Rites & Rituals

To cast this ritual, the necromancer needs an eye from a corpse whose absent soul became a ghost or

Spectre. The eye is ritually prepared in a process involving incense, the new moon, and a period of midnight chanting. The chanting climaxes when the necromancer removes one of her own eyes and replaces it with the one from the corpse (fresher is better). Kindred healing takes over at that point, sealing the eye within the socket.

If the ritual succeeds, the Necromancer permanently gains the Shroudsight ability (see p. 163). This ability is always active and does not require a roll.

Furthermore, if it was a Spectre’s corpse, the vampire can hear the vague murmuring of any Spectres in the area. This ability isn’t very precise; rather than mind reading, it’s more like trying to overhear a low-voiced conversation in the next room. With a Perception + Occult roll, the Necromancer can glean a very vague impression of what nearby Spectres are up to. Botching this roll may well earn the necromancer a new derangement (at the Storyteller’s discretion), as the whispers creep into the caster’s subconscious.

This ritual has some major drawbacks, the first being that its proper result is hideously ugly. Unless the vampire wears sunglasses or finds some other way to conceal her eye, her Appearance is reduced by one dot.

Also, dead or rotted tissue is not the best for normal perception. Any mundane visual Perception rolls are at +1 difficulty (possibly more if the corpse had bad eyesight in life). On the other hand, since the eye offers a window into a different soul than the necromancer, it offers some protection against powers requiring eye contact. These Disciplines are used against the dead-eyed necromancer at +1 difficulty.

Most importantly, however, the ghost whose body was desecrated knows it, and very likely hates it. The ghost can find the necromancer possessing his eye anywhere, and all ghostly powers used against the necromancer by that particular ghost are at –1 difficulty.