Discipliner
Animalism
Auspex
Celerity
Chimerstry
Daimoinon
Dark Thaumaturgy
Dementation
Dominate
Fear Liath More
Fortitude
Koldunic Sorcery
Melpominee
Mytherceria
Necromancy
Obeah
Obfuscate
Obtenebration
Potence
Presence
Protean
Quietus
Sanguinus
Serpentis
Temporis
Thanatosis
Thaumaturgical Countermagic
Thaumaturgy
Valeren
Vicissitude
Visceratika
The Discipline of Thaumaturgy encompasses blood magic and other sorcerous arts. Thaumaturgy is the unique possession of the Tremere and one of its most jealously guarded secrets. Certain Kindred rumors even speak of mystic cabals of Tremere that hunt down those thaumaturges who are not members of the Warlocks' clan.
Clan Tremere created this Discipline by combining mortal wizardry with the power ofvampiric vitae. Though its existence is not widely known by mortal mages and wizards, it is seen as a disreputable aberration of true magick by those familiar with it.
Thaumaturgy is a versatile and powerful Discipline. Like Necromancy, its practice is divided into two parts: paths and rituals. Thaumaturgical paths are applications of the vampire's knowledge of blood magic, allowing her to create effects at her whim. Rituals are more formulaic in nature, most akin to the ancient magical "spells" of bygone nights. Because so many different paths and rituals are available to the arcane Tremere, one never knows what to expect when confronted with a practitioner of this Discipline.
When a character first learns Thaumaturgy, the player selects a path for the character. That path is considered the character's primary path, and she automatically receives one dot in it, as well as one Level One ritual. Thereafter, whenever the character increases her level in Thaumaturgy, her score in the primary path increases by one as well. Rituals are learned separately, as part of a story; players need not pay experience points for their characters to learn rituals, though they must find someone to teach the rituals in question.
Path ratings never exceed Level Five, though the overall Thaumaturgy score may (higher levels of Disciplines will be covered in future products ).Ifa character reaches Level Five in her primary path and increases her Thaumaturgy score afterward, she may allocate her "free" path dot to a different path. Thaumaturges may create their own paths (through player and Storyteller collaboration) once they achieve the sixth level of Thaumaturgy.
Many vampires (wisely) fear the Discipline of Thaumaturgy. It is a very potent and mutable Discipline, and almost anything the Kindred wishes may be accomplished through its magic.
Thaumaturgical Paths
Paths define the types of magic a vampire can perform. A vampire typically learns his primary path from his sire, though it is not unknown for some vampires to study under many different tutors and learn all their secrets.
As mentioned before, the first path a character learns is considered her primary path and increases automatically as the character advances in the Discipline itself. Secondary paths may be learned once the character has acquired two or more dots in her primary path, and they must be raised separately with experience points. Furthermore, a character's rating in her
primary path must always be at least one dot higher than any of her secondary paths until she has mastered her primary path. Once the character has achieved mastery of the fifth level of her primary path, secondary paths may be increased to that level.
System: Each time the character invokes one of the powers of a Thaumaturgical path, the thaumaturge's player must spend a blood point and make a Willpower roll against a difficulty of the power's level +3. Only one success is required to invoke a path's effect - path levels, not successes, govern the power of blood magic. Failure on this roll indicates that the blood magic fails, while a botch signifies that the character loses a permanent Willpower point. Obviously, Thaumaturgy is not an art in which one merely "dabbles."
Vampire: the Masquerade
The Path of Blood (Blodets väg) - Den vanligaste vägen som nästan alla Tremerer lär sig först.
The Lure of Flames (Flammornas väg) - En fruktad förmåga med vilken man kan framkalla en onaturlig eld.
Movement of the Mind (Telekinesi) - Som namnet antyder, förmågan att levitera objekt med tankekraft.
The Path of Conjuring (Frammanandets väg) - Låter användaren trolla fram objekt ur tomma intet.
Hands of Destruction (Förstörelsens händer) - En väg som korroderar materia, eller förtvinar mänskokött.
Guide to the Camarilla
Elemental Mastery (Elementens väg) - Den här vägen ger dig makt över livlösa objekt och andarna i dem.
The Green Path (Den gröna vägen) - Ger magikern inflytande över växter.
Neptune's Might (Neptunus makt) - Påverkar vatten i alla dess former.
The Path of Corruption (Korruptionens väg) - Orsakar tillfälligt moralisk svaghet hos ett offer.
The Path of Technomancy (Teknomatik) - En relativt ny väg som har att göra med teknologi.
Spirit Manipulation (Andebesvärjandets väg) - Låter dig att tala med och bemästra varelser i andevärlden.
Weather Control (Väderkontroll) - En väg som förekommer inom många kulturer av blodsmagi.
Guide to the Sabbat
The Path of Mars (Mars väg) - En krigisk väg som förstärker ens färdighet i strid.
The Path of the Father's Vengeance (Faderns hämnd) - Syftar till att utbringa Kains hämnd mot sina egna barn genom att vända vampyrismen mot dem.
Blood Magic: Secrets of Thaumaturgy
Alchemy (Alkemins väg)- Förvandling av grandämnen och förädling av materia.
Biothaumaturgy (Biotaumaturgi) - Experimentell väg som fokuserar på biologi och kraften att ge "liv".
The Focused Mind (Inre Fokus) - Förmåga att genom koncentration finna lugn och klarhet i problem.
The Hearth Path (Fristadens väg) - Diverse förmågor som ger kontroll och säkerhet i den egna boningen.
Mastery of the Mortal Shell (Marionettspelare) - Ger dig kontroll över ditt offers muskelrörelser.
Oneiromancy (Drömvävandets väg) - Spådomskraft via drömmar, samt påverkan av andras drömmar.
Path of the Blood's Curse (Blodsförbannelsens väg) - Intensifierar en vampyrisk förbannelse hos ett offer.
Path of Curses (Onda Ögat) - Förbannar en annan socialt och gör honom till paria i andras ögon.
Path of Transmutation (Transmutation) - Avart av Alkemi som påverkar samansättningen hos ett ämne.
The Vine of Dionysus (Dinonysos rankor) - Försätter offret i hallucinogen extas genom magisk berusning.
The Faux Path (Den falska vägen) - En komplex väg som imiterar Taumaturgi eller andra Discipliner.
Clanbook: Tremere
Path of the Levinbolt (Blixtens väg) - Samlar elektrisk energi till stötar eller blixtnedslag.
The Path of Shadowcrafting (Skuggvävarens väg) - En väg som förtrollar skuggor och råder över mörkret.
Cairo by Night
Soul of the Serpent (Ormens själ) - En väg som behandlar ormar. Behärskas av Tremereklanen i Kairo.
Thaumaturgical Rituals
Rituals are Thaumaturgical formulas, meticulously researched and prepared, that create powerful magical effects. Rituals are less versatile than paths, as their effects are singular and straightforward, but they are better suited toward specific ends.
All thaumaturges have the ability to use rituals, though each individual ritual must be learned separately. By acquainting herself with the arcane practice of blood magic, the thaumaturge gains the capacity to manipulate these focused effects.
Thaumaturgical rituals are rated from 1 to 5, each level corresponding to both the level of mastery of Thaumaturgy the would-be caster must possess and the relative power of the ritual itself. Unless stated otherwise, a ritual requires five minutes per level to cast. For example, Andreas the Tremere wishes to cast Ward Versus Ghouls, a Level Two Ritual. Invoking this ritual requires 10 minutes, and Andreas must know Thaumaturgy at 2 or greater.
System: Casting rituals requires a successful Intelligence + Occult roll, for which the difficulty equals 3 + the level of the ritual (maximum 9). Only one success is required for a ritual to work, though certain spells may require more successes or have variable effects based on how well the caster's roll goes. This uncertainty of effect is a recent development; Tremere rituals formerly worked infallibly, so long as the caster executed them successfully. Many thaumaturges fear that the movements of awakening Antediluvians have caused imbalance in the flow of magic, making the success of rituals more precarious than in previous nights. Should a roll to activate a ritual fail, the Storyteller is encouraged to create strange occurrences or side
effects, or even make it appear that the ritual was successful, only to reveal its failure at a later time. A botched ritual roll may even indicate a catastrophic failure or summon an ill-tempered demon…
Rituals sometimes require special ingredients or reagents to work - these are noted in each ritual's description. Commoncomponents include herbs, animal bones, ceremonial items, feathers, eye of newt, tongue of toad, etc. Acquiring magical components for a powerful ritual may form the basis for an entire story.
At the first level of Thaumaturgy, the vampire automatically gains a single Level One ritual. To learn further rituals, the thaumaturge must find someone to teach him, or learn the ritual from a scroll, tome or other archive. Learning a new ritual can take anywhere from a few nights (Level One ritual) to months or years (Level Five ritual). Some dread Warlocks have
studied individual rituals for decades, even centuries. Precisely what these rituals do is unknown, but their effects are surely grave.
Level One Thaumaturgical Rituals
Bind the Accusing Tongue
This ancient ritual is said to have been one of the first developed by the Tremere and a primary reason for the lack of cohesive opposition to their expansion. Bind the Accusing Tongue lays a compulsion upon the subject that prevents him from speaking ill of the caster, allowing the thaumaturge to commit literally unspeakable acts without fear of reprisal.
System: The caster must have a picture or other image or effigy of the ritual's target, a lock of the targets hair and a black silken cord. The caster winds the cord around the hair and image while intoning the ritual's vocal component. Once the ritual is complete, the target must score more successes on a Willpower roll (difficulty of the caster's Thaumaturgy rating + 3) than the caster scored in order to say anything negative about the thaumaturge. The ritual lasts until the target succeeds at this roll or the silk cord is unwound, at which point the image and the lock of hair crumble to dust.
Blood Into Water
NYbN,48
Blood Mastery
Whispered rumors tell that one should never allow the Tremere to gain access to the blood of another vampire. Paranoid tales in hushed tones tell of the Tremere's mastery over other Kindred through the sole use of a small quantity of vitae. While modern, cosmopolitan Kindred scoff at such tales, even they are careful not to let their blood fall into the wrong hands, just in case.
Such caution, though, is well-deserved. A Tremere with even rudimentary understanding of blood can focus its power into sympathetic forms. By destroying another Kindred's blood, the Tremere gains symbolic power over that Kindred. This in turn allows the Tremere to manifest his supremacy over the victim.
System: The thaumaturge must mix a tiny quantity of his own vitae (a negligible amount, less than a point) with that of his victim, then slowly burn it in a fire or boil the blood slowly over an open flame. The caster speaks the phrases of symmetry as he finishes. Once complete, the Tremere has magical mastery over the victim, however briefly.
Successful completion of the Blood Mastery ritual guarantees a victory of some degree over the victim. In the next contention that the caster brings against the victim, the ritualist automatically succeeds. If the task would require some roll, the caster garners one success automatically, but no more (and cannot roll or spend Willpower to improve the roll). This means that the caster is guaranteed a marginal success against his opponent. Of course, it may not be in a fashion that the thaumaturge desires - one success alone is not enough to decapitate an enemy, but it might influence him briefly with the Dominate Discipline. Similarly, if the victim takes som action first, the ritual is of no help if the caster's player could not normally make a countering roll. For example, the caster would still be subject to an opponent's use of Presence, because he may not normally make a roll to resist. If the victim uses some Discipline that would require the caster to resist, though, then the thaumaturge automatically counters it and thus ends the power of the ritual.
Blood Mastery can only guarantee success in one limited endeavor - a thaumaturge cannot burn multiple points of blood to gain additional successes or success on multiple consecutive actions. Once the ritual is in place it must be discharged before it can be invoked again against the same subject. Blood Mastery expires if its effects remain unused by sunrise.
Blood Rush
This ritual allows the vampire to create the sensation of drinking blood in himself without actually feeding. The ritual can be used for pleasure, but it is more often used to prevent frenzy when confronted with fresh blood. The vampire must carry the fang of a predatory animal on his person for this ritual to work.
System: Performance of the ritual results in the Beast being kept in check automatically. Blood Rush allays the Beast for one hour, at which point the Cainite feels hungry again (assuming he did before). This ritual takes only one turn to enact.
Brand of the Paramour
BM:SoT,87
Communicate with Kindred Sire
By enacting this ritual, a Tremere may join minds with her sire, speaking telepathically with him over any distance. The communication may continue until the ritual expires or until either party ends the conversation. The caster must possess an item once owned by her sire for the ritual to work.
System: The caster must meditate for 30 minutes to create the connection. Conversation may be maintained for 10 minutes per success on the activation roll.
Dedicate the Chantry
Tremere chantries typically house arcane books, special resources, servants and other major assets. It's no wonder they're so closely guarded. One common practice includes the casting of various wards over a chantry site, to prevent unauthorized entry and to make the place difficult to locate. Dedicate the Chantry expedited this process, making it easier to place subsequent enchantments over the area.
To Dedicate the Chantry, the caster must walk a counterclockwise circle around the entire grounds and sprinkle stagnant water as he travels. Once the ring is complete, the thaumaturge must return to the (rough) center and anount his hands with the stale water, then the lowest level of the floor.
System: A dedication functions over a single building, so a complex of homes or an estate and grounds may require several castings. Once dedicated, the chantry is open to more defenses; any site ritual cast over the chantry, from a ward to potent magics like Deny the Intruder, has its casting difficulty lowered by one.
Defense of the Sacred Haven
This ritual prevents sunlight from entering an area within 20 feet of this ritual's casting. A mystical darkness blankets the area, keeping the baneful light at bay. Sunlight reflects off windows or magically fails to pass through doors or other portals. The caster draws sigils in her own blood on all the affected windows and doors, and the ritual lasts as long as the Tremere stays within the 20-foot radius.
System: This ritual requires one hour to perform, during which the thaumaturge recites incantations and inscribes glyphs. One blood point is required for this ritual to work.
Deflection of Wooden Doom
This ritual protects the Tremere from being staked, whether or not she is resting or active. While this ritual is in effect, the first stake that would pierce the Tremere's heart disintegrates in the attacker's hand. A stake merely held near the Tremere is unaffected; for this ritual to work, the stake must actively be used in an attempt to impale the vampire.
System: The thaumaturge must surround herself with a circle of wood for a full hour. Any wood will work: furniture, sawdust, raw timber, 2' x 4's, whatever. The circle must remain unbroken, however. At the end of the hour, the vampire places a wooden splinter under her tongue. If this splinter is removed, the ritual is nullified. This ritual lasts until the following dawn or dusk.
Dominoe of Life
A vampire wanting or needing to simulate a human characteristic can do so once Dominoe of Life is cast. For one entire night, the vampire can eat, breathe, maintain a 98.6-degree body temperature, assume a human flesh tone or display some other single trait of humankind she desires. Note that only one trait can be replicated in this fashion. The vampire must have a vial of fresh human blood on his person to maintain this ritual.
System: Using this ritual adds one die to the thaumaturge's Masquerade dice pool (see the Vampire Storytellers Companion). Unless onlookers are especially wary, the Dominoe of Life should fool them into thinking the caster is mortal - not that they should have any reason to suspect otherwise.
Encrypt Missive
To insure that messages remain secure against prying eyes, the Tremere sometimes use this ritual the encode documents magically. Created during nights long past to send messages across battle lines or hostile borders, this ritual is not used as often in the age of electronic communications, but is occasionally used to communicate between chantries. Also, this is a fairly common ritual – many anarchs of the Anarch Free State seem to have learned it, and use it to encrypt graffiti messages to others of their kind.
System: The Thaumaturge writes the message in blood over the course of a night and speaks the name of the person he wishes to read it. Only the writer and the person to whom the letter is addressed can read the document, but numerous “counter-rituals” exist that can be used to confound the magic of this ritual. To any others who observe the letter, the writing simply appears as gibberish.
BM:SoT,87
Engaging the Vessel of Transference
This ritual enchants a container to fill itself with blood from any living or unliving being who holds it, replacing the volume of blood taken with an equal amount previously held inside the container. When the ritual is enacted, the vessel (which must be between the size of a small cup and a gallon jug) is sealed full of the caster's blood and inscribed with the Hermetic sigil which empowers the ritual. Whenever an individual touches the container with his bare skin, he feels a slight chill against his flesh but no further discomfort. The container continues to exchange the blood it contains until it is opened. The two most common uses of this ritual are to covertly create a blood bond and to obtain a sample of subject's blood for ritual or experimental purposes.
System: This ritual takes three hours to enact (reduced by 15 minutes for each success on the casting roll) and requires one blood point (although not necessarily the caster's blood), which is sealed inside the container. The ritual only switches blood between itself and a subject if it is touched bare-handed - even thin cotton gloves keep it from activating.
Individuals with at least four dots in Occult or three in Expert Knowledge: Mage Lore recognize the Hermetic sigil with two successes on an Intelligence + the appropriate Knowledge roll (difficulty 8).
Expedient Paperwork
BM:SoT,87
Illuminate Trail of Prey
This ritual causes the path of the subject's passing to glow in a manner that only the thaumaturge can see. The footprints or tire tracks (or whatever) shine distinctly, but only to the eyes of the caster. Even airplane trajectories and animal tracks shine with unhealthy light. The ritual is nullified if the target wades through or immerses himself in water, or if he reaches the destination of his journey. The thaumaturge must burn a length of white satin ribbon that has been in her possession for at least 24 hours for this ritual to take effect.
System: The thaumaturge must have a mental picture of or know the name of her prey. The individual's wake glows with a brightness dependent on how long it has been since he passed that way - old tracks burn less brightly, while fresh tracks blaze.
Impressive Visage
A thaumaturge may enhance his sexual appeal and charm when interacting with other individuals after casting this ritual. When this ritual is cast, the thaumaturge gains a degree of animal attractiveness; he's simply more desireable than everyone else and commands attention as if he were a top model. For this ritual to take effect, the caster places a sprig of dried mint in a pocket or in his shoe.
System: The caster gains two dice on all Appearance-related rolls for the duration of this ritual. This power lasts for a number of hours equal to the successes scored on the activation roll. Storytellers may opt to narrow the use of this ritual by having a player dedicate one of the character's characteristics of being more appealing above and beyond his other attributes. Hence, the character might gain a bonus when staring into a person's eyes, speaking in a deep baritone voice, flashing a pearl-white smile, etc.
Incantation of the Shepherd
This ritual enables the thaumaturge to mystically locate all members of his herd. While intoning the ritual's vocal component, he spins in a slow cirlce with a class object of some sort held to each of his eyes. At the end of the ritual, he has a subliminal sense of the direction and distance to each of his regular vessels.
System: This ritual gives the character the location relative to him of every member of his herd. If he does not have the Herd Background, Incantation of the Shepherd locates the closest three mortals from whom the thaumaturge has fed at least three times each. This ritual has a maximum range of 10 miles times the character's Herd Background, or five miles if he has no points in that Background.
Learning the Mind Enslumbered
BM:SoT,90
Luminous Vitae
NYbN,48
Purge the Inner Demon
BM:SoT,90
Purify Blood
Kindred learned to be cautious of diseased vessels during the Black Plague. Experimentation showed that most diseases, even blood-borne ones, rarely have any effect upon Kindred, but that vampires can carry such diseases and pass them to their victims. Cautious Tremre can use a simple rite to insure that blood remains safe to drink. The caster simply decants the blood into a suitable container and makes a few passes of his hand over it, combined with some thaumaturgical phrases and a mixture of ash and ginger. The blood lightens slightly in color if the ritual succeeds, and the rite cleanses all poinson or disease from the sample.
Unfortunately, Purify Blood does not function on blood that's still in a creature's system. The ritual therefore cannot cleanse a human of disease or make drinking from such a vessel safe; it will only purify blood that is removed from the human first. Some vampires shun this ritual because of the extra work involved in securing blood without the Kiss, and the less-than-satisfactory taste (not to mention the lack of a warm, beating pulse) definitely puts off Kindred connoisseurs. For these reasons, Purify Blood remains more a survival ritual during desperate epidemics, not a nightly staple. (See also Cleansing the Flesh and Purity of Flesh for other applications of this ritual's principles.)
System: A surpassingly simple ritual, Purify Blood requires only a minimal investment in time and effort. The caster can tell from the color of the blood if the rite succeeds.
Purify Blood functions on up to one point of blood. Because of the volume limitations, Purify Blood can cleanse only one blood at a time (unless used on the vitae of very low-generation vampires). Poisons, diseases and other mixtures are removed, while foreign substances bubble to the top. However, the ritual does not in any way change the potency of the blood; vitae can still cause a blood bond, and blood rendered acidic or caustic by a Discipline (like Quietus or Vicissitude) cannot be cleansed. This ritual cannot counter the Vaulderie (nor is it stealthy enough to perform unnoticed in the midst of such a rite). Rotten, solidified or otherwise befouled blood also vanishes if subjected to this ritual, so a vampire needn't fear gagging on old, dead blood.
Purity of the Flesh
The caster cleanses her body of all foreign material with this ritual. To perform it, she meditates on bare earth or stone while surrounded by a cirlce of 13 sharp stones. Over the course of the ritual, the caster is slowly purged of all physical impurities: dirt, alcohol, drugs, poison, bullets lodged in the flesh and tattoo ink are all equally affected, slowly rising to the surface of the caster's skin and flaking away as a gritty gray film that settles within the circle. Any jewelry, makeup or clothes that the caster is wearing are also dissolved..
System: The player spends one blood point before rolling. Purity of the Flesh removes all physical items from the caster's body, but does not remove enchantments, mind control or diseases of the blood.
Rebirth of Mortal Vanity
BM:SoT,90
Rite of Introduction
The Tremere use this ritual as the formal method of presentation for arrivals in a new city. However, it is an old ritual and not as widely used as it once was. Many young members of the clan are not even aware of its existence. Still, some traditional regents insist on its use and tolerate no excuses for a breach of courtesy. It is also possible to use this ritual to request aid. The caster boils a handful of ground tamarisk root in a pot of rainwater and recites a short incantation into the vapors that form over the water, then adds a drop of galangal oil. He then speaks a brief message, which is telepathically communicated first to the regent, and then to the other clan members in the city according to their place in the hierarchy. The ritual allows the regent to reply telepathically, though she is bound to do so only by tradition.
System: The caster may make a 30-second "introduction speech" in which he presents himself to the other members of the city. The ritual also enables telepathic communication with the regent for five minutes.
Sanguineous Phial
BM:SoT,90
Scent of the Lupine's Passing
Developed in a besieged Carpathian chantry where Tremere fell as often to the claws of night-black Lupines as to the other clans, this simple ritual lets the caster scent Lupines in the area. The thaumaturge prepares a small herbal bundle with milkweed, wolfsbane, sage and a handful of simple grass. With a short set of phrases she takes a whiff from the mixture, after which she can immediately tell any Lupine by scent. This does not mean that she can detect Lupines at a distance, merely that she can tell is a specific person's smell happens to be Lupine, which can be useful when combined with augumented senses.
System: The thaumaturge simply completes the ritual and sniffs from the herbal bundle. Afterward, she can detect Lupines by scent; actually sniffing someone up close would require no roll, but catching a scent at a distance of a few feet might take a Perception + Alertness roll (difficulty 6). Detecting a Lupine hidden around a corner, for example, could increase the difficulty to 8. This scent distinction lasts for an entire scene.
Sense the Mystical
BM:SoT,91
Serenading the Kami
BM:SoT,91
The Imp's Afflection
BM:SoT,89
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 to computer files - which their elders almost universally decry as vulgar. This ritual requires the beak of a bird or the tongue of a lizard to be crushed between the caster's thumb and forefinger.
System: For the duration of the scene, any words spoken by the thaumaturge are transcribed to whatever surface she wishes. This is most commonly paper (whether loose or bound into a book), but may also be a wall, the head of a pin, anything. The Scribe automatically fits the thaumaturge's ideas on a given surface, but it makes no provisions for legibility; transcribing all 400 pages of The Seventh Sigil onto a note card isn't going to make it readable without a microscope. Additionally, the Scribe does not improve the speakers eloquence - in matters where clarity or quality is crucial, the speaker's Expression Trait may come into play. The Scribe may be cast on someone other than the thaumaturge, should the latter so wish. Also, she may voluntarily end the effects of the power before the end of the scene.
Wake with Evenings Freshness
This ritual allows a Tremere to awaken at any sign of danger, especially during the day. If any potentially harmful circumstances arise, the Tremere immediately rises, ready to face the problem. This ritual requires the ashes of burned feathers to be spread over the area in which the Kindred wishes to sleep.
System: This ritual must be performed immediately before the Tremere settles down to slumber for the day. Any interruption to the ceremonial casting renders the ritual ineffective. If danger arises, the Tremere awakens and may ignore the Humanity dice pool limit rule for the first two turns of consciousness. Thereafter, the penalty takes effect, but the Tremere will have already risen and will be able to address problematic situations.
Widow's Spite
This ritual causes a pain, itch or other significant (but not deadly) sensation in the subject. Similar in effect to the old "voodoo doll" effects, this ritual is used more out of scorn or malice than actual enmity. In fact, it requires a wax or cloth doll that resembles the target, which bleeds when the power takes effect.
System: The ceremonial doll must resemble, however rudely, the victim of the ritual. It produces no mechanical effect, other than a simple physical stimulus. The caster may determine where on the subject's body the pain or itch appears.
Level Two Thaumaturgical Rituals
Blood Mead BM:SoT,91
Blood Walk
A thaumaturge casts this ritual on a blood sample from another vampire. Blood Walk is used to trace the subject's Kindred lineage and the blood bonds in which the subject is involved.
System: This ritual requires three hours to cast, reduced by 15 minutes for each success on the roll. It requires one blood point from the subject. Each success allows the caster to "see back" one generation, giving the caster both the True Name of the ancestor and an image of his face. The caster also learns the generation and clan or bloodline from which the subject is descended. With three successes, the caster also learns the identities of all parties with whom the subject shares a blood bond, either as regnant or thrall.
Bureaucratic Condemnation BM:SoT,91
Burning Blade
Developed during Clan Tremere's troubled inception, Burning Blade allows a thaumaturge to temporarily enchant a melee weapon to inflict unhealable wounds on supernatural creatures. While this ritual is in effect, the weapon flickers with an unholy greenish flame.
System: This ritual can only be cast on melee weapons. The caster must cut the palm of her weapon hand during the ritual - with the weapon if it is edged, otherwise with a sharp stone. This inflicts a single health level of lethal damage which cannot be soaked but may be healed normally. The player spends three blood points which are absorbed by the weapon. Once the ritual is cast, the weapon inflicts aggravated damage on all supernatural creatures for the next few successful attacks, one per success rolled. Multiple castings of Burning Blade cannot be "stacked" for longer durations. Furthermore, the wielder of the weapon cannot choose to do normal damage and "save up" aggravated strikes - each successful attack uses one aggravated strike until there are none left, at which point the weapon reverts to inflicting normal damage.
Craft Bloodstone BM:SoT,92
Deny the Intruder CB:T,58
Donning the Mask of Shadows
This ritual renders its subject translucent, her form appearing dark and smoky and the sounds of her footsteps muffled. While it does not create true invisibility, the Mask of Shadows makes the subject much less likely to be detected by sight or hearing.
System: This ritual may be simultaneously cast on a number of subjects equal to the thaumaturge's Occult rating; each individual past the first adds five minutes to the base casting time. Individuals under the Mask of Shadows can only be detected if the observer succeeds in a Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty of the caster's Wits + Occult) or if the observer possesses a power (such as Auspex) sufficient to penetrate Level Three Obfuscate. The Mask of Shadows lasts a number of hours equal to the number of successes rolled when it is cast or until the caster voluntarily lowers it.
Enhancing the Curse BM:SoT,92
Extinguish BM:SoT,92
Eyes of the Night Hawk
This ritual allows the vampire to see through the eyes of a bird, and to hear through its ears. The bird chosen must be touched by the vampire when the ritual is initiated, and it must be a predatory bird. At the end of this ritual, the caster must put out the bird's eyes, lest she suffer blindness herself.
System: The vampire is able to mentally control where the bird travels for the duration of the ritual. The bird will not necessarily perform any other action than flight-the thaumaturge cannot command it to fight, pick up and return an object or scratch a target. The bird returns to the vampire after finishing its flight. If the vampire does not put out the bird's eyes, she suffers a three-night period of blindness. This ritual ceases effect at sunrise; if the bird has not reached its destination or is too far from the vampire for the final step to be taken, too bad, Dracula.
Impassable Trail BM:SoT,93
Inscription CB:T,58
Jinx BM:SoT,93
Machine Blitz
Machines go haywire when this ritual is cast. It takes effect instantly and lasts as long as the vampire concentrates on it. This ritual may be used to kill car engines, erase computer media, crash ticker-tape machines, stop life-support machines, et cetera. Essentially, Machine Blitz ceases any machine more complex than a rope-and-pulley. The thaumaturge must have a scrap of rusted metal in her possession for this ritual to work, though some vampires use a variant that requires a knot steeped in human saliva to be untied.
System: This ritual only stops machines; it does not grant any control over them. The effects of this ritual are invisible and not necessarily obvious - these things just seem to happen by coincidence.
Mourning Life Curse BM:SoT,93
Obscure the Malice NYbN,48
Principal Focus of Vitae Infusion
This ritual imbues a quantity of blood within the object upon which the ritual is cast. The object must be small enough for the vampire to carry in both hands, and it may be as small as a dime. After the ritual is conducted, the object takes on a reddish hue and becomes slick to the touch. At a mental command, the thaumaturge may release the object from its enchantment, causing it to break down into a pool of blood. This blood may serve whatever purpose the vampire desires; many Tremere wear enchanted baubles to ensure they have emergency supplies of vitae.
System: An object may store only one blood point of vitae. If a Kindred wishes to make an infused focus for an ally, she may do so, but the blood contained within must be her own (and if the ally then drinks the blood, he is one step closer to the blood bond). The ally must be present at the creation of the focus.
Recure of the Homeland
The vampire calls on the power of the earth to heal grave wounds she may have received. The thaumaturge must use at least a handful of dirt from the city or town of her mortal birth and recite a litany of her family tree as she casts this ritual.
System: The Cainite must mix the earth with two points of her own blood to make a healing paste. One handful will heal one aggravated wound, and only one handful can be used per night.
Ritual's Recognition CB:T,59
Steps of the Terrified BM:SoT,93
The Open Passage CB:T,59
Trima BM:SoT,93
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 point's worth of blood over the object he wishes to ward (a piece of parchment, a coin, a doorknob, etc.), and recites the incantation, which takes 10 minutes. In 10 hours, 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 point of Willpower to 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-caliber 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 Firearms roll.
Warding Circle Versus Ghouls
This ritual is enacted in a manner similar to that of Ward versus Ghouls (see Level 1 Rituals), but creates a circle centered on the caster into which a ghoul cannot pass without being burned. The circle can be made as large and as permanent as the caster desires, as long as she is willing to pay the necessary price. Many Tremere chantries and havens are protected by this and other Warding Circle rituals.
System: The ritual requires three blood points of mortal blood. The caster determines the size of the warding circle when it is cast; the default radius is 10 feet, and every 10-foot increase raises the difficulty by one, to a maximum of 9 (one additional success is required for every 10-foot increase past the number necessary to raise the difficulty to 9). The player spends one blood point for every 10 feet of radius and rolls. The ritual takes the normal casting time if it is to be temporary (lasting for the rest of the night) or one night if it is to be permanent (lasting a year and a day).
Once the warding circle is established, any ghoul who attempts to cross its boundary feels a tingle on his skin and a slight breeze on his face - a successful Intelligence + Occult roll (difficulty 8) identifies this as a warding circle. If the ghoul attempts to press on, he must roll more successes on a Willpower roll (difficulty of the caster's Thaumaturgy rating + 3) than the caster rolled when establishing the ward. Failure indicates that the ward blocks his passage and inflicts three dice of bashing damage on him, and his next roll to attempt to enter the circle is at +1 difficulty. If the ghoul leaves the circle and attempts to enter it again, he must repeat the roll. Attempts to leave the circle are not blocked.
The Tremere have access to several other Warding Circle rituals: Warding Circle versus Lupines (Level Three), Warding Circle versus Kindred (Level Four), and Warding Circles versus Spirits, Ghosts, and Demons (Level Five). Each Warding Circle ritual must be learned separately. The material components required for each warding circle are the same as those needed for the corresponding ward, but in larger amounts. The effects against the targeted beings are the same as for Warding Circle versus Ghouls.
Whispers of the Ghost
BM:SoT,94
Level Three Thaumaturgical Rituals
A Touch of Nightshade
BM:SoT,95
Beacon of the Self
NYbN,38
Blood Allergy
BM:SoT,94
Cleansing of the Flesh
BM:SoT,94
Clinging of the Insect
Clinging of the Insect
This ritual allows the thaumaturge to cling to walls or ceilings, as would a spider. She may even crawl along these surfaces (as long as they can support her). Use of this power seriously discomfits mortal onlookers. The character must place a live spider under her tongue for the duration of the ritual (though the spider may die while in the thaumaturge's mouth).
System: The character may move at half her normal rate while climbing walls or ceilings. This power lasts for one scene., or until the vampire spits out the spider.
Craft Dream Catcher
BM:SoT,94
Flesh of Fiery Touch
This defensive ritual inflicts painful burns on anyone who deliberately touches the subject's skin. It requires the subject to swallow a small glowing ember, which does put off some thaumaturges with low pain thresholds. Some vain Tremere use this ritual purely for its subsidiary effect of darkening the subject's skin to a healthy sun-bronzed hue.
System: Flesh of Fiery Touch takes two hours to cast (reduced by 10 minutes per success). It requires a small piece of wood, coal or other common fuel source, which ignites and is swallowed at the end of the ritual. The subject who swallows the red-hot ember receives a single aggravated health level of damage (difficulty 6 to soak with Fortitude). Until the next sunset, anyone who touches the subject's flesh receives a burn that inflicts a single aggravated health level of damage (again, difficulty 6 to soak with Fortitude). The victim must voluntarily touch the subject; this damage is not inflicted if the victim is touched or accidentally comes in contact with the subject.
This ritual darkens the subject's skin to that which would be obtained by long-term exposure to the sun in a mortal. The tone is slightly unnatural and metallic, and is evidently artificial to any observer who succeeds in a Perception + Medicine roll (difficulty 8).
Incorporeal Passage
Use of this ritual allows the thaumaturge to make herself insubstantial. The caster becomes completely immaterial and thus is able to walk through walls, pass through closed doors, escape manacles, etc. The caster also becomes invulnerable to physical attacks for the duration of the ritual. The caster must follow a straight path through any physical objects, and may not draw back. Thus, a Kindred may walk through a solid wall, but may not walk down through the earth (as it would be impossible to reach the other side before the ritual lapsed). This ritual requires that the caster carry a shard from a shattered mirror to hold her image as she moves insubstantially.
System: This ritual lasts a number of hours equal to the number of successes scored on a Wits + Survival roll (difficulty 6). The thaumaturge may prematurely end the ritual (and, thus, her incorporeality) by turning the mirror shard away so that it no longer reflects her image.
Inhereted Affinity
CB:T,59
Major Creation
BM:SoT,94
Mirror of Second Sight
This object is an oval mirror no less than four inches wide; no more than 18 inches in length. It looks like a normal mirror, but is much more useful in the hands of a Sabbat thaumaturge. Once created, the mirror is used by the vampire to see the supernatural; it reflects the true form of Lupines and faeries and enables the owner to see ghosts as they move though the Underworld. The thaumaturge creates the mirror by bathing an ordinary mirror in a quantity of her own blood while reciting a ritual incantation.
System: The ritual requires one point of the vampire's blood. Thereafter, the mirror reflects images of other supernatural creatures' true forms - werewolves appear in their hulking man-wolf shapes, mages glow in a scintillating nimbus, wraiths become visible (in the mirror) and changelings appear in their natural aspect. Sometimes, the mirror also reveals those possessed of True Faith in clouds of golden light.
Pavis Foul Presence
The Tremere joke privately that this is their "ritual for the Ventrue." Kindred who invoke the Presence Discipline on the subject of this ritual find the effects of their Discipline reversed, as if they had used the power on themselves. For example, a vampire using Presence to instill utter fear in a Kindred under the influence of this ritual feels the fear herself. This ritual is an unbroken secret among the Tremere, and the Warlocks maintain that its use is unknown outside their clan. The magical component for this ritual is a length of blue silk, which must be worn around the neck of the person protected by the magic.
System: This ritual lasts until the sunrise after it is enacted. Note that the Presence Discipline power must actually succeed before being reversed by the ritual.
Power of the Pyramid
CB:T,60
Rutor's Hands
CB:T,60
Sanguine Assistant
Tremere often need laboratory assistants whom they can trust implicitly. As Tremere often trust no one whom they know and no one whom they do not, this ritual allows the intrepid thaumaturge to conjure a temporary servant. To cast the ritual, the vampire slices open his arm and bleeds into a specially prepared earthen bowl. The ritual sucks in and animates whatever random unimportant items the wizard happens to have lying around his workshop - glass beakers, dissection tools, pencils, crumpled papers, semiprecious stones - and binds the materials together into a small humanoid form animated by the power of the ritual and the blood. Oddly enough, this ritual almost never takes in any tool that the thaumaturge finds himself needing during the assistant's lifespan, nor does it take the physical components of any other ritual nor any living thing. The servant has no personality to speak of at first, but gradually adopts the mannerisms and thought processes that the thaumaturge desires in an ideal servant. Sanguine Assistants are temporary creations, but some Tremere become fond of their tiny accomplices and create the same one whenever the need arises.
System: The player spends five blood points and rolls. The servant created by the ritual stands a foot high and appears as a roughly humanoid shape composed of whatever the ritual sucked in for its own use. It lasts for one night per success rolled. At the end of the last night, the assistant crawls into the bowl used for its creation and falls apart. The assistant can be re-animated through another application of this ritual; if the thaumaturge so desires, it re-forms from the same materials with the same memories and personality.
A Sanguine Assistant has Strength and Stamina of 1 and Dexterity and Mental Attributes equal to those of the caster. It begins with no Social Attributes to speak of, but gains one dot per night in Charisma and Manipulation until its ratings are equal to those of the caster. It has all of the caster's Abilities at one dot lower than his own. A Sanguine Assistant is a naturally timid creature and flees if attacked, having only four health levels, though it will try to defend its master's life at the cost of its own. It has no Disciplines of its own, but has a full understanding of all of its master's Thaumaturgical knowledge and can instruct others if so commanded. A Sanguine Assistant is impervious to any mind-controlling Disciplines or magic, so completely is it bound to its creator's will.
Shaft of Belated Quiescence
This ritual turns an ordinary stake of rowan wood into a particularly vicious weapon. When the stake penetrates a vampire's body, the tip breaks off and begins working its way through the victim's flesh to his heart. The trip may take several minutes or several nights, depending on where the stake struck. The stake eludes attempts to dig it out, burrowing farther into the victim's body to escape surgery. The only Kindred who are immune to this internal attack are those who have had their hearts removed by Setites.
System: The ritual takes five hours to enact, minus 30 minutes per success. The stake must be carved of rowan wood, coated with three blood points of the caster's blood, and blackened in an oak-wood fire. When the ritual is complete, the stake is enchanted to act as described above.
An attack with a Shaft of Belated Quiescence is performed as with a normal stake: a Dexterity + Melee roll (difficulty 6, modified as per the normal combat rules, as the attack does not need to specifically target the heart - the stake takes care of that) with a lethal damage rating of Strength + 1. If at least one health level of damage is inflicted after the target rolls to soak, the tip of the stake breaks off and begins burrowing. If not, the stake may be used to make subsequent attacks until it strikes deep enough to activate.
Once the tip of the stake is in the victim's body, the Storyteller begins an extended roll of the caster's Thaumaturgy rating (difficulty 9), rolling once per hour of game time. Successes on this roll are added to the successes scored in the initial attack. This represents the tip's progress toward the victim's heart. A botch indicates that the tip has struck a bone and all accumulated successes are lost (including those from the initial attack roll). When the shaft accumulates a total of 15 successes, it reaches the victim's heart. This paralyzes Kindred and is instantly fatal to mortals and ghouls.
Attempts to surgically remove the tip of the shaft can be made with an extended Dexterity + Medicine roll (difficulty 7), rolled once per hour. The surgeon must accumulate a number of successes equal to those currently held by the shaft in order to remove the tip. Once surgery begins, however, the shaft begins actively evading the surgeon's probes, and its rolls are made once every 30 minutes for the duration of the surgery attempt. Each individual surgery roll that scores less than three successes inflicts an additional unsoakable level of lethal damage on the patient.
Shaft of Belated Quiescence may be performed on other wooden impaling weapons, such as spears, arrows, practice swords and pool cues, provided that they are made of rowan wood. It may not, however, create a Bullet of Belated Quiescence - wooden bullets are not large enough to absorb the full amount of blood required for the ritual.
Telecommunication
BM:SoT,95
Track Transgressor
BM:SoT,95
Transubstantiation of Seven
CB:T,61
Ward Versus Fae
BM:SoT,95
Ward Versus Lupines
This wards an object in a manner identical to that of the Level Two ritual Ward Versus Ghouls (see Vampire: The Masquerade ), except that it affects werewolves. Other versions of this ritual are rumored to have been created to affect different species of werecreatures.
System: Ward versus Lupines behaves exactly as does Ward versus Ghouls, but it affects werewolves rather than ghouls. It does not affect Nuwisha, Bastet or any Changing Breed other than Garou. The ritual requires a handful of silver dust rather than a blood point.
Level Four Thaumaturgical Rituals
Blood Certámen
CB:T,61
Bone of Lies
This ritual enchants a mortal bone so that anyone who holds it must tell the truth. The bone in question is often a skull, though any part of the skeleton will do – some Tremere use strings of teeth, necklaces of finger joints or wands fashioned from ribs or arms. The bone grows blacker as it compels its holder to tell the truth, until it has turned completely ebony and has no magic left.
This ritual binds the spirit of the individual to whom the bone belonged in life; it is this spirit who wrests the truth from the potential liar. The spirit absorbs the lies intended to be told by the bone's holder, and as it compels more truth, it becomes more and more corrupt. If summoned forth, this spirit reflects the sins it has siphoned from the defeated liar (in addition to anger over its unwilling servitude). For this reason, anonymous bones are often used in the ritual, and the bone is commonly buried after it has been used to its full extent. A specific bone may never be used twice for this ritual.
System: The bone imbued with this magical power must be at least 200 years old and must absorb 10 blood points on the night that the ritual is cast. Each lie the holder wishes to tell consumes one of these blood points, and the holder must speak the truth immediately thereafter. When all 10 blood points have been consumed, the bone magic ceases to work any longer.
Firewalker
This ritual imbues the vampire with an unnatural resistance to the bane of all vampires, fire. Only a foolish vampire would actually attempt to walk on or through fire, but this ritual does grant an advanced tolerance to flame. Some Sabbat use this ritual to show off or perform dramatically at Fire Dances, while others use it only for martial concerns. To enact the ritual, the thaumaturge must cut off the end of one of his fingers and burn it in a Thaumaturgical circle.
System: Cutting off one's finger does not do any health levels of damage, but it hurts like hell and requires a Willpower roll to perform. This ritual may be cast on other vampires (at the expense of the caster's fingertips…). If the subject has no Fortitude, he may soak fire with his Stamina for the duration of this ritual. If the vampire has Fortitude, he may soak fire with his Stamina + Fortitude for the duration of the ritual. This ritual lasts one hour.
Heart of Stone
A vampire under the effect of this ritual experiences the transformation suggested by the ritual's name: his heart is completely transmuted to solid rock, rendering him virtually impervious to staking. The subsidiary effects of the transformation, however, seem to follow the Hermetic laws of sympathetic magic: the vampire's emotional capacity becomes almost nonexistent, and his ability to relate to others suffers as well.
System: This ritual requires nine hours (reduced by one hour for every success). It can only be cast on oneself. The caster lies naked on a flat stone surface and places a bare candle over his heart. The candle burns down to nothing over the course of the ritual, causing one aggravated health level of damage (difficulty 5 to soak with Fortitude). At the end of the ritual, the caster's heart hardens to stone. The benefits of this are that the caster gains a number of additional dice equal to twice his Thaumaturgy rating to soak any attack that aims for his heart and is completely impervious to the effects of a Shaft of Belated Quiescence (see above), and the difficulty to use all Presence powers on him is increased by three due to his emotional isolation. The drawbacks are as follows: the caster's Conscience and Empathy scores drop to 1 (or to 0 if they already were at 1) and all dice pools for Social rolls except those involving Intimidation are halved (including those required to use Disciplines). All Merits that the character has pertaining to positive social interaction (e.g. Animal Magnetism or Sanctity) are neutralized. Heart of Stone lasts as long as the caster wishes it to.
Infirm Inert
BM:SoT,96
Mark of Amaranth
CB:T,63
Rend the Mind
BM:SoT,96
Return of the Heart
BM:SoT,96
Scry
BM:SoT,96
Soul of the Homunculus
CB:T,63
Splinter Servant
Another ritual designed to enchant a stake, Splinter Servant is a progressive development of Shaft of Belated Quiescence. The two rituals are mutually exclusive, which is fortunate for many, because a Splinter Servant of Belated Quiescence would be a truly terrifying weapon. A Splinter Servant consists of a stake carved from a tree which has nourished itself on the dead, bound in wax-sealed nightshade twine. When the binding is torn off, the Splinter Servant leaps to life, animating itself and attacking whomever the wielder commands - or the wielder, if she is too slow in assigning a target. The servant splits itself into a roughly humanoid form and begins single-mindedly trying to impale the target's heart. Its exertions tear it apart within a few minutes, but if it pierces its victim's heart before it destroys itself, it is remarkably difficult to remove, as pieces tend to remain behind if the main portion is indelicately yanked out.
System: The ritual requires 12 hours to cast, minus one per success, and the servant must be created as described above. When the binding is torn off, the character who holds it must point the servant at its target and verbally command it to attack during the same turn. If this command is not given, the servant attacks the closest living or unliving being, usually the unfortunate individual who currently carries it.
A Splinter Servant always aims for the heart. It has an attack dice pool of the caster's Wits + Occult, a damage dice pool of the caster's Thaumaturgy rating, and a maximum movement rate of 30 yards per turn. Note that these values are those of the thaumaturge who created the servant, not the individual who activates it. A servant cannot fly, but can leap its full movement rating every turn. Every action it takes is to attack or move toward its target; it cannot dodge or split its dice pool to perform multiple attacks. The servant makes normal stake attacks that aim for the heart (difficulty 9), and its success is judged as per the rules for a normal staking (see Vampire: The Masquerade, page 214). A Splinter Servant has three health levels, and attacks directed against it are made at +3 difficulty due to its small size and spastic movement patterns.
A Splinter Servant has an effective life of five combat turns per success rolled in its creation. If it has not impaled its victim by the last round of its life, the servant collapses into a pile of ordinary, inanimate splinters. Three successes on a Dexterity roll (difficulty 8) are required to remove a Splinter Servant from a victim's heart without leaving behind shards of the stake.
Stolen Kisses
BM:SoT,96
The Curse Belated
BM:SoT,95
Unweave Ritual
CB:T,64
Ward Versus Kindred
This warding ritual functions exactly as do Ward versus Ghouls and Ward versus Lupines, but it inflicts injury upon Cainites. It does not harm kuei-jin (see Kindred of the East), although Tremere researchers are promising their elders a Ward versus Cathayans ritual "any night now."
System: Ward versus Kindred behaves exactly as does Ward versus Ghouls, but it affects vampires rather than ghouls. The ritual requires a blood point of the caster's own blood and does not affect the caster. As noted above, this ward does not harm kuei-jin , and there is currently no "Ward versus Cathayans" in existence.
Level Five Thaumaturgical Rituals
Abandon the Fetters
CB:T,65
Blood Contract
This ritual creates an unbreakable agreement between the two parties who sign it. The contract must be written in the caster's blood and signed in the blood of whoever applies their name to the document. This ritual takes three nights to enact fully, after which both parties are compelled to fulfill the terms of the contract.
System: This ritual is best handled by the Storyteller, who may bring those who sign the blood contract into compliance by whatever means necessary (it is not unknown for demons to materialize and enforce adherence to certain blood contracts). The only way to terminate the ritual is to complete the terms of the contract or to burn the document itself. One blood point is consumed in the creation of the document, and an additional blood point is consumed by those who sign it.
Cobra's Favor
BM:SoT,97
Court of Hallowed Truth
BM:SoT,97
Enchant Talisman
This ritual is the first taught to most Tremere once they have attained mastery of their first path. Create Talisman allows the thaumaturge to enchant a personal magical item (the fabled wizard's staff) to act as an amplifier for her will and thaumaturgical might. A Tremere's talisman is a great source of personal pride, and any insult directed against a talisman is an insult at the thaumaturge herself. Many talismans are laden with additional rituals (such as every ward known to the thaumaturge). The physical appearance of a talisman varies, but it must be a rigid object close to a yard long. Swords and walking sticks are the most common talismans, but some innovative or eccentric Tremere have enchanted violins, shotguns, pool cues and classroom pointers.
System: This ritual requires six hours per night for one complete cycle of the moon, beginning and ending on the new moon. Over this time, the thaumaturge carefully prepares her talisman, carving it with Hermetic runes that signify her True Name and the sum total of her thaumaturgical knowledge. The player spends one blood point per night and makes an extended roll of Intelligence + Occult (difficulty 8), one roll per week. If a night's work is missed or if the four rolls do not accumulate at least 20 net successes, the talisman is ruined and the process must be begun again.
A completed talisman gives the thaumaturge several advantages. When the character is holding the talisman, the difficulty of all magic or magick that targets her is increased by one. The player receives two extra dice when rolling for uses of the character's primary path and one extra die when rolling for the character's ritual castings. If the talisman is used as a weapon, it gives the player an additional die to roll to hit. If the thaumaturge is separated from her talisman, a successful Perception + Occult roll (difficulty 7) gives her its location.
If a talisman is in the possession of another individual, it gives that individual three additional dice to roll when using any form of magic or magick against the talisman's owner. At the Storyteller's discretion, rituals that target the thaumaturge and use her talisman as a physical component may have greatly increased effects.
A thaumaturge may only have one talisman at a time. Ownership of a talisman may not be transferred - each individual must create her own.
Escape to a True Friend
One of the few rituals available to the Tremere that allows a form of teleportation, Escape to a True Friend allows the caster to travel 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 True Name of her friend. She is instantly transported to that individual, wherever he may be at the moment. She does not appear directly in front of him, but materializes in a location within a few minutes' walk that is out of sight of any observer. The circle may be reused indefinitely, 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 into 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.
Ghost in the System
BM:SoT,97
Night of the Red Heart
CB:T,65
Paper Flesh
This dreadful ritual enfeebles the subject, making her skin brittle and weak. Humors rise to die surface and flesh tightens around bones and scales away at the slightest touch. Used against physically tough opponents, this ritual strips away the inherent resilience of the vampiric body, leaving it a fragile, dry husk. The thaumaturge must inscribe his subject's true name (which is much harder to discern for elders than it is for young vampires) on a piece of paper, which he uses to cut himself and then burns to cinders.
System: This ritual causes the subject's Stamina and Fortitude (if any) to drop to 1. For every generation below eighth, the subject retains one extra point of Stamina and Fortitude (though she may not exceed her original scores). For example, a vampire of the Fourth Generation targeted by Paper Flesh would drop to a Stamina + Fortitude score of 5 (assuming the score was more than 5 to begin with). This ritual lasts one night, and it is popular among packs that regularly undertake War Parties and Wild Hunts.
Sculpting the Perfect Servant
BM:SoT,97
Severed Hand
BM:SoT,98
Stone of the True Form
BM:SoT,98
Stone Slumber
BM:SoT,98
Ward Versus Spirits
This warding ritual functions exactly as do Ward versus Ghouls, Ward versus Lupines and Ward versus Kindred, but it inflicts injury upon spirits. Several other versions of this ward exist, each geared toward a particular type of non-physical being.
System: Ward versus Spirits behaves exactly as does Ward versus Ghouls, but it affects spirits (including those summoned or given physical form by Thaumaturgy Paths such as Elemental Mastery). The material component for Ward versus Spirits is a handful of pure sea salt.
The other versions of this ward, also Level Five rituals, are Ward versus Ghosts and Ward versus Demons. Each of these three Level Five wards affects its respective target on both the physical and spiritual planes. Ward versus Ghosts requires a handful of powdered marble from a tombstone, while Ward versus Demons requires a vial of holy water.
Vires Acquirit Eundo
BM:SoT,98
High-Level Thaumaturgical Rituals
●●●●● ● Bone of Contention
CB:T,66
●●●●● ● Refined Digestion
BM:SoT,99
●●●●● ●● Bone of Eternal Thirst
BM:SoT,99
●●●●● ●● Eyes of the Ever Vigilant
BM:SoT,99
●●●●● ●●● Blade of the Forbidden Flower
BM:SoT,99