Path of Haunting
Originally developed as an outgrowth of nigrimancy, the Path of Haunting concerns itself less with the dead than the power the dead and death hold over the living. The Giovanni are this path’s foremost practitioners, but it sees limited use throughout the clan.
1) Morbid Fascination
Layering his speech with hidden subtext, a vampire with this power may infect a listener with an unhealthy fixation on death. Afflicted individuals find themselves drawn to graveyards and lonely, inauspicious places as they sink into mild or even serious depression. Mortality concerns them as never before and they see ill omens in the slightest coincidences. Mortals inevitably go mad and become suicidal if a vampire continues using this power on them for an extended period, while Cainite victims eventually succumb to torpor.
System: The vampire speaks to the target while his player spends one blood point and rolls Manipulation + Occult (difficulty of the target’s Willpower). A botch indicates the vampire affects himself as though he had gained successes equal to the 1’s rolled. For a number of nights equal to the successes rolled, the target suffers depression and morbid anxiety. This fixation adds +2 to the difficulty of all Social rolls (except those involving Intimidation) and adds +1 to the difficulty of all other nonreflexive rolls. If a target suffers the effects of this power for more continuous nights than her permanent Willpower, she loses a dot of permanent Willpower. The cycle continues after an interval of the new rating in days, with the victim losing one additional dot of permanent Willpower after each such iteration. Once a character drops to zero Willpower, she commits suicide (if living) or falls into torpor (if a vampire). Should the power be interrupted such that the victim goes a night without suffering the power’s effects, she recovers her permanent Willpower at the rate of one dot per week. This healing can be halted by further application of Morbid Fascination, but the victim’s new bout of depression must last a number of days equal to her permanent Willpower before that trait decreases. A vampire who falls into torpor from reaching zero Willpower awakens with her original rating.
2) Summon Wisp
Infusing droplets of blood with scraps of memory and energy from the ashen realm in which ghosts dwell, a vampire with this power may conjure a sphere of flickering light that dances and moves at her command. Such wisps have a subtle hypnotic quality that may lure unsuspecting mortals into a trap or provide a clever distraction.
System: The vampire extends his upraised hand in a clutching gesture and focuses blood and will on his palm. The player spends one blood point and rolls Charisma + Occult (difficulty 5). Success conjures an orb of pale light in the vampire’s waiting hand that lasts one scene. The wisp can take any color the vampire chooses and has no substance or weight. It may fly about as fast as the vampire can run, casting cold illumination as bright as a candle. Players of mortals who behold the wisp must roll Willpower (difficulty 4) and achieve more successes than the caster. Otherwise, they fall into a mild trance state. They won’t necessarily follow the light unless the vampire’s successes double their own, but they add +1 to the difficulty of all actions from distraction. Those
who follow the light do so without regard for any but the most obvious obstacles. They will walk around trees and rocks, but they can fall prey to quicksand or walk off a high parapet. Any loud noise or other distraction immediately breaks the reverie. If the vampire’s player botches the roll to conjure a wisp, the wisp appears and acts with its own malevolent agenda. Such a creature is only a nuisance, but it can display remarkable cunning in luring enemies to the vampire’s haven or giving away her position.
3) Harrowing
This power extends the terror inflicted by Morbid Fascination and suppresses it wholly in the victim’s subconscious. When she next sleeps, her dreams turn to nightmarish visions of her own death.
System: The vampire makes eye contact with the victim, while her player spends one blood point and rolls Manipulation + Occult (difficulty of the target’s permanent Willpower). If successful, the victim feels a slight sense of unease. When she next sleeps, she suffers horrible nightmares about her own demise. Even though she cannot fully remember the content of her visions after she wakes, the emotional trauma prevents her from regaining Willpower. In addition, her twisted déjà vu and unnatural paranoia give her the Nightmares and Eerie Presence Flaws (Dark Ages: Vampire pp. 305 and 309) for the day. A botch in casting this power inflicts the same terrible dreams on the vampire when he next slumbers.
4) Phantasms:
At this level of power, a vampire may sculpt entire hallucinations from the energies of the netherworld to terrorize the living. Such apparitions have no true substance apart from a surreal gauzy cold, nor may they speak or perform complicated actions. Still, a swarm of spectral vermin or blood raining down the walls makes its own eloquent point.
System: The vampire envisions the desired apparition, while the player spends one blood point and rolls Manipulation + Occult (difficulty 7). A botch calls the attention of a malefic ghost, giving the vampire the Haunted Flaw (Dark Ages: Vampire p. 309) for a number of nights equal to the 1’s rolled. Each success allows the vampire to create one phenomenon or add one additional characteristic/condition to another phantom. For example, three successes could animate shadows in all dark corners to shuffle and writhe (one success) and create an illusion of dripping gore that bursts into a spray of flies when someone drew close (one success for the gore and one success for the condition). This power may create apparitions anywhere in the caster’s line of sight. The
Storyteller remains the final arbiter of what is or is not possible with this power.
5) Torment:
Where a vampire with lesser mastery of this path may simulate a haunting, this power attracts malicious ghosts and thins the shroud separating life and death around the victim. Such unfortunate souls face the torture of invisible merciless shades.
System: The vampire focuses all his bestial anger on the target. The player spends one blood point and rolls Manipulation + Occult (difficulty 8). On a botch, the vampire permanently gains the Haunted Flaw, attracting the vilest and most hateful ghosts. If successful, the victim feels a sudden chill. The difficulty for ghosts to affect the target with any power decreases by one for every success rolled, to a minimum of difficulty 4. Malicious ghosts flock to the target as though drawn by the scent of blood and eagerly inflict every horror at their disposal. The difficulty reduction diminishes by one every day at dawn until the victim returns to normal and all spectres lose interest. Multiple applications of this power may not be stacked to increase duration or intensity of effect. The statistics and powers of spectres are left to Storyteller cunning, but the experience should terrify the character utterly and may well result in derangements at the very least.
