Via Amarus Rosa

By Chris Pullen (negative_image@hotmail.com)

Description

Allegedly created by Tremere himself, this was one of the first Paths to grace the pages of Tremere grimoires. This Path was banned within the Tremere after the formation of the Camarilla, as it is a means only to committing diablerie. It has recently cropped up in certain Sabbat cities after the loss of the Tremere antitribu.

Information on diablerie can be found on pages 187-188 of Vampire: The Masquerade, Second Edition; pages 224-226 of Vampire: The Masquerade, Revised; page 65 of Elysium: The Elder Wars; page 41 of Dirty Secrets of the Black Hand; pages 9-16 of Awakening: Diablerie Mexico, and pages 7-10 of Bloody Hearts: Diablerie Britain.

Note: This is not a Path in the truest sense. More a series of Rituals, this Path does not require Experience expenditures to learn. The Tremere, however, do consider it a Path. Each Ritual may be learned as normal, and the Rituals range in level from one to five.

* Cleanse the Taint

The first Ritual in the series frees a diabolist from detection by thaumaturgic means of their diablerie of a vampire of lesser generation. This can only cleanse the temporary taint left in the blood by the diablerie of a lesser generation.

System: The ritual takes 25 minutes to complete, during which the diabolist must bleed 10 Points worth of Blood. During the Ritual, the thaumaturgist, which may, or may not, be the diabolist, must make an extended Willpower roll, difficulty 8, every five minutes. For each success scored after all five rolls, the diabolist is effectively one month older for the purposes of calculating blood taint.

This Ritual may only be perform once per diabolist per act of diablerie.

** Treat the Visible Stains

This level eliminates any trace of diablerie from a diabolist's aura.

System: Refer to Cleanse the Taint. The Ritual takes fifteen Blood Points, one hour and Willpower rolls are made every 10 minutes. This Ritual may only be perform once per diabolist per act of diablerie.

*** Cleanse the Everlasting Taint

Exactly like Cleanse the Taint, this Ritual can completely rid a diabolist's blood of any trace of her crime.

System: A Willpower roll must be made by the thaumaturgist after the expenditure of 10 Blood Points from the diabolist. Five successes must be scored on this roll for the Ritual to be successful. This Ritual may only be perform once per diabolist per act of diablerie.

**** Saulot's Undoing

A far cry from levels one through three, this Ritual is concerned more with the commission of diablerie rather than its consequences. This Ritual, when performed over the body of a sleeping elder, will completely immobilize the victim during the draining of his essence.

System: The diabolist/thaumaturge must make a Willpower roll after the completion of the Ritual. The difficulty for this roll is the Willpower of the victim, minus his generation, plus 4, and at least as many successes must be scored as the victim has temporary Willpower.

***** Meerlinda's Gift

Performed before the diablerie of Saulot, this Ritual allowed Tremere to instantly assume the generation of his victim without any intermediate generations.

System: Like Saulot's Undoing, this Ritual must be performed in the presence of the victim. The diabolist must score at least one success on a Willpower roll (difficulty 8) for each generation to be passed over.