Although combat mastery is hardly the sorcerer caste's primary goal, they have a long tradition of standing ready to defend themselves and, if need be, assisting the warrior caste on the battlefield (though they have not joined any large-scale struggle since the Long Night). Awakening of the Steel is one legacy of this preparedness, a path that some say began with teh alchemists who studied in the forges of Toledo and Damascus. This set of techniques focuses on the symbolism of the sword as the ultimate extension of a trained warrior's body, drawing on the mythos that various warrior traditions attached to their swords and daggers: European Crusaders and their blessed blades, the kris of Indonesian Pentjak-Silat practitioners, and Indian Ghurka and the kukri knives, among others. The practitioner of Awakening of the Steel focuses on this symbolism as he uses the power of his blood to enhance his weapon and his skill.
A student of Awakening of the Steel finds that a keen understanding of both the form and the function of a blade is necessary for full mastery of this path. A character must have a level of either Melee or Crafts Ability equal to his level in Awakening of the Steel. Those who practice this path also find that its lessons are tightly focused, perhaps to the point of overspecialization. The path is at its most effective with swords and knives, and the wielder can only extend its effects to other edged weapons. Any attempt to use a technique of this path on another edged weapon is at +1 difficulty.
• Confer with the Blade
Although few Assamites claim to have actually spoken to a weapon's soul, blacksmiths and warriors alike have ascribed spiritual qualities to hand-forged blades for centuries. Practitioners of Auspex are familiar with the manner in which inanimate objects can bear impressions of their own history. Confer with the Blade allows a weapon's wielder to delve into the events that have occurred around his weapon. Some practitioners of this power claim this makes the weapon feel more "comfortable" in their hands, while others speak of the sense of history that an ancient blade bears. The actual impressions only take an instant to gain, though many prefer to spend much longer in contemplation if time permits.
System: The number of successes determine the amount of information the sorcerer gains regarding the blade's history and its present state, as well as all information yielded by a lesser number of successes. With three or more successes, the sorcerer may lower the difficulty on his next attempt to apply a blood magic ritual to the weapon by one.
1 Success: Physical information only; precise length and weight (to the micrometer and milligram), chemical composition (assuming the character understands metallurgy), number of damage dice and type of damage (lethal or aggravated).
2 Successes: Historical overview; when and where the blade was forged, the name and face of its smith, brief glimpses of significant events in existence.
3 Successes: Sorcerous understanding; the type and relative level of power of any enchantments or supernatural enhancements that the blade possesses as well as the name and face of the individual who laid them.
4 Successes: Subliminal synthesis; comprehensive knowledge of the sword's history. For the next seven nights, the character recognizes the taste of any blood that has ever stained the blade if she tastes it herself.
5 Successes: Total communion; The sword and wielder become linked at a level deeper than the physical and more enduring than the immediate.
The Storyteller determines what information the sword holds for the character, but it may include any event in the blade's history or any aspect of its present existence and condition.
•• Grasp of the Mountain
The best scimitar in all creation does its owner no good if it's lying five yards away from him. Grasp of the Mountain strengthens the spiritual bond between the sword and swordsman in order to reinforce the wielder's physical grip on his weapon. A blade that is under the effect of this art never leaves its master's hand unless he so wills it.
System: For the rest of the scene, the character has a number of automatic successes to resist all attempts to disarm him equal to the number of successes rolled. He cannot accidentally drop the blade (which means his botches are likely to result in self-mutilation instead of an empty hand). If the character is somehow disarmed in spite of Grasp of the Mountain, he may call the blade back to his hand by successfully invoking this power again, assuming he has a clear line of sight to the weapon.
••• Pierce Steel's Skin
At this level of understanding, the sorcerer can command his blade with such precision as to strike at an opponent's physical protection rather than his body. The sword transfers its full fury to the intended target, shredding even the toughest chain or plate. This strips away the victim's defenses, leaving him vulnerable to the next attack. While this power is of limited utility in modern nights, as full plate has fallen by the wayside, it remains in the path's progression of lessons due to its utility in destroying other obstacles.
System: For a number of turns equal to the number of successes rolled, each successful attack the character makes inflicts damage on the target's body armor rather than injuring him directly. Armor injured by this power must be the metal variety. When the character makes a successful attack against an armored target, the player does not roll damage. Instead, he rolls a number of dice equal to the sword's damage bonus (the number of dice that it adds to his Strength) against a difficulty of 7. Each success reduces the armor's soak bonus by one die. Armor that is reduced to zero soak dice in this manner is completely destroyed and unsalvageable.
While Pierce Steel's Skin is in effect, an attack against an unarmored target inflicts half damage (rounded down). Additional successes beyond those needed to destroy a piece of armor have no effect. At the Storyteller's discretion, Pierce Steel's Skin may destroy other inanimate objects (walls, doors, cars, dramatically appropriate obstacles) without significant damage to the sword. For the purposes of this power, Fortitude counts as part of the target's Stamina, not external armor.
•••• Razor's Shield
Many swordsmen hold that the duel is the ultimate test of the warrior because it places all opponents on an equal footing: Death is only three feet of steel away, and only the skill of the combatants determines who walks away. However, observers who are more pragmatic than romantic note that an enemy with a ranged weapon, be it bow, sling or gun, has the advantage of striking from much farther away than arm's length. While Awakening of the Steel cannot completely counteract this advantage, this power allows the skilled sorcerer some measure of defense as the sword interposes itself between its master and attacks from afar.
System: For a number of turns equal to the number of successes rolled, the character may attempt to parry projectiles. This requires one action for each projectile that the player wishes to block, and the character must be able to see the shot coming (Heightened Senses allows a visual tracking of bullets). Each parrying attempt requires a Dexterity + Melee roll, with a difficulty determined by the speed of the projectile. Thrown objects have a difficulty of 6, arrows and crossbow bolts a difficulty of 7 and bullets a difficulty of 9. Each success subtracts one of the attacker's successes on his attack roll.
Razor's Shield does not allow the character to parry ranged attacks that do not incorporate solid projectiles, such as flame, lightning or spat blood.
••••• Strike at the True Flesh
Although pacifists may find other uses for blades, turning their swords to plowshares, a warrior knows that swords were created for one purpose: to carve an enemy's flesh into bloody ruin. Strike at the True Flesh invokes the very essence of the sorcerer's weapon, reducing it to the embodiment of its very definition (or, as the more classically minded would put it, invoking the Platonic form) while simplifying its target to a similarly basic level. The results of such an invocation are usually devastating on both a philosophical and practical level as weapon and victim momentarily lose all supernatural attributes.
System: The effects of Strike at the True Flesh last for a number of turns equal to the number of successes rolled, and they end with the first successful attack that the character makes within this time period. The sword inflicts only the base amount of lethal damage that a weapon of its size and type would normally cause, disregarding all enhancements that it may have received (though augmentations to the wielder's strength or speed, such as Potence and Celerity, still have their normal effects, as do extra successes on the attack roll).
However, all the target's supernatural defenses (including Fortitude) are likewise negated - he soaks the attack only with his base Stamina. If the negation of his powers and defenses renders the target unable to soak lethal damage, he cannot soak the attack at all. Body armor does protect against this attack, as it is a mundane form of defense.
In Babylonian myth, the war-god Nergal and his wife Ereshkigal, queen of the dead, had special command over plague-demons. Through this path, an ashipu claims this baleful power over disease. The path also grants limited powers to abate sickness. All the powers of this path affect Cainites as well as mortals, which gives the path an evil reputation among the undead.
Note: Fortitude does not afford its normal defense against most Covenant of Nergal attacks. Each dot of Fortitude, however, gives the afflicted Kindred's player one more die on any rolls to resist Nergal's Wrath or Ill Wind. Covenant of Nergal attacks also do not work against vampires who have a higher rating in the path than the attacker.
Most of the powers in this path reduce a victim's Physical Attributes. If either Strength, Dexterity or Stamina drop to 0, the character is immediately Incapacitated regardless of her actual health levels. Strength or Dexterity cannot drop below 0. An attack that would reduce a victim's Stamina below 0 kills a mortal or drives a Kindred into torpor.
Most Covenant of Nergal attacks do not accumulate with each other, and higher-level powers supersecde lower-level powers; Ill Wind forms the exception. For instance, Maskim's Touch and Breath of Ereshkigal cannot affect a victim already suffering from Nergal's Wrath. The last-named power would affect a person who already suffered from the lower-level powers, but its effects would not become noticable until they exceeded the lesser power's effects or the lesser power's duration ended.
Of all the powers, only the Breath of Ereshkigal can cause an increased effect from multiple uses. Covenant of Nergal powers do accumulate their effect wtih other attacks tha tcause Attribute loss, such as the Quietus power of Scorpion's Touch.
• Maskim's Touch
By touching the subject - or at least getting near enough to touch - the magician causes effects much like influenza: fever, nausea, sore joints and the like. This makes the target slower, weaker, and more frail.
System: If the Willpower roll succeeds, the victim loses one dot each from his Strength, Dexterity and Stamina. This loss lasts for one scene. Multiple Maskim's Touch attacks do not accumulate effects, either with each otehr or with higher-level Covenant of Nergal attacks. Effects will accumulate, however, with deleterious effects produced by other Disciplines, such as the Scorpion's Touch power of Quietus.
•• Breath of Ereshkigal
Simply by drawing a breath and exhaling in the victim's direction, a vampire can inflict disease upon her target. The sickness can use the Breath of Ereshkigal more than once upon a target.
System: The magician can attack anyone within about 50 feet. If the attack succeeds, the Breath of Ereshkigal reduces each of the victim's Physical Attributes by one. The number of successes determines the duration of the magical sickness:
1 success |
One Scene |
2 successes |
One Night |
3 successes |
Two Nights |
4 successes |
Four Nights |
5 successes |
One Week |
Multiple attacks can accumulate, further reducing the victim's Physical Attributes, but only if the subsequent attack has at least as many successes as the previous attacks. Thus, if a vampire's player rolled three successes for the ashipu's first attack, a second attack would strip another dot from each Physical Attribute only if the player rolled three or more successes for its effect. If the player rolled four successes on the second attack, subsequent Breaht of Ereshkigal attacks would need at least four successes to increase the effect.
A vampire or ghoul can raise Physical Attributes by expending vitae, and so counter the Breath of Ereshkigal. Raising all three Attributes back to their starting value completely cures the magical illness. Then, hwoever, the attacker can start over again. Mortals simply wait for the curse to run its course.
••• Nergal's Blessing
This power cures mild diseases, and at least reduces the effect of severe disease. The user touches the target for about a minute. Nergal's Blessing comletely heals any health or Attribute loss from the Maskim's Hand or Breath of Ereshkigal. It partly negates the effects of higher-level Covenant of Nergal powers.
The Hand of Nergal cannot cure non-pathogenic diseases such as allergies, deficiency diseases, cancer, arthritis, or genetic disorders, although it alleviates their effects for a day. It also does nothing for purely mental illness (though it may help in cases of mental illness with organic causes).
In countries that lack modern hospitals, ashipu still use Nergal's Blessing to buy favors and goodwill from mortals. In "developed" countries, ashipu find fewer truly desperate clients - but they do find them. AIDS is not the only disease that modern medicine cannot yet cure.
System: Nergal's Blessing can cure ordinary infections, from acne to pneumonia, with a single use. Notably severe or chronic disease like hepatitis or malaria might require two uses of this power, at the Storyteller's option. Really nasty or intractable diseases like ebola or AIDS require three uses to cure. A single use of Nergal's Blessing always suffices for illness caused by other powers in this path.
Successful use of Nergal's Blessing keeps the subject alive (or undead) for another night, no matter how severe the disease, and palliates the symptoms. This applies to non-pathogenic illness as well. Although the magician can never produce a true cure in such cases, Nergal's Blessing may keep a sick person alive long enough for the target to heal on their own.
•••• Nergal's Wrath
This ghastly power induces severe disease in the victim. This is real infection - the appropriate microbes appear in the victim's body - but the disease progresses with unnatural speed. If the ravaging plague takes the form of gangrene, leprosy or some other relatively slow infection, its acceleration baffles and terrifies any doctor.
A vampire who achieves this level of path mastery selects a disease as his personal form of Nergal's Wrath. An attack from one vampire might take the form of cholera, while another uses yellow fever to kill.
System: Nergal's Wrath works by touch. For each success the attacker's player rolls, the victim suffers five hours of the curse's effect. A botch means that the caster suffers the curse's effects instead, for five hours per 1 rolled, on top of the usual Willpower loss. Of course, the magician can use Nergal's Blessing to try curing herself.
For each hour of the character's illness, the victim's player makes a Stamina + Survival roll (difficulty 8). Failure means that the character loses one health level and one dot each from Strength, Dexterity and Stamina. If the victim receives medical care, the doctor can substitute his Medicine Trait for the victim's Survival Trait, but only the victim's Stamina matters in either case. If the victim can accumulate five successes before dying, Nergal's Wrath ends.
A vampire can counter the effects of the curse by expending vitae to heal the damage. That can mean expending a good deal of vitae - and Nergal's Wrath will not stop just because it's daytime and the vampire must sleep.
••••• Ill Wind
A master of Nergal's Covenant simply walks by a location and people get sick. The disease appears natural. It will not progress any faster than normal, but the illness may be unusually virulent, and it can affect Kindred too. The Ill Wind ignores most mundane barriers. Only magic or an air-tight chamber can protect against the curse.
The Ill Wind always takes the form of a disease that could plausibly occur in the area where the magician uses the curse. Thus, an ashipu could attack a New York dinner party with ptomaine, E. Coli or even legionnaire's disease, but not smallpox (extinct) or bubonic plague (not native to the area). the Ill Wind's user has no control over what disease he calls, but every victim contracts the same disease.
System: The Ill Wind costs the magician's player one Willpower point in addition to the usual blood point. The number of successes rolled by the ashipu's player determines the number of people affected:
1 success |
Four people |
2 successes |
Eight people |
3 successes |
12 people |
4 successes |
20 people |
5 successes |
Everyone in the vampire's immediate area (an entire auditorium, a mob). |
If an area holds more people than the vampire can affect, the Ill Wind infects the people with lower Stamina Traits first. The Ill Wind does not harm the magician herself.
The disease takes effect slowly (growing to full strength at about one day per dot of Stamina for a victim). Once the curse takes effect, the victim loses three health levels and three dots from each Physical Attribute, to a minimum of 0 - at this stage.
A victim has a chance of recovery for each day of bedrest, or sleep for Kindred. The victim's player makes a Stamina + Survival roll (difficulty 7). If the roll succeeds, the victim recovers one dot of each Physical Attribute. Failing the Stamina + Survival roll means losing another dot of Stamina. The curse ends when the victim recovers all her Physical Attributes. As with Nergal's Wrath, the player of a victim under medical care can add the character's Stamina Trait and the doctor's Medicine Trait.
Unlike other attacks based on Nergal's Covenant, Ill Wind does not protect a victim from the lower-level powers. A sick victim can suffer further Attribute loss from Maskim's Touch, Breath of Ereshkigal or Nergal's Wrath.
This magical Path of study was developed in tandem between Faithful Assamite sorcerers and their non-Assamite brethren among the pratitioners of Sihr (Islamic blood magic). By spending a blood point and succeeding on a Road roll, the Faithful may temporarily pass along aspects of God's curse upon Caine. Through theyse sympathetic experiences ("echoes," to the Ashirra), it is hoped that understanding and eventual repentance might be achieved. While the Path's most efficacious targets are those who sin against God but have not yet been cursed themselves with undeath (mortals, mages, Lupines, etc.), its power is equally effective against Cainites, as it "refreshes" their existing afflictions - a reminder of their accursed nature and of God's will.
Among the Ashirra, voluntarily submitting to this renewal is believed to be good for the soul. To this end, some Penitents both within and outside the Ashirra sect proper make confessors of local sorcerers, going so far as to receive regular infusions of this magic as part of their routine ablutions.
Although the powers of Sada Ghadub Allah are moderate in the overt effects they may have on the accused, their potency comes in two key factors: the potential for both multiple effects and extended durations. If a blood magician possesses sufficient mastery of this Path, he may choose to impart any or all effects leading up to and including his current level. In essence, he determines just how much of the vampiric nature to "bestow" upon his target. The blood magician may pass along one curse for each success acquired on the Road roll, up to the total number he has learned. Once the magician has cursed a target, however, further applications of this Path are useless: Only by voluntarily canceling all curses on a given target and starting anew (with another blood expenditure and Road roll) may the same target be prematurely re-cursed.
In addition to potential multiple effects, a given curse or curses may also last for quite some time (determined by table below). In the case of Faithful targets, this time can be shortened by a successful Act of Contrition, but the administration of such reductions is at Storyteller discretion. Otherwise, the Path's effects may only be prematurely relieved by will of the sorcerer. No other non-mystical means, not even the sorcerer's Final Death, will grant surcease of the curses before they've run their course.
The practitioner must be able to see those whom he would cures with this Path, but there are no outward signs of a subject being cursed. Indeed, it may be some time (and perhaps an awkward situation) before the subject himself realizes something is amiss.
Duration of Curse Effects
Caster's Road Rating |
Duration |
1-3 |
One hour per success |
4-6 |
One day per success |
7-9 |
Three days per success |
10 |
One week per success |
* Echoes of Allah's Wrath is available only to those on the Via Caeli.
• Curse of Lifeless Mien
The first, and some would say principal, aspect of the curse upon Caine was being stripped of his acceptance in the brotherhood of Man. When a man is Embraced, he is made dead to the world of men but forever forced to dwell within it, as a stranger in his own home. This power casts that same pall of ostracism over the target, making him an outsider among his own kind. For those to whom close social interaction is a requirement for daily survival, this can mean a world of trouble.
System: The player rolls his Road rating with a difficulty equal to the subject's Willpower. Success imparts a curse of isolation onto the target. Mortals "darken," becoming sinister and withdrawn to the point where even relatives don't trust them. Cainites afflicted with this power are struck by the weight of their lifeless hearts, losing one dot from their highest Social Attribute. Furthermore, any creative endeavor attempted during the curse period becomes nearly impossible for these undying embodiments of stasis (+1 to difficulties for every success). More than one Toreador has succumbed to despair after being smitten in this manner.
•• Curse of Heavenly Dolor
According to the Faithful, hte curse of vampirism is one brought down from on high - a physical and spiritual damnation straight from the hand of the Almighty. Upon his Embrace, a vampire is forever after humbled by the power of the Lord, wherever he may encounter it. This level of the Path echoes and imparts that vampiric weakness to faith.
System: The player rolls Road (difficulty of the victim's Willpower). If the roll succeeds, the blood magician can cause any target to become vulnerable to the effects of Truth Faith as though the subject himself was one of the Damned. From the moment of his cursing until the end of the effect's duration, the target takes damage from holy items and holy ground and may be repelled by anyone possessing and demonstrating True Faith.
Cainites afflicted with this curse find their own vulnerability to Faith heightened. Difficulties against or to resist the effects of Faith are raised by two for the duration, and any damage suffered from the appropriate sources is doubled.
••• Curse of Unfettered Rage
Vampires are creatures of ferocity and instinct, driven by a raging Beast Within. At this level of mastery, the practitioner gains the ability to arouse such a beast inside others as well. This force heightens the nerves of the subject, making him susceptible to sudden onslaughts of instinct that force him into mindless fight or flight reactions.
System: This power incites a force similar to the vampiric Beast inside its subjects. This makes mortal targets susceptible to frenzies of all kinds, whether the source be from provocation or imminent fear of aggravated damage. Creatures that already possess a "beast" of their own (such as Cainites and werewolves) find their difficulties to resist frenzy of any kind - and in the case of vampires, to resist Rotschreck - increased by two. In addition, victims of Curse of Unfettered Rage gain the equivalent fo the Flaw: Repulsive to Animals for the duration of the power's effect.
•••• Curse of Boundless Thirst
At this level, the beast unleashed within an opponent has grown strong enough to demand actual blood from its host. For so long as he remains thus cursed, the target gains nourishment only from the ingestion fo blood; normal food will no longer sustain him.
System: For the duration of effect, the subject requires living blood to sustain him (the equivalent of on blood point's worth per day, minimum). The blood may be from any living source, and his body mystically processes the blood and nourishes him in place of any and all other food. If the subject ingests anything except blood during this time, he finds it repulsive. He regurgitates it immediately unless he makes a Willpower roll (difficulty 8). Non-Cainite subjects have the option of not "eating" until the curse ends, but they will begin to suffer the equivalent of starvation/dehydration after 12 hours without sustenance; in addition, abstinence becomes increasingly more difficult.
Cainites afflicted with this power have all their normal blood expenditures increased by one for the duration. Instead of spending on blood point in order to rise each night, he spends two; instead of burning two blood point to activate his two Celerity actions for the turn, he burns three.
••••• Curse of Forbidden Sol
Perhaps the most dreadful aspect of Caine's curse was God's commandment that he never again walk in the light of day. Those afflicted with this power gain the vampire's terrible sensitivity to daylight, turning otherwise sun-loving individuals into nocturnal denizens of darkness and shade.
System: Non-Cainite targets of this power instantly gain the vampiric vulnerability to the sun. If daylight strikes the target's skin at any time during the curse's effect, he suffers aggravated damage from it. This is also has the effect of reversing subjects' natural biological rhythms, twisting their favored activity cycles from daytime into night.
Middle Eastern people have feared the Evil Eye since time immemorial. To look upon a person or object with malice or envy may inflict a curse upon them. Surprise or admiration may have the same effect; and so a person who delivers praise exorcises the potential evil with an exclamation of "God is great!" or "What God wills!" Some people possess a powerful Evil Eye whether they want it or not. Such persons can kill animals with a careless word or glance, shatter stone, or in extreme cases make a person's eyes explode out of their head.
Naturally, vampire sorcerers had to claim such a formidable power. The Path of the Evil Eye inflicts a variety of calamities upon its victims. Although the powers take little time to use, the effects may take hours or nights to manifest, and the sorcerer often does not know or control the exact nature of the curse.
The powers of this path do not cumulate. While affected by a curse, a victim becomes immune to further use of that specific power by that specific vampire. For instance, if a magician inflicted a Peril on a victim, he could not curse that person with another Peril until the first had run its course. He could, however, still attack that victim with a Loss or any other Evil Eye power. Likewise, another ashipu could impose his own Evil Eye curse (making a very unlucky victim).
The victim also has ways to remove an Evil Eye curse before it runs its course. People with True Faith can remove the Evil Eye's effect through religious ritual and prayer. Occultists can work out rituals to weaken or void a curse with a Wits + Occult roll (difficulty 8). Each success rolled by the player cancels out one success of the Evil Eye attack. For some powers, however, the exorcism works only if performed very soon after the ashipu lays the curse. No exorcism can restore what the victim has already lost.
• Humiliation
With a venomous glance, the vampire inflicts bad luck upon his victim. This bad luck attacks the victim's social standing. The victim suffers some terrible embarrassment within the next few nights. Neither victim nor attacker knows what form this embarrassment will take, so the victim has no way to defend against it. Will you say something incredibly stupid? Will a waiter trip and drench you with soup? Will a childe or ghoul commit some hideous blunder? You have no way to tell. The Humiliation inflicts no real harm, but can ruin a person's prestige or credibility for a while.
Humiliation works well against Camarilla vampires, especially if the local Kindred include a few really vicious harpies, but Sabbat vampires can suffer humiliation too. Besides the obvious physical embarrassment, a Sabbat might inadvertently help an enemy, or seem to act "too human."
System: The attacker's player makes the usual Willpower roll.If the roll succeeds, the victim suffers humiliation some time within the next week. If the Storyteller uses the optional Prestige Background, the victim might lose one dot of Prestig for every two successes rolled (round up), until she does something to restore her reputation.
•• Loss
This curse affects the victim's property. Within a few nights of the curse, the victim loses both real wealth and some possession of emotional value (assuming the victim has such a thing). Lost property does not magically vanish; some "natural explanation" (such as fire, accident, theft, confiscation or unexpected legal fees) causes the loss. Even the sorcerer who casts the curse has no idea what form the loss may take. Loss is permanent, barring special exertions by the victim. Lost money and possessions do not magically reappear, either.
System: If the Willpower roll succeeds, the victim loses one dot of Resources within the next week. The Storyteller decides what sentimental loss the victim suffers. If all else fails, the victim might lose a Retainer or a dot of Herd. Even if a victim completely lacks Resources, the curse still finds something to strip away. Perhaps the victim loses his wedding ring, the last memento of a happier life, or an abandoned building used as a Haven might burn down.
••• Peril
This powr puts the victim directly in danger. Over the next few nights - neither victim nor attacker knows precisely when - the victim finds herself in dangerous situations. The victim might cleverly escape the danger, and Kindred can probably survive even the worst Perils. Then again, they might not.
System: The number of successes on the Willpower roll gives the number or severity of the perils:
1 success |
One mild Peril (Example: a mugger) |
2 successes |
Two mild to moderate Perils (a car crash) |
3 successes |
Three mild to moderate Perils |
4 successes |
Three moderate to severe Perils (a collapsing building, locked out of haven near sunrise) |
5+ successes |
Three Perils, one catastrophic (meet a Lupine pack, haven catches fire during the day) |
Each night is 50% likely to bring a Peril, and the curse continues until all Perils have occurred (or the victim finds a way to life the curse).
•••• Enemy
This level of Evil Eye has the most far-reaching effect on a victim. Friends turn away; enemies appear (and may be former friends). Perhaps the victim can recover lost allies and placate new enemies, but the Storyteller should not make it easy.
System: For each success on the attacker's Willpower roll, the victim either loses one dot of Allies, Contacts, Influence or Retainers, or gains an Enemy (as the Flaw). For instance, with four successes on the roll, the victim might lose two dots in Allies and gain a two-point Enemy (perhaps a former Ally). A victim never gains more than one Enemy from the curse; more points of Enemy indicate a more dangerous foe. No one ever loses more than two dots from any single Background.
Imposing an Enemy takes time. The attacker might spend several hours in places where the victim has interests and connections, for example, spreading insults and innuendoes - just like a normal smear campaign, but the curse makes sure the smear campaign really works. The effects manifest within a week.
••••• Chashm Zakhm
The "Eye that Wounds" represents the most immediately dangerous use of the Evil Eye. Unlike the other powers, this power acts immediately. The magician expresses full-some praise, vicious insult or utter astonishment at the target person or object - and on the next turn, something really bad happens to the target.
System: If the player's Willpower roll succeeds, the target person or object suffers one health level of aggravated damage per two successes rolled (round up). The magician's speech shapes the form of the damage. For instance, saying nasty things about a person's car could make the engine explode, while praising a person's tennis backhand could make her arm instantly wither. Mortal victims generally suffer some sort of permanent maiming. Animals affected by the Chashm Zakhm usually drop dead on the spot.
The Assamites are known as the assassins of the Kindred world for a reason. Their viziers provide them wtih ways to avoid detection that go above and beyond the vampiric Discipline of Obfuscate. Assamite magic can do more than merely blind a person to their presence or confuse a target's senses: Those benefiting from the Path of the Hunter's Winds have learned to do many of the thing for which the Nosferatu are infamous, but in a more physical sense. Viziers bestow these gifts on "field" Assamites, making contact in person or through the ritual Reach the Earth or through the use of a talismanic stone created through the ritual Pebble From the Mountain. The subject holds the activation of the power in abeyance until he needs to trigger it; at any one time he can maintain a number of dormant effects equal to his current Willpower. The recipient does not learn if the vizier's magic was successful until he tries to activate the effect.
• Scent of Deception
When this power is employed the recipient can mask or completely alter her scent. The original purpose for this ability was to avoid the hunting dogs of nobles and crusaders, but it proves just as effective at throwing off Lupines, ghouls or Gangrel who might be following too closely for comfort.
System: Success indicates the Assamite can change or simply negate her scent, making tracking her far more difficult. Failure means nothing happens, while a botched roll actually amplifies her scent or makes it noticeably offensive.
•• Chameleon's Skin
The subject can change the color of his skin and the texture as well. If resting against a tree with rough bark, the skin and clothing alike of the Assamite take on the same coloration - including any variations - and changes to mimic the form.
System: If successful, this power makes the subject virtually impossible to see (+4 difficulty on all Perception rolls) so long as he remains stationary. Slight movements might be mistaken for the win, but any sudden change in position negate the effects. The player must roll Perception + Stealth (difficulty 6, or 9 if anyone is actively looking for him) if the character tries to change his environment, such as moving from the tree-camouflage to that of a brick wall. While the texture of the skin changes, it remains skin: No increases or decreases in the character's Stamina occur as a result of this sorcerous power. This ability lasts for one scene.
••• Unassuming Pose
The subject uses this power to blend into virtually any crowd, no matter what size. Anyone seeking the character simply fails to see her, automatically assuming that the vampire belongs there.
System: If successful, people simply do not notice the Assamite, no matter how hard they might be looking. Observers using technological means of surveillance, like video cameras, can still see him, though. This power lasts for one scene.
•••• Whiff of Kalif
The Assamite distorts the perceptions of those around him, so they experience a distractingly powerful feeling of intoxication. They may enjoy a pleasant hallucination, or may just stand there blissing out, not caring what the Assamite is up to.
System: Any character looking directly at the Assamite as the effect is activated must roll Wits + Alertness (difficulty 7) or face intoxication. Any obvious threat to a character activates his subconscious defense mechanisms and snaps him out of the kalif dream. Otherwise, this power, once activated, lasts for one hour for every success garnered on the activation roll.
••••• Ghost Body
The Assamite triggering this power can move through solid objects, without being seen or heard. For all intents and purposes, the Assamite becomes intangible. The side effect of this power is that the Assamite cannot affect anything material around her any more than it can affect her.
System: This power requires 3 bloodpoints instead of the usual one. Once in the Ghost Body the subject cannot be seen, heard or touched. Despite the name, this power does not actually place the character within the realms of the dead, and does not allow interaction with the ghosts from the Underworld. Some Assamites have reported seeing very strange things while in this form, however, and most are very cautious about attaining the Ghost Body. Once the character decides to affect the physical world again, she is once again visible and solid. No other Disciplines work while the Assamite uses this power - she may not Dominate anyone, activate Celerity or even use Auspex, if she has it.
The Neoplatonist philosophers taught that planets radiated musical pitches as they circled the Earth. Ordinary people could not hear this "music of the spheres," but highly spiritual people could. The medieval Arabs joined this idea to music's uncanny power to influence the mind and soul. In their quest to reach Heaven through trance, Assamite and Toreador sorcerers listened to the music of the spheres. They learned occult melodies that powerfully affected the emotions of listeners. The effects resemble a specialized version of Presence.
So far, no vampire has ever been known to have learned both the Music of the Spheres and the "Melpominee" Discipline of the small and obscure Daughters of Cacophony bloodline, but it's bound to happen eventually. The path and Discipline powers cannot add to each other's effects.
System: This path calls for the usual Willpower roll, but the character requires a Trait rating of 3 in Performance - either singing or playing some sort of instrument - to cast the Music of the Spheres. The magician can activate the Music of the Spheres through a single turn of melody, but everyone nearby can sense the occult powers in the music. The magician can conceal the celestial melody within ordinary music, but this requires that targets hear the music for at least a full minute. Listeners also receive a Perception + Occult roll (difficulty 5 + the number of successes the performer's player received on the Willpower roll) to detect the unnatural force within the performer's music.
Each power affects a variable number of targets depending on how many successes the magician's player rolls, as noted on the chart below. If more people are present than the character can influence, the Music of the Spheres affects those with lower Willpower scores first.
1 success |
One Person |
2 success |
Two people |
3 successes |
Six people |
4 successes |
20 people |
5 successes |
Everyone in the vampire's immediate vicinity (an entire auditorium, a mob). |
The Music of the Spheres does not enchant people who hear it in a recording, or transmitted by telephone, television or other electrical or mechanical means.
If two characters use the Music of the Spheres against the same target, the character whose player rolls the most successes has her effect take precedence.
• Song of Mercury
The music of Mercury, the planet that rules abstract thought, deadens emotions. The swift cascades of notes distract listeners and calm their souls.
System: In game terms, the Song of Mercury negates the effect of other Music of the Spheres powers while the music continues. The power costs one blood point to activate, but the effect continues as long as the character keeps singing or playing. The Song of Mercury lacks sufficient power to counter frenzy or Rotschreck.
•• Song of Venus
The sweet music of Venus inspires feelings of affection that an occult musician can direct as she wills. The character can make people like her, or anyone else she chooses - for a while.
System: This power acts like the Presence power Awe, but the magician can direct the victim's warm feelings toward anyone she wants, to make someone else seem incredibly charismatic. The magician needs some way to indicate the recipient of the magical charisma, whether by words, admiring glances or other means. The effect lasts the rest of the scene. Affected people can resist the Song of Venus by expending one Willpower for every turn they remain within the targt person's supernatural charisma. When a character's player spends a number of Willpower points equal to the successes rolled, the character shakes off the Song of Venus completely.
••• Song of Mars
The harsh chrods and driving rhythms of Mars inspire feelings of anger and aggression. The magician can make his audience hate a particular target or actually drive listeners to fits of rage.
System: This power can have two effects. Tha magician can make an audience despirse a target person or organization - like Awe in reverse. The target does not have to be present. This effect lasts a scene. Players can spend Willpower to have thier characters resist the supernatural anger for a turn. If the ashipu's player additionally expends a Willpower point, affected Kindred enter frenzy unless their players suceed at Self-Control rolls (difficulty 7). This augmented power can induce frenzy-like rage in mortals as well, but mortals resist at difficulty 5.
•••• Song of Jupiter
The strong, steady chords of Jupiter, the planet of power and status, boost courage and strength of purpose. Listeners feel resolute and fearless, like unto kings.
System: This power renders listeners immune to all attempts to use Presence while the music continues; it does not negate Presence uses that have already taken place. Any other mind control (such as Dominate, other Music of the Spheres powers, mortal magic or the powers of other supernatural beings) against an audience member suffers a +2 difficulty penalty (to a maximum of 10) for the rest of the scene.
The Song of Jupiter also strengthens the Man to resist the Beast. For the rest of the scene, characters resisting Rotschreck or frenzy have the difficulty of their Virtue rolls reduced by 2.
••••• Song of Saturn
The menacing chords of Saturn, planet of death and restriction, inspire terror in those who hear them. People affected by the magical music need all their courage and will to resist the urge to flee or surrender.
System: Affected Kindred immediately enter Rotschreck unless their players suceed at Courage rolls (difficulty 7). Mortal listeners feel the same blind fear (and have the same difficulty to resist it), but their terror may take other forms than flight, depending on each individual's Nature.
Dur-an-Ki Name |
~Thaumaturgical Equivalent |
Life's Water |
Path of Blood |
Jinn's Gift |
Path of Conjuring |
Hand of the Magi |
Lure of Flames |
Covenant of Enki |
Path of Neptune's Might |
Suleiman's Laws |
Spirit Manipulation |
Path of the Ailing Jackal |
Path of the Father's Vengeance |
Echo of Nirvana |
Path of the Focused Mind |
Many Assamite rituals revolve around contact between the reclusive viziers and worldly assassins. The latter exchange vitae for magical services. Also, invoking rituals requires one to ingest at least one point of vitae from a vessel under the influence of kalif, or to actively inhale large quantities of the smoke itself and consciously move it through one's body by forcing blood to circulate.
System Information: The player rolls Intelligence + Occult (difficulty 3 + level of the ritual, maximum 9). Success brings the desired result; nothing happens in the event of failure.
Some effects last until the next inauspicious night, as set out by the 473,000-year Mesopotamian calendar. The Storyteller rolls a die for each night, as needed. Each time she rolls a 1, the night is inauspicious. Storytellers, keep track of these inauspicious nights on a scratch-paper calendar, to keep them consistent.
Level One Rituals
Touch the Earth
This ritual allows the vizier to contact another Assamite for the purpose of aiding him with further sorcerous effects.
Long in advance of the ritual, the vizier takes a stylus and writes, in ancient Mesopotamian script, on a small, still-wet, clay tablet, the name of a lesser-generation Assamite. Once hardened, the tablet is placed in an acid to weaken it again.
When he chooses to begin the ritual, the vizier uses chalk or paint to draw on the tiled floor of his ceremonial chamber the stylized image of an eye, with white, pupil and iris. The eye must be big enough so that a cat, dog or rodent can be placed inside it. Using a mortar and pestle, the vizier reduces the tablet to powder. He mixes it into food, which he places in front of the animal. When the animal has ingested the food, the vizier cuts its throat with a knife and waits until the pool of spilled blood has expanded in at least four places past the line denoting the white of the eye.
When the vizier speaks into the animal's ear, the Assamite whose name was written on the tablet hears his voice. When the vizier listens at the animal's mouth, he can hear his target's voice. This works no matter how much distance separates vizier and target. The vizier may proceed to use any Assamite path or other ritual power to benefit the target. The vizier may also pass to the target any object small enough to fit in the palm of his hand.
Pebble From the Mountain
The vizier takes a stone from Mount Alamut, places it in his mouth, and meditates for an hour. He soaks the stone in his own blood, then in the blood of another Assamite. He gives the stone to that Assamite while chanting an incantation naming himself and the subject as successors to Tiamat, Ahriman, and all the shaitans of Hell. The ritual then takes an hour and a half to perform.
At any subsequent point, by placing the stone in her mouth and repeating the incantation, the other Assamite can initiate a mystical link between herself and the vizier identical to that create by Touch the Earth. She is not performing sorcery; the magic rests in the stone, which always works if the vizier's player made his initial roll.
Level Two Rituals
Gift of Mithra's Bull
Vizier and subject must be connected by Touch the Earth or Pebble From the Mountain. The vizier places a small, sharp blade inside a wineskin or plasma bag and then withdraws it and passes it to the subject. The subject cuts an incision in her chest. Blood bubbles out of the incision but then vanishes, reappearing inside the vizier's waiting container. Through this method, the target may pay the vizier in vitae for his services.
The ritual takes one turn per blood point donated by the target.
Level Three Rituals
Approach the Veil
The vizier enters the transcendental state required to experience visions of the veil. He ingests kalif-laden blood, bathes in the blood of a fresh-killed bull and meditates. He must first ward off a distracting cascade of unpleasant memories, then an even more tempting series of sensual pleasures. Then comes the opportunity for revelation.
The ritual takes eight hours. Although the vizier performs it for research purposes, seeking the secrets of apotheosis, a peek past the Veil of Truth does grant direct benefits. Subtract the number of successes on the roll to enact this ritual from the difficulty of the first path or ritual roll the Assamite's player makes after completion of the ritual. The vizier must take advantage of the bonus before he loses his next blood point.
Level Four Rituals
Rite of Marduk Triumphant
This ritual asserts the vizier's authority over a lesser clan member. The vizier ritually enacts the coronation of Marduk, donning mask and robe. Other participants in the ritual, each of whom must be an Assamite of a higher generation than the vizier, take the role of various Mesopotamian deities; each kneels before the sorcerer and proclaims that his or her divinity is but an aspect of the 50 manifestations of Marduk. Everyone present opens a vein and bleeds into a bronze bowl. After the blood is mixed together, all drink from it.
The vizier may increase the difficulty of any action undertaken by an Assamite by the number of other participants in the ritual. He may apply this penalty only to actions that directly threaten his unlife or position (Storyteller's discretion). He may not increase difficulties above 9. The effect lasts until the next inauspicious night. The ritual requires one hour to complete, plus 20 minutes for each participant.
Directing Ahriman's Lance
The vizier takes either an accurate image of a target individual, or a small objet she once owned, and swallows it. He waits for an hour, then cuts (or has fellow viziers cut) the object out of his belly. Until the next inauspicious night, any Assamite in possession of the item or image improves her chances of killing the targeted individual.
The possessor of the ritualized item lowers the difficulties of all actions that bring her closer to killing the target individual (Storyteller's discretion) by the number of successes scored by the vizier. The ritual takes 2 hours to perform.
Level Five Rituals
Rite of Marduk Slain and Risen
The vizier makes contact with another Assamite. The beneficiary names a victim she intends to diablerize. The sorcerer then takes part in a group ceremony with at least three other participants who know the ritual. Donning rob and mask, he ritually enacts the myth of Marduk, taking the part of that god. The other participants alternately take the parts of Marduk's mother, Ea, his consort, Sarpanitu, and the chaos dragon, Tiamat. Tiamat "kills" Marduk, but Marduk "resurrects" himself and "slays" her, symbolically making her into the body of the world. Once this has been enacted, the primary ritualist must unflinchingly suffer a hard blow to the face from each of the other participants. The appearance of blood-tears in the ritualist's eyes signals the ritual's success.
If the beneficiary succeeds in diablerizing her specified target before the next sunrise, the victim's sire, the sire's childer, all of the target's childer, and any vampire in blood bond with the victim share his final sensations as he perishes. Each of them loses one blood point and three Willpower points, which go to the killer (though the character may not exceed her Trait maximums). If the killer's blood pool is full, the remainder goes to the vizier. Furthermore, all of these collateral targets suffer an effect that lasts until the passing of 13 inauspicious nights: they lose one Willpower for every 10 minutes they spend in the presence of the beneficiary or the vizier, as they suffer flashbacks to the original victim's demise.
Seeing with the Sky's Eyes
The vizier enters a trance state and concentrates on a subject individual. He must have on his person an accurate image of the target, or an object she once owned. He then sees a vision of the target, and in so doing learns her precise, current location, no matter where on earth she is. Viziers typically use this ritual at the behest of younger Assamites, locating victims for them in exchange for vitae.