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

Crúac does not have the same linear progression that other Disciplines do. A character’s
mastery dictates the highest level of rituals that he may learn. Rituals are bought with experience
points. For example, a character with two dots of Crúac can know an unlimited number
of level-one and level-two rituals (provided the experience points to learn each of them are
paid). He may not learn any level-three Crúac rituals until his Crúac dots increase to 3. Each
time a character acquires a dot of Crúac (including at character creation), he gains a ritual
of that level at no additional cost.
Crúac is insidious. It demands a certain degree of subservience and even cruelty from its
practitioners, possibly in deference to the dire old gods whence the Discipline is rumored to
come. For some power-hungry sorcerers, Crúac indulges the will instead of enlightened use
of the Discipline. A character’s dots in this Discipline, subtracted from 10, is the maximum
to which his Humanity may rise. For example, the Gangrel Roland Gentry possesses three
dots of Crúac. His maximum Humanity is therefore 7. If a character increases his Crúac
score higher than his Humanity would normally allow, his Humanity immediately drops to
the appropriate level and the player makes a Humanity draw to see if the character acquires
a derangement in the process of heightening his occult knowledge. (See pp. 258-266 for
more on Humanity draws and derangements.)
Test Pool: Manipulation + Occult + Crúac. Because of its sanguinary nature, Crúac doubles
any bonuses that a vampire’s blood ties might apply, such as in a ritual performed on a sire,
grandsire, childe or grandchilde. Also, the Nosferatu clan weakness does not apply to the
Discipline user’s draw. Occult Specializations can only apply to individual rituals, not all of
Crúac.
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). Each draw represents
one turn of ritual casting. Note also that each point of damage suffered in a turn is a penalty
to the next casting draw made for the character, in addition to any wound penalties that a
caster might suffer.
Costs to activate Crúac rituals must be paid before the draw can be made. Normally this
isn’t an issue, as a ritual that costs one Vitae can have its activation draw made in the same
turn (as spending Vitae is a refl exive action). In some cases, though, a ritual costs more Vitae
than the caster can spend in a single turn. In cases like these, the caster’s player makes the
draw on the turn he (refl exively) spends the last Vitae necessary to invoke the ritual.
If a character fails to complete the ritual in time (such as by being killed before accumulating
enough successes) or decides to cancel the ritual before garnering enough successes to activate
it, the effect simply fails. Any Vitae expenditures made are not recovered, however.
Roleplaying: Crúac is not the sanitized version of the Old Ways that most mortals think of
when they think of “pagan” practices. Whether wild and ecstatic or grim and vengeful, Crúac
rituals are seldom very subtle, and the primal power and raw emotions on display are often
as unsettling as they are intriguing for onlookers to behold. (This is a largely unintended but
not entirely undesirable side effect, as far as the Circle of the Crone is concerned.) Ritualists
frequently chant in a variety of old tongues, employ items of ancient ritual signifi cance such
as wands or prepared animal skins, and invoke the many different names of the divine beings
Crúac pays homage to in its many forms. Ritual bloodletting over sacred designs or to create
mystical patterns is also highly common.
Draw Results
Failure: The ritual fails entirely, but not dangerously. Vitae is consumed as normal, but
the ritual has no effect.
Success: The ritual takes place as described.
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chapter two: character