Path of Diseased Corruption
• Death Sight – Roll Perception + Medicine to see how closely Death is hovering over someone. 1 Success will reveal the number of health boxes the target currently has. 2 Successes will indicate if they are sick or poisoned. 3 or more successes can show you their general state of health as well as tell you precisely what sort of sickness or poison is affecting the target. It takes an action to observe someone in this detail, but it can allow you to better pick your targets in combat, give an ally the correct antidote, or simply allow you to avoid feeding on diseased humans.
•• Miasma – The Cappadocian exhales a noxious cloud that reeks of death and disease. Within this cloud, food will start to go bad, milk will curdle, metal will tarnish and rust, and non-living organic matter will decay and deteriorate (though rarely fast enough for this to be useful in most game situations- as a rule of thumb, assume that items that stay within the cloud for 1 minute age about 1 day). It does not obscure vision by itself, although it does make one’s eyes sting. The miasma extends outward for a number of feet equal to the number of successes obtained from a Stamina + Occult roll, and typically lasts for the entire scene (although a strong wind may cause it to dissipate). Vampires and other undead caught in the cloud suffer no ill effect (though they may still find the smell repulsive), but living creatures need to make a Courage roll to resist backing away from the Cappadocian.
••• Blight (modified from 2nd edition Dark Age, page 152) – You can cause a target to grow lesions on their skin, and exhibit flu-like symptoms. Touch your opponent, and then roll Manipulation + Medicine vs the target’s Willpower. Each success gives the target a cumulative -1 die penalty to all social rolls (Dice Pools cannot be reduced below 1). The penalties dissipate slowly over the night (1 point is removed at the end of each scene). The Cappadocian may spend a point of Willpower when activating this power (before rolling any dice) to cause the penalty to affect the target’s physical rolls as well. Multiple uses of this power do not stack; if used on a victim that is already Blighted, simply replace the penalties already suffered with whatever was rolled most recently.
•••• Blood Allergy (modified from level 3 Thaumaturgy ritual in Secrets of Thaumaturgy, page 94) – The Cappadocian must touch her victim, spend a point of Willpower, and then roll Manipulation + Medicine vs target’s Willpower. For a number of nights equal to the successes rolled, the target has a hard time keeping down any food (if mortal) or blood (if vampire). Any time the victim feeds, they must roll Willpower or regurgitate the entire meal. With 1 success, they only manage to keep down half the meal (round up, in the case of blood points). With 2 or more successes, they can keep down the entire meal. The victim will not regurgitate if it means starvation or Torpor (ie a vampire will not spit up any blood if he only has 3 or fewer Blood Points left).
••••• Black Death (modified from 2nd edition Dark Age, page 153) – Touch your victim, spend 2 Blood Points, and roll Stamina + Occult vs target’s Willpower. Success infects the target with plague-like symptoms (sunken and blackened eyes, swollen lymph nodes and a sickly pallor). Within 1 day, they will either die (if mortal) or enter torpor (if vampire).
Path of Life
• Trace of Life (taken from 3rd edition Dark Age, page 194) – You can make a corpse twitch and move. You cannot make the corpse speak, and if you have it open its eyes, it will be obvious to anyone who looks in them that the corpse is dead. Roll Manipulation + Occult vs 6. Even 1 success allows you to make a corpse within 30 feet make a slight movement. Additional successes can allow for more complex or more life-like movement. 4 successes can allow for a pattern of movement that repeats for the entire scene (ie breathing, a pulse, etc). You can also use this power on a vampire in torpor, but it requires an additional 2 successes (treat as if you had rolled 2 fewer successes).
•• Homunculus (modified from 3rd edition Dark Age, page 194) - The ritualist can create a small patchwork of various body parts, either recovered from human corpses, or sacrificed from the vampire’s own body, and bring it to life with a Blood Point. Common organs include eyes to see by, ears to hear with, and hands to move around on, but the same principals can be applied to any body pieces (although the GM may limit how large the homunculus can be). Once created, the vampire maintains a psychic link with its minion, can direct its actions, and can even sense the world through it (this does take an action to concentrate, and the homunculus must be within a quarter mile). The servant never rolls more than 1 die for any action, and it can only sense through whatever organs the vampire places within it. It has a single health box, and can only soak bashing damage. It lasts for 1 night and day, but the vampire can spend a point of blood each night to keep it around longer).
••• Awaken (modified from 2nd edition Dark Age, page 152) – By spending a point of Willpower, you can awaken yourself or another vampire within line of sight from torpor. Once the points are spent, roll your Willpower. The difficulty is 10-the target’s via. Success means the target wakes up immediately. Failure means the subject wakes up later on (GM’s discretion, but usually right after the scene ends). A botch means that the vampire will remain in Torpor, and cannot even attempt to make a standard Via roll to try to wake up on its own, although there is no penalty for you spending another Willpower point and trying to use this power again. A vampire awakened from torpor with fewer than 3 Blood Points will be on edge, and will frenzy with little provocation, but does not have to make a frenzy roll immediately (which, combined with the fact that this power can be used at a distance, makes it much safer than actually putting your own wrist anywhere near an elder’s mouth).
•••• Shambling Hordes (taken from 3rd edition Masquerade, page 163) – Spend a point of Willpower, and roll Wits + Occult vs 8. Each success allows you to spend a Blood Point to raise a corpse into a walking zombie. Such creatures can be given a single instruction, which they will do diligently until they are destroyed. The zombie can be considered blood-bound to its creator, and cannot be turned against that vampire. As a mindless creature, it is not affected by most uses of Dominate, Dementation, or Presence. See page 163 in 3rd edition Vampire: the Masquerade for zombie stats.
••••• Gift of Life (taken from 3rd edition Dark Age, page 193) – Spend 12 Blood Points, burning as much blood as possible each turn until the requirement is met. The blood must be spent continuously – you can’t stop and hunt half way through. The character then rolls Stamina + Occult vs 6. Success indicates that for 1 day, the vampire has taken one step closer to being human. Fortitude difficulties to soak sunlight are halved, and she takes no damage if sufficiently covered. Fire deals only lethal damage, and the difficulty to resist Rotshcreck are halved. Her Via score does not impose a die cap during the day (although she is still very tired). The only disciplines that may be used are Fortitude and Auspex. Other than that, she retains all her vampiric nature. Once the day is over, the Beast takes its toll – for the next 3 nights, all difficulties to resist frenzy are increased by 3.
Path of Death
• Masque of Death (taken from 3rd edition Dark Age, page 192) – If you are using this power on yourself, no roll is necessary. If used on someone else, spend 1 Blood Point and roll Manipulation + Medicine vs the target’s Stamina + 3. The effects last until the next dawn or dusk, unless the target spends 2 Blood Points to remove the effect himself. While this power is active, the target loses 2 dots from Dexterity (minimum of 1) and Appearance (minimum of 0), but gains 2 dots in Intimidation. For all purposes, the character looks like nothing more than a walking corpse. If the character lays perfectly still, any onlooker must roll at least 5 successes on a Perception + Medicine roll (difficulty 7) to realize that she is a vampire, even if the onlooker is familiar with the walking dead.
•• Cold of the Grave (taken from 3rd edition Dark Age, page 192) – Spend 1 Willpower. For the rest of the scene, you take no wound penalties, and gain an additional die to all dice pools that involve resisting emotional manipulation, such as from Intimidation, Presence, or Dementation. However, you also lose 1 die from all pools to emotionally manipulate others.
•••Death’s Whisper (modified from 2nd edition Dark Age page 152) – You can become a normal corpse. This power costs nothing to use, but it costs 2 Blood Points to wake back up. While in this state, you can take no actions (not even mental Disciplines), but you are also not affected by sunlight, True Faith, or anything else that would not affect a corpse. You are dimly aware of your surroundings, so you know when it is safe to wake up, in much the same way as if you were in Torpor.
•••• Trick Death – This impressive ability can make a Cappadocian exceedingly difficult to kill, as even Death itself will not lay claim to the Graverobber’s soul. Once per night, when the Cappadocian is about to take any damage (after all soak rolls are made), she may spend a point of blood and roll Wits + Survival (difficulty 5 if bashing damage, 6 if lethal, and 7 if aggravated). Success means that the damage is not dealt… yet. The damage will return at some point after the scene is over, and before the end of the night. A botch forces the user to take an additional health box of damage.
••••• Cheat Death – Upon death, the character’s soul lingers around in the Shadowlands. No roll is necessary, and this is not considered an action. In essence, she becomes something not quite a vampire, and not quite a wraith, with some of the advantages and penalties of both. As a vampire, she still fears fire and sunlight, and must contend with the Beast and the possibility of Frenzy. However, she does not have to feed on blood (although she is constantly hungry; treat as if she only had 4 Blood Points that never increase or decrease). As a result, she can only use Disciplines that do not require the expenditure of blood. Also, fire and sunlight do not cause Aggravated damage- both deal a single level of lethal damage, as fire would to a normal wraith.
As a wraith, she replaces her Health Boxes with 10 levels of Corpus, and lacks the ability to interact with the Skinlands. However, she has no Pathos or Passion scores (which means the only way to regain Corpus is through Slumber), and cannot learn Arcanoi. For simplicity sakes, do not bother creating a Shadow; the vampire’s beast will suffice.
The character now interacts with the world as if she was a wraith, with her body being her only Fetter (when using this Discipline, the body does not immediately turn to dust, no matter how old the vampire is). If she ever enters the Tempest (either willingly, or because her Fetter is destroyed, or from losing all her Corpus), she dies the final death. She can stay in this state for 1 full lunar month. Before that month is over, she can be brought back to life. The ritual is complex, and must be performed in the Skinlands (meaning the character must find some way to convince a living or undead person to conduct the ritual for her; that person does not need to be trained in Mortis, if the now wraithly Cappadocian Skinrides him and directs his movements). At the height of the ritual, a human soul must be sacrificed (werewolves, changelings, magi, and even ghouls won’t work- it has to be a pure human), and the blood poured upon the character’s body. This may result in a loss of Humanity for both the character and whoever is performing the ritual. Once the ritual is complete (it typically takes about an hour to perform), you may sacrifice a permanent point of Humanity and a permanent point of Willpower to be brought back to life (this loss of Humanity is in addition to any that you may have lost during the ritual casting). You awake in your old body, with only 1 Health Box and 1 Blood Point. You may not feed on the corpse of the human who was sacrificed during the ritual, but anyone else is fair game.
Level 1 Rituals:
Final Sight (modified from 3rd edition Dark Age, page 196) – The ritualist consumes the eye of a corpse, and gains visions of the last thing the corpse saw before it died. The eye needs to be intact for this ritual to be effective, and you can generally only cast it twice per corpse.
Revivify the Cold Vitae (taken from 3rd edition Dark Age, page 196) - The vampire must have access to a whole (or mostly whole) human corpse that still has a substantial amount of flesh on it, no matter how putrid. The ritual takes half an hour to perform, and it revivifies a number of blood points euqal to the player’s successes on the Intelligence + Occult roll. This cold blood works just like normal mortal vitae, save that consuming it causes very little pleasure in the vampire. Cold blood remains fresh for only a scene, unless it is further preserved with the level 2 ritual.
Embalming – This ritual preserves a corpse so that it will not decay. Unlike most other rituals, this does not ruin the corpse for further uses of Mortis. Embalming may only be used once per corpse. The ritual takes 10 mintues to complete, after which the Cappadocian rolls Intelligence + Occult. Successes determine how long the corpse is preserved:
1 Success = 1 week
2 Successes = 1 month
3 Successes = 1 year
4 Successes = 1 decade
5+ Successes = GM’s discretion
After the time has elapsed, the corpse will start rotting at a normal pace.
Aging Gracefully (modified from Rebirth of Mortal Vanity, secret of Thaumaturgy page 90) – This ritual allows a vampire to age normally for 1 night. She must pluck a hair from the head of a human child, and then pluck one of her own hairs and twist the two around each other. Hair and nails can be grown and even clipped shorter than they were when the vampire died, but repeated use of this ritual will eventually make her an old crone. The ritual can be used on another Kindred, in which case the ritualist twines the child’s hair around one plucked from the head of the target.
Torture - This isn't so much a ritual as a very specific application of the level 1 power Death Sight (which must be learned first). If the Cappadocian is allowed to study a helpless victim, he can determine exactly how much pain and punishment can be afflicted upon that person without killing him. This isn't terribly useful in chaotic combat (there are far too many variables), but can prove to be a very valuable excercise in torture. Provided that the Cappadocian's Humanity / Vias score allows him to do so, he can use his ranks within a single Mortis path substituting for Intimidation (or Torture, if the GM is using it as a skill). In other words, a Cappadocian with Intimidate of 2 and a Mortis Path of 4 can roll 4 dice instead of 2 when attempting to torture information out of someone. Note that this only applies if the victim is helpless - it cannot be used if the target is able to move around or defend himself.
Level 2 Rituals:
Blood Petals – By soaking a plant’s roots in someone’s blood, you can attune it to the life force of that person. This ritual is commonly performed using a rose bush, but any flowering plant will do. This ritual takes a few nights to complete, as you must soak cloth with at least a blood point from the same target on at least 3 separate nights, and carefully wrap them around a root of the plant (while trying not to cause too much harm to the plant itself). Once complete, the plant gains a sympathetic connection to the target, and can be used as a very good indicator of that person’s general health. The plant will wither if the person becomes sick, slowly loosing its petals and leaves. Once the last petal has fallen, it’s usually a sure sign the target has died. The plant will automatically die within hours of the target’s death, but note that the reverse is not true- if you kill the plant, it causes no ill effect to the target. Once bonded, the plant will retain its connection for 1 year. After that, the ritual needs to be cast again.
Preserve Blood – This ritual is a refinement of the level 1 ritual Embalming, which the Cappadocian must learn before they can master Preserve Blood. The Grave Robber reaps at least 3 blood points from the same target, and collects them in a clay pot. He then spends about 30 minutes whisking and stirring the blood while sprinkling in crushed herbs. Finally, he covers the pot with a lid, and seals it with wax. Two of the blood points within the pot are wasted, but the third will stay fresh for up to 1 year. The blood tastes stale and cold, as if it was retrieved from a corpse using Revivify the Cold Vitae. However, it is still every bit as nourishing and potent as fresh blood. If the wax seal is broken, or the clay pot cracked, the blood must be drunk immediately, as it will spoil within 15 minutes.
Tallow of Denial – The Cappadocian must harvest the fat from a human corpse, and render it into tallow. The tallow is then used to create a candle that can be used to ward against wraiths. When lit, the candle raises the Gauntlet and Veil in the immediate vicinity by 1. Many occultists believe that you can also smear the dripping tallow over the eyes, ears, and hands of a target to further protect them from ghostly powers, but there is very little evidence that this practice works.
Scent of Death - The grave robber has become so accustomed to the scent of decaying human flesh that he can instantly recognise it whenever he happens to smell it. Though this ability isn't a ritual in the metaphysical sense of the word, it is treated as one for the sake of simplicity. With a successful Perception + Medicine roll, the Cappadocian can distinguish between rotting human remains and any other decaying animal (dead humans, ghouls, mages, homid werewolfs, and changelings all register as "human remains" for the sake of this ability). The difficulty is up to the GM, but should be based on how stong the odor is (for example, a fresh corpse might be a 7, a bloated bag of gases covered with flies and crawling with maggots might be a 4, while detecting a corpse that has undergone the level 1 ritual Embalming may be a 8). By itself, this power is of limited use. But when combined with Auspex, it has the potential to turn the Cappadocian into a sort of vampiric vulture who can simply follow his nose to his next research subject.
Level 3 Rituals:
Transplant Surgery – If you have lost a body part due to combat (ie a hand, leg, arm, etc), you may cut off the same part from a dead corpse and fuse it to your body, as opposed to regenerating it yourself. Initially, the body part will look noticeably different (think Frankenstein’s monster), but over time the look will fade and the dead flesh will grow to resemble your own. The ritual takes 3 hours to perform if you are doing it on yourself, or 1 hour if you are performing it on someone else. You must also spend a point of Willpower. Effectively, this converts Aggravated damage to Lethal damage, which may be healed normally (exactly how many boxes are converted is entirely up to the GM, but is usually only 1 or 2 points).
Warding Circle – This ritual is commonly used in conjunction with many other rituals and powers that affect wraiths. The Cappadocian draws an intricate circle on the ground with salt to erect a barrier preventing wraiths and spirits from interfering within the area. Once complete, the circle manifests as a barrier in both the Shadowlands and the Umbra. The barrier is one-directional, and the Cappadocian can either draw the circle so that the barrier is focused outwards (keeping wraiths out of the circle) or inwards (keeping wraiths within the circle). The Cappadocian rolls Dexterity + Occult. Each success imparts the barrier with a 1 die of Strength that it uses to resist the movement of wraiths, spirits, werewolves moving through the Umbra, or Vampires using the level 5 Auspex power of Psychic Projection. In addition, it also makes it difficult for Vampires using Auspex 2 Aura Perception or Mages using Spirit Magik to sense or affect targets across the barrier (they get +1 difficulty). The circle itself is very fragile, and even the smallest physical contact will cause the spiritual barrier to collapse.
Forensics - By carefully disecting and studying a body, the Cappadocian can gain insights into the person that used to inhabit it, how long ago it died, and in what way. This ritual is not reliable when used on the remains of a vampire or a corpse that has been subjected to other Mortis abilities (GM's discretion if it works at all). This ritual is very much like the Auspex power of Pychometry or the Dementation power Eyes of Chaos in the sense that it can be used by players to gain GM hints. The Cappadocian must study a corpse for at least an hour, and then roll Wits+Medicine at a difficulty of 6. The GM is encouraged to give the character tidbits of information based on how many successes are rolled. Exactly what is gleaned is entirely up to the GM, but here are some examples: