The Ash Path

 

Retests with the Ash Path rely on the Occult Ability. At the Storyteller’s discretion, the specialized Ability of Wraith Lore may be used instead.

 

Basic Ash Path Necromancy

 

Shroudsight

With minimal effort, you can see across the Shroud that separates the world of the living from the lands of the dead. The Underworld appears as a decaying and ghastly reflection of the mortal world, sometimes with structures lost to the past or unusual spirits flitting about. You can see (though not hear or feel) anything that transpires in the Underworld within your normal visual range, with a sort of “double sight” that does not hinder your normal vision. You need only expend a Mental Trait to look across the Shroud for the duration of the scene, or for an hour, whichever comes first.

 

Lifeless Tongues

The babble of restless spirits is clear to you. By concentrating for a moment, you attune your senses to the Underworld, making yourself capable of both seeing and hearing all that transpires there around you. Furthermore, you can understand the language of the dead, so unless a ghost goes out of the way to use a language that you do not know, you can comprehend the words of any wraith. You must expend a Willpower Trait to attune yourself to the Underworld for a scene or an hour (whichever ends first).

 

Intermediate Ash Path Necromancy

 

Dead Hand

The structures and entities of the Underworld are very real to you. In a bizarre sort of half-life, you can stretch your physical form across the Shroud, interacting with beings and scenery there even as your physical body remains partially in the living world. By expending a Willpower Trait, you make yourself capable of touching the contents of the Shadowlands for a scene or an hour (whichever comes first). Each additional scene or hour, you can maintain this power at the cost of one Blood Trait. During this time, you do not actually pierce the Shroud, but your actions affect both worlds. Thus, you can climb a ghostly rope, then turn and step onto a real-world roof. You can also lash out physically and strike or grapple with ghosts, though they can return the attacks. However, you cannot push or pull objects from one world to the next. Effectively, you exist in both realms simultaneously, which can be very disturbing to those watching you climb invisible ropes or grapple unseen opponents.

 

Ex Nihilo

Tearing through the Shroud between worlds, you can cross into the lands of the dead. This journey is a harrowing one, for many spirits wait to take vengeance on necromancers, and the Underworld is full of hazards unknown to most vampires. Furthermore, there is no way to gather blood or sustenance in the Underworld, and you can become lost in the storms and seas of the deadlands. Still, this power allows for direct contact with shades of the restless, and it serves as an unusual means of travel. While you are in the Shadowlands, you still see everything that transpires in the mortal world, but your physical form exists in the realm of the dead. You must first mark a doorway with chalk or blood on any available surface, taking a full turn to do so. (You need not actually draw such a door, but you should pantomime the appropriate actions.) You must then expend a Willpower Trait and two Blood Traits, and make a Static Physical Challenge with a difficulty of eight Traits. If you succeed, you step through the door into the Underworld. Returning to the material world is a matter of concentration; you need only focus your intent to do so and expend a Willpower Trait, at which point you return to the living lands at the end of the turn. Beware, though, for if you wander too deeply into the deadlands, you may become lost and unable to pierce the Shroud. When you travel into the deadlands, you take with you only the inanimate objects that you carry. You cannot pull in other living or undead creatures. Furthermore, the laws of physics in the Underworld are not the same as those of the material world; guns do not work, and electrical devices fail. Generally, you must rely on your own powers.

 

Advanced Ash Path Necromancy

 

Shroud Mastery

Your control over the barrier between the living and dead worlds is nearly absolute. Instead of stepping across or watching the events of the Underworld, you can actually manipulate the fabric of the Shroud. By changing the strength of the web between worlds, you can make it easier to cross, or bar wraiths from exerting their influence on the material world. You must expend a Willpower Trait to exercise Shroud Mastery. Then, you may raise or lower the Shroud, as you desire. Each Mental Trait that you expend alters the strength of the Shroud by one point in either direction. A stronger Shroud makes it more difficult for wraiths to interact with the living, while a weaker Shroud has the reverse effect. You can raise the Shroud up to a maximum of 10, or lower it to a minimum of three. The “typical” Shroud rating for most locations is 7 or 8, though areas frequented by vampires or ghosts (cemeteries, crypts, mortuaries and sites of Elysium) may have ratings of 4 or 5. If you are simply using wraiths as generic antagonists, each point of change in the Shroud’s strength grants the wraith bonus Traits when interacting with the living world (if the Shroud is weakened) or acts as a penalty to the wraith’s total Traits (if the Shroud is strengthened).

 

 

 

 

The Bone path

The Bone Path controls death’s physical ends. Corpses are the medium of power for such a vampire, and they can be imbued with unwholesome energies  and animated to perform according to their master’s bidding. Zombies and soulless automatons are the hallmarks of the Bone Path. Retests of the Bone Path use the Occult Ability. The Storyteller may chooseto use the specialized Ability of Thanatology instead, if desired.

 

Basic Bone Path Necromancy

 

Tremens

You can instill a corpse with a brief jolt of life. Though this power is insufficient to actually animate or control bodies, you can make them start or twitch spasmodically.  Naturally, this sight frightens those unaccustomed to the mobile dead. You need expend only one Blood Trait to use Tremens. The body then twitches or moves briefly in a fashion that you dictate, from sitting up to blinking to flailing an arm momentarily. If you expend a Physical Trait as well, you can implant a command into the corpse instead, causing it to move (once) as you direct when a certain event comes to pass. Corpses twitching in this fashion cannot actually attack or inflict damage, but they can certainly startle the unwary.

 

Apprentice’s Brooms

Your skills in the Bone Path allow you to animate the dead, bringing ambulatory motion and a semblance of understanding to a cold corpse. Though they cannot fight, these zombies follow simple instructions, performing tasks that you set to them. You must expend a Blood Trait and a Willpower Trait to use Apprentice’s Brooms on one or more corpses, and you must also spend one Mental Trait for each corpse so animated. These corpses have four health levels, and they do not suffer penalties for injuries, but they cannot fight. Corpses animated with this power continue to perform a single task as you direct until they complete the job or until time or damage destroys them. Cadavers continue to rot even after being imbued with this energy, though only at the slow rate of one health level per month.

 

Intermediate Bone Path Necromancy

 

Shambling Hordes

When you raise the dead to do your bidding, they come in skeletal hordes and withered masses that obey your every command, working and fighting until destroyed. Any body, no matter how decomposed, can be raised to serve your will. You must expend a Willpower Trait to call on the Shambling Hordes, and then invest one Mental Trait and one Blood Trait for each corpse animated. As long as the skeleton is reasonably intact, the corpse rises to do your bidding. Such guardians can perform tasks or fight for you with no regard to their own welfare. They typically have four health levels (though heavily damaged corpses may have less), and they suffer no wound penalties. These zombies fight with the same number of Physical Traits that they possessed in life (assume five Traits for randomly chosen corpses). They can be given orders to attack people or to guard an area, and they wait tirelessly until destroyed. Decomposition will continue for corpses in varyingstates of decay, although completely skeletal guardians will be unaffected.

 

Soul Stealing

Your mastery of animate flesh and spirit allows you to pull the soul from a living or undead body. With Soul Stealing, you draw out the victim’s soul, turning it temporarily into a wraith while leaving the body as an empty husk. You must expend a Willpower Trait and engage your target in a Social Challenge to use this power. If you succeed, the soul is torn from the body, forced to remain as a ghost for a full hour or scene. You can then use other Necromancy powers to bind the hapless spirit as long as it is separate from the body. The body itself continues to survive in a comatose state, a perfect host for other possessing spirits.

 

Advanced Bone Path Necromancy

 

Daemonic Possession

Though you are not dealing with actual infernal spirits, you can cast a willing soul into a fresh corpse or inanimate body. Thus embedded, the soul takes  control of the body, turning it into a new physical home. Dead bodies continue to decay, and thus, they last no more than a week, but this trick provides a perfect temporary repose for a free-floating soul or summoned ghost. The body must have died within the same scene in which you use Daemonic Possession, or else it must be alive or undead and bereft of consciousness (for instance, if you have

removed its soul or if the owner is currently using Subsume the Spirit, Possession or Psychic Projection). Bodies of vampires in torpor do not make suitable hosts, as the vampire’s spirit is still inside the torpid body. You need not make any challenge or expenditure — with an

appropriate host and spirit, the process is automatic once you exert your power.