Walk Through the Shroud
Level V Rituals
Description: A devopment of the Giovanni necromancers recently Embraced into the clan, this rite allows a Cappadocian to force his own soul to follow the course of one that actually dies, leaving his body behind and crossing into the lands of the dead, but with the ability to return to the physical plane. This return is accomplished through a focus on the spiritual echoes left in the undead corpse (those same echoes utilized in the Cadaverous Animation path).
Still tied to the body, the Cainite's soul is not able to travel further than the dark limbo of lost souls. Heaven and Hell (and the soul's ultimate rewards) are not accessible to the practitioner of Mortis. In these dank shadow-lands, the Cappadocian may encounter ghosts and other lost souls, and he may well be able to extract some information or acrane services from them.
This rite is not to be undertaken lightly. The ghosts in limbo are rarely happy to see vampires, and a Cainite may find that the ghosts of some of his victims are bent on vengeance.
System: The vampire must undertake the rite - which involves chanting incantations while surrounded by grave dust - from dusk until midnight, at which point it takes effect. A single success on the Intelligence + Occult roll allows the vampire's soul to separate from his body in a manner similar to Anima Walk (Auspex 5, see p. 174). The soul is immediately swept through the shroud between life and death, however, and arrives in the nightmarish limbo of lost souls. The Storyteller is free to describe this dark realm as she sees fit. Some Cainites have reported it to be an endless land of choking mist, others a dark reflection of the living world, and so on. The number of ghosts in the area depends on how likely the Storyteller feels the place is to be haunted. Graveyards, battlefields and hospicces are always replete with the lost.
The Cappadocian's soul can remain in this underworld for one hour per success on the rite's roll (or until he decides to return). His body remains vulnerable as with a vampire using Animal Walk. The Cappadocian cannot bring anything back across the shroud, save his own memories.
Reference: Dark Ages Core Book 2nd Edition - Mortis Ritual - Page 197.
