Ritual of Ascension

By DarioCS@aol.com for the Sangrolou

Level Six Thaumaturgy and Dark Thaumaturgy Ritual

Description

This rare process allows a vampire to become a sangrolou. First, a black potion must be made, composed of the ashes from no less than thirteen different supernatural creatures. None can be of the same type. so you'd need ashes of a vampire, ashes of a werewolf, ashes of a changeling, etc. Mythic beasts of different types may be used as well. One of the ash types must have been from the cremated remains of an individual who had True Faith. It must mixed with black blood (from a vampire with Nihilistics level 6).

Next, the vampire must craft a special Phylactery in which he shall store his soul. It must be an artificial vessel (typically a decanter or flask) of the finest craftsmanship and emblazoned with various wards and rituals. The vampire must then pour his and only his blood into the decanter, and each drop is magically distilled and shrunk. After pouring a hundred and one points of his or her own blood into the Phylactery (obviously this must be done over a period of time), the sangrolou seals the container and finishes the ritual. A fresh corpse (which has been magically preserved within five minutes of its demise) must be placed near the phylactery, and then the sangrolou pronounces the final syllable of the spell, and crumbles into dust, apparently dying the Final Death.

Then, the vampire arises within the corpse laid by the Phylactery, and it rapidly changes form to match the vampires' old. The vampire is now a sangrolou, but must make a Stamina check, difficulty 8. If failure occurs, then the vampire becomes a pathetic broken sangrolou. If a botch occurs, well, it's best not to think about such things.

The sangrolou now has an awesome ability, to rise from the Final Death. Upon the destruction of its current body, its soul and mind will flee through the Shadowlands to the Phylactery. Then it may animate a preserved corpse (as above) with its own essence, again turning it into a copy of itself with statistics as before, but the sangrolou will have 0 blood points, and in a Frenzy. When the Frenzy ends, the vampire will find itself drained of a point of Willpower.

The phylactery is a boon and a curse. for should it be found, one merely has to open it (or destroy it) and let any amount of the blood within spill out. Should that occur, the sangrolou dies a horrible death, and may not reanimate a corpse as before. If the thick Heart's Blood within the phylactery is consumed by a vampire, the sangrolou is considered to be instantly Diaberlized.

Nevertheless, a sangrolou is immune to the slow, gradual thinning of blood of the eldest vampires, and it may roll its Spirit trait (and Spirit trait alone; neither armor nor Fortitude can aid it) in dice to soak against normally un-soakable spiritual or etheric attacks (such as wraithly Obliviate, magickal Flames of Purification). However, an interesting trait of these creatures is over the years, a sangrolou's personality gradually grows to resemble the mental states of its prey; a sangrolou which fed primarily upon the insane would grow disturbed, one that fed mostly on children would likewise eventually regress into a childlike state.