COMMAND THE DEAD
●●●● -- COMMAND THE DEAD
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Occult = 7
Cost: Varies from 1 to 3 according to the power utilized
Description: As a lord of the Underworld, the Avatar has nigh
absolute dominion over the souls of the departed. He need only possess
a piece of the ghost’s abandoned corpse — such as a knuckle-bone, a lock
of hair or a preserved eye — and the ghost is all but his slave to boss
around. If the Avatar gives the ghost a command while holding the memento,
the ghost is compelled to do as the Avatar commands. Each command requires
a (Manipulation + Occult) roll as well as the expenditure of one point
of Divinity, and the ghost’s player resists with a
(Willpower + Virtue + Divinity) roll. If the Avatar’s roll wins out,
the ghost must comply with the spirit of the command as best she can.
If the ghost’s roll wins out, the ghost must still comply with the letter
of the command, but she can subvert its spirit if she thinks she can get
away with it.
The Avatar can also play fast and loose with the metaphysical “rules” that
govern the behavior of ghosts. For instance, if he implants a memento that
allows him to control the ghost into a dead body, and spends two Divinity
points, the ghost is temporarily bound into that body, animating it as a
hungry corpse (see Avatar: The Godhead, p. 294). It has the standard abilities
and traits of a hungry corpse, though it doesn’t hunger for brains or take on
Dark Virtues if it didn’t already possess them. If the Avatar somehow gets a mortal
to swallow the memento, and he spends two Divinity, the ghost can freely possess
that person until the memento passes naturally out of the mortal’s system. The
Avatar can also make the ghost manifest in the material World for one scene,
without calling on the ghost to spend any traits. The Avatar need only spend three
Divinity points, and the ghost is as visible and solid as are the mortals
around him for the rest of the scene.
While the Avatar has the memento, he can speak into it like a microphone and make
himself heard to the ghost. Likewise, the ghost can communicate with him, its voice
issuing from the memento. Also, for as long as the Avatar has the memento on his divine
person, the ghost cannot raise a hand against him in any way. Finally, if the Avatar
ever tires of the ghost, he can devour the memento. Doing so grants him five Divinity
points and destroys the ghost.
For a memento to work against a ghost, it must be harvested from the ghost’s corpse
within 24 hours of death (before or after is fine). Also, the person must have been
a regular mortal. The memento lasts for as many years as the person was alive,
multiplied by the Avatar’s Divinity at the time the memento was harvested. If the ghost
is in danger of being destroyed before that time is up, its memento warms up noticeably
and glows with an eerie bluish-white light. If the Avatar does nothing to prevent the ghost’s
destruction (and chooses not to gulp down the memento himself), the memento disintegrates
into dust as the ghost is obliterated.
