Post by Admin on Apr 22, 2016 23:18:01 GMT
Note: Dark Thaumaturgy is one of the blackest of the black arts, and the members of the anti-infernalist column that practice it make no attempt to avoid that fact. Instead, they embrace that realization as a cruel but necessary evil. They defile themselves, their souls, and their hope of ever being wholly pure or free again so that others among the Tal’Mahe’Ra need not take that risk, and they do so for the sole purpose of fighting their ages-old enemies among the ranks of the infernal on even ground.
Thaumaturgy Path: The Blessings of the Great Dark Mother
A thaumaturgic path of relatively recent development, the Blessings of the Great Dark Mother draws directly upon the nature of her spirit-beast servants — Cat, Owl, Serpent, and Dragon among them — to assist the ashipu in their struggles against the infernal. Despite the sobriquet “Mother of Demons,” Lilith’s children are almost never either denizens of Hell or cast-off remnants of the Outer Dark, but the offspring of her many unions with strange and wonderful beings. Partaking of Lilith’s essence and that of her mates, these unions produce entities that are unique admixtures of spiritual and physical, whose mu-tability of substance renders them vulnerable to abuse by the ignorant and the unscrupulous. The techniques used by the sorcerers of the First Tribe to subtly alter the true Names of the Children of the Outer Dark, the ritually enforced expectations of mortal demonologists, and the potent true magic of the Awakened can all force the Lilin into demoniacal form. The arts of this path can liberate them from this bondage and distort, disrupt, and defile the unholy pacts and bonds between an infernalist and their genuinely diabolical masters and minions.
• Cradlesong The ashipu utters an incantation that reveals to her the nature of any pacts, bonds, or spiritual ties to other beings within audible range of her voice. These bonds appear differ-ently to each ashipu who employs the cradlesong, depending strongly on her preferred sensory stimulus. Some see the bonds as threads of light wrapped around others, pulsing with colors that define their nature; others hear them as a rich and complex song whose internal melodies, harmonies, tempo, and beat contain the information they require. Most properly sung, the incantation can also be simply spoken, whistled using the appropriate notes, or played wordlessly on a musical instrument as a tone poem; electronic amplification can and does increase its effective range.
System: The ashipu sings her cradlesong, spends one blood point, and rolls Perception + Occult (difficulty equal to the highest current Willpower rating of the individuals in the group, or the current Willpower rating of the individual if attempting to affect a singular target). If successful, the song causes any and all infernal pacts, spiritual pacts, and voluntary or involuntary bonds of any kind (including the blood bond) to become “visible” in some way to the caster.
•• Kessep The firstborn son of Lilith and Lucifer was named “Silver” for the light of the Moon, a hue reflected in the bright silver scales of the serpent that serves the Great Dark Mother. The serpent sometimes functions as one of her many forms, symbolic of purity and purification. The ashipu who calls upon the argent serpent sings, speaks, or plays an invocation that allows her to select one infernal or spiritual bond and purify the owner of it — severing the ties of bound spirits or demons. This invocation cannot sever the blood bond (no matter how involuntarily it might have been entered into), nor can it undo an infernal pact.
System: The ashipu invokes the gift of the argent ser-pent, spending one blood point and rolling Manipulation + Occult, with a difficulty equal to the target’s current Willpower. If successful, the invocation causes a single selected bond between the target and an enthralled spirit or bound demon to be broken. This, of course, frees the previously bound spirit or demon to flee, take vengeance, or visit whatever consequences of bondage they prefer upon their former owner.
•••Sotheq The second-born son of Lilith and Lucifer was named “Silence,” for the peace and stillness of D’hainu, the Great Dark Mother’s garden of renewal, and is also an attribute of the watchful, night-hunting owl that both serves and embodies her. The ashipu who calls upon the owl with wings of twilight sings, speaks, or plays an invocation that allows her to silence all of the infernal or spiritual ties of her target, pacts and bonds alike.
System: The ashipu invokes the gift of the twilight owl, spending one blood point and rolling Manipulation + Occult, with a difficulty equal to the target’s current Willpower. If successful, the invocation causes a psychic or spiritual silence to fall across all bonds and pacts in which the target is involved — he can no longer issue commands to his bound spirits or servitor demons, nor can he receive communication or commands from any spirit or demon that holds him in thrall. Exceptional success (four successes or more) extends this effect to the Cainite at the other end of any blood bond in which the target is engaged.
•••• Allah The youngest daughter of Lilith and Lucifer was named “Night,” for the realm that would have been hers had she lived to maturity. Such darkness is also an attribute of the soft-pawed, sharp-clawed cat that warded the borders of D’hainu and protected those who dwelt within the Garden of Renewal. The ashipu who calls upon the cat with the pelt of shadow sings, speaks, or plays an invocation that allows her to directly assault all of the lesser infernal or spiritual ties of their target, parting the bonds as with a swipe of deadly claws and disarming the target of their spiritual weapons.
System: The ashipu invokes the gift of the night-shadow cat, spending one blood point and rolling Manipulation + Occult, with a difficulty equal to the target’s current Willpower, for each spirit or demon that the target holds enthralled as a servitor. Success frees the bound spirit or demon to do as it wills. Failure not only fails to free the spirit or demon, but also allows those entities to know precisely who attempted to sever those ties.
••••• Memo The firstborn and eldest child of Lilith and Lucifer was their daughter, named “Water” after her mother’s fond memory of both the crystal streams of lost Eden and the vast oceanic depths in which she took shelter after her expulsion. In the oceans, she bore the first of her many broods and emerged from her exile more powerful than before. Mighty and deep are the powers of that great pri-mordial realm, and mighty was the form that the Great Dark Mother took there. She lent the secrets and gifts of that form to her first child and eldest daughter, the drag-on whose wings blotted out and the moon and the sun and the stars, and whose scales shone with all the hues of the sea, greatest of all the purifiers. The ashipu who calls upon the dragon who weeps tears of salt sings, speaks, or plays an invocation that allows her to directly attack the principal infernal or spiritual pact of her target.
System: The ashipu invokes the gift of the great serpent of the ocean, spending one blood point and rolling Perception + Occult, with a difficulty equal to the current Willpower of the target. By so doing, she gains the knowledge of what impelled the target to enter into a bargain in which his soul would be forfeit. Each success rolled yields more detailed knowledge of her target, the nature and strengths of the pact, and any infernal investments or gifts that the target possesses. Spectacular success yields the True Name of the target’s demonic patron and the opportunity to directly engage it in a contested Manipulation + Occult (difficulty equal to it’s permanent Willpower) roll. Success on the part of the ashipu severs the bond between the infernalist and their patron; success on the part of the patron allows the bond to remain intact. Failure of any roll in this sequence allows the infernality’s patron to perceive the ashipu and derive substantial information about her through the contact.
Thaumaturgy Path: The Blessings of the Great Dark Mother
A thaumaturgic path of relatively recent development, the Blessings of the Great Dark Mother draws directly upon the nature of her spirit-beast servants — Cat, Owl, Serpent, and Dragon among them — to assist the ashipu in their struggles against the infernal. Despite the sobriquet “Mother of Demons,” Lilith’s children are almost never either denizens of Hell or cast-off remnants of the Outer Dark, but the offspring of her many unions with strange and wonderful beings. Partaking of Lilith’s essence and that of her mates, these unions produce entities that are unique admixtures of spiritual and physical, whose mu-tability of substance renders them vulnerable to abuse by the ignorant and the unscrupulous. The techniques used by the sorcerers of the First Tribe to subtly alter the true Names of the Children of the Outer Dark, the ritually enforced expectations of mortal demonologists, and the potent true magic of the Awakened can all force the Lilin into demoniacal form. The arts of this path can liberate them from this bondage and distort, disrupt, and defile the unholy pacts and bonds between an infernalist and their genuinely diabolical masters and minions.
• Cradlesong The ashipu utters an incantation that reveals to her the nature of any pacts, bonds, or spiritual ties to other beings within audible range of her voice. These bonds appear differ-ently to each ashipu who employs the cradlesong, depending strongly on her preferred sensory stimulus. Some see the bonds as threads of light wrapped around others, pulsing with colors that define their nature; others hear them as a rich and complex song whose internal melodies, harmonies, tempo, and beat contain the information they require. Most properly sung, the incantation can also be simply spoken, whistled using the appropriate notes, or played wordlessly on a musical instrument as a tone poem; electronic amplification can and does increase its effective range.
System: The ashipu sings her cradlesong, spends one blood point, and rolls Perception + Occult (difficulty equal to the highest current Willpower rating of the individuals in the group, or the current Willpower rating of the individual if attempting to affect a singular target). If successful, the song causes any and all infernal pacts, spiritual pacts, and voluntary or involuntary bonds of any kind (including the blood bond) to become “visible” in some way to the caster.
•• Kessep The firstborn son of Lilith and Lucifer was named “Silver” for the light of the Moon, a hue reflected in the bright silver scales of the serpent that serves the Great Dark Mother. The serpent sometimes functions as one of her many forms, symbolic of purity and purification. The ashipu who calls upon the argent serpent sings, speaks, or plays an invocation that allows her to select one infernal or spiritual bond and purify the owner of it — severing the ties of bound spirits or demons. This invocation cannot sever the blood bond (no matter how involuntarily it might have been entered into), nor can it undo an infernal pact.
System: The ashipu invokes the gift of the argent ser-pent, spending one blood point and rolling Manipulation + Occult, with a difficulty equal to the target’s current Willpower. If successful, the invocation causes a single selected bond between the target and an enthralled spirit or bound demon to be broken. This, of course, frees the previously bound spirit or demon to flee, take vengeance, or visit whatever consequences of bondage they prefer upon their former owner.
•••Sotheq The second-born son of Lilith and Lucifer was named “Silence,” for the peace and stillness of D’hainu, the Great Dark Mother’s garden of renewal, and is also an attribute of the watchful, night-hunting owl that both serves and embodies her. The ashipu who calls upon the owl with wings of twilight sings, speaks, or plays an invocation that allows her to silence all of the infernal or spiritual ties of her target, pacts and bonds alike.
System: The ashipu invokes the gift of the twilight owl, spending one blood point and rolling Manipulation + Occult, with a difficulty equal to the target’s current Willpower. If successful, the invocation causes a psychic or spiritual silence to fall across all bonds and pacts in which the target is involved — he can no longer issue commands to his bound spirits or servitor demons, nor can he receive communication or commands from any spirit or demon that holds him in thrall. Exceptional success (four successes or more) extends this effect to the Cainite at the other end of any blood bond in which the target is engaged.
•••• Allah The youngest daughter of Lilith and Lucifer was named “Night,” for the realm that would have been hers had she lived to maturity. Such darkness is also an attribute of the soft-pawed, sharp-clawed cat that warded the borders of D’hainu and protected those who dwelt within the Garden of Renewal. The ashipu who calls upon the cat with the pelt of shadow sings, speaks, or plays an invocation that allows her to directly assault all of the lesser infernal or spiritual ties of their target, parting the bonds as with a swipe of deadly claws and disarming the target of their spiritual weapons.
System: The ashipu invokes the gift of the night-shadow cat, spending one blood point and rolling Manipulation + Occult, with a difficulty equal to the target’s current Willpower, for each spirit or demon that the target holds enthralled as a servitor. Success frees the bound spirit or demon to do as it wills. Failure not only fails to free the spirit or demon, but also allows those entities to know precisely who attempted to sever those ties.
••••• Memo The firstborn and eldest child of Lilith and Lucifer was their daughter, named “Water” after her mother’s fond memory of both the crystal streams of lost Eden and the vast oceanic depths in which she took shelter after her expulsion. In the oceans, she bore the first of her many broods and emerged from her exile more powerful than before. Mighty and deep are the powers of that great pri-mordial realm, and mighty was the form that the Great Dark Mother took there. She lent the secrets and gifts of that form to her first child and eldest daughter, the drag-on whose wings blotted out and the moon and the sun and the stars, and whose scales shone with all the hues of the sea, greatest of all the purifiers. The ashipu who calls upon the dragon who weeps tears of salt sings, speaks, or plays an invocation that allows her to directly attack the principal infernal or spiritual pact of her target.
System: The ashipu invokes the gift of the great serpent of the ocean, spending one blood point and rolling Perception + Occult, with a difficulty equal to the current Willpower of the target. By so doing, she gains the knowledge of what impelled the target to enter into a bargain in which his soul would be forfeit. Each success rolled yields more detailed knowledge of her target, the nature and strengths of the pact, and any infernal investments or gifts that the target possesses. Spectacular success yields the True Name of the target’s demonic patron and the opportunity to directly engage it in a contested Manipulation + Occult (difficulty equal to it’s permanent Willpower) roll. Success on the part of the ashipu severs the bond between the infernalist and their patron; success on the part of the patron allows the bond to remain intact. Failure of any roll in this sequence allows the infernality’s patron to perceive the ashipu and derive substantial information about her through the contact.