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From Marduk's Throat is a level six or five ritual of Assamite Sorcery.

Overview[]

This ritual is the hallowed means by which members of the Assamite clan lowered their generation while under the influence of the Blood Curse of the Tremere. In recent nights, it has largely fallen into disuse. A few cults among the clan still observe it out of humility or habit, and these Cainites are found not only among ur-Shulgi loyalists, but among the Schismatics as well.

In order to perform the ritual, a sorcerer must create an alchemical substitute for vampiric blood, allowing the subject of the ritual to drink sufficient portions of blood to decrease her generation. The process converts mercury, molten gold, a range of plant and animal proteins, and other exotic ingredients into alchemical Vitae.

Description[]

Blood Magic: Secret of Thaumaturgy version : Each ritual takes eight hours to produce one fourth of a blood point. To decrease their generation, an Assamite must consume a number of points of this alchemical blood equal to the maximum blood point value of a vampire of the desired generation. The subject of the ritual need not to be the Vizier who prepared the concoction, but all of the blood used for this generation decrease must be made by the same Vizier in the same laboratory. No more than one week may pass between one use of this ritual and the next for a single drop in generation, or all of the existing elixir will spoil and be rendered useless.

When the full amount of blood is at hand, the subject of the ritual drinks the blood and tries to assimilate it into her body. She makes an extended Stamina roll (Difficulty 9), seeking a number of successes equal to the blood points consumed. Failures do not stop the process, but they do deal 6 points of lethal damage apiece. Assimilation is so painful and distracting that the subject is nearly defenseless during this period.

Lore of the Clan version : To reduce the drinker’s Generation by one level, the potion must incorporate a number of blood points from vampires of lower Generation than the drinker equal to four times the maximum blood point value of the desired Generation. For example, an Assamite who sought to reduce her Generation from Eighth to Seventh would need to procure twenty-eight points of blood from Kindred whose own Generation was Seventh or lower. Regardless of how much vitae that is, the result of the alchemical process will evaporate down into a thick sludgy material that the imbiber must consume in a single attempt.

The potion is foul, and requires the imbiber to successfully roll Willpower (difficulty 9). If that roll succeeds, the Assamite must then successfully assimilate the blood into her body. This requires an extended Willpower roll (difficulty 9), seeking 15 successes for a new Generation. Failures don’t stop the process, but they do deal six dice of lethal damage apiece (soaked normally). Assimilation is so painful and distracting that any attacks made against her during this time face a difficulty of only 2.

Trivia : The original version of the ritual did not allow access to some of the lower Generations because of the preparation time compared to the conservation time of each Ritual, since a quarter point of blood was equivalent to 8h of ritual and the result of this ritual could not last more than a week. (Example: To reach the 4th Generation it would have taken 50 (Blood Pool) multiplied by 4 then multiplied again by 8, which give us a nice 1600h to make the full Ritual. That's more than 9 weeks.

References[]

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