The Ash Path
The study of the Ash Path is the study of the Shadowlands: the otherworld of the dead. Through focused research regarding the transference of the soul from this world to the next, a necromancer learns to strengthen or weaken the Shroud, and even to pass back and forth between the two worlds.
Contents
• Shroud Sight
The Shadowlands lies superimposed over the real world like an echo of things long past. Buildings that have been torn down are still standing; carriages rush past on ghostly streets; walls, furniture, and even forested areas still exist where the modern world shows no sign of their presence. Through the use of Shroud Sight, you can see into the Shadowlands as easily as looking at the present world.
System: Once purchased, this power is always active. You can see and sense the Shadowlands around you, perceiving the echoes of the past that still linger in that other world. You can notice wraiths in the Shadowlands, but you are granted no special ability to communicate with them. If a wraith speaks a language you know, then you can have discourse with it.
Focus [Manipulation]: You can spend a standard action to study a living mortal and determine whether it is likely she will become a wraith. Wraiths are created when people die with unfulfilled issues, particularly strong emotional connections or other deep ties. You can also look at an item in the physical world and ascertain if it is a wraith fetter: an object of great importance to a particular wraith, which can be used to call or bind it.
•• Shroud Mastery
You stand between two worlds and can control the flow of power between the land of the living and the realm of the dead. With concentration, you can manipulate the Shroud between the worlds, making it more difficult to cross or easier to ignore.
System: By spending 1 Blood and concentrating for three full turns, you can raise or lower the Shroud by one level in an area up to the size of a large room. This effect lasts for the rest of the night. A stronger Shroud makes it more difficult for wraiths to interact with the living world, while a weaker Shroud has the reverse effect.
There are three levels of Shroud: low, medium, and high. The typical Shroud rating is medium, though particularly "creepy" areas, such as cemeteries or haunted houses, have a low Shroud; and emotionally sterile places, such as a newsroom or a laboratory, will have a high Shroud rating.
- Low: The area feels creepy and is plagued with unusual sounds, smells, and occasional apparitions. Wraiths have a particularly easy time interacting with the physical world in this location. Ghosts do not have to spend Pathos to manifest. When manifesting, a ghost has a number of health levels equal to the turns it spends manifesting, with a maximum of 5. Also, a ghost's view of the physical world is very clear, and they can communicate in a whisper, even with individuals who do not have the Medium merit (or any other ability to speak with or see wraiths). A soul that is outside of its body due to use of Soul Steal can spend a Willpower to manifest when the shroud is low. Such a character has access to all of her powers, including Physical powers, and 1 health level.
- Medium: All activities are as per the standard Shroud level. Ghosts must spend the normal amount of Pathos to cross the Shroud.
- High: Wraiths have a particularly difficult time interacting with the physical world. Ghosts must spend twice the normal amount of Pathos when manifesting.
Focus [Manipulation]: By spending 1 Blood and concentrating for three full turns, you can raise or lower the Shroud by one level. This lasts for one lunar month, and you can target an area up to the size of a large house.
••• Dead Hand
Perceiving the Shadowlands is only the first step to understanding the transition from life to death. Next, you must master the ability to cross the Shroud. Through use of this power, you can seize ghostly artifacts on the other side of the Shroud and draw them through to the physical world.
System: By spending 1 Blood and expending your standard action, you can reach into the Shadowlands and draw out common objects and items. Objects retrieved with this power must be small enough for a normal person to hold in both hands. This power can be used to grasp things that naturally occur in the Shadowlands at that location, echoes of objects that existed in the past. Such items are always normal, though they may be quite old, and must sensibly be present within the local landscape of the Shadowlands.
You can also use this power to similarly push items through the Shroud to the Shadowlands from the material realm. In this manner, this power's user could use Dead Hand to reach through the Shroud and give her wraith Retainer a gun. Later, at a different location, she could again use Dead Hand to reach into the Shadowlands, where her wraith Retainer (who has been following her around) stands ready to hand back the gun.
Items native to the Shadowlands remain in this world for one hour, after which they dissolve into mist and return to their native plane.
Focus [Charisma]: Items you pull into the physical world remain on that plane for the rest of the night, rather than for only an hour.
•••• Stygian Lance
Deep within the Shadowlands, powerful tempests and storms ravage the sepia-toned landscape, ranging from rains of plasm to lightning-flashes of soulfire. You can unleash this fell power, hurling a lance of pure oblivion toward your enemies.
System: Spend 1 Blood and use a standard action to hurl a bolt of plasm from the tempests of the Shadowlands. Make an opposed challenge using your Social attribute + Occult versus the target¡¦s Physical attribute + Dodge. If successful, this attack deals 3 points of normal damage, and it can strike individuals in the Shadowlands; including wraiths, physical travelers, and individuals whose souls have been stolen; as well as those on the physical plane.
Exceptional Success: Your Stygian Lance deals 4 points of normal damage, instead of 3.
Focus [Charisma]: Damage from your Stygian Lance cannot be reduced or negated, but can be healed normally.
••••• Ex Nihilo
The necromancer who has mastered the Ash Path has also mastered the Shroud. You can cross the border between the Shadowlands and the physical world as easily as others might open a door and step through.
System: By focusing on a familiar destination, spending 1 Blood, and chanting for five full turns, you can travel into and through the Shadowlands. You can bring up to three of your zombie minions (Shambling Hordes or other such Retainers) with you on this journey.
Time and distance are subjective in the Shadowlands, and it always takes four hours to arrive at your destination, no matter how far you travel in the real world. You can shorten the time it takes to arrive at your chosen location by sacrificing an undead servant, either a zombie or wraith, to the Tempest after you enter Ex Nihilo. For each such Retainer you destroy, your journey takes one hour less to complete. If you sacrifice all three of your zombie or wraith servants, you reduce your travel time to one hour.
Alternately, you can enter the Shadowlands without intent to travel. Instead, you may lurk beyond the Shroud and spy on the living world. While in the Shadowlands, you see the real world as a hazy shadow of itself. This allows you to have a general understanding of events around you, but it is difficult to pick out details or overhear conversations. Unfortunately, the Medium merit does not work in reverse to allow you to hear and witness the physical world as you would the Shadowlands. A character can return to the physical world by concentrating for five turns. This transition is slow and noticeable, as the individual slowly comes into focus, gaining solidity as she eases her way back through the Shroud.
You cannot bring anyone with you through the Shadowlands, other than your zombie minions. This power can be particularly dangerous if there are hostile wraiths, such as spectres, in the Shadowlands. Such creatures can attack you while you are on their plane. This encounter is treated in all ways like a normal conflict.
While in the Shadowlands, you cannot use powers (including Necromancy powers) on targets in the real world.
Focus [Manipulation]: In addition to normal uses of this power, you can spend 1 Blood and your standard action to transition into the Shadowlands for a flicker of time. You spend one full turn moving through the Shadowlands, and you exit Ex Nihilo up to 20 steps in any direction from your original location.
