos point to counter any action from the necromancer.
Level 5 •
Grasp the Ghostly (V)
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 as simple as all that, however — a wraith might well 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 wraiths) may be recaptured in this manner.
Chill of Oblivion (GS)
Performed over the course of 12 hours, this ritual infuses the Necromancer or a willing subject with the very cold of the grave. The ritual’s material component is a one-foot 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 night per success. An individual affected by the 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. 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 minor those of the Flaws: Touch of Frost and Eerie Presence. Finally, the mystical nimbus of the ritual draws hostile ghosts to the subject, who may plague him, with unwholesome acts.
Chair of Hades (BMST)
The necromancer acquires a corpse's femur and tibia bones--decreasing the difficulty of the casting if he robs the grave himself. He wraps the bones in coarse cloth and then encases them in wood or metal so the their lengths match and they become capable of bearing weight. He then builds a chair, each encased bone forms one of its legs. If a blood descendant of the corpse sits in the chair, she loses all desire to do anything but sit in the chair. She leaves the chair only to quickly fulfill basic bodily needs. Even if the victim is forcibly removed from the chair, she does everything she can to sit in it once more. Lasts until the chair is destroyed. In addition to the time it takes to acquire the bones, the construction of the chair takes at least 8 hours.
