Koldunic Sorcery

Koldunic Sorcery divides into paths and rituals. Koldun speak of their paths as ways, five of which form the core of all their magic. Though not unknown, obscure ways are rare in the extreme and usually build on a specific aspect of a core way. The actual casting of Koldunic ways requires more than a clumsy exertion of will. Such magic demands perfection of form and mastery of the appropriate lore. In effect, the ways of the Discipline more closely resemble a cascade of dependent rituals than paths as understood by Thaumaturgy.

Koldunic Sorcery also requires the koldun at least a passing relationship with local spirits, making most Koldun with a distaste for travel. For each grade that a koldun is outside of his domain he incurs a penalty equating to the distance he is from his home. If he leaves the City but is within the same state he incurs a one-trait penalty, if he leaves the state but is still within his home Region, it becomes a two-trait penalty, beyond that but remains within the nation, he incurs a three-trait penalty, and outside of that he incurs a four-trait penalty for the purposes of comparing ties and challenges using the Ways or any koldunic ritual.

The caster’s player spends one Blood Trait and engages his victims in a challenge determined by each path. Owing to the Discipline’s dependence on ritualized knowledge, characters with the Occult specialty “Koldunism” may add an extra trait as normal. Characters without this specialized lore take a one-trait penalty when enacting koldunic sorcery. The rules for koldunic rituals duplicate those for ways, save that the challenge is always a Mental Challenge and use the same durations and difficulties as Thaumaturgy. Each koldun must select one of the ways listed below as his primary one. Koldunic Sorcery retests will Occult.

Paths

The Way of Earth

Capable of great destruction and great healing, the earth is the womb of life and the sepulcher of death. It drinks all blood spilled upon its soil and so mirrors the vampire. It is by association with the earth as a source of strength that a koldun enacts his will. Challenge Type: Physical

Basic Way of Earth

Grasping Soil

A koldun invoking this power may command earth to rise in a spray of dirt and crawl up a victim’s legs. Depending on the will and temperament of the sorcerer, the soil may appear as heaped mounds or sculpted to a parody of clutching arms. Regardless, the end result is the victim’s sudden immobility. This power can command only soil, not stone, and may target only victims standing on the earth.

The koldun may direct any patch of earth within a 100-foot radius to ensnare a target. Animated dirt ascends and constricts midway between the victim’s knees and hips, holding her fast unless her player can overcome a Physical challenge equal to the koldun's physical traits, retests with Athletics. It is also possible to use this power as an attack, in which case the grasping earth crushes once and then releases. Used in this manner, the attack deals one level of lethal damage. Such damage manifests exclusively as broken legs and crushed feet.

Endurance of Stone

Drawing the essence of earth into himself, a koldun may gain a measure of its preternatural resilience. Under the effects of this power, a Cainite’s skin resembles a horrid fusion of flesh and stone that cracks and flows impossibly with every movement. The koldun gains two extra Health levels as if from armor for the rest of the scene and gains 2 trait bonus to all Physical challenges (including Way of Earth).

Intermediate Way of Earth

Hungry Earth

Expanding on the power of Grasping Soil, a koldun may use this power to drag a victim into the earth and crush her with its pitiless grip. He need only gesture and the soil beneath his victim opens like the maw of a great beast. Tongues of cold mud lash forth to drag the victim into the closing pit, leaving her buried to the neck. This power may ensnare any victim who stands upon the earth within 100 feet of the koldun.

Like Grasping Soil, the victim must overcome a physical Challenge to break free from the earth, retest Athletics. As the earth continues to shift and grasp while the power remains active. In addition, beings trapped in the crushing pit suffer one level of lethal damage each turn. At the end of the power’s duration, the earth yawns once more to release the victim.

Root of Vitality

As with Hungry Earth, the koldun may direct the land to bury any target standing on the earth within a 100-foot radius. Yet this power is far more benevolent in its intent, if no less disturbing in its manifestation. The soil ripples, parting and closing like some obscene womb as it draws the target a full yard beneath the surface. Living beings entombed in this fashion do not suffocate, as the enchanted soil pumps air from above in undulating breaths. Better still, the fertile essence of the earth presses upon her flesh and restores it to new health. Still, the process is highly disturbing and unnatural, especially as targets remain wholly aware in silent, helpless immobility for the full duration. It is possible for a koldun to heal himself with this power.

Koldun spends as many blood points as desired (which may require multiple turns depending on generation). While interred within the earth the blood pool created by the koldun may be used to heal, the cost to heal bashing and lethal damage is halved, and aggravated damage may be healed by spending a Willpower Trait and 2 Blood Traits. The actual healing process takes one turn per bashing level, one minute per lethal level and one hour per aggravated level. Once the healing is complete or the power is interrupted through determined excavation, the earth pushes the target back to the surface.

Advanced Way of Earth

Kupala’s Fury

Mortals pray in fear when the mountains shake. They fear the wrath of the Old Gods, and rightfully so. With this power, a koldun may rouse the taint of Kupala with his blood so that the eldritch force may gnaw at the roots of mountains and thrash beneath the land like the great dragon of Tzimisce heraldry. It is not a power used lightly or capriciously, but it represents one of the greatest weapons available to Koldunic Sorcery.

By spending a Willpower in addition to the usual cost, the koldun smites the earth with his fist or stamps angrily, and his anger flows invisibly through the soil to any target in his line of sight. The quake erupts outward from that point up to 20 feet in diameter, making a mass challenge against against everyone within the area affect, but you only have to bid one trait. Anyone who fails the challenge takes 4 bashing damage. Anyone without a recourse to escape the area of affect (because they are trapped in a dead end, or because they cannot move) take the damage automatically without recourse to a challenge. Most wooden structures collapse entirely and even stone buildings may grow cracked and pitted with superficial damage from the shaking earth. This tremor lasts one turn.

The Way of Wind

Subtler than mastery over earth, this way evokes the air in the breath of the living and the last rattle of a dying man. In stillness or motion, koldun turn all aspects of air to their unliving design.

Challenge Type: Mental

Basic Way of Wind

Breath of Whispers

Even in their absence, koldun instill deep fear in their boyars. This power carries the vampire’s words on a light breeze to the target and returns with their reply. The vampire need only address the target by name and forcibly mimic a deep exhalation of breath as he speaks his message.

The player need only spend blood the first time the power is used during a given scene. After the vampire concludes the message, swift winds carry it to its destination. Within a minute, the target hears the koldun as if the vampire had whispered in his ear. He may reply or remain silent, but anything he says within a number of turns equal to the length of the vampire’s message flies back to the koldun. This power may bring words to anyone within a mile who is not in a sealed room. While using this power, a koldun must concentrate fully. Any disturbance breaks the communication.

Biting Gale

Vengeful koldun sought to invoke a wind as chill as air atop the Carpathian Mountains. This power achieves that end, unleashing a cutting wind that can freeze a man’s blood in his veins as it swirls through an area of his choosing. Besides its obvious combat applications, this power also facilitates a dramatic entrance for those so inclined.

The koldun summons a freezing wind to harass a victim within a maximum of a 100-yards of the koldun. The victim caught in this frigid blast suffers one bashing damage each turn the koldun maintains concentration and takes a 2 Trait penalty on all Challenges relating to Dexterity and may only take 1 step each round. The winds last as long as the koldun wills, provided he maintains concentration. Any non-reflexive actions on the part of the vampire cause the winds to still and dissipate. This includes any movement.

Intermediate Way of Wind

Breeze of Lethargy

Although they cannot induce immediate sleep, the winds evoked by this power bring growing exhaustion and numbing weariness through every muscle. Victims of this power often smell a hint of bittersweet smoke before they fall entranced. The koldun creates a wind inflicting extreme lethargy within a 200-foot radius on a single victim. The victim of this wind loses on ties on all Physical Challenges (if the victim normally would win on ties, then he compares Traits as normal) and her speed is reduced to 1 step and may not use Celerity as a Fair Escape.

Ride the Tempest

A koldun employing this power moves at incredible speeds riding along the winds. Such voivodes may appear in each of their boyar’s homes and the villages of their lands in a single night, instilling fear among the peasants and terrorizing all to fealty. Few mortals of any class dare risk the wrath of a koldun who may arrive to administer punishment. While traveling with this power, a vampire assumes a blurred form that coalesces as he reaches his destination.

After paying the usual cost the koldun fades into the wind and flies at 250 mph to his destination. This power cannot function effectively in caves, buildings or other firmly enclosed areas, and any vampire foolish enough to try suffers 10 bashing damage for his trouble from crashing into walls. Outside, the vampire’s flight navigates all obstacles. Once the koldun arrives at his destination or the scene ends, the vampire descends to earth and fully solidifies. Such an arrival is quite impressive, heralded by a flurry of sudden gusts that extinguish candles and blow leaves about.

Advanced Way of Winds

Fury of the Night Sky

Applying fury magnified by blood and will, a koldun may project the full measure of his anger into the night sky. Churning gray clouds blot out stars and moon, unleashing spiraling gusts and a driving downpour of freezing rain. Lightning arcs overhead, each thunderous flash casting jagged shadows.

With a successful casting and expending a point of Willpower (in addition to the usual blood), a koldun may conjure a terrible storm. It takes six hours for the clouds to gather and thicken overhead, minus one hour for every Mental Traits expended. If this results in a duration less than one, the clouds blossom outward from directly overhead like a black canopy, filling the sky in mere minutes. Once the clouds form, the rain begins to fall in torrents and the lightning begins.

During the peak of its fury, the storm may cause flooding and certainly chills any exposed mortal to the bone (one bashing damage every five minutes of full exposure). Those attempting to spot anything with normal senses must bid four extra Traits, those with Auspex need only bid two extra Traits. Anyone attempting to use a gun must bid two extra Traits when attacking; characters attempting to use bows or thrown weapons must bid three extra Traits.

Lightning strikes regularly — far more than a usual storm. Indeed, a koldun may direct lightning at a foe. This requires the player to spend one Willpower point and make a Mental Chellenge against the target. The target uses Physical traits to doge and he must bid an additional Physical trait while attempting to do so. A successful strike inflicts 3 bashing damage. Only one such attack may be made each turn.

The Way of Water

Largely practiced by koldun with havens near large water sources such as the Black Sea or Plain Lakes, this way can raise watery spirit slaves and dash a ship to splinters. More subtly, the vampire may lurk in the depths or conjure illusions to confound and bedazzle his foes.

Challenge Type: Social

Basic Way of Water

Pool of Lies

This versatile power creates three-dimensional illusions along the surface of a water source. How a koldun uses such illusions depends on temperament and intent. It is just as easy to feign a divine visitation as a cunning seduction leading to drowning. The koldun may project an illusion on any water surface in line of sight. The illusion may speak and move however the vampire wishes, though it has no substance and cannot step beyond the bounds of the water. The phantom lasts for the duration of he scene.

Watery Haven

As the feral Gangrel meld with the earth, so may a koldun with this power gracefully sink beneath the water to escape the sun. The vampire does not so much submerge as merge with the water. Though his slumbering form may be visible at odd angles from above, not even the most determined splashing can disturb his rest.

This power requires no blood. A body of water must be at least two feet deep and as large in other dimensions as the vampire’s body to contain him. Catching a glimpse of a hidden koldun in the water requires a successful Mental Challenge against the koldun's Social Traits.

Intermediate Way of Water

Fog over Sea

Moving with the unnatural grace of a ghost, a koldun employing this power may stride across water as readily as land, leaving nary a ripple to mark his passing. Some vampires delight in using this power in conjunction with Pool of Lies to conjure panoplies of phantasms to attend them.

The koldun may walk on water for one scene or one hour, whichever is longer. A koldun may choose to drop the effects of this power in order to submerge or swim, but he may not walk on water again unless he reactivates the power.

Minions of the Deep

By dripping his blood into a body of water, a koldun may summon or rouse embodied water elementals to serve him for a night. Such minions are infallibly loyal, if not especially clever. Despite their liquid form, they are solid enough to grab a man and drag him to a watery grave or pummel him as the crashing surf.

The player spends one Willpower point beyond the normal cost. The player may spend additional blood to summon elemental minions. This blood must be dripped or flung into a body of water, which may require multiple turns depending on generational limits for blood expenditure. Once the last drop of blood falls, the water rises into whatever form(s) the koldun desires. The caster may create as many minions as blood points spent, though not more than half his total Social Traits.

Regardless of their form or the mastery of the koldun all such elementals are considered have the following traits: 10 Physical Traits, no Mental or Social Traits, Alacrity and Swiftness (Celerity), Endurance and Mettle (Fortitude) and Prowess and Might (Potence). These elementals deal two levels of lethal damage. They possess the equivalent of four levels each of Brawl and Dodge for retest purposes. Water elementals suffer damage as vampires, including from the boiling rays of sunlight. Fire harms them less, inflicting bashing damage only. Moreover, the watery creatures may certainly extinguish flames with their liquid bodies, though not without suffering injury. An elemental that leaves the body of water that spawned it suffers one level of aggravated damage per hour.

Minions regenerate one level of damage each turn they remain in contact with the body of water that spawned them. Unless destroyed, summoned minions last until the next dawn before collapsing into inanimate puddles.

Advanced Way of Water

Doom Tide

Many Turkish ships lie at the bottom of the Black Sea, shattered by the whirlpools of the koldun. Victims of this power must fight with every ounce of their strength or fall into the whirling airless depths below.

By spending a Willpower in addition to the usual cost and expending a number of Social Traits the koldun causes a whirlpool to appear. For every Social Trait expended the resulting whirlpool has a radius of five feet, centered anywhere in the vampire’s line of sight. Whirlpools have a base 15 Physical Traits plus five for each Social Trait expended. Victims must successfully oppose the whirlpool with a Physical Challenge (retest Survival) in order to break free. Those who fail are sucked into the depths and pounded with crushing currents. Living beings drown normally, while vampires and other nonbreathing creatures simply remain trapped helplessly in the vortex. This power lasts for one scene.

The Way of Fire

The ancient anathema of vampires, the element of fire offers the most powerful and dangerous tool available to koldun. The Way of Fire shares aspects with the Way of Earth in that it focuses more on burning pyroclast of volcanic activity rather than a naked flame. Koldun never risk Rötschreck from fire and pyroclast they conjure, though any secondary fires may engender the Red Fear.

Challenge Type: Social

Basic Way of Fire

Fiery Courage

No vampire can master an element he fears, so this power dims that fear to a mere ember of its former intensity. Once learned, this power is permanent and requires no activation roll or blood. The koldun adds his overall rating in the Way of Fire (1 for Basic, 2 for Intermediate, 3 for Advanced) to his Courage to resist Rötschreck from exposure or proximity to flame. This power does not aid in resisting the panic that accompanies sunlight or any other causes apart from actual fire.

Combust

The Cainite’s eyes flash vivid orange with sorcerous power as superheated air coils around the target. In moments, the target bursts into spontaneous flame.

After a successful challenge pitting the koldun's Social Traits against the Physical Traits of his victim the target suffers one level of aggravated damage. This attack may be dodged, but not blocked, and can affect living (or unliving) beings.

Intermediate Way of Fire

Wall of Magma

The koldun raises his hand and waves of heat begin encircling the koldun, picking up burning embers and molten ash, creating a flowing wall of pyroclastic debris 10 feet high. Normally, this wall forms a 10-foot radius circle around the vampire. The wall of magma summoned with this power lasts until you decide to extinguish it, move more tan 50 feet away or are knocked unconscious. Characters cannot approach a wall of molten rock without a Courage check. Individuals who move within three paces of the wall suffer a level of aggravated damage automatically each turn that they are within its confines.

Heat Wave

The koldun acts as a conduit for steam geysers and channels a blast of desiccating air at a victim within line of sight. This fiery wind appears as a rippling heat wave enveloping the victim. Individuals slain with this gruesome power appear as withered, mummified husks.

You must make a challenge against the target's Physical Traits. The victim of Heat Wave suffers 2 levels of lethal damage and vampire targets also lose 2 blood points.

Advanced Way of Fire

Volcanic Blast

At the final mastery of Way of Fire, a koldun commands a miasma of heat and ash to explode from around the koldun. Searing bricks of ash spew across a wide swath before crashing to earth exploding in fiery heat. Anything in the path of the ash and heat rock burns, melts or vaporizes within moments. The caster may direct the miasma to erupt anywhere in his line of sight.

With the expenditure of a Willpower Trait in addition to the usual cost a koldun causes Volcanic Blast to fill an area up to 20 feet in diameter. You may a mass challenge against everyone within the area of effect, pitting your Social Traits against their Physical Traits. Victims who cannot reasonably escape may not have the benefit of a challenge. Everyone who fails the Challenge immediately takes one level of aggravated damage. All flammable materials in the are ignite immediately, through people or vampires fleeing the space do not necessarily remain lit.

Volcanic Blast lasts until you stop it, or until you move out of range. Anyone who remains in the area of the Firestorm suffers one level of aggravated damage at the end of every turn after its creation and suffers a two-trait penalty to all actions other than escaping from the burning ash.

The Way of Spirit

The element of Spirit binds and transcends the four elements of the material world. Spirit is life in all its purest and most debased forms. It flows sluggishly in the blood of vampires and dances in the currents of wind and water. It burns in every flame and shakes the foundations of the earth. Ancient koldun learned to extend the spirit of their blood into the world around them, joining and dominating the ambient living essence for a brief time.

Unto itself, the Way of Spirit grants preternatural awareness over a wide area. The true power of the art, however, lies in channeling other manifestations of Koldunic Sorcery. A master koldun may whisper his thoughts to the edge of his domain and strike down intruders with tempest, fire and devouring earth. His mystical will is law unto the very edge of his bloated spirit. Characters without the Koldunism Occult specialty may not learn any levels of this path.

Attribute: Mental

No distinct powers exist for each level of the Way of Spirit. Instead, greater mastery widens the domain a koldun may claim.

To activate the Way of Spirit, the player spends one Willpower in place of the usual blood expenditure. Characters may not attempt a range greater than their current mastery of the way permits. The koldun is granted sensory omniscience in the area of effect, lasting for the remainder of the scene. Within this territory, the koldun sees, hears, smells and even tastes everything at once. His touch flows through the dominion as on a breeze or a ripple in the soil, invisible and so capable of perceiving the invisible and spiritual realm. While such wide-reaching senses can immediately detect the presence and rough locations of intruders and spirits, the koldun must concentrate to focus on specific objects or individuals, pitting his Mental traits against any attempting to keep their presence hidden. As with Auspex, the mystical senses conferred by the Way of Spirit may confound Obfuscate and other forms of illusion or concealment.

Once a koldun extends his senses with this path, he may evoke powers of other Koldunic Sorcery paths anywhere within the territory. Apart from their extended range, such powers operate as normal. No power may be used that has a level exceeding the vampire’s rating in the Way of Spirit. For example, it is not possible to create earthquakes many miles distant without a rating of 5 in both the Way of Earth and the Way of Spirit.

Rating Radius of Effect

• • 50 feet
• •• 100 yards
• ••• Quarter-mile
• •••• 1 mile
• ••••• 5 miles

The Obscure Ways

The Way of Sorrows

Basic Way of Sorrows

The Frustrations of Nestretcha - A koldun makes it so that the target can not use willpower for successes or to use them for disciplines. This last for turns equal to the koldun's successes

The Insults of Krivda - A koldun causes a target to fly into an uncontrollable rage and target the koldun

Intermediate Way of Sorrows

The Weeping of Kruchina - A koldun causes a target to cry uncontrollably in intense misery

The Misfortune of Chernogolov - A koldun makes it so that the target loses two successes on every roll. This last for turns equal to the koldun's successes

Advanced Way of Sorrows

The Starvation of Marena - A koldun can create a frosty gale that blast the victim and leaves him emaciated as if he had just survived the coldest of winters

Green Path

Rituals

Koldun have their own versions of the following Thaumaturgy rituals: Communicate with Sire, Defense of the Sacred Haven, Deflection of Wooden Doom, Revelation of Blood Lineage, and Ward Versus Ghouls (and all other wards). These rituals do not depend on Hermetic principles and so share none of the procedures.

Lélek

Koldunic sorcery can directly appeal to various nature spirits. Most of the “demons” summoned with Koldunic sorcery are not “true demons” but rather corrupt animistic spirits of the land or other naturally occurring objects or animals. The koldun's call will only be heeded by spirits of appropriate power equivalent to his highest ranked koldunic path. So, a koldun with only basic Elemental Mastery may only summon a basic lélek, and a koldun with intermediate could summon either a basic lélek or an intermediate lélek, but not an advanced lélek. Only when a koldun has mastered two paths of Koldunic Sorcery and has the appropriate generation may they summon an Elder Lélek.

A summoned lélek may only interact with the koldun that summoned it, being entirely insubstantial, and may only interact with others should they take to a physical form, as through the ritual Summon Elemental Savior.

Many lélek have access to the same Thaumaturgy paths that the koldun do as well.

Basic Lélek

6 – 10 Attributes, 3 Ability Traits, 2 Willpower Traits, 0 – 2 Basic Discipline Powers

Intermediate Lélek

15 – 21 Attributes, 8 Ability Traits, 6 Willpower, 6 Basic and Intermediate Discipline Power

Advanced Lélek

28 Attributes, 13 Ability Traits, 8 Willpower Traits, 10 Discipline powers of Basic through Advanced

Elder Lélek

36 Attribute Traits, 21 Ability Traits, 10 Willpower Traits, 16 Discipline powers through Elder level

Basic Rituals

Beast That Feeds on Dreams

By feeding a point of vitae to a small animal no larger than a cat, a koldun may imbue the creature with a measure of his own predatory spirit. The animal then goes forth in search of a child. It need not feed in any conventional sense — it need only draw close enough to drink the child’s breath. If and when the animal finds its prey, the koldun regains one point of Willpower and the animal reverts to its normal behavior. This Willpower may not bring a koldun above his usual maximum. If the same child undergoes this ritual three nights in a row, she dies from the spiritual trauma. Storytellers must decide when or even if an animal achieves its mission, rewarding the player with Willpower at the appropriate moment.

Enlightenment

All the things in nature contain a spirit of some kind which are referred to as léleks (pronounced LAH-lek). Koldunic sorcerers must first be able to recognize a nature spirit before they can manipulate them into servitude properly. This ritual is requisite cast often, thereby reinforcing the Koldun's attunement to the land and nature. Many of the old koldun did not simply trust that their attunement to the land would remain intact. Rather, the dedicated on night of the week to completely reconnect with the spirits of their land. These léleks are more recognizably felt rather than visually perceived. A lélek traveling on a breeze close to the koldun might instill a static sensation in the back of the sorcerer's neck. Healthy trees might seem to have a faint verdant glow about their trunks. Whichever way he believes to perceive these spirits, the koldun awakens to a new sense after casting this ritual.

The koldun's player spends one point of blood and if he succeeds in the challenge he may spend a number of Mental Traits to increase the duration of the attunement to the nature of the spirits of the four natural elements.

• 1 trait - one minute
• 2 traits – one scene/hour
• 3 traits – one night
• 4 traits – one week
• 5 traits – one month

Hospitality

The most common ritual practiced nightly by koldun, Hospitality awakens the spirits of all things in his haven. The spirits manifest in the objects they belong to, granting limited sentience and individualism. The objects speak if spoken to and sometimes even when the Cainite does not command, though always with deference and fear. If directly ordered to silence, they obey. The primary function of this ritual is the perimeter of sentries it creates. As long as the koldun does not mistreat his possessions, he can remain assured of warning in the event of intruders. A successful challenge awakens every object in the vampire’s haven to act as described until the sun next sets. This ritual can affect only a single structure, whether that is a crumbing cottage or a towering castle. Beyond the outermost walls, the spirits do not speak or wake.

Reawakening Dead Water

With this ritual, a koldun may mingle his blood with stagnant water and drink from it, absorbing the vitality and rejuvenation of water and earth.

After dripping a point of vitae into the water, the vampire stoops and drinks a full double-handful of the brackish liquid. If the challenge is successful, the vampire may drink the water without vomiting and regains one point of temporary Willpower. This cannot bring her temporary Willpower above her permanent rating, and the ritual may only be cast once per night.

Reflections

The koldun draws upon the elements present in a location to learn more information about that area. The caster need simply take an object from the room, area, or location. The object must consist primarily of natural materials, rather than synthetic; thus a pencil suffices, but a notebook computer does not. Within the next 24 hours, the koldun may cast this ritual over the item. For a number of turns equal to her successes plus her Willpower, her mind travel to the area from which the object was taken, and she may proceed to examine it in detail. Even going so far as to look behind furniture or inside drawers that she did not search before. She observes the area exactly as it was when she took the object. This ritual is particularly useful for searching the haven or offices of an enemy at leisure. Any given object may be used only once, after which it become useless for the purposes of this ritual.

Ritual of Death’s Embrace

This cruel ritual permits a vampire to extend the process of the Embrace over many nights, offering the pleasure of repeated feeding even as the victim sinks into death and unlife.

The koldun drinks a goblet containing a foul mixture of wine, ashes and his vitae. If the ritual succeeds, the vampire may begin the process. Each night, he drains one to three points of human blood, replacing it with a like quantity of his own vitae. By the power of the ritual, this blood does not convert the mortal into a ghoul; rather, it slowly kills her as from deepening anemia. Her skin grows wan and pallid, her breathing shallows, and her heartbeat slows. The most skilled healers will assume she suffers a disease of the blood. Though no remedy can truly halt the transformation, bloodletting does slow it. The mortal bleeds one point of human blood followed by one point of vitae, alternating until all the vitae is gone or she dies from blood loss.

Once the koldun transfers 10 points of vitae, replacing all the mortal’s blood, the victim undergoes the actual Embrace. She dies and arises upon the next sunset as a Cainite. Only cremation or dismemberment may prevent this rise. During the entire ritual, the death of the koldun restores the victim to full health within a day. By its very nature, this ritual also confers the blood oath upon the victim.

Service for Souls

In casting this ritual a koldun summons the attention of nature spirits to his person, enticing them by offering a part of his own essence to them. These spirits are vital in their own right and they have mystical powers that aren't easily defined; they are free to act as they will. If they do accept the koldun's essence they are bound to perform the duties as part of a Koldunic Sorcery ritual would require. Otherwise they may roam free to live their lives.

The koldun's player spend a blood point and makes his roll in order to awaken the spirits from their natural settings and attract their attention. Then the caster enacts this ritual, spending at least one more blood point. For every blood point he spends he may bind one nature spirits of the land into servitude. Although they do occupy space in his body these blood points remain inert within the koldun's body and unavailable to him. He cannot use them to fuel Disciplines, heal wounds for as long as he intends to keep the nature spirits bound to him.

The lélek summons by the sorcerer may take any number of actions, but they may not typically affect physical objects other than those they inhabit. Even these are singular. The spirit of at tree may affect only that one tree, as opposed to all trees. Most often, these spirits are use as spies, emissaries or witnesses to some pact between the koldun and a greater spirit. They remain bound to the koldun for as long as their original agreement or until the Fiend chooses to relieve the lélek of duty, whichever comes first. At such as time, lélek will disperse into the night air, absolving the koldun of the promised vitae.

Withering Agony

By pulling a spirit from a sick tree and coaxing it into the body of a moral or Kindred, the koldun infects his victim with a physically debilitating malady. When infected the victim will decrease in weight, caused by the exfoliation of a thick sap-like substance from his pores. Hair will fall out, and skill with degeneration to an ash gray. Bones are more brittle and breach comes in laborious gasps. The koldun spend a point f blood and makes the roll while the character marks the victim with a bloody glyph. A spirit inhabiting a sick tree is then enticed to flee the dying wood and make its new home inside the marked victim. Over the course of a night, the adverse effects of this ailment will take effect causing the victim to suffer a two-trait penalty to all Physical and Social challenges. The afflicted also suffers one health level of bashing damage due to the atrophy the body endures. This damage may be offset through rest or blood normally. Kindred are similar affected suffering both the penalties to their Physical and Social dice pool and the associated damage. They also lose one additional blood point on top of the normal one point spent at the beginning of their night.

Withering Agony lasts for one week.

Blood of Flame

Developed as a form of spiteful defense against diablerie, this ritual transmutes the blood of Caine into the fiery blood of the earth. If this ritual succeeds, the caster’s blood transmutes to a muddy sludge for the rest of the night. All blood costs to evoke healing are doubled, but any attempt to feed from the vampire yields a mouthful of liquid flames akin to magma. Certainly fatal for mortals, each “blood” point of magma consumed inflicts one level of aggravated damage on vampires and other supernatural beings.

Invoke the Lesser Sign of Power

By invoking his element, a koldun may command spirits to lend their dominion. Mortals who behold this sign respond in subservient fear.

The koldun concentrates for a single turn and his player makes the usual challenge. No blood is required for this ritual. If successful, the caster’s eyes glow with elemental power appropriate to his highest rated way. Whether they dance with flame or shine as bottomless azure pools, any mortal who beholds the sign recognizes the unnatural power of the vampire. The koldun gains a 2 trait bonus to all Intimidation and Leadership rolls against mortals.

Rouse the Elemental Spirit

By offering a sacrifice of his own blood and successfully casting this ritual, a koldun calls the attention of nature spirits and strikes a bargain with them. Although the vampire bargains from a position of power, he does so courteously rather than as a tyrant who must be obeyed.

If the ritual succeeds, spirits in the area who want the blood may appear before the koldun and offer service. The koldun may accept the offer or propose his own deal; generally, the greater the blood offering, the more serious or even dangerous a task the spirit is willing to undertake. Most spirits will perform only a single short task, such as relaying a message or frightening a mortal with a display of supernatural might. Missions of espionage, let alone a task that could result in combat, require a considerable number of successes on an appropriate Social Challenge as well as a veritable banquet of blood. Once the spirit accepts the terms of the pact and drinks the blood, it must fulfill its end of the bargain to the best of its abilities before pursuing any other business. Generally, such spirits are weak or relatively insignificant, making them susceptible to flattery.

Intermediate Rituals

Conjure Spirit

As he once bound the least of spirits as spies and aides, so may a koldun with this ritual call more powerful spirits. Such creatures answer proper beckoning and oblations of blood, which needn’t come wholly from the caster. They do not make pacts — they trade favors. The koldun must pledge something of value to the spirit, which may seem trivial to human or vampiric notions of worth. If the spirit likes the offer, it awaits the price. Should it find the price reasonable for the service provided by the vampire, it drinks the blood and goes about its new business. It does not bargain or haggle, nor does it deign to listen to threats. If the vampire insults the spirit with a poor offering, it will not remain to continue bargaining; it simply vanishes to wherever it belongs and leaves the vampire with a pool of cooling, untouched blood for his trouble. Thus, it behooves a koldun to learn the proper etiquette for dealing with beings of such power.

A successful casting draws the attention of a spirit as described. The statistics of a nature spirit summoned with this ritual are left to Storyteller imagination but should greatly exceed those of spirits called with Rouse the Elemental Spirit and even the caster in extreme cases.

Raze the Lélek

A koldun casting this ritual may destroy inanimate objects by severing their spirits from their material shells. By severing an object's spirit objects like stone pillars turn to chalk and dust, cell phones malfunction and break into a small pile of wire and plastic, and clothing frays to become tatters of cotton and leather.

By expending a number of appropriate blood traits a koldun may rend a spirit from its inanimate housing permanently. He may do so to any object within his line of sight.

If the ritual is successful he may spend a number of Mental Traits to determine the degree of the koldun's success and the size of the object he may destroy.

• 1 – something the size of a fountain pen
• 2 – something that fits in one hand, such as a cell phone
• 3 – something that would require two hands to carry, such as a TV
• 4 – something that can be carried by two people, such as a sofa
• 5 – something approximately the size of a car

Rumors of elder koldun using this power to great effect persist, especially among young Tzimisce, practically becoming legends in the telling. Once such legend involves a Friend reducing a rival's very haven to brittle shale, while another suggests that a jealous Tzimisce transformed a scorned lover into a pillar of salt before she could turn against him. None of these tales have been substantiated, however.

Sentinels of the Haven

The koldun calls out to the spirits of his haven, demanding their fealty and proclaiming his right by recitation of koldunic descent through five unbroken generations of teachers. At the end of the ritual, spirits awaken as per the level-one ritual Hospitality. Unlike that lesser ritual, the spirits also gain limited physical control of their nature. Doors can open or close, an empty suit of armor may walk about and even fight clumsily, and a chair may scurry to make itself available.

The koldun completes the ritual as described. If successful, animated objects have whatever statistics the Storyteller deems appropriate. Only one object may move at a time, limiting the ritual’s defensive utility. It is a superb weapon of terror, however, especially for repelling the superstitious.

Earth's Embrace

Of use only to Tzimisce, this ritual allows the koldun to call upon the spirits of the earth to empower the soil around him. The Tzimisce may temporarily substitute this soil for the “native” earth he must normally sleep with. The koldun sheds two blood points into the soil in question no more than an hour before dawn and spends a temporary Willpower point. The soil is then capable of sustaining him for one day, as though it came from his homeland. This ritual may be performed no more than once per week. It is suggested that the Storyteller make the roll, rather than the player, as the koldun has no way of knowing if the magic was successful until he attempts to have a good day's sleep.

Incubus Visage

During less progressive times, people born with defects or abnormalities were thought to be touched by demons and devils while in the womb so they were treated as outcasts. Tzimisce koldun would cast this ritual as a punishment for sexual or theft crimes committed by their boyars. The koldun seduces one of his bound nature spirits to wrap the physical features of a mortal or Kindred distorting facial features by elongating the nose, bulging the eyes, extending the teeth and chin. Mucus runs feeling from the nose, saliva drools out of the mouth, boils and pock marks break out over the entire body, open sores drip a yellowish ooze and a hump swells between the shoulders. Very soon the victim resembles the most hideous of mortal beings and is reviled by society.

The ritual must be cast on the night of the half-moon and the koldun must ingest and spend on point from a boar, along with a piece of the victim's skin. For every Mental Trait expended, a victim will suffer the adverse effects of Incubus Visage for one phase of the moon, for a maximum of another half-moon phase. The victim loses access to their Appearance-based social traits (lowering her total traits), gains Repugnant x3, and he gains the Flaw: Eerie Presence.

Invoke the Greater Sign of Power

With a successful casting, the koldun takes on the visage of his most favored element, as determined by his highest-ranked way. Those attuned to earth grow stony skin, cracked and pitted as by the wear of centuries. Their footfalls resound heavily and their voices grate with slow implacability. Koldun attuned to air appear to blur along every outline, surrounded by spiraling winds and constant meaningless whispers...

Water marks its masters with a wet sheen and footprints of mud. Fire lends a ruddy hue to the skin and the distortion of heat waves rising perpetually from the caster’s body. Spirit’s mark is most subtle, a vague sense of otherworldly power and the flicker at the edge of peripheral vision as of a host of invisible beings thronging about the caster.

Regardless of cosmetic effects, this ritual makes all Koldunic Sorcery easier. The elemental attunement makes other tasks more difficult, however, as the caster is too focused on mystical matters to pay full attention to his surroundings.

The koldun gains two bonus traits in the use of Koldunic Sorcery, however, takes a 1 trait penalty to all other activities. This transformation also intimidates mortals as a Lesser Sign of Power. The effects of this ritual last until dawn.

Merging of Souls

Summoning a minor spirit as with the ritual Conjure Spirit, a koldun may trick the being into following its blood offering into the very gullet of a ghoul. Once inside, the spirit remains trapped until the death of its fleshly prison.

This ritual requires an hour of continuous chant, in which the koldun forces a mortal to consume a mixture of his blood and soil that the Tzimisce has rested in. If successful, the spirit materializes inside the host and inflicts two lethal damage on the ghoul from its struggle to escape. If the ghoul survives, the spirit warps flesh as grotesquely as Vicissitude. The ghoul loses access to all of their Appearance-related traits but gains Brawny, Ferocious, Resilient, and Tireless. Unfortunately, the spirit’s hate poisons the ghoul’s already tainted blood, depleting one point of vitae each day at sunrise. If the ghoul ever depletes its blood pool, it perishes and the spirit escapes.

Pool of Secrets

Wise koldun keep regular watch on their servants and allies, ever wary of treachery and deception. This ritual aids in such endeavors, providing a mystical means of spying unseen. The koldun skims his hands over a pool of brackish water without touching the surface. If the ritual succeeds, ripples shake and clear the water, unveiling a present image centered on a targeted person or place.

The koldun must have spoken with the target person or visited the target place previously. If targeting a location, the view may not change once the vision unfolds. This power lasts one scene.

Ties That Bind

Before an ancient koldun could learn a new way, he performed this ritual and removed one of his ribs (through Vicissitude or other means). A mystical symbol representing the particular way the koldun intended to learn was inscribed onto the bone, then implanted back into the body. Koldun cast this ritual to symbolically lend part of themselves to the essence of the land. In return, they were granted the ability to practice the spiritual magic that is Koldunic Sorcery. In the present night, Sabbat koldun revised this ritual to serve a more practical purpose with less torturous requirements. Performed as often as weekly, this ritual reconnects the koldun with the eldritch magic of the Old World.

After spilling four points of blood onto a patch of dirt then ingesting this soil, a koldun may gain a one-trait bonus on any Koldunic Sorcery Ritual over the next three nights by one. Multiple uses of Ties That Bind have no effect — the koldun gains no greater benefit if he uses this ritual more than once in three nights.

Advanced Rituals

Elemental Savior

During the centuries-old conflict with the Warlocks, some Tzimisce koldun desperately needed their lélek to effectively aid in the fight and they eventually created this ritual to make that possible. Once this ritual is cast a nature spirit will become physical in the form of an animated element in nature. The most common form that these spirits took was that of a man-sized mud golem, but any naturally occurring or abundant material will suffice. When in this form the lélek can obey only basic, one-sentence commands. It was not long after the koldun created this ritual that the Warlocks came uip with their own form of elemental manipulation, which more than evened the odds in this blood feud.

Years later in the modern nights, when the ritual was rediscovered as cast the lélek was surrounded by artificial man-made creations and took the form of a large concrete golem, made up of concrete asphalt and rebar.

A spirit already in the employ of the koldun will readily take to an elemental form after the caster bleeds four points of vitae onto the object he desires to have animated and the player makes a successful roll. Once the spirit animates an element, it will respond only to instructions from the koldun.

A lélek can remain physical for a single night before it is forced out of its elemental state and returns to the spirit world.

Refuge of the Thirsty Grave

Observation of Gangrel led to the creation of this useful ritual, permitting its own form of earth-melding as an escape from the sun’s hateful rays.

Upon successfully casting this ritual, the koldun sinks into the soil as per the Protean power Interred in Earth. This power’s use has no upward duration, however. Instead, the earth drinks one point of the Cainite’s blood each day until his player makes a Static Physical Challenge with a difficulty of 6 (retest Survival) to awaken and dig free in a shower of dirt. The koldun may attempt escape any time, though not more than once per hour.

Conjure Demon

This ritual follows upon the principles of Conjure Spirit, though with greater rewards for success and peril for failure. A proper casting allows an offering of blood to summon a mighty demon of the Old Country. Such a being never shows fear, and perhaps need never show fear, for its powers usually exceed the koldun's by far. Still, demons called in this fashion remember the koldun who came before and humbled them with mighty curses and enchantments. Out of memory of those ancient pacts and fear that those pacts might one night find renewal, demons treat koldun with respect as equals. Such beings brook no disrespect in turn, however, so incautious koldun risk destruction for careless words. A koldun may request a favor from a demon and offer a favor in turn. Many times, demons perform a task in exchange for unspecified payment at a later date. It is not unknown for a demon to wait centuries to call a payment due, though not all are so patient.

Success summons a demon as described. Demons summoned in this manner have whatever impressive statistics the Storyteller feels appropriate.

Gaze of the Gorgon

The koldun is able to transform a single victim into unliving stone. The subject must be present for the entire hour-long ritual in which the caster chants constantly, spends two blood points and sheds a third. This last blood point must be consumed by (or force to) the subject.

The koldun may spend up to three mental traits trapping the Kindred inside the stone for that many months. The effect on mortals is permanent. While stone, victims cannot sense their environment in any way. Although they do not expend any blood while petrified, Kindred often come out of the ritual in frenzy when it finally wears off (Self-Control difficulty 4 to avoid). Some Tzimisce koldun are fond of sculpting their subjects into more pleasing forms with Vicissitude before transforming them into a more durable material.

The Inmost Tug

Unlike most koldunic rituals, this requires no blood sacrifice or complicated procedures; a single word and gesture are all that the koldun needs to seize the invisible ties of the blood oath and twist them.

The Cainite’s player makes a Social Challenge (retest Empathy) against his target. The target must be under full blood oath to the caster, the vaulderie does not count for the purposes of the Inmost Tug. If successful, the koldun may turn the intense love and devotion into lust, friendship or something yet more perverse. The change lasts only until sunrise, but it can affect targets across the world as easily as ones in the same room.

Nemesis of the Living Earth

Beginning a long malediction lasting from midnight to sunrise, a koldun may name a target as an enemy of nature. At the conclusion of the ritual, the player rolls and the vampire drips a single point of vitae onto the bare ground. If successful, all elements turn against the victim. Sparks leap from bending flames to scorch him, the earth opens pits and muddy sinkholes in his path, branches catch and entwine him, water splashes to drown him, and chill winds blow unceasingly upon him. Such an unfortunate soul will not last long, as one can find no sanctuary from the world itself. Only death or forgiveness of the koldun may lift the curse.

Any game effects of the curse rest with the cruelty of Storyteller imagination. Though such misfortune always begins subtly enough, the manifestations soon grow into freakish and impossible conjunctions of coincidence.

Elder Rituals

Embracing the Demon

Although it may seem senseless to risk life and limb to enlist a "true demon" into one's employ, the benefits reaped by the koldun who were not torn apart almost totally eclipses this peril. This ritual of demon-conjuring requires the body of a newly dead neonate, one that was blood bound to the caster. When summoned, the demon inhabits the dead body, thereby removing it from its natural element and reducing its overall power. Doing so ensures that the demon will not have enough power to simply destroy the caster on a whim. However, the host body grants it enough of its mystical energies to perform most of its "required" tasks.

The caster must first sacrifice a blood bound neonate. The fledgling vampire cannot have spent more than 20 years as Kindred. Then the koldun's player make his roll, spend a blood point and casts this ritual all the while chanting the name of the demon he wishes to summon. The demon in turn will be drawn for its infernal realm and forced into the newly dead vessel. As long as the vampire was blood bound to the koldun before she was destroyed the demon summoned in her body will not have the capacity to readily defy its master.

Once it is within the body, the demon may perform any number of tasks from performing as an efficient bodyguard to serving as a mentor for teaching a new Disciplines. It possess all of the physical characteristics of the host vampire and all often supernatural and mental capacities of the demon. It is considered subject to the blood bond and it cannot actively harm its master, even though it almost certainly resents him.

The demon will be physically weak for the first few nights after the summoning, as it grows accustomed to coping without the full range of its tremendous powers, and it will be restricted to the limits of the body. Within a week, it will grow into the body, causing it to take on demonic features. Its Attributes and power may also increase with time. Over the course of a month, the body will degenerate into an unsuitable vessel for the demon, caused in part by the body's decay and its inability to accommodate the demons' power. After a month has passed since the summoning, the vessel body will fall apart and the creature will be released from servitude and sent back to where it originated.

A demon summoned into a vessel body that was not blood bound before it was killed may consistently attempt to break free from its term of servitude. The koldun must make a Willpower roll every night that the demon remains in the vessel body. A failed roll causes the koldun's sway to slip, immediately releasing it from its mortal chains.

Mortal Vessels are wholly unsuitable to properly host a demon for any length of time and any tests of this restriction will always result in the body melting into puddles of flesh and viscera immediately after the ritual is cast.