Post by Phsycodelic on Jan 30, 2017 21:35:53 GMT
Thaumaturgy: Path Of Mercury ( Path Of Praapti )
Followers Of Set, Tremere
Followers Of Set, Tremere
Like Necromancy, the practice of Thaumaturgy is divided into paths and rituals. Thaumaturgical paths are applications of the vampire's knowledge of blood magic, allowing her to create effects on a whim. Rituals are more formulaic in nature, most akin to ancient magical "spells." 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 rating in the primary path increases by one as well. Additional rituals are learned separately, as part of a story; players need not pay experience points for their characters to learn rituals up to the level equal to their overall rating in Thaumaturgy, though they must find someone to teach the rituals in question. Path ratings never exceed 5, though the overall Thaumaturgy score may. If a character reaches a rating of 5 in her primary path and increases her Thaumaturgy score afterward, she may allocate her "free" path dot to a different path.
Many Kindred fear crossing the practitioners of Thaumaturgy. It is a very potent and mutable Discipline, and almost anything the Kindred wishes may be accomplished through its magic.
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.
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 the fifth level of her primary path, secondary paths may be increased to that level.
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 equal to 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 magic fails. A botch causes some kind of loss or catastrophic backfire, such as losing a Willpower point (or dot!), spontaneous combustion, or accidentally letting a living statue run rampant. Thaumaturgy is an unforgiving art.
Various Sects and Clans have different access to each path, but unless the Storyteller decides otherwise, it is assumed the Tremere have some access to all of them. ("Having access" does not mean the same thing as "easily gained," especially within the Tremere power structure.) The paths start with one of the most common (The Path of Blood), and thereafter are presented in alphabetical order. (The unusual "path" of Thaumaturgical Countermagic is also presented, although it is considered a separate Discipline).
Praapti is the power of instantaneous travel. The Indian Sadhana practitioners developed this Path to match their mysterious Asian rivals, who have the power to travel instantly along lines of mystical force. Later, turncoat sadhus sold the secret of this Path to the Tremere, who reverse-engineered it into what they call the Path of Mercury. A handful of New Age Anarchs have also stumbled onto the secret of this path, which they simply call Teleportation.
Individual levels of this Path do not have distinct effects. Instead, a higher mastery simply indicates a farther distance that can be traveled. Ideally, the sorcerer must be able to see the target location or know it intimately. Failure on a roll to activate this path means that nothing happens at all, but botches are more problematic. If the target location is within sight or is very near (the other side of a wall, for example), a botch causes the character the usual catastrophic problems for blood magic. If the sorcerer attempts a blind teleport, however, botches are much more dangerous. Typically, the sorcerer finds himself merged with a solid object, suffering one level of aggravated damage per "1" rolled. Three or more levels of damage also means that the sorcerer is stuck inside a large object such as a wall or the ground, and may not be able to break free. Fortitude soaks this damage as normal but will not help a character who materializes six feet underground. Familiarity with the target location of a blind teleport affects the difficulty of the roll as follows.
| Difficulty Modifier | Familiarity |
| -1 | Intimately familiar (Own haven). |
| +0 | Moderately familiar (Visited regularly). |
| +0 | Unseen, but an understood spatial relationship ("On the other side of this wall"). |
| +1 | Not very familiar (Visited a few times; Hazy on spatial relationship). |
| +2 | Unfamiliar (A point on a map). |
| Level | Distance |
| 1 | Teleport up to 10 yards / meters. |
| 2 | Teleport up to 50 yards / meters. |
| 3 | Teleport up to 500 yards / meters. |
| 4 | Teleport up to 5 miles / 8 kilometers. |
| 5 | Teleport up to 500 miles / 800 kilometers. |
Teleportation is rarely exact. Every "1" rolled on a successful roll throws the sorcerer off by 10% of the total destination. The number of successes rolled determines what can be conveyed. A single success allows for the teleportation of the sorcerer's nude body. Each additional success allows for the conveyance of an additional twenty pounds. If the successes rolled are not enough to encompass what the sorcerer seeks to carry, the Storyteller decides what is left behind.
