Ritual of the Bitter Rose

Level 3.

Description: Although this ritual has almost passed wholly from the face of the world, its reputation makes it one of the most fearsome weapons in the arsenal of the Tremere. The Ritual of the Bitter Rose allows multiple Kindred to gain the benefit of diablerizing a single vampire. Many elders rightly fear this ritual; nothing encourages a bloodthirsty coterie more than a chance to bring themselves closer to Caine and the opportunity for all of them to do it all at once... Needless to say, it is almost unthinkable that someone would teach a childe or protégée this ritual, as the potential for having it turn around and harm her is too great. Scholarly Tremere suspect that perhaps a half-dozen or so transcriptions of this ritual exist outside the one copy carefully locked away at the Vienna chantry.

System: The diablerie victim must be drained of all but a single blood point. This in itself may prove difficult, and those players of vampires drinking this blood from the Kindred may have to make a Self-Control roll (difficulty 7) to halt their characters at the proper time. Thereafter, the victim's heart must be cut out and ground into paste with a marble mortar and pestle and mixed with a small amount of red wine. The thaumaturge adds to this mix a bit of ash from a burned alder stake and a pint of pure water. In old accounts of this ritual, the "pure water" comes from a mountain stream, but the few accounts of this ritual being used in the modern nights indicate that even purified tap water or store-bought distilled water works as well.

Each character wishing to take part in the communal diablerie must imbibe the concoction. The player of the character performing the ritual then makes the necessary roll. If the roll is successful, the ritual works correctly, and a number of characters may lower their generation. If the ritual fails, the concoction is sterile and no one gains any benefits (or suffers any detriments) of the diablerie. If the roll botches, the mixture becomes poisonous, inflicting three unsoakable aggravated wounds on each Kindred who partook of it.

The number of Kindred who can benefit from this ritual is equal to the number of generation steps between the diablerized vampire and the vampire of the lowest generation participating in the ritual, even if he's not the one performing the ritual. That is, if an eighth-generation vampire, a 10th-generation vampire, a 10th-generation vampire and an 11th-generation vampire use this ritual upon a fifth-generation vampire, all three can benefit from the ritual (as the difference between generations eight and five is three). If the number of steps yielded by the difference is less than the number of vampires participating in the ritual, the Storyteller should lower the generations of those Kindred with the highest first until all of the steps have been accounted for. For example, if four vampires participate in the ritual and the lowest-generation diablerist is only two steps removed from the victim, only the two Kindred of the highest generation would gain any benefit from the ritual. No Kindred may gain more than one generation step through use of this ritual at any one time.

Anyone who participates in the ritual suffers the drawbacks of diablerie - loss of Humanity, veins in the aura, etc. - even if they did not gain a benefit from it.

A lesser know aspect of this ritual is that it requires exceptionally potent blood for it to take effect. It would seem that only Methuselahs (and, presumably, the Antediluvians themselves) have rich enough vitae for the ritual to take effect. A few reports have surfaced stating that the blood of vampires of the Sixth Generation work, but all of these Kindred were of advanced age, if not generation.

Rumors, of course, abound regarding this Discipline, from the paranoid to the credible. A few sources say that particularly robust vitae might lower a diablerist's generation by more than one step. Others suggest that one variation of the ritual always yields a poisonous ichor. Yet another claim suggests a rite that allows the would-be diablerists to be "taken over" by the elder upon whom they have foolishly chosen to slake their thirsts. None of these rumors have been substantiated, but the possible repercussions have helped to keep this ritual suppressed - the risk, as far as most Kindred are concerned, far outweighs the benefit. Still, more than one Kindred has been willing to go to any length to strengthen his bond to the mystical First Vampire.