The name of this Discipline comes from the Japanese phrase getsumei no michi, which translates roughly as “the moonlit path.” It comes from an apocryphal poetic exchange between two Tokugawa-era Burakumin who were master and student. Out of revenge for an undeserved slight, the bitter, ill-tempered student considered desecrating the body of a deceased son of an influential governor whose wealth had long supported a haughty Ventrue Prince. The Burakumin’s wise master replied only, “We can’t do as you say. The governor’s son is already picking plum blossoms along the moonlit path.” As the story goes, the shambling corpse of the son returned to the governor’s mansion late that evening to kill three of the governor’s concubines and four of his remaining children before being cut down by the mansion’s guards.
As the exchange relates to the story, so does the name relate to the Discipline in the way its genteel seeming refers to something distasteful and ugly. This Discipline arises from the profession of handling and preparing the dead for burial, turning an already spiritually unclean undertaking into a perverse and ongoing desecration. With it, a Burakumin can learn secrets from the corpses of dead men, harvest parts of corpses as disgusting tools, and even imbue dead bodies with a false semblance of life.
This most basic application of Getsumei grew from one of the traditionally accepted responsibilities of the burakumin class. It mystically halts the effects of decomposition in a dead body and renders it suitable for other effects of higher levels. A recently deceased body can be perfectly preserved for years without need of chemicals, and even a badly decayed body can be granted a solid structural integrity that makes it useful for the high-level effects of this Discipline.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Composure + Medicine + Getsumei
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The body (or parts) that the character tries to preserve rot instantly into useless dust.
Failure:
The corpse is not mystically preserved.
Success:
The corpse is mystically preserved (or held together) for a period of one month per success rolled. After that time is up, the character must use the power again, lest the corpse pick up rotting where it left off.
Exceptional Success:
As a success, but the duration of the effect is one year per success.
Moonlit Preservation does not repair damage done to a corpse, nor does it make a corpse any more resistant to damage, but it can (for instance) hold every bone of a skeleton together in its proper orientation without requiring any ligaments or other tissue. It is not strictly necessary to use this power on corpses in order to use high-level effects on them — nor does doing so confer any bonuses to corpses affected by high-level powers. If the Burakumin does not use Moonlit Preservation, however, he has to connect any disjoined flesh and bone by mundane physical means such as bolts, needle and thread, leather straps or wire, lest his animated creations fall apart under mundane physical stress.
This power has no effect on Kindred, only on actual, dead corpses.
This power allows a Burakumin to stare into the eyes of a corpse and see reflected there the last thing the dead man witnessed. The vision appears only in the eyes of the cadaver and is visible to no one except the character using this power. This effect cannot be used on the corpses of supernatural creatures (such as other Kindred or werewolves) or on those of animals, and at least one eye must be relatively intact to reveal the vision. This power does not work on corpses that are currently under other Getsumei effects of a higher level.
Cost: None
Dice Pool: Wits + Investigation + Getsumei
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
Rather than gaining a clear impression of the circumstances of the subject’s death, the Burakumin is possessed by the confused and angry spirit of the dead man for the rest of the scene. The effect is similar to that of the sanguinary animism derangement (see p. 191).
Failure:
The Burakumin sees nothing more than the sightless eyes of a corpse staring at him.
Success:
The character receives a clear impression of what the corpse saw as it died, as well as the few moments that led up to the event.
Exceptional Success:
The character witnesses the entire scene leading up to the victim’s death just as the victim saw it, including up to an hour’s worth of time.
Should the character choose, he may go so far as to pluck out and devour one of the corpse’s eyes whole when using this power. If he does, he experiences the events that the dead person did (as described previously) as if they happen to him, based on the degree of successes rolled. Such a vision lasts only a turn’s time for the user, but can transmit up to an hour’s events in the dead person’s life. While experiencing the subject’s last moments, the vampire’s undead body enters a trance state similar to that of daytime slumber for one turn.
The Storyteller might require a player to roll Intelligence + Investigation after using this power successfully to interpret confusing events or ones that might have taken the victim completely by surprise.
The Burakumin slices away a token of a corpse’s flesh and uses it to mystically enhance his physical resistance. The token can be a one-inch by one-inch wafer of flesh, a whole adult tooth, a toe, a knucklebone or something comparable in size, and the character must hold it in his mouth or in a closed, bare fist for the duration of the effect.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Stamina + Athletics + Getsumei
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The character’s flesh bloats and imposes penalties as per success, but he gains no Armor for his efforts, and the token of flesh is consumed.
Failure:
Nothing happens, but the token of flesh is consumed.
Success:
The character suffers the penalties described below, but achieves one additional point of (grotesque) Armor per success, which lasts until the end of the scene.
Exceptional Success:
No additional effect, but the extra Armor is its own reward.
When a character employs this power, his flesh thickens, discolors and bloats like that of a decomposing corpse. The player suffers a -1 penalty on all Presence- and Manipulation-based rolls (excluding attempts to use Intimidation, and in addition to restrictions imposed by the Burakumin bloodline weakness and Nosferatu clan weakness). In exchange, the character receives the benefit of temporary Armor. Despite the somewhat uncomfortable bloating, this effect imposes no Defense or Speed penalties, though a character might find it difficult to fit his finger into the trigger-guard of a small pistol. Each success on the activation roll counts as Armor for the rest of the scene. The protection applies against all attacks types, whether melee or firearms. A character can use this power only once per scene, and only on himself. When the effect wears off, the token of necrotic flesh disintegrates and cannot be used again. This effect does not add to other armor the character might wear — the player must choose one or the other to employ as protection.
One of the most bizarre and useful powers available to the Burakumin, the Channel of Hasu-Ko enables a character to construct a tiny, autonomous servitor from the bodies of dead men. These servitor creatures appear as grotesque insects or deformed homunculi, and can be exceedingly useful as spies.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Dexterity + Crafts + Getsumei
Action: Instant (The act of building a Channel of HasuKo takes hours, of course, but the actual roll and expenditure that occurs at the end of that period is considered an instant action.)
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The character builds and animates the creature, but it goes berserk and attacks him.
Failure:
The character is left with an inanimate lump of rotting castoffs.
Success:
The creature comes to life and obeys the character’s spoken commands to the best of its ability and is able to ver- bally relate to its creator what it sees and does.
Exceptional Success:
Not only does the character create a Channel of Hasu-Ko, he may link his perceptions to its — seeing, hearing, smelling and tasting what it does. The character sacrifices awareness of his own surroundings, but is able to give the creature telepathic orders over any distance. Rolls to notice events transpiring in the vicinity of the vampire’s body suffer a -3 penalty, and he can do nothing else when sensing through his creation.
A creature animated by the Channel of Hasu-Ko travels with an eerie hopping gait, can climb walls like a spider and can speak in a tiny, hissing voice. Its traits are the same as those for a homunculus, listed on p. 225, with the following exceptions. The creation remains active for an entire night, breaking down into its component corpse parts as soon as the sun rises. It is as intelligent as the character who created it, capable of understanding conditional spoken orders, and capable of acting on its own out of self-preservation. A creature is also loyal to the Burakumin who creates it, and control cannot be usurped by another user of Getsumei. Mind-affecting Disciplines such as Animalism and Dominate do not work on a servant, nor does the Telepathy power of Auspex. The creature is largely unaffected by Nightmare and Majesty, but is unable to resist the effects of the Sovereignty power. It is also unable to penetrate the veil of Obfuscate. Additional Vitae expenditures may increase any of a creation’s Physical Attributes by one dot per Vitae.
A creature’s actions can be determined by the Storyteller to the player’s specifications, or the Storyteller may allow the player to determine the creature’s actions and make its dice rolls.
With this power, the Burakumin can command a number of dead bodies to rise and perform relatively simple functions. He can command them to carry heavy objects, attack individuals or groups, guard a door, dig a ditch, build a wall or do other fairly menial tasks. The corpses carry out their orders with rudimentary intelligence until the effect wears off or they are destroyed. Accomplishing the latter normally requires dismemberment, fire or utter pulverization.
Cost: 1 Vitae + 1 Willpower minimum (see below)
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Occult + Getsumei
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The character animates every corpse he intends to, but the unquiet spirits of the dead take control and wreak vengeance on him. Should they succeed, they collapse into lifelessness once again. Otherwise, if they aren’t destroyed, they collapse at the end of the night.
Failure:
The character does not animate any of the corpses.
Success:
The character animates one corpse per success on the activation roll, and they remain active until the next sunrise.
Exceptional Success:
As per success, but the corpses remain active until the next time sunlight actually touches them.
When the player makes the activation roll and requisite expenditures, the character must speak his commands immediately, and they must apply to every corpse animated in that use of the power. If the character wants to change orders later, before the effect of the power wears off, another Willpower point must be spent. If the character wishes to give corpses individual orders, one additional Willpower point must be spent for each corpse. Giving orders requires that the Kindred speaks to the dead in person — a Burakumin cannot change a corpse-servant’s orders from half a continent away or by telephone, for example.
Corpses animated with this power have Strength 3, Dexterity 2, Stamina 4, Brawl 2, Mental Attributes of 1 and Social Attributes of 0. Their Size and Speed factors equal those of a normal human being. They do not talk or respond to people who talk to them, but their eyes do track targets of their attention and they retain the basic awareness to perform such necessary actions as turning doorknobs, climbing steps, crawling through tight spaces and searching for hidden intruders. Animated corpses suffer only bashing damage from all attacks except fire, which causes aggravated damage. They do not suffer from wound penalties.
Mind-affecting Disciplines such as Animalism and Dominate do not work on corpses, nor does the Telepathy power of Auspex. Corpses are not affected by Nightmare or Majesty, but are unable to penetrate the veil of Obfuscate.
Characters cannot use this power to affect corpses that are already under the effect of someone else’s use of the Convocation of Hotoke. Nor can it be used on other vampires.