Necromancy

Necromancy is both a Discipline and a magical tradition — a structured body of ritualized practice built over centuries by the Giovanni family. It operates across two domains: Sepulchre Path (interaction with the dead and their realm) and the Bone Path (manipulation of corpses), plus several supplementary Paths at elder levels.

The Giovanni relationship with death is intimate and mercenary. They do not commune with spirits from reverence — they extract information, compel labor, and maintain leverage over the dead as thoroughly as over the living. Ghosts in their presence tend to be afraid.

Two-track structure: Necromancy advances along multiple Paths simultaneously. A character may have dots in multiple Paths, but new Paths require the foundational Sepulchre Path to have at least as many dots as the new Path. Each Path has 5 powers (●–●●●●●).

Roll: Most Necromancy powers use Intelligence + Occult (for control/knowledge powers) or Manipulation + Occult (for compulsion/communication). Difficulties vary by power.

Sepulchre Path

The foundation of Necromancy. Communication with and control of ghosts.

● Insight

Pool: Perception + Occult, difficulty 7

Sense the presence of ghosts in the area. The vampire perceives whether any wraiths are present, roughly how many, and their general emotional state (hostile, confused, bound). Does not allow communication.

●● Summon Soul

Pool: Manipulation + Occult vs ghost’s Willpower (difficulty 7)

Call a specific ghost to manifest. The ghost must either be present in the area, or the caster must have something connected to the deceased (personal object, name spoken three times, a piece of their physical remains). The summoned ghost is present but not yet compelled to cooperate.

●●● Compel Soul

Pool: Manipulation + Occult vs ghost’s Willpower

Force a summoned ghost to answer questions or perform tasks. The ghost cannot lie to a successful Compel (though it can be misleading with truth). On 3+ successes, it performs a task before it can depart. On 5 successes, the ghost remains bound for one night.

●●●● Haunting

Pool: Manipulation + Occult, difficulty 7 | Duration: Permanent until exorcised

Bind a ghost to a specific location or object. The ghost cannot leave the bound area and must manifest when called by the caster. This is the standard Giovanni method of creating a haunted territory — binding useful ghosts to buildings, objects, or other assets.

●●●●● Torment

Pool: Stamina + Occult, difficulty 7

Physically harm a ghost — something few other beings can do. Each success inflicts damage on the ghost’s corpus. If the ghost’s corpus is fully damaged, it is destroyed entirely (not simply driven off). This is the Giovanni’s ultimate threat to recalcitrant dead.

Bone Path

Physical Necromancy — manipulation of corpses and the body’s relationship with death.

● Tremens

Pool: Manipulation + Occult, difficulty 6

Cause a corpse to animate briefly — twitch, gesture, produce sounds from the throat (not speech). Used for intimidation and to make a body appear to be alive. No combat capability.

●● Apprentice’s Brooms

Pool: Intelligence + Occult, difficulty 7 | Cost: 1 Blood Point

Animate a corpse as a mindless laborer. The zombie follows simple instructions (dig here, carry this, stand there) but cannot fight effectively and falls apart if heavily damaged. Remains animated for one scene per success.

●●● Shambling Hordes

Pool: Intelligence + Occult, difficulty 7 | Cost: 1 Blood Point per corpse

Animate multiple corpses as combat-capable zombies. Each success animates one additional corpse. Combat zombies have Strength 4, Dexterity 2, Stamina 4; attack on the caster’s initiative. They follow attack orders but cannot strategize.

●●●● Stiffen the Mortal Coil

Pool: Manipulation + Medicine vs target’s Stamina (living targets) | Duration: Variable

Affect a living target’s bodily processes — slowing their heartbeat, inducing paralysis, causing their blood to thicken. On 1 success: difficulty +2 to all physical actions for the scene. On 3+: partial paralysis. On 5 successes: complete motor cessation for one turn per success.

●●●●● Dread Body

Cost: 1 Blood Point | Pool: Automatic | Duration: Scene

Transform the caster’s own body into something closer to a corpse — cold, marble-hard, and no longer reliably alive. For the scene: +3 soak dice, immune to pain (no wound penalties), cannot be affected by powers that target living biology. Appearance is disturbing: the caster looks dead.

Ash Path

Interaction with the Shadowlands — the realm of the dead.

● Shroudsight

See into the Shadowlands — perceive the ghostly reflection of the physical world overlaid on normal vision.

●● Lifeless Tongues

Communicate with ghosts without summoning — speak across the barrier between worlds.

●●● Dead Hand

Touch things in the Shadowlands as if physically present there; manipulate objects in the ghost world from the living world.

●●●● Arouse the Slumbering Dead

Awaken ghosts that have gone dormant.

●●●●● Shroud Mastery

Thin or thicken the barrier between the living world and the Shadowlands at will.

Necromantic Rituals

Giovanni Necromancy includes rituals (parallel to Thaumaturgy Rituals) that must be learned separately. Key rituals:

Ritual Level 1:

• Call Upon the Blood — Temporarily increase a Necromancy pool by 2 dice for one roll
• Destroy the Husk — Permanently destroy a corpse with no chance of reanimation

Ritual Level 2:

• Eyes of the Grave — Force a sleeping mortal to share the Giovanni’s dreams, used for interrogation
• Peek Past the Shroud — Peer into the Shadowlands without activating Ash Path

Ritual Level 3:

• Aura of Decay — Cause all plants in the area to wither; food to spoil; wounds to worsen
• Cadaver’s Touch — Make a living target’s hand feel like a corpse’s — cold, dead, unnerving; useful for intimidation

Ritual Level 4:

• Esilio — Banish a ghost to the Shadowlands, preventing it from manifesting in the physical world for weeks or months

Ritual Level 5:

• The Tempesta — The Giovanni’s ultimate ritual weapon: raise an army of the dead from a cemetery or mass grave
• The Ferryman’s Recall — Embrace a subject who has already died. Requires the intact corpse, a fetter of the deceased, and (if the caster was not the original domitor) a blood point of the domitor’s vitae. Subject must have been a ghoul before death. Process takes 8 hours minus 1 per success. Maximum post-death window depends on Embracer’s Generation (13th gen: 12 hours; down to 6th gen: 2 weeks). All pre-death wounds scar permanently; the newly Embraced acquires the Mortuario Merit automatically.

Nightshade Path

Developed by the Drakaina (Bahari vampire-witches). Studies natural cycles of life, death, and rot. Available to any Bahari necromancer who learns it from a Drakaina teacher. Prerequisites: standard Sepulchre Path rules apply.

● Tend the Body Garden

Cost: 1 Blood Point | Pool: Wits + Occult, difficulty 6

Speed up or slow the decomposition of a corpse. Usable on mortals, animals, and Kindred (within 1 turn of Final Death). Living organisms in the corpse (insects, plants) are similarly quickened or held in stasis.

●● Witch’s Fruit

Cost: 1 Blood Point | Pool: Automatic (no roll)

Touch edible plant matter to awaken its trace necrotic energy. The first creature to eat the tainted food enters a waking ambulatory trance for one scene: can perceive the Shadowlands, hear and touch ghosts, but cannot interact with objects that were never alive and cannot be dragged into the Tempest. Mortals: +2 difficulty to all actions except Willpower rolls. Creatures familiar with the supernatural are unaffected by the penalty. Tainted plant matter rots by next sunrise.

●●● Raise the Green One

Cost: 1 Willpower + 1 Blood Point | Pool: Wits + Occult, difficulty 8

Animate a single corpse lying on or within fertile soil. The corpse rises clothed in red-tinged vines and leaves. Only one Green One may be active at a time.

Green One traits: Strength 4, Dexterity 4, Stamina 4, Athletics 2, Brawl 3, Fortitude 2 (equivalent). Bashing damage counts as half. Gunfire inflicts bashing (not lethal). Acts in standard initiative order.

●●●● Wails and Whispers

Cost: 1 Willpower | Pool: Wits + Occult, difficulty 8

Concentrate on a target (line of sight not required; target need not hear the vampire). Choose one effect:

• Wail (lure toward death): Each success adds 1 level of lethal to the next injury the target suffers in the scene.
• Whisper (hold at death’s edge): Each success sets aside 1 level of damage (any type) from the next injury. The damage returns at end of scene. Storyteller may rule massive damage still causes death.

●●●●● Chthonic Womb

Cost: 1 Willpower (at death moment) | Pool: Wits + Occult, difficulty 8

Drink at least 1 blood point from a mortal victim; the vampire need not personally kill them but must touch the victim at the exact moment of death. The soul occupies the vampire’s body in a dormant state for up to 1 month per success. Multiple souls may be stored; each soul beyond the first drains 1 additional blood point on rising.

At any point before the soul departs, summon it as a ghost with either recently-deceased ghost traits (V20 p. 385) or its living trait array plus ghost powers. The ghost must perform three services, then is free. If commanded to perform acts that would require a Humanity 7 check, the ghost may treat the necromancer as a fetter and haunt her until banished.

Path of Haunting

Developed by the Maeghar (wraith-vampires). Also independently developed by some Giovanni. Available to other necromancers with teacher access.

● Song of the Dead

Cost: 1 Blood Point | Pool: Manipulation + Occult vs. target’s current Willpower

A haunting chant instills morbid obsession in the victim. For a number of nights equal to successes: +2 difficulty to all Social rolls (except Intimidation), +1 difficulty to all other non-reflex rolls. If the target suffers this effect for more consecutive nights than their permanent Willpower, they lose 1 permanent Willpower dot. The cycle continues (interval = new rating in days). At 0 permanent Willpower: suicide (mortals) or torpor (vampires). Interrupted for one night: recover 1 Willpower dot/week.

A botch inflicts the effect on the caster.

●● Summon Wisp

Cost: 1 Blood Point | Pool: Charisma + Occult, difficulty 5

Conjure an orb of pale cold light that lasts one scene. Flies at running speed. Mortals beholding the wisp: Willpower roll (difficulty 4). Failure = mild trance, +1 difficulty to all actions. Caster’s successes double the mortal’s: target follows the wisp heedlessly (avoids physical obstacles but not hazards). A loud noise breaks the trance.

A botch creates a malevolent wisp with its own agenda.

●●● Harrowing

Cost: 1 Blood Point | Pool: Manipulation + Occult vs. target’s permanent Willpower | Requires: Eye contact

The victim’s next sleep is consumed by nightmares of their own death. On waking: cannot regain Willpower through rest. For the day, gains Nightmares and Eerie Presence Flaws (V20 p. 495). A botch inflicts the same on the caster.

●●●● Phantasms

Cost: 1 Blood Point | Pool: Manipulation + Occult, difficulty 7

Create illusory apparitions in line of sight. No substance; cannot speak or perform complex actions; emit surreal cold. Each success creates one phenomenon or adds one characteristic/condition to an existing phantom. Phantasms cannot physically harm targets but can trigger Frenzy or Courage rolls at Storyteller discretion.

A botch draws the attention of a malefic ghost, giving the caster the Haunted Flaw for nights equal to 1s rolled.

●●●●● Torment

Cost: 1 Blood Point | Pool: Manipulation + Occult, difficulty 8

Rend the barrier between living and dead to draw malicious spectres to the target. Each success reduces difficulty for any ghost to affect the target by 1 (minimum 4). Ghosts flock eagerly. The reduction diminishes by 1 each dawn. Multiple applications do not stack. A botch gives the caster the Haunted Flaw permanently.

New Necromancy Ritual (Tal’Mahe’Ra)

Parting the Veil (Level 2) — Practiced by the Harbingers of Skulls. Requires the Shadowlands reflection of a location with spiritual resonance (temple, graveyard, murder site, sports arena). Light two flames in the Shadowlands location and expose wrists to them. Make Courage roll (difficulty 7) to resist Rötschreck — Fortitude mitigation causes failure. Spend 2 blood points to douse the flames. The Gauntlet weakens for hours equal to the caster’s highest Necromancy Path dots; the mortal world becomes visible. Mortals equal to blood points spent who pass between the two doused flames are trapped in the Shadowlands. The veil closes after the requisite number cross or time runs out. Kindred cannot travel the reverse direction.

Expanded Rituals (V20 Lore of the Clans)

Death’s Communion (Level 1) — A Black Mass parody of Catholic communion. The caster (or a designated subject) gains +2 dice to all Necromancy rolls for one night per success on the casting roll. Takes one hour to complete. Caster suffers +1 difficulty if she is also the beneficiary.