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Necromancy -- An Example Tamora Black walked around Washington Square trying to get lost in her own thoughts. Pretty much like everyone else in the city, just one more petite little goth girl strolling through the streets of Manhattan. She still had a bit of residual politeness left over from her childhood on a farm in Northern Virginia, so when she accidentally bumped into the sad-looking man in the street she automatically said, "Excuse me." "Oh my god, you can see me?" said the man. It took Tamora a moment to realize that she had not so much bumped into the man as walked through him. She has two levels of Death Speech (see WitchCraft, p. 238), which gives her the power to See the Dead. Unless the spirit is trying to remain hidden, Tamora can automatically see them. This ghost was trying very hard not to be hidden. The dead man's name is Duncan Fitch and he explains to the Necromancer that he is not so much dead as evicted. He had been suffering from attacks of possession for the last two months and just yesterday he found that someone else had taken control of his body and he had been kicked out of it. The Chronicler asks Tamora to make an Occult Knowledge Task roll. She has an Intelligence of 3 and Occult Knowledge (the Dead) at a 2. She rolls a 7 and this gives her a 12, a Decent Result. Tamora realizes that this could be the work of a ghost using the Possess Mortal ability (see Mystery Codex, p. 79). This is mostly used for possessions that last a short time, to permanently possess someone would cost Essence equal to five times the victim's Essence Pool. Only the more powerful spirits would even attempt it. Tamora and Duncan head towards his apartment on Bleeker. It is a small one bedroom on the third floor currently occupied by the body of Duncan Finch. Unfortunately, the entrance way is locked and disembodied spirits can never be counted on to have a set of keys on them, so Tamora is going to have to get in the hard way. She has a Lockpick Skill of 1 and a Dexterity of 2. She would need at least a 6 to successfully pick the front door lock. She rolls a 4. Looks like she will have to try a less physical approach. She finds an alley that is currently deserted, and looks for a spot that is both secluded and does not smell so much like it has been used for a toilet. She finds a spot behind some crates and proceeds to concentrate on leaving her body. Tamora has four levels of Death Mastery (see WitchCraft, pp. 240-241) so she can use the power of Death Projection. Her Necromancy Skill is 3 and her Willpower is 4. This gives her a 7 to add to her roll so far. But she also gets to add a bonus based on her Covenant. Tamora is a member of both the Twilight Order and the House of Thanatos, but this does not mean that she gets the benefits of both. A concentration has to be picked at the time of character creation. Tamora decides that her concentration will be on the Twilight Order since she only belongs to the Thanatoi so that she can attend all those Sybarite parties. As a member of the Twilight Order, Tamora gets a plus 1 to all Tasks involving Necromantic Powers (see WitchCraft, pp. 62-63). This gives her an 8 to add to her roll. She rolls a 5, which results in a 13 (a Good Result). She slides out of her body and travels up to the third floor in spirit form, motioning for Duncan to follow her. Tamora passes through the wall and sees the body of Duncan Finch slouched on a couch surrounded by pizza boxes, potato chip bags and empty beer cans. The spirit seems to have been indulging in some of the sensations that one can only enjoy in a physical form. Tamora drifts over to the couch and looks down at him. "All right, you have had your little vacation, now get out of the body," she says while preparing to use the Expel Spirit power (see WitchCraft, p. 239). This costs her 2 points of Essence and will be resisted by the spirit with a Simple Willpower Task. Tamora adds her Necromancy of 3 and her Willpower of 4 to her roll of 6. This gives her a total of 13, which is a Good Result. The spirit has a will of 4, so he doubles that and adds it to his roll. He rolls a 7, plus the 8, for a total of 15. A Very Good result beats out Tamora's roll. He stands up and looks directly at Tamora, speaking with a gentlemanly southern drawl completely different from Duncan's slight New York accent. " Now why would you want to do something like that little missy? Y'all knows I would hate to have to bleed all the life force out of you." What the spirit doesn't realize is that Tamora hates being called things like "little missy". "Fine," she mutters to herself, "The kid gloves are off." She looks at the spectral Duncan and mouths the words, "Get ready." Tamora then proceeds to use the power A Taste of Death (see WitchCraft, p. 241). This costs 6 points of Essence, and uses Tamora's Necromancy Skill and Willpower. She rolls a 9, plus 7 from her Necromancy and Willpower, gives her a total of 15. Plus the extra 1 for being a member of the Twilight Order makes that a 16. A Very Good result. The spirit resists with his Willpower and Constitution. The spirit has a Willpower of 4 and a Constitution of 5, which means he will be adding 9 to his roll. He rolls a 5 which gives him a total of 14. A Good result, but Tamora did better. The spirit is forcibly pushed from Duncan's body as it "dies" for one second. This causes D4 points of Life Points Damage and D6 points of Endurance and Essence Loss. The Chronicler rules that the Life Points and Endurance will be taken from Duncan but the Essence Loss is taken from the spirit's Energy Essence. In addition, both will be at a -3 on all tasks for the next 1-4 Turns. Rolls are made. It is determined that Duncan's body takes 3 points of Life Damage and 4 points of Endurance damage. The spirit takes 4 points of Energy Essence loss and will be stunned for 2 Turns. "Now!" screams Tamora, and Duncan dives back in his own body. He is immediately hit by feelings of pain and exhaustion, as well as nausea from the spirit's binge. He is also no longer able to see the spectral forms in his apartment. Tamora is now looking at the spirit of an older man dressed in the uniform of a Confederate Cavalry Officer. He has a gaping wound in the back of his head which was apparently the cause of his death. He looks around in confusion and then looks at the astral necromancer and mutters, "Well, I'll be a son of a bitch." He then turns around and flees. "You're not getting off that easily!" cries Tamora as she follows him. The spirit wants to escape into the Threshold (see Mystery Codex, pp. 181-184), so the Chronicler decides that it will take D4 Turns of concentration on his part before he can travel there. He rolls a 2, so he will be able to get to the Threshold in 10 seconds. He tries to lose Tamora in the back streets of Greenwich Village but she is close behind him. She catches up to him in front of a Thai restaurant whose patrons seem oblivious to the conflict in front of them. Tamora grabs hold of his coat as the spirit jumps to the Threshold. They both find themselves floating in a dark featureless limbo. "Who are you?" asks Tamora as she decides to force the spirit to relive his memories. This can be done by anyone in the Threshold and is resolved by a Resisted Willpower Task. Tamora's Will is 4 so she doubles that and adds it to her roll of 8. This gives her a 16 which is a Very Good result. The Spirit also has a Will of 4 and he rolls a 6, which gives him a 14. Tamora makes the spirit relive the events that lead to his death. They find themselves on a Civil War battlefield being overwhelmed by Union forces. Tamora discovers that the spirit's name is Captain Romeyn Lee Miller. Historians have often pointed out that the Confederate Army had some of the best strategists in the Civil War, but apparently Romeyn was not one of them. His men are being slaughtered and start to run away. He yells at them and calls them gutless cowards, starts shooting them in the back and saying that they are not fit to live. The shot that killed him was fired by one of his own men. Romeyn seems a bit overwhelmed by reliving all of this. Tamora just looks at him and says, "Wow. You were really quite the bastard in your day, weren't you?" Romeyn looks up at the necromancer and gets ready to lunge at her when they both hear a strange howling noise. Romeyn looks behind him and sees three dark twisted humanoid forms. The only things that he can really make out are claws and teeth. They look mean and they look hungry. Soul Eaters. They were attracted to Romeyn's death visions like sharks to blood and two of them overwhelm the dead Confederate. Tamora can hear his screams as the third one leaps towards her. She concentrates. And finds herself back in her body lying against an alley wall with the now material Duncan watching her with a look of concern. "Are you OK?" he asks. "Well that was kind of intense, but I'm fine. You should be all right as well. That spirit isn't going to bother you again." "I feel like I should repay you somehow. " "I wouldn't say no to some lunch." "Anywhere in particular?" "There's a Thai place that I saw earlier today that looked pretty good. Let's go there." Tamora would have been a bit surprised to discover that at least one person in the restaurant recognized her from when she grabbed Romeyn in front of the restaurant. A little girl named Kwaunfah. But that is a story for another day.
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