Thaumaturgy
From Vampire V5
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}}Blood Sorcery, A Kind of Magic, Thaumaturgy, Quietus | ||
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Thaumaturgy
Carna always found this ritual unwholesome, but playing with blood was a dirty business. Calling on her vitae to give strength, she used a warm spoon to pop free the unconscious victim’s eyeball. She sighed, quite human-like, as she twisted the orb from its tether and placed it in her mouth.
Holding her hand out, the eye still in place on her tongue, her clanmate placed a heavy knife on Carna’s palm. Without hesitation, she pulled the tip of the victim’s tongue out between his teeth, and sawed through the muscular organ. She placed the tip in her mouth, and proceeded to swallow the two components as her fellow Tremere treated the man’s bleeding orifices.
Carna turned to study the Tracian text on the wall overlooking this entire macabre scene. The man had resisted her mental compulsions, had refused to translate the work willingly, and would have never succumbed to torture. It was a sad necessity that she would have to take his eye and tongue to read and speak the ancient language known only to him.
The Tremere maintain that Blood Sorcery, or “Thaumaturgy†as they call it, was their invention. To hear the Banu Haqim give their version, “Quietus†was their blood right long before the Tremere became vampires. Other clans make the same statements. While its origins are murky, the dreaded nature of Blood Sorcery is not. Few Kindred trust the wielders of a power that can manipulate the vitae in their veins and turn Blood into poison.
Unlike other Disciplines, which could be described as advancing organically through the victims chosen by the vampire, practitioners of Blood Sorcery require teachers. The Tremere once relied on their pyramidic clan hierarchy to arrange tutelage for neonate apprentices, while the Banu Haqim stress the sire-childe relationship as being the best form of mentorship. These nights, many a Child of Haqim washes up in Europe or America far from their sire, and with the Pyramid broken Tremere neonates frantically search through moldy tomes and palimpsests for scraps of true lore. Genuine masters of this Discipline develop their own Rituals, though many guard them from others, revelling in the mystery surrounding their unknown cache of abilities. To practice Blood Sorcery is to twist one’s own Blood into submission. Any form of this power reminds a vampire that they’re far from human, as no mortal could wield magic in this way.
Characteristics
Blood Sorcery is a special Discipline in that it both confers powers, like other Disciplines, and also unlocks the ability to perform Rituals up to and including the level the user holds in the Discipline. Its regular powers seem comparatively weak, but the versatility of the Rituals more than compensates, assuming the user can learn them. At character creation, a player can choose one Level 1 ritual if they have at least one dot in Blood Sorcery. Characters can buy new rituals at the cost of the ritual’s level x 3 experience points. Learning new Rituals during play requires both experience and time. Expect a Ritual to take at least the square of its rating in weeks to learn.
Type:
Sorcery
Masquerade threat:
Low-High. The individual appearance of the powers and Rituals in Blood Sorcery varies as widely as their effects.
Blood Resonance:
Sanguine. Although not inherent in the Blood itself, Blood Sorcery responds eagerly to blood from human occultists, sorcerers, and cult leaders, as well as hemophiles and bibliophiles.
Level 1
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}} Corrosive Vitae===
| Altering the properties of some of their own Blood, the user can make it highly corrosive to dead substances, able to corrode most items down to steaming sludge, given enough time and Blood shed. | |
| Dice Pools: | |
| Cost : | One or more Rouse Checks |
| Duration: | n/a |
| System: | No additional skill roll is required. The user concentrates for a turn and forces Blood through an open, usually self-inflicted, wound. The user then spills their Blood on a nonliving object (except unliving flesh such as that of the Kindred) to corrode and decompose it. Each Rouse Check corrodes approximately 35 cm of matter in all directions from the splash; this takes approximately five minutes (longer on soft metals like copper or cast iron). Harder metals such as alloys and steel merely scar and pit; whether they meaningfully weaken remains at the Storyteller’s discretion. (This power might corrode through handcuff chains given enough time and vitae.) |
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}} A Taste for Blood===
| By tasting a drop of blood, the user can discern certain basic traits of the one to whom it belongs. | |
| Dice Pools: | Resolve + Blood Sorcery |
| Cost : | Free |
| Duration: | n/a |
| System: | The user dabs the blood on their tongue and makes a Resolve + Blood Sorcery roll (Difficulty 3). With a win, the user can determine the resonance and intensity of the blood if human. They can also identify whether the blood belongs to a mortal, ghoul, vampire, or other supernatural creature (it may not necessarily be able to identify the supernatural creature if not Kindred or ghoul). Tasting vitae also determines the relative Blood Potency (and thus the likely generation band) of the vampire. A critical win also reveals whether the subject has ever committed diablerie, and the generation (within one) of the vampire. If the user knows of the supernatural creature in question, they can identify the specific supernatural creature on a critical win after tasting the blood. |
Level 2
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}} Extinguish Vitae===
| The user can intentionally remove the unlife-giving properties of some of the Blood in another vampire, stoking their Hunger as the victim’s inner reserves curdle into impotence. | |
| Dice Pools: | Intelligence + Blood Sorcery vs Stamina + Composure |
| Cost : | One Rouse Check |
| Duration: | n/a |
| System: | The user rolls a contest of Intelligence + Blood Sorcery vs the Stamina + Composure of a target vampire in line of sight while concentrating for a turn and gesturing subtly. A win increases the target’s Hunger by one while a critical win increases it by two. The victim can discern who afflicts them if they can see the user while making an Intelligence + Occult vs Wits + Subterfuge roll. |
Level 3
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}} Blood of Potency===
| Te vampire can concentrate their Blood, increasing its potency temporarily. | |
| Dice Pools: | Resolve + Blood Sorcery |
| Cost : | One Rouse Check |
| Duration: | One scene or one night |
| System: | The user makes a Resolve + Blood Sorcery roll against a Difficulty of 2 + their Blood Potency. A win increases their Blood Potency by one for that scene; a critical win increases it by two. The vampire can use this power to exceed their generation limit on Blood Potency during its duration. |
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}} Scorpion's Touch===
| The vampire can transmute some of their Blood into a paralyzing poison, capable of affecting mortals and vampires alike. They can use this ichor to coat bladed weapons, or even spit it at a target. Scorpionated Blood incapacitates affected mortals, while hampering vampires if not necessarily rendering them helpless. Specific breathing and biofeedback exercises practiced by some secret societies form the best defense against this Blood, aside from Fortitude. | |
| Dice Pools: | Strength + Blood Sorcery vs Stamina + Occult or Fortitude |
| Cost : | One or more Rouse Checks |
| Duration: | The poison remains potent for one scene |
| System: | The user concentrates for a turn and forces Blood through an open, usually self-inflicted, wound. Each Rouse Check worth of poison made takes a turn and emits enough Blood to coat one bladed melee weapon stickily or to fill one mouthful to be spat at a foe. Spitting poison at someone involves a Dexterity + Athletics attack roll (which can be dodged like any ranged attack), although vampires have been known to French kiss a victim and transfer the poison that way. Even more subtle vampires scorpionate their Blood to poison would-be diablerists: drinking poisoned Blood from the vein guarantees a hit! Aside from such vein-to-fang transmission, however, scorpionated Blood is a contact poison that sublimes away in liquids and is too viscous to inject with a syringe. The user cannot poison beverages with it or (thanks to the pressure differential) inject it by their own bite. Arrowheads and bullets carry too little Blood to use this power with ranged weapons; the effect does not last long enough for the user to fill hollow bullets with scorpionated Blood. If the poison hits, the user rolls a contest of Strength + Blood Sorcery vs Stamina + Occult. (Vampires with Fortitude may resist with Stamina + Fortitude.)
If the user wins, the poison does the margin in Aggravated Health damage to mortals and in non-halved Superficial Health damage to vampires. A mortal who takes even one point of damage collapses unconscious. |
Level 4
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}} Theft of Vitae===
| Through mystical means the vampire opens a wound in a major artery of a mortal victim, blood shooting out through the air in a stream toward the open mouth of the user. This has the additional effect of keeping the mortal subdued as if in the throes of the Kiss, and the wound closes by itself once the effect ends, whether the victim expired or not. This power is extremely spectacular and a potential Masquerade breach while in progress, but once ended leaves no traces. | |
| Dice Pools: | Wits + Blood Sorcery vs Wits + Occult |
| Cost : | One Rouse Check |
| Duration: | One feeding |
| System: | The user makes a beckoning gesture toward a mortal target in line of sight and rolls their Wits + Blood Sorcery vs Wits + Occult. A win opens an arterial wound, and the vampire can start feeding from across the room. (A target wearing full-body protection such as a hazmat suit merely bleeds ecstatically out into the suit.) The user can do nothing else while feeding, but they can feed at twice the normal speed (at triple speed on a critical win) thanks to the sorcerous pressure of this power. |
Level 5
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}} Baal's Caress===
| The vampire can transmute their Blood into an extremely aggressive poison, lethal to mortal and Kindred alike. | |
| Dice Pools: | Strength + Blood Sorcery vs Stamina + Occult or Fortitude |
| Cost : | One or more Rouse Checks |
| Duration: | The poison remains potent for one scene |
| System: | This power uses the same system (and its poison has the same restrictions) as Scorpion’s Touch (p. 273), with increased damage.
If the poison hits, the user rolls a contest of Strength + Blood Sorcery vs Stamina + Occult. (Vampires with Fortitude may resist with Fortitude in lieu of the Occult Skill.) If the user wins, the poison does the margin in Aggravated Health damage to mortals and vampires alike. A mortal who takes even one point of damage dies instantly. If a vampire target takes Aggravated damage from this poison, the user rolls the contest again; on a win, the vampire enters torpor when next they go to sleep. |
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}} Cauldron of Blood===
| This gruesome power lets the user boil the blood of a victim in their own veins, causing massive damage and excruciating pain. While there are more efficient ways to kill, few methods approach this level of cruelty. | |
| Dice Pools: | Resolve + Blood Sorcery vs Composure + Occult or Fortitude |
| Cost : | One Rouse Check and gain one (or more) Stains |
| Duration: | One Turn |
| System: | The user pays the cost and touches the victim (Dexterity + Athletics in combat or similar situations), rolling a contest of Resolve + Blood Sorcery vs Composure + Occult. (Vampires with Fortitude may resist with Composure + Fortitude.) On a win, each point of margin causes one point of Aggravated damage in the victim. Mortals taking at least one point of damage die screaming. Vampire victims add 1 Hunger per point of damage inflicted, until Hunger is at 5. |
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