Mind's Eye Theatre - Vampire The Requiem.pdf - RoseRed

Vigor does not affect a character’s ability to jump.
Action: Instant
EXTENDED ACTIONS AND SORCERY
Many rituals and sorceries require extended actions to accumulate successes.
During downtimes and outside of game sessions, use the normal time constraints for
extended actions. During a game, gaining a success on an extended action for any
type of sorcery or ritual requires a full turn outside of combat and three full turns if
performed during combat.
CRUAC
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resilience • vigor • crúac
Crúac is the common name for the pagan blood sorcery practiced by the Circle of the
Crone. A type of ritual magic, Crúac, meaning “crescent,” is a mixture of pre-Christian and
pagan magic from across the globe whose only common element is a reliance on blood sacrifi
ce. Crúac is denounced by many traditional Kindred as “black magic” or “witchcraft,” and
in areas where the Lancea Sanctum holds sway, Crúac’s known practitioners are occasionally
persecuted as heretics. Of course, it is such very derision and fear of Crúac that leads
many to the Circle of the Crone and, by extension, to this Discipline’s study. The Circle of
the Crone’s message of empowerment speaks to many a neonate, and, for some, there is no
greater expression of that empowerment than this Discipline.
Crúac is one of the central mysteries of the Circle of the Crone’s belief structure, as well
as a potent weapon in the covenant’s arsenal. As might be expected, knowledge of the different
rituals that comprise this Discipline is a closely guarded secret. New initiates are not
usually trusted with its mysteries. As a new member in a quasi-religious Kindred faction, a
vampire might well have to prove his loyalty to the Circle through tests and ordeals before its
adherents are willing to share their knowledge. Although vampires who leave the Circle of the
Crone for other covenants take their knowledge with them, many fi nd it all but impossible
to increase their knowledge of Crúac outside the Circle’s structure. A character must have
at least one dot of Covenant Status (Circle of the Crone) in order to learn Crúac. A player
who buys at least one dot worth of that Merit at character creation may spend one of his
character’s three Discipline dots on Crúac if he wishes. This expenditure does not count as
an in-clan Discipline expenditure, however. Any time a player wants to increase his character’s
Crúac score, the character must still have at least one dot of Covenant Status (Circle of the
Crone) to do so.
Because of myriad cultural differences within the Circle of the Crone, many rituals exist that
approximate the following ones in effect if not in name. Thus, the level-one ritual Pangs of
Proserpina may be known as the Appetite of Limba in New Orleans or the Curse of Tawrich
in Tehran. Other Vampire books offer new Crúac rituals, and players and Storytellers are
encouraged to create their own using those presented here as models.
Cost: Uses of Crúac always cost at least one Vitae. Unless the text for a specifi c power
(known as a ritual) specifi es otherwise, assume that the cost is one Vitae. Vitae plays a very
important role in the use of Crúac — it literally calls upon the power inherent in the Blood
to fuel supernatural effects. Use of Crúac requires that the Vitae be “spent” in a visible or
otherwise signifi cant manner. For example, when a Vitae is spent for a character to activate
a ritual, he likely has to cut himself with a dagger and bleed on the ground, activating the
magic with the spilled Vitae (or through some other direct appeal to the power of the Blood).
Unless noted otherwise, any use of Crúac breaks Obfuscate. If a character is already under
the effects of Crúac, the same ritual can’t be used on her again for added effect.
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