Embedded Files
One Success - The ghost must perform one simple task for the vampire that does not place it in certain danger. It must attend to this task immediately, although it can delay the compulsion and pursue its own business at a cost of one Willpower point per scene. The ghost may not attack the vampire until this task is complete. It is possible to issue the task of answering one question, in which case the ghost must answer truthfully and to the best of its knowledge.
Two Successes - The vampire may issue two orders or ask two questions as outlined for one success. Alternatively, the vampire may demand a simple task with a real possibility of danger, as long as the danger is not certain. The ghost may delay this compulsion with Willpower.
Three Successes - The vampire may issue three orders as outlined for one success. Alternatively, he may demand the ghost fulfill one difficult and dangerous task or a simple assignment that has an extended duration of up to one month. The ghost may delay such orders with Willpower.
Four Successes - The vampire may issue four orders, as outlined for one success, or assign two tasks, as for two successes. Alternatively, the vampire may command the ghost to perform one complex assignment that puts the ghost at extreme risk, or perform any number of non-threatening tasks as the vampire’s slave for up to one month (or, if the Necromancer spends a permanent point of Willpower, for a year and a day). It is possible for ghosts to delay individual tasks, but not put off enslavement.
Five Successes - The vampire may issue multiple orders that have a sum complexity or danger of five successes’ worth. Instead, the vampire may order the ghost to perform any one action that it is capable of executing within one month. Such a task can place the ghost in immediate peril of destruction, or even force it to betray and assault loved ones. It is not possible for ghosts to delay a task of this magnitude with Willpower — they must obey.
•••• Haunting Haunting binds a summoned ghost to a particular location or, in extreme cases, an object. The wraith cannot leave the area to which the necromancer binds it without risking destruction. The caster must be standing at the location or touching the intendended prison while using this power. She then has the ghost brought to her by whatever means she desires, though Summon Soul is the quickest and most reliable. The amount of time the ghost is bound depends on the number of success rolled (see below).
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Resolve + Occult + Necromancy – Ghost's Resistance + 2 (if bound to an object)
Action: Instant
One Success - One night
Two Successes - One week
Three Successes - One month
Four Successes - One year
Five Successes - Five years
The caster can spend a permanent willpower to bind the ghost for 10 years and a day.
••••• Torment
It is through the use of this power that powerful necromancers convince bound ghosts to behave — or else. Torment allows the vampire to strike a wraith as if he himself were in the lands of the dead, inflicting damage on the wraith’s ectoplasmic form. The vampire remains in the real world, however, so he cannot be struck in return. The Vampire reaches out and strikes the ghost with spectral might. Each success deals one level of lethal damage to the ghost. Should the wraith it immedeatly vanishes into what appears to be a doorway to some hideous nightmare realm. Ghosts "destroyed" thus cannot in or near the mortal world for a month.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Resolve + Occult + Necromancy – Ghost's Resistance
Action: Instant
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Resolve + Occult + Necromancy – Ghost's Resistance
Action: Instant
If the vampire wins, the number of net successes determines the degree of control he has over the ghost (as described below). Moreover, the vampire’s control
keeps ghosts that have been called with Summon Soul from returning to their original locations at the end of the scene.
With this power, a vampire can command a ghost to do his bidding for a while. Compulsion of the soul is a perilous undertaking and, when used improperly, can endanger vampire and wraith alike.The vampire locates and approaches the intended ghost or calls it to his presence with Summon Soul. As with the previous power, he must have the ghost’s name and an object it handled in life.
Through the Sepulchre path, the vampire can witness, summon, and command the spirits of the dead. At higher levels, the necromancer can force the ghost to remain in a particular place or object, or even damage wraiths directly. Since many other areas of Necromancy involve dealing with ghosts, this is the most common path for necromancers to start with.
Note: If a Kindred uses a Sepulchre Path power in the presence of something of great importance to the ghost the power affects, the chances for success in the
summoning increase dramatically (receive 2 bonus dice). This might be the bathtub in which the ghost’s mortal body was drowned, the rusted-out wreck of the
car where the ghost’s physical body was trapped alive, or something unrelated to the ghost’s demise, such as a favorite book or a child-ghost’s beloved nursery.
• Winess of Death
Before it is possible to control the dead, one must perceive them. This power allows just that, attuning a vampire’s unliving senses to the presence of the in-
corporeal. Under its effects, a necromancer sees ghosts as translucent phantoms gliding among the living and hears their whispers and moans. She feels the spectral cold of their touch and smells their musty hint of decay. Yet one cannot mistake the dead for the living, as they lack true substance, and appear dimmer and less real than creatures of flesh and blood. When a vampire uses this power, her eyes flicker with pale blue fire that only the dead can see. Ghosts resent being spied upon, and more powerful shades may use their own powers to inflict their displeasure on the incautious.While the vampire’s other senses remain
attuned to the living, he is all but blind in this state and suffers a -2 penalty to most vision-based Perception rolls and attacks.
•• Summon Soul
The power of Summon Soul allows a necromancer to call a ghost back from the Underworld, for conversational purposes only. In order to perform this feat (and
indeed, most of the feats in this path), the vampire must meet certain conditions:
• The necromancer must know the name of the wraith in question, though an image of the wraith obtained via Witness of Death (see above), Shroudsight, Auspex, or other supernatural perception will suffice.
• An object with which the wraith had some contact in life must be in the vicinity, though it need not be something of significant importance to the ghost’s liv-
ing consciousness. A piece of the ghost’s corpse works well for this purpose (and even provides a +1 modifier).
Certain types of ghosts cannot be summoned with this power. Vampires who achieved Golconda before their Final Deaths, or who were diablerized, are beyond
the reach of this summons. Likewise, many ghosts of the dead cannot be called — they are destroyed, unable to return to the mortal plane, or lost in the eternal
storm of the Underworld.
••• Compel Soul
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse