BARDO
Contents
Introduction
As the story goes, this Discipline was created by Osiris himself. Tied to the Road of Humanity, a mastery of Bardo does not equal Golconda. Golconda relies on the vampire accepting and transcending what he is, whilst Bardo relies on denying it. If a practitioner of Bardo abandoned the rigorous meditation that accompanies this Discipline, he would be no closer to Humanity than he was before. The Penitent must maintain Road of Humanity (no other moral code suffices) dots equal to his Bardo level, or else lose any levels in excess of his Road. Lost level return as the Road increases.
● RESTORE HUMANITAS
The Child of Osiris believes that what is lost may be regained. Rather than accept the inevitable slide to inhumanity, the Penitent fights hard to regain any lost Humanity.
System: When the vampire loses a dot of Road of Humanity, he can attempt to regain it without spending experience points. Restore Humanitas must be used within a week of losing the dot and can only restore the last dot lost. The character must take an affirming action appro- priate to a character of a superior Road rating, meditate for several hours, and spend all the blood points currently in his body. The player then rolls Conscience (difficulty equal to the level of Road of Humanity being regained). If the roll succeeds, the character regains the dot of Road and (if applicable) the dot of Conscience lost to a botched degeneration roll. If the character also gained a Derangement, this fades within a week.
●● BANISHING SIGN OF THOTH
Thoth, the Egyptian god of wisdom and magic, taught this power to Osiris, who then passed on to his followers. Making a mystical sign with his hand, the Penitent may turn aside a mystical effect aimed at him coming from either a vampire or other supernatural being.
System: The player spends a blood point and rolls Dexterity + Occult (difficulty 7). This power can be used to “dodge” any incoming attack of a mystical nature, including any Disciplines that target the character, whether or not they actually inflict damage. Successes the player rolls are subtracted from the successes on the attacker’s roll. The Sign does not serve to turn aside magically enhanced physical attacks; a punch from a vampire using Potence still has the full effect. While this can be used reflexively like a dodge, using it and another action in a turn requires multiple actions (see p. 322).
●●● GIFT OF APIS
All vampires must consume blood. Even the Penitents cannot avoid this truth, but they have at least learned to feed off animals instead of humans.
System: Animal blood is just as nourishing to the character as human blood. An animal is considered to have a blood pool equal to the number of health levels it has, rather than the lesser value usually assigned to represent the creature’s blood (see p. 396 for drinking from animals). This ability is always active once learned.
●●●● PILLAR OF OSIRIS
The Pillar of Osiris is a mystical place of peace at the center of each temple where Penitents may meditate to increase their inner calm and magic. The Pillar comes with a hidden drawback though, as the Beast, initially chained by the Pillar, grows in strength while away from it.
System: Creating the Pillar of Osiris requires a night- long ritual, with the difficulty determined by the location; the more remote and free from violence the location is, the lower the difficulty. A cave far from human populations that has never seen violence might be difficulty 5, while the site of a grisly murder-suicide in a city would be difficulty 9. The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Willpower. Success creates the Pillar, which is conceptual rather than physical. The Pillar reduces the difficulties of Discipline use or other mystical activities (including blood magic) performed at the Pillar by three. This benefit only applies to vampires with at least one dot of Bardo. Once a Penitent has created a Pillar, he must visit it at least once a month, or it ceases to function. In addition, for every week he is away from a Pillar (not necessarily the one he created), the difficulties of all rolls to avoid frenzy increase by one.
●●●●● REVELATION
The Penitent shares some of his wisdom, revealing the vastness of the universe and the relative smallness of the target therein. This leaves the target unable to act as she ponders this revelation. Targets retain a healthy respect for the Penitent afterwards, either out of respect for his wisdom or fear of being shown this revelation again.
System: The vampire speaks and his player spends a point of Willpower and rolls Manipulation + Occult (difficulty of the listener’s current Willpower). If multiple listeners are present, the player rolls against the highest difficulty. If the roll is successful, the listener is immobilized for the scene as she contemplates what she has heard. Violence towards the victim ends the effect. At the end of the scene, the revelation is gone, though the target suffers a permanent +1 difficulty to harm or act against the Child of Osiris or a specific subject or group disclosed during the Revelation.
●●●●●● BOON OF ANUBIS
The vampire cannot undo the terrible undeath inflicted on him, but he can stop it from happening to others. Striking a deal with Anubis, the Child of Osiris can protect a mortal from the Embrace. Should such a mortal appear before Anubis, rather than send her back undead, he will restore her life. The mortal then sleeps for a full night and day, waking sick but unharmed. The Boon of Anubis is enacted by the Penitent kissing the mortal, usually on the forehead.
System: Spend a point of Willpower and roll Road of Humanity. If the roll succeeds, the target is immune to the Embrace for a number of months equal to the successes rolled. The player can spend a dot of Willpower to make the effect permanent. Note that this Discipline does not protect against any other form of death than the Embrace; if a vampire drains the unfortunate victim dry and then decapitates her, she dies just the same. However, the difficulty to avoid degeneration when killing or harming someone under protection of Boon of Anubis is increased by three.
