As One

(Level-Five Crúac Ritual)

Vampire the Requiem - Covenant - Circle of the Crone

All Crúac blurs the line between the ritualist and the physical world, allowing her to work her will on people and objects and energies as of they were limbs of her own body. As One extends that principle farther and deeper, investing an area with her spirit and, at the same time, making her a reflection of that territory. Many Cronesconsider this ritual a pragmatic apotheosis: the ritualist literally becomes a local god, at least for a while.
This ceremony requires significant time. The Acolyte must sacrifice at least three living things, at three different locations, thereby marking out the boundaries of the region she wills as her own. (Some perform more sacrifices, thereby creating a square or irregular domain instead of the usual triangle.) All three sacrifices must be made during the same night, with the Acolyte making the roll and spending her own blood after the final bloodletting. No vampire, spirit or other supernatural creature may feed from the dead — doing so ruins the ritual.
Once the region is marked out and the attempt succeeds, the Acolyte operates as a local patron spirit to that area for a number of nights equal to the total successes she rolled. The Storyteller may adjudicate just what it means to be patron in terms of minor effects, but the player also chooses a concrete manifestation of authority for the character. This effect can be different each time the character performs the ritual. Doing the ritual again while it’s already in effect does not allow a second manifestation but does extend the duration of the effect already in place.
Players and Storytellers should work together to develop the effects of As One. Some examples include the following:

• Eyes of the Wise. Whenever she meets a living person who resides within her territory, she learns one thing about him that she has no other way of knowing. This could be innocuous — “Her husband’s private nickname for her is ‘Lollipop,’” or that he sexually assaulted his eight-year-old cousin when he was 13 and they’ve never spoken about it to anyone, even though they see each other every Christmas.
• Make Straight the Royal Highway. The Acolyte takes no penalties from mundane physical obstacles while on foot. Anything she could push through without physical harm, she can now pass through without impediment. Thus she can run full speed on ice without falling or pass through a crowd of slam-dancers without slowing down. She can walk through a downpour without getting wet and across dry leaves without making a sound. Furthermore, once per night she can defy one obstacle that would normally halt her: she can command a door to unlock or walk across the surface of a pond.
• Immortal Viands. Instead of spending a point of Vitae to wake for the night, she can instead drain the vitality of her domain. This can’t be used for anything but waking, can only be used once per night and while the damage is subtle, definitely harms the location she rules. If she’s in a forest, the damage might strike dead one tall tree or invite a blight that threatens all of them. If she’s in a city, a building might catch fire, a business might fail or a malevolent ghost or spirit might suddenly wake up feeling right at home there.
• The Very Stones Defend Me. Once per night, the Acolyte can have her land attack somebody. Both the Acolyte and the target of the attack have to be in her realm. The nature of the attack always seems to be an accident — anything from a car crash in the city to a falling branch in the woods to a lightning strike on the plains. The Storyteller decides if the damage would be bashing, lethal or aggravated. The pool for bashing damage is the ritualist’s Presence + Occult + Crúac. For lethal, the pool is Occult + Crúac. For aggravated, it’s equal to her Crúac rating only.
• Cowan’s Mark. Once per night, the Acolyte can curse one person who does not routinely spend time in her region with the Nosferatu clan weakness. The cursed person seems untrustworthy, shifty — like a stranger.
• The Trees Give Voice. Once per night, the Acolyte can gain information from her territory. This may take the form of a vision (quite similar to those garnered from The Spirit’s Touch, as described on p. 121 of Vampire: The Requiem), only the vision is specific to the information the character seeks. Alternately, she may call up minor spirits that reside in the area and interrogate them for what they know in a question-and-answer format. It should be noted that this power only works on physical events that happened in her terrain. This power cannot explain what someone there was feeling, only show what that person did.
• Taste the Blood of the Spirit. Any time Disciplines or magic of any genuine sort are used in her territory, the ritualist knows it. If it’s a Discipline she herself possesses, she recognizes it and gets a vague sense of the direction where it was used. If it’s something different (a sorcerer’s spell taking effect or a werewolf changing shape) she knows something happened and has a vague idea of how powerful the effect, but she doesn’t know what or where.
• Sanctuary. Once per night, she may declare an area of about a 20-foot radius as her sanctuary. No one outside that area can enter unless he wins a contested roll. The interloper rolls Resolve + Composure + Blood Potency. The ritualist rolls Presence + Occult + Crúac. Sanctuary lasts for one scene.

On top of those effects, the Storyteller either rolls a die or secretly chooses one of the side effects listed below.

• Sketchy images of her face appear in stains, or arise momentarily from TV static or seem to form briefly in the patterns of Rain rolling down a windshield.
• Every time a radio is playing in her presence, it plays music appropriate to her mood or situation.
• She seems very familiar to everyone in her territory, even if they know they’ve never met her before.
• Small plants die and instantly wither when she steps on them.
• All animals stare at her and fall silent in her presence. Unless compelled to do something else (a dog is told to heel or a car bears down on a cat in the street), the animals keep a wary distance and gaze at her intently.
• People cannot catch their breath if her shadow is touching them. Prolonged exposure won’t kill someone, but he pants and feels an icy chill clutch his chest.
• No one in her territory can speak her name.
• Her mood affects the weather. If she’s sad, the sky is cloudy. If she’s enraged, there are sandstorms or hail. If she’s content, expect unseasonably pleasant skies. This cannot create rapid or unnatural changes, but it’s definitely perceptible.
• Sensitive artists have to roll Resolve + Composure every night, or else suffer a Nightmare about the Acolyte.
• In her presence, shadows thicken, flames gutter and waver while light bulbs flicker and dim. All attempts to hide from sight get a +1 bonus, and all damage pools from fire get a –1 penalty. This effect happens anywhere she can be seen.

Related Discipline

Crúac

Level

5