Suspended Blood Focus
This powerful focus can only be created by the most skilled of drabarne, in a ritual requiring the presence of at least five Rom. Prior to the ritual, the drabarne crafts an unusual box or shell from a piece of onyx or petrified wood. The focus, once prepared, is passed around to all the Rom at the ritual, and each allows several drops of Blood to drop into the focus. As the box is passed around, the drabarne concentrates her Will to contain the energies of the Blood, unmixed, in the shell. Each Gypsy participating in the ritual must spend one point of Willpower. The combined amount to Blood Purity points of the Gypsies is focused in the shell.
If the ritual is successful, the suspended Blood focus can store up to 20 Blood Purity points within itself. Unlike the normal Blood Focus (see Group Power, above) the suspended Blood focus does not need to be attuned to a particular Gypsy at the time of its creation. It will become attuned to any Gypsy who places a few drops of Blood on the outside of the shell and expends one point of Willpower to seal the bond. Additionally, the focus does not have any time constraints on how soon it must be used.
The suspended focus works in a different manner from a normal Blood focus. The Gypsy attuned to the suspended focus may draw Blood Purity points (dice) from the shell whenever she chooses. Each Blood purity point in the shell equals an automatic success for the Gypsy. She may use such successes (as many as she wants, up to the total number currently in the shell) on a skill roll for any Blood Affinity.
However, once a die of Blood Purity has been used, it is gone form the shell forever. So a suspended Blood focus with 18 Blood Purity points grants the Gypsy 18 extra dice to play with. She could conceivably use them all for one roll, but it is far more common for a Gypsy to use up only a few precious points at a time. Once a focus is reduced to 0 Blood Purity points, it crumbles into dust.
For example, let's say Star has an 18-point suspended Blood focus, and she decides to distract a bunch of clubbing vampires she suspects might be thinking of snacking on her. Deciding to use her Affinity of Zapaderin, Star also resolves to kick in some of the successes from her focus, for in all. (She doesn't want to screw this one up.) Once she has danced her dance and left the vamparasites in a daze, she still has 14 Blood Purity points remaining in her focus.
