Mark of the Damned
Level-Four Theban Sorcery Ritual
With a stripe of blood and an occult prayer, the sorcerer can ward a Haven against those who would trespass in the lair and do harm to sleeping vampires. One point of Vitae must be spent for each dot the Haven to be protected has in Haven Size (minimum of one Vitae). This Vitae can be donated by any vampire, willing or unwilling; it does not have to be the sorcerer’s Blood. The Vitae is painted over doorways and windows, plainly visible to visitors and intruders. Any mortal or supernatural creature who enters the Haven intending to harm any vampire sleeping within is subject to one point of lethal damage for each success scored on the activation roll. This damage is completely supernatural in origin — gashes spontaneously appear on the flesh, stomachs give up throatfuls of blood, bones suddenly snap — and cannot be dodged or stopped with armor.
A trespasser who knows how the ritual works can attempt to hide his intentions even within his own heart, fool the scrutiny of the ritual’s magic and avoid all damage with a successful Resolve + Subterfuge roll penalized by the sorcerer’s dots in Theban Sorcery. Note that visitors and intruders who do not intend harm as they enter are unaffected by the ritual, but are not prevented from (or wounded for) developing violent intentions once they’re inside.
Once the Mark of the Damned has been activated, the damage it deals to trespassers diminishes by one point per night, until the power has faded completely. Washing or scraping away the Vitae used to activate the ritual does not remove its power, but does diminish the damage and duration of the ritual by two. Any given Haven can be subject to only one instance of this ritual at a time; fresh applications of this power replace previous applications.
A trespasser who knows how the ritual works can attempt to hide his intentions even within his own heart, fool the scrutiny of the ritual’s magic and avoid all damage with a successful Resolve + Subterfuge roll penalized by the sorcerer’s dots in Theban Sorcery. Note that visitors and intruders who do not intend harm as they enter are unaffected by the ritual, but are not prevented from (or wounded for) developing violent intentions once they’re inside.
Once the Mark of the Damned has been activated, the damage it deals to trespassers diminishes by one point per night, until the power has faded completely. Washing or scraping away the Vitae used to activate the ritual does not remove its power, but does diminish the damage and duration of the ritual by two. Any given Haven can be subject to only one instance of this ritual at a time; fresh applications of this power replace previous applications.