Mortis / Necromancy Rituals

[Phsycodelic]

Mortis / Necromancy Rituals

Cappadocians, Giovanni, Lamia, Tal'Mahe'Ra

The rituals connected with Necromancy are a hodgepodge lot. Some have direct relations to the paths, while others seem to have been taught by ghosts themselves, for whatever twisted reason. All beginning necromancers gain one Level One ritual automatically, but any others learned must be gained through in-game play. Necromantic rituals are otherwise identical to Thaumaturgy rituals and are learned in similar fashion, though the two are not at all compatible.

System: Casting times for necromantic rituals vary widely; see the description for particulars. The player rolls Intelligence + Occult (difficulty 3 + the level of the ritual, maximum 9). Success indicates the ritual proceeds smoothly, failure produces no effect, and a botch indicates something has gone horribly wrong.

[ 1 ] Call Of The Hungry Dead ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 177 )

Call of the Hungry Dead takes only 10 minutes to cast and requires a hair from the target's head. The ritual climaxes with the burning of that hair in the flame of a black candle, after which the victim becomes able to hear snatches of conversation from across the Shroud. If the target is not prepared, the voices come as a confusing welter of howls and unearthly demands; he is unable to make out anything intelligible, and may go briefly mad.

[ 1 ] Casting Of Bones ( XXX - Page X )

By throwing dice carved from the knucklebones of executed criminals, a vampire may attempt to divine and positively influence his fate.

System: The player rolls one die. If the result is 6 or greater, the next roll for the character is made at -1 difficulty. If the result is 5 or less, add one to the difficulty for the character’s next roll. Every time this ritual is cast in a given night, reduce the resulting number of the die by one. No matter what, a 10 always yields good luck.

[ 1 ] Circle of Cerberus ( XXX - Page X )

The necromancer bathes, fasts and abstains from all physical comforts and pleasures, most especially sensual ones, for a night. Then she dons well-maintained, high-quality robes or other clothing. She draws a circle on the floor in a place of safety. She may then proceed to use other necromantic powers, confident that her protection against ghosts and spirits has been enhanced. Each success subtracts two from the difficulty of all rolls the player must make to resist any attempted harm or influence on the part of a ghost, Spectre or spirit, so long as the necromancer remains inside the circle. Treat any botches scored while attempting to use necromantic paths as failures instead.

[ 1 ] Death's Communion ( Lore Of The Clans - Page 108 )

Prerequisite: Giovanni

The Giovanni have spent centuries going through the motions, making sure that nobody can question their public devotion to the Catholic Church. In private, however, the family often practices their own warped Black Mass, showing devotion to Dis Pater and drawing power from the darkness. This ritual acts as a grim parody of the traditional communion, ingesting literal blood (perhaps even of the father) and dedicating the subject to the Endless Night. This ritual is not performed at every family black mass. An expedited, powerless version may be observed, but the full ritual is more involved.

System: The caster of this ritual is usually not the beneficiary. If the caster and the subject are the same, the caster suffers a +1 difficulty to her casting roll. Death's Communion takes one hour to complete. The subject of the ritual gains a bonus of +2 dice to all Necromancy rolls for one night per success achieved on the casting roll.

[ 1 ] Eldritch Beacon ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 177 )

Eldritch Beacon takes 15 minutes to cast. The material component is a green candle, the melted wax from which must be collected and molded into a half-inch (1.5 cm) sphere. Whoever carries this sphere, whether in his hand or in a pocket, is highlighted in the Shadowlands with a sickly-glowing green-white aura. All ghostly powers affect this individual with greater ease and severity. The sphere retains its power for one hour per success on the casting roll.

[ 1 ] Final Sight ( XXX - Page X )

This rite allows a Graverobber to look into a corpse's eyes - assuming that they are still intact - and see the last static image that that person saw while he was alive. The rite entails extracting that last vision from the eyes themselves, a process that consumes the organs, leaving the sockets empty and pitted. The ritualist must have access to at least one eye (so skeletons or corpses from which the soft tissue has been consumed by animals are not usable). Just what she does to the orbs varies from version to version. In some instances, the Graverobber eats the eyes themselves; in others, she drips a few drops of vitae onto them and they rot away. In any case, the ritual cannot be used on the same eye twice, so it is useful at most twice on the same corpse.

System: The player rolls as normal while the Graverobber spends five minutes enacting the ritual. With even a single success, the character sees the last image the deceased did before her death. The ritual gives neither particular insight into the late target's state of mind, nor analysis of the image presented. Although most people close their eyes under great stress, the final image is never darkness — it is the last thing that the victim saw before closing his eyes. Additional successes can convey greater details at the Storyteller's discretion.

[ 1 ] Howl From Beyond ( XXX - Page X )

Prerequisite: Nigrimancy 1

With 10 minutes and a bit of blood, hair or bone burnt in a candle, a vampire who knows this ritual may afflict the charred body part's owner with the power to hear the cries and moans of the netherworld.

System: This curse lasts one hour per success rolled, and the sounds of death come across as distant and distorted. Gleaning any useful information from the din rests with Storyteller discretion. Any mortal victim with a Willpower rating less than 4 finds the experience truly maddening, gaining a derangement selected by the Storyteller.

[ 1 ] Insight ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 177 )

This ritual allows a necromancer to stare into the eyes of a corpse and see reflected there the last thing the dead man witnessed. The vision appears only in the eyes of the cadaver and is visible to no one except the necromancer using Insight. The player rolls as normal as the vampire stares into the target's eyes for five minutes. The number of successes on the roll determines the clarity of the vision. A botch shows the necromancer his own Final Death, which can provoke a Rötschreck roll. This power cannot be used on the corpses of vampires who have reached Golconda, or on bodies in which both eyes are missing or advanced decomposition has already occurred.

Successes	Result
1	A basic sense of the subject's death.
2	A clear image of the subject's death and the seconds preceding it.
3	A clear image, with sound, of the minutes preceding death.
4	A clear image, with sound, of the half-hour before the subject's demise.
5	Full sensory perception of the hour leading up to the target's death.

[ 1 ] Knell Of Doom ( XXX - Page X )

This ritual permits a vampire to hear the act of dying and so find materials and souls for experimentation. Those who use this ritual often tend to gain a faintly distracted look that discomfits anyone who recognizes the significance of their preoccupation.

System: The vampire rings a bell of any size. Before the echoes fade from her ears, she plunges a knife into the palm of her left hand, inflicting one level of unsoakable lethal damage. If the ritual succeeds, the vampire knows immediately if anyone dies within a number of miles equal to her Occult rating. She also gains a sense of the death's location relative to her current position, though it requires a successful Wits + Perception roll (difficulty 6) to discern any measure of distance. The vampire hears a sound as of a great iron bell tolling for every death. The rituals effects last until sunrise.

[ 1 ] Knowing Stone ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 177 )

By use of her own blood and the proper rituals, a necromancer can mark a person's spirit, allowing the vampire to see where her subject is at any time, even after he has died. In this fashion many of the spirit-haunted vampires keep tabs on their close kin and their enemies. The necromancer cuts her skin or otherwise bleeds herself, and then uses the vitae to paint the name of the target on a consecrated stone. If the ritual is successful, she can afterward learn the target's current whereabouts by dancing around the stone in a trance state until one of the spirits whispers the desired information into her ear. The stone loses its powers on the night of All Saints Day unless the vampire spends a blood point.

[ 1 ] Minestra Di Morte ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 177 )

The necromancer obtains a piece of a dead body and simmers it in a pot with half a quart (or half a liter) of vampiric vitae. To this stew, the necromancer adds rosemary (for remembrance), basil (the funerary herb), and salt (the alchemic principle of clarification). After bringing the concoction to a full boil, the necromancer eats it. If the roll to activate this ritual is successful, the character discovers whether the subject of the grisly rite became a wraith or Spectre after death, or if indeed she became either. Unfortunately, this information can be learned only about the person from whose body the "stew meat" was taken. The blood component is spent progressively through the ritual: If the Necromancer takes the blood from another Kindred, she doesn't become partially bound from drinking it, nor does she add a point to her blood pool. Similarly, if she uses her own blood, her pool decreases by a point but does not increase when she consumes the soup. Necromantic vampires without the Eat Food Merit can't keep the soup down, but can still use the ritual and gain the information.

[ 1 ] Preserve Corpse ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 103 )

Prerequsite: Tal'Mahe'Ra

This ritual enables the user to create an elixir that keeps dead flesh from rotting. The ritual requires the caster to physically coat the dead flesh with a liquid composed of grave dirt, defiled holy water, and rare herbs. Once the liquid dries, the flesh is indefinitely preserved - some have been known to last for hundreds of years. The ritual produces enough elixir to coat one adult human corpse.

[ 1 ] Rape Of Persephone ( XXX - Page X )

A team of surgeons trained in the unpleasant ways of Necromancy performs an elaborate operation on a freshly dead or well-preserved corpse. From the cadaver's dead tissues, they create up to seven new penises, vaginas or other sexual apparatuses.

The necromancer engages in intercourse with the corpse's new genitalia. He may then subtract two from the difficulty of all necromantic magic - except those targeting ghosts, Spectres or spirits - for the remainder of the night.

If a number of necromancers perform the ritual together, they may freely trade Willpower points between one another for the rest of the night. During this time, one participant may experience the tactile sensations of another by concentrating for a few seconds and spending a point of Willpower, regardless of the distance separating them. No more than seven necromancers can perform the ritual together.

[ 1 ] Revivify The Cold Vitae ( XXX - Page X )

Cappadocian scholars spend much of their time away from the living and among the dead. This practice can make hunting for living blood problematic, and the blood of corpses loses its potency so quickly as to be useless after a few hours. With this ritual, the vampire may refresh the vitae locked in a fleshy corpse to allow her to feed without hunting for living-prey. The cold blood created thus is considered reprehensible by some vampires and a delicacy by others.

System: The vampire must have access to a whole (or mostly whole) human corpse that still has a substantial amount of flesh on it, no mater how putrid. The ritual rakes half an hour to perform, and it revivifies a number of blood points equal to the player's successes on the Intelligence + Occult roll. This cold blood works just like normal mortal vitae, save that consuming it causes very little pleasure in the vampire. Cold blood remains fresh for only a scene.

The rite transforms the putrid fluids of the corpse and thus makes that body useless for further Mortis art (including the Cadaverous Animation path). Therefore, many Cappadocian scholars keep larders of rotting lesser corpses for their nourishment and save prized bodies for experimentation.

[ 1 ] Ritual Of The Smoking Mirror ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 178 )

This ritual allows the necromancer to use an obsidian mirror to see as ghosts do. By gazing into the mirror's ebony depths, the vampire may discover an object's flaws, assess the general health of mortals, or even read a being's aura. At the start of the ritual, the Kindred decides which of the ritual's two aspects she will use - she may not use both at the same time. With Lifesight, the necromancer may read auras as if she had the level two Auspex power Aura Perception. Deathsight, on the other hand, grants the necromancer the ability to see ghosts and the Shadowlands. It also shows the stain of oblivion on the living, as per Eyes of the Dead. At the Storyteller's discretion, the Kindred may make a similar study of an inanimate object's flaws and how to repair them, if that object has a strong link to either life- or death-energies (such as a murderer's knife or a window box used to grow healing herbs). To perform the ritual, the necromancer grasps an obsidian mirror that has had its edge sharpened so that it cuts the flesh of whoever takes hold of it. As the vitae flows onto the mirror's surface, it allows the mirror's reflective power to bridge the worlds of the living and the dead, much as it allows the necromancer herself to do. The player then rolls to activate the ritual as normal. If successful, the Necromancer may view the world as a ghost does via the reflective surface of the mirror, for one scene. On a botch, the vampire may well invoke the ire of the spirits upon whom she calls.

[ 1 ] Word Of Insight ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 93 )

Necromancers in the Classical Era called forth the spirits of the dead to gain insight upon the future. It is believed that one of the Premascines, Antonius Giovanni, preserved this ritual to the modern nights, and modern Necromancers still perform this form of divination. The Necromancer travels to a known haunted location, or a place where the barrier between this world and the next is known to be weaker. There she sets up a triangle comprised of three items that represent her own past, present, and desired future. An incense burner is positioned and lit in the center of the triangle. The Necromancer calls upon the spirits present to grant insight into events yet to come that will enable her to reach her desired goal.

System: Upon successfully casting the ritual, smoke billows from the incense burner and a myriad of ghostly faces can be seen within. Each face mutters or whispers a word or phrase, each one overlapping, making a cacophonous din. The vision and the voices fade after a few seconds.

The future is a wide, changing sea of possibilities, so at the outset, the Necromancer must specify a particular subject that she is inquiring about (closing a successful deal, obtaining a particular item, overcoming a certain problem, etc.). The Necromancer doesn't necessarily find the voices coherent or understandable, but when the ritual comes to fruition, she experiences a moment of clarity and knows what the message meant.

Mechanically, this insight allows the Necromancer to reroll one failed action later on in the same night the ritual was cast, as long as it is in direct pursuit of the future she divined. She foresaw this failure, and potentially knew how to avoid it. If she fails the second roll, she still fails, realizing the insight just a moment too late.

[ 2 ] Draining The Well Of Life ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 93 )

Many Necromancers keep wraiths as their personal servants. Whether they control them with an iron fist or a velvet glove, it doesn't change the fact that wraiths need to feed, just like Kindred. However, while the Kindred feeds on blood, the wraith feeds on emotion. Whether used as a practical tool to empower his servants, or as a reward for loyal servitude, by casting this ritual, the wraiths in service to the Necromancer can partake in their masters' feeding by drinking from the wave of emotion generated by the Kiss.

The Necromancer gathers his wraith retainers and spirit slaves around the intended victim, and then carves the names of his ghostly servants into the flesh of the victim. Once this is complete, he begins to drain the victim dry. For some Necromancers (the Giovanni and the Nagaraja, for example) the act of feeding is not pleasurable for the victim, and they are gripped by intense pain. For others, the Kiss works as normal and generates an intense wave of euphoria. It is the intensity of the sensation that is important here, not whether it is considered positive or negative; the wraith gets to indulge all the same. Terror or euphoria sustains them equally well.

System: Upon successfully casting the rite, the Necromancer gains all the blood he would normally obtain from the act of feeding from the victim, and each of his ghostly companions may replenish each of their Passion Pools by the same amount. This is ultimately an act of murder and should therefore prompt a Humanity check. As such, this ritual is therefore practiced more often by those on a Path of Enlightenment (such as the Path of the Bones) that would not object to such an act being committed.

[ 2 ] Eyes Of Despondent Revelation ( XXX - Page X )

The vampire covers his eyes in a gesture of lament and chants in a soft whisper. If the ritual succeeds, the vampire withdraws his hands and opens his eyes to the spite of entropy. All things appear overlaid with the touch of decay, aged well past their present forms... All mortals appear gaunt and ill, while vampires assume the radiant flush of their stolen health. The most important truth revealed by this sight, however, is that of ending fate. A mortal destined to die soon appears overlaid with black stains suggestive of her demise. A murder victim shows tarry wounds, while a plague sufferer manifests spectral sores and so forth. It is impossible to know exactly when someone fated for death will perish. Generally, the stains darken as death approaches, but a truly violent demise may yield deceptively dark stains long before the end. Ultimately, the vampire knows only that death will triumph soon, and perhaps hints as to the manner of that triumph. The information is not nearly enough to prevent that end, assuming fate can be altered at all.

System: The game effects of this ritual, if any, are left to Storytellers to devise. This ritual is largely a matter of increased sensory information, which the Storyteller should take into account when narrating details noticed by the vampire. The second sight granted by this ritual lasts until the vampire next sinks into slumber.

[ 2 ] Eyes Of The Grave ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 179 )

This ritual, which takes two hours to cast, causes the target to experience intermittent visions of her death over the period of a week. The visions come without warning and can last up to a minute. The caster of the ritual has no idea what the visions contain, as only the victim sees them. Each time a vision manifests, the target must roll Courage (difficulty 7) or be reduced to quivering panic. The visions, which come randomly, can also interfere with activities such as driving, studying, shooting, and so on. Eyes of the Grave requires a pinch of soil from a fresh grave.

[ 2 ] Haunting Breeze ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 103 )

Prerequsite: Tal'Mahe'Ra

The vampire can summon a light supernatural wind which serves to frighten and confuse all those within a small area or single building no larger than 100 feet/30 meters in diameter. Until the next sunrise (or until willfully dispelled by the caster), the wind in this location is filled with the soft echoes of whispers, warnings, curses, and the laughter of the dead. These terrifying sounds distract and disquiet, increasing the difficulty of Perception rolls by 2 and all other rolls by 1 for all those who remain within the area. In addition, all mortals must make a Courage roll (difficulty 4) or be spooked badly, leaving the area. Such individuals are unwilling to return under any circumstances for at least one hour.

[ 2 ] Hungry Mold ( XXX - Page X )

The vampire scrapes mold from a tombstone or grave and boils it in an iron kettle with vitae and raw animal fat. For every success on the casting roll, one cup of the mixture turns a sickly gray-green and thickens to a quivering gel. Any leftover ingredients must be strained away before the ritual can continue. Finally, the vampire drips a single drop of his blood into the gel to awaken it. From this point on, the mold becomes a deadly flesh-eating fungus. It greedily devours living or unliving flesh on contact, leaving patches of naked bone where a growing colony abscessed and ravaged all soft tissue. Even the caster is not immune, requiring his utmost caution in handling the mold. Typically, Cappadocians decant the mold into metal vials or other portable containers for use as weapons.

System: Each batch of mold lasts one full month, after which it loses all magic. Anyone splashed with the mold suffers dice of aggravated damage equal to the total cups that made contact with flesh. This damage continues each turn, reduced by one die until the magic is spent.

[ 2 ] Judgment Of Rhadamanthus ( XXX - Page X )

The necromancer chooses a wraith she will later summon, using the Summon Soul power of the Sepulchre Path. In a cleansed bronze brazier, she burns several pages of a law book and a religious text matching the faith the wraith held in life. She mixes the ashes of the books with silver powder and uses the mixture to make her Circle of Cerberus. When the wraith appears, the necromancer tells him that she has the power to send him to the real afterlife, the one he believed in when he was alive. If the ritual works, the wraith believes her. If the wraith fears judgment and hellfire, she can induce him to do what she wants by threatening to use her power. If he yearns for Heaven and escape from the bizarre existence of the underworld, she can secure his cooperation by promising to use it. Since she can't make good on this promise, Judgment of Rhadamanthus won't work twice on the same Heaven-seeking wraith. Wraiths who were atheists while alive, or didn't believe in life after death, automatically resist this ritual.

[ 2 ] Kiss Of Ages ( XXX - Page X )

Prerequsite: The Grave's Decay 1

This clever adaptation of The Grave's Decay disposes of leftover bodies even as a vampire feeds. A vampire enchanted with Kiss of Ages may drink a mortal dry and then release her body as it crumbles to ash. This ritual serves chiefly to aid in feeding. Unfortunately, the properties of the ritual make it nearly impossible to administer the Embrace without the aid of some tool or assistant to perform exsanguination.

System: The vampire mixes a handful of ashes or dust from a human corpse with a point of her own vitae and drinks the potion. The player makes the standard roll. On a botch, the ritual fails to transmute the ashes. The vampire regurgitates the paste along with one additional blood point for every 1 rolled. Success imbues the vampire's bite with entropy until the next full moon. Should he bite an intact corpse, this withering energy flows into the body and rots it to dust over three turns. Such decay mirrors the effects of the power Destroy the Husk. The vampire delivers this magic once per success rolled and may not withhold the effect to save it for a later occasion. Upon the full moon, all remaining "charges" dissipate.

[ 2 ] Occhio D'Uomo Morto ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 179 )

To cast this ritual, the necromancer needs an eye from a corpse whose absent soul became a ghost or Spectre. The eye is ritually prepared in a process involving incense, the new moon, and a period of midnight chanting. The chanting climaxes when the necromancer removes one of her own eyes and replaces it with the one from the corpse (fresher is better). Kindred healing takes over at that point, sealing the eye within the socket. If the ritual succeeds, the Necromancer permanently gains the Shroudsight ability. This ability is always active and does not require a roll. Furthermore, if it was a Spectre's corpse, the vampire can hear the vague murmuring of any Spectres in the area. This ability isn't very precise; rather than mind reading, it's more like trying to overhear a low-voiced conversation in the next room. With a Perception + Occult roll, the Necromancer can glean a very vague impression of what nearby Spectres are up to. Botching this roll may well earn the necromancer a new derangement (at the Storyteller's discretion), as the whispers creep into the caster's subconscious. This ritual has some major drawbacks, the first being that its proper result is hideously ugly. Unless the vampire wears sunglasses or finds some other way to conceal her eye, her Appearance is reduced by one dot. Also, dead or rotted tissue is not the best for normal perception. Any mundane visual Perception rolls are at +1 difficulty (possibly more if the corpse had bad eyesight in life). On the other hand, since the eye offers a window into a different soul than the necromancer, it offers some protection against powers requiring eye contact. These Disciplines are used against the dead-eyed necromancer at +1 difficulty. Most importantly, however, the ghost whose body was desecrated knows it, and very likely hates it. The ghost can find the necromancer possessing his eye anywhere, and all ghostly powers used against the necromancer by that particular ghost are at -1 difficulty.

[ 2 ] Puppet ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 179 )

Used primarily to facilitate conversations with the recently departed, though also applied as a method of psychological torture, Puppet prepares a subject (willing or unwilling) as a suitable receptacle for ghostly possession. Over the course of one hour, the necromancer smears grave soil across the subject's eyes, lips, and forehead. For the remainder of the night, any wraith attempting to take control of the subject gains two automatic successes. The ritual's effects remain even if the soil is washed off.

[ 2 ] Skull Of Warning ( XXX - Page X )

The vampire takes an intact human skull and cleans it thoroughly, painting its eye sockets and teeth with her own vitae. She then impales the skull on an iron spike and places it near the entrance of her haven.

System: If the ritual succeeds, the skull stands silent perpetual vigil. Should any being other than the caster or undead minions belonging to the caster enter the room, the skull's jaw drops and it lets out an unearthly howl of rage and pain. This sound awakens even a vampire sleeping during the day, although she must then struggle to stay awake normally. An enchanted skull continues shrieking until the intruder dies or leaves, or a number of minutes pass equal to the successes rolled. A single skull can serve as the focus of this ritual any number of times.

[ 2 ] Spirit Beacon ( XXX - Page X )

This ritual is designed to draw wraiths to a particular area. It requires the head of a man forsaken by god; this ghastly object acts as a beacon to all wraiths with the region. Giovanni who have seen these dreadful items in the Shadowlands say that an unholy radiance pours fourth from the eyes mouth and ears of the head, drawing wraiths like moths to a flame.

System: Obviously, this ritual requires a severed human head (though it is the Storyteller's discretion as to what constitutes "forsaken by God" in her chronicle). After the ritual is successfully conducted, any wraiths who view the hideous thing are almost irresistibly compelled to move toward it. Wraiths who wish to avoid the spirit beacon must make a Willpower roll against a difficulty equal to the Willpower of the Giovanni who enacted the ritual. A wraith who succeeds is free to leave (though she may be entranced once more if she looks upon the head again); a wraith who fails must attend the head and will refuse to leave. Wraiths under the sway of this ritual may try to break free of its power; Willpower checks may be attempted once per hour.

The ritual ceases to be effective at sunrise of the day following its invocation, though the head may be the focus of further uses of the ritual. Giovanni who use this power repeatedly are rumored to possess heads that have decomposed to mere skulls over their long periods of service.

[ 2 ] Thanatos' Caress ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 90 )

The first recorded success recreating the effects of Thanatosis with Necromancy was this ritual. First, the Necromancer obtains a rotting corpse. He then proceeds to bathe, symbolizing his ritual purification. Then, he lies down upon the corpse, not necessarily to indulge in necrophilia (although the act will not interfere with the ritual), but to cause the corpse to break open and fall apart. Finally, once the Necromancer is covered in rotting, decaying flesh, he consumes the heart of the corpse (or what remains of it) and the ritual is complete.

System: Until the next sunrise, the Necromancer may perform a single use of Putrefaction upon a target, using the same systems as outlined for the original power.

[ 2 ] The Hand Of Glory ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 179 )

The Hand of Glory is a mummified hand used by the necromancer to anesthetize a home's residents and, thereby, allow him free rein to do what he will in the residence. To create one, the necromancer wraps the severed hand of a condemned murderer in a shroud, draws it tight to squeeze out any remaining blood, and preserves the hand in an earthenware jar with salt, saltpeter, and long peppers. After a fortnight, the vampire removes the hand and dries it in an oven with vervain and fern. At the end of this process, if the roll to activate the ritual garners any successes, the creation is viable. To use the Hand of Glory, the vampire first coats the fingertips of the mummified hand with a flammable substance derived from the fat of a hanged man and sets the fingers alight. The necromancer then recites the phrase, "Let all those who are asleep be asleep, and let those who are awake be awake." All mortals within a household who are affected fall into a deep sleep and cannot be roused (the hand has no effect on supernatural creatures). For each unaffected occupant of a home, one finger of the hand will refuse to light. Botches may result in all of the fingers being lit but no one in the home being asleep. The hand may be extinguished at any time by the necromancer who created it. Anyone else wishing to douse the hand must use milk to do so - nothing else works. Once made, the Hand of Glory may be reused indefinitely. Effects last for one scene.

[ 2 ] The Ritual Of Pochtli ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 180 )

This ritual cannot be cast by itself, but only in conjunction with another Necromantic ritual, or with the heavily ritualized use of a Necromantic path. The action of the ritual is this: Two or more Kindred necromancers restrain a mortal vessel and inflict incisions in the shape of blasphemous symbols (typically subverted Egyptian hieroglyphs or Aztec symbols). They then drink from these injuries. Each participating Necromancer must make his own cut and drink from no other cut. Thereafter, the Necromantic power the Kindred seek to employ gains the benefit of all the participants' knowledge. This ritual makes it possible for Necromancers to create truly fearsome feats of death magic. The player rolls to activate this ritual as normal. If the roll succeeds, the Kindred who have participated in the ritual may work together on the path or ritual the Ritual of Pochtli is intended to assist, and players share successes. Note that the primary application of Necromancy requires its own roll, and that successes (and failures) garnered by the group are pooled. All Kindred participating in the ritual must know the Ritual of Pochtli as well as the ritual or path power the group seeks to enact. The downside of this power is that a single player's in a horrific failure for all the ritual workers.

[ 2 ] Two Centimes ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 180 )

The necromancer ceremonially "kills" a mortal, laying him out on a pallet and putting pennies on his eyes. The mortal's soul journeys to the Underworld, which he perceives, initially at least, as a way-station. The mortal can interact with the souls of the dead and travel elsewhere in the Underworld, while also retaining the power to speak to the vampire and describe what he's experiencing. While in the Underworld, however, the subject's soul cannot affect the environment. Although he may talk to other spirits, he may not physically interact with them or their surroundings - he is a "ghost among ghosts," as it were. Minions may voluntarily undergo the ritual to assist necromancers, or the vampire may use Two Centimes to terrify unwilling victims.

[ 2 ] Unearth The Hidden Corpse ( XXX - Page X )

Prerequsite: Nigrimancy 1

After tying a human finger bone to a blood-soaked leather thong, a vampire who knows this ritual may speak the name of a deceased individual. If the ritual succeeds, the bone becomes as a lodestone, pointing infallibly to the spot where the greatest quantity of the target's physical remains lie. If no such place exists, such as in the case of someone who was cremated and her ashes scattered, the bone simply twirls in place aimlessly. As many nigrimancy powers function more effectively if a vampire has part of the ghost's corpse in addition to her name, this ritual sees frequent use among the Giovanni.

System: This ritual functions exactly as described above. Failure has no effect, while a botch shatters the bone.

[ 3 ] Blood Dance ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 180 )

The Blood Dance allows a ghost to communicate with a living relative. Necromancers sometimes perform this ritual for people in exchange for money or favors. The vampire must dance and chant for two hours, calling forth the right spirit and entreating all other ghosts to leave the area. While dancing, the vampire pours colored sands and ocean salt on the ground in a precise pattern and then makes the link between the living person and the deceased. If successful, the ghost "appears" within the necromancer's sand-sigil and the living person can communicate with her for one hour. Failure means the spirit could not be contacted.

[ 3 ] Din Of The Damned ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 180 )

This ritual is similar to the Level One Ritual Call of the Hungry Dead in that it makes the sounds of the Underworld audible in the physical realm. However, Din of the Damned is an area-effecting ritual used to ward a room against eavesdropping. Over the course of half an hour, the necromancer draws an unbroken line of ash from a crematorium along the room's walls (this line may pass over door frames to allow entrance and egress). For the rest of the night, any attempt to listen in on events inside the room, whether simple (such as a glass to the wall), electronic (like a laser microphone), or mystic (including powers such as Heightened Senses), requires the eavesdropper to score more successes in a Perception + Occult roll (difficulty 7) than the caster of the ritual scored. Failure to beat this mark gives the listener an earful of ghostly wailing and moaning and the sound of howling winds; a botch deafens him for the rest of the night.

[ 3 ] Death's Head ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 103 )

Prerequsite: Tal'Mahe'Ra

Some necromancers of the Tal'Mahe'Ra collect fragments of hair, bone, ash, or flesh from their enemies as a reminder of a victory. Using Necromancy, they use these remains to create a paint-like residue with which they decorate porcelain masks known as Death's Heads. Once activated, such a mask causes its wearer (who may be someone other than the Necromancer who made the mask) to appear as a wraith so long as she wears the mask. In the physical world, the wearer looks translucent and ghostlike (but is granted no special ability to pass through physical items or cross into the Shadowlands). In the Shadowlands, the wearer can pass as a wraith even among true wraiths. Note that the user's aura becomes pale, like that of a wraith (and their creature type reads as a wraith), but this does not hide or alter any other patterns or colors (such as diablerie streaks).

A Death's Head, once painted, is enchanted but inactive until used. Once activated (by putting the mask on), the mask crumbles into dust, leaving a faint pattern of bone-white marks across the user's face. If the user wills the effect to end early; the soft patterns fade into nothingness and the user is returned to their normal physical appearance. A necromancer may create only one Death's Head at a time; any already-existing masks are destroyed (or active uses cancelled) when a second is created. It takes one full night to create a Death's Head.

[ 3 ] Divine Sign ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 180 )

Upon learning a person's birth date, the necromancer's player may roll to activate this ritual. If successful, the Kindred may use this to predict the target's next course of action, allowing him to deal with it accordingly. The effect on ghosts is quite different: Instead, the ritual imparts upon the necromancer so intimate an understanding of the wraith in question that it acts as a connection to the ghost, making it easier to invoke other Necromancy effects on that spirit. For story purposes, it's the equivalent to holding one of that wraith's fetters (see Ritual of the Unearthed Fetter, below).

[ 3 ] Drink Of Styx's Waters ( XXX - Page X )

The necromancer robs a grave and steals the corpse's skull. He saws off the top of the skull; the sawn-off piece, flipped over, forms a cup-shaped piece of bone. He covers this piece with clay, making a bowl, which he proceeds to fire in a kiln. If any blood descendant of the corpse eats from the bowl during a meal with the necromancer, any promises the subject makes to the necromancer gains otherworldly enforcement. If the subject fails to live up to them, he is visited by a Spectre, which torments him relentlessly until he makes good on them or offers the necromancer acceptable compensation. In addition to the time it takes to rob the grave, the modeling and firing of the bowl takes at least four hours, depending on how fancy the necromancer wants it to look. It may be reused until destroyed.

[ 3 ] Fettered Minion ( XXX - Page X )

Prerequsite: Cadaverous Animation 3

By mingling his blood with ashes from a destroyed Athanatos, a vampire with this ritual may imbue a loyal ghoul with necrotic power. the ghoul must be sworn to the caster through a full blood oath for this ritual to function.

System: The vampire creates a potion of vitae and ashes and feeds it to the ghoul. If the ritual fails, the blood nourishes the ghoul as normal vitae but otherwise has no effect. A botch renders the mixture highly toxic, inflicting one level of unsoakable aggravated damage per blood point of potion swallowed. Success transmutes the vitae into something more potent than Cainite blood. The vampire may transmute as many blood points of the potion as the number of successes rolled. While a ghoul retains any of the vitae tainted in this manner, she suffers the effects of the Visage of Death Flaw but reduces all wound penalties by one die. If the ghoul spends or loses vitae, she loses tainted points first. Should the ghoul perish with tainted vitae in her veins, her corpse immediately rises as an Athanatos. The blood oath still binds the corpse, causing the monster to obey its creator to the best of its abilities and limited intelligence. Every evening, the corpse knight loses one of its tainted blood points. When it depletes its pool, it loses all animation (though it may be subsequently reanimated) through standard Cadaverous Animation powers.

[ 3 ] Graveyard Mists ( XXX - Page X )

Prerequsite: Nigrimancy 3

The vampire chants a paean to the dead and bites his tongue, spitting one point of blood upon the earth. If the ritual succeeds, wisps of luminous fog rise from the spot where the blood fell and spread through the surrounding area.

System: Within minutes of successful casting, the unnatural mist blankets the earth and coils above in tattered streamers, filling a radius of two yards per success. Each minute that passes reduces this area by one yard. Apart from its usual obscuring qualities, the fog also reveals any ghosts as translucent phantasms to all onlookers. The dead may whisper softly at a cost of one Willpower point per minute of conversation, though they vanish and fall silent again if they step beyond the fog.

[ 3 ] Implacable Vigor ( XXX - Page X )

By swallowing the ashes of a cremated Athanatos, a vampire who knows this ritual may briefly gain some of the creature's strength and resistance to pain.

System: For every success rolled, the vampire may gain a dot in a Physical Attribute or subtract one die from his total wound penalties. Only one success may be applied to each Attribute, and the vampire may not exceed normal generational limits. Unfortunately, the strength of the dead comes with the savage hunger of the dead, increasing all rolls to resist frenzy by 2. A caster who botches this roll immediately enters frenzy.

[ 3 ] Malediction Of Fetid Veins ( XXX - Page X )

After a turn of fierce incantation, the vampire spits blood in the direction of another vampire or ghoul in his direct line of sight. The blood need not strike the victim, it merely accompanies the invisible spray of vitriolic force. This force rots vitae, making it an effective weapon against ghouls and vampires both.

System: Treat the casting roll as an attack that may be dodged at +1 difficulty but not parried. If the magic hits, roll the vampire’s Mortis rating (difficulty 7). Each success rots one blood point into inert sludge. Although vampires suffer no other injury from the spell, ghouls suffer one level of lethal damage for every blood point they lose. This damage may be soaked, provided that the ghoul does not lose all vitae. A ghoul slain with this ritual reeks of sepsis and assumes a terrible visage, every vein bulging and darkened with rot. This ritual has no effect on ordinary mortals or any other supernatural beings.

[ 3 ] Nightmare Drums ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 180 )

The necromancer using this ritual sends the dead to haunt the dreams of an enemy, using the ghosts to drive an opponent slowly insane. Once the ritual is cast, the vampire has no control over this power, except to stop it from continuing. The shape of the nightmares and the images that assault the target are not under the control of the necromancer; they are under the control of the ghosts who actually do the haunting. The necromancer uses his own blood and a personal possession of the target's in this ritual. Once the item has been coated with blood, the vampire must burn the item, sending a ghostly icon of it to the Shadowlands both as an identifying badge and as a reward to the ghosts who agree to haunt the target. While the item burns, the necromancer (and assistants, if available) pound out a relentless beat on gigantic drums of human skin. The drums are inaudible in this realm but thunderous in the home of the dead. To silence the deafening drums, the ghosts resignedly agree to negotiate with the necromancer. They promise to send nightmares to the victim for as long as the vampire demands, in return for a favor. Their request normally runs along the lines of passing a message to a living relative or exacting revenge against someone who slighted them.

[ 3 ] Ritual Of The Unearthed Fetter ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 181 )

This ritual requires that a necromancer have a finger bone from the skeleton of the particular ghost he's interested in. When the ritual is cast, the finger bone becomes attuned to something vitally important to the wraith, the possession of which by the necromancer makes the casting of Necromantic powers against that ghost much easier. Most necromancers take the attuned finger bone and suspend it from a thread, allowing it to act as a sort of supernatural compass and following it to the special item in question. Ritual of the Unearthed Fetter takes three hours to cast properly. It requires both the name of the ghost targeted and the finger bone already mentioned, as well as a chip knocked off a gravestone or other marker (not necessarily the marker of the bone's former owner). During the course of the ritual the stone crumbles to dust, which is then sprinkled over the finger bone.

[ 3 ] Tempest Prison ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 94 )

In order to pay the tithe of souls that Venice demands, many Giovanni Necromancers previously bound wraiths to a set of objects and sent these to the Mausoleum. However, as the demands of the Elders become greater, some Necromancers have sought to find a more effective way of transporting greater numbers of wraiths in one shipment. The Tempest Prison was their solution.

The Necromancer first obtains a large, glass container(such as a gallon glass jug) and takes it to a graveyard. She then buries the sealed jar in the earth above a grave of someone that died prematurely, or by violence, or in some fashion that meant they stood a good chance of creating a wraith upon their demise (which may require a bit of research prior to casting). The Necromancer then laces the ground with blood as she chants, calling forth the power of the storm that rages deep within the lands of the dead.

System: Upon completion of the rite, the ground shudders for a moment to indicate its success. Digging up the glass container, it is now full of a swirling purple and black mist, in which can be seen occasional flecks of light, like miniature lighting. When the Necromancer opens the bottle, any wraith in line of sight of the container must make a Strength test (using their Strength stat as it is when in the Shadowlands) against a Difficulty of 6 plus the number of successes gained upon on the casting of the Ritual. This test is repeated each round until the wraith is out of sight of the container, or it fails and is sucked immediately into the vortex (which does not leave the container).

The Tempest Prison can hold a number of wraiths equal to five times the number of successes rolled in its activation. It also lasts for a number of nights equal to five times successes rolled, after which time, the vortex subsides and the wraiths are released. This may also be ended prematurely by simply smashing the container (which may lead to suddenly dealing with a storm of angry wraiths).

The Tempest Prison does not necessarily need to be wielded by a Necromancer after it has been created. It requires a Necromancer to create it, but not to use it. Indeed, many Giovanni who are called upon to rid an area of ghostly interference lend their employers such a container to collect the troublesome ghosts. They then "dispose" of the ghosts elsewhere. In these cases, both sides of the deal get what they want.

[ 3 ] Tempesta Scudo ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 181 )

Unlike most rituals, Tempesta Scudo can be cast speedily. The necromancer performs a short and awkward dance that ends with her biting through her own lip and spitting the blood in a circle around her. All ghosts' actions within the circle of blood are made at +2 difficulty. To cast this ritual successfully, the necromancer must spend one combat turn performing the dance. At the end of the turn, she makes a Dexterity + Performance roll against difficulty 7 (if done outside of combat, the difficulty is only 6). During the next combat turn, she bites through her own lips (taking a level of bashing damage) and spits (spending one blood point). Then the normal ritual roll is made to see whether the power takes effect.

[ 4 ] Baleful Doll ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 181 )

A baleful doll is a powerful figure that is linked directly to the spirit of the target. This doll must be handcrafted, and is only finished when it has been painted with the blood of the necromancer and dressed in some article of clothing from the victim (which should be unwashed for a better connection). Once the doll has been cursed, the vampire can use it to cause physical damage to the target. If the doll is injured (often with pins or other items), the victim takes six dice of bashing damage. If the doll is destroyed, the target suffers six dice of lethal damage. The necromancer must craft the doll, using ritual chants throughout the process. This normally takes four to five hours. The player rolls Stamina + Crafts (difficulty 8) to succeed in this part of the ritual - a doll that does not resemble its victim is useless for the purposes of this ritual, though some necromancers sell failures as "authentic voodoo dolls" to tourists.

[ 4 ] Bastone Diabolico ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 181 )

Casting this ritual is tricky because it requires the removal of a leg bone from a living person. The donor must survive the removal, at least for a little while. The bone is then submerged in molten lead. Once it cools, the thin lead coating is inscribed with various runes. The necromancer then uses this metal-shod bone to beat its donor to death while repeating a droning Greek chant. With a successful roll, this ritual produces a bastone diabolico or "devil stick." The stick can be activated by anyone who holds it and expends a point of Willpower. Activation lasts for a scene, and during that time any ghost hit with the devil stick loses a point from its Passion pool. In addition to its normal effects, this club does an additional die of damage when used against the walking dead (not vampires), and such damage is aggravated. Unfortunately for the necromancer, ghosts can sense that the bastone diabolico is bad news, even if they don't know exactly what the thing does. They tend to stay away from anybody carrying one, which means that all rolls for such a character to use powers that summon or attract ghosts occur at +1 difficulty.

[ 4 ] Cadaver's Touch ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 182 )

By chanting for three hours and melting a wax doll in the shape of the target, the necromancer turns a mortal target into a corpselike ruin. As the doll loses the last of its form, the target becomes cold and clammy. His pulse becomes weak and thready, and his flesh pale and chalky. For all intents and purposes, he becomes a reasonable facsimile of the walking dead. This can have some adverse effects in social situations (+2 difficulty on all Social rolls). The effects of the ritual wear off only when the wax of the doll is permitted to solidify. If the wax is allowed to boil off, the spell is broken.

[ 4 ] Call Upon The Shadow's Grace ( XXX - Page X )

Use of the invasive ritual allows the Giovanni to peer into the aura of death that surrounds all living beings. Those who are familiar with the subtleties of wraithly existence speaks of the Shadow, the "dark side" of the wraith's personality. This ritual temporarily opens a channel for discourse with the nascent Shadow of its subject (which will fully emerge if the subject in question later becomes a wraith). Though not quite so powerful or malignant as the Shadow of a wraith, the Shadow of one who still walks the physical world can nonetheless reveal damning aspects of the person's actions, and may often drive the person to acts of desperation.

System: By enacting this ritual, the Giovanni brings the self-destructive aspects of her subject's psyche to the fore. If used successfully, this ritual causes its subject to reveal her darkest secrets to the Giovanni. The subject will reveal any plots in which she is involved, treacheries she has committed and lies she has told. The subject may resist with a Willpower roll against a difficulty equal to the caster's Intelligence + Occult. At the Storyteller's discretion, a botch may result in tremendous feelings of remorse and despair in the subject, which result in the subject's attempted suicide. Naturally, nothing may be learned in this situation.

[ 4 ] Drink Of Lethe's Waters ( XXX - Page X )

The necromancer acquires an object once owned by, or symbolic of, a particular wraith. The object must be able to be damaged by water; the necromancer destroys it by leaving it to soak in water. During the soaking, he periodically spits into the water. After the object has been destroyed, the necromancer conjures the wraith or otherwise arranges to be in her presence. The wraith loses all memory of her identity, becoming highly susceptible to suggestion on the part of the necromancer. Obviously, this ritual is of no use if the necromancer wants the summoned ghost to answer questions. The wraith's memory loss continues for one night per success scored. It may not use Pathos points to counter any action on the necromancer's part. Its Willpower drops by the number of successes scored; it may not replenish its Willpower pool while the effect lingers.

[ 4 ] Impregnable Soul ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 104 )

Prerequsite: Tal'Mahe'Ra

Believed to be stolen from a mortal mage by the name of Eochar, this ritual shields the user against possession by ghosts, infernal entities, or other spiritual powers. Rumors are that Eochar used this magic to protect himself and his students from the machinations of the dead. While this ritual is active, the necromancer's body cannot be taken over, nor can his soul be pulled out of his flesh. Powers that command the mind (such as Dominate) are still effective. This ritual may be cast on others, but if done against their permission (such as to keep an enemy from activating Psychic Projection, Subsume the Spirit, or Possession), the ritualist must have a bit of the target's hair, spend a Willpower, and make a successful Manipulation + Occult, while the subject rolls his Willpower in a resisted action (difficulty 7 for each). Once activated, Impregnable Soul remains until cancelled by the user, or until the next sunrise.

[ 4 ] Mark Of Despair ( XXX - Page X )

Prerequsite: Nigrimancy 4

The vampire mixes equal parts of blood from a vampire and an innocent mortal. The vitae need not come from the caster, nor must the innocent perish in yielding blood. For especially large projects, multiple "donors" may be needed. After gathering the blood and steeping it in herbs and unguents used to prepare bodies for burial, the Cainite anoints her forehead and eyes with the crimson salve. She then daubs droplets in a scattered ring around the periphery of the warded area. If the ritual succeeds, everything within the circle resonates with the wrathful taint of Caine's Curse and the undying hunger of the Beast.

System: Any ghost that approaches a barrier created with this ritual feels a sense of inherent wrongness that intensifies the closer it gets. Upon crossing the threshold, the ghost feels overwhelmed with soul-searing anguish that drains one point of Willpower each turn until it leaves. A ghost reduced to Willpower 1 flees in tears and can not even attempt to enter such a ward until it completely refills its Willpower pool. No limit exists on the maximum area a vampire may ward with this ritual, provided he has enough salve prepared for the task. Such wards remain potent for one week per success, although this duration can be extended to a year at the cost of one permanent point of Willpower.

[ 4 ] Peek Past The Shroud ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 182 )

This hour-long ritual enchants a handful of ergot fungi mold to act as a catalyst for second sight. By eating a pinch of the mold, a subject gains the benefits of Shroudsight for a number of hours equal to the necromancer's Stamina score. Three doses of the enchanted ergot are created for every success on the roll. Ergot is normally poisonous to some degree; this ritual removes its toxic properties. However, a botch renders the ergot highly and instantaneously toxic, inflicting eight dice of lethal damage on any subject who ingests it - including vampires.

[ 4 ] Point Of The Needle ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 90 )

This ritual was discovered by Voudoun Necromancers that were already adept at being able to create Baleful Dolls. By taking a needle that has been previously stabbed into a Baleful Doll, the Necromancer immerses the needle completely in blood under the light of the moon for a whole night. Upon successful completion of the ritual, the blood turns to ash and the needle develops a red tint.

System: Until the next sunrise, the Necromancer may perform a single use of Withering upon a target, using the same systems as outlined for the original power, but with a prick from the needle replacing a touch attack.

[ 4 ] Resurrection Of Stirred Blood ( XXX - Page X )

This ritual may be used in one of two ways, to aid in rising from voluntary torpor or to pull another Cainite from her own torpor.

System: To rise from the sleep of ages, the vampire takes vitae and laboriously paints herself with glyphs. If the ritual succeeds, the vampire specifies the duration and immediately sinks into torpor. Once this time passes, the player spends one point of Willpower and rolls Willpower against a difficulty of (10 - the character's Road rating). This roll replaces the usual awakening roll. If successful, the vampire rises to full consciousness. Failure means the vampire remains in torpor but may try again until she succeeds or runs out of Willpower. Willpower lost to failed attempts returns at the rate of one point each decade of rest. A botch means the ritual's magic ends and the vampire must rely on standard awakening rolls to arise.

Pulling another Cainite from torpor requires the same painting of glyphs on the target's body. The vampire lays fingers over the eyes of the slumbering Cainite and concentrates. Her player spends one point each of blood and Willpower and rolls Willpower at a difficulty of (10 – the torpid vampire's Road score). Success means the vampire's eyes snap open and the arisen vampire must immediately check for frenzy at difficulty 5. Failure means the vampire remains torpid and the future difficulty to use the ritual increases by one (maximum 10)... A botch drives the Cainite performing the ritual into torpor.

[ 4 ] Ritual Of Xipe Totec ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 182 )

To perform the ritual, the Kindred removes his victim's top layer of skin with an obsidian dagger, taking care to damage the skin as little as possible in the process. The victim must survive this process (though she may well die of blood loss shortly after the ritual if not seen to properly). He then drains the victim's blood into a large ceremonial golden bowl. There the blood is mixed with octli, amaranth flower, and other ingredients. When imbibed by the necromancer, this mixture causes him to sweat a glistening sheen of blood (equal to one blood point). The Kindred then dons the skin of his victim, which on a successful roll absorbs the Kindred vitae and begins to heal, forming a second skin over the vampire's own. The victim needs to be of similar stature - otherwise, the features become distorted and the disguise is rendered useless. This power also has no effect on supernatural creatures (although it can affect ghouls). Under normal visual scrutiny, the ruse is flawless. Of course, it imparts none of the victim's knowledge or mannerisms (and does nothing to mask the Kindred's own undead nature). Therefore, it works best for situations in which contact with friends and family may be minimized. To preserve the skin's condition, the Kindred must bathe it in a blood point's worth of vitae nightly. When the necromancer removes the skin (which causes one level of unsoakable lethal damage to the user and must be done with the same knife used to flay the victim in the first place), it is ruined in the process.

[ 4 ] Summon Ethereal Horde ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 89 )

Based upon accounts of the Telyavelic Tremere's ability to summon temporary hordes of ghostly combatants, the Giovanni have been able to partially replicate the power previously known as the Army of Souls. The Necromancer chants a prayer to the dead while standing in the center of a circle made from the ground-up remains of a cremated corpse, the coffin in which it was buried, and the headstone of the deceased's grave.

System: At the end of the chant, if the ritual is successful, the number of successes rolled determines how many drones (mindless ghosts, rather than full-blown wraiths) the Necromancer can summon. These ghosts appear as ethereal images of warriors long dead. Although they can not materialize fully in the physical world, they can use their own powers to hurl objects or frighten away attackers, in defense of the Necromancer. The ghosts return to their rest at the next sunrise.

[ 4 ] Veil That Bars Eternity ( XXX - Page X )

By chanting and soaking a fine burial shroud in her own vitae, a Cainite may enchant the cloth with a measure of her own immortality. This cloth can then be placed over a corpse to suspend decomposition. Rumors persist of powerful Cappadocians with huge underground caverns filled to bursting with human corpses, all carefully preserved against a time when the Graverobber will need to retreat from the world for hundreds of years.

System: The player spends 3 blood points in addition to making the standard roll. If the ritual succeeds, the shroud retains a faint red hue long after the blood dries and flakes away. Placed over a corpse, the shroud suspends all decay. The body remains indefinitely frozen in time as surely as a vampire. Once the shroud is removed, time affects the cadaver normally and the shroud loses its magic. This ritual is often used to keep a well stocked larder of food and fresh material for experimentation.

[ 5 ] Chair Of Hades ( XXX - Page X )

The necromancer acquires a corpse's femur and tibia bones - decreasing the difficulty of the casting by one if he does so by personally robbing a grave. He wraps the bones in coarse cloth and then encases them in wood or metal so that their lengths match and they become capable of bearing weight. He then builds a chair; each encased bone forms one of its legs. If a blood descendant of the corpse sits in the chair, she loses all desire to do anything but sit in the chair. She leaves the chair only to quickly fulfill basic bodily needs. Whenever a qualified victim sits in the chair, the necromancer's player rolls Intelligence + Occult against her Willpower. If successful, the effect lasts until the chair is destroyed. Otherwise, even if the victim is forcibly moved from the chair, she does everything she can to sit in it once more. In addition to the time it takes to obtain the bones, the construction of the chair takes at least eight hours. The necromancer may spend additional time on the chair to make it look fancy or to mimic an existing piece of furniture.

[ 5 ] Chill Of Oblivion ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 183 )

Performed over the course of 12 hours (reduced by one hour per success on the casting roll), this ritual infuses the necromancer or a willing subject with the chill of the grave. The ritual's material component is a one-foot (half-meter) cube of ice, which is slowly melted on the subject's chest (inflicting three health levels of bashing damage on mortal subjects). The subject must lie naked on bare earth for the entire duration of the ritual. Once the ritual is completed, its effects remain for a number of nights equal to the caster's Occult rating. An individual affected by Chill of Oblivion treats aggravated damage from fire and high temperatures as if it were lethal damage. Furthermore, he may attempt to extinguish any fire by rolling Willpower (difficulty 9); each success reduces the fire's soak difficulty by 1, and a fire with a soak difficulty of 2 dwindles to glowing embers. However, this ritual has several drawbacks. First and foremost, the subject's aura is laced with writhing black veins that resemble those left by diablerie, and may well be mistaken for such by any observer who is not familiar with this ritual. The subject also radiates a palpable aura of cold that extends to about arm's length from him; this can be extremely disconcerting to mortals, though it causes no damage, and its game effects mirror those of the Flaws Touch of Frost and Eerie Presence. Finally, the mystical nimbus of the ritual draws hostile ghosts to the subject, who may plague him with unwholesome acts.

[ 5 ] Dead Man's Hand ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 183 )

The necromancer takes a rag stained in the blood, sweat, or tears of the intended victim. She takes a freshly severed human hand (which can come either from a corpse or a living "donor") and closes it around the rag. As the hand decomposes, so does the victim. His flesh bloats, turns gray and then green, then starts to slough off. The victim's brain remains fresh until the very end, so he can see the maggots writhe in the putrescent rack of meat that once was his healthy body. The necromancer makes the standard roll and spends two blood points for each point of Stamina (and Fortitude) possessed by the victim. The victim loses health levels according to the timetable below. Only the removal of the rag from the hand can stop the process. If this happens, health levels return, also according to the chart below. Mortal characters who suffer more than 12 hours of incapacitation die, while Kindred who remain Incapacitated for more than 12 hours succumb to torpor.

Health Level	Time Until Next Loss
Bruised	Twelve hours.
Hurt	Twelve hours.
Injured	Six hours.
Wounded	Three hours.
Mauled	One hour.
Crippled	Thirty minutes.
Incapacitated	Twelve hours.

[ 5 ] Draught Of Dust And Ashes ( XXX - Page X )

Removing all clothing, the vampire kneels in a place hallowed for the dead. Such a place may be an elaborate mausoleum or an unearthed pauper's grave, but the location must have been intentionally built or excavated to house human remains and then used for that purpose. The vampire meditates for an hour, attuning herself to the realm of the dead as she draws on its unhallowed power.

System: If the ritual succeeds, the vampire's player rolls Courage (difficulty 4). Each success yields one point of Willpower that may take the character above her normal maximum. These Willpower points may also be used in place of blood to power Disciplines with such requirements, but the Willpower may not replace blood for any other task. Any Willpower gained from this ritual in excess of the vampire's normal rating fades at sunrise. Once this ritual drains the negative energies of a tomb, that location yields no Willpower for a number of nights equal to the points taken from it. After this recovery duration passes, the vampire may return for more power.

[ 5 ] Enochian Passage ( Rites Of The Blood - Page 104 )

Prerequsite: Tal'Mahe'Ra

The vampire can physically pass into the Shadowlands, appearing in the fields before the mystical city of Enoch. This requires that the vampire symbolically "kill" herself by plunging a silver dagger into her heart (doing at least two lethal wound levels) and falling into a body of water deep enough to cover her body. Members of the Tal'Mahe'Ra use this ritual to go to Enoch, and thus rabidly protect it from falling into anyone else's hands.

[ 5 ] Esilio ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 183 )

Like Tempesta Scudo, Esilio is a quick and dirty ritual. The necromancer simply speaks five syllables. No one can identify the casting language, but according to the ritual's oblique history, the language is what God gave humankind before the confusion of Babel. The legend further states that while the particular meaning of the words is lost, they are what Caine's father said to him while exiling him to Nod. Regardless of the truth of the matter, the Words of Exile are not spoken lightly. When the ritual is cast successfully, it opens a hole within reality itself - a rip between the lands of the living and the darkest depths of the Underworld. This tear is invisible to normal vision, but to Witness of Death or Shroudsight it looks like a black vortex opening within the vampire's own body (the very few unfortunate enough to look into the gap with high levels of Auspex are generally unwilling or unable to discuss it). Any ghost clutched to the Kindred's chest is instantly torn to shreds. Grabbing a ghost in this fashion requires a Clinch or Tackle maneuver. Destroyed spirits don't come back for at least a month, if ever. A wraith destroyed in this fashion tends to return as a Spectre, if it returns at all. The necromancer may clutch and destroy a number of spirits equal to the number of successes she rolled. After that, the vortex closes. It closes at the end of the scene if it hasn't already. Of course, using one's body as a portal between our world and what some people might call Hell is neither simple nor healthy. For starters, it costs a blood point and a point of Willpower (which does not give an automatic success on the ritual roll). More importantly, each success rolled inflicts a level of unsoakable lethal damage on the necromancer. Most significantly, every use of Esilio permanently reduces the necromancer's Humanity by one point if he follows that morality, and may impact other Paths at the Storyteller's discretion.

[ 5 ] Grasp The Ghostly ( Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition - Page 184 )

Requiring a full six hours of chanting, this ritual allows a necromancer to bring an object from the Underworld into the real world. It's not simple, however - a wraith may object to having his possessions stolen and fight back. Furthermore, the object taken must be replaced by a material item of roughly equal mass, otherwise the target of the ritual snaps back to its previous, ghostly existence. Objects taken from the Underworld tend to fade away after about a year. Only items recently destroyed in the real world (called "relics" by ghosts) may be recaptured in this manner. Artifacts created by wraiths themselves were never meant to exist outside the Underworld, and vanish on contact with the living world.

[ 5 ] Ritual Of Teyolia ( XXX - Page X )

Long ago, Mayan astrologers foretold that the end of the world would occur shortly after the end of a thousand-year period. The recent return of the Ravnos Antediluvian has re-enforced in Pochtli a belief that the Mayans were right. He believes that the foretold end of the world is, in fact, the inevitable Gehenna. In an effort to survive the end of the age, Pochtli and his lieutenants developed a means of tearing out the hearts of Kindred and preserving within them the heart's blood, or teyoila, of the Kindred so sacrificed. When Gehenna comes, Pochtli intends to offer the hearts of his victims to the terrible blood gods in an effort to have them spare himself and his undead family. This terrible rite is unknown to Pisanob Kindred beyond Pochtli and his most trusted lieutenants. If any Giovanni apart from the Pisanob get wind of this practice, it's entirely possible the entire Pisanob branch of the clan would be extinguished.

To perform this ritual, the Necromancer must force a captured vampire to the summit of the Temple of Pochtli. There, lying face-up on the temple's altar, the Kindred to be sacrificed has her limbs held by four camozotoz ghouls. The Necromancer then cuts open the victim's chest with an obsidian dagger, reaches inside and tears out the heart, visiting Final Death upon sacrifice. The heart is then preserved in a specially prepared vessel, referred to as a chac mool. No roll is required. The process is successful unless interrupted.

It is possible to diablerize the sacrificed Kindred at a later date by drinking the heart's blood, with all the practice's concomitant benefits and drawbacks. It's also possible that the elder Psianob might use the power inherent in the hearts to fuel even more potent necromantic castings... such as the strange but persistent rumors of South American Kindred claiming to be one person but looking wholly like another.

Typically a player's character won't know this ritual. The rite is best used as a specifically gruesome end to a character in story terms - a heart stolen by this rite is unlikely to ever return to play (since Pochtli and company need hearts for other things) and so essentially it's just a nasty, nasty way to finish off a character.

Note: Anyone outside the Pisanob Family in the Giovanni clan are very unlikely to know this ritual.

[ 5 ] Sanctuary Of Living Death ( XXX - Page X )

Prerequisite: Cadaverous Animation 5

Rather than animating individual corpses, Cappadocians who know this ritual may enchant an area so that the dead may move and serve on command. Unfortunately, as the enchantment rests in the place rather than the cadavers, the walking dead cannot leave its boundaries without reverting to true lifelessness.

System: To cast this ritual, the caster gathers the teeth of dead murderers and sows them like seeds at the border of the sanctuary. The total area defined by this "fence" can be any size, though each tooth may be no more than one foot from those adjoining it. Once this process is complete, the vampire retraces his steps, dripping his own blood to "water" the planted teeth. Each blood point covers a strip five yards long, so a vampire might need to feed several times before completing the circuit. After the border is set, the vampire stands at the center and recites the litany that awakens the power of the sown teeth. The enchanted land may animate one corpse for every success rolled. A corpse that steps beyond the sanctuary loses animation and another rises within the borders to take its place. This also occurs in the event that a risen corpse is destroyed. The sanctuary will continue raising corpses to keep the maximum number available until it runs out of corpses or raises a cumulative total equal to the number of teeth sown. Only after the last tooth loses enchantment may the entire lot be reset with blood and a new casting. All bodies animated by the land have the statistics of Corpse Servants but may attack to the best of their feeble abilities. Their chief strength lies in numbers and their ability to quickly replace those numbers. If the ritual botches, count 1's as successes in determining the intensity of effect; the corpses raised by the land single out the caster for destruction.

[ 5 ] The Ferryman's Recall ( Lore Of The Clans - Page 109 )

Prerequisite: Premascine Giovanni

This obscure ritual is for the rare instance when a prospective convert has been killed before they could be Embraced, and they are determined to be too valuable to lose. Knowledge of this ritual is jealously, if not entirely successfully, guarded by certain Premascine Giovanni.

System: The caster must have access to the corpse as well as one of the subject's fetters, perhaps obtained using Ritual of the Unearthed Fetter. The Ferryman's Recall takes 8 hours (reduced by one hour per success on the casting roll) to perform.

The corpse must be relatively intact for the ritual to work, and the subject must have been a ghoul before death. If the necromancer performing the ritual was not the domitor, they must have a blood point worth of the domitor's Vitae. The Generation of the Kindred giving the Embrace (usually, but not always, the necromancer performing the ritual) determines how much time may have passed since the subject's death, as more powerful vitae has a more potent effect.

Embracer's Generation	Time Dead
13th	Twelve hours.
12th	One day.
11th	Two days.
10th	Three days.
9th	Four days.
8th	Five days.
7th	One week.
6th	Two weeks.

First, the subject's body must be cleaned and prepared, drained entirely of blood or embalming fluid. Then the necromancer paints a series of sigils onto the body, intended as place markers for the subject's spirit to relearn how to use his body. At the climax of the ritual, the Kindred performing the Embrace pours her vitae into the subject's mouth, and the Embrace continues as normal. Any wounds suffered before the ritual (including the cause of the subject's death and any decomposition) close, but do not entirely heal, leaving scars on the newly Embraced Kindred's body. In addition, the subject's time across the sudario leaves its mark on him; giving him the ashen complexion of the Harbingers of Skulls, as well as endowing him with an improved facility for necromantic magic (see the Mortuario Merit for more information).

[ 5 ] Walk Through The Shroud ( XXX - Page X )

A development of the Giovanni necromancers recently Embraced into the clan, this rite allows a Cappadocian to force his own soul to follow the course of one that actually dies, leaving his body behind and crossing into the lands of the dead, but with the ability to return to the physical plane. This return is accomplished through a focus on the spiritual echoes left in the undead corpse (those same echoes utilized in the Cadaverous Animation path).

Still tied to the body, the Cainite's soul is not able to travel further than the dark limbo of lost souls. Heaven and Hell (and the soul's ultimate rewards) are not accessible to the practitioner of Mortis. In these dank shadow-lands, the Cappadocian may encounter ghosts and other lost souls, and he may well be able to extract some information or arcane services from them.

This rite is not to be undertaken lightly. The ghosts in limbo are rarely happy to see vampires, and at Cainite may find that the ghosts of some of his victims are bent on vengeance.

System: The vampire must undertake the rite - which involves chanting incantations while surrounded by grave dust - from dusk until midnight, at which point it takes effect. A single success on the Intelligence + Occult roll allows the vampire's soul to separate from his body in a manner similar to Psychic Projection. The soul is immediately swept through the shroud between life and death, however, and arrives in the nightmarish limbo of lost souls. The Storyteller is free to describe this dark realm as she sees fit. Some Cainites have reported it to be an endless land of choking mist, others a dark reflection of the living world, and so on. The number of ghosts in the area depends on how likely the Storyteller feels the place is to be haunted. Graveyards, battlefields and hospices are always replete with the lost.

The Cappadocian's soul can remain in this underworld for one hour per success on the rite's roll (or until he decides to return). His body remains vulnerable as with a vampire using Psychic Projection. The Cappadocian cannot bring anything back across the shroud, save his own memories.

[ 6 ] Orpheus' Descent ( XXX - Page X )

Prerequisite: Nigrimancy 5

The vampire chants from dusk to midnight, imploring the chthonic gods of death to open a path to their lightless realm. If the ritual succeeds, a deep fissure tears in the earth. The vampire may descend into this crevasse and sojourn to the deepest labyrinthine recesses of Hades' realm. In this nightmarish plane, rock and bone conjoin in impossible architecture as from a blasphemous thing never born - and yet the walls themselves undulate as with slow breathing. The vampire may find the oldest and the most wicked of the dead with enough searching, and untold wonders and horrors besides. It is the immutable law of such descent that the vampire finds who or what he seeks before dawn, provided that the object of his desire exists among the dead... Once the vampire finds this thing or person, he must turn his back and climb up the infinite steps and passages that lead to the living world. Such a journey may appear to take hours or days or an eternity compressed into moments, but the vampire arrives at least an hour before sunrise on the night he left. If he never once looked back, the object of his quest emerges with him.

System: Ghosts restored to "life" in this fashion have until the next dusk to enjoy the remembered pleasures of flesh and make their final peace before their souls slip into the great unknown that lies beyond the underworld. If the object is inanimate, it endures and functions according to its nature as if remade. Only objects that once belonged to the living world may be reclaimed with this ritual.