Although the Tremere have long been enemies of the Tzimisce, a chantry of 16th-century Portuguese Tremere once turned their talents to specialized means of combating the treacherous Lasombra of neighboring Spain. In the modern nights, however, Tzimisce-Lasombra ties in the Sabbat mean that the Tremere must sometimes bring their attentions to the depredations of the lords of shadow. Indeed, some Tremere wryly comment that for every sorcerous Tzimisce counselor who advises a Lasombra bishop, a cunning Tremere counsels an insidious Ventrue. With the Camarilla's recent upturn in clashes with the Sabbat, the Tremere have needed a means to blunt the Sabbat's edges. The unearthed Path of Shadowcrafting offers one such opportunity, albeit in a scope that never became widespread due to its limited utility.
Students of the Path of Shadowcrafting learn to manipulate shades, but not in the same fashion as the Lasombra. While Shadowcrafting tugs at the absence of light, Tremere who have fought the Lasombra firsthand come away with the distinct impression that Obtenebration manipulates something else – a tangible darkness, a sort of abyssal nothingness coaxed into the material world. What this bodes, even the Tremere do not know, and the few Lasombra antitribu certainly aren't forthcoming. In the meantime, the Tremere hope to refine the path into a means of controlling or duplicating the Lasombra's power, while keeping their failures quietly away from influential Camarilla ears. As is, the path is relatively weak, but those exploring it hope to make breakthroughs any night now....
This path does not function for Kindred with the Flaw: Cast No Reflection.
• Out of Light
The first rule of shade: darkness overcomes all light. Eventually, every light gutters and fades. A neophyte thaumaturge can exert this property of darkness, bringing a sordid morality to lights nearby. The lights may flicker and dim or even snuff out completely, depending upon their strength and the thaumaturge's will.
The Thaumaturge can focus darkness upon any one light source within her range of sight. Only lights up to the strength of a torch, light bulb of modern neon sign can be affected, but complete success snuffs a light permanently (light bulbs and neon signs burn out; candles go out, but could be re-lit later). Successes scored on the casting roll determine the strength of the fading.
A normal success causes the Light source blacks out completely for two turns, then resumes, an exceptional success causes the light to be totally extinguished.
•• Shadow Taunt
A wholly unnerving power, Shadow Taunt allows a thaumaturge to take command of a distant shadow. By sympathetically linking it to his body, the thaumaturge makes the distant shadow obey his own shadow’s motion. The caster can jape, threaten or move about and cause the faraway shadow to behave in similar fashion. If the shadow belongs to a person, it follows the thaumaturge's actions. Shadows of other than anthropomorphic shape contort as best they can, stretching, elongating and moving in a semblance of the caster's motion. A shadow controlled in this fashion cannot actually do harm, nor does it harm its source, but it certainly proves unnerving. On at least one occasion, a Tremere novice managed to humiliate an opponent simply by making the Kindred's shadow subtly berate him; when the aggrieved Kindred brought the matter to the attention of the harpies, he found himself roundly scathed – "Afraid of your own shadow now?"
Only one shadow at a time may be so influenced, this power lasts for a scene. Shadows animated in this fashion can move and even pantomime as they follow the thaumaturge's actions, but they cannot make sound, nor do they actually break away from their casting source (so, if the thaumaturge leaves, the shadow moves as if running in place). The caster must be able to see the shadow that he wishes to manipulate, and it must be a natural shadow, not one created with Obtenebration.
••• Coruscating Shadow
How would shadow appear if it hovered in the air? a discoloration? a dimness in the atmosphere? a hole in space? A commanding Tremere can peel the very shade from surrounding surfaces and bend it into floating forms that whip about. These airborne shadows conceal the caster and create a roiling sphere of confusion. The unnatural display manifests as an ephemeral globe that encompasses the caster at about arm’s length, though it contracts and expands rapidly while the shadows flit about its surface.
Under the effects of Coruscating Shadow, the Tremere gains partial concealment due to the rapidly strobing passage of shadowy shapes. The ball of shadows that surrounds the caster has no physical substance but expands and contracts, writhes and spins and generally makes matters difficult for anyone trying to observe the thaumaturge. Decrease the dice pools of actions that affect the caster, including attacks, by two while this power is in effect. Furthermore, the heavier prevalence of shadow helps when blending into darkened areas, giving the player a three-die bonus to Stealth rolls for the character. The sphere lasts for a scene.
•••• Night's Veil
Shadows seem to devour the landscape hungrily as night falls. Where any shadow lies, the power of night remains – through that sympathetic power the Tremere can invoke the strength of night in any place. Mortals who have observed this bizarre power have left the experienced "touched," talking of shadows impossible in the current light and non-Euclidian geometries casting horrid shades.
Like other Shadowcrafting powers, the Tremere must extend existing shadows. Typically, the caster stands within a shadowed corner and invokes this power. In each successive turn, the shadow slowly expands to cover greater ground. Such mystically enhanced shade can even reach out into sunlit stretches. The shade extends about a yard beyond its normal distance for each success scored on the roll. For the rest of the scene, the shade counts as an area under the province of night: the Tremere can act normally without hindrance from daytime and avoid the sun's rays. Should the caster step outside the shadow (whether accidentally or purposefully), though, the effect ends immediately – quite possibly stranding the Tremere, dizzy and disoriented, in burning sunlight.
••••• Abyssal Pact
Mastery of the Path of Shadowcrafting allows a Tremere to imbue his shades with some semblance of substance. At this level of expertise, the path truly takes on some characteristics of tangible nightmares. While smothered in darkness, the Tremere lets loose something that seems hungry and malevolent. Mastery of such shade creations also gives the Tremere a small chance to counter the Obtenebration Discipline, though such hope perhaps leads more to overconfidence than to conquest.
The creator of the Shadowcrafting path, now a chattering invalid, maintains during brief moments of lucidity that strange shadow entities wait in every darkened corner. Certainly the shades conjured by this path give some credence to such notions, but the Kindred in question asserts that these beings devour light and feed upon the very essence of those who would dare truck with them. If these are, perhaps, the primal fiends that deal with the Lasombra's fluid darkness, then perhaps their secrets are best left hidden – their unnatural kin were never meant to withstand the light.
To summon the final powers of Shadowcrafting, both the Tremere and the target must be within the same patch of darkness – two individuals in a closet, or both out on the street on a moonless night. The Tremere does not need to see the individual, but most somehow sense the victim's presence, whether by hearing, touch or some other apprehension. Furthermore, the darkness must be total or near-total; simple shadows do not suffice. Conjuring the esurient shadow costs five blood points (total, not in addition to the usual Thaumaturgy costs).
Once created, the shade-form assaults the victim and drains vitality. Tangible shadow attacks envelop the victim in a smothering blanket of darkness that bites like a school of barracuda. Every two successes scored on the casting roll cause the victim to lose one health level of lethal damage; additionally, the victim loses one point of Stamina for the remainder of the scene, as the hungry shadows suck out the very essence of living vitality (note that Kindred can use their blood to restore such losses until the next scene). Subsequent attacks are cumulative, so it's possible to wear the victim down over multiple turns, though that's certainly expensive and time-consuming for all but the most proficient thaumaturges. When used in this way you subtract the targets Stamina from your roll.
The abyssal shades conjured with this power can be used to fight against Obtenebration, but they seem reluctant to do so. Instead of inflicting damage upon an opponent, the caster can direct the shadow power so that every two successes scored by the player removes one success from an Obtenebration effect. This can negate a power entirely or reduce its efficacy. Of course, the Lasombra can simply reactivate the appropriate Obtenebration powers, probably without nearly as much effort, but the surprise alone can prove invaluable.
Should the thaumaturge botch the casting roll, the shades still manifest but attack him instead, in addition to the normal Thaumaturgy botch penalty. Roll eight dice and apply the results as specified above for every two successes.