PATHS II
The Path of Dreams
by Crowley ([email protected])
Modified By: Darrell Benvenuto ([email protected])
This path requires the target(s) to be asleep. This is normally not a problem, as most mortals sleep while the Cainites stalk the World. It requires that the Magus either be able to see the Target (scrying works) or know approximately where they are. The Magus will pass into a deep, trance-like state upon commencing use of this path, and will not awaken unless physically disturbed. Only one level of this Path can be used a night, but the dreams of several people can be entered, so long as the caster has the appropriate number of blood points in their pool to expend.
Level Effect
1. At this level of ability, the Magus can enter the dreams of others, and observe what they are dreaming of. The Magus cannot interact in any way with anything, or be noticed by the dream's inhabitants. However, they dreamer may become aware (get the strange feeling) that s/he is being watched. The Magus must spend one Blood Point for each person's dreams s/he wishes to enter. If the dreamer makes a Willpower Roll against a Difficulty of 7, s/he gets the feeling of being watched. The dreamer can awaken as normal.
2. The Magus can now exercise some small amount of control over the target's dream. Specifically, the caster will normally appear as the target's "dream lover", in whichever sex the target finds more attractive. The direction the dream takes (as fas as the actions of the Caster is concerned) is entirely up to the Magus. The Magus can appear as someone else (not a lover) by making a Willpower Check against a Difficulty of 7. The Dreamer must make a Willpower Roll versus a Difficulty of 8 to wake up, if the Caster does not wish them to awaken. This Level of the Path costs two full blood points per target to use.
3. The Magus can now interact fully with the target's dream. S/he can move items, but cannot cause any major changes. For example, s/he could run and snatch someone from the path of an oncoming train, but could not just stop the train. The dreamer will not notice the Magus unless s/he makes himself known. This Level of the Path costs three Blood Points of energy per target.
4. The Magus has become so powerful in this Path that s/he can take several people into the same dream. The Magus must choose the person whose dream they enter. The person whose dream they are in will not realize that they are real people unless the sharing is voluntary. This ability costs the Magus 3 Blood Points per person involved (excluding the Magus). If one person is woken up, all in the link must make a Willpower Checks vs. a Difficulty of 6 to see if they awaken as well.
5 Having achieved complete Mastery of the Path, the Magus is now in total control of the target's dream. S/he can alter reality to any extent, but cannot control the actions of the dreamer herself. The Magus must spend a full five Blood Points to use this Level of the Path, and an additional three Blood Points if s/he wishes damage sustained in the dream (bruises, scrapes, burns, etc.) to be reflected (hysterically) on the dreamer's body in the real world. The target must make a Willpower Roll against a Difficulty of 9 to awaken if the Magus will not let her. Of course, the target has to fall asleep again sometime... Damage from wounds sustained in the dream and hysterically represented on the dreamer's body will never exceed the -1 penalty of Wounds, despite the severity in the dream (i.e., a dreamer who dreamt of having her wrist slowly being cut off with a hacksaw by a cackling tormentor would, dreaming, experience all the pain and suffering of the event, yet upon awakening, would only have a deep bruise on their wrist. Dreamers cannot die in their dreams unless they are in poor health and are frightened to death.
The Path of Voodoo
By Thomas Jensen ([email protected])
Modified by Darrell Benvenuto ([email protected])
The Path of Voodoo originates in the Carribean Islands -- most Cainite scholars point to Santa Domingo and Jamaica as likely places of origin. This is mainly due to the regional concentration of Voodoo cults, but also because of the way in which Voodoo affects all stages of life on the islands; a so widespread, vital importance could not have been achieved if the Art had not been present from the very primeval youth of the islands, from before the petty colonial squabbles over the lush island of Santa Domingo or the days of Toussaint L'Overture and Dessalines.
The practice of Voodoo has been greatly feared through the centuries, and with good cause. Although many "investigators" believe they have revealed Voodoo to be a total hoax, in fact they have only seen the smoke screen that was set up by the True Cainite Priests that rule the islands and practice their dark arts.
The Path of Voodoo involves using Spirits of the Dead to do one's work and bidding. For the unwary, this Path can be a dangerous one, as failure to command the Spirits properly may very well gain the enmity of the Loa Spirits, such as Papa Legba or Baron Samedi -- but even the hostility of a normal spirit is a most unpleasant experience. If the Magus fails in the use of the Path, s/he loses a point of Willpower and furthermore gains the enmity of an entity from the plane of the Loa. The Storyteller should decide what kind of Spirit the would-be user offends. Note that a high-ranking (and thus more powerful) Spirit could very well interfere with the Magus's plans, if it judges its underlings to be unable to deal properly with the offending Magus. Of course, the severity of the offense is dictated by the degree of failure; a small failure would be dealt with by a Spirit similar in power to a poltergeist - with a correspondingly short period of punishment - while a horrible, botched failure will attract the attention and wrath of one or more of the Loa.
The Path of Voodoo is very rare and is usually only possessed by Cainites who were either members of a powerful Voodoo cult while they were alive, or who were embraced by a Cainite to whom the Practice of the Path would come instead of the Path of Thaumaturgy, such as the Followers of Set and the Serpents of the Light
Unlike the Path of Spirit Thaumaturgy, which is somewhat akin to the Path of Voodoo, with Voodoo, contacting the Spirit Planes comes naturally to Kindred, as they are already attuned to the Plane of Death.
Quick Vocabulary:
Baron Samedi..: Protector of the Cemetary, Servant of Guede
Bokos.........: Sorcerors who work for the secret Voodoo Societies which are at times called "Red Cults" and at times the "Black Cults". It may be that there exist two sects which wage war on each other and it is not always clear who is good and who is evil. Whatever the case, the Boko is closely tied in with such things as ritualistic murder, cannibalism and black magick. Bokos will -- for a suitable fee -- call for the help of Baron Samedi to cast deadly curses upon the living -- and perhaps even more dreadful curses upon the recently deceased, as they are the ones who can be turned into Zombies or even worse things.
Damballah.....: Spirit of Snakes, a source of Virility & Power
Erzulie.......: Spirit of Love, Jealousy & Revenge
Grans Bwa.....: Spirit of the Forest
Guede.........: Spirit of the Dead, Lord of the Mysteries of Death and Dark Sorcery.
Mambo.........: A female Voodoo Priest(ess).
Houmfor.......: Typically a temple in the deepest forests of Haiti. The Houmfor is composed of a small building in which the holy artifacts are kept, a room with open walls attached to it, and finally a yard in which the believers can gather.
Houngan.......: A male Voodoo Priest.
Papa Legba....: Overlord of the Loa Spirits, the Spirit of Communication between all Spheres, Lord of the Ways, Lord of the Crossroads.
Sobo..........: The Spirit of Thunder.
Tonton Macoute: Haitian term for wandering sorcerors, who are usually evil and only different from Bokos in the way that they do not work with a cult.
Veves.........: Magical symbols or Runes, which are specially associated with the Loa Spirit which the Priest wishes to Contact, Summon or Invoke.
Level Description
1 The Mark of Guede: The target of this power becomes invisibly Marked for Death, and it is primarily the way to prepare for more powerful Voodoo. Guede is the Loa Spirit of the Dead and is usually the one whom Houngans (male Voodoo priests), Mambos (female Voodoo priests) or Bokos (the notorious, evil Voodoo priests) address when they wish to curse someone. Papa Legba and Guede's Acolyte Baron Samedi are also used for such purposes, as the Opener of the Gateway and the Lord of the Cemetary, respectively. However, when the Gateway has been opened, the cursed character seems to attract malicious Spirits which follow him and torment him by hindering his actions to some degree. While these Spirits do not follow the Marked person constantly, they show up frequently.
System: The Cainite practitioner needs three things to use this power: A broad bladed knife, with a serrated edge, and a handle wrapped in skin torn from a freshly-killed animal (this knife is sometimes known as the Ku-bha-sah), a clay amulet engraved with the Veves (Voodoo Runes) of Guede, which resemble a stylized image of a white snake curling around a tombstone. The snake is normally perceived as the Snake Loa Damballah's mark, but it is believed that his Veves have been mixed with that of Guede, for he also represents Power. This Amulet must be bound to the handle of the knife, using a leather strap made from the skin of a one-week-old corpse. The final ingredient are three blood points of Cainite Vitae, which is used to baptize the amulet and knife. If the materials have been properly prepared and approved by Guede, the Vitae is absorbed into the Knife and Amulet.
The Cainite makes a Spirit Lore + Intimidation Roll (Difficulty is the Target's Humanity). The number of successes indicates the number of days that the Mark of Guede will remain effective. At the discretion of the Storyteller, the Difficulty of Rolls made by the Cursed Victim may be raised at the appropriate moments (such as when s/he is in trouble).
If the use of the Power is successful and the Vitae is absorbed, the knife with the attached amulet must be placed in the door, or doorway, of the victim in order for the Spirits to find their way to him. Note that once the Knife has been placed, it matters not if the victim removes it, since the spirits will already have homed in on their target.
The Level of the Path of Voodoo must be used prior to the casting of any of the Ritual Curses described below.
2 Ask of the Dead: This power allows the Priest to learn secrets from the Spirits of Dead Individuals. The existence of this power is well known in the Carribean; both true Voodoo worshippers and Followers of Set go to great lengths to ensure that the corpse of any dead ally is destroyed in such a way that nothing can be learned from it through this method.
System: For this level of the Path to work, the head of the dead person must be relatively intact; if it has been severely damaged, it will yield no information. Furthermore, the person must not have been dead for more than seven (7) days, for according to Voodoo lore, the soul does not leave this plane of existence until the end of the seventh day. Until then, the Lore states, it floats invisibly in the vicinity of the corpse, highly vulnerable to the Powers wielded by those who know the Path of Voodoo. In fact, a number of special Voodoo amulets are available to the families of deceased persons. It is said that if one is buried with such an amulet, the magick of the Voodoo Priests can never harm the deceased.
The Priest recites the Praise of Samedi and forcibly inserts his fingers into the back of the deceased's head as s/he gazes into its eyes. The Cainite Rolls (Perception + Occult) against a Base Difficulty of 7. For every Second Day beyond the first that the person has been dead, this Difficulty is raised by one. Thus, beyond the Seventh Day, this power cannot be used. Only two attempts can be made, one day apart. The number of Successes gained on the Roll determines what is obtained, as follows:
# Result<p> 1 The Priest gains basic details about the deceased, such as name, place of residence, age, job, images of his closest friends, etc.
2 Information on places where the deceased has been is revealed, as well as the faces of those he recently spoke with. The vision is usually somewhat hazy -- street names and house numbers will not appear clearly, but the image of a building the deceased physically entered while alive will.
3 The Priest gains the exact location, address and details (if known by the deceased) of places the deceased has been up to a week before his death, including names and facts about people he has talked with.
4 The Priest gains all of the above, as well as secrets that only a very close friend to the deceased would know.
5 At this ultimate level of spiritual connection (some would say rape), virtually all that the deceased knew in life is open and accessible to the Priest. The soul is laid completely bare for inspection, and anything the Priest desires to know of the deceased is forcibly taken. The Storyteller is advised discretion... simply because the information is available does not mean that Priest is able to absorb it all; something that took the deceased years to master would not be learned in a matter of moments.
3 Summon Snakes: This power allows the Priest to summon all of the natural snakes in the vicinity. While this power does not place the snakes under the control of the Summoner, use of the other Third Level Step of this Path, Control Snakes, will. The snakes called will move toward the place from which the Priest issued the summons, and will move in a fairly direct line unless stopped by obstacles. If the snakes come across an impassible surface or a place that they realize their existence is threatened, they will "snap out of it" and resume their normal behavior, as they will once they reach the point where the summoner was standing when this Power was used. At this point, confused, they will usually attempt to leave. It is unlikely they will attack the Priest or anyone nearby unless they are stepped on, or the Priest Botched his or her Summoning Roll. Remember that it takes a while for the snakes to arrive, and those that were further away take longer to reach the summoning spot than those nearby -- as they arrive, they awaken from the enchantment and try to leave, creating all sorts of turmoil. They must be Controlled as they arrive.
System: The Priest must make a (Manipulation + Leadership) Roll against a Fixed Difficulty of 7. Each Success grants a larger radius of effect. The chart below lists two circumstances; when the power is used in a city (where the response will be slim), or in the wilderness.
# Result
1 All summoned snakes within one city block, or half a mile begin to respond. Ghoul snakes are not affected.
2 All summoned snakes within two city blocks, or one mile, respond. Ghoul snakes are still not affected.
3 All snakes within five city blocks, or two and a half miles, respond. Ghoul snakes are still unaffected, though they will sense the summoning, and may be restless.
4 All snakes within 14 city blocks, or 7 miles, respond to the summons, including Ghouls.
5 All snakes within 20 city blocks, or 10 miles respond to the summonds, including Ghouls.
Note: If the Cainite summons the snakes while standing in a crowded place, there is bound to be trouble. If many snakes answer the summons and attempt to move into a crowded area, they will feel threatened by the milling people and start biting. Given the variety of snakes that will appear, it is likely to assume that there will be a few poisonous ones, or ones whom venom, while weak, can cause death from several bites.
3 Control Snakes: With this level of the Path, the Priest is able to control those snakes that s/he has summoned.
System: The Cainite must Roll (Manipulation + Leadership) against a Difficulty based on (10 - the number of Successes rolled during the Summoning of Snakes). The Priest will then be able to mentally control the snakes for a period of ten minutes per success rolled with this power. Commands given must be very simple and mentally couched in a way that they are understandable to the snakes. Furthermore, commands must be within the physical capabilities of the snakes. Whether the snakes understand the order or if they are capable of executing it is determined by the Storyteller. Snakes will usually still withdraw from smoke, fire and other lethal situations, unless the Priest rolled Five or more Successes to control them, in which event they would act without regard for their own safety.
4 The Curse of Samedi: This terrible and feared level of the Path of Voodoo grants the Priest the ability to kill his or her victims without actually being near them. However, the Priest must have inflicted or caused someone to influct a wound on the target (i.e., caused a loss of Health Levels) with a Ku-bha-sah (enchanted knife) for this to work. When this has been done and this level of the Path is used, the victim begins to die of a strange, wasting disease that slowly, painfully destroys the blood and eventually kills him.
System: For this Power to Work, the target must have been Marked for Death with the Mark of Guede. The Ku-bha-sah that is used to wound the target need not necessarily be the one that was used to mark him, and the Priest need not personally be the one to inflict the wound. As long as the Ku-bha-sah was enchanted by the Priest for this purpose, it will work.
The Cainite makes a Spirit Lore + Intimidation Roll against a Difficulty of the Victim's Willpower + 2. The number of successes indicates the number of Health Levels that the Victim loses. At this point, the blood of the victim has been corrupted, and filled with the energies of death. Kine will lose additonal Health Levels as a result of this, at the rate of one Level per 12 Hour period as their blood is slowly destroyed and their body mummified. When the Kine in question has no more blood left, s/he dies.
Kindred targeted by this Curse suffer a somewhat different fate. Their blood no longer runs naturally in their bodies, but rather is stored, for purposes of maintaining their "dead" bodies and expending in the use of Vampiric Disciplines. When a Cainite has been cursed and his or her blood corrupted, when s/he uses a point of Vitae, s/he loses a point of Health -- no matter what the Vitae is used for. So attempting to heal using Blood will only uselessly burn blood. The Cainite will eventually be forced into Torpor. Drinking fresh Vitae to cure the wounds will only prolong the agony, as the new Vitae will slowly become corrupted by the "bad blood" in the Cainite's system, and the process will begin anew. The only way to stop this magical disease is to remove all the Vitae from the Cainite's body. While this effectively removes the disease, the Beast will surge forth in frenzy and perhaps place the Cainite in more danger than s/he faced under the Curse.
4 Create Zombie: This Level of the Path allows the Priest to create Zombies -- Corpse Minions, to the Tremere. These Zombies follow all the same restrictions and requirements of Corpse Minions.
** See the Level 4 Voodoo Ritual: Create Zombie
System: The body must not have been dead for more than seven (7) days for this to work, and the Spirit of the Corpse must still be unclaimed by any magic or bindings. Standard Path Willpower Roll. Storyteller is under no obligation to disclose _why_ the Zombie does not rise if something happened to the Spirit; that is up to the Priest to discover. The Ritual for Creating the Zombie must be properly performed before this Level of the Path is used.
5 Create Serviteur: This ultimate level of the Path of Voodoo allows the Priest to create a serviteur -- in this case an animal or Kine possessed by a Spirit, and not just a helper or acolyte, which are also called serviteurs. These True Serviteurs are probably one of the most feared servants of the Voodoo Priest (this being a Houngan, a Mambo or a Bokos). They are possessed of supernatural strength and abilities, and have no fear. Even Cainites fear these creatures, as none of the Mental Disciplines, such as Dominate, Presence, Obfuscate, etc) work against them. To confront one is to fight a tireless robot of flesh that will not stop unless it is utterly destroyed. And to face several... even the bravest might quail before the rush of a host such as these.
System: The serviteur is a human or an animal, into whom the Priest binds a Spirit. This actually creates a lesser form of a Demon Bound creature; though weaker in most respects, they do not suffer the overheating problem of the Demon Bound, and so are more useful at times. If the use of this Path is successful, the Priest is left with a very powerful and utterly controlled servant. It is a much better tool than either a nearly mindless Zombie or a Kine or Childer with independent thoughts.
For this power to work, the Priest must have previously marked the target who is to be turned into a serviteur for death with the Mark of Guede, as previously described. Once this has been done, and the target obtained and tied to a tabletop, the spirit of the target must be driven out of the body, a function that this level of the Path performs, after an Extended, Resisted Willpower Contest (The Priest's Manipulation + Occult versus the Marked Target's Willpower). The winner of ten cumulative successes is the victor. This attempt can only be made once a night. The target may be drugged to lower his or her Willpower. Once successful, the cast-out Spirit usually dissipates or becomes a Wraith (at the Storyteller's discretion).
When the body is bereft of Spirit, but still living, the Priest must Summon and then again enter into an Extended, Resisted Willpower Contest with the Spirit to be Bound into the body. If the Priest loses the Contest, the Spirit flees and may not be re-summoned. If the Priest wins, s/he has overwhelmed the will of the Spirit and forced it into the living flesh of the victim, and created a True Serviteur.<p> A True Serviteur adds two points to all existing Physical Characteristics of the Man or Animal, has Four Additional Health Levels that cause no loss in Dice Pools. Most devastatingly, the Serviteur has the equivalent of Three Levels of Celerity and Three Levels of Potence. A common True Serviteur has a Power Pool of 15 Points from which to power it's equivalence of Disciplines. Serviteurs are capable of seeing in complete darkness, similar to the Protean Gleam of the Red Eyes.
The Spirit will continue to inhabit the host body until freed or the body is destroyed. The Spirit, like a Demon Bound, will not destroy the body on purpose. Unlike Demon Bound, True Serviteurs can speak, and many have access to the memories and abilities of the body they now inhabit. When away from their Master, and without instruction, they grow restless, and occasionally lapse into the persona and mindset of the former host body.
Path of Healing:
by: Gwyndolyn
note: this path was developed for LARP roleplaying, check with your storyteller for permission to use it.
Minor Wounds:
Through meditation and concentration the Kindred uses their own energy and the energy of the wounded Kindred to heal non-aggrivated wounds. The use of one blood point from the healer and one blood point from the victim allows them to heal the wounds instantly. Use a static challenge to determine if the healing is successful, if the challenge is failed, the expenditure of one willpower trait will allow it to be performed anyway. If the Kindred was a Verbena Mage or has other healing knowledge, they may try for two out of three challenges instead of a single one. Major Wounds: Works as Minor Wounds except on aggrivated Damage, and requires two blood points from the healer and one from the victim.
Psycological Wounds:
This takes longer, and requires uninterrupted attention on the healer�s part. This ritual requires two blood points from both the healer and the vicitm. If the ritual is interrupted, the healing process must be begun again and the blood points required by the interrupted ritual are forfeited. A static challenge is performed to see if the ritual is successful. If the Kindred also has the Path of Spirit Discipline of Empathy, is Blood Bound to the victim, or has an extremely close relationship with the victim, the static challenge is automatically two out of three. Also, a single Willpower point can be spent if the challenge is failed, if the above apply, and the healing will be successful. If a challenge is failed and the above does not apply, the healer must either pass a static challenge or spend one willpower to keep from being affected by the victims Psycological disorder themself.
Life Wounds:
This ritual requires unbroken concentration on the part of the healer, and four blood points from the healer, but none from the victim. This would bring a victim back from Torper to full health, though the victim would have to feed within a half hour of waking (They would have a blood pool of two) A static challenge must be passed to successfully complete the ritual, if the challenge is failed, the healer would be down three blood traits, but the victim would still only have what they had at the beginning of the ritual. If the Kindred was a Verbena Mage, or has some other form of healing ability, they may take a static challenge to loose only one blood point if the ritual is failed.((thus possibly being able to attempt the ritual again, depending on their own blood pool))
Recall Soul:
This ritual requires THREE healers to perform, two who have Recall Soul, and one who has at least Life Wounds. One Healer performs Life Wounds to repair the damaged body, if that is successful, then the other two healers perform Recall Soul, which takes a half hour of uninterrupted ritual to perform. Recall Soul requires one blood point from each healer, and that BOTH pass two out of three static challenges. If it is successful the victim defeats final death, and returns to his body as if he had just woken from torper after the Life Wounds ritual. ((he may or may not have had some sort of vision or revelation, at the ST�s discression)) If the Kindred was �killed� longer than a half hour before the ritual was begun, his soul is considered gone, and he is unrecoverable ((unless some sort of amulet or soul catcher was used to �capture� his fleeing soul)). Healer who is able to contact the Spirits in some way would be able to expend a willpower point to cover one failure in the two out of three static challenge.
Path of Mindforce:
by: Gwyndolyn
note: developed for LARP roleplaying
Empathy:
This Discipline works similarly to Heightened Senses, except it �hears� the emotions of others instead of the physical senses. With practice, you be less likely to get overwhelmed in a populated area given that you would learn how to �tune out� what you didn�t want to hear. ((at the ST�s discretion, a Mental Challenge would be done to determin if the Kindred using Empathy would be overwhelmed by it.))
Mind Touch:
This is used like Aura Perception, with the exception, that if you know the person you are �Touching� you do not need to be in visual range. Also Combined with the Auspex discipline of Psycic Projection one can find someone over a large distance by homing in on his mental signiture. With unwilling victims, or over long distances, a Mental Challenge would be needed to determine if the �touch� were successful.
Sheilding:
This creates a powerful Psycic and physical Sheilding around the Kindred, or whomever he wishes to Sheild, using mind and air energies. The original creation of the sheilds takes intense concentration, but once erected is relatively easy to maintain. This Sheilding can stop �Mind Touch�, �Telepathy�, and �Mind Reading� for example, or a thrown knife, and some magical attacks, like �Flamebolt� The Shielding permits two extra Challenges to anything sent against him, even one success means that the attack didn�t get through. At the ST�s discression, the creator of the Shield may have to perform a Mental Challenge during times of duress and if it is failed, lose their Shielding.
Mind Reading:
This Discipline lets the Caster read the surface thoughts of the victim. The caster must win a Mental Challenge agaist the victim to �hear� his thoughts.
Telepathy:
This Discipline allows the Caster to speak in the mind of the person of his choosing. The victim can choose to resist hearing the Telepathy using a Mental Challenge, or can answer back with their own thoughts and be heard by the sender. Works much like the Auspex Discipline of the same name.
note: the next section of paths is from an unknown source, if you know were they came from , please email me and I will be sure to post the credits
Path of Bioluminescence
Description:This path was mentioned in passing in a Sabbat book, but never developed. As w/ any Path, make a Willpower roll; the difficulty is the level of the Path being invoked +3.
1. Corpse Candle This conjures on ones self a ball of light of lantern or torch intensity. The caster can leave the ball adhering to his hand or set it to follow him at arms' length for as long as desired. He can also 'program' it to proceed at walking, jogging or running pace in a straight line away from himself as he desires. Most casters simply keep it following at arms' length & then command it as necessary, as the caster can choose to concentrate at any time (counts as an action) & change its orders. It's difficult to use to effectively blind mobile targets as the caster can't control it fine enough for such attacks, although a caster w/ the ball on his palm can simply slap his illuminated hand over another persons face & cause her to blinded for as long as his hand remains plus 1 die turns thereafter (Make a Stamina + Fortitude roll, Difficulty 6, for each success reduce duration by 1 turn, down to 0). Extra successes on the initial Willpower roll can be spent to add hours of duration and/or to create additional balls. 1 success creates 1 ball lasting 1 hour. The balls can be red, green or amber & extinguish at the caster's will or upon his death.
2) Circle of Light This level allows the caster to clearly illumine a 10' radius w/ light of daylight intensity (although the light is usually silvery & looks nothing like sunlight). The light normally lasts 10 minutes & can come from the caster & move w/ him or can be focused upon an area or item (which costs one Blood Point & it is the spilt blood which glows) & be mobile only if the area or item is mobile. Extra successes on the initial Willpower roll allows the caster to double the radius or the duration, w/ cumulative effect, meaning that a caster w/ 5 successes can spend the extra 4 on radius & light up a 160' radius area for 10 minutes or on duration to light a 10' radius for 2 & 1/2 hours! Upon creation the caster can choose to tint the light red, green or amber (amber will force Rotschroek checks for Setites or Photophobes) or to make it dimmer, but he cannot change it, except to will it out of existence, thereafter.
3) Faux Fire The caster can now mimic the Path, Lure of Flames, creating realistic-looking, but harmless, fires from his body. The Fire is normally cool & harmless (Difficulty to avoid Rotschroek is normally 2 less, although the caster can spend a Blood Point upon creation to make the fire feel hot & exposure to 'Hot' Faux Fire causes Rotschroek at only 1 less Difficulty). The flames start on the Thaumaturgist, although he can make them snake off of him (although they cannot jump more than arms' length & must usually snake along some sort of surface, even if that surface is water!) by concentration (acts as an action) & form into writings, engulf another or even shape into a small humanoid figure (such stunts require a Manipulation + Occult roll, Difficulty 6 for the engulfment, 7 for the humanoid & 8 for the writing). The fire normally lasts only a turn, but the caster can maintain it through concentration (no actions, move only Dexterity yards turn). 'Hot' Faux Fire is actually only about 100 degrees Fahrenheit, but the initial shock is what matters in this case. Clever Thaumaturgists maintain 'hot' fire on themselves for a few minutes to 'warm up' before going to a social occasion or into a wintry night.
4) Piercing the Gloom From his palms or face the caster can create a silvery searchlight intensity beacon of light, potentially blinding his foes & revealing things hidden inthe night. To strike another in the face & temporarily blind her he must make a roll of Dexterity + Firearms (Difficulty 8 for a target w/ a roughly human-sized head, Difficulty 6 against those w/ Heightened Senses active on their eyes or the Setite Clan Weakness (or the similar Flaw). The blindness will last for one die turns (minus one turn per success on a Stamina + Fortitude roll, Difficulty 6, w/ those vulnerable types mentioned above not getting to roll this 'soak' at all!) + the turn that the beam initially hit (the caster can maintain the beam on the face from turn to turn so long as he keeps his aim by succeeding in a new accuracy roll each turn to maintain the beam, the d10 turns do not begin until the beam leaves the victims face & he must reroll the 1d10 each turn to check for larger results (do not add the results, simply take the longest). The beam normally lasts only 1 turn, but successes can be spent to add turns to the duration on a 1-for-1 basis. The beam normally clearly illuminates the undersides of clouds & allows figures to be seen (if not identified) at 120' or more. Repeated use against mortals can cause permanent visual impairment. Any foe blinded by this power can take only limited actions, most at +4 Difficulty, unless he has Blind-Fighting skill & or other Heightened Senses to carry the slack for his useless eyes.
4) Phoebus' Arrows This power acts much like the above power, but requires a Blood Point to activate & produces a searchlight-like beacon of pure sunlight. Most Kindred will enter Rotschroek (Difficulty 8 to avoid) & take 1 to 3 Aggravated Wounds (depending upon attire) at the touch of this beam (which can only hit one target / turn, barring the use of Celerity), & all present when it is conjured must make Rotschroek checks (Difficulty 7, w/ some minuses, depending on their Flaws or Clan Weaknesses), including the caster (although he has a Difficulty of 2 & must essentially Botch to fail). The number of successes determines the intensity of the sunlight (1 success, Difficulty 3 to soak, 2 successes = Difficulty 5 to soak, 3 successes = Difficulty 7 to soak, 4 successes = Difficulty 9 to soak & w/ 5 successes the difficulty to soak the sunlight's wounds is 10). Any extra successes can be spent to add turns to the rays' duration on a one for one basis. To hit another person w/ the ray requires a Dexterity + Firearms roll, Difficulty 7 on the turn it is created & Difficulty 6 on any subsequent turns (it is easier to aim when it is visible, acting as its own laser sight!). Note that non-Kindred can still be blinded by this ray as w/ Piercing the Gloom, above, although no special results are possible. As an added bonus, the rays also destroy most Obtenebration manifestations on contact.