Level 5:
Shaft of belated dissolution
The Kindred fear few weapons as they fear the dreaded stake created by this ritual. Thought to be the origin of the myth regarding stakes as the ultimate tool for slaying vampires, the Shaft of Belated Dissolution not only seeks out the heart of the vampire it’s aimed at but actually causes Final Death when reaching its target. If need be, the Shaft works toward this goal as a splinter, inching its way through the target vampire’s body to reach its goal.
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Ingredients: A stake carved of rowan wood, inscribed with baneful runes.
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Process: The caster drenches the stake with two Rouse Checks worth of their Blood, while blackening it in an oak-wood fire while reading incantations over it. The ritual takes five hours to complete.
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■ System: This stake confers a three-dice bonus to any pool on any attempt to stake a vampire, whether hammered in while the victim sleeps, wielded in melee, or fired from a crossbow. The caster need not wield the stake themselves. If the attack roll wins with a margin of five or better, the vampire withers to dust in a single turn as if consumed by an invisible fire. If the stake hits, but the roll has insufficient margin (under five)
to pierce the heart, the stake breaks off in the wound, the tip burying itself as it slowly begins to inch its way toward the heart of the victim. Depending on where it struck this can take hours or nights, but unless extracted by medical or mystical means, Final Death is assured. To remove it surgically someone other than the victim needs to win a roll of Dexterity + Medicine (Difficulty 6) in a process that takes up to four hours. If no medical expertise can be found, someone can remove the splinter by severing the afflicted limb – unless the splinter has already reached the torso.