Curses
Mankind learned early in history to hate, envy, lust and wish malice upon itself. In such spitefulness curses were born. Most were just plain words and gestures, but some, spoken with such vehemence and spite, became tangible and formed true curses. In the dark depths of passionate hate, curses gained more weight, more substance, until people could use the evil eye or a spoken word to afflict such banes upon their fellow men.
Early in the history of Thaumaturgy, the Path of Curses was developed and refined. It is still known by its early names in certain circles: Maleficum, Hexen-Kraft, the Evil eye. Victims of this path, often called accursed, are subject to extreme treatment and psychological feelings of inadequacy, often to the point of becoming social outcasts. When accursed are afflicted, friends and society tend to distance themselves from the victim, creating a social schism and driving the accursed toward alienation.
When cursing a victim, the thaumaturge is obvious - curses must be spoken aloud and directly toward the target of their ill effects, although the curse itself is often comprised of dead languages and sounds like gibberish. In modern, industrialized countries, many tend to discount the verbal telltales of being cursed, while some areas of the world might see a witch who acts so brazenly outright assaulted. Additionally, the thaumaturge requires some essence of the victim to curse him. This essence can be hair, blood, flesh or any other part of the victim. (See Chapter Two, "Principles of Thaumaturgy".) This link binds the mystic energies bringing the malison to the accursed.
Because of the severe psychological effects on a victim, the target may attempt to resist all the powers of this path with a Willpower roll (difficulty 7, unless stated otherwise). This is the victim asserting his own strength of will and personality to throw off the yoke of anathema. The thaumaturge can lift eh curses that she brings down at any time she wishes, which makes an excellent bargaining chip.
1) Stigma
The most basic of curses, the victim is stricken with an invisible stigma that manifests only in the eyes of those around them. Few can describe its actual form. People shy away from interacting with the marked victim, and will have a hard time taking him seriously. Social interaction becomes difficult, and frustration quickly follows for the accursed.
System: The stigma lasts until the next sunset, during which time the victim is doomed to frustration when performing any Social actions. All of the victim's Manipulation, Charisma and Appearance rolls are at +1 difficulty (maximum 10) during this curse. Unlike the Ritual Devil's Touch, this power also works on Kindred.
Errata: Path powers are NOT more powerful than equal level rituals. Therefore, any victim, supernatural or otherwise, of Stigma who is aware of the effect may spend a willpower to throw off its effects.
2) Malady
The thaumaturge causes the victim to suffer intense illness and discomfort, not unlike the plagues and pestilences of history. During the Dark Ages, this power was used to strike down rivals and force them into subser4vience to the thaumaturge. Cainites likewise feel the pain and suffering from the sickness instilled by this curse. For elder Kindred, this is one of the worst curses - to be stricken down with illness as if a common mortal!
System: If this power is successfully invoked, the accursed suffers the effects of sever illness for a number of nights equal to the thaumaturge's Willpower. This intensity of this sickness equals the successes the thaumaturge scores on the activation roll. Each success reduces the victim's Strength, dexterity and Stamina dice pools by one (with a maximum reduction of three dice). The afflicted character may also attempt to see if she breaks the curse nightly - as soon as she succeeds in resisting, the malady will not afflict her unless invoked again.
3) Pariah
This curse touches upon one of the most feared elements of society, that of becoming an outcast. This power goes beyond cursing the victim with simple social ostracism - while under the effects of Pariah, the accursed appears to be the most heated of enemies to everyone they encounter. This alteration of perception is only in body and form, the victim still acts and speaks as normal. But then again, few are willing to listen to the ranting and raving of a despised foe.
System: This nasty curse sustains its baneful effects upon the subject for a period of one night per success. Similar to the power Mask of a Thousand Faces, this power influences the perceptions of those around the accursed, leading observers to believe that the subject is a dire rival. This will not necessarily result in attack - indeed, in most cases, it shouldn't - but will cause antagonism in whatever way is most appropriate to the onlooker. Most people will just leave the vampire's presence with a look of disdain, but some may snub her, insult her or even throw the first punch. Unlike the Obfuscate power, Auspex cannot see through this involuntary disguise for the duration.
4) Corrupt Body
This powerful curse is invoked by the thaumaturge, who approaches the victim and denounces his physical form. Over the course of seconds, the victim's body distorts and perverts into a parody of itself. During this transformation, the victim suffers extreme pain that wracks his body. This defilement leaves behind a victim scarred both physically and mentally. Recently, Camarilla princes have had this power used upon violators of the Traditions to enforce their will; a graceful Kindred dancer reduced to an uncoordinated oaf is not likely to forget his mistakes.
System: During the three turns that the physical change occurs, the target suffers a three-dice penalty to dice pools. For the duration of the Corrupt Body, the accursed suffers a one-die penalty to all dice pools, as if she were wounded. This is cumulative with other wounds.
The thaumaturge chooses Strength, Dexterity, Stamina or Appearance to warp. This drops the appropriate Attribute to 1 for the duration. The Storyteller should add any additional effects to aid in how nasty this power is. Only one Corrupt Body can affect a victim at any one time. The number of successes determines the duration of Corrupt Body, as follows:
One Success: One Night
Two Successes: One week
Three Successes: One month
Four Successes: One season
Five Successes: One year
For example: Elizabeth, a Toreador known for her acrobatic prowess, is the subject of a Corrupt Body curse cast by Danica, a regent of Clan Tremere. Danica curses Elizabeth with the loss of her grace and Dexterity. Spending a blood point and rolling her Willpower activation, Danica's player gains three successes. Elizabeth's player tries to resist with Willpower and scores only one success. This yields two successes, which means that the curse will last one week, during which Elizabeth has a Dexterity score of 1. The Storyteller also determines that she suffers from a severe limp during this time and cannot dance. Needless to say, Elizabeth is less than happy with this turn of events, and suspects the strange incantations and gestures made by Danica.
5) Fall From Grace
The magus is able to curse his victim with supreme ineptitude, causing a loss in confidence and failings in any and all tasks. Striking a combination of mystical dread and self-loathing in the victim, failure becomes almost a certainty. Fate and circumstance now conspire to prevent prosperity. Victims of this power often retire from the normal activities of their lives as nothing goes right; relationships fall apart, jobs crumble around them, and accidents seem to become commonplace.
System: The victim can contest the effects of this power with a Willpower roll against a difficulty of 8. So severe is this curse that if the victim botches this Willpower roll, the effects of this power may become permanent.
While under this curse, the victim cannot automatically succeed in even the most trivial of tasks. All actions have one automatic botch die that must be overcome to accomplish anything (treat this as a phantom die that came up as a "1"). Additionally, even when the victim successfully performs an action, it will be mediocre at best. At most, any action can have a maximum of two successes; drop additional successes beyond two, including any from expenditure of Willpower.
Unless the subject botches the contested Willpower roll, the number of successes determines the duration of this penultimate failure, as follows:
One Success: One night
Two Successes: One week
Three Successes: One month
Four Successes: One season
Five Successes: One year
