The Oath of Blood Service is the most common longterm mutual Blood Oath, and, even so, is very rare. The servant swears to perform a particular service every night for a set period, and in return receives a benefit from the lord. Swearing the Oath is, unusually, more expensive for the lord, which means that few senior Kindred swear these Oaths lightly.
To invoke this Oath, the vassal must drink one Vitae
from the lord’s veins, with all the risks of Vinculum and
blood addiction that entails. The vassal then spends one
Willpower point to tap into the power of the Blood.
For every success on the activation roll, the lord can grant
the servant a one-dot bonus in a Skill or Discipline, up to a
maximum of his own score in the Trait. These bonuses do
not subtract from the lord’s score. The lord must have at
least three dots in a Trait to be able to bequeath dots to a
vassal. (As might be expected, Auspex and Majesty are
commonly bestowed with this Devotion.) A vassal must
have at least one dot in a Trait to receive the bonus.
While the vassal is bound by this mystic contract, his
Willpower score is lowered by one dot for each bonus dot
received from the lord. The vassal’s Willpower may not be
raised with experience points while this Oath is in effect.
The service required of the vassal must customarily be
one that takes most of the Kindred’s time. Basic hunting
and similar nightly chores are possible, but, in general,
this Devotion involves a full-time job. Seneschals
and bodyguards are most likely to swear this Oath, but
few other Kindred want to bother.
If the vassal or the lord breaks the Oath, the vassal
loses access to dots in the granted Traits but regains his
“suspended” Willpower dots. A vassal or lord can slowly
erode the effects of this Oath by withdrawing or surrendering
the Trait bonuses one dot at a time; each bonus
dot cut from the bargain restores one “suspended” Willpower
dot to the vassal.
Unlike some other Oaths, the lord has no way of knowing
if his vassal has surrendered some aspect of the contract
without personally investigating the vassal. Likewise,
the vassal has no way of knowing that his mystic
largesse has been withdrawn without attempting to use
the Trait in question.
