Create Zombi
Level-Three Vodoun Ritual
A houngan under the patronage of Ghede can call upon him to reanimate a lifeless corpse and create a zombi. A zombi created through Vodoun ritual is completely under the control of the houngan. It can be recognized by its listless gait, and empty, soulless eyes. It can hear and obey simple commands, and is said to be entirely without memory of its mortal life — until its tongue touches salt. According to folklore, the taste of salt will bring the zombi back to its senses, and it will hurry back to the cemetery to return to its grave. More likely, however, salt is simply a supernatural weakness. Either way, houngan often sew the corpse’s lips together before calling upon Ghede to animate the body. Zombies are unfailing, devoted slaves. What they lack in intelligence and motivation, they more than make up for in dogged determination and sheer, tireless pursuit of the tasks to which they are set.
Generally speaking, such zombies possess a level of reasoning just above that of a rather intelligent dog, and lack even that dog’s ability to predict the future or make independent decisions. They understand certain visual cues (such as the opening of the door they are meant to guard) and auditory commands (“Defend me!”), but cannot perform feats requiring abstract intellect. They have a limited memory, but cannot make even basic correlations or inferences. (While they can, for example, dimly recall that their master has changed their clothes once a day, they cannot determine that he is likely to do so again tomorrow.)
They have no individual initiative. These corpse-slaves are not really any stronger than they were in life, but they are tireless and completely without the ability to sense or respond to pain. They need not eat or sleep, and will do whatever chore they are set to until told otherwise, even if it requires them to tear their own bodies apart in the attempt. They experience neither fear nor the desire for self-preservation and have no minds, per se, for others to control.
Each zombi created by this ritual has the following base traits:
Attributes: Power 1, Finesse 1, Resistance 2
Size: 5 (or less if the corpse is small)
Speed: 1*
Initiative: 1*
Defense: 1*
* These traits begin at 1, regardless of Attribute scores. The character can spend Vitae to make a zombie stronger, however. For each Vitae spent (in additional to the point required to activate the ritual), the player can raise any one trait by two, or any two traits by one. There is no limit to the amount of Vitae a vampire can use to empower a zombi (up to the limits of his blood pool, obviously), but once the character stops spending blood to do so, thus completing the ritual, he cannot further empower that zombi.
Zombies do not suffer wound penalties and cannot heal damage naturally. Bashing, lethal and aggravated wounds are marked normally, but zombies never suffer incapacitation — they just keep going until their last Health point is lost to aggravated damage. When a zombie’s final (rightmost) Health box is marked with bashing damage, no roll is required to remain conscious. When its final Health box is marked with lethal damage, it does not collapse and begin bleeding to death — it keeps going. Any damage suffered after that is upgraded to aggravated. Once this happens, the corpse loses body parts with each new upgraded wound until it is completely pulverized or disintegrated (the Storyteller decides which parts fall off with each wound).
A zombi continues to rot. It suffers one lethal point of damage with each passage of a number of nights equal to its Resistance. A zombi with a Resistance of 3 therefore suffers one lethal point of rotting damage every three nights.
In addition, zombies created by this ritual have a vulnerability to salt. If a zombi “tastes” salt, it is destroyed instantly. Otherwise, zombies can only be destroyed when their final Health box is marked with aggravated damage.
Generally speaking, such zombies possess a level of reasoning just above that of a rather intelligent dog, and lack even that dog’s ability to predict the future or make independent decisions. They understand certain visual cues (such as the opening of the door they are meant to guard) and auditory commands (“Defend me!”), but cannot perform feats requiring abstract intellect. They have a limited memory, but cannot make even basic correlations or inferences. (While they can, for example, dimly recall that their master has changed their clothes once a day, they cannot determine that he is likely to do so again tomorrow.)
They have no individual initiative. These corpse-slaves are not really any stronger than they were in life, but they are tireless and completely without the ability to sense or respond to pain. They need not eat or sleep, and will do whatever chore they are set to until told otherwise, even if it requires them to tear their own bodies apart in the attempt. They experience neither fear nor the desire for self-preservation and have no minds, per se, for others to control.
Each zombi created by this ritual has the following base traits:
Attributes: Power 1, Finesse 1, Resistance 2
Size: 5 (or less if the corpse is small)
Speed: 1*
Initiative: 1*
Defense: 1*
* These traits begin at 1, regardless of Attribute scores. The character can spend Vitae to make a zombie stronger, however. For each Vitae spent (in additional to the point required to activate the ritual), the player can raise any one trait by two, or any two traits by one. There is no limit to the amount of Vitae a vampire can use to empower a zombi (up to the limits of his blood pool, obviously), but once the character stops spending blood to do so, thus completing the ritual, he cannot further empower that zombi.
Zombies do not suffer wound penalties and cannot heal damage naturally. Bashing, lethal and aggravated wounds are marked normally, but zombies never suffer incapacitation — they just keep going until their last Health point is lost to aggravated damage. When a zombie’s final (rightmost) Health box is marked with bashing damage, no roll is required to remain conscious. When its final Health box is marked with lethal damage, it does not collapse and begin bleeding to death — it keeps going. Any damage suffered after that is upgraded to aggravated. Once this happens, the corpse loses body parts with each new upgraded wound until it is completely pulverized or disintegrated (the Storyteller decides which parts fall off with each wound).
A zombi continues to rot. It suffers one lethal point of damage with each passage of a number of nights equal to its Resistance. A zombi with a Resistance of 3 therefore suffers one lethal point of rotting damage every three nights.
In addition, zombies created by this ritual have a vulnerability to salt. If a zombi “tastes” salt, it is destroyed instantly. Otherwise, zombies can only be destroyed when their final Health box is marked with aggravated damage.
Pre-Requisite: Only available to Patrons of Ghede