••••• Ghost Consumption

Vampire the Requiem - Covenant - Ordo Dracul

Ioan Dragolescu’s mad theories aside, this power does not lead to the vaunted transcendence that the Dragons seek. It does, however, open the door to power and knowledge beyond what many vampires achieve. Of course, this power has its price — for Dragolescu, that price was his very existence. The Ordo Dracul strictly forbids use of Ghost Consumption and its use is a violation of the law prohibiting entering the service of spirits. This isn’t precisely fair, as the power doesn’t force the user into a servile relationship with a ghost, but it was enough to convict Dragolescu. The issue has not come up since, but given the other factors involved in Dragolescu’s case, it’s possible that a new “trial” might end differently.
Ghost Consumption allows a vampire to devour a ghost. Unlike Mnemophagia, in which part of the ghost is damaged so that the vampire may gain knowledge, the ghost actually survives the process of being “eaten” with Ghost Consumption. The vampire gains access to most of the ghost’s powers and all of its memories, but the ghost gains the vampire’s memories as well. This, perhaps, is the source of the covenant’s fear of the power.
As with Draw Ectoplasm and Mnemophagia, this power requires the vampire be able to see her target. In addition, the vampire must be close enough to “touch” the subject (even though the ghost may be ephemeral). Specifically, the vampire must be close enough to “breathe the ghost in,” as Dragolescu once described it.

Effect

Dramatic Failure: A dramatic failure is rolled for the vampire. The ghost escapes the attack and may retaliate or flee as it wishes. In addition, the vampire can never attempt to use this power on that particular ghost again.
Failure: The character fails to consume the ghost before his will is broken. The ghost escapes and may flee or attack as it wishes.
Success: The character achieves the necessary number of successes before the ghost does and consumes it.
Exceptional Success: The character wins the contested roll. Exceptional success has no effect beyond the benefits of a rapid victory.

Side/Secondary Effects

If the character successfully consumes the ghost, the spirit takes up residence in the character’s body. The character can only have one ghost inhabiting her body at one time. This has the following effects:

• The vampire’s body temporarily becomes the ghost’s sole anchor. If the ghost escapes, its previous anchors regain their power.
• The vampire gains access to the ghost’s Skills and memories as though she had used the Mnemophagia power and achieved successes equal to her Intelligence + Essentiaphagia. These memories aren’t stolen from the ghost, however — merely “borrowed” — and the vampire can reallocate her temporary Skill points at any time. Doing so requires one hour of uninterrupted Meditation, and allows the ghost an attempt to escape (see below).
• The vampire can use any of the ghost’s Numina except Clairvoyance, Ghost Speech and Possession. The dice pools and Essence expenditures for these powers do not change, though the vampire can spend Ectoplasm instead of forcing the ghost to spend Essence. The vampire has complete control of the effects of these stolen Numina.
• The vampire benefits from the ghost’s presence by becoming better aware of her surroundings — she has two sets of senses working for her now. Add the ghost’s Finesse score to the vampire’s Initiative. The vampire can use either her own Wits or the ghost’s Finesse in dice pools related to sensory awareness and Perception.
• During its imprisonment, the ghost is aware of everything the vampire feels, thinks and remembers, and can talk to the vampire as much as it wishes (the vampire can shut out the voice, but loses the bonus to Initiative in any scene that she does so). The ghost retains this information if it escapes.
• If the vampire meets Final Death before the ghost escapes or is set free, the ghost is destroyed as well.
• The vampire can set the ghost free at any time.
• A Kindred using Auspex •• on a vampire with a ghost prisoner sees a milky-white glow beneath the character’s flesh.

The ghost may attempt to escape in the following circumstances: whenever the vampire enters slumber for the day (which may never happen, depending upon which Coils the vampire knows), whenever the vampire rifles through the memories from the ghost to assign her temporary Skill dots and whenever the vampire uses the first four levels of the Essentiaphagia Discipline. Escape requires a contested roll of the ghost’s Power + Finesse versus the vampire’s Resolve + Occult + Essentiaphagia. The vampire’s resistance is reflexive.
Dramatic Failure: The ghost does not escape but the vampire is aware that it tried.
Failure: The ghost fails to escape, but the vampire is unaware that it tried.
Success: The ghost escapes, and may immediately spend a Willpower point to flee to one of its anchors. If it has no remaining anchors, it immediately passes on.
Exceptional Success: The ghost escapes, and tears the vampire’s mind and body asunder as it leaves. The ghost makes a reflexive Power roll, and the vampire suffers aggravated damage equal to the roll’s successes and loses a like number of Willpower points.

Dragolescu’s Theory: “This is the pinnacle of my work, the goal I have worked toward for so long. How many have been ruined, their souls lost to Hell or received by Heaven, for me to find this knowledge? This is the Tree of Knowledge, this is what Our Lord bade us shun. But why? A test? Why should we quake at this threshold? I, for one, choose to stride boldly forward. More must die, more souls must be lost, but if I am successful, I will transcend!”

Material Components

Cost: 5 Ectoplasm and 1 Willpower

Gestures & Ritual

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Occult + Essentiaphagia versus subject’s Power + Resistance

Related Discipline

Essentiaphagia

Effect Casting Time

Extended and contested; resistance is reflexive. The vampire needs a number of successes equal to the ghost’s permanent Corpus rating. The ghost needs a number of successes equal to the vampire’s Willpower.

Level

5

Applied Restriction

Modifier | Situation
+2 | Ghost is being channeled through a medium.
+2 | The Ectoplasm used to fuel this power came from the target ghost.
+/-1 | Each anchor the ghost has penalizes the vampire’s dice pool to consume it and adds to the ghost’s dice pool to escape.