Level Five Ritual
Cobra's Favor
As a precaution from having their blood stolen against their will, the Tremere manipulated their vitae via this ritual to burn with a toxin that causes it to damage anything it touches. It requires an herbal poultice and the venom of a snake to be mixed with some of the thaumturge's blood.
System:
After spilling one point of vitae into a container and combining them with the necessary herbs and poison, the thaumaturge recites an incantation and the concoction turns jet black. The caster must ingest the elixir for the ritual to take effect, suffering one level of unsoakable aggravated damage in the process. For one full month, anything consuming the blood of the caster suffers a level of aggravated damage per point ingested.
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Court of Hallowed Truth
Although this ritual was developed to be used in Tremere tribunals, recent nights have seen princes call upon Tremere to use it within their political halls in exchange for favors. Unbiased testimony and blunt truth become standard within the court, and many connivers and liars have betrayed their own plans with their unwittingly veracious words. A pair of crossed bones must be laid before every entry to the room, including windows.
System:
The magic weaves its spell upon one room, and all within abide by the truth-telling edict it creates. No falsehood may be spoken, and direct questions from the presiding judge or power are answered candidly with no omissions or deceit. The magic persists within the room for the length of one full month. Several princes have come to rely on this, much to their undoing, as either the prince becomes preposterously indebted to the Tremere or other Kindred resent his heavy-handed tactics and refuse to attend meeting. This power invariably erodes the power of princes who rely on it, though some are too short-sighted to understand it.
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Ghost in the System
With society becoming more dependant upon information and computer files, archaic elders needed something to maintain their places in society. In earlier nights, a Kindred could easily fake his death or move on to a different part of the country, but tonight identities are kept on ubiquitous file through the electronic data and paper trails. This ritual bypasses the normal channels for these identities, causing old computer and hardcopy files to disappear and new files to spring up. Like a ghost, the thaumaturge disappears and comes back in a new form. This ritual is technomantic in nature, and many vampires thoroughly disapprove of it, preferring to remain anonymous than change to conform with the rules of the modern nights. Invoking this ritual requires the caster to melt a pile of sand into glass and suspend an ant within the cooling silicon
System:
This ritual takes an entire week to perform, with breaks from the chanting and ceremony only in the form of sleep each day. A botch on the activation results in a complete corruption of all files dealing with the Cainite, to the point that major government agency takes active interest in the Anomalous activities. A failure results in problems for a few months before everything i arranged correctly -- "we're sorry, sir but the files says that you are dead; we'll take care of this mistake right away." It effectively creates a series of false records that allow the vampire to observe modern citizenship, including driver’s license numbers for licenses that do not exist, false birth certificates, Social security number etc.
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Sculpting the Perfect Servant
Intrigued by the manner in which the Fiends bred their revenant servants and, improvising on those methods, a powerful European thaumaturge ritualized the ability to enroll an individual's service even before the child had been born. by manipulating an unborn fetus in the womb of a pregnant woman, a magus has the ability to grant exceptional aptitudes and attributes that develop in the child. These Warlocks may also be exceedingly cruel, cursing these innocents with scars and defects. This technique of creating ghouls was founded to increase the abilities of their ghouls, as well as the service of the mother. Children affected by Sculpting of the Perfect Servant, though possibly growing up normally, always feel a supernatural connection to the magus. To use this ritual, the caster must rend a stillborn baby in half and allow its blood to flow over the belly of a pregnant mother.
System:
While it takes only a moment to curse or damage a child, a caster who expends the time and energy in blessing (which requires five hours every week until the pregnant mother comes to term, starting in the first three months of the pregnancy) will reap the benefits. This results in the baby possessing exceptional Attributes (three sometimes four points per Trait, rather than the usual two points most mortals have) and gaining an extended life span (usually living for about 100-120 years). Unfortunately despite being strong, handsome and healthy, these mortals are also cursed by lack of moral development; their Humanity can never be raised above 6. For every curse inflicted on the unborn child, one common deformity may be created as well to bind the child to the magus
Note: The full effects of this ritual are solely up to the Storyteller, as such manipulation of humanity can have a drastic effect on game balance.
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Severed Hand
Used during the Dark Ages, this ritual was used as punishment for Cainites who did not deserve destruction. In Muslim countries, crimes of theft would be addressed by cutting off the offender's hand. Because of the great healing abilities of vampires, threat of this punishment did not carry the grave penalty it had for mortals. This ritual prevents a severed body part from healing normally. Although a severed hand was the most common appendage removed, this ritual can effect eyes, fingers, tongues and other body parts. The most important component is the severed anatomy of the subject, which is why this ritual is almost always performed at the maiming.
System:
This ritual takes an entire night to perform, during which time the wound is treated with different alchemical compounds to prevent the regeneration process. although the health levels can heal in the normal way. the severed body part is unable to be restored to its former condition without magical healing (such as Obeah)
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Stone of the True Form
This ritual banishes the false form of an individual and causes him to return to his original, natural form. This ritual will also expose, say, and Obfuscated Nosferatu who lurks unseen in the shadows. The flesh of a grotesque zulo-formed Tzimisce will crawl around its body and reform to its original guise. even enraged Lupines have been known to lose their lives after shifting into mortal or wolf form, unable to shift back to their warrior-form before being drained of blood and torn to pieces by a thaumaturge. This ritual requires a small round stone, which changes the subject's shape after coming in contact with her.
System:
The thaumaturge must cast this ritual on a small round stone the size of a marble. After completing the ritual incantation, the thaumaturge coats the ball with a point of his vitae. The marble must touch victim in order to force a transformation to natural form. After the stone makes physical contact with a victim, both he and the magus enter into a contested Willpower roll (dif of each other's Stamina). If the caster wins by even one success, the subject will immediately shift to his natural form for a single turn. Every success above and beyond the first success extends the number of turns a target is unable to assume a shape other than his original form.
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Stone Slumber
This ritual protects a sleeping vampire by turning her into solid stone. the caster must smear her entire body with the blood from a 12-hour-old corpse and stand completely still in an open area facing east. When the first rays of the rising sun strike her, the vampire's body turns to stone. In this form, the Kindred is completely protected from all forms of physical damage and most types of flame (including sunlight) and heat, unless the heat would be strong enough to melt rock (as with a lava flow or other disaster). Telepathy and other mental Disciplines are also useless, as the thaumaturge's mind is dormant
System:
The caster must begin this ritual exactly one hour before sunrise. If the timing is not exactly right, the ritual will not work and the caster suffers aggravated damage from the light of the sun, as normal. The ritual lasts until 10 minutes after the following sunset. During this period, the Kindred is completely oblivious to her surroundings and cannot wake up. In addition, waking up the next evening costs an additional blood point.
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Vires Acquirit Eundo
This is simply a way of extending the effect of another ritual. The caster recites an elaborate incantation, then breaks an hourglass and casts the sand over a green flame while performing the other ritual. The only disadvantage to using this ritual is that it has different effects depending on what the caster uses it with.
System:
The Storyteller has the final decision on the effects of this ritual. Generally, it adds time or potency to another ritual in order to extend its duration or prolong its effects. The efficiency with which is does so depends on the number of successes on the caster's roll.
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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. One blood point is consumed in the creation of the document, and an additional blood point is consumed by those who sign it.
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Enchant Talisman
This ritual is the first taught to most Tremere once they have attained mastery of their first path. CreateTalisman allows the thaumaturge to enchant a personal magical item (the fabled wizard's staff) to act as an amplifier for her will and thaumaturgical might. A Tremere's talisman is a great source of personal pride, and any insult directed against a talisman is an insult at the thaumaturge herself. Many talismans are laden with additional rituals (such as every ward known to thethaumaturge).
The physical appearance of a talisman varies, but it must be a rigid object close to a yard long.Swords and walking sticks are the most common talismans, but some innovative or eccentric Tremerehave 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 thaumaturge 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 thaumaturge several advantages. When the character is holding the talisman, the difficulty of all magic or magick 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 or magick against the talisman's owner. At the Storyteller's discretion, rituals that target the thaumaturge 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.
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Escape to a True Friend
One of the few rituals available to the Tremere that allows a form of teleportation, 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 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.
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Ward versus Spirits
This warding ritual functions exactly as do Ward versus Ghouls, Ward versus Lupines and Ward versus Kindred, 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 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.
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Attuning Wards
Some Tremere have servants or allies whom they wish to make exempt from the damage and subsequent avoidance compulsion inflicted by the various "Ward versus" and "Warding Circle versus" rituals (Ward versus Ghouls, Lupines, Kindred, Spirits, Ghosts, and Demons). This technique is taught to all Tremere who are taught any of these rituals. It requires either the presence of each individual who is to be exempt from the ward or a point of their blood when the ward is cast. The difficulty of the roll to cast the ward is raised by one (to a maximum of 9). The thaumaturge may exempt a maximum number of individuals equal to his Thaumaturgy rating from each ward he casts.
The caster of a warding circle can also temporarily enchant a specific being to pass through a warding circle cast by that thaumaturge. This requires five minutes, one point of the subject's blood and an Intelligence + Occult roll (difficulty 8). If this succeeds, the subject is exempt from the warding circle for one night per success
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Abandon the Fetters (level 5 ritual)
As closely guarded as any secret within the clan, Abandon the Fetters seems to depart from the normal convetions of Thaumaturgy. Occult theorists note that it has more in common with primal, passionate sorcery than with the cerebral, systematic approach to Hermetic blood magic. A few even darkly hint at its similarites to the Vaulderie -- for the ritual to Abandon the Fetters shatters the blood bond.
Breaking a blood bond is a grueling process. The thaumaturge must have unrestricted access to the subject, as wall as a sample of blood from the master. The ritual requires an entire night; its execution is excruciating for both caster and subject. The thaumaturge forms a bond to the subject and master with a mixture of blood from all three, placed in a glass container. Next, the caster must exsanguinate and escoriate the subject -- the manner is up to the ritualist's individual style; some might mortify the flesh with lashes, while others might apply brands. Once the subject hangs on the thread of demise, the caster shatters the glass conainer, spilling the blood to the ground and snapping the thread of the bond. The mixture of blood evaporates in a hissing, scalding steam, and the subject is freed.
Of course, Abandon the Fetters remains one of the rarest of Tremere secrets. Few Warlocks could be trusted with such potent knowledge. Indeed, the merest int that a Tremere can perfrom this ritual is enoug to cause other Kindred to eye her with renewed suspicion -- the Tremere have sorcerous ways to steal bood, so who's to say that a thaumaturge couldn't release someone's thralls and bond them to herself instead? Even those Kindred who suffer under the bond's lash would rarely trust a Tremere enough to risk going through this process.
SYSTEM:
The thaumaturge must have one point of blood from himself, the subject and the subject's regnant. (If the caster happens to be the subject or regnant, no additional blood is needed.) The exoriation causes three health levels of unsoakable aggravated damage tot he subject, as flesh is flayed or burned away. The final venomous steam inflicts an additional level of unsoakable aggravated damage upon both the caster and the subject. The subject loses a permanent point of Willpower, but if the ritual succeeds, the blood bond atrophies immediately. However, this offers no protection against the formation of another, later bond.
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Night of the Red Heart (level 5 ritual)
Neonates whisper that Tremere elders can utterly destroy their enemies with but a sample of vitae. Although little is ever that simple, some truth lies behind the dread rumor. With Night of the Red Heart, a thaumaturge can send his enemies shrieking in terror, slay them outright or force a confrontation.
The thaumaturge needs only a quantitative sample of the victim's blood. Over the course of an entire night, the caster chants the syllables of the ritual continously. After the first iteration of the ritual (which takes about ten minutes), the victim suddenly feels a foreboding sense of dread. Whenever the subject faces the caster, he realizes that a ritual is in progress to slay him -- and that he must either escape its power, or else find and interrupt the caster by following the preternatural knowledge imparted. Once the ritual ends at sunrise, if the victim is within its range, he spectacularly crumbles to ash in a matter of seconds.
In addition to the victim's blood, the caster must have an effigy of the victim that he has carved himself from bone, rotten wood harvested at midnight or stone from the grave of a faithful priest's headstone.
SYSTEM:
Although extreamly potent, Night of the Red Heart is not an all-powerful ritual. Chances are, as soon as it begins, the victim will either flee the city or else hunt down the caster. Because there are no holds barred -- death or failure -- this likely means that the victim will not stop until he can destroy the thaumaturge. Should the caster manage to complete the ritual with a full point of the victim's blood, though the hapless subject immediatly collapses to Final Death.
The player rolls for the ritual's success as soon as casting begins -- if the roll fails, then the ritual will not work and the victim feels nothing (although the caster doesn't necessarily know this.) The player must also expend one Willpower point to continue the casting for the duration of the entire night, and if the ritual is stopped or interrupted in any way, it fails.
Night of the Red Heart has a limited range. Popular lore holds that the rite works "for seven leagues beyond the accursed's haven"; scientific thaumaturges credit this rite with a range of 30 to 35 miles. Regardless, the subject can immediately tell if he has managed to escape the ritual's range, because the sense of dread vanishes -- but if he returns while the ritual remains in progress, he once again comes under its influence. Note that although the subject can tell if he manages to escape the ritual's range, the caster does not know this; it's possible to caste Night of the Red Heart upon someone who is not in range, without knowing that the ritual will fail.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Rituals 4
Level Four Ritual
The Curse Belated
Warlocks normally reserve the casting of this ritual for a ghoul who is prized above all others, or one near and dear to a thaumaturge's unbeating heart. By performing this ritual on a ghoul, the thaumaturge can all but guarantee his thrall's chance of survival, for the moment the ghoul dies, the vampiric blood inside his body courses through his system and thereafter resurrects him as a full-fledged vampire. The thaumaturge brands the ghoul with his sigil, which vanishes once the ghoul becomes one of the undead.
System:
The thaumaturge, as part of the requirement of the ritual, will temporarily lose one permanent point from his blood pool. this is invested, instead, in the ghoul he wishes to safeguard. A second point of the thaumaturge's blood must be fed to the ghoul, which remains in the ghoul's body until he dies (the ghoul may not use it to power Disciplines, heal, ect). Upon death, the inaccessible point of vitae will save the ghoul from Final Death and bring him back as a vampire of the same clan as the caster, usually after a short delay to allow the ghoul's killers to depart. The temporary blood pool point returns to the thaumaturge after the ghoul becomes Kindred.
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Infirm Inert
One of the mystical powers of the vitae possessed by Kindred is the supernatural ability of healing. With blood fueling the mending of their injuries, everything from stab wounds to the loss of appendages may knit and heal. When a thaumaturge drips some of his blood onto a target and casts this ritual, the victim losses the ability to use his vitae for healing. Before casting this ritual, the thaumaturge must imbibe a small quantity of blood laced with laudanum.
System
For every success the magus scores in casting this ritual, a target lack his healing ability for one night. This ritual requires 20 minutes of concentration, during which time the caster spends one blood point. With its successful completion, This Blood causes and affliction to immediately lose the ability to heal, though he may not be aware of this until he actively attempts to use his blood to do so. Victims may spend a point of Willpower to ignore this effect for one turn. When this ritual expires, all wounds may be healed according to the type of damage suffered, as normal.
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Rend The Mind
House Tremere, masters of Thaumaturgy and Auspex, developed this attack as a form of assassination. Being able to infiltrate the minds and directly attack the psyche of an opponent is vastly superior to a physical attack upon enemies and near impossible to detect. The thaumaturge consumes the brain of a rabid animal when preparing this ritual
System
Casting this one-hour ritual allows the caster to use one telepathic assault before the next sunrise. The attack can affect anyone the thaumaturge can see, and the telepathic attack uses an Intelligence + Empathy roll (dif. to the target's willpower) to determine its effectiveness. Each success is translated into a health level of unsoakable bashing damage to the target (though Kindred halve the damage suffered).
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Return of The Heart
This ritual is a severe curse to the less humane Kindred. Cainites that are the target of this power have the portion of their soul that has been slowly dying returned to them. Murderers become racked with remorse over their actions and lament their deeds. For more debased members of the Sabbat this power is particularly crippling and may well result in their destruction at the hands of their packmates. Invoking this power requires either knowledge of the subject's True Name or a quantity of her blood.
System:
The subject becomes temporarily governed by the Hierarchy of Sin for Humanity as if she had a humanity rating of 9. Note that this does not actually impart a Humanity of 9 to the character -- she is simply overwhelmed by a sense of her own damnation. The subject still has the Path rating that they normally would have, but they are no longer injured to the cruelties of the world. This will have the Cainite performing Degeneration tests for the most minor of deeds. This power lasts for one hour per success on the ritual roll.
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Scry
The thaumaturge causes a body of water to becoming a scrying pool, able to center on a person or location. The caster is able to see and hear as if he was personally there. Natural pools and bowls of water are often the means of viewing through this magic. Smaller (no larger than a child’s pool), still (better for viewing) bodies of water are considered best for this. This ritual requires a bit of owl's blood to be mixed in with the water.
System:
Although this magic is similar to the Auspex power of Clairvoyance, it does have its differences. First, the caster cannot use additional Auspex powers through the Scry magic. Second, if used to center on a person, the magus must have a personal item of the individual's in his possession, or he must know the subject's True Name. Third, is a location is the center of the Scry, this location cannot be changed throughout the duration of the ritual. This ritual lasts for a number of hours equal to the number of successes for the casting. The thaumaturge only has to concentrate during this duration to view scenes through the water.
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Stolen Kisses
Thaumturges cast this ritual when they do not wish to feed by mouth. Instead, stolen Kisses allows them to drain small portions of vitae through other parts of a vessel’s body. Some vampires prefer the strong handshake. Others enjoy choking vessels, a double pleasure of asphyxia and the flush of new vitae coursing through cold veins. Others "get off" by draining blood from a vessel during sex. In any case, a vessel is usually not immediately aware that blood is sucked out of his body, though he will experience a slight sensation of dizziness and light-headedness. This ritual requires the caster to carry a "witch's kiss" -- a thistle steeped in the blood of a vampire -- somewhere on her person.
System:
The magus must first make a small incision on his body where he intends to make physical contact with a vessel. The ritual is then cast; once complete, the would knits itself closed. However, it open to create a lip-and-mouth-type orifice when continually pressed against a vessel’s flesh, which mystically sucks out one blood point every other turn as long as contact persists. After a second point of vitae is consumed, a vessel is likely to feel woozy, while taking five blood points probably causes the victim to black out from the substantial lack of blood in his body. Stolen Kisses remains active for one night.
A warlock does not cause ecstasy or rapture when taking blood in this manor, as he would were he to feed upon a vessel by mouth.
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Ward Versus Vitae
While this power protects anarchs from elder intrusion to some degree, it is not so efficacious as other wards. This is not a universal "Ward Versus Kindred," but rather a limited application of a similar principle. When the Kindred enacting this ritual makes her sigil, any Kindred of lower generation than her who breaks the ward immediately suffers its ill effects. That is, if a 10th Generation thaumaturge casts this ritual, Kindred of 9th Generation and lower would be affected.The Thaumaturge anoints an object of her choice with her blood, marking the ward as a sigl.
System:
Kindred below the casters generation suffer two dice of lethal damage. This damage occurs again
if the Kindred touches the object further. At that point, a Kindred who consciously wishes to touch the
ward object must succeed in a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) or spend a willpower point to do so.
Like other wards, this ritual functions on only one object: a single window, a doorknob, a book or one door of an automobile. An entire object of great size, such as a car or room may be warded, but only with enough uses of this ritual that would effect all points of entry, exit or contact.
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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 Tremere 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.
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 magic ceases to work any longer.
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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 benefits of this are that 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 ofBelated Quiescence (see above), and the difficulty to use all Presence powers on him is increased by three due to his emotional isolation.
The drawbacks are as follows: the caster's Conscience 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 (e.g. Animal Magnetism or Sanctity) are neutralized. Heart of Stone lasts as long as the caster wishes it to.
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Splinter Servant
Another ritual designed to enchant a stake, Splinter Servant is a progressive development of Shaft of Belated Quiescence. The two rituals are mutually exclusive, which is fortunate for many, because a Splinter Servant of Belated Quiescence would be a truly terrifying weapon. A Splinter Servant consists of a stake carved from a tree which has nourished itself on the dead, 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 servantsplits 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 indelicately 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 perturn.
Note that these values are those of the thaumaturge who created the servant, not the individual who activates it. A 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 Vampire: The Masquerade, page 214). A Splinter Servant has three health levels, and attacks directed against it are made at +3 difficulty due to its small size and spastic 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 round 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.
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Ward versus Kindred
This warding ritual functions exactly as do Ward versus Ghouls and Ward versus Lupines, but it inflicts injury upon Cainites. It does not harm kuei-jin (see Kindred of the East), although Tremere researchers are promising their elders a Ward versus Cathayans ritual "any night now."
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. As noted above, this ward does not harm kuei-jin , and there is currently no "Ward versus Cathayans" in existence.
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Blood Certamen (Level 4 ritual)
While most modern Tremere apprentices see Thaumaturgy as a distinct property of their blood, some aged Tremere who survived the Long Night remember nights as mortal wizards. The clan's very foundation rests upon the traditions of those wizards -- tribunals, apprenticeships, the Tremere Oath; all stem from the organization that the Tremere abandoned in their plummet into damnation. Among those early practices was one magical rite used to settle disputes. Even though the Tremere traded their mortal sorcery for blood magic, they managed to find ways to turn their old practices to their undead state, and the ritual of Certamen made that trasition as well.
Certamen exists as one of the oldest forms of dispute resolution between wizards, or so the elder Tremere say. In the modern nights, Certamen takes a decidedly sinister form, and remains in the hands of very few Tremere. Indeed, perhaps only a half-dozen Tremere below the rank of regent know the ritual itself, and a handful more remain aware of its existence. Still, its use remains protected by ancient tradition, and a Tremere without other recourse can, if he is even aware of it, call for Certamen to settle a quarrel. One pontifex supposedly favors Certamen as a traditional measure and a hallmark of a true and loyal Tremere -- and correspondingly evidences terrifying sill with the practice.
The rite of Certamen opens with a formal declaration of challenge, though that does not constitute part of the actual ritual. The rite itself sees the contenders in a circle of blood or vitreous humor, where by technique and form -- the power to harness Thaumaturgy -- they shall settle the matter. A circle ten paces across markes the boundaries of the competition, while each participant stands in an interior circle two paces wide and faces the opponent. The interior circles' outer edges just touch upon the inner ring of the large circle, so the competitors stand just a short distance
apart. The participants state their terms immediately upon entering the circle, challenger declaring what he stands to gain and defender declaring three limits upon the forms of the combat. Each one intones the ritual for Certamen; when both complete it, the test of blood begins, to end only in death, submission or the judgment of a presiding arbiter.
By tradition, each participant brings a second, who makes announcement of his contender and handles offices such as holding the participant's trappings or ritual accoutrements. The seconds stand behind and to the right of their parrticipants. A (supposedly) neutral party arbitrates, and may end the Certamen at his discretion; he can, for instance, intervene to prevent a prodigious apprentice from destroying a regent. The arbiter determines or ratifies the victor, and also overrules the apparent victor in cases of cheating (though, technically, the only way to "cheat" at Certamen is to bring in magical arrtifacts or excess blood without announcing their presence to the arbiter and opponent). The arbiter also determines whether a given Certamen contest has a definitive result. Should, say, one contender simply use Movement of the Mind to force the other out of the ring in a few seconds into the contest, or should both participants exhaust their stores of vitae without a clear victor,
the arbiter may declare the matter inconclusive or a draw.
Certamen allows a thaumaturge to extend his usual path effects into more symbolic and devastating forms. Fire magics become incendiary greatswords or demonic flamebolts; spirit minions become trnslucent, armed legionnaires; weather sorcery takes on a viciously turgid aspect. Onlookers watch as the two Tremere contend with the mightiest blood magic at their disposal. Ultimately one must give way or be slain. Each participant holds comparable amounts of power, while the ritual causes Thaumaturgy cast by the two to evidence mystic traces and patterns that allow onlookers to tell what's happening and even give the participants some ability to defend against opponent's attacks. Victory goes to finesse and broad knowledge, not to raw power.
Should a participant frenzy, his second (and any attending guards) must put him down immediately; he loses the contest. Similarly, stepping from the inner circle immediately reults in forfeiture. Completion of the ritual does not mystically bind either participant to its terms, but failure to adhere to one's own agreed-upon Certamen carries grave weight with nearly ever Tremere, and may well lead to condemnation as a rogue (assuming that the oathbreaker survived the experience).
Of course, in the Final Nights Certamen exists more as a curiosity than as a common practice. Some few Tremere do use it, but Certamen is never frequent nor lightly invoked. A Tremere Can decline a challenge of Certamen, Though doing so usually entails a loss of face among the more traditional members of the clan. Successful Certamen garners some small amount of prestige among the few who still consider it an art, but its use remains restricted to personal disputes. A Tremere cannot use Certamen to force a superior to give him rank or to show off his thaumaturgical might, but he could use the rite to legitimately depose a superior with whome he had a personal grievence or to force a peer to stop interfering in his affairs.
Similarly, a higher-ranking Tremere may step in as arbiter, and an dour pontifex may very well stop the whole process before it begins. And, of course, if the battle results in death, why then someone more competent than the loser must step forward to take over the late Kindred's assets and duties.TO this night, very few members of the other clans have even heard of Certamen. Elder Tremere intend to keep it that way.
SYSTEM:
Certamen ultimately serves a simple game mechanical purpose: the two (always and only two) Tremere involved in Certamen may expend exactly two blood points per turn, reguardless of generation. Furthermore, at a cost of one blood point, a player may make a Willpower roll against the opponent's Thaumaturgy roll, with the difficulty being the opposite character's Taumaturgy. This acts as a normal resisted roll, canceling out the opponent's successes. Because Certamen highlights all thaumaturgical actions, the player can roll Intelligence + Occult (diff varies by power) to recognize most incoming thaumaturgical effects and decide whether or not to defend against or respond to them, as if using the power Thaumaturgical Sight. This allows the participants to invoke potent Thaumaturgy and to defend more ably against incoming attacks. The Certamen ritual imposes thse modifiers only so long as both participants remain in their respective circles.
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Mark of Amaranth (level 4 ritual)
Among Kindred, diablerie is regarded as a great crime -- many elders go to extraordinary lengths to extinguish an upstart neonate who evidences a hunger for the blood of his fellows. Deceptive Tremere can turn this paranoia against a hapless victim. All that's needed is some intimate possession of the target, and the destruction of another Kindred...
SYSTEM:
The thaumaturge must destroy another Kindred by his own hand, while holding or wearing some possession of the subject. He may then invoke this ritual by placing the object in the dead Kindred's corpse before it crumble sto ash. Once the ritual is completed, the subject exhibits the evidence of a diablerist to all forms of divination until the next sunrise. This includes Aura perception, the Blood Walk ritual and any other sort of scrying.
The Mark of Amaranth cannot be deferred by the Soul Mask Discipline, though higher levels of Obfuscate or certain advanced rituals might be able to counter it. Note that the ritual does not necessarily cause the victim to Think that he's a diablerist -- an innocent victim can truthfully answer that he is not a diablerist, even as his aura contradicts him. Naturally, use of this ritual is an efficient way to rapidly erode ones Humanity.
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Soul of the Homunculus (level 4 ritual)
Tremere in need of assistants for their research work cannot always rely upon the loyalty of apprentices. But who can doubt the loyalty of one's own flesh? A homunculus is a tiny creature crafted out of the caster's blood and tissue, which acts as an extension of the caster's will. Crafting a homunculus takes several hours of uninterrupted work, and a thaumaturge can have only one homunculus at a time. The horrid little entity takes shape in a bubbling morass of oil, blood, denuded bone and chunks of the caster's body. At the conclusion of the ritual, the homunculus crawls from its fatty birthing caul to serve its master. The homunulus can move about under its own power, and may be used as a spy or a means to fetch materials.
Many types of homunculi exist; different thaumaturges create different sorts of beasts. The most common are flyers (which resemble tiny winged demons), grubs (which look like worms with their master's faces), and hoppers (small, bald, implike entites with their casters' features reduced to miniture). The homunculus acts according to its master's orders, which may be issued nonverbally as long as the beast is in its creator's presence. OVer time, some honunculi develop their own personalities and goals, and more than one unnerved Tremere has discovered his homunculus playing malicious pranks behind his back.
SYSTEM:
A homunculus has two health levels and two dots in each Physical Attribute. It works much like a limb of the creator -- the homunculus only moves or acts if the caster so wills it. A homunculus cannot fight effectively, but can push or carry objects, and can often hide or spy on locations unnoticed due to its small size. Though the homunculus is initially wholly loyal, its experiences may eventually (over years) cause it to form a personality of its own, often spawned from the worst qualities of its creator. Homunculi are damaged by sunlight and fire like Kindred.
A Homunculus, though created from the caster's flesh, is a seperate physical entity and thus does not count as an arcane connection, nor do its bodily fluids count as its creator's blood. However, establishing a psychic connection to a homunculus instead projects into the consciousness of its controller. A homunculus must be fed one blood point each week or it will wither and die. Feeding may be an unsettling act to witness -- some Tremere suckle them at their own breasts, acting on some undead parental urge, while others treat their imps derisively, holding their opened wrists far above the creature's head while forcing it to caper about for its sustenance.
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Unweave Ritual (level 4 ritual)
With the preponderance of cursing rituals among the jealous Warlocks, it's only a matter of time until a Tremere labors under the effects of an enemy'a magic. Whether it's another Tremere eager to discomfit a political adversary, or some non-Tremere thaumaturge looking for retribution, having Thaumaturgy turned around against its supposed masters makes for a bitter aftertaste indeed.
Once a Tremere manages to identify the enemy ritual under which he labors, it's possible to build a counter-sorcery to unweave it. Thaumaturges skilled in this magic learn general principles to confound other rituals, shrug off their effects or collapse them prematurely.
SYSTEM:
First, the caster must figure out what ritual currently afflicts him. This is probably automatic if he knows the ritual (unless the caster has been very subtle or the subject is daft), but may require some research (and itelligence + Occult rolls, at the Storyteller's discretion) otherwise. Next, the unweaving takes place. The caster must secure a component that would be used in the casting of the offending ritual, then destroy it in some fashion. His successes subtract from the successes scored by the origional caster; if he manages to wipe away all of the successes, the offending
ritual immediately ends, with all concomitant effects.
Thus, a quick end to Bind the Accusing Tongue would allow the Tremere to speak ill of his enemies again, but a premature end to a Blood Contract would painfully shove him into torpor, and a premature end to Night of the Red Heart would result in Final Death. Only rituals that have a duration can be unwoven. For instance, a Tremere who has thrown off a blood bond through Abandon the Fetters (below) is not constantly under the effects of that ritual -- once the ritual is complete, the bond is gone and the ritual is done. However, a Tremere suffering from Steps of the Terrified would be considered under the duration of the ritual as long as it slowed his movement, so it could be unwoven.
Note that a thaumaturge can only unweave a ritual on himself, not on someone else. Also, a thaumaturge suffering from multiple rituals must unweave each one seperately. Muliple unweavings can be accumulated against a ritual so long as the appropraite time and components can be acquired.
The Curse Belated
Warlocks normally reserve the casting of this ritual for a ghoul who is prized above all others, or one near and dear to a thaumaturge's unbeating heart. By performing this ritual on a ghoul, the thaumaturge can all but guarantee his thrall's chance of survival, for the moment the ghoul dies, the vampiric blood inside his body courses through his system and thereafter resurrects him as a full-fledged vampire. The thaumaturge brands the ghoul with his sigil, which vanishes once the ghoul becomes one of the undead.
System:
The thaumaturge, as part of the requirement of the ritual, will temporarily lose one permanent point from his blood pool. this is invested, instead, in the ghoul he wishes to safeguard. A second point of the thaumaturge's blood must be fed to the ghoul, which remains in the ghoul's body until he dies (the ghoul may not use it to power Disciplines, heal, ect). Upon death, the inaccessible point of vitae will save the ghoul from Final Death and bring him back as a vampire of the same clan as the caster, usually after a short delay to allow the ghoul's killers to depart. The temporary blood pool point returns to the thaumaturge after the ghoul becomes Kindred.
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Infirm Inert
One of the mystical powers of the vitae possessed by Kindred is the supernatural ability of healing. With blood fueling the mending of their injuries, everything from stab wounds to the loss of appendages may knit and heal. When a thaumaturge drips some of his blood onto a target and casts this ritual, the victim losses the ability to use his vitae for healing. Before casting this ritual, the thaumaturge must imbibe a small quantity of blood laced with laudanum.
System
For every success the magus scores in casting this ritual, a target lack his healing ability for one night. This ritual requires 20 minutes of concentration, during which time the caster spends one blood point. With its successful completion, This Blood causes and affliction to immediately lose the ability to heal, though he may not be aware of this until he actively attempts to use his blood to do so. Victims may spend a point of Willpower to ignore this effect for one turn. When this ritual expires, all wounds may be healed according to the type of damage suffered, as normal.
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Rend The Mind
House Tremere, masters of Thaumaturgy and Auspex, developed this attack as a form of assassination. Being able to infiltrate the minds and directly attack the psyche of an opponent is vastly superior to a physical attack upon enemies and near impossible to detect. The thaumaturge consumes the brain of a rabid animal when preparing this ritual
System
Casting this one-hour ritual allows the caster to use one telepathic assault before the next sunrise. The attack can affect anyone the thaumaturge can see, and the telepathic attack uses an Intelligence + Empathy roll (dif. to the target's willpower) to determine its effectiveness. Each success is translated into a health level of unsoakable bashing damage to the target (though Kindred halve the damage suffered).
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Return of The Heart
This ritual is a severe curse to the less humane Kindred. Cainites that are the target of this power have the portion of their soul that has been slowly dying returned to them. Murderers become racked with remorse over their actions and lament their deeds. For more debased members of the Sabbat this power is particularly crippling and may well result in their destruction at the hands of their packmates. Invoking this power requires either knowledge of the subject's True Name or a quantity of her blood.
System:
The subject becomes temporarily governed by the Hierarchy of Sin for Humanity as if she had a humanity rating of 9. Note that this does not actually impart a Humanity of 9 to the character -- she is simply overwhelmed by a sense of her own damnation. The subject still has the Path rating that they normally would have, but they are no longer injured to the cruelties of the world. This will have the Cainite performing Degeneration tests for the most minor of deeds. This power lasts for one hour per success on the ritual roll.
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Scry
The thaumaturge causes a body of water to becoming a scrying pool, able to center on a person or location. The caster is able to see and hear as if he was personally there. Natural pools and bowls of water are often the means of viewing through this magic. Smaller (no larger than a child’s pool), still (better for viewing) bodies of water are considered best for this. This ritual requires a bit of owl's blood to be mixed in with the water.
System:
Although this magic is similar to the Auspex power of Clairvoyance, it does have its differences. First, the caster cannot use additional Auspex powers through the Scry magic. Second, if used to center on a person, the magus must have a personal item of the individual's in his possession, or he must know the subject's True Name. Third, is a location is the center of the Scry, this location cannot be changed throughout the duration of the ritual. This ritual lasts for a number of hours equal to the number of successes for the casting. The thaumaturge only has to concentrate during this duration to view scenes through the water.
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Stolen Kisses
Thaumturges cast this ritual when they do not wish to feed by mouth. Instead, stolen Kisses allows them to drain small portions of vitae through other parts of a vessel’s body. Some vampires prefer the strong handshake. Others enjoy choking vessels, a double pleasure of asphyxia and the flush of new vitae coursing through cold veins. Others "get off" by draining blood from a vessel during sex. In any case, a vessel is usually not immediately aware that blood is sucked out of his body, though he will experience a slight sensation of dizziness and light-headedness. This ritual requires the caster to carry a "witch's kiss" -- a thistle steeped in the blood of a vampire -- somewhere on her person.
System:
The magus must first make a small incision on his body where he intends to make physical contact with a vessel. The ritual is then cast; once complete, the would knits itself closed. However, it open to create a lip-and-mouth-type orifice when continually pressed against a vessel’s flesh, which mystically sucks out one blood point every other turn as long as contact persists. After a second point of vitae is consumed, a vessel is likely to feel woozy, while taking five blood points probably causes the victim to black out from the substantial lack of blood in his body. Stolen Kisses remains active for one night.
A warlock does not cause ecstasy or rapture when taking blood in this manor, as he would were he to feed upon a vessel by mouth.
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Ward Versus Vitae
While this power protects anarchs from elder intrusion to some degree, it is not so efficacious as other wards. This is not a universal "Ward Versus Kindred," but rather a limited application of a similar principle. When the Kindred enacting this ritual makes her sigil, any Kindred of lower generation than her who breaks the ward immediately suffers its ill effects. That is, if a 10th Generation thaumaturge casts this ritual, Kindred of 9th Generation and lower would be affected.The Thaumaturge anoints an object of her choice with her blood, marking the ward as a sigl.
System:
Kindred below the casters generation suffer two dice of lethal damage. This damage occurs again
if the Kindred touches the object further. At that point, a Kindred who consciously wishes to touch the
ward object must succeed in a Willpower roll (difficulty 7) or spend a willpower point to do so.
Like other wards, this ritual functions on only one object: a single window, a doorknob, a book or one door of an automobile. An entire object of great size, such as a car or room may be warded, but only with enough uses of this ritual that would effect all points of entry, exit or contact.
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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 Tremere 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.
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 magic ceases to work any longer.
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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 benefits of this are that 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 ofBelated Quiescence (see above), and the difficulty to use all Presence powers on him is increased by three due to his emotional isolation.
The drawbacks are as follows: the caster's Conscience 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 (e.g. Animal Magnetism or Sanctity) are neutralized. Heart of Stone lasts as long as the caster wishes it to.
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Splinter Servant
Another ritual designed to enchant a stake, Splinter Servant is a progressive development of Shaft of Belated Quiescence. The two rituals are mutually exclusive, which is fortunate for many, because a Splinter Servant of Belated Quiescence would be a truly terrifying weapon. A Splinter Servant consists of a stake carved from a tree which has nourished itself on the dead, 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 servantsplits 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 indelicately 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 perturn.
Note that these values are those of the thaumaturge who created the servant, not the individual who activates it. A 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 Vampire: The Masquerade, page 214). A Splinter Servant has three health levels, and attacks directed against it are made at +3 difficulty due to its small size and spastic 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 round 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.
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Ward versus Kindred
This warding ritual functions exactly as do Ward versus Ghouls and Ward versus Lupines, but it inflicts injury upon Cainites. It does not harm kuei-jin (see Kindred of the East), although Tremere researchers are promising their elders a Ward versus Cathayans ritual "any night now."
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. As noted above, this ward does not harm kuei-jin , and there is currently no "Ward versus Cathayans" in existence.
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Blood Certamen (Level 4 ritual)
While most modern Tremere apprentices see Thaumaturgy as a distinct property of their blood, some aged Tremere who survived the Long Night remember nights as mortal wizards. The clan's very foundation rests upon the traditions of those wizards -- tribunals, apprenticeships, the Tremere Oath; all stem from the organization that the Tremere abandoned in their plummet into damnation. Among those early practices was one magical rite used to settle disputes. Even though the Tremere traded their mortal sorcery for blood magic, they managed to find ways to turn their old practices to their undead state, and the ritual of Certamen made that trasition as well.
Certamen exists as one of the oldest forms of dispute resolution between wizards, or so the elder Tremere say. In the modern nights, Certamen takes a decidedly sinister form, and remains in the hands of very few Tremere. Indeed, perhaps only a half-dozen Tremere below the rank of regent know the ritual itself, and a handful more remain aware of its existence. Still, its use remains protected by ancient tradition, and a Tremere without other recourse can, if he is even aware of it, call for Certamen to settle a quarrel. One pontifex supposedly favors Certamen as a traditional measure and a hallmark of a true and loyal Tremere -- and correspondingly evidences terrifying sill with the practice.
The rite of Certamen opens with a formal declaration of challenge, though that does not constitute part of the actual ritual. The rite itself sees the contenders in a circle of blood or vitreous humor, where by technique and form -- the power to harness Thaumaturgy -- they shall settle the matter. A circle ten paces across markes the boundaries of the competition, while each participant stands in an interior circle two paces wide and faces the opponent. The interior circles' outer edges just touch upon the inner ring of the large circle, so the competitors stand just a short distance
apart. The participants state their terms immediately upon entering the circle, challenger declaring what he stands to gain and defender declaring three limits upon the forms of the combat. Each one intones the ritual for Certamen; when both complete it, the test of blood begins, to end only in death, submission or the judgment of a presiding arbiter.
By tradition, each participant brings a second, who makes announcement of his contender and handles offices such as holding the participant's trappings or ritual accoutrements. The seconds stand behind and to the right of their parrticipants. A (supposedly) neutral party arbitrates, and may end the Certamen at his discretion; he can, for instance, intervene to prevent a prodigious apprentice from destroying a regent. The arbiter determines or ratifies the victor, and also overrules the apparent victor in cases of cheating (though, technically, the only way to "cheat" at Certamen is to bring in magical arrtifacts or excess blood without announcing their presence to the arbiter and opponent). The arbiter also determines whether a given Certamen contest has a definitive result. Should, say, one contender simply use Movement of the Mind to force the other out of the ring in a few seconds into the contest, or should both participants exhaust their stores of vitae without a clear victor,
the arbiter may declare the matter inconclusive or a draw.
Certamen allows a thaumaturge to extend his usual path effects into more symbolic and devastating forms. Fire magics become incendiary greatswords or demonic flamebolts; spirit minions become trnslucent, armed legionnaires; weather sorcery takes on a viciously turgid aspect. Onlookers watch as the two Tremere contend with the mightiest blood magic at their disposal. Ultimately one must give way or be slain. Each participant holds comparable amounts of power, while the ritual causes Thaumaturgy cast by the two to evidence mystic traces and patterns that allow onlookers to tell what's happening and even give the participants some ability to defend against opponent's attacks. Victory goes to finesse and broad knowledge, not to raw power.
Should a participant frenzy, his second (and any attending guards) must put him down immediately; he loses the contest. Similarly, stepping from the inner circle immediately reults in forfeiture. Completion of the ritual does not mystically bind either participant to its terms, but failure to adhere to one's own agreed-upon Certamen carries grave weight with nearly ever Tremere, and may well lead to condemnation as a rogue (assuming that the oathbreaker survived the experience).
Of course, in the Final Nights Certamen exists more as a curiosity than as a common practice. Some few Tremere do use it, but Certamen is never frequent nor lightly invoked. A Tremere Can decline a challenge of Certamen, Though doing so usually entails a loss of face among the more traditional members of the clan. Successful Certamen garners some small amount of prestige among the few who still consider it an art, but its use remains restricted to personal disputes. A Tremere cannot use Certamen to force a superior to give him rank or to show off his thaumaturgical might, but he could use the rite to legitimately depose a superior with whome he had a personal grievence or to force a peer to stop interfering in his affairs.
Similarly, a higher-ranking Tremere may step in as arbiter, and an dour pontifex may very well stop the whole process before it begins. And, of course, if the battle results in death, why then someone more competent than the loser must step forward to take over the late Kindred's assets and duties.TO this night, very few members of the other clans have even heard of Certamen. Elder Tremere intend to keep it that way.
SYSTEM:
Certamen ultimately serves a simple game mechanical purpose: the two (always and only two) Tremere involved in Certamen may expend exactly two blood points per turn, reguardless of generation. Furthermore, at a cost of one blood point, a player may make a Willpower roll against the opponent's Thaumaturgy roll, with the difficulty being the opposite character's Taumaturgy. This acts as a normal resisted roll, canceling out the opponent's successes. Because Certamen highlights all thaumaturgical actions, the player can roll Intelligence + Occult (diff varies by power) to recognize most incoming thaumaturgical effects and decide whether or not to defend against or respond to them, as if using the power Thaumaturgical Sight. This allows the participants to invoke potent Thaumaturgy and to defend more ably against incoming attacks. The Certamen ritual imposes thse modifiers only so long as both participants remain in their respective circles.
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Mark of Amaranth (level 4 ritual)
Among Kindred, diablerie is regarded as a great crime -- many elders go to extraordinary lengths to extinguish an upstart neonate who evidences a hunger for the blood of his fellows. Deceptive Tremere can turn this paranoia against a hapless victim. All that's needed is some intimate possession of the target, and the destruction of another Kindred...
SYSTEM:
The thaumaturge must destroy another Kindred by his own hand, while holding or wearing some possession of the subject. He may then invoke this ritual by placing the object in the dead Kindred's corpse before it crumble sto ash. Once the ritual is completed, the subject exhibits the evidence of a diablerist to all forms of divination until the next sunrise. This includes Aura perception, the Blood Walk ritual and any other sort of scrying.
The Mark of Amaranth cannot be deferred by the Soul Mask Discipline, though higher levels of Obfuscate or certain advanced rituals might be able to counter it. Note that the ritual does not necessarily cause the victim to Think that he's a diablerist -- an innocent victim can truthfully answer that he is not a diablerist, even as his aura contradicts him. Naturally, use of this ritual is an efficient way to rapidly erode ones Humanity.
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Soul of the Homunculus (level 4 ritual)
Tremere in need of assistants for their research work cannot always rely upon the loyalty of apprentices. But who can doubt the loyalty of one's own flesh? A homunculus is a tiny creature crafted out of the caster's blood and tissue, which acts as an extension of the caster's will. Crafting a homunculus takes several hours of uninterrupted work, and a thaumaturge can have only one homunculus at a time. The horrid little entity takes shape in a bubbling morass of oil, blood, denuded bone and chunks of the caster's body. At the conclusion of the ritual, the homunculus crawls from its fatty birthing caul to serve its master. The homunulus can move about under its own power, and may be used as a spy or a means to fetch materials.
Many types of homunculi exist; different thaumaturges create different sorts of beasts. The most common are flyers (which resemble tiny winged demons), grubs (which look like worms with their master's faces), and hoppers (small, bald, implike entites with their casters' features reduced to miniture). The homunculus acts according to its master's orders, which may be issued nonverbally as long as the beast is in its creator's presence. OVer time, some honunculi develop their own personalities and goals, and more than one unnerved Tremere has discovered his homunculus playing malicious pranks behind his back.
SYSTEM:
A homunculus has two health levels and two dots in each Physical Attribute. It works much like a limb of the creator -- the homunculus only moves or acts if the caster so wills it. A homunculus cannot fight effectively, but can push or carry objects, and can often hide or spy on locations unnoticed due to its small size. Though the homunculus is initially wholly loyal, its experiences may eventually (over years) cause it to form a personality of its own, often spawned from the worst qualities of its creator. Homunculi are damaged by sunlight and fire like Kindred.
A Homunculus, though created from the caster's flesh, is a seperate physical entity and thus does not count as an arcane connection, nor do its bodily fluids count as its creator's blood. However, establishing a psychic connection to a homunculus instead projects into the consciousness of its controller. A homunculus must be fed one blood point each week or it will wither and die. Feeding may be an unsettling act to witness -- some Tremere suckle them at their own breasts, acting on some undead parental urge, while others treat their imps derisively, holding their opened wrists far above the creature's head while forcing it to caper about for its sustenance.
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Unweave Ritual (level 4 ritual)
With the preponderance of cursing rituals among the jealous Warlocks, it's only a matter of time until a Tremere labors under the effects of an enemy'a magic. Whether it's another Tremere eager to discomfit a political adversary, or some non-Tremere thaumaturge looking for retribution, having Thaumaturgy turned around against its supposed masters makes for a bitter aftertaste indeed.
Once a Tremere manages to identify the enemy ritual under which he labors, it's possible to build a counter-sorcery to unweave it. Thaumaturges skilled in this magic learn general principles to confound other rituals, shrug off their effects or collapse them prematurely.
SYSTEM:
First, the caster must figure out what ritual currently afflicts him. This is probably automatic if he knows the ritual (unless the caster has been very subtle or the subject is daft), but may require some research (and itelligence + Occult rolls, at the Storyteller's discretion) otherwise. Next, the unweaving takes place. The caster must secure a component that would be used in the casting of the offending ritual, then destroy it in some fashion. His successes subtract from the successes scored by the origional caster; if he manages to wipe away all of the successes, the offending
ritual immediately ends, with all concomitant effects.
Thus, a quick end to Bind the Accusing Tongue would allow the Tremere to speak ill of his enemies again, but a premature end to a Blood Contract would painfully shove him into torpor, and a premature end to Night of the Red Heart would result in Final Death. Only rituals that have a duration can be unwoven. For instance, a Tremere who has thrown off a blood bond through Abandon the Fetters (below) is not constantly under the effects of that ritual -- once the ritual is complete, the bond is gone and the ritual is done. However, a Tremere suffering from Steps of the Terrified would be considered under the duration of the ritual as long as it slowed his movement, so it could be unwoven.
Note that a thaumaturge can only unweave a ritual on himself, not on someone else. Also, a thaumaturge suffering from multiple rituals must unweave each one seperately. Muliple unweavings can be accumulated against a ritual so long as the appropraite time and components can be acquired.
Level Three Rituals
Blood Allergy
Reminded of their lost mortality, of illness and unhappiness, Kindred suffering from an allergy of the blood cannot keep vitae within their bodies. Attempts to hold down any blood after ingesting this unlife-sustaining fluid will result in moments of severe nausea followed by episodes of vomit-induced heaves that only abate when all of the blood is expelled from the system. After spilling his blood onto the dead petals of a red rose, a magus may infect a target with this allergy.
System:
This ritual requires only 10 minutes of preparation before casting during which a thaumaturge must spend a blood point and mingle it with dead rose petals. a target suffering a blood allergy is affected for one night per success scored by the caster. Victims are unable to keep blood within their bodies, and, therefore, unable to do much that concerns their vampiric powers. Vampires will not expunge blood if they have three or less blood points remaining, and this power does not work on Kindred older than the caster. While the loss of blood is not enough to cause a Kindred to enter torpor, he will be on the threshold of hunger, and may need to roll for frenzy if he encounters blood.
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Cleansing Of The Flesh
Vampires must drink the blood of mortals in order to survive and, accompanying this bane is the risk of becoming addicted to mortal vices: illegal narcotics and alcohol. In some cases, Kindred lead their unlives as hosts to a number of sexually transmitted diseases, such as AIDS, The warlock casting this ritual must spend one full night in a bathtub filled with purified water, throughout the night, the thaumaturge must expunge all but the smallest drop of his blood from his body, a little at a time over the course of one night. As the blood is released from the body, all addiction and diseases the vampire formally housed will no longer burden him.
System:
The caster lies in a vessel of purified water and bleeds out all but one of his blood points, roughly two points an hour. All addictions to drugs and all diseases that are not supernatural in nature will no longer hinder the thaumaturge beginning at the night’s end, though he will likely be quite ravenous after performing the ritual. this ritual may be performed on another, who must open his own veins, with the Warlock chanting beside the tub.
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Craft Dream Catcher
By combining the knowledge of the Spirit Lands and this ritual magic, the caster is able to create a minor artifact that helps protect a sleeping person. Used mainly in Native American culture, the Dream Catcher has a powerful talisman to ward against hostile spirits. A Dream Catcher is a personal item, crafted for an individual and only working for that person. The caster takes bits of hair, blood and spittle from the owner, mixing them into the creation of the Dream Catcher.
System:
The Dream Catcher provides two protections to the owner. First, spirits trying to affect the character have an increased difficulty of two. Second, any of the Thaumaturgy powers of Oneiromancy may either add one or subtract one from the difficulty, based upon the desire of the owner. These benefits apply only when the character is in possession of the Dream Catcher.
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Major Creation
Normally the Path of Conjuring is restricted to items the size of the thaumaturge, both in size and weight. However, by the application of this ritual, the conjurer is able to create items that exceed this normal limit. Tremere magi can surprise enemies by creating a motorcycle "out of thin air" for an escape or anything else they can think up. This ritual requires the caster to sever his own thumb, which disappears during any conjuration. Many thaumaturges suspect that the thumb provides the additional mass for large conjured objects, even though the object may be several times the caster's size.
System:
After preparing this ritual, the number of successes on the activation roll determines the multiplier that the conjurer can exceed his normal weight and size limit. Example, if the conjurer's player earned three successes on the ritual roll, he could create something that was three times his size. Use of this ritual costs an additional 3 blood points, in addition to the normal costs of conjuring an item. What the thaumaturge creates is still limited by the Path of Conjuring power being activated. Additionally, severing one's own thumb requires a successful Willpower roll or the expenditure of a willpower point.
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Telecommunication
This modern magic allows the caster to influence what is displayed on a television set. The caster can create a picture to communicate with people near the set or create fictional stories for broadcast: "We interrupt our regular scheduled program..." Since the thaumaturge can view images from the set itself, this ritual also serves as an effective surveillance device.
System:
Any television the thaumaturge has touched within the last week is subject to the effects of this ritual. Each success allows the caster to view and communicate through the television for 5 minutes, during which time the thaumaturge drops into a meditative state. He can observe everything from the television and can regulate everything that appears on the set, whether he chooses to use broadcast signals or the fruits of his own imagination.
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A touch of Nightshade
This ritual allows the thaumaturge to poison a single victim by her slightest touch. The caster must anoint his hands with the bitter extract of nightshade before conducting this ritual.
System:
The victim rolls Stamina + Fortitude (dif. 8). With three or more successes, the target is unaffected. With two successes, the victim feels nauseous and queasy for three nights and increases his difficulties by one.
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Track Transgressor
Following the recent destruction of the Tremere antitribu, a sub sect of Clan Tremere has undertaken hunting what they call transgressors, non-clan Kindred who wield the secrets of Thaumaturgy. This crackdown on those violating the most sacred of Tremere laws has not been widespread, but this is expected to change soon with recent addition of this ritual. This ritual finds and tracks down these transgressors, presumably to be dealt with at the Tremere's discretion. The thaumaturge spills her own blood on the ground, which briefly reveals the footprints of the transgressor.
System:
The thaumaturge must conduct this ritual at a site where Thaumaturgy has been used within the past 24 hours. After casting this ritual, the Tremere is able to flawlessly track down the other magus for the rest of the night. This tracking follows the exact path that the magus took after leaving the area where the magic was used. This ritual may track down only Thaumaturgy and not Necromancy or other types of magic. The caster must spend at least one blood point to activate the ritual.
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Hell's Calling
This insidious power requires some personal possession of the subject's to be burned when the ritual is enacted. As the object burns, the subject is immediately overcome with a feeling of Rotschreck, regardless of where he is, what he's doing or even whether or not any flame is present. Clever anarchs have used this power to spite rivals, break the spirits of enemies and even humiliate princes by forcing them to act irrationally before the Kindred of their domains.
System:
Upon this ritual's completion, the subject is immediately gripped by Rotschreck, and he must check to see if he enters the fear frenzy as per page 220 of Vampire: The Masquerade (difficulty 6). This fear may be overcome by spending a willpower point, as well. If the character fails the Courage roll, he immediately flees the vicinity in terror, although terror of what eludes the character. For this reason, the Rotschreck doesn't last as long as the red fear normally does. When the character thinks to ask himself what he's afraid of, the effect ends. Usually, however, this is to late to prevent the shock and incredulity of any company the Kindred was keeping at the time.
It takes 30 minutes to perform this ritual.
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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 as she moves insubstantially.
System:
This ritual lasts a number of hours equal to the number of successes scored on a Wits + Survival roll (difficulty 6). The thaumaturge may prematurely end the ritual (and, thus, her incorporeality) by turning the mirror shard away so that it no longer reflects her image.
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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 utter fear in a Kindred under the influence of this ritual feels the fear herself. 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 silk, which must be worn around the neck of the person protected by the magic.
System:
This ritual lasts until the sunrise after it is enacted. Note that the Presence Discipline power must actually succeed before being reversed by the ritual.
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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 thaumaturges with low pain thresholds. Some vain Tremere 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 evidently artificial to any observer who succeeds in a Perception + Medicine roll (difficulty 8).
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Sanguine Assistant
Tremere often need laboratory assistants whom they can trust implicitly. As Tremere often trust no one whom they know and no one whom they do not, this ritual allows the intrepid thaumaturge to conjure a temporary servant. To cast the ritual, the vampire 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 thaumaturge 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 Tremere 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 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 re-animated through another application of this ritual; if the thaumaturge 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, having only four health levels, 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.
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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 Setites.
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, as the attack does not need to specifically target the heart - the stake takes care of that) 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). 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 (difficulty 7), rolled once per hour. 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 - wooden bullets are not large enough to absorb the full amount of blood required for the ritual.
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Inherited Affinity (level 3 ritual)
Although it's possible to learn Thaumaturgy with long and difficult study, experienced Tremere can help a student to "Attune" his blood more closely to the twisted form of the Curse necessary for thaumaturgical practice. Students who are sluggish in mastering the basics of Thaumaturgy often suffer through this ritual once, which seems to "open the door," so to speak. Non-Tremere Kindred have a rougher time -- should they find a willing tutor, this ritual can help in learning Thaumaturgy, but it's stil a slow and painful process.
To awaken the Inherited Affinity, the caster must have uninterrupted access to the subject for an entire night. Typically the subject is chained toa wall, so as to avoid having her break loose and cause havoc. The caster feeds the subject a nauseating concoction of rendered fat, various erbs and powdered garnet all steeped in blood. Then the thaumatruge inserts six heated, gold-plated needles into various points of the subject's anatomy -- points of bodily power, generally, though the exact locations vary from caster to caster. Over the next three hours, the caster instructs the subject to infuse her body with the power of her vitae. The needles block off usual sources of blood circulation and alter the results (often quite painfully), complete with bloody splotches on the skin, profoundly distended veins and bleeding from various pores.
Once complete, the subject may practice the new vistas of Thaumatrugy. This, of course, requres that the subject ingest yet more vitae to replace that lost through the ritual. Many regents know how to use the Inherited Affinity and it's common to put a newly Embraced neonate through this process
to help awaken the power of blood magic. The subject must remember the feelings of the blood flow from the course of the rite; for most Tremere, this comes naturally after one application.
SYSTEM:
Surviving the Inherited Affinity ritual does not guarantee that a subject can learn Thaumaturgy, but it helps. The end result is up to the Storyteller -- if the Storyteller requires players to make various study rolls to unearth thaumaturgical knowledge or rituals, going through the Inherited Affinity ritual may lower the difficulty. The ritual itself takes three nights of time and requires the subject to suffer through five levels of lethal damage and to expend all but one blood point; it's most helpful if the subject then imbibes additional blood and contemplates the feelings it
invoked. Obviously, a Kindred is subject to the usual chances to frenzy from hunger and injury due to this ritual.
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Power of the Pyramid (level 3 Ritual)
Among the Tremere clan's most famous expolits are its great binding rituals over the entirety of the Tremere antitibu, and the majority of the Assamite clan. No lone thaumaturge could accomplish such a feat. Only by sharing strength can the Tremere achieve the necessary might to create or resist such forces.To combine thaumaturgical strength, Tremere Kindred can use a linking ritual. The Power of the Pyramid rite requires that each particupant know and invoke the ritual simultaneously, and require physical contact -- so a group of Tremere, formed in a circle with linked hands, all chanting the same words in unison, indicates that the clan prepares for a daunting task.
Once completed, the rite allows the Tremere involved to gather their mental strength together so that they can multiply their power. Perhaps because of its connotations, this ritual only works for Kindred of Tremere lineage. Other vampires might be able to learn it, but it would probably not do them much good. This ritual requires the caster to fast for 24 hours before performing it. Additionally, one of the thaumaturges participating in the group must wear a brooch or pin made from mortal bone, which must pierce his flesh (though it need not be visible to the rest of the group).
SYSTEM:
Each Kindred involved in Power of the Pyramid must know this ritual and successfully cast it simultaniously -- any failed castings simply exclude the individual from the circle but do not hinder other successes. Once complete, a single Tremere can break from the circle without nullifying the ritual, but if any others lose physical contact the ritual ends. So long as the ritual continues, all participants may freely share their willpower. Thus, one Tremere could break from the circle, perform another ritual and draw upon the Willpower of all the other kindred involved. Once a caster has broken from the circle, he cannot return and release someone else; that "Lynchpin" is the only one able to move freely.
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Rutor's Hands (level 3 ritual)
Gargoyles and homunculi remain relatively common in some Tremere chantries, but few Kindred know of Rutor's Hands, or would want to. A thaumaturge of sufficient will can pluck out his own eye and set it atop one of his own severed hands -- the ritual preserves them from disintegration -- and animate this thing as a scurrying, malevolent spy. The eye rests on the back of the hand and swivels about to watch its surroundings, while the hand scuttles like a desiccated spider. The construct obeys the will of its owner and can relay what it sees and hears (even though it has no ears) back to its master, as the thaumaturge desires.
SYSTEM:
The thaumaturge cuts off his hand and plucks out his eye at the conclusion of this ritual; this causes five levels of unsoakable aggravated damage. Once this damage is healed, the Tremere regenerates his hand and eye, though the ghastly homunculus may still prowl. Completing this ritual may also require a Willpower roll, at the Storyteller's discretion, simply to carry out the painful finale. The animate hand has one health level of its own and moves about with the equivalent of two dots in each Physical Attribute and in Perception, though it cannot fight. The caster mentally directs the thing's movement at will (so long as the thaumaturge remains conscious of course). The Hand must have one point of blood each week, or else it crumbles to dust. Likewise, if the hand is exposed to sunlight or fire, it vanishes with a squeel and leaves a greasy stentch.
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Transubstantiation of Seven (level three ritual)
Even many outsiders know that the Tremere hold a blood Loyalty to their clan, but the extent of this loyalty -- or th emeans by which it is accomplished -- remains a secret. Almost every Tremere holds a slight bond to the Council of Seven through their mixed blood. Of course, the Council cannot expect every newely Embraced neonate to come to Vienna to drink of their blood. Nor can they simply ship their blood around the world -- both solutions are far too impractical and dangerous, as any number of waiting Kindred would relish the thought of stealing such vitae or intercepting Tremere neonates and destroying them before they can become threats. To over come this problem, most regents know and use this ritual instead.
After the Embrace, a Tremere neonate typically goes through a formal oath-swearing. No magic compels that oath, but the presiding regent (or higher ranking Tremere) ends the formality with the Transubstantiation. The ritualist fills a large chalice with his own blood and intones the syllables of the ritual. The neonate, still grappling with the new phenomenon of blood-thirst, drinks the entire contents of the chalice. As the blood enters and spreads through her system, the rite mystically transforms it into the blood of the Seven. By this means, the Tremere place each neonate a step toward a full bond with the council, without the risk of having enemies steal the council's blood.
The Transubstantiation is considered a requirement for a fledgling to be recognized socially as a true member of the Tremere clan. For this reason, the vast majority of regents learn this ritual, which incidentally guarantees that most regents are at least reasonably competent with Thaumaturgy. Even in chantries where the regent lacks this power, Some Tremere instructed in t his rite must be present for any new Embrace, unless the hapless sire wishes to risk the ire of the clan.
Those who undergo the ritual, and indeed, many who have the ability to perform it, know little of its mechanical workings. Obviously, the transmuted blood is that of the Council of Seven -- but how vast are their stores that they can transfuse neonates at the whims of those conducting the ritual? Where does the neonate's blood go? Whispers of a hidden vault beneath Vienna with labeled, preserved vials of vitae from every Kindred who has ever undergone this ritual can't possibly be true,
can they?
SYSTEM:
The caster of the Transubstantiation must sacrifice a full quart of blood -- volume, not blood points, are required. The blood placed in the chalice remains unchanged until after it's imbibed and then spread throughout the subject's system, at which point it takes on the properties of the Council of Seven. This causes one step towards a blood bond to the whole council, but guarantees that the councilors' vitae cannot be stolen. Because the blood is already in the subject's system, it counts as his own vitae if it is later drained out.
In truth, there is no physical requirement that this rite be used on a new neonate. A rare few Tremere neonates escape the process, while conversely the rite could be used to generate a stronger bond in older Tremere or even in ghouls or Kindred of other clans. Kindred of the 14th or 15th generations, ghouls and revenants cannot use this rite -- their blood is not sufficiently strong enough to channel the councilors' power.
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Blood Allergy
Reminded of their lost mortality, of illness and unhappiness, Kindred suffering from an allergy of the blood cannot keep vitae within their bodies. Attempts to hold down any blood after ingesting this unlife-sustaining fluid will result in moments of severe nausea followed by episodes of vomit-induced heaves that only abate when all of the blood is expelled from the system. After spilling his blood onto the dead petals of a red rose, a magus may infect a target with this allergy.
System:
This ritual requires only 10 minutes of preparation before casting during which a thaumaturge must spend a blood point and mingle it with dead rose petals. a target suffering a blood allergy is affected for one night per success scored by the caster. Victims are unable to keep blood within their bodies, and, therefore, unable to do much that concerns their vampiric powers. Vampires will not expunge blood if they have three or less blood points remaining, and this power does not work on Kindred older than the caster. While the loss of blood is not enough to cause a Kindred to enter torpor, he will be on the threshold of hunger, and may need to roll for frenzy if he encounters blood.
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Cleansing Of The Flesh
Vampires must drink the blood of mortals in order to survive and, accompanying this bane is the risk of becoming addicted to mortal vices: illegal narcotics and alcohol. In some cases, Kindred lead their unlives as hosts to a number of sexually transmitted diseases, such as AIDS, The warlock casting this ritual must spend one full night in a bathtub filled with purified water, throughout the night, the thaumaturge must expunge all but the smallest drop of his blood from his body, a little at a time over the course of one night. As the blood is released from the body, all addiction and diseases the vampire formally housed will no longer burden him.
System:
The caster lies in a vessel of purified water and bleeds out all but one of his blood points, roughly two points an hour. All addictions to drugs and all diseases that are not supernatural in nature will no longer hinder the thaumaturge beginning at the night’s end, though he will likely be quite ravenous after performing the ritual. this ritual may be performed on another, who must open his own veins, with the Warlock chanting beside the tub.
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Craft Dream Catcher
By combining the knowledge of the Spirit Lands and this ritual magic, the caster is able to create a minor artifact that helps protect a sleeping person. Used mainly in Native American culture, the Dream Catcher has a powerful talisman to ward against hostile spirits. A Dream Catcher is a personal item, crafted for an individual and only working for that person. The caster takes bits of hair, blood and spittle from the owner, mixing them into the creation of the Dream Catcher.
System:
The Dream Catcher provides two protections to the owner. First, spirits trying to affect the character have an increased difficulty of two. Second, any of the Thaumaturgy powers of Oneiromancy may either add one or subtract one from the difficulty, based upon the desire of the owner. These benefits apply only when the character is in possession of the Dream Catcher.
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Major Creation
Normally the Path of Conjuring is restricted to items the size of the thaumaturge, both in size and weight. However, by the application of this ritual, the conjurer is able to create items that exceed this normal limit. Tremere magi can surprise enemies by creating a motorcycle "out of thin air" for an escape or anything else they can think up. This ritual requires the caster to sever his own thumb, which disappears during any conjuration. Many thaumaturges suspect that the thumb provides the additional mass for large conjured objects, even though the object may be several times the caster's size.
System:
After preparing this ritual, the number of successes on the activation roll determines the multiplier that the conjurer can exceed his normal weight and size limit. Example, if the conjurer's player earned three successes on the ritual roll, he could create something that was three times his size. Use of this ritual costs an additional 3 blood points, in addition to the normal costs of conjuring an item. What the thaumaturge creates is still limited by the Path of Conjuring power being activated. Additionally, severing one's own thumb requires a successful Willpower roll or the expenditure of a willpower point.
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Telecommunication
This modern magic allows the caster to influence what is displayed on a television set. The caster can create a picture to communicate with people near the set or create fictional stories for broadcast: "We interrupt our regular scheduled program..." Since the thaumaturge can view images from the set itself, this ritual also serves as an effective surveillance device.
System:
Any television the thaumaturge has touched within the last week is subject to the effects of this ritual. Each success allows the caster to view and communicate through the television for 5 minutes, during which time the thaumaturge drops into a meditative state. He can observe everything from the television and can regulate everything that appears on the set, whether he chooses to use broadcast signals or the fruits of his own imagination.
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A touch of Nightshade
This ritual allows the thaumaturge to poison a single victim by her slightest touch. The caster must anoint his hands with the bitter extract of nightshade before conducting this ritual.
System:
The victim rolls Stamina + Fortitude (dif. 8). With three or more successes, the target is unaffected. With two successes, the victim feels nauseous and queasy for three nights and increases his difficulties by one.
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Track Transgressor
Following the recent destruction of the Tremere antitribu, a sub sect of Clan Tremere has undertaken hunting what they call transgressors, non-clan Kindred who wield the secrets of Thaumaturgy. This crackdown on those violating the most sacred of Tremere laws has not been widespread, but this is expected to change soon with recent addition of this ritual. This ritual finds and tracks down these transgressors, presumably to be dealt with at the Tremere's discretion. The thaumaturge spills her own blood on the ground, which briefly reveals the footprints of the transgressor.
System:
The thaumaturge must conduct this ritual at a site where Thaumaturgy has been used within the past 24 hours. After casting this ritual, the Tremere is able to flawlessly track down the other magus for the rest of the night. This tracking follows the exact path that the magus took after leaving the area where the magic was used. This ritual may track down only Thaumaturgy and not Necromancy or other types of magic. The caster must spend at least one blood point to activate the ritual.
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Hell's Calling
This insidious power requires some personal possession of the subject's to be burned when the ritual is enacted. As the object burns, the subject is immediately overcome with a feeling of Rotschreck, regardless of where he is, what he's doing or even whether or not any flame is present. Clever anarchs have used this power to spite rivals, break the spirits of enemies and even humiliate princes by forcing them to act irrationally before the Kindred of their domains.
System:
Upon this ritual's completion, the subject is immediately gripped by Rotschreck, and he must check to see if he enters the fear frenzy as per page 220 of Vampire: The Masquerade (difficulty 6). This fear may be overcome by spending a willpower point, as well. If the character fails the Courage roll, he immediately flees the vicinity in terror, although terror of what eludes the character. For this reason, the Rotschreck doesn't last as long as the red fear normally does. When the character thinks to ask himself what he's afraid of, the effect ends. Usually, however, this is to late to prevent the shock and incredulity of any company the Kindred was keeping at the time.
It takes 30 minutes to perform this ritual.
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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 as she moves insubstantially.
System:
This ritual lasts a number of hours equal to the number of successes scored on a Wits + Survival roll (difficulty 6). The thaumaturge may prematurely end the ritual (and, thus, her incorporeality) by turning the mirror shard away so that it no longer reflects her image.
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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 utter fear in a Kindred under the influence of this ritual feels the fear herself. 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 silk, which must be worn around the neck of the person protected by the magic.
System:
This ritual lasts until the sunrise after it is enacted. Note that the Presence Discipline power must actually succeed before being reversed by the ritual.
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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 thaumaturges with low pain thresholds. Some vain Tremere 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 evidently artificial to any observer who succeeds in a Perception + Medicine roll (difficulty 8).
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Sanguine Assistant
Tremere often need laboratory assistants whom they can trust implicitly. As Tremere often trust no one whom they know and no one whom they do not, this ritual allows the intrepid thaumaturge to conjure a temporary servant. To cast the ritual, the vampire 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 thaumaturge 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 Tremere 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 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 re-animated through another application of this ritual; if the thaumaturge 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, having only four health levels, 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.
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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 Setites.
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, as the attack does not need to specifically target the heart - the stake takes care of that) 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). 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 (difficulty 7), rolled once per hour. 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 - wooden bullets are not large enough to absorb the full amount of blood required for the ritual.
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Inherited Affinity (level 3 ritual)
Although it's possible to learn Thaumaturgy with long and difficult study, experienced Tremere can help a student to "Attune" his blood more closely to the twisted form of the Curse necessary for thaumaturgical practice. Students who are sluggish in mastering the basics of Thaumaturgy often suffer through this ritual once, which seems to "open the door," so to speak. Non-Tremere Kindred have a rougher time -- should they find a willing tutor, this ritual can help in learning Thaumaturgy, but it's stil a slow and painful process.
To awaken the Inherited Affinity, the caster must have uninterrupted access to the subject for an entire night. Typically the subject is chained toa wall, so as to avoid having her break loose and cause havoc. The caster feeds the subject a nauseating concoction of rendered fat, various erbs and powdered garnet all steeped in blood. Then the thaumatruge inserts six heated, gold-plated needles into various points of the subject's anatomy -- points of bodily power, generally, though the exact locations vary from caster to caster. Over the next three hours, the caster instructs the subject to infuse her body with the power of her vitae. The needles block off usual sources of blood circulation and alter the results (often quite painfully), complete with bloody splotches on the skin, profoundly distended veins and bleeding from various pores.
Once complete, the subject may practice the new vistas of Thaumatrugy. This, of course, requres that the subject ingest yet more vitae to replace that lost through the ritual. Many regents know how to use the Inherited Affinity and it's common to put a newly Embraced neonate through this process
to help awaken the power of blood magic. The subject must remember the feelings of the blood flow from the course of the rite; for most Tremere, this comes naturally after one application.
SYSTEM:
Surviving the Inherited Affinity ritual does not guarantee that a subject can learn Thaumaturgy, but it helps. The end result is up to the Storyteller -- if the Storyteller requires players to make various study rolls to unearth thaumaturgical knowledge or rituals, going through the Inherited Affinity ritual may lower the difficulty. The ritual itself takes three nights of time and requires the subject to suffer through five levels of lethal damage and to expend all but one blood point; it's most helpful if the subject then imbibes additional blood and contemplates the feelings it
invoked. Obviously, a Kindred is subject to the usual chances to frenzy from hunger and injury due to this ritual.
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Power of the Pyramid (level 3 Ritual)
Among the Tremere clan's most famous expolits are its great binding rituals over the entirety of the Tremere antitibu, and the majority of the Assamite clan. No lone thaumaturge could accomplish such a feat. Only by sharing strength can the Tremere achieve the necessary might to create or resist such forces.To combine thaumaturgical strength, Tremere Kindred can use a linking ritual. The Power of the Pyramid rite requires that each particupant know and invoke the ritual simultaneously, and require physical contact -- so a group of Tremere, formed in a circle with linked hands, all chanting the same words in unison, indicates that the clan prepares for a daunting task.
Once completed, the rite allows the Tremere involved to gather their mental strength together so that they can multiply their power. Perhaps because of its connotations, this ritual only works for Kindred of Tremere lineage. Other vampires might be able to learn it, but it would probably not do them much good. This ritual requires the caster to fast for 24 hours before performing it. Additionally, one of the thaumaturges participating in the group must wear a brooch or pin made from mortal bone, which must pierce his flesh (though it need not be visible to the rest of the group).
SYSTEM:
Each Kindred involved in Power of the Pyramid must know this ritual and successfully cast it simultaniously -- any failed castings simply exclude the individual from the circle but do not hinder other successes. Once complete, a single Tremere can break from the circle without nullifying the ritual, but if any others lose physical contact the ritual ends. So long as the ritual continues, all participants may freely share their willpower. Thus, one Tremere could break from the circle, perform another ritual and draw upon the Willpower of all the other kindred involved. Once a caster has broken from the circle, he cannot return and release someone else; that "Lynchpin" is the only one able to move freely.
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Rutor's Hands (level 3 ritual)
Gargoyles and homunculi remain relatively common in some Tremere chantries, but few Kindred know of Rutor's Hands, or would want to. A thaumaturge of sufficient will can pluck out his own eye and set it atop one of his own severed hands -- the ritual preserves them from disintegration -- and animate this thing as a scurrying, malevolent spy. The eye rests on the back of the hand and swivels about to watch its surroundings, while the hand scuttles like a desiccated spider. The construct obeys the will of its owner and can relay what it sees and hears (even though it has no ears) back to its master, as the thaumaturge desires.
SYSTEM:
The thaumaturge cuts off his hand and plucks out his eye at the conclusion of this ritual; this causes five levels of unsoakable aggravated damage. Once this damage is healed, the Tremere regenerates his hand and eye, though the ghastly homunculus may still prowl. Completing this ritual may also require a Willpower roll, at the Storyteller's discretion, simply to carry out the painful finale. The animate hand has one health level of its own and moves about with the equivalent of two dots in each Physical Attribute and in Perception, though it cannot fight. The caster mentally directs the thing's movement at will (so long as the thaumaturge remains conscious of course). The Hand must have one point of blood each week, or else it crumbles to dust. Likewise, if the hand is exposed to sunlight or fire, it vanishes with a squeel and leaves a greasy stentch.
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Transubstantiation of Seven (level three ritual)
Even many outsiders know that the Tremere hold a blood Loyalty to their clan, but the extent of this loyalty -- or th emeans by which it is accomplished -- remains a secret. Almost every Tremere holds a slight bond to the Council of Seven through their mixed blood. Of course, the Council cannot expect every newely Embraced neonate to come to Vienna to drink of their blood. Nor can they simply ship their blood around the world -- both solutions are far too impractical and dangerous, as any number of waiting Kindred would relish the thought of stealing such vitae or intercepting Tremere neonates and destroying them before they can become threats. To over come this problem, most regents know and use this ritual instead.
After the Embrace, a Tremere neonate typically goes through a formal oath-swearing. No magic compels that oath, but the presiding regent (or higher ranking Tremere) ends the formality with the Transubstantiation. The ritualist fills a large chalice with his own blood and intones the syllables of the ritual. The neonate, still grappling with the new phenomenon of blood-thirst, drinks the entire contents of the chalice. As the blood enters and spreads through her system, the rite mystically transforms it into the blood of the Seven. By this means, the Tremere place each neonate a step toward a full bond with the council, without the risk of having enemies steal the council's blood.
The Transubstantiation is considered a requirement for a fledgling to be recognized socially as a true member of the Tremere clan. For this reason, the vast majority of regents learn this ritual, which incidentally guarantees that most regents are at least reasonably competent with Thaumaturgy. Even in chantries where the regent lacks this power, Some Tremere instructed in t his rite must be present for any new Embrace, unless the hapless sire wishes to risk the ire of the clan.
Those who undergo the ritual, and indeed, many who have the ability to perform it, know little of its mechanical workings. Obviously, the transmuted blood is that of the Council of Seven -- but how vast are their stores that they can transfuse neonates at the whims of those conducting the ritual? Where does the neonate's blood go? Whispers of a hidden vault beneath Vienna with labeled, preserved vials of vitae from every Kindred who has ever undergone this ritual can't possibly be true,
can they?
SYSTEM:
The caster of the Transubstantiation must sacrifice a full quart of blood -- volume, not blood points, are required. The blood placed in the chalice remains unchanged until after it's imbibed and then spread throughout the subject's system, at which point it takes on the properties of the Council of Seven. This causes one step towards a blood bond to the whole council, but guarantees that the councilors' vitae cannot be stolen. Because the blood is already in the subject's system, it counts as his own vitae if it is later drained out.
In truth, there is no physical requirement that this rite be used on a new neonate. A rare few Tremere neonates escape the process, while conversely the rite could be used to generate a stronger bond in older Tremere or even in ghouls or Kindred of other clans. Kindred of the 14th or 15th generations, ghouls and revenants cannot use this rite -- their blood is not sufficiently strong enough to channel the councilors' power.
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Rituals 2
Level Two Rituals
-Level 2-
Blood Mead
It was thought by the cults of Dionysus that supernatural powers could procured while under the effects of oinos, or any intoxication for that matter. During the Dionysian rites, a special drink combining vitae and mead (a fermented honey drink) might be prepared for favored supplicants. the drink was thought to pass on a powerful resilience, though only under intoxication. Similarly, a thaumaturge casting this ritual will be able to withstand a greater amount of damage than he would normally tolerate.
System:
The thaumaturge must ingest this concoction to trigger its effect. By mingling two points of his own vitae with a honey brew, the magus creates a potent anesthetic and intoxicant. while under this effect, the caster gains an extra Bruised health level. However, he suffers the effects of intoxication and, as such, loses one die to all Dexterity and Intelligence dice pools. The effects from Blood Mead last a number of hours equal to the successes scored after the blood mead is imbibed. At night’s end, the vitae within Blood Mead dilutes and loses its mystical properties and, as a result, cannot refill a vampire's blood pool. The mead may. however, continue to act as an intoxicant, depending on how much the vampire consumed.
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Bureaucratic Condemnation
Developed as the antithesis of Expedient Paperwork, this ritual causes forms, letters or other paperwork tendered by the target to become lost in red tape. Use of this ritual has created many apocryphal tales among the Tremere, who boast of rivals' havens foreclosed upon, cars repossessed and buildings permits revoked. The earliest record use of this rituals seems to have been during the Renaissance, when a Tremere had a Lasombra rival excommunicated for failing to submit a writ to the Inquisition. A thaumaturge must sketch an effigy (however crude) of her subject in squid ink when casting this ritual.
System:
The time any single bureaucratic action takes to complete is tripled, including mailing documents, applying for licenses, ect. Characters with sufficient Influence or the like should still be able to "push things through," however, though they are likely to experience additional difficulty.
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Craft Bloodstone
This ritual creates a small stone used as a tracking device. The caster must place a small pebble into a vial filled with three points of blood from any source. This blood need not be human. Every night for three nights, the thaumaturge recites an invocation over the vial. The bloodstone absorbs a single point of blood each night, and the liquid becomes slightly clearer, until one the third night it becomes transparent water. The vampire then has a mystical connection to the stone, and knows its relative position at all times.
System:
A thaumaturge who creates a bloodstone instinctively knows where it is at all times. this is not so much knowledge of its precise location as it is an understanding of its direction and distance from the caster.
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Enhancing the Curse
Ghouls can survive almost indefinitely, with the stipulation that they have vampiric blood within their bodies. A thaumaturge casting this ritual on a ghoul enhances the strength of the vampiric vitae in his body but causes him to suffer similar adverse effects to sunlight exposure as vampires would suffer. Every moment the subject spends exposed to daylight will generate third-degree burns over the ghoul's body. This proves fatal if the ghoul is unable to find shelter from the sun's rays. The vampire must scratch the subject and draw blood, though some variants of this ritual require the thaumaturge to strike the ghoul. Obviously, this is not a pleasant ritual, and is used by thaumaturges to discipline or test their ghouls.
System:
This ritual requires physical contact between thaumaturge and ghoul for it to take effect. So long as the victim retains vampiric blood in his body, he will suffer one health level of aggravated damage per two turns while in direct exposure to sunlight. Once the vampiric blood is spent from his system, the victim will cease to suffer damage from sunlight. For the next month. anytime the ghoul ingests and retains vampiric blood in his body, he will suffer damage in direct sunlight.
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Extinguish
This ritual eliminates the threat that fire poses to Kindred. The caster is able to douse dangerous flames, leaving vampire hunters quite surprised when their torches and brands are no longer effective tools. To enact this ritual, the caster pinches out a candle's flame while spitting on the floor.
System:
The ritual is set up in advance, but for the entire night the vampire has but to speak a single magical syllable to extinguish one fire up to the size of a bonfire. For the duration of one night, the thaumaturge can use this power a number of times equal to the number of successes on the initial ritual roll. Pinching a candle’s flame in preparation is likely to require a Rotschreck check, as well.
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Impassable Trail
The vampire can travel through even the densest woods without leaving any sign of his passing. He will still leave a trail for creatures with powerful olfactory senses, but that will be all. The thaumaturge must carry an owl's feather steeped in Kindred vitae or burn the legs of a dead toad and carry the ashes with him while this ritual is in effect.
System:
The vampire will leave no evidence behind, save for a faint odor that takes three successes on a Perception + Alertness roll (dif 8) to detect. The ritual lasts for one night.
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Jinx
This ritual concerns itself with using the blood of other Kindred to afflict them with various minor banes at the thaumaturge's whim. Relying largely on the Principle of Identity (see chapter 2), this ritual consumes the blood of the subject instead of the blood of the caster. The thaumaturge must have in his possession one point of his victim's blood, which vanishes once a sending is attempted. The horrors visited upon subjects as a result of this path have given the Tremere quite a reputation. Indeed, many Kindred have reasonable fears of allowing the Warlocks to harvest any of their precious vitae, as the powers of this ritual can attest. Most fearsome of all, a thaumaturge need not even be in her victim's company, so strong is the connection of Identity. All the thaumaturge needs to do is sacrifice the subject's blood....
The thaumaturge briefly vexes his victim with bad luck, causing her to fail in a mundane task. This can cause everything from minor typographical errors to automobile accidents and everything in between, depending upon how the magus jinxes his mark.
System:
The next roll a jinxed character makes automatically fails, regardless of the outcome. This does not cause a botch, just simply failure. If applied to a contested or extended action, the roll simply yields no successes for the current turn -- the victim may garner other successes on subsequent turns (provided the failure doesn’t make all the difference..)
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Mourning Life Curse
Although this ritual causes no physical damage to its subject, it can be psychologically traumatizing. It allows the caster to coax blood from a mortal without injuring her. The Tremere must drink a dram of thrice-distilled crocodile blood and make a paste from copal oil. ground eyebright and dates. He carries this paste until he finds a suitable victim. He then dabs the paste onto her eyes and whispers a two- line invocation into the mortal's ear. The mortal then begins weeping uncontrollably, and bloody tears slowly ooze down her cheeks. The effect continues until the caster stops staring at the victim. the only after-effect is a slight swelling of the capillaries around the subject's eyes, along with the normal effects of blood loss.
System:
The victim will bleed slowly. It takes about five minutes to collect a single blood point. there is no active defense against this ritual, but the mortal must be able to hear the invocation that the caster whispers. Some thaumaturges use this power on sleeping victims, to spare them the unpleasantness of seeing the act.
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Steps Of The Terrified
This power lets the caster put the brake on a fleeing enemy. the harder the subject tries to run, the slower he becomes. Eventually, he slows to the point that he can barely move at all. the vampire is often able to take her time and still catch up with her target. The vampire must cast a handful of polar buds at the target and then douse her hands in the oil while repeating a short incantation seven times. She then wrings the oil from her Hands before following the target.
System:
The first turn after the ritual is completed, the subject moves at half his normal speed. If he tries to speed p, he slows to one-quarter his normal speed. Each time he tried to go faster, his speed is halved. The ritual lasts until the following sunrise.
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Trima
This type of oinos is made with spices and herbs, serving to heat up the blood in a body and, therefore cause drowsiness in a victim. A magus will sometimes serve this drink to many mortals, possibly at a party or other social gathering. This serves to better protect the Masquerade before Kindred guests drink their share from drowsy mortals. Kindred taking vitae from mortals under the effect of trima feel a slight buzz of the after- effects, though not strong enough to be considered intoxicated.
System:
The caster mixes at least one point of his vitae with the desired wine and spices. Once completed the trim must be ingested to take effect. After Imbibing trima, a victim must make a successful Willpower roll (dif 8) to take any action, as he is overcome by an artificially induced lethargy. this effect lasts a number of hours equal to the number of blood points the caster uses to create the ritual. Subjects may resist this effect by scoring at least three successes on a Stamina roll (dif 8). Cainites and other supernatural creatures are unaffected by trima as their blood is too potent to be overpowered by this concoction.
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Whispers Of The Ghost
Using this strange ritual, the vampire may communicate from his Psychic Projection form into the material world. while employing this ritual, the Kindred can speak with anyone he encounters, but his words come as ghostly whisperings. People who hear these whisperings often mistake them for the words of ghosts or spirits. When this ritual is performed, the thaumaturge must have the ear of a still-living creature in his left hand.
System:
This ritual applies only to vampires using the Auspex power of Psychic Projection. after weaving the spell, the Cainite can speak for one scene or until sunrise, whichever comes first. The thaumaturge may only speak to the physical world; he may not be seen, touched, ect.
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Iron Body
This ritual imbues the subject with supernatural endurance, allowing the kindred to withstand the Biblical anathema of this kind. The subject must carry a spent shell casing with him while this ritual is in effect.
Subject:
The subject may soak aggravated damage for as long as this ritual lasts, which is one hour per point of the caster's stamina. it does not grant the subject any additional soak dice, though it merely allows him to withstand the traditional banes of the Kindred.
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Ward Versus Ghouls
Wary Tremere created this ritual to protect themselves from the minions of vengeful rivals. By invoking this ritual, the Tremere 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.
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Principal Focus of Vitae Infusion
This ritual imbues a quantity of blood within the object upon which the ritual is cast. The object must be small enough for the vampire to carry in both hands, and 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 thaumaturge 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 Tremere 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 (and 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.
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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, 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.
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Burning Blade
Developed during Clan Tremere's troubled inception, Burning Blade allows a thaumaturge 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.
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Donning the Mask of Shadows
This ritual renders its subject translucent, her form appearing dark and smoky and the sounds of her footsteps 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 thaumaturge'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 succeeds in a Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty of the caster's Wits + Occult) or if the observer possesses a power (such as Auspex) sufficient to penetrate Level Three Obfuscate. 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.
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Warding Circle versus Ghouls
This ritual is enacted in a manner similar to that of Ward versus Ghouls (see Vampire: The Masquerade, p. 184), 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, and every 10-foot increase raises the difficulty by one, to a maximum of 9 (one additional success is required for every 10-foot increase past the number necessary to raise the difficulty to 9). The player spends one blood point for every 10 feet of radius and rolls. The ritual takes the normal casting time if it is to be temporary (lasting for the rest of the night) or one night if it is to be permanent (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 on him, 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.
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.
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Deny the Intruder (Level 2 ritual)
To protect chantries from unwanted observation, Tremere rely not only upon mystic wards but also upon mortal bureaucracy. An enemy can hardly drop in if the chantry isn't listed in any directories or real estate paperwork, after all. Better still, a little judicious paper-shuffling can "lose" records for electrical payments, telephone calls and other incriminating evidence. To se up a chantry's bureaucratic defense, the Tremere simply scrawls a series of mystic characters on a piece of paper. This page goes out by mail (some modern Tremere even scan the page and use e-mail) and promptly becomes lost in the system. For the next year, the chantry becomes difficult to track via the usual paperwork routes.
SYSTEM:
There's no special cost for the paperwork involved in this ritual, though the Tremere must scrawl out the characters with charcoal. Once the paper makes it into "the system" -- by hand of the mailman, by e-mail to some server, or what have you --it vanishes without a trace. So, too, do the records of the chantry. Attempts to investigate the chantry or unearth records of its existence increase in difficulty by one for each success scored on the ritual roll. This doesn't hinder the chantry's normal functions; the telephons still work and the electricity still runs. It's just that nobody ever sends the bills directly to the chantry or writes anything in the credit memos that reveals the building's location.
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Inscription (level 2 ritual)
Not everyone can be proficient with Thaumatrugy. Some Tremere build mystic items specifically to aid their subordinates or allies. A neonate with only the rudiments of skill may have need of a specific ritual, or another Kindred might desire to purchase the special services of Thaumaturgy but need them for his own later use. Instead of taking the time and risk to instruct someone else in the fine points of the working in question, a proficient thaumatruge can build an annotated version of a ritual, fueled with his blood, to make the formula accessible to someone else.
The inscription ritual allows the thaumaturge to place any other first or second level ritual in a written form. This generally requires the equivalent of a full page of paper. A reader can then unlock the power of that ritual by reading the Inscription and following its instructions. The scribe uses his blood as a base for the ink, and his vitae's power remains in the mixture to help fuel the ritual. An inscribed ritual is in imperfect form -- it cannot be used to learn Thaumaturgy. It's a simplified set of instructions, with the scribe's vitae empowering the rite so that it overcomes any omission or sloppiness on the part of the practitioner.
SYSTEM:
A thaumaturge who knows the techniques of Inscription can write an abbreviated from for any first or second level that he knows, at a coast of two blood points. Anyone wo can read the language may then use the ritual notes later. Actually casting the ritual from the notes requires the use of the usual components and time, as well as the standard Intelligence + Occult roll, but the caster need not have any knowledge of Thaumatrugy. Once an inscription is complete, the power of the writter's vitae is trapped in the objct; his maximum blood pool is effectively reduced by one until the inscription is used. After use, the inscription dries into a fine, illegible ash, with all the power expelled from the
vitae-based ink.
The scribe can use the scroll himself (which is rather pointless) or give it to someone else. To prevent an inscription from reaching the wrong subjects, many scribes also use Encrypt Missive with this ritual. Rumor holds that more powerful forms of inscription can create annotations for higher-level rituals, but only elders would know for certain. It is known that the blood powering Inscription can be used for links of Sympathy and Identity -- an incautious Tremere could find his blood in the hands of an enemy who can use it against him.
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The Open Passage (level 2 ritual)
Walls, locked doors and even sealed vaults cannot stop a thaumaturge with the Open Passage ritual. The caster smears snake or vermin excrement over the surface in an intricate pattern, wich takes an hour to complete. Once finished, the caster becomes insubstantial with respect to that surface -- she can walk through a wall or door, yet can still interact with anything attached to it (like a mirror or wooden shelf).
SYSTEM:
The Open Passage lasts for one turn, so the caster must be quick in stepping through the barrier.
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Ritual's recognition (Level 2 ritual)
Some thaumaturgical rituals don't have an immediately visible effect. A ritual's success of failure may not be immediately apparent; cautious thaumaturges need a way to tell if their rituals work. Even a competent thaumatturge's rituals fail from time to time. Most would consider a few extra minutes of work worth the trouble to make sure that, say, a Deflection of Wooden Doom ritual functions properly, instead of finding out the hard way.
To set up Ritual's Recognition, the caster must sever the last eigth of an inch of his nose or an earlobe and crush the fleshy bit in an ivory mortal and pestle. He then dusts his face with the resulting paste. Immediately afterward, the thaumaturge casts another ritual; upon completion, the thaumaturge can tell whether the ritual succeeded or failed.
SYSTEM:
Casting Ritual's Recognition causes on level of unsoakable bashing damage as the caster removes a gobbet of skin. Once complete, the thaumaturge must Immediately begin his next ritual. When That ritual is finished, the caster automatically knows whether or not it succeeded, even if it would normally have no visible effect. By design, the caster can automatically tell if Ritual's Recognition succeeded, and can regrow the lost bit and recast it if it failed. In either case, the caster feels a warm flush upon completion of a successful rite.
-Level 2-
Blood Mead
It was thought by the cults of Dionysus that supernatural powers could procured while under the effects of oinos, or any intoxication for that matter. During the Dionysian rites, a special drink combining vitae and mead (a fermented honey drink) might be prepared for favored supplicants. the drink was thought to pass on a powerful resilience, though only under intoxication. Similarly, a thaumaturge casting this ritual will be able to withstand a greater amount of damage than he would normally tolerate.
System:
The thaumaturge must ingest this concoction to trigger its effect. By mingling two points of his own vitae with a honey brew, the magus creates a potent anesthetic and intoxicant. while under this effect, the caster gains an extra Bruised health level. However, he suffers the effects of intoxication and, as such, loses one die to all Dexterity and Intelligence dice pools. The effects from Blood Mead last a number of hours equal to the successes scored after the blood mead is imbibed. At night’s end, the vitae within Blood Mead dilutes and loses its mystical properties and, as a result, cannot refill a vampire's blood pool. The mead may. however, continue to act as an intoxicant, depending on how much the vampire consumed.
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Bureaucratic Condemnation
Developed as the antithesis of Expedient Paperwork, this ritual causes forms, letters or other paperwork tendered by the target to become lost in red tape. Use of this ritual has created many apocryphal tales among the Tremere, who boast of rivals' havens foreclosed upon, cars repossessed and buildings permits revoked. The earliest record use of this rituals seems to have been during the Renaissance, when a Tremere had a Lasombra rival excommunicated for failing to submit a writ to the Inquisition. A thaumaturge must sketch an effigy (however crude) of her subject in squid ink when casting this ritual.
System:
The time any single bureaucratic action takes to complete is tripled, including mailing documents, applying for licenses, ect. Characters with sufficient Influence or the like should still be able to "push things through," however, though they are likely to experience additional difficulty.
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Craft Bloodstone
This ritual creates a small stone used as a tracking device. The caster must place a small pebble into a vial filled with three points of blood from any source. This blood need not be human. Every night for three nights, the thaumaturge recites an invocation over the vial. The bloodstone absorbs a single point of blood each night, and the liquid becomes slightly clearer, until one the third night it becomes transparent water. The vampire then has a mystical connection to the stone, and knows its relative position at all times.
System:
A thaumaturge who creates a bloodstone instinctively knows where it is at all times. this is not so much knowledge of its precise location as it is an understanding of its direction and distance from the caster.
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Enhancing the Curse
Ghouls can survive almost indefinitely, with the stipulation that they have vampiric blood within their bodies. A thaumaturge casting this ritual on a ghoul enhances the strength of the vampiric vitae in his body but causes him to suffer similar adverse effects to sunlight exposure as vampires would suffer. Every moment the subject spends exposed to daylight will generate third-degree burns over the ghoul's body. This proves fatal if the ghoul is unable to find shelter from the sun's rays. The vampire must scratch the subject and draw blood, though some variants of this ritual require the thaumaturge to strike the ghoul. Obviously, this is not a pleasant ritual, and is used by thaumaturges to discipline or test their ghouls.
System:
This ritual requires physical contact between thaumaturge and ghoul for it to take effect. So long as the victim retains vampiric blood in his body, he will suffer one health level of aggravated damage per two turns while in direct exposure to sunlight. Once the vampiric blood is spent from his system, the victim will cease to suffer damage from sunlight. For the next month. anytime the ghoul ingests and retains vampiric blood in his body, he will suffer damage in direct sunlight.
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Extinguish
This ritual eliminates the threat that fire poses to Kindred. The caster is able to douse dangerous flames, leaving vampire hunters quite surprised when their torches and brands are no longer effective tools. To enact this ritual, the caster pinches out a candle's flame while spitting on the floor.
System:
The ritual is set up in advance, but for the entire night the vampire has but to speak a single magical syllable to extinguish one fire up to the size of a bonfire. For the duration of one night, the thaumaturge can use this power a number of times equal to the number of successes on the initial ritual roll. Pinching a candle’s flame in preparation is likely to require a Rotschreck check, as well.
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Impassable Trail
The vampire can travel through even the densest woods without leaving any sign of his passing. He will still leave a trail for creatures with powerful olfactory senses, but that will be all. The thaumaturge must carry an owl's feather steeped in Kindred vitae or burn the legs of a dead toad and carry the ashes with him while this ritual is in effect.
System:
The vampire will leave no evidence behind, save for a faint odor that takes three successes on a Perception + Alertness roll (dif 8) to detect. The ritual lasts for one night.
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Jinx
This ritual concerns itself with using the blood of other Kindred to afflict them with various minor banes at the thaumaturge's whim. Relying largely on the Principle of Identity (see chapter 2), this ritual consumes the blood of the subject instead of the blood of the caster. The thaumaturge must have in his possession one point of his victim's blood, which vanishes once a sending is attempted. The horrors visited upon subjects as a result of this path have given the Tremere quite a reputation. Indeed, many Kindred have reasonable fears of allowing the Warlocks to harvest any of their precious vitae, as the powers of this ritual can attest. Most fearsome of all, a thaumaturge need not even be in her victim's company, so strong is the connection of Identity. All the thaumaturge needs to do is sacrifice the subject's blood....
The thaumaturge briefly vexes his victim with bad luck, causing her to fail in a mundane task. This can cause everything from minor typographical errors to automobile accidents and everything in between, depending upon how the magus jinxes his mark.
System:
The next roll a jinxed character makes automatically fails, regardless of the outcome. This does not cause a botch, just simply failure. If applied to a contested or extended action, the roll simply yields no successes for the current turn -- the victim may garner other successes on subsequent turns (provided the failure doesn’t make all the difference..)
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Mourning Life Curse
Although this ritual causes no physical damage to its subject, it can be psychologically traumatizing. It allows the caster to coax blood from a mortal without injuring her. The Tremere must drink a dram of thrice-distilled crocodile blood and make a paste from copal oil. ground eyebright and dates. He carries this paste until he finds a suitable victim. He then dabs the paste onto her eyes and whispers a two- line invocation into the mortal's ear. The mortal then begins weeping uncontrollably, and bloody tears slowly ooze down her cheeks. The effect continues until the caster stops staring at the victim. the only after-effect is a slight swelling of the capillaries around the subject's eyes, along with the normal effects of blood loss.
System:
The victim will bleed slowly. It takes about five minutes to collect a single blood point. there is no active defense against this ritual, but the mortal must be able to hear the invocation that the caster whispers. Some thaumaturges use this power on sleeping victims, to spare them the unpleasantness of seeing the act.
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Steps Of The Terrified
This power lets the caster put the brake on a fleeing enemy. the harder the subject tries to run, the slower he becomes. Eventually, he slows to the point that he can barely move at all. the vampire is often able to take her time and still catch up with her target. The vampire must cast a handful of polar buds at the target and then douse her hands in the oil while repeating a short incantation seven times. She then wrings the oil from her Hands before following the target.
System:
The first turn after the ritual is completed, the subject moves at half his normal speed. If he tries to speed p, he slows to one-quarter his normal speed. Each time he tried to go faster, his speed is halved. The ritual lasts until the following sunrise.
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Trima
This type of oinos is made with spices and herbs, serving to heat up the blood in a body and, therefore cause drowsiness in a victim. A magus will sometimes serve this drink to many mortals, possibly at a party or other social gathering. This serves to better protect the Masquerade before Kindred guests drink their share from drowsy mortals. Kindred taking vitae from mortals under the effect of trima feel a slight buzz of the after- effects, though not strong enough to be considered intoxicated.
System:
The caster mixes at least one point of his vitae with the desired wine and spices. Once completed the trim must be ingested to take effect. After Imbibing trima, a victim must make a successful Willpower roll (dif 8) to take any action, as he is overcome by an artificially induced lethargy. this effect lasts a number of hours equal to the number of blood points the caster uses to create the ritual. Subjects may resist this effect by scoring at least three successes on a Stamina roll (dif 8). Cainites and other supernatural creatures are unaffected by trima as their blood is too potent to be overpowered by this concoction.
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Whispers Of The Ghost
Using this strange ritual, the vampire may communicate from his Psychic Projection form into the material world. while employing this ritual, the Kindred can speak with anyone he encounters, but his words come as ghostly whisperings. People who hear these whisperings often mistake them for the words of ghosts or spirits. When this ritual is performed, the thaumaturge must have the ear of a still-living creature in his left hand.
System:
This ritual applies only to vampires using the Auspex power of Psychic Projection. after weaving the spell, the Cainite can speak for one scene or until sunrise, whichever comes first. The thaumaturge may only speak to the physical world; he may not be seen, touched, ect.
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Iron Body
This ritual imbues the subject with supernatural endurance, allowing the kindred to withstand the Biblical anathema of this kind. The subject must carry a spent shell casing with him while this ritual is in effect.
Subject:
The subject may soak aggravated damage for as long as this ritual lasts, which is one hour per point of the caster's stamina. it does not grant the subject any additional soak dice, though it merely allows him to withstand the traditional banes of the Kindred.
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Ward Versus Ghouls
Wary Tremere created this ritual to protect themselves from the minions of vengeful rivals. By invoking this ritual, the Tremere 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.
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Principal Focus of Vitae Infusion
This ritual imbues a quantity of blood within the object upon which the ritual is cast. The object must be small enough for the vampire to carry in both hands, and 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 thaumaturge 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 Tremere 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 (and 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.
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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, 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.
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Burning Blade
Developed during Clan Tremere's troubled inception, Burning Blade allows a thaumaturge 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.
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Donning the Mask of Shadows
This ritual renders its subject translucent, her form appearing dark and smoky and the sounds of her footsteps 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 thaumaturge'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 succeeds in a Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty of the caster's Wits + Occult) or if the observer possesses a power (such as Auspex) sufficient to penetrate Level Three Obfuscate. 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.
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Warding Circle versus Ghouls
This ritual is enacted in a manner similar to that of Ward versus Ghouls (see Vampire: The Masquerade, p. 184), 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, and every 10-foot increase raises the difficulty by one, to a maximum of 9 (one additional success is required for every 10-foot increase past the number necessary to raise the difficulty to 9). The player spends one blood point for every 10 feet of radius and rolls. The ritual takes the normal casting time if it is to be temporary (lasting for the rest of the night) or one night if it is to be permanent (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 on him, 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.
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.
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Deny the Intruder (Level 2 ritual)
To protect chantries from unwanted observation, Tremere rely not only upon mystic wards but also upon mortal bureaucracy. An enemy can hardly drop in if the chantry isn't listed in any directories or real estate paperwork, after all. Better still, a little judicious paper-shuffling can "lose" records for electrical payments, telephone calls and other incriminating evidence. To se up a chantry's bureaucratic defense, the Tremere simply scrawls a series of mystic characters on a piece of paper. This page goes out by mail (some modern Tremere even scan the page and use e-mail) and promptly becomes lost in the system. For the next year, the chantry becomes difficult to track via the usual paperwork routes.
SYSTEM:
There's no special cost for the paperwork involved in this ritual, though the Tremere must scrawl out the characters with charcoal. Once the paper makes it into "the system" -- by hand of the mailman, by e-mail to some server, or what have you --it vanishes without a trace. So, too, do the records of the chantry. Attempts to investigate the chantry or unearth records of its existence increase in difficulty by one for each success scored on the ritual roll. This doesn't hinder the chantry's normal functions; the telephons still work and the electricity still runs. It's just that nobody ever sends the bills directly to the chantry or writes anything in the credit memos that reveals the building's location.
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Inscription (level 2 ritual)
Not everyone can be proficient with Thaumatrugy. Some Tremere build mystic items specifically to aid their subordinates or allies. A neonate with only the rudiments of skill may have need of a specific ritual, or another Kindred might desire to purchase the special services of Thaumaturgy but need them for his own later use. Instead of taking the time and risk to instruct someone else in the fine points of the working in question, a proficient thaumatruge can build an annotated version of a ritual, fueled with his blood, to make the formula accessible to someone else.
The inscription ritual allows the thaumaturge to place any other first or second level ritual in a written form. This generally requires the equivalent of a full page of paper. A reader can then unlock the power of that ritual by reading the Inscription and following its instructions. The scribe uses his blood as a base for the ink, and his vitae's power remains in the mixture to help fuel the ritual. An inscribed ritual is in imperfect form -- it cannot be used to learn Thaumaturgy. It's a simplified set of instructions, with the scribe's vitae empowering the rite so that it overcomes any omission or sloppiness on the part of the practitioner.
SYSTEM:
A thaumaturge who knows the techniques of Inscription can write an abbreviated from for any first or second level that he knows, at a coast of two blood points. Anyone wo can read the language may then use the ritual notes later. Actually casting the ritual from the notes requires the use of the usual components and time, as well as the standard Intelligence + Occult roll, but the caster need not have any knowledge of Thaumatrugy. Once an inscription is complete, the power of the writter's vitae is trapped in the objct; his maximum blood pool is effectively reduced by one until the inscription is used. After use, the inscription dries into a fine, illegible ash, with all the power expelled from the
vitae-based ink.
The scribe can use the scroll himself (which is rather pointless) or give it to someone else. To prevent an inscription from reaching the wrong subjects, many scribes also use Encrypt Missive with this ritual. Rumor holds that more powerful forms of inscription can create annotations for higher-level rituals, but only elders would know for certain. It is known that the blood powering Inscription can be used for links of Sympathy and Identity -- an incautious Tremere could find his blood in the hands of an enemy who can use it against him.
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The Open Passage (level 2 ritual)
Walls, locked doors and even sealed vaults cannot stop a thaumaturge with the Open Passage ritual. The caster smears snake or vermin excrement over the surface in an intricate pattern, wich takes an hour to complete. Once finished, the caster becomes insubstantial with respect to that surface -- she can walk through a wall or door, yet can still interact with anything attached to it (like a mirror or wooden shelf).
SYSTEM:
The Open Passage lasts for one turn, so the caster must be quick in stepping through the barrier.
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Ritual's recognition (Level 2 ritual)
Some thaumaturgical rituals don't have an immediately visible effect. A ritual's success of failure may not be immediately apparent; cautious thaumaturges need a way to tell if their rituals work. Even a competent thaumatturge's rituals fail from time to time. Most would consider a few extra minutes of work worth the trouble to make sure that, say, a Deflection of Wooden Doom ritual functions properly, instead of finding out the hard way.
To set up Ritual's Recognition, the caster must sever the last eigth of an inch of his nose or an earlobe and crush the fleshy bit in an ivory mortal and pestle. He then dusts his face with the resulting paste. Immediately afterward, the thaumaturge casts another ritual; upon completion, the thaumaturge can tell whether the ritual succeeded or failed.
SYSTEM:
Casting Ritual's Recognition causes on level of unsoakable bashing damage as the caster removes a gobbet of skin. Once complete, the thaumaturge must Immediately begin his next ritual. When That ritual is finished, the caster automatically knows whether or not it succeeded, even if it would normally have no visible effect. By design, the caster can automatically tell if Ritual's Recognition succeeded, and can regrow the lost bit and recast it if it failed. In either case, the caster feels a warm flush upon completion of a successful rite.
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