Duat
Through the Path of Duat, a practitioner of Akhu conjures the attributes of the Egyptian netherworld and inflicts them upon an enemy. The effects are mental and hypnotic rather than physical; an observer sees no physical cause for the victim's malady.
Each power within the path calls for a Charisma + Occult roll. Except for the last power, the effect lasts as long as the magician concentrates upon maintaining it. This means that the magician cannot engage in any violent physical activity, or employ other path or ritual magic. The character can, however, use passive amulets. None of the Duat powers cost blood points: The magician relies upon her blasphemy-shrine's powers.
To use the Path of Duat, the magician must carry a talismanic gem of black onyx carved with the image of a mummified man - the form of Sokar, the god of Duat. A few minutes before using the path, the magician smears the talisman with a drop of her own blood as an offering to Sokar, and whispers a short prayer.
The hypnotic aspects of the Path of Duat mean that all powers operate at a +1 difficulty if the lector-priest does not catch the victim's attention using the darkly glittering talisman on the turn when she initiates the magic. The victim does not need to see the magician on subsequent turns. If the character does not feel the need to attract the victim's attention, the Path of Duat can affect any victim that the magician can see with his own eyes. Once the magician can no longer see the victim, Path of Duat attacks end.
1) A Sending of Serpents:
Serpents, the spawn of Apep, haunt the 12 caverns of Duat. They swim in the river and coil about the limbs of the unredeemed dead. Through this power, the magician makes her victim hallucinate about snakes. The victim starts by seeing a single asp slithering nearby. No matter what the victim does, the snake comes closer. If he runs, another snake drops down before him or slithers from behind the furniture. If he attacks the snake, it vanishes but another serpent takes its place. Before long, more serpents appear, and one manages to coil around his body... Although the snakes look real and deadly, they never actually bite. They can only frighten the victim.
Other people, of course, do not see these phantom serpents and might assume that a frightened victim is on drugs or has lost his mind.
System: The Charisma + Occult roll has a difficulty of 4, or 5 if the victim did not see the magician and the talisman of Sokar when the attack began.
2) Darkness of Duat:
The dead in Duat exist in darkness, relieved only by the nightly passage of the ship of Ra. This power casts the darkness of Duat into a victim's eyes, rendering him blind. The victim also hears the soft lapping of the River of Death as it flows through the Underworld.
System: If the Charisma + Occult roll succeeds, the victim sees nothing for as long as the magician concentrates upon her. Blinded characters are at +2 difficulty on Dexterity-based actions, or tasks that involve sight (such as searching for an object, typing at a keyboard, etc.). Those who attack a blind character receive +2 dice on their attack rolls.
3) Suffocation of the Tomb:
Along with their other torments, the dead in Duat cannot breathe or speak. The "Opening of the Mouth" funerary ritual was meant to deliver the deceased from this unhappy condition. Through this power, a magician renders a victim as breathless and mute as the dead.
System: If the player succeeds in the dice roll, the victim can neither breathe nor speak for as long as the vampire concentrates upon her. For vampires, muteness is a minor inconvenience; they do not, of course, need to breathe. For a mortal, loss of breath can kill and deliver him to the netherworld in truth if the magician persists long enough. Mortals can survive a few minutes of suffocation, but immediately drop to Injured. For each turn of energetic action that a mortal attempts while suffocating, the player rolls Stamina + Athletics roll (difficulty 6). Failure means that the character suffers another health level of bashing damage. Once a mortal loses consciousness from this attack, she can live as many minutes as her Stamina Trait rating before suffocating to death.
4) The Narrow House:
The dead in Duat rest in coffins that open only when the sun-god Ra makes his nightly passage. At this level, the magician makes her victim feel that he is trapped in a coffin, unable to move.
System: A successfully paralyzed victim can take no action at all so long as the magician concentrates upon her, unless her player spends a Willpower point. In that case, the victim can act for that single turn, at a dice penalty equal to the number of successes the magician's player rolled. This power affects vampires, other corporeal supernatural entities and wraiths, but not other sorts of spirits.
5) Consignment to Duat:
The ultimate power of this path sends the victim's entire consciousness to Duat. For a mortal, this means death. For a vampire, it merely means torpor = but since the victim is at the magician's mercy, in all likelihood Final Death soon follows anyway.
System: Unlike the other powers in this path, the magician's player spends a Willpower point. This does not add a success to the Charisma + Occult roll. the victim, felling himself die, can also expend Willpower to stay active for another turn. while doing this, the victim suffers a -2 dice penalty to all dice pools, as if attempting to do two things at once. The victim's player spends another Willpower point each turn to keep the character alive (or undead, at least), but the magician's player does not have to expend more Willpower points to continue the attack. To survive the attack, the victim needs some way to break the magician's concentration or escape her line of sight.
Torpor induced by Consignment to Duat lasts the normal duration set by the victim's Humanity or Path of Enlightenment rating - barring further action by the magician.
