Sada Ghadub Allah

Thaumaturgy Paths

(Echoes of Allah's Wrath)

This magical Path of study was developed in tandem between Faithful Assamite sorcerers and their non-Assamite brethren among the practitioners of Sihr (Islamic blood Magic). By spending a blood point and succeeding in a Road roll, the Faithful may temporarily pass along aspects of god's curse upon Caine. Through these sympathetic experiences ("echoes," to the Asherra), it is hoped that understanding and eventual repentance might be achieved. While the Path's most efficacious targets are those who sin against God but have not yet been cursed themselves with undeath (mortals, mages, Lupines, etc.), its power is equally effective against Cainites, as it "refreshes" their existing afflictions - a reminder of their accursed nature and of God's will.

Among the Ashirra, voluntarily submitting to this renewal is believed to be good for the soul. To this end, some Penitents both within and outside the Ashirra sect proper make confessors of local sorcerers, going so far as to receive regular infusions of this magic as part of their routine ablutions.

Although the powers of Sada Ghadub Allah are moderate in the overt effects they may have on the accused, their potency comes in two key factors: the potential for both multiple effects and extended durations. If a blood magician possesses sufficient mastery of this Path, he may choose to impart any or all of the effects leading up to and including his current level. In essence, he determines just how much of the vampiric nature to "bestow" upon his target. The blood magician may pass along one curse for each success acquired on the Road roll, up to the total number he has learned. Once the magician has cursed a target, however, further applications of this Path are useless: Only by voluntarily canceling all curses on a given target and starting anew (with another blood expenditure and Road roll) may the same target be prematurely re-cursed.

In addition to potential multiple effects, a given curse or curses may also last for quite some time (determined by the table below). In the case of Faithful targets, this time can be shortened by a successful Act of Contrition (see Road of Heaven), but the administration of such reductions is at Storyteller discretion. Otherwise, the Path's effects may only be prematurely relieved by the will of the sorcerer. No other non-mystical means, not even the sorcerer's Final Death, will grant surcease of the curses before they've run their course.

The practitioner must be able to see those whom he would curse with this Path, but there are no outward signs of a subject being cursed. Indeed, it may be some time (and perhaps an awkward situation) before the subject himself realizes something is amiss.

Caster's Road Rating	Duration
1-3	One hour per success
4-6	One day per success
7-9	Three days per success
10	One week per success

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1) Curse of Lifeless mien
The first, and some would say principal, aspect of the curse on Caine was being stripped of his acceptance in the brotherhood of Man. When a man is Embraced, he is made dead to the world of men but forever forced to dwell within it, as a stranger in his own home. this power casts that same pall of ostracism over the target, making him an outsider among his own kind. For those to whom close social interaction is a requirement for daily survival, this can mean a world of trouble.

System: the player rolls road rating with a difficulty equal to the subject's Willpower. success imparts a curse of isolation onto the target. Mortals "darken," becoming sinister and withdrawn to the point where even relatives don't trust them. Cainites afflicted with this power are struck by the weight of their lifeless hearts, losing one dot from their highest Social Attribute. Furthermore, any creative endeavor attempted during the curse period becomes nearly impossible for these undying embodiments of stasis (+1 to difficulties for every success). More than one Toreador has succumbed to despair after being smitten in this manner.

2) Curse of Heavenly Dolor
According to the Faithful, the curse of vampirism is one brought down from on high - a physical and spiritual damnation straight from the hand of the Almighty. Upon his Embrace, a vampire is forever after humbled by the power of the Lord, wherever he may encounter it. This level of the path echoes and imparts that vampiric weakness to faith.

System: The player rolls Road (difficulty of the victim's Willpower). If the roll succeeds, the blood magician can cause any target to become vulnerable to the effects of True Faith as though the subject himself was one of the Damned. From the moment of his cursing until the end of the effect's duration, the target takes damage from holy items and holy ground and may be repelled by anyone possessing and demonstrating True Faith. (see Dark Ages: Vampire p. 289.)

Cainites afflicted with this curse find their own vulnerability to Faith heightened. Difficulties against or to resist the effects of Faith are raised by two for the duration, and any damage suffered from the appropriate sources is doubled.

3) Curse of Unfettered Rage
Vampires are creatures of ferocity and instinct, driven by a raging Beast Within. At this level of mastery, the practitioner gains the ability to arouse such a beast inside others as well. This force heightens the nerves of the subject, making him susceptible to sudden onslaughts of instinct that force him into mindless fight or flight reactions.

System: This power incites a force similar to the vampiric Beast inside its subjects. This makes mortal targets susceptible to frenzies of all kinds, whether the source be from provocation or imminent fear of aggravated damage. Creatures that already possess a "beast" of their own (such as Cainites and werewolves) fond their difficulties to resist frenzy of any kind - and in the case of vampires, to resist Rotschreck - increased by two. In addition, victims of the Curse of Unfettered Rage gain the equivalent of the Flaw: Repulsive to Animals for the duration of the power's effect.

4) Curse of Boundless Thirst
At this level, the beast unleashed within an opponent has grown strong enough to demand actual blood from its host. For so long as he remains thus cursed, the target gains nourishment only from the ingestion of blood; normal food will no longer sustain him.

System: For the duration of effect, the subject requires living blood to sustain him (the equivalent of one blood point's worth per day, minimum). The blood may be from any living source, and his body mystically processes the blood and nourishes him in any place of any and all other food. If the subject ingests anything except blood during this time, he finds it repulsive. He regurgitates it immediately unless he makes a Willpower roll (difficulty 8). Non-Cainite subjects have the option of not "eating" until the curse ends, but they will begin to suffer the equivalent of starvation/dehydration after 12 hours without sustenance; in addition, abstinence becomes increasingly more difficult.

Cainites afflicted with this power have all their normal blood expenditures increased by one for the duration. Instead of spending one blood point in order to rise each night, he spends two; instead of burning two blood points to activate his two Celerity actions for the turn, he burns three.

5) Curse of the Forbidden Sol
Perhaps the most dreadful aspect of Caine's curse was God's commandment that he never again walk in the light of day. Those afflicted with this power gain the vampire's terrible sensitivity to daylight, turning otherwise sun-loving individuals into nocturnal denizens of darkness and shade.

System: Non-Cainite targets of this power instantly gain the vampiric vulnerability to the sun. If daylight strikes the target's skin at any time during the curse's effect, he suffers aggravated damage from it (as per Dark Ages: Vampire p. 258). This also has the effect of reversing subjects' natural biological rhythms, twisting their favored activity cycles from daytime into night.

Cainites afflicted with this curse gain the Flaw: Light Sensitive for the duration.