Cruac

The ritual blood magic practiced by the Circle of the Crone. Crúac rituals always require the sacrifice of Vitae. Crúac has a singularly insidious drawback: advancement in the knowledge of Crúac comes at a terrible price to The Man, as the knowledge of Crúac's more powerful rituals serves to strengthen The Beast at the expense of The Man. A character’s dots in this Discipline, subtracted from 10, is the maximum to which his Humanity may rise.

Crúac is a ritual discipline, with more than one ritual per dot; each level may be purchased at 7x New Dots experience, which allows the player access to one ritual from that level. New rituals may be learned if you have already purchased the level of the desired ritual, and have a cost of 2x New Dots. All Crúac Rituals regardless of level cost at least 1 Vitae to perform.

Prerequisite: Status in Circle of the Crone

Dice Pool: Manipulation + Occult + Cruac.

Double any bonuses that a vampire’s Blood Ties might apply, such as in a ritual performed on a sire, grandsire, childe or grandchilde.

The Nosferatu clan weakness does not apply to the Discipline user’s roll.

Each point of damage suffered in a turn is a penalty to the next casting roll, in addition to any wound penalties that a caster might suffer.

Action: Extended

The number of successes required to activate a ritual is equal to the level of the ritual (so a level three ritual requires three successes to enact).

The Ritual activates when the required successes are met -- a caster cannot continue to accumulate successes.

Each roll represents one turn of ritual casting.

House Rules

• See the House Rules tab.

Rituals

Pangs of Proserpina (●)

• Resistance: Reflexive and Contested against the subject’s Resolve + Composure + Blood Potency

The sorcerer causes feelings of intense hunger in a subject, who must be within sight. The afflicted subject feels the desire to eat or feed. If the performer gets the most successes, the victim avails himself of any sustenance available. A mortal even eats raw meat, though he doesn’t resort to such dire acts as cannibalism or drinking blood. Kindred might attack nearby vessels or even fellow vampires if their hunger is severe enough to make them frenzy. Even after he eats or feeds, a subject’s rapacity does not subside until the effects of the ritual pass. (Vampires affected by this ritual are considered “starving” for the purposes of resisting frenzy.)

Rigor Mortis (●)

• Resistance: Reflexive and Automated, subtracting the subject’s Composure + Blood Potency

With the power of this ritual, a vampire may temporarily interrupt the reanimating effect of vampiric Vitae, rendering a Kindred immobile as the stiffening of muscles common to dead bodies takes hold. The number of successes garnered on the Crúac roll determines the number of dice by which the victim’s next Physical dice pool is penalized. This applies only to dice pools for actions, and does not affect Physical resistances. Rigor Mortis is useless against mortals, ghouls, Lupines and mages, since they don’t depend on the power of vampiric Vitae to animate their bodies.

Cheval (●●)

• Resistance: Reflexive and Automated, subtracting the subject’s Composure + Blood Potency
• Vampire The Requiem, p.144

This ritual allows the performer to “ride the senses” of his subject. The subject must be within direct sight when the ritual is performed, but the subject can stray from the caster to any distance thereafter. At any time he wishes for the duration of the effect, the performer may see or hear through the eyes or ears of his subject. No other senses can be substituted — if the subject is blind or deaf or both, all “riding” yields is blackness and/or silence. A subject so “ridden” is unaware that his senses also report to another.

While riding another’s senses, the ritualist is only dimly aware of her own body, which falls into on a trance-like state. She is unaware of minor environmental stimuli affecting her own body (such as an insect crawling across her skin or drops of water falling on her head), but more aggressive actions perpetrated against her body draw her consciousness back to it.

This ritual remains in effect for one night per success on the invocation roll, though the caster may end the ritual at any time. The performer can therefore indulge in a subject’s senses and return to her own body as often as she likes throughout the rite’s duration.

Hydras Vitae (●●)

By invoking this ritual, the performer protects himself from would-be diablerists and from those who would otherwise feast upon his blood. This ritual transforms the sorcerer’s Vitae into a kind of poison. Kindred who drink it suffer one point of lethal damage for every Vitae consumed; mortals who imbibe suffer two points of lethal damage for each Vitae. When a Kindred consumes a quantity of venomous Vitae, she gains no nourishment from it.

Vitae altered by this ritual is poisonous only so long as it’s in the performer’s body (or until the next sunrise). If the Vitae leaves, it becomes as any other Vitae spilled from a Kindred’s body. Thus, it cannot be used to create poisoned weapons, and if one consumes the Vitae from a container after it leaves the body, it is simply normal, nonpoisonous Vitae.

Touch of the Morrigan (●●●)

The caster performs this ritual and channels his righteous ire into a tangible force. If the performance roll is successful, the user’s mere touch becomes deadly. The sorcerer must then touch a subject with his open palm. (See “Touching an Opponent”.) Contact inflicts an amount of lethal damage equal to the number of successes gained on the activation roll. (The power cannot be delivered through a punch or other unarmed close-combat attack.) This harm can be delivered only once per performance of the ritual, and the user’s touch has the potential to inflict harm for one hour for every success gained on the activation roll. If that period of time passes without a touch being made, the power fades.

The mark made by contact is physically manifest in accordance with its severity. A Touch of the Morrigan that inflicts one point of damage looks like a minor scar or livid bruise, while one that delivers five points of damage leaves the subject almost entirely blackened and charred looking. The visible injury fades as the damage is healed. This power affects only vampires, ghouls and other supernatural creatures. It seems that Kindred cannot inflict their viciousness on mortals in this manner.

Blood Price (●●●●)

• Resistance: Reflexive and Automated, subtracting the subject’s Composure + Blood Potency

The sorcerer mystically claims one third of the Vitae that a subject imbibes. The subject must be within sight when this ritual is performed. Every time the subject feeds, a third of the Vitae he consumes is denied him and transfers invisibly to the sorcerer, regardless of either vampire’s location. This Vitae is “neutral,” which is to say that the feeding Kindred does not subject the sorcerer to a Vinculum in this manner, and neither does feeding from a third-party vampire apply any blood bonds to the sorcerer (though it certainly does to the feeding vampire). The effects of this ritual expire after one feeding or the next sunrise, whichever comes first.

If the most successes are rolled for the caster, the subject has no idea where some of the Vitae he consumes disappears to, yet he knows that he goes undernourished.

Willful Vitae (●●●●)

The performer makes herself immune to the Vinculum and Blood Addiction when another Kindred’s Vitae is consumed. After this ritual is performed, if another vampire’s blood is taken in the same night, no step is taken toward a Vinculum with the provider of the blood, and no addiction to blood forms for the character. Of course, the blood donor has no idea that the recipient is immune. The ritual cannot be performed on another vampire, only on the caster’s self. The ritual does not countermand or alleviate any existing Vinculum to which the caster is already subject.

Blood Blight (●●●●●)

• Resistance: Reflexive and Contested, versus the subject’s Resolve + Stamina + Blood Potency

This potent ritual taints the blood of its target, whether mortal or vampire. If the roll for the caster gets the most successes, that number of successes is inflicted as lethal damage to a mortal target. A vampire target immediately loses the equivalent of Vitae in his system and could be subject to frenzy as a result. Indeed, a vampiric victim might be forced into torpor. The caster must be able to see the intended victim when the ritual is performed.

Feeding The Crone (●●●●●)

When the performer calls upon the power of the Crone herself (by whatever name is used), and a Vitae is spent, the vampire’s mouth transforms into a maw of wicked, gnashing teeth. The vampire need not perform a grapple attack in order to bite a victim; the attack is made directly. The number of successes achieved on the ritual’s activation roll is added as bonus dice to attack rolls, and aggravated damage is inflicted. Note that these teeth are so vicious that feeding cannot occur when they are borne; too much blood is wasted in the gory slaughter to get nourishment. Feeding the Crone remains in effect until another Vitae is spent to revoke the change, or until sunrise.

Cruac Devotions

Asura Yuu Thi Nay • Call of Courage • Drops of Destiny • Spirit Senses