•• Consult with the Dead
An Osite with access to suitable remains (a corpse is best, but a head might do) can interview a corpse to learn what secrets it kept for the soul. First the Osite must share some of his Vitae with the body, either by dribbling it into the corpse’s mouth or brushing it onto the corpse’s skin. The Osite must then whisper a question into the corpse’s ear and listen for a quiet reply from the body. The words spoken by a questioned corpse may come from the lungs or the mouth, or might seem to come from nowhere at all. Whatever the source of a given corpse’s voice, all in its presence can hear it — not just the Osite.
Effect
Dramatic Failure: The corpse can never be roused. All future attempts to Consult with the Dead on this corpse meet with failure.
Failure: The corpse is not roused, but the Osite can try again.
Success: The remains of the corpse’s mind are roused from death. The Osite persuades the corpse to reply to one question per success. The player of the Osite can now call for rolls to retrieve information from the corpse using dots the deceased had in Intelligence, Wits and Skills while alive. Each roll made on behalf of the corpse constitutes one reply, even if the roll fails. Questions that fail can be asked again, if the corpse still has replies to use. Very basic information, such as the corpse’s name, may be attainable without a roll at the Storyteller’s discretion, but still uses up one of the corpse’s replies.
Exceptional Success: Extra successes grant the Osite access to more information from the corpse being consulted.
The Storyteller must be the final judge of what a character (and his corpse) might know and, as a result, what information can be obtained from a given corpse with this power. The Storyteller should strive to give answers that help to further the story while also suggesting something of the deceased’s character.
Failure: The corpse is not roused, but the Osite can try again.
Success: The remains of the corpse’s mind are roused from death. The Osite persuades the corpse to reply to one question per success. The player of the Osite can now call for rolls to retrieve information from the corpse using dots the deceased had in Intelligence, Wits and Skills while alive. Each roll made on behalf of the corpse constitutes one reply, even if the roll fails. Questions that fail can be asked again, if the corpse still has replies to use. Very basic information, such as the corpse’s name, may be attainable without a roll at the Storyteller’s discretion, but still uses up one of the corpse’s replies.
Exceptional Success: Extra successes grant the Osite access to more information from the corpse being consulted.
The Storyteller must be the final judge of what a character (and his corpse) might know and, as a result, what information can be obtained from a given corpse with this power. The Storyteller should strive to give answers that help to further the story while also suggesting something of the deceased’s character.
Manifestation
Example: Grant, an Osite Inquisitor, is investigating a Priest’s recent interactions with mortal cultists and has finally located the body of the cult’s former leader, dumped in the woods. The body is more than one week old (–3 penalty), but in relatively good shape (–1 penalty), and Grant knows it to be the cult leader, John Rice. After all these penalties, Grant has just four dice to roll, which yield two successes. Taking the corpse by the head, he presses his lips to Rice’s ear and asks his first question: “Who killed you, John?” Grants opens the corpse’s mouth and listens, but no answer comes. (The Storyteller knows Rice was shot in the back — he never saw his killer.) For his second and final question, Grant tries to plumb the depths of Rice’s occult knowledge and follow up on a clue he found the night before, asking “What is the Beast of the Black Sunday?” The player asks the Storyteller to make an Intelligence + Occult roll on Rice’s behalf, and she does. The roll yields just one success. Rice’s body shifts, its chest falling, and it exhales, “You are, vampire.”
Material Components
Cost: 1 Vitae
Gestures & Ritual
Dice Pool: Presence + Persuasion + Memento Mori
Related Discipline
Effect Casting Time
Instant
Level
2
Applied Restriction
To use this power, the Osite needs access to vital portions of the subject corpse. A body that has been mutilated, rotted or partially eaten imposes a penalty (generally –1 for each limb’s worth of flesh missing) on the roll to use this power. A body without a head can be used at a –5 penalty, and a head alone can be used with the same penalty. A severed head in physical contact its body imposes just a –1 penalty, however. At least a head or a torso must remain to be consulted; limbs and shredded flesh are not enough.
An Osite can only use this power once on any given corpse, but multiple Osites may subject a corpse to multiple interviews. Once an Osite has interviewed any one portion of the deceased, he cannot use this power on another portion of the same deceased person.
Modifier | Situation
–1 to –5 | The body is mutilated or somehow incomplete.
–1 | The character does not know the name of the deceased.
–2 | The character does not recognize the deceased.
–3 | The character cannot determine the deceased’s occupation, sphere of knowledge or field of experience.
–1 | The body is more than 15 minutes old.
–2 | The body is more than one night old.
–3 | The body is more than one week old.
–4 | The body is more than one month old.
–5 | The body is more than one year old (only possible if the body has somehow been preserved).
An Osite can only use this power once on any given corpse, but multiple Osites may subject a corpse to multiple interviews. Once an Osite has interviewed any one portion of the deceased, he cannot use this power on another portion of the same deceased person.
Modifier | Situation
–1 to –5 | The body is mutilated or somehow incomplete.
–1 | The character does not know the name of the deceased.
–2 | The character does not recognize the deceased.
–3 | The character cannot determine the deceased’s occupation, sphere of knowledge or field of experience.
–1 | The body is more than 15 minutes old.
–2 | The body is more than one night old.
–3 | The body is more than one week old.
–4 | The body is more than one month old.
–5 | The body is more than one year old (only possible if the body has somehow been preserved).