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The Mortuus Path |
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The Harbingers of Skulls claim to have developed their proprietary Mortuus Path during their long sojourn in the Underworld. Of course, whether this is true or simply another one of the veils in which the Harbingers wrap themselves is a matter of some conjecture. Regardless, the Harbingers do have access to powers that no Giovanni has ever demonstrated or admitted to knowing. The Mortuus Path deals with the physical processes and manifestations of death as they affect the physical form. The Harbingers learn the Mortuus Path as their primary Necromancy path. Once a Harbinger has attained the first Intermediate level of this path, he may begin to study the basic levels of another. Once he reaches the Advanced level of the Mortuus Path, he may raise his second path to the Intermediate level and begin to study the remaining paths, which he may not raise past the second Basic level until he has reached the Advanced stage of his second path. Though the Harbingers shouldn't be player characters, they have taught the basics of their art to a very few students, most of whom seem to have been selected for no identifiable common quality. As always with blood magic, the accessibility of these powers is wholly subject to Storyteller approval. |
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basic mortuus path necromancy |
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Reaper's Shroud |
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You may take on the semblance of a corpse or inflict this same transfiguration on another individual. The victim of this power resembles a cadaver in the advanced stages of deterioration - skin yellows and stretches, eyeballs shrink, and joints become stiff. Though the most obvious application of this power is as a temporary curse, some practitioners use it as a means of disguise or concealment or simply to terrify unsuspecting mortals. If you wish to assume this form yourself, simply spend a Blood Trait. The change is instantaneous. If you want to inflict it on another subject, you must spend the Blood Trait and defeat him in a challenge of your Mental Traits against his Physical Traits. The subject of Reaper's Shroud gains the Negative Physical Traits Decrepit and Lethargic and the Negative Social Trait Repugnant. However, she also gains one free retest on any attempt to remain completely motionless (including attempts to be stealthy while not moving), and she is up three Traits on any challenge in which she attempts to intimidate or to inflict fear. The effects of this power last until the next sunrise or sunset, at which time they fade. A vampire can remove all these effects by spending two Blood Traits to reverse her body's deterioration. |
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Blight |
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With Blight, you can push a victim closer to the edge of her grave, spinning out the thread other life by decades in a single moment. Your target suffers all the effects of advanced age: Wrinkled and weathered skin, arthritic joints, fragile bones, poor perception and occasionally even mental impairment. To inflict Blight on someone, touch her, spend a Blood Trait and defeat her in a challenge of your Mental Traits against her Physical Traits. Until the next ^ dusk or dawn, your victim receives the following Negative Traits: Decrepit, Sickly and her choice of Delicate, Dull, Forgetful or Oblivious. Additionally, a mortal victim of Blight risks cardiac arrest. Every turn that she engages in strenuous activity, she must win a Static Physical Challenge with a five-Trait difficulty or suffer a heart attack, the effects of which are left to the Storyteller's discretion. |
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intermediate mortuus path necromancy |
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Resume the Coil |
This subtle but potent art allows you to defeat the effects of torpor, raising a slumbering Cainite from the sleep of ages. It is one of the few Discipline powers that a character can use while in torpor, though most practitioners have no particular desire to enter this condition on a regular basis. Resume the Coil is by no means a soothing experience to undergo as it awakens its sleeping subject's body with a sudden infusion of the very energies of death itself, much like an undead equivalent of cardiac shock paddles. Many recipients of this power have reported strange visions or near-Final Death experiences. To activate Resume the Coil, spend a Willpower Trait and make a Static Mental Challenge against a number of Traits equal to 10 minus your target's number of Morality Traits. If you are attempting to awaken yourself, you must spend an additional Willpower Trait. If you are using this power on another individual, you must touch him. A vampire who entered torpor due to lack of blood awakens with one Blood Trait, and will not enter a hunger frenzy for the first hour after he arises.
A power whose benefits are not altogether certain or obvious, True Death is just what its name implies. For a brief period of time, you may cast off the Curse of Caine - but unlike other methods of attaining such a goal, True Death renders you both clinically and spiritually dead. Your body becomes an inert cadaver, indistinguishable from that of any other dead mortal, and it obeys all the law thereof. Sunlight and True Faith have no particular effect on you, your blood is stale and unpalatable, and you exhibit no signs of life or unlife, lacking even an aura. However, your soul is trapped in an inanimate husk, and the only action you may attempt is awakening from this slumber. You may automatically assume this form at any time. Awakening from it, however, requires you to expend two Blood Traits. While you are under True Death's effects, you have no access to any Disciplines, even "automatic" ones such as Fortitude. You do not, however, consume blood nightly, nor do you enter torpor unless you choose to. The only way your body can be externally distinguished from that of a deceased mortal is with extended observation over a period of years (beyond the scope of most games): You do not decay. However, if you have more than 10 Blood Traits in your Blood Pool and an enterprising medical examiner cuts you open, the excess erupts from the incision in a high-pressure crimson fountain (reducing you to 10 Blood Traits in the process). Barring outside interference, you may remain "dead" as long as you like. Anyone attempting to drain or drink your blood may take you down to zero Blood Traits in your system but may not diablerize you, and the blood they remove is considered "generic" mortal blood. However, any damage to your uninhabited "corpse" that would kill a vampire with no special Disciplines of resilience does, in fact, inflict Final Death upon you. Decapitation is still fatal, as is total incineration.
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advanced Mortuus path necromancy |
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Mercy for Seth |
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Plague has always been one of humanity's greatest fears. With this power, you can visit such a fate upon your victims. This is a blood magic-generated effect and does not actually produce a virus or bacterium, but instead simulates the effects of such plagues with uncanny accuracy. Many Cainite elders who witness Mercy for Seth in action are uncomfortably reminded of the various plagues that swept through Europe in the 11th through 15th centuries. Symptoms include blackened and bloated skin, blood sweat, blood in bodily excretions, suppurating lesions, swollen glands, chills, fever and delirium. A mortal victim of this plague generally dies within 24 hours while a vampire sinks into torpor. To apply Mercy for Seth to a target, you must touch him, spend a Willpower Trait and a Blood Trait, and win a challenge of your Mental Traits against his Physical Traits. A victim must make one Static Physical Challenge against a five-Trait difficulty every hour. If he loses, he takes one level of lethal damage (if mortal) or receives one Negative Physical Trait of Sickly (if Cainite). A vampire who accumulates a number of Sickly Traits equal to his number of Physical Traits sinks into torpor. Mercy for Seth's effects cannot be cured through scientific/medical techniques, though various magical practices or herbal remedies may have some effect at the Storyteller's discretion. The "plague" leaves its victim on the third sunrise after it was inflicted, so a particularly hardy character may be able to stave it off long enough to walk away. |
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