Custom Blood Magic: Path

Secrets of the Scrivener

The scribes and magi of the Banu Haqim are reputedly the oldest of all practicing blood magicians.  Eons of scrolls, tomes, and librams fill the storehouses of the Dragons secret libraries.  Preferring a practice of one-up-manship over shared communal academies, the Assamite sorcerer with the most knowledge at their disposal has the best chance of surpassing their peers.  Masters of this path find the entirety of their repository safe and easily accessible.  When one can easily outlive the hardiest of velum, ensuring the survival of each scrap and note provides a clear advantage for the ambitious sorcerer.  Practitioners must have the Background: Occult Library purchased in order to gain the most of this path or be subject to the whims of their Storyteller.

Bind/Un-Bind

Whether through mundane or magical means any document that is bound together can be easily separated with no damage to the source material.  Conversely, this path can bind together loose notes just as easily – provided all the requisite components are available.

System:  Spend one Blood Point and make a Static Mental Challenge vs the complexity of the documents at the Storyteller’s Discretion.  Success allows them to be easily separated from each other or re-bound in a useful fashion.  Intricate or extremely fragile works may require a higher than normal difficulty with failure possibly botching or damaging the works.

Never a Secret Lost

While mortals may fret over where a misplaced book may have gone to, a Kindred with this power has nothing to worry about.  Whenever a new piece is added to the Sorcerer’s Library they may inscribe their mark upon it.  From there on out, the caster will know where the tome is.  Eerily similar to the Ritual: Craft Bloodstone, a Sorcerer will know where this book is at all times.  Additionally, the closer they get, the more accurate this power becomes.  A book housed in their library can be easily found no matter where it ended up.

System: Spend one Blood Point which mystically brands a book in your possession.  The Sorcerer thereby knows the exact whereabouts, regardless of location.  This is described as more of a sensation, as opposed to an image.  Books marked in this fashion cannot be un-marked. Multiple Sorcerers over the years could imbue their glyph upon them; a legacy of theft, gifts, and death that can be told by the number of times it has changed hands.

Arcane Recall

A Sorcerer’s Library is only useful if the owner can remember its contents.  Before the time of computers and the internet, a depository of books could easily become ponderous and cumbersome.  The more books the more items to recall.  With this level of the path a Magi can, if given proper time to prepare, recall exact texts and words with complete accuracy.

System: By spending a Willpower and a Blood Point a Sorcerer may recall specific knowledge that is held within their library.  For the rest of that scene they gain an additional number of re-tests equal to the accumulated points of that ability within their tomes.  This does not count as ability re-tests and cannot exceed their rating in this path.  The specific ability recalled must be designated beforehand.  This power may only be used once before needing to be re-cast.

Locked Away

Preventing the theft or destruction of knowledge is critical for those Sorcerer’s that wish to rise above their peers.  This level provides a modicum of protection for the accumulated works within a Magician’s library.  Those seeking to tamper with or destroy books protected by this path must first contend with the owner.

System:  A Sorcerer may spend a Willpower and Blood to activate this path, as well as temporary mental traits up to their rating in this path.  For each Mental trait spent the Library gains one level of Background: Arcane and Background: Haven for the purposes of protecting its contents and dissuading theft.  This power lasts a number of days equal to the number of Mental traits spent at that time.  For example, someone who spends 3 Mental Traits at the time of casting effectively grants Arcane x3 and Haven x3 for 3 days.

The Librarian’s Defense

If the pen is truly mightier than the sword, this power is the exemplification of such.  There are tales of scholars within their athenaeum wielding the might of the knowledge around them to great devastation.  Each use of this power comes at a great cost, possibly lowering the rating of their Background: Occult Library until it can be repaired.

System:  Spend three Blood Points and three Willpower Points.  For the remainder of the scene the very words of the tomes around you spring to life.  Books outlining cryptozoological creatures may breathe otherworldly fire, blueprints of firearms might fire ghostly bullets -- the narration is up to the storyteller, but the results are the same.  Whoever the unlucky target of the librarian’s wrath is will suffer an additional Physical attack each round.  The library itself has a number of traits equal to the Caster’s Mental Traits plus Ability: Occult and inflicts a number of lethal damage equal to the Occult Library Rating on each attack.  For every five levels of damage the library takes, it loses a rating, if a library reaches 0 rating this power ends.