Anti-Vampire Ritual

Anti-Vampire Ritual -OR- Bitter Root Mystic Basic 180 hours Requires: any two Blood or Grave spells Students of Vampire lore may be aware that a spike made from the wood of a rosebush may be used to stake a Vampire. What few know however, is that no common stake will do; it must be first properly enchanted. Roses make for lousy impaling weapons anyway.

There are a few important caveats that must be remembered for the Bitter Root enchantment. The shaft must be at least three-quarters of an inch thick, and no fewer than four inches long. It may be capped and reinforced with metal, but only if the alloy contains some silver (also lousy for piercing a breast bone) and the runes carved into the side of the spike must remain exposed. Furthermore, Vampire blood has a ruinous effect on the stake. If it does not immediately find a home in the heart, it becomes blackened and ruined within scant seconds. A Bitter Root spike is a one-shot weapon, so you'd better make it good. Needless to say, one that has been pulled out of its target's chest cannot simply be replaced in the wound and have any effect.

One additional and ironic complication plagues this anti-Vampire weapon. Sunlight, that greatest bane of their kind, also destroys the magic of the Bitter Root. If it is ever in direct sunlight, its enchantment will fail forever the following dawn.

The enchantment ritual takes six hours. It involves such purifying substances as fresh clean water, ash, and salt. The stylus used to carve the runes must also be purified with each separate enchantment (part of the six hours), and is forever tainted if it ever touches blood--living or otherwise.

Once the Bitter Rose spike has pierced a Vampires heart--and no other location will do--the Undead lies paralysed. Normally, a stake serves as a physical impediment, nailing the Vampire to the ground. It may otherwise act and remains a dangerous foe. Placing the spike in the heart is no easy matter. Vampires are both tough and fast, and the breast bone is not easily punctured by soft wood.

A stabbed Vampire must make a saving throw against paralysis at a 19 or better. This means that--without additional bonuses--the Vampire must make a critical success on the saving throw. Once failed, it is helpless until the stake is removed. Though any blood other than the heart's rapidly destroys the spike, if it is properly in place the Vampire's own immortality will prevent even normal decay of the wood. Unless the spike is removed by an outside agency, the Vampire will remain unmoving until it is destroyed, or until the heat-death of the universe, whichever comes first.

It must be noted that a paralysed Vampire is still aware, though unmoving. It cannot make use of any psionic or shapeshifting talents while so staked. Further, the Vampire remains just as vulnerable to hunger, sunlight, or its fellow Undead. A Vampire may still attempt other saving throws while paralysed, as long as these don't involve it actually doing anything other than passively resisting.

Other types of corporeal Undead can be affected by the Bitter Root, but these are separate variants of the ritual. A stake designed to stop a Vampire cannot be used against a zombie, or vice-versa. These variants only have a saving throw of 16.