Post by Badgerman on Jul 19, 2014 17:32:14 GMT -4
Name: Ethan Falconar/Hawkin
Player: Badger
Clan: Tremere
Nature: Architect
Demeanor: Fanatic
Generation: 10
Concept: Mad Scientist/Dr Frankenstein
ATTRIBUTES
Physical Social Mental
Strength: 2 Charisma: 2 Perception: 3
Dexterity: 4 Manipulation 3 Intelligence: 4
Stamina: 3 Appearance 3 Wits: 3
ABILITIES
Talents Skills Knowledges
Acting : 1 Animal Ken : 2 Clan Lore : 4
Alertness : 4 Gargoyle Ken : 4 Gargoyle Lore : 4
Athletics : 0 Etiquette : 1 Finance : 0
Brawl : 0 Firearms : 0 Investigation : 3
Dodge : 2 Melee : 1 Law : 0
Empathy : 2 Music : 2 Linguistics : 3
Intimidation : 3 Repair : 2 Medicine : 4
Leadership : 4 Security : 2 Occult : 5
Streetwise : 0 Stealth : 1 Politics : 2
Subterfuge : 3 Survival : 2 Science : 4
ADVANTAGES
Disciplines Backgrounds Virtues
Auspex : 4 Generation : 3 Conscience : 2
Dominate : 3 Clan Status : 3
Thaumaturgy : 5 Clan Prestige : 3 Self-Control : 3
Dementation : 3 Familiar : 4
Age : 3 Courage : 4
Thaum Paths Merits & Flaws
The Focused Mind : 4 Humanity : 5 Clan authority
Biothaumaturgy : 5 Willpower : 8 Obsessive compulsive
Transmutation : 5 Borderline split personality
The Hearth Path : 4 Blood Pool : 13 Occult Library: (2pt)
FAMILIAR
Although your Embrace has deprived you of the ability to function as a magus, it did not break the bond you had with your familiar. This bound spirit may take the form of any small animal, such as a cat, raven, mouse, frog or other creature normally associated with magi or witches. Conversely, the familiar may appear as a homunculus or mannikin. Large animals (horses, goats, bears and the like) as well as magical creatures (such as dragons) are not available as familiars. The number of points you put intO purchasing your familiar indicates its relative power. Only Tremere characters who were magi beforereceiving the Embrace may take this Background. Although it no longer acts precisely as a magi's familiar might, your bound spirit still performs simple tasks and minor guardianship duties for you. It also holds you to the agreements made upon initially binding it to your service, however, so you must adhere to those terms in order to keep its favor. The benefits purchased at each level include all the ones from lower levels.
1 Your familiar performs minor services but does
not risk itself for you.
2 Your familiar acts as an early warning to alert
you of the presence of intruders, but does not prevent them
from entering your haven.
3 Your familiar can perform fairly complicated
tasks and act as a messenger for you. It also attempts to deter
hostile creatures from entering your haven, although it does
not confront them directly.
4 Your familiar has developed a true fondness for
you despite your unliving state and your lack of standard
magic. It not only acts as an assistant (within the limits of its
form), it may incur minor risks to its own material form in
order to protect you from harm.
Thaumaturgical Sight
●●○○○ Auspex
●○○○○ Thaumaturgy
Just as some Kindred can sense the auras that surround living or undead beings, some acutely sensitive Tremere develop the talent to recognize thaumaturgical patterns. Magical energies cast by others are visible with Aura Perception, but with Thaumaturgical Sight, a Tremere can see the unholy vigor of blood magic. With enough occult knowledge, the Tremere may be able to decipher the lines of power to figure out exactly what sort of magic she faces.
A Tremere using Thaumaturgical Sight sees blood magic’s power as pulsing, viscous curves of liquid scarlet, which differ from the sparkles that punctuate the aura of a person using a living, dynamic magic. As the magic turns vitae into a fuel for a twisted manifestation of death’s curse, the viewer sees connections between thaumaturgical components and the resulting enchantment. A thaumaturge who uses the Lure of Flames, for instance, might appear to have crimson traceries weaving in his hands and coalescing until they burst into flames, while an enchanted knife might seem to have an unwholesome, sanguine glisten to it.
Like similar Auspex Disciplines, Thaumaturgical Sight isn’t a power that’s used constantly or casually. Some magical wards – especially koldunic ones – can threaten a Tremere’s sanity when they’re viewed with this sight. Certain places in Eastern Europe, it’s said, roil with diseased power that burns out all vision from a Tremere who would look upon their naked states. Wise Tremere confine their Thaumaturgical Sight to places or items where they’re certain blood influence but need a clearer vision of the specifics.
System
Activating Thaumaturgical Sight is just like the use of Aura Perception. In fact, it augments that power; those without Thaumaturgical Sight will miss the subtle nuances of dead magic, while those who possess this power will find their Aura Perception abilities enhanced by it. However, as with any use of Thaumaturgy, a botch on the activation roll costs one permanent Willpower.
While under the effects of Thaumaturgical Sight, the character may be able to puzzle out other manifestations of blood magic within her line of sight. A Perception + Occult roll (difficulty 8) is appropriate to determine the character’s success in making out the results of some form of blood magic. If it’s an effect with which the character is familiar – such as someone using Theft of Vitae, if the character knows that power – then once success is sufficient to recognize the power. Otherwise, the successes scored determine the gist of the character’s understanding: With one success, she might puzzle out the general idea of the effect, like whether is geared to combat or divination; with three or more successes, she can probably figure out exactly what it’s supposed to do.
Thaumaturgical Sight does notice the patterns of power inherent to enchanted artifacts or wards, so long as they’re products of blood magic. A Tremere can therefore spot a ward and determine who it’s designed to deter, or notice that an object has some sort of blood magic upon it, such as Engaging the Vessel of Transference. Rituals show up to this sight, both during casting and while their effects remain, so a Tremere could tell if someone has invoked a ritual like Deflection of Wooden Doom or Steps of the Terrified.
More importantly, Thaumaturgical Sight allows the user to spot all forms of vampiric blood magic; Thaumaturgy, Setite or Assamite magic and koldunic sorcery are all equally visible. Conversely, Thaumaturgical Sight does not recognize "normal" magical effects, like the enhancements that mortal wizards use (though Aura Perception still reveals such magic as sparkling, coruscating energy). In any event, Aura Perception is required to learn this power, so the distinction is only parenthetical, if noteworthy.
This power costs 6 experience points to learn.
Thaumaturgical Rituals
-=Level 1=-
Feather-Stone
One of the problems that sometimes plagues the massive Gargoyles, particuarly when laying siege to Tzimisce fortresses, is their weight. Those that can fly can collapse wooden floors beneath them if they land too heavily, and those that can't are often too hefty to climb well. This Ritual allows a Gargoyle to become much lighter than his stony appearence would indicate.
The Tremere performing this ritual must acquire a small chunk of soft brittle or lightweight (talc pumice etc) and coat it with a small amount of vitae. The Gargoyle must crush the the stone in its jaws, thereafter, the servant can call on the rituals effects at will.
System: Spend one blood point in addition to the usual Willpower roll to activate the spell. Assuming it succeeds the Gargoyle may invoke the effects if the player succeeds in a stamina + athletics roll (difficulty 6). The Gargoyle is then considered to weigh a fraction of what he normally does, but does not lose an of his physical prowess. If the Gargoyle also possesses the Flight power activating Feather stone reduces all flight difficulties by 2.
The Scribe
This ritual creates a written document from the spoken words of the caster. The Thaumaturge simply speaks and her words mystically appear on paper before her. Some Thaumaturges have observed variants of this ritual that involve moving feather pens writing the words as they speak them, but the most common form of this ritual makes no such overt display. Further, some young thaumaturges have developed a variant that records their words directly as computer files - which their Elders almost universally decry as vulgar. This ritual requires a beak of a bird or the tongue of a lizard to be crushed between the casters thumb and forefinger.
System: For the duration of the scene anywords spoken by the thaumaturge are transcribed to whatever surface she wishes. This is most commonly paper (wether loose or bound into a book), but may also be a wall a head of a pin anything. The scribe automatically fits the Thaumaturges ideas on a given surface, but it makes no provisions for legibility; transcribing all 400 pages of The Seventh Sigil onto a note card isnt going to make it readable without a microscope.Additionally the Scribe doesn't improve a speakers eloquence - in matters where clarity or quality is crucial, the speakers Expression Trait may come into play. The Scribe may be cast on someone other than the thaumaturge, should the latter wish. Also she may voluntarily end the effects of the power before the end of the scene.
The carrion Fly Delayed
This ritual allows for the preservation of body parts from living or unliving beings so that they can be used in rituals demanding fresh fleshy components long after being hewn from their original owners. The caster must make a series of incantations before vivisecting the living victim. He conducts the Vivisection and then passes the desired parts through smoke from a censer burning alchemical salts. Creative Vampires may devise other uses for the ritual. For example it is more disheartening to the kin of ones enemy to drop a fresh looking head in his lap than to deliver a mere skull. It is also useful in the formation of alibis; by the time discoverers find a body treated in this way, the caster may have traveled many leagues away, leaving a corpse that looks fresh - killed. This Ritual can also preserve blood for later consumption
System: Simple successes preserves five blood points or 100 pounds of meat from a single specimen for upto a week Players can spend additional successes to extend the preservation time (one week per success) or the amount preserved (five Blood points/100 pounds per success)
Purity of Flesh (PG)
This ritual involves concentrating for ten minutes in a lotus position, surrounded by thirteen sharp stones, and then spending a blood point. This ritual will remove all foreign matter from the vampire, good or bad leaving only a ring of gray film around the place where he sat. (This includes fake limbs, breast implants, surgical appliances, poisons, drugs, wooden splinters, etc.) This also affects matter touching her, and those performing this ritual would be advised to do it in the nude. This is useless against diseases of the blood or any sort of mind control. If the remaining grey is analyzed it will show traces of the ejected material and the caster's blood.
Bind The Accusing Tongue (GC)
Puts a compulsion on the subject which prevents him from speaking ill of the caster, allowing the thaumaturge to commit literally unspeakable acts without fear of reprisal. The caster must have a picture or other image of target, a lock of their hair and a black silken cord. The caster winds the cord around the hair and image while intoning the ritual's incantation. The ritual lasts until the cord is unwound, at which the image and hair will crumble to dust.
-=Level 2=-
Dust of Rememberance
Curaferrum devised this ritual to alert him to signs of disorder in his chantry. To preform it the thaumaturge severes one of her fingers, allowing it to crumble to corpse dust as he grows a new one. She combines the dust with myrrh, wine dregs silver powder and salt extracted from the tears of a child, allows the mixture to dry then preforms a series of incantations. The result is several drams of white powder. The thaumaturge sprinkles the powder on an object of interest to her. If the object is moved while she is not in its presence the thaumaturge feels a sharp pain in her regrown finger.
The castellan uses this strategically by placing dust on certain doors to know when unwanted intrusions occur. He also sometimes makes petty use of it. He might place the dust in linen closets to catch out mortal servants, or on a tapestry depicting Etrius, to see who has been splattering it with paint.
System The ritualist may sprinkle the dust on upto twenty objects during the ritual. She can tell which of them is being interferred with if the player passes an Intellegence + Occult roll. The connection with prepared objects lasts one full lunar month per success on the ritual roll
Ward Versus Ghouls
Wary Tremere created this ritual to protect themselves from the minions of vengeful rivals. By invoking this ritual, the Tremere creates a glyph that causes great pain to any ghouls who come in contact with it. The Kindred pours a points worth of blood over the object he wishes to ward (a piece of parchment a coin a doorknob etc.) and recites the incatation, which takes ten minutes. In Ten hours the the magical ward is complete, and will inflict excruciating pain on any ghoul unfortunate enough to touch the warded object.
System: Ghouls who touch warded objects suffer three dice of lethal damage. This damage occurs again if the ghoul touches the object further; indeed, a ghoul who consciously wishes to touch a warded object must spend a willpower pointto do so.
This ritual wards only one object - if inscribed on the side of a car, the ward affects only that door. or fender. not the whole car. wards may be placed on weapons even bullets though this usually works best on small calibre weapons. Bullets often warp upon firing, However and for a ward to remain intact on a fired round, the player needs five successes on the fire arms roll.
Extinguish
This ritual eliminates the threat fire poses to Kindred. The Caster is able to douse dangerous flames leaving vampire hunters quite suprised when their torches and brands are no longer effective tools. To enact this ritual the caster pinches out a candles flame while spitting on the floor.
System: The ritual is set up in advance but for the entire night the vampire has but to speak a single magical syllable to extinguish one fire up to the size of a bonfire. For the duration of one night the thaumaturge can use this power a number of times equal to the number of successes on the initial roll. Pinching a candles flame in preperation is likely to require a rotschreck check as well.
-=Level 3=-
Populate nights gardens
Sanguine Assistant (GC)
Allows a Thaumaturge to create a temporary assistant. The vampire slices open his arm and bleed into a specially prepared earthen bowl. This rituals sucks in and animates whatever happens to be lying around the workshop. Glass beakers, dissection tools, pencil, etc and binds them into a small humaniod form. This ritual almost never takes in any tool that the Thaumaturge finds himself needing during the assistant's lifespan. The servant is about one foot high. It lasts one night per success. At the end of its last night, it will crawl into the bowl and fall apart. The assistant can be re-animated through the same ritual. It reforms from the same materials with the same memories and personality. It will flee if attacked and has no disciplines, but a full understanding of its master's Thaumaturgical ability and can instruct others if necessary. Also impervious to mind control from others. It is completely bound to its creator.
Level 4
Consecration of the Sanctum
By painting the borders of a laboratory or workspace with an alchemical mixture of vitae, gold dust and rare herbs, a thaumaturge who knows this ritual can alter the delineated area's geomantic flow of power to favor his own form of magic.
System Each casting of this ritual enchants an area up to 10 square yards for one month. Multiple castings of Consecration of the Sanctum over the same area only reset the duration to one full month. Within the warded area the difficulty of all thaumaturgy rituals decrease by one. Conversely, the ritual adds one to the difficulty of all magic not based on hermetic principles. This includes the Pillars of non-Heremetic wizards, as well as the paths and rituals of other blood sorcerors. This ritual takes at least one hour to cast.
Unweave Ritual
With the preponderance of cursing rituals among the jealous warlocks its only a matter of time until a Tremere labors under the effects of an enemy's magic. Whether its another Tremere eager to discomfort a political adversary or some non- tremere thaumaturge looking for retribution, having Thaumaturgy turned around against its supposed masters makes for a bitter aftertaste indeed
Once the tremere manages to identify the enemy ritual under which he labors, its possible to build a counter sorcery to unweave it. Thaumaturges skilled in this magic learn general principles to confound other rituals, shrug off their effects or collapse them prematurely.
System; First the caster must figure out which ritual currently affects him. This is probably automatic if he knows the ritual (unless the caster has been very subtle or the subject is daft), but may require some research (and Intellegence + Occult rolls at the story tellers discretion) otherwise. Next the unweaving takes place. The caster must secure a component that would be used in casting of the offending ritual then destroy it in some fashion. His successes subtract from the successes scored by the original caster; if he manages to wipe away all the successes, the offending ritual immediately ends, with all concomitant effects. Thus a quick end to Bind the accusing Tongue would allow the Tremere to speak ill of his enemies again, but a premature end to a Blood Contract would painfully shove him into torpor, and a premature end to Night of the Red Heart would result in Final Death.
Only rituals that have a duration can be unwoven. For instance a tremere who has thrown off the blood bond through Abandon the Fetters is not constantly under the effects of this ritual - once this ritual is complete , the bond is gone and the ritual is done. However a Tremere suffering from steps of the Terrified would be considered under the duration of the ritual as long as it slowed his movement so it could be unwoaven.Note that a thaumaturge can only unweave each one seperately. Multiple unweavings can be accumulated against a ritual so long as the appropriate time and components can be acquired.
Blood Certamen
While most modern Tremere apprentices see Thaumaturgy as a distinct property of their blood, some aged Tremere who survived the Long Night remember nights as mortal wizards. The Clans very foundations rests upon the traditions of those wizards - Tribunals, apprenticeships, the Tremere oath; all stem from the organisation that the Tremere abandoned in their plummet into damnation. Among those early practices was one magical rite used to settle disputes. Even though the tremere traded their mortal sorcery for blood magic, they managed to find ways to turn their old practices to their undead state, and the ritual of Certamen made the transition as well.
Certamen exists as one of the oldest forms of dispute resolution between wizards, or so the Elder Tremere say. In modern nights, Certamen takes a decidedly sinister form and remains in the hands of very few tremere. Indeed perhaps only a half-dozen Tremere below the rank of Regent know the ritual itself, and a handful more remain aware of its existence. Still its use remains protected by ancient tradition, and a Tremere without other recourse can,if he is aware of it, call for certamen to settle a quarrel. One Pontifex supposedly favours certamen as a traditional measure and a hallmark of a true and loyal tremere - and correspondingly evidences terrifying skill with the practice.
The rite of Certamen opens with a formal declaration of challenge, though that does not constitute part of the actual ritual. The rite itself sees the contenders in a circle of blood or vitreous humour, where by technique and form - the power to harness Thaumaturgy - they shall settle the matter. a circle 10 paces across marks the boundries of the competition, while each participant stands in an interior circle two paces wide and faces the opponent. The interior circles outer edge just touch upon the inner ring of the large circle, so the competitors stand just a short distance apart. The Participants state their terms immediately upon entering the circle, Challenger declaring what he stands to gain and defender declaring three limits upon forms of the combat. Each one intones the ritual for certamen ; when both complete it, the test of blood begins, to end only in death, submission or the judgement of the presiding arbiter.
By Tradition, each participant brings a second, who makes announcement of his contender and handles offices such as holding the participants trappings or ritual accoutrements. the seconds stand behind and to the right of their participants. A (supposedly) neutral party arbitrates and may end the certamen at his discretion; he can , for instance intervene to prevent a prodigious apprentice from destroying a regent. The arbiter determines or ratifies the victor, and also overrules the apparent victor in rare cases of cheating (though technically the only way to cheat at certamen is to bring in magical artifacts or excess blood without announcing their presence to the arbiter and opponent). The arbiter also determines whether a given Certamen contest has a definative result. Should, say one contender simply use Movement of Mind to force the other out of the ring a few seconds into the contest, or should both participants exhaust their stores of vitae without a clear victor, the arbiter may declare the matter inconclusive or a draw.
Certamen allows a thaumaturge to extend his usual path effects into a more symbolic and devastating forms. Fire magics become incendiary greatswords or demonic flamebolts; spirit minions become translucent armed legionaires; weather sorcery takes on a visciously turgid aspect. Onlookers watch as the two tremere contend with the mightiest blood magic at their disposal. Ultimately one must give way or be slain.
(page 62 cbk Tremere revised)
Level 5
At our command it breathes
Escape to a True Friend
A raw manifestation of the power of sympathetic emotions, this ritual allows a thaumaturge to be magically transported to the person whose friendship and trust she most values. The ritual has a physical component of a yard wide circle charred into the bare ground or floor. The caster may step into the circle at any time and speak the name of her friend. She is instantly transported to that individual, wherever he may be at that moment. She does not appear directly in front of him, but materialiszes in a location within a few minutes' walk that is out of sight of any observer. The circle may be reused indefinately, as long as it is unmarred.
System: This ritual takes six hours a night for six nights to cast, reduced by one night for every two successes. Each night requires the sacrifice of three of the caster's own blood points, which are poured onto the circle. Once the circle is complete, the transport may be attempted at any time. The caster may take one other individual with her when she travels, or a maximum amount of cargo equal to her own weight. The caster must speak the friend's true name, not an alter ego or appellation. Tremere legendry is replete with stories of thaumaturges who spoke false names and were lost to the void.