Path of Enervation
Introduction: The path of enervation was originally based on the principles of that underlie the physical death magics of the Cappadocian’s discipline of Mortis. The discipline of Mortis could disrupt, degrade or decay the life force of any animate being, whether that being was a mortal human, ghoul, vampire or any other awakened being (werewolf, fairy, mage, etc). The path of enervation, is based on the idea that life force is a measurable and definable energy, that can transferred from or to a subject, transformed into a physically ideal form for vampires (blood) and ultimately, that it can be used to increase the amount of damage a vampire can take physically (increased health levels).
Contents
Taking Life’s Measure
The basis for the necromancer’s study into the principles of life force, this original level of the path allows the neophyte to sense the current status of an entity’s life force, the level of complexity of a life form, if the entity is injured and the form its injury takes, if there are abnormalities in the pattern of life force and if the entity is mundane or super-natural.
System: The necromancer touches the target and expends a point of blood and then rolls Perception +Medicine = difficulty four (4).
One Success = Determines whether a thing is dead, alive or undead.
Two Success = How many permanent health levels a subject has.
Three Success = How many levels of damage a subject has taken, normal or aggravated.
Four Success = Are there flaws, abnormalities or alterations in the life pattern.
Five Success = Determines the type life form, normal or supernatural.
Breathe of Life
Once an initiate of this path has learned to read the patterns inherent in life force; he next learns to transfer a portion of his own life force to replenish the life energy of another being and in the process heal any injuries it might have sustained.
System: The necromancer must exhale into the target’s mouth and rolls Stamina + Medicine = difficulty five (5) and spend one point of willpower. Each success transfers one of the necromancers' health levels to the target, in effect healing that person. Note that this power can heal damage recently done, but cannot cure diseases or rid the body of poisons or infestations, each of the above must be dealt with first, each in its own way or the effects of ‘Breath of Life’ are at best temporary. The necromancer's sacrificed health levels are lethal damage to him and must be healed appropriately. To heal an aggravated health level, the necromancer must spend five of his lethal levels.
A Touch of Stolen Life
Now that the necromantic adept has learned how to transfer life force to aid another being, he now learns how to reverse the flow to aid him; to essentially steal another beings life force. Of course, this process requires physical contact (a touch) and is quite painful to the individual being touched, as the necromancer literally rips away that entity’s life force.
System: The necromancer must expend a point of blood and touch his target; the player rolls Manipulation + Medicine = difficulty six (6).
All successes gained by the necromancer rip away a target’s health levels on a one for one basis; these same health levels are transferred to the necromancer and heal all damage he may have on a one for one basis. The necromancer requires five (5) stolen health levels to heal a level of aggravated damage; the expenditure of willpower is unnecessary.
Should the necromancer have no damage, then the stolen health levels are loosed into the surrounding area and disperse at the end of the scene, at a rate of one health level a round. Those beings with the ability to detect life force can see these energies floating in the nearby area as a crimson mist. If a being has the ability to directly touch life force and manipulate it; then it can simply liberate the life force for its own purposes.
The damage that results from 'A Touch of Stolen Life' is lethal damage and must be healed appropriately. This power cannot be soaked, only healed. This power cannot kill a vampire or any other super-natural being, but it can drive a vampire into torpor or completely incapacitate a werewolf; mortals can be killed with this power.
Transubstantiation
The capacity to steal the life force of other beings widens the potential of this path and opens limitless possibilities to the journeyman necromancer. One possible derivation is transubstantiation, literally this means the changing of one substance into another; and with this power the necromancer can transform the life force in the surrounding area into blood. If the necromancer has just stolen life force with the third level power ‘A Touch of Stolen Life’ and if he wasn’t injured at the time, then he may liberate the left over life force that has impregnated the area and transform it into blood with the power of transubstantiation. Alternately, the necromancer can cannibalize his own life force and transmute it into blood to replenish his pool of blood.
System: To liberate life force in the surrounding area and transform it into blood within his system, the necromancer must expend a point of willpower and the player must roll Intelligence + Occult = difficulty seven (7). If the necromancer wishes to transmute his own health levels into an equivalent number of blood points which are added to his blood pool, then the player roll Intelligence + Occult = difficulty seven (7); in this case, no expenditure of willpower is required.
Each success on either roll transmutes health levels into blood points on a one for one basis; transubstantiated blood is subsumed directly from the ether by the necromancer’s body. If the necromancer cannibalizes his own health level to refill his blood pool, he takes a number of lethal levels of damage equal to his successes as he transforms his own flesh into blood.
Note that even if the user of this path steals life force from another vampire or a ghoul, the blood which is created cannot be used to fuel blood bonds or create ghouls, its just human blood.
Life without Measure
With this power, the master necromancer can fortify his health by creating an auxiliary pool of temporary health from which he subtracts any injuries first; this auxiliary pool is created as an act of will by the necromancer and activated by the liberation of stolen life force from the surrounding area or by the expenditure of blood from his body.
System: The necromancer expends a point of willpower and rolls Manipulation + Occult = difficulty eight (8). Each success on this roll, manifests one auxiliary health level that can be activated by draining health levels from some outside source with ‘A Touch of Stolen Life’, liberating stolen life force that currently impregnates the area or by spending blood to activate them. Until these auxiliary health levels are activated, they exist as additional bruised health levels and provide no benefit.
All auxiliary health levels created by the path power ‘Life without Measure’ last until the next dawn or dusk and must be healed normally if they are to be utilized after damage has been taken. Damage taken in any way comes off of the auxiliary health levels first; if all the damage taken was absorbed by the auxiliary health levels then that damage disappears at the following dawn or dusk. All remaining damage is treated normally; unfortunately, only the necromancer himself can gain the benefits of this ability.
