The Ash Path

• Shroud Sight

  Level 1

  The Shadowlands lies superimposed over the real world like an echo of things long past. Buildings that have been torn down are still standing; carriages rush past on ghostly streets; walls, furniture, and even forested areas still exist where the modern world shows no sign of their presence. Through the use of Shroud Sight, you can see into the Shadowlands as easily as looking at the present world.

  Once purchased, this power is always active. You can see and sense the Shadowlands around you, perceiving the echoes of the past that still linger in that other world. You can notice wraiths in the Shadowlands, but you are granted no special ability to communicate with them. If a wraith speaks a language you know, then you can have discourse with it.

• Stygian Lance

  Level 4

  Deep within the Shadowlands, powerful tempests and storms ravage the sepia-toned landscape, ranging from rains of plasm to lightning-flashes of soulfire. You can unleash this fell power, hurling a lance of pure oblivion toward your enemies.

  Spend 1 Blood and use a standard action to hurl a bolt of plasm from the tempests of the Shadowlands. Make an opposed challenge using your Social attribute + Occult versus the target’s Physical attribute + Dodge. If successful, this attack deals 3 points of normal damage, and it can strike individuals in the Shadowlands – including wraiths, physical travelers, and individuals whose souls have been stolen – as well as those on the physical plane.

• Ex Nihilo

  Level 5

  The necromancer who has mastered the Ash Path has also mastered the Shroud. You can cross the border between the Shadowlands and the physical world as easily as others might open a door and step through.

  By focusing on a familiar destination, spending 1 Blood, and chanting for five full turns, you can travel into and through the Shadowlands. You can bring up to three of your zombie minions (Shambling Hordes or other such Retainers) with you on this journey.

  Time and distance are subjective in the Shadowlands, and it always takes four hours to arrive at your destination, no matter how far you travel in the real world. You can shorten the time it takes to arrive at your chosen location by sacrificing an undead servant, either a zombie or wraith, to the Tempest after you enter Ex Nihilo. For each such Retainer you destroy, your journey takes one hour less to complete. If you sacrifice all three of your zombie or wraith servants, you reduce your travel time to one hour.

  Alternately, you can enter the Shadowlands without intent to travel. Instead, you may lurk beyond the Shroud and spy on the living world. While in the Shadowlands, you see the real world as a hazy shadow of itself. This allows you to have a general understanding of events around you, but it is difficult to pick out details or overhear conversations. Unfortunately, the Medium merit does not work in reverse to allow you to hear and witness the physical world as you would the Shadowlands. A character can return to the physical world by concentrating for five turns. This transition is slow and noticeable, as the individual slowly comes into focus, gaining solidity as she eases her way back through the Shroud.

  You cannot bring anyone with you through the Shadowlands, other than your zombie minions. This power can be particularly dangerous if there are hostile wraiths, such as spectres, in the Shadowlands. Such creatures can attack you while you are on their plane. This encounter is treated in all ways like a normal conflict. While in the Shadowlands, you cannot use powers (including Necromancy powers) on targets in the real world.