Severing the Ties of Death
note: This was originally published as a level 7 power of the 2nd edition Necromancy discipline
Severing the Ties of Death allows the Necromancer to remove a wraith wholly from the Shadowlands against the spirit's will. In essence, the Necromancer pierces the Shroud, pulls the wraith from the other side, and places her in a holding vessel. A wraith thus removed is no longer affected by events occurring in the Underworld; she no longer exists there.
This power is used to contain and store wraiths for "later use." By using this power, the Necromancer prevents the wraith from being rescued by other wraiths, carried away by the Tempest, or affected by other inconvenient eventualities.
System: Using this power requires a Blood Point if the wraith is an unwilling subject. The player rolls Intelligence + Occult against a difficulty equal to the local Shroud rating. If the roll is successful, the Giovanni extracts the wraith utterly from the Underworld, and may place her in a vessel for as long as he wishes.
While contained within the vessel, the wraith is unaffected by an environmental factors; she is essentially trapped, a part of neither the physical world nor the Underworld. Once per night, she may attempt escape by spending a Willpower point and rolling Wits + Occult (difficulty equal to the necromancer's Willpower). Success indicates that the wraith flees the vessel and returns to the Underworld.
Note that this imprisonment does not protect a wraith from the Shadow; it is conceivable that the wraith may sink into Oblivion during her incarceration.
Suggested System: This hour long ritual requires that the wraith (or spectre) to be affected (the target) remain within a mystical circle at the head of a sacrificial alter. The target may be bound there via another power of necromancy, or be a willing subject. At the foot of the alter rests the object in which the Necromancer intends to imprison the wraith. If the wraith has been fooled into holding still for the rite, he may make a Intelligence + Awareness roll to interpret his growing attraction to the vessel.
Another living being - animal or human - must be sacrificed by the Necromancer to balance the scales of death, at the end of a long invocation to oblivion. If the ritual roll is successful (standard difficulty 10), the wraith is removed from the Shadowlands and permanently imprisoned within the vessel. If the sacrifice is a mortal relative of the wraith, the difficulty is reduced by 1. If the sacrifice is a direct living descendant of the wraith, the difficulty is reduced by a total of 2.
If the vessel is ever destroyed, the wraith is immediately transported into a destruction harrowing, from which he or she may return to the Shadowlands. - Jamie
