The default assumption is that Koldunic Sorcery is almost universal among Old Clan Tzimisce, fairly common among Sabbat Tzimisce, and nearly unheard of among all other clans. The school’s metaphysical connections to Kupala and to the lands permeated by that spirit increase the Difficulty by +1 on all Koldunic Sorcery rolls made on behalf of Kolduns who work their magic outside the territories of Eastern Europe.
The actual casting of Koldunic Sorcery requires more than a clumsy exertion of will. Such magic demands perfection of form and mastery of the appropriate lore. The caster’s player spends 1 blood point and rolls (Attribute) + Occult against a Difficulty of the power’s level + 3, with the specific Attribute listed for each Path or “Way.” Vampires always use the base Attribute, ignoring any bonuses gained from blood expenditure or other Disciplines. All Kolduns must select one of the Ways listed below as their primary Path.
Capable of great destruction and great healing, the earth is the womb of life and the sepulcher of death. It drinks all blood violently spilled upon its soil, and so mirrors the vampire. It is by association with the earth as a source of strength that a Koldun enacts zir will.
Attribute: Stamina
A Koldun invoking this power may command earth to rise in a spray of dirt and crawl up a victim’s legs. This power can only command soil, not stone, and may only target victims standing on the earth.
System: The Koldun may direct any patch of earth within a 100-foot/30-meter radius to ensnare a target for 2 turns per success rolled. Animated dirt ascends and constricts midway between the victim’s knees and hips, holding xem fast unless xe scores 5 successes on a Strength + Survival roll (Difficulty 6). It is also possible to use this power as an attack, in which case the grasping earth crushes once and then releases. Used in this manner, each success on the casting inflicts 1 level of Lethal damage. Such damage manifests as broken legs and crushed feet.
Drawing the essence of earth into zirself, a Koldun may gain a measure of its preternatural resilience. Under the effects of this power, a vampire’s skin resembles a horrid fusion of flesh and stone that cracks and flows impossibly with every movement.
System: A successful activation roll grants the Koldun 2 extra dots of Stamina for the rest of the scene. These dots are considered part of the character’s natural Stamina and may aid in any uses of that Attribute, including soak.
Expanding on the power of Grasping Soil, a Koldun may use this power to drag a victim into the earth. Ze needs only gesture and the soil beneath zir victim opens like the maw of a great beast. This power may ensnare any victim who stands upon the earth within 100 feet/30 meters of the Koldun.
System: Like Grasping Soil, every success on the activation roll leaves the victim immobile for 1 turn. However, the Difficulty of the Strength + Survival roll to break free increases to 8 and doing so still requires 5 successes. As the earth continues to shift and grasp while the power remains active, this roll must be made as a single (though repeatable) attempt rather than an extended test. In addition, beings trapped in the crushing pit suffer 1 level of Lethal damage each turn. Beings capable of soaking this damage may do so, but at Difficulty 7. At the end of the power’s duration, the earth yawns once more to release the victim.
As with Hungry Earth, the Koldun may direct the land to bury any target standing on the earth within a 100-foot/30-meter radius. Yet this power is far more benevolent in its intent, if no less disturbing in its manifestation. The soil ripples, parting and closing like some obscene womb as it draws the target a full yard beneath the surface. Living beings entombed in this fashion do not suffocate, as the enchanted soil pumps air from above in undulating breaths. Better still, the fertile essence of the earth presses upon xyr flesh and restores it to new health. Still, the process is highly disturbing and unnatural, especially as targets remain wholly aware in silent, helpless immobility for the full duration. It is possible for a Koldun to heal zirself with this power.
System: The player spends as many blood points as desired (which may require multiple turns depending on Generation) and makes the activation roll. Each success permits the earth to heal 2 levels of Bashing damage or 1 level of Lethal damage. Healing Aggravated damage requires 2 successes per level. The total number of health levels that may be restored with each use of this power is the number of blood points invested or the number of successes on the activation roll, whichever is lower. Any blood points spent beyond the number of successes drain away to no effect. The actual healing process takes 1 turn per Bashing level, 1 minute per Lethal level, and 1 hour per Aggravated level. Once the healing is complete or the power is interrupted through determined excavation, the earth expels the target back to the surface.
Mortals pray in fear when the mountains shake. They fear the wrath of the Old Gods, and rightfully so. This is not a power used lightly or capriciously, because it represents one of the greatest weapons available to Koldunic Sorcery.
System: This power requires a Willpower point in addition to the usual cost and activation roll. The Koldun smites the earth with zir fist, and zir anger flows through the soil to any target in zir line of sight. The quake erupts outward from that point, inflicting 10 dice of Lethal damage on everything and everyone in the area of effect. Most wooden structures collapse entirely and even buildings of concrete and steel may grow cracked and pitted with superficial damage from the shaking earth. This tremor lasts 1 turn and affects an area determined by the number of successes rolled. It is not possible to apply fewer successes than those rolled.
| Successes | Area |
|---|---|
| 1 | 1 house or single storefront |
| 2 | 5 lesser structures or a small city block |
| 3 | An entire side street or a large city block |
| 4 | Multiple square blocks or a large structure (like a stadium) |
| 5+ | An entire neighborhood or massive industrial complex |
Subtler than mastery over earth, this way evokes the air in the breath of the living and last rattle of a dying man. In stillness or motion, Koldun turn all aspects of air to zir unliving design.
Attribute: Perception
Even in their absence, Koldun instill deep fear in their servants. This power carries the vampire’s words on a light breeze and returns with the target’s reply. The vampire need only address the target by name and forcibly mimic a deep exhalation of breath as ze speaks zir message.
System: Every time the Koldun wishes to send a new message via this power, ze makes the usual activation roll. However, the Koldun need only spend blood the first time the power is used during a given scene. Each success permits 1 turn of speech. After the vampire concludes the message, swift winds carry it to its destination. Within a minute, the target hears the Koldun as if the vampire whispered in xyr ear. Xe may reply or remain silent, but anything xe says within a number of turns equal to the Koldun’s successes flies back to the Koldun. This power may bring words to anyone within a mile (1.5 kilometers) who is not in a sealed room. While using this power, a Koldun must concentrate fully. Any disturbance breaks the communication.
Vengeful Koldun sought to invoke a wind as chill as air atop the Carpathian Mountains. This power achieves that end, unleashing a cutting wind that can freeze a man’s blood in his veins as it swirls through an area of zir choosing. Besides its obvious combat applications, this power also facilitates a dramatic entrance for those so inclined.
System: With a successful activation roll, the Koldun summons a freezing wind within a maximum of a 100-yard/meter radius. Anyone caught in this frigid blast suffers 1 die of Bashing damage each turn (which may be soaked normally), loses 2 dice from all Dexterity pools, and moves at half normal speed. The winds last as long as the Koldun wills, provided ze maintains concentration. Any non-reflexive actions on the part of the vampire cause the winds to still and dissipate. This includes any movement.
Although they cannot induce immediate sleep, the winds evoked by this power bring growing exhaustion and numbing weariness through every muscle. Victims of this power often smell a hint of bittersweet smoke before they fall entranced.
System: For 2 turns per success, the Koldun creates a wind inflicting extreme lethargy within a 200-foot/60-meter radius. Characters caught in this wind must roll Stamina + Survival (Difficulty 8). This roll is made once every 10 minutes of exposure. Failure means the character halves all dice pools involving physical actions for the remaining duration of the wind and halves all movement rates for the scene. A botch puts the character to sleep (or a state of light torpor for vampires) for the scene. Sleeping characters awaken if prodded, shaken, or otherwise manhandled, though they move slowly and may suffer halved dice pools if the wind persists.
A Koldun employing this power moves at incredible speeds as ze rides along the winds. While traveling with this power, a vampire assumes a blurred form that coalesces as ze reaches zir destination.
System: With a successful activation roll, the Koldun fades into the wind and flies at 250 mph/400 kph to zir destination. This power cannot effectively function in caves, buildings, or other enclosed areas. Outside, the vampire’s flight navigates all obstacles. Once the Koldun arrives at zir destination or the scene ends, the vampire descends to earth and solidifies.
Applying fury magnified by blood and will, a Koldun may project the full measure of zir anger into the night sky. Churning gray clouds blot out stars and moon, unleashing spiraling gusts and a driving downpour of freezing rain. Lightning arcs overhead, with each thunderous flash casting jagged shadows.
System: With a successful activation roll and a point of Willpower (in addition to the usual blood), a Koldun may conjure a terrible storm. It takes 6 hours for the clouds to gather and thicken overhead, minus 1 hour for every success rolled. If this results in a duration of less than 1 hour, the clouds blossom outward from directly overhead like a black canopy, filling the sky in mere minutes. Once the clouds form, the rain begins to fall in torrents and the lightning begins. The storm persists at full strength for 1 hour per success rolled. It gradually dissipates over the hour following that. During the peak of its fury, the storm may cause flooding and certainly chills any exposed mortal to the bone (1 die of unsoakable Bashing damage for every 5 minutes of full exposure). Lightning strikes regularly, far more than a usual storm. Indeed, for a cost of 1 Willpower point, a Koldun may direct lightning at a foe using their Perception + Occult (Difficulty 6). A successful strike inflicts 10 dice of Lethal damage (which can be soaked normally). Only 1 such attack may be made each turn.
Largely practiced by Koldun with havens near a large water source, this way can raise watery spirit slaves and dash a ship to splinters. More subtly, the vampire may lurk in the depths or conjure illusions to confound and dazzle zir foes.
Attribute: Wits
This versatile power creates three-dimensional illusions along the surface of a water source. How a Koldun uses such illusions depends on zir temperament and will. It is just as easy to feign a divine visitation as a cunning seduction.
System: With a successful activation roll, the Koldun may project an illusion on any water surface in line of sight. The illusion may speak and move however the vampire wishes, though it has no substance and cannot step beyond the bounds of the water. The phantom lasts 1 turn per success rolled, after which it slowly dissipates into fine mist. It is possible to extend this lifespan with subsequent activations of the power, each of which stack in determining final duration. Rolls to extend an illusion’s duration add 1 to the base Difficulty, but require no blood. Once an illusion fades away, it must be cast anew.
Just as the Gangrel meld with the earth, so may a Koldun with this power sink beneath the water to escape the sun. The vampire does not so much submerge as merge with the water. Though zir slumbering form may be visible at odd angles from above, only the most determined splashing can disturb zir rest.
System: This power requires no blood. If the player gains 2 or more successes on the activation roll, the vampire sinks into the water as per the Protean power Earth Meld. A body of water must be at least 2 feet deep and as large in other dimensions as the vampire’s body to contain zir. Catching a glimpse of a hidden Koldun in the water requires a successful Perception + Alertness roll (Difficulty 8).
Moving with the unnatural grace of a ghost, a Koldun employing this power may stride across water as readily as land, leaving nary a ripple to mark zir passing. Some vampires delight in using this power in conjunction with Pool of Lies to conjure phantasms to attend them.
System: For every success on the activation roll, the Koldun may walk on water for 1 scene or 1 hour, whichever is longer. A Koldun may choose to drop the effects of this power in order to submerge or swim; however, the vampire may not walk on water again unless ze reactivates the power.
By dripping zir blood into a body of water, a Koldun may summon or rouse embodied water elementals to serve zir for a night. Such minions are infallibly loyal, if not especially clever. Despite their liquid form, they are solid enough to grab a man and drag him to a watery grave or pummel him like the crashing surf.
System: The player spends 1 Willpower point and makes the standard activation roll. With success, the player may spend blood to summon elemental minions. This blood must be dripped or flung into a body of water, which may require multiple turns depending on Generational limits for blood expenditure.
Once the last drop of blood falls, the water rises into whatever form the Koldun desires. The caster may create as many minions as blood points spent, though not more than the total number of successes rolled. Regardless of their form, the spirits have a rating equal to the vampire’s Wits in all Traits. These beings have no Knowledges and no Skills apart from Stealth. Furthermore, their Mental and Social Attributes are considered to have a rating of 1 except in passive or defensive situations (such as to resist persuasion or mind-control).
Water elementals soak and otherwise suffer damage as vampires, including from sunlight. Fire harms them less, inflicting Bashing damage only. Moreover, the watery creatures may extinguish flames with their liquid bodies, though not without suffering injury. An elemental who leaves the body of water that spawned it suffers 1 level of Aggravated damage per hour. Minions regenerate 1 level of damage of any kind (including Aggravated) each turn they remain in contact with a large body of water, but do not otherwise heal. Unless destroyed, summoned minions last until the next dawn before collapsing into inanimate puddles.
Many ships lie at the bottom of the Black Sea, shattered by the whirlpools of the Koldun. Victims of this power must fight with every ounce of their strength or fall into the whirling, airless depths below.
System: The player spends a Willpower point in addition to the usual blood. For every success on the activation roll, the resulting whirlpool has a radius of 5 feet/1.5 meters, centered anywhere in the vampire’s line of sight. Whirlpools have a base Strength of 15, increasing by 5 dots per success after the first. Victims must successfully oppose this Strength with their own Strength + Survival (Difficulty 8) in order to break free. Those who fail are sucked into the depths and pounded with crushing currents. Living beings drown normally, while vampires and other non-breathing creatures simply remain trapped helplessly in the vortex. This power lasts for 1 scene.
The ancient anathema of vampires, the element of fire offers the most powerful and dangerous tool available to Koldun. The Way of Fire shares aspects with the Way of Earth, in that it focuses more on magma and fiery rock than pure, naked flame.
Attribute: Manipulation
No vampire can master an element they fear, so this power dims that fear to a mere ember of its former intensity.
System: Once learned, this power is permanent and requires no activation roll or blood. The Koldun subtracts zir rating in the Way of Fire from the Difficulty of Courage rolls to resist Rötschreck from exposure or proximity to flame. This power does not aid in resisting the panic that accompanies sunlight or any other causes apart from actual fire. If this reduces the Difficulty of a Courage roll below 2, the Koldun simply does not succumb to the Red Fear. Koldun never risk Rötschreck from fire and magma they conjure.
The Cainite’s eyes flash vivid orange with sorcerous power as superheated air coils around the target. In moments, the target bursts into spontaneous flame.
System: For every success on the activation roll, the target suffers 1 level of Aggravated damage. This attack may be dodged, but not blocked, and can affect living (or unliving) beings at +2 Difficulty. It is only possible to make 1 fiery attack per turn.
The Koldun raises zir hand and the earth splits, spraying a wall of glowing magma 10 feet/3 meters high. Normally, this wall forms a 10-foot/3-meter radius circle around the vampire, although the sorcerer can raise other shapes with practice and skill.
System: The wall of magma summoned with this power has a lifespan of 2 turns per success rolled. If the Koldun wishes to release the magma along a shape other than a protective circle, increase the base Difficulty by 1. Characters cannot approach a wall of molten rock without a Courage roll (Difficulty 8), and even then, the close blistering heat inflicts a level of Aggravated damage. Actual contact with the lava increases the damage to 3 levels and raises the soak Difficulty to 9, assuming any sort of soak is possible. The Koldun takes no damage from zir proximity to the summoned magma (although contact with it still damages zir as normal).
The Koldun acts as a conduit for steam geysers and channels a blast of desiccating air at a victim within line of sight. This fiery wind appears as a rippling heat wave enveloping the victim. Individuals slain with this gruesome power appear as withered, mummified husks.
System: On a successful activation roll, the victim suffers 5 levels of Lethal damage that may be soaked by beings capable of such. Vampire targets also lose 5 blood points, regardless of the damage inflicted.
At the final mastery of Way of Fire, a Koldun commands lava to explode from the ground in a huge geyser. The molten rock spews across a wide swath before crashing to earth and flowing in all directions. Anything in the path of the molten rock burns, melts, or vaporizes within moments. The caster may direct the lava to erupt anywhere in zir line of sight.
System: This power costs 1 Willpower point in addition to a blood point. For every success on the activation roll, the initial lava burst lasts 1 turn. The rivers of burning liquid rock then flow sluggishly for twice this duration before suddenly cooling and hardening. Even if an object survives the heat, it now lies trapped beneath the rock. Anything that makes contact with lava (including the Koldun) suffers a minimum of 3 levels of Aggravated damage. For objects that don’t have health levels, the Storyteller must decide how many turns they last before melting or erupting into their own inferno. A botch on this power opens the lava geyser under an unintended target, possibly the Koldun zirself.
This Path is rarely found outside of Old Clan Tzimisce, whose members still stalk the same ancestral lands as their sires and their sires’ sires. But it has utility even for Sabbat Tzimisce, and so its knowledge spreads even to more cosmopolitan clanmates. The Path allows the Koldun to diffuse zir perceptions across an increasingly large area. If the magic is performed correctly, the Koldun will be able to perceive potentially everything that takes place in the affected area (which might be many square miles), though opening one’s self up fully to such awareness is dangerous for all but the most strong-willed Kolduns. Instead, most reflexively limit their perceptions to “all intruders” or “all potential feeding vessels” as they desire, and even the most perceptive Koldun might miss something important if ze has inadvertently excluded it from zir gaze. While the power is active, the Koldun may also target any location or person ze can perceive with any other Koldunic Sorcery power or ritual, provided that the rating of the Path power or ritual does not exceed that of the Koldun’s rating in the Way of the Spirit. This power also defeats the use of Obfuscate by any Kindred within the area of effect.
Attribute: Perception
| ●○○○○ | The Koldun can perceive everything within a 50-foot/20-meter radius. |
| ●●○○○ | ...within a 100-yard/meter radius. |
| ●●●○○ | ...within a 1/4-mile/half-kilometer radius. |
| ●●●●○ | ...within a mile/1.5-kilometer radius. |
| ●●●●● | ...within a 5-mile/8-kilometer radius |
The number of successes on the activation roll determines how many successive scenes the effect lasts. If activated before the sun rises, the Koldun’s awareness can extend into the daylight hours, and the Koldun suffers no negative effects from monitoring zir lands during the day. Ze does still suffer the usual dice penalties for taking any other actions during the day.
While a part of the broader Koldunic school, this Path does not overtly rely upon a direct connection to Kupala. Rather, it invokes a number of curses in the name of various pre-Christian Slavic deities. Then again, some Tzimisce scholars speculate that at least some of those deities are themselves merely aspects of the being which calls itself Kupala. All of these effects require the Koldun to be able to directly perceive the target. They cannot generally be used at range through sympathetic magic, but they can be used against a distant target whom the Koldun can perceive through powers such as the Way of the Spirit or Scry.
Attribute: Manipulation
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