Sadhana: Path Of Praapti

[Phsycodelic]

Sadhana: Path Of Praapti ( Path Of Mercury )

Followers Of Set, Tremere

A vampiric version of Hindu sorcery, practised by the Daitya and other Indian vampires.

Sadhana paths all call for Willpower rolls. A sadhu evokes all path magic by sheer force of will because that's how she believes ascetic magic works: If you gain enough merit through your austerities, what you wish comes true. Most Sadhana rituals call for an Intelligence + Occult roll from the player, just like every other style of Thaumaturgy. The exceptions, like Rakta-Maya rituals of hypnotic illusion, are noted in their sections.

Unlike Hermatic magus, a sadhu needs to learn an additional Ability besides Occult. Sadhana's austerities demand that a practitioner also develop the Secondary Skill of Meditation. A sorcerer cannot employ path magic at a higher level than her Meditation Trait, though she may perform rituals of a higher level. She still knows her primary path to the level of her full Thaumaturgical mastery; she simply lacks the spiritual force or focus to use it. When her player raises the character's Meditation Trait, she can use the path to the higher level. Note: This applies to ALL paths learned in this line, including ones "imported" from other paths.

Meditation has many uses in its own right, in accordance with an Indian adept's overmastering will. At the Storyteller's option, a sadhu's player can substitute an Intelligence + Meditation roll for a path power's Willpower roll – but at the cost of the power taking as much time as a ritual of the same level. Meditation is not quick.

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.

Setite Sorcery botches, regardless of school, cause the sorcerer to acquire an intense photophobia. When exposed to extremely bright lights, the sorcerer must roll for Rötschreck against a difficulty of (4 + the sorcerer's Path rating). Setite lector-priests do not suffer this effect. [Rites Of The Blood - Page 132]

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.