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127 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION Chapter Four: Disciplines Disciplines are supernatural powers granted by the Embrace, which vampires cultivate to bring to bear against their foes and prey. These powers separate the Damned from mortals, providing an incomparable mys-tical edge over those who would stand against them. With Disciplines, a vampire can exert the strength of a dozen men, force an enemy into thrall, ignite a fire with a glance, or take the mantle of a beast. Even the youngest Kindred, with a few token powers at his com-mand, has an advantage over most threats, while the elders, who have often mastered a fearsome breadth of these potent gifts, can seem almost unassailable. The origin of Disciplines is a Kindred mystery. Are they a form of dark Biblical justice, bestowed upon Caine and his get as a damnation-scourge? Are they the wiles of a twisted natural world, taught by Lilith, the mother of monsters? Are they simply predatory advantages, intrinsic to the state of being Kindred? Whatever the answer, learning and honing these su-pernatural powers is paramount to being able to face undeath on a vampire's own terms. After all, the other forces at play in the Jyhad will be cultivating theirs.... Like other Traits, Disciplines are rated in progressive dots. A rating of one dot indicates that the Discipline Elder Discipline Powers (6+) Discipline powers at a rating of 6 and higher sometimes feature multiple powers at various lev-els; in such cases, the vampire increasing in power simply chooses which one she wants. Some Disci-plines have more options than others; usually, this means there are more commonly known applica-tions of those Disciplines. If the character wants to purchase the other option or options later, she can spend additional experience as if buying the same dot in the Discipline again to acquire it. Storytellers may also allow players to create their own elder Discipline powers, if they desire. It should be noted that 6-dot and higher powers can be abused to stomp a well-crafted chronicle into tiny little pieces. These potent abilities are often difficult (but not impossible) to acquire, so Storytellers should consider the impact that high-level Disciplines might have on their chronicles before allowing them at all. 127 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION"When my energies first surged through me, I discovered how to move like lightning, how to borrow the strength of the earth, how to be as stone. These were like breathing once was to me. " -The Book of Nod
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128 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES in question has barely been awakened, while a rating of six dots or higher indicates mastery beyond the capac-ity of most neonates and even ancillae. As a character increases her rating in a Discipline, she gains access to the powers listed next to the appropriate number of dots, as well as retaining access to lesser powers. As with other Traits, Discipline levels of higher than five dots are available only to those Kindred of Generations seven and lower (see p. 270). Note: Unless stated in the description, Disciplines cost no blood or Willpower points to activate. Animalism The Beast resides within all creatures, from scut-tling cockroaches to scabrous rats up through untamed wolves and even powerful Kindred elders. Animalism allows the vampire to amplify his intensely primordial nature. He can not only communicate with animals, but can also force his will upon them, directing such beasts to do as he commands. As the vampire grows in power, he can even control the Beast within mortals and other supernaturals. Beasts grow distinctly agitated in the presence of a vampire who lacks this Discipline or the Skill of Ani-mal Ken, often to the point of attacking or running from the vampire. In contrast, vampires possessing Animalism exude a dominant vibe to lower creatures, which attracts them. Animalism is commonly found with vampires of the Gangrel and Nosferatu Clans. Manipulation and Cha-risma are important for the use of Animalism powers; the stronger the vampire's personality, the more influ-ence he has over animals. Storytelling Animals It can be difficult for the Storyteller to use animals as something more than a plot device whenever a character tries to communicate with them. It's easy to fall back on monosyl-labic speech and easily led creatures in order to get the story moving along. And indeed, animals are simpler than humans-they focus on the present and are directed by instincts instead of complex goals and elaborate schemes. However, simple doesn't necessar-ily mean stupid; animals need cunning and perception to survive, and both can be of great use to a vampire master. Storytellers can make animals dynamic, interesting characters that bring a lot to the chronicle, or they can quickly gloss over the finer points of their characterization to get back to the more press-ing conflicts in the chronicle. Statistics for certain animals are found in Chapter Nine, p. 388. Advancing Disciplines Players begin the game with three dots to spend on their characters' Clan Disciplines, which are listed with each Clan description in Chapter Two. Caitiff may place their three dots on any Disciplines they like, subject to the Storyteller's discretion. Characters may also acquire Disciplines other than those commonly taught by their Clan, provided they spend the proper freebie or experience points and have access to a vampiric teacher (again, subject to the Storyteller's discre-tion). Learning a new out-of-clan Discipline requires that the teacher feeds the student a point of their blood before instruction begins, to start the mystical tie to the Discipline be-ing taught. Improving knowledge of a Disci-pline already known does not require such a transfer (although some unscrupulous teach-ers may claim that it's still necessary). Storytellers may decide that certain Disci-plines are more or less difficult to acquire, de-pending on their chronicle. For example, it's generally easier for a Kindred to learn a com-mon power like Potence (which many Clans share) rather than Thaumaturgy (which is generally the domain of the Tremere and a few other bloodlines), but a chronicle set en-tirely around the storming and acquisition of a rogue Tremere chantry may find that Thau-maturgy is much easier to learn and acquire.
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129 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION Feral Whispers This power is the basis from which all other Animal-ism abilities grow. The vampire creates an empathic connection with a beast, thereby allowing him to com-municate or issue simple commands. The Kindred locks eyes with the animal, transmitting his desires through sheer force of will. Although it isn't necessary to actu-ally “speak” in chirps, hisses, or barks, some vampires find that doing so helps strengthen the connection with the animal. Eye contact must be maintained the entire time; if it's broken, the Kindred must re-estab-lish contact to continue communication. The simpler the creature, the more difficult it be-comes to connect with the animal's Beast. Mammals, predatory birds, and larger reptiles are relatively easy to communicate with. Insects, invertebrates, and most fish are just too simple to connect with. Feral Whispers provides no guarantees that an animal will want to deal with the vampire, nor does it ensure that the animal will pursue any requests the vampire makes of it. Still, it does at least make the creature bet-ter disposed toward the Kindred. The manner in which the vampire presents his desires to the animal often de-pends on the type of creature. A Kindred can often bully smaller beasts into heeding commands, but he's better off couching orders for large predators as requests. If the vampire successfully uses the power, the ani-mal performs the command to the best of its ability and intellect. Only the very brightest creatures understand truly complex directives (orders dealing with con-ditional situations or requiring abstract logic). Com-mands that the animal does understand remain deeply implanted, however, and guide its behavior for some time. System: No roll is necessary to talk with an ani-mal, but the character must establish eye contact (see p. 152) first. Issuing commands requires a Manipula-tion + Animal Ken roll. The difficulty depends on the creature: Predatory mammals (wolves, cats, vampire bats) are difficulty 6, other mammals and predatory birds (rats, owls) are difficulty 7, and other birds and reptiles (pigeons, snakes) are difficulty 8. This difficulty is reduced by one if the character speaks to the animal in its “native tongue,” and can be adjusted further by circumstances and roleplaying skill (we highly recom-mend that all communication between characters and animals be roleplayed).
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130 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESThe number of successes the player achieves dictates how strongly the character's command affects the ani-mal. One success is sufficient to have a cat follow an individual and lead the character to the same location, three successes are enough to have a raven spy on a target for weeks, and five successes ensure that a grizzly ferociously guards the entrance to the character's wil-derness haven for some months. The character's Nature plays a large part in how he approaches these conversations. The character might try intimidating, teasing, cajoling, or rationalizing. The player should understand that he does not simply play his character in these situations, but the Beast Within as well. Using this power cannot force an animal to do some-thing against its nature, or to force a creature to risk its life. While the aforementioned grizzly would stand guard to the vampire's haven and even fight for it, it would not do so against obviously superior numbers or something overwhelmingly supernatural. A predatory bird might be convinced to harry a target, but would definitely not hold ground. A docile dog or skittish cat would have no problem with reporting something it had seen, but it wouldn't enter combat unless given no other option — though it would likely agree to stand and fight and then flee at the first opportunity, if a harsh Kindred demanded it. Beckoning The vampire's connection to the Beast grows strong enough that he may call out in the voice of a specific type of animal — howling like a wolf, shrilling like a raven, etc. This call mystically summons creatures of the chosen type. Since each type of animal has a dif-ferent call, Beckoning works for only a single species at a time. All such animals within earshot are summoned, and some percentage of them will heed the Beckoning if it is successful. While the vampire has no further control over the beasts who answer, the animals who do are favorably disposed toward him and are at least willing to listen to the Kindred's concerns. (The vampire can then use Feral Whispers on individual animals to com-mand them, which may be at a decreased difficulty at Storyteller discretion. ) System: The player rolls Charisma + Survival (dif-ficulty 6) to determine the response to the character's call; consult the table below. Only animals that can hear the cry will respond. If the Storyteller decides no animals of that type are within earshot, the summons goes unanswered. The call can be as specific as the player desires. A character could call for all bats in the area, for only the male bats nearby, or for only the albino bat with the notched ear he saw the other night. Successes Result 1 success A single animal responds. 2 successes One-quarter of the animals within earshot respond. 3 successes Half of the animals respond. 4 successes Most of the animals respond. 5 successes All of the animals respond. Quell the Beast As the supreme predators of the natural world, Kin-dred are highly attuned to the bestial nature that dwells within every mortal heart. A vampire who develops this power may assert his will over a mortal (animal or human) subject, subduing the Beast within her. This quenches all powerful, strong emotions — hope, fury, love, fear — within the target. The Kindred must ei-ther touch his subject or stare into her eyes to channel his will effectively. Mortals who lack the fire of their inner Beasts are quite tractable, reacting to even stressful situations with indifference. Even the most courageous or mad-dened mortal becomes apathetic and listless, while an especially sensitive individual may suffer from a phobic derangement while under the power's influence. Different Clans evoke this power in different ways, though the effect itself is identical. Tzimisce call it Cowing the Beast, since they force the mortal's weaker spirit to shrivel in fear before the Kindred's own inner Beast. Nosferatu refer to it as Song of Serenity, since they soothe the subject's Beast into a state of utter complacency, thus allowing them to feed freely. Gan-grel know the power as Quell the Beast, and force the mortal spirit into a state of fear or apathy as befits the individual vampire's nature. System: The player rolls Manipulation + Intimida-tion if forcing down the Beast through fear, or Manipu-lation + Empathy if soothing it into complacency. The
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131 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONdifficulty of the roll is 7 in either case. This is an ex-tended action requiring as many total successes as the target has Willpower. Failure indicates that the player must start over from the beginning, while a botch in-dicates that the vampire may not affect that subject's Beast for the remainder of the scene. When a mortal's Beast is cowed or soothed, she can no longer use or regain Willpower. She ceases all strug-gles, whether mental or physical. She doesn't even defend herself if assaulted, though the Storyteller may allow a Willpower roll if the mortal believes her life is truly threatened. To recover from this power, the mor-tal's player rolls Willpower (difficulty 6) once per day until she accumulates enough successes to equal the vampire's Willpower. Kindred cannot be affected by this power. Though a vampire's Beast cannot be cowed with this ability, the Storyteller may allow characters to use the “soothing” variation of this power to pull a vampire out of frenzy. With three or more successes, the frenzying vampire may roll again to pull herself out of frenzy, us-ing the same difficulty as the stimulus that caused the frenzy originally. Subsume the Spirit By locking his gaze with that of an animal, the vam-pire may mentally possess the creature. Some elders be-lieve that since animals don't have souls but spirits, the vampire can move his own soul into the animal's body. Many younger vampires think it a matter of transfer-ring one's consciousness into the animal's mind. In ei-ther case, it's agreed that the beast's weaker spirit (or mind) is pushed aside by the Kindred's own conscious-ness. The vampire's body falls into a motionless state akin to torpor while his mind takes control of the ani-mal's actions, remaining this way until the Kindred's consciousness returns. Some haughty Tzimisce eschew this power, consider-ing it debasing to enter the body of a lesser creature. When they do stoop to using it, they possess only pred-ators. Conversely, Gangrel revel in connecting to the natural world in this way. They delight in sampling dif-ferent animals' natures. System: The player rolls Manipulation + Animal Ken (difficulty 8) as the character looks into the ani-mal's eyes (see sidebar on p. 152). The number of suc-cesses allows the character to employ some mental Dis-ciplines while possessing the animal, as noted below. Successes Result 1 success Cannot use Disciplines 2 successes Can use Auspex and other sensory powers 3 successes Can also use Presence and other powers of emotional manipulation 4 successes Can also use Dementation, Dominate, and other powers of mental manipulation 5 successes Can also use Chimerstry, Necromancy, Thaumaturgy, and other mystical powers This power entwines the character's consciousness closely with the animal's spirit, so much so that the character may continue to think and feel like that ani-mal even after breaking the connection. This effect continues until the character spends a total of seven nights or three Willpower points to resist and finally overcome the animal nature. This should be role-played, though the character will be affected to a lesser degree if the player chooses to spend Willpower. At the end of any particularly exciting incident dur-ing possession, the player rolls Wits + Empathy (diffi-culty 8) for the character to retain his own mind. Fail-ure indicates that the character's mind returns to his own body, but still thinks in purely animalistic terms. A botch returns the character to his body, and also sends him into frenzy. The character may travel as far from his own physical body as he chooses while possessing the animal. The character retains no conscious connection with his vampire body during this time, though. The vampire may also venture out during the day, albeit in the ani-mal's body. However, the character's own body must be awake to do so, requiring a successful roll to remain awake (see p. 262). If the character leaves the animal's body (by choice, if his body falls asleep, or after sus-taining significant injury), the vampire's consciousness returns to his physical form instantaneously. Although the vampire has no conscious link to his body while possessing the animal, he does form a sym-pathetic bond. Anything the animal feels, the vampire also experiences, from pleasure to pain. In fact, any damage the animal's body sustains is also applied to the character's body, though the Kindred body may soak as normal. If the animal dies before the vampire's soul can flee from the body, the character's body falls into
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132 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINEStorpor. Presumably this is in sympathetic response to the massive trauma of death, but some Kindred believe that the vampire's soul is cast adrift during this time and must find its way back to the body. Drawing Out the Beast At this level of Animalism, the Kindred has a keen understanding of the Beast Within, and is able to re-lease his feral urges upon another mortal or vampire. The recipient of the vampire's Beast is instantly over-come by frenzy. This is an unnatural frenzy, however, as the victim is channeling the Kindred's own fury. As such, the vampire's own behavior, expressions, and even speech patterns are evident in the subject's sav-age actions. Gangrel and Tzimisce are especially fond of unleash-ing their Beasts onto others. Gangrel do so to stir their ghouls into inspired heights of savagery during combat. Tzimisce care less about who receives their Beast than retaining their own composure. System: The player must announce his preferred tar-get (since it must be someone within sight, Drawing Out the Beast cannot be used if the vampire is alone), then roll Manipulation + Self-Control/Instinct (diffi-culty 8). Refer to the table below for the results: Successes Result 1 success The character transfers the Beast, but unleashes it upon a random individual. 2 successes The character is stunned by the effort and may not act next turn, but transfers the Beast successfully. Alternatively, the character may act normally during the turn, but must spend a Willpower point or suffer a single level of lethal damage. 3+ successes The character transfers the Beast successfully. If the attempt fails, the character himself immedi-ately enters frenzy. As the character relaxes in expecta-tion of relieving his savage urges, the Beast takes that opportunity to dig deeper. In this case, the frenzy lasts twice as long as normal and is twice as difficult to shrug off; its severity also increases exponentially. Botch-ing this roll is even more catastrophic; the heightened frenzy grows so extreme that not even expending Will-power curbs its duration or effects. The character is a hapless victim to the terrible fury of his Beast, and may well hurl herself into a savage, flesh-rending rampage that leaves the Masquerade (and unfortunate nearby onlookers) in tatters. If the character leaves the target's presence before the frenzy expends itself, the vampire loses his Beast, perhaps permanently. While no longer vulnerable to frenzy, the character cannot use or regain Willpower and becomes increasingly lethargic. To recover the Beast, he must find the person who now possesses it (who likely isn't enjoying herself very much) and coax the Beast into its proper vessel. The most effective way to do so is to behave in ways that make the Beast want to return — however, this isn't a guarantee that it will wish to do so. Alternatively, the character can simply kill the host (thus causing the Beast to return to the vampire immediately). Animal Succulence Most vampires find the blood of animals flat, taste-less, and lacking in nutritional value. Some Gangrel and Nosferatu, however, have refined their under-standing of the spirits of such “lesser prey” to the point that they are able to draw much more sustenance from beasts than normal Kindred can. This power does not allow an elder to subsist solely on the blood of animals, but it does allow him to go for extended periods of time without taking vitae from humans or other Kindred. System: No roll is needed; once learned, this power is always in effect. Animal Succulence allows a charac-ter to count each blood point drawn from an animal as two in her blood pool. This does not increase the size of the vampire's blood pool, just the nutritional value of animal blood. Animal Succulence does not allow a character to completely ignore his craving for the blood of “higher” prey; in fact, it heightens his desire for “real food. ” Ev-ery three times (rounded down) the character drinks from an animal, a cumulative +1 difficulty is applied to the next Self-Control/Instinct roll the player makes when the character is confronted with the possibility of dining on human or Kindred blood. Animal Succulence does not increase the blood point value of the blood of other supernatural creatures (Gangrel, werecreatures, and so on) who have taken animal forms, nor does it change the vampire's feeding preferences (such as the Ventrue have).
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133 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION Shared Soul This power allows a character to probe the mind of any one animal she touches. Shared Soul can be very disconcerting to both parties involved, as each par-ticipant is completely immersed in the thoughts and emotions of the other. With enough effort or time, each participant can gain a complete understanding of the other's mind. Shared Soul is most often used to extract an animal's memories of a specific event, but some Gangrel use this power as a tool in the search for enlightenment, feeling they come to a better un-derstanding of their own Beasts through rapport with true beasts. Too close of a bond, however, can leave the two souls entangled after the sharing ends, causing the vampire to adopt mannerisms, behavior patterns, or even ethics (or lack thereof) similar to those of the animal. System: The character touches the intended subject creature, and the player rolls Perception + Animal Ken (difficulty 6). The player spends a Willpower point for every turn past the first that contact is maintained. Lo-cating a specific memory takes six turns, minus one turn for every success on the roll. A complete bond takes 10 turns, minus one turn for every success on the roll. A botch on this roll may, at the Storyteller's discretion, send the vampire into a frenzy or give the character a derangement related to the behavior patterns of the animal (extreme cowardice if the vampire contacted the soul of mouse, bloodlust if the subject was a rabid dog, and so forth). Species Speech The basic power Feral Whispers (Animalism 1) al-lows character to communicate with only one animal at a time. With Species Speech, a character can enter into psychic communion with all creatures of a certain species that are present. Species Speech is most often used after an application of The Beckoning (Animal-ism 2), which can draw a crowd of likely subjects. System: The player rolls Manipulation + Animal Ken (difficulty 7) to establish contact with the tar-geted group of animals. Once the character estab-lishes contact, the player makes a second roll to issue commands. There is no practical upper limit on the number of animals that can be commanded with this power, although all of the intended subjects must be in the vampire's immediate vicinity. Only one species of animal can be commanded at a time; thus, if a charac-ter is standing in the middle of the reptile house at the zoo, she could command all of the Komodo dragons, all of the boa constrictors, or all of the skinks, but she could not simultaneously give orders to every reptile or snake present. Species Speech functions much like Feral Whispers in all other respects. Note: Players (and Storytellers) shouldn't get too wrapped up in species differences like northern dia-mondback rattlesnakes and south-eastern diamondback rattlesnakes. At Storyteller discretion, the expenditure of an additional Willpower point allows the character's commands to extend to members of a similar species to the one initially commanded. Conquer the Beast Masters of Animalism have a much greater under-standing of both beasts in general and the Beast in particular. Those who have developed this power can master their own Beasts to a degree impossible for lesser Kindred to attain. Conquer the Beast allows the vam-pire both to control her frenzies and to enter them at will. Some elders say that the development of this pow-er is one of the first steps on the road to Golconda. System: The character can enter frenzy at will. The player rolls Willpower (difficulty 7). Success sends the character into a controlled frenzy. He can choose his targets at will, but gains limited Dominate and wound penalty resistance and Rötschreck immunity as per the normal frenzy rules (p. 298). A botch on the roll sends the vampire into an uncontrolled frenzy which Con-quer the Beast may not be used to end. The player may also roll Willpower (difficulty 9) to enable the character to control an involuntary frenzy. In this case, a Willpower point must be spent for ev-ery turn that the vampire remains in frenzy. The player may make Self-Control/Instinct rolls as normal to end a frenzy, but if the vampire runs out of Willpower points before the frenzy ends, he drops into an uncontrolled frenzy again. A botch on the Willpower roll raises the difficulty of the vampire's Self-Control/Instinct rolls by two and renders Conquer the Beast unusable for the remainder of the night. Taunt the Caged Beast Some Kindred are so attuned to the Beast that they can unleash it in another individual at will. Vampires who have developed this power are able to send ad-versaries into frenzy with a finger's touch and the re-sultant momentary contact with the victim's Beast. The physical contact allows the vampire's own Beast to reach out and awaken that of the victim, enraging it by threatening its territory.
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134 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESSystem: The character touches the target. The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Manipu-lation + Empathy (difficulty 7). The victim makes a Self-Control/Instinct roll (difficulty 5 + the number of successes); failure results in an immediate frenzy. A botch causes the character to unleash his own Beast and frenzy instead. This power maybe used on those individuals who are normally incapable of frenzy, send-ing ordinary humans into murderous rages worthy of the most bloodthirsty Brujah berserker. Unchain the Beast The self-destructive nature of Cainites can be turned against them by an elder who possesses this formidable power. With a glance, the vampire can awaken the Beasts of her enemies, causing physical injury and ex-cruciating agony as the victim's own violent impulses manifest in physical form to tear him apart from within. A target of this power erupts into a fountain of blood and gore as claw and bite wounds from an invisible source spontaneously tear his flesh asunder. System: The character makes eye contact (see p. 152) with the intended victim. The player spends three blood points and rolls Manipulation + Intimida-tion (difficulty of the victim's Self-Control/Instinct + 4). Each success inflicts one health level of aggravated damage, which can be soaked normally. A botch in-flicts one health level of lethal damage to the invoking character for each “1” rolled. This damage can also be soaked normally. Auspex Auspex gives the vampire uncanny sensory abilities. She starts with the capacity to heighten her natural senses significantly, but as she grows in power, she can perceive psychic auras and read the thoughts of another being. Auspex can also pierce through mental illusions such as those created by Obfuscate — see the sidebar “Seeing the Unseen” on p. 142 for more. However, a vampire with Auspex needs to be careful. Her increased sensory sensitivity can cause her to be drawn in by beautiful things or stunned by loud nois-es or pungent smells. Sudden or dynamic events can disorient an Auspex-using character unless her player makes a Willpower roll to block them out (difficulty of at least 4, although the more potent the source of dis-traction, the higher the difficulty). Failure overwhelms the character's senses, making her oblivious to her sur-roundings for a turn or two. While the Malkavians and Toreador are more prone to these kinds of distractions, the Tremere and Tzimisce aren't immune. Dots in Perception are very useful for using Auspex powers, as more successes help the character gain more sensory information. Heightened Senses This power increases the acuity of all of the vam-pire's senses, effectively doubling the clarity and range of sight, hearing, and smell. While her senses of taste and touch extend no farther than normal, they like-wise become far more distinct; the vampire could taste the hint of liquor in a victim's blood or feel the give of the board concealing a hollow space in the floor. The Kindred may magnify her senses at will, sustaining this heightened focus for as long as she desires. At the Sto-ryteller's option, this may make hunting easier. Occasionally, this talent provides extrasensory or even precognitive insights. These brief, unfocused glimpses may be odd premonitions, flashes of empathy, or eerie feelings of foreboding. The vampire has no control over these perceptions, but with practice can learn to interpret them with a fair degree of accuracy. Expanded senses come at a price, however. Bright lights, loud noises and strong smells present a hazard while the vampire uses this power. In addition to the possibility for distraction, an especially sudden or po-tent stimulus (like the glare of a spotlight or a clap of thunder) can blind or deafen the Kindred for an hour or more. System: It takes a reflexive action to activate this ability, but no roll or other cost is required. In certain circumstances, dice rolls associated with using the character's sense (such as Perception + Alertness) de-crease in difficulty by a number equal to the character's Auspex rating when the power is engaged. The Storyteller may also use this power to see if the character perceives a threat. In this case, the Story-teller privately rolls the character's unmodified Auspex rating, applying whatever difficulty he feels best suits the circumstances. For example, sensing that a pistol is pointed at the back of the character's head may require a roll of difficulty 5, while the sudden realization that a rival for Primogen is planning her assassination may require a 9. Note that even this “precognition” comes only as a result of interpreting details the Kindred is
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135 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONable to notice. It's not an all-purpose insight or miracu-lous revelation. At the character's discretion, she may selectively heighten one specific sense, rather than leaving them all on. In these cases, the difficulty to perceive stimu-li using that sense drops by one, but the difficulty to avoid distraction or temporary bedazzlement increases by one. This power does not let characters see in pitch dark-ness, as does Eyes of the Beast (p. 199), but it does re-duce difficulty penalties to act in such darkness from +2 to +1, and the character may make ranged attacks in pitch darkness if she can hear, smell, or otherwise detect her foe. Aura Perception Using this power, the vampire can perceive the psy-chic “auras” that radiate from mortals and supernatural beings alike. These halos comprise a shifting series of colors that take practice to discern with clarity. Even the simplest individual has many shifting hues within his aura; strong emotions predominate, while momen-tary impressions or deep secrets flash through in streaks and swirls. The colors change in sympathy with the subject's emotional state, blending into new tones in a con-stantly dancing pattern. The stronger the emotions involved, the more intense the hues become. A skilled vampire can learn much from her subject by reading the nuances of color and brilliance in the aura's flow. Aside from perceiving emotional states, vampires use Aura Perception to detect supernatural beings. The colors in Kindred auras, while intense, are quite pale; mage halos often flare and crackle with arcane power; the race of shapeshifters has strikingly bright, almost frantic, auras; ghosts have weak auras that flicker fit-fully like a dying flame; and faerie creatures' radiance is shot through with capricious rainbow hues. System: After the character stares at the subject for at least a few seconds, the player rolls Perception + Em-pathy (difficulty 8); each success indicates how much of the subject's aura the character sees and understands (see the table below). A failure indicates that the play of colors and patterns yields no prevailing impression. A botch indicates a false or erroneous interpretation. The Storyteller may wish to make this roll, thus keep-ing the player in the dark as to the veracity of the char-acter's interpretation.
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136 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES Successes Result 1 success Can distinguish only the shade (pale or bright). 2 successes Can distinguish the main color. 3 successes Can recognize the color patterns. 4 successes Can detect subtle shifts. 5 successes Can identify mixtures of color and pattern. The Aura Colors chart offers some example ideas of common colors and the emotions they reflect that Storytellers can use. Note that it is nearly impossible to determine with certainty if a particular character is lying or not with this power-vampires are inherently deceitful by nature, but even mortals might react with anxiety to questions while still being truthful. It is, however, helpful in determine the target's emotional state, which might lead the vampire to decide that a particular target is suspicious. A character may choose to perform a very cursory aura scan of a large area like a nightclub's dance floor or the audience in a gallery. In this case, the player decides which characteristic of auras she's looking for, and that's the only information she's able to glean if the roll is successful. (At the Storyteller's discretion, on this general scan roll, more successes on the roll may more quickly yield what the character seeks. ) For example, the player may specify, “Who's the most ner-vous person in attendance?” or “Are there any vampiri-cally pale auras among the CEO's entourage?” There-after, the player may narrow down her scrutiny of a single individual, with an additional roll as normal. The character may focus in on a particular subject's aura only once per scene with any degree of clarity. Any subsequent attempts that result in failure should be considered botches. It is very easy for the character to imagine seeing what she wants to see when judg-ing someone's intentions. After 24 hours, the character may try again at no penalty. It is possible, though difficult, to sense the aura of a being who is otherwise invisible to normal sight. Refer to “Seeing the Unseen,” p. 142, for more information. The Spirit's Touch When someone handles an object for any length of time, he leaves a psychic impression on the item. A vampire with this level of Auspex can “read” these sensations, learning who handled the object, when he last held it, and what was done with it recently. (For Aura Colors Condition Aura Colors Afraid Orange Aggressive Purple Angry Red Bitter Brown Calm Light Blue Compassionate Pink Conservative Lavender Depressed Gray Desirous or Lustful Deep Red Distrustful Light Green Envious Dark Green Excited Violet Generous Rose Happy Vermilion Hateful Black Idealistic Yellow Innocent White Lovestruck Blue Obsessed Green Sad Silver Spiritual Gold Suspicious Dark Blue Anxious Auras appear scrambled like static or white noise Confused Mottled, shifting colors Diablerist Black veins in aura Daydreaming Sharp flickering colors Frenzied Rapidly rippling colors Psychotic Hypnotic, swirling colors Vampire Aura colors are pale Ghoul Pale blotches in the aura Magic Use Myriad sparkles in aura Werebeast Bright, vibrant aura Ghost Weak, intermittent aura Faerie Rainbow highlights in aura
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137 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONthese purposes, a corpse counts as an “object” and can be read accordingly. ) These visions are seldom clear and detailed, registering more like a kind of “psychic snapshot. ” Still, the Kindred can learn much even from such a glimpse. Although most visions concern the last person to handle the item, a long-time owner leaves a stronger impression than someone who held the object briefly. Gleaning information from the spiritual residue re-quires the vampire to hold the object and enter a shal-low trance. She is only marginally aware of her sur-roundings while using The Spirit's Touch, but a loud noise or jarring physical sensation breaks the trance instantly. System: The player rolls Perception + Empathy. The difficulty is determined by the age of the impressions and the mental and spiritual strength of the person or event that left them. Sensing information from a pis-tol used for a murder hours ago may require a 4, while learning who owned a bloodstained puppet fashioned a century ago might be a 9. The greater the individual's emotional connection to the object, the stronger the impression he leaves on it — and the more information the Kindred can glean from it. Events involving strong emotions (a gift-giving, a torture, a long family history) likewise leave stronger impressions than short or casual contact do. Assume that each success offers one piece of informa-tion, as per the chart below. Successes Information Botch The character is overwhelmed by psychic impressions for the next 30 minutes and unable to act. Failure No information of value. 1 success Very basic information: the last owner's gender or hair color, for instance. 2 successes A second piece of basic information. 3 successes More useful information about the last owner, such as age and state of mind the last time he used the item. 4 successes The person's name. 5+ successes A wealth of information: nearly anything you want to know about the person's relationship with that object is available. At the Storyteller's discretion, some impressions on objects may be so strong — a knife plunged into Caesar's breast, the tip of the Spear of Destiny, a fang pulled from the maw of Dracula — that any use of this power may be deemed a success. Telepathy The vampire projects a portion of her consciousness into a nearby mortal's mind, creating a mental link through which she can communicate wordlessly or even read the target's deepest thoughts. The Kindred “hears” in her own mind the thoughts plucked from a subject as if they were spoken to her. This is one of the most potent vampiric abilities, since, given time, a Kindred can learn virtually any-thing from a subject without him ever knowing. The Tremere and Tzimisce in particular find this power es-pecially useful in gleaning secrets from others, or for directing their mortal followers with silent precision. System: The player rolls Intelligence + Subterfuge (difficulty of the subject's current Willpower points). Projecting thoughts into the target's mind requires one success. The subject recognizes that the thoughts come from somewhere other than his own consciousness, though he cannot discern their actual origin without a successful Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty equal to the vampire's Manipulation + Subterfuge). To read minds, one success must be rolled for each item of information plucked or each layer of thought pierced. Deep secrets or buried memories are harder to obtain than surface emotions or unspoken comments, requiring five or more successes to access. Reading thoughts with Telepathy does not com-monly work upon the undead mind. A character may expend a Willpower point to make the effort, mak-ing the roll normally afterward. Likewise, it is equally difficult to read the thoughts of other supernatural creatures. However, the character may project her thoughts without expending a Willpower point. These thoughts, however, are still obviously intrusions into the target's mind, but the character may attempt to dis-guise her mental “voice” with a roll of Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty equals the target's Perception + Awareness) so the target doesn't recognize her as the “speaker. ” Storytellers are encouraged to describe thoughts as flowing streams of impressions and images, rather than as a sequence of prose (powers such as Telepathic Com-munication are of more use for that). Instead of making flat statements like “He's planning on killing his former
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138 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESlover's new boyfriend,” say “You see a fleeting series of visions: A couple kissing passionately in a doorway, then the man walking alone at night; you suddenly see your hands, knuckles white, wrapped around a steer-ing wheel, with a figure crossing the street ahead; your heart, mortal now and hammering with panic as you hear the engine rev wildly; and above all, a blazing an-ger coupled with emotional agony and a panicked fear of loss. ” Such descriptions not only add to the story, but they also force the player to interpret for herself what her character gleans. After all, understanding minds — especially highly emotional or deranged minds — is a difficult and often puzzling task. Psychic Projection The Kindred with this awesome ability projects her senses out of her physical shell, stepping from her body as an entity of pure thought. The vampire's astral form is immune to physical damage or fatigue, and can “fly” with blinding speed anywhere across the earth — or even underground — so long as she remains below the moon's orbit. The Kindred's material form lies in a torpid state while her astral self is active, and the vampire isn't aware of anything that befalls her body until she returns to it. An ephemeral silver cord connects the Kindred's psyche to her body. If this cord is severed, her conscious-ness becomes stranded in the astral plane (the realm of ghosts, spirits, and shades). Attempting to return to the vampire's physical shell is a long and terrifying ordeal, especially since there is no guarantee that she will ac-complish the journey successfully. This significant dan-ger keeps many Kindred from leaving their bodies for long, but those who dare can learn much. System: Journeying in astral form requires the player to expend a point of Willpower and make a Perception + Awareness roll. Difficulty varies depending on the dis-tance and complexity of the intended trip; 5 is within sight, 7 is nearby or to a familiar location, and 9 reflects a trip far from familiar territory (a first journey from North America to the Far East; trying to shortcut through the earth). The greater the number of successes rolled, the more focused the character's astral presence is, and the easier it is for her to reach her desired destination. Failure means the character is unable to separate her consciousness from her body, while a botch can have nasty consequences — flinging her astral form to a random destination on Earth or in the spirit realm, arriving in a place where the sun is active (necessitat-ing a frenzy roll, although the sunlight doesn't do any damage), or hurtling toward the desired destination so forcefully that the silver cord snaps. The player may spend a point of Willpower to acti-vate this power, and an additional point of Willpower to gain the success necessary to perform the jaunt. This is an exception to the normal rule where a player may not spend more than a single point of Willpower per turn. Each scene in Psychic Projection requires another point of Willpower and a new roll. Failure indicates that the vampire has lost her way and must retrace the path of her silver cord. A botch at this stage means the cord snaps, stranding the character's psychic form in the mysterious astral plane. An astral form may travel at great speeds (the Sto-ryteller can use roughly 1000 miles per hour or 1500 kilometers per hour as a general guide) and carries no clothing or material objects of any kind. Some artifacts are said to exist in the spirit world, and the character can try to use one of these tools if she finds one. The character cannot bring such relics to the physical world when she returns to her body, however. Interaction with the physical world is impossible while using Psychic Projection. At best, the character may spend a Willpower point to manifest as a ghost-like shape. This apparition lasts one turn before fading away; while she can't affect anything physically dur-ing this time, the character can speak. Despite lacking physical substance, an astral character can use Auspex normally. At the Storyteller's discretion, such a char-acter may employ some or all Animalism, Dementa-tion, Dominate, Necromancy, Obtenebration, Pres-ence, Thaumaturgy, and similar non-corporeal powers she has, though this typically requires a minimum of three successes on the initial Psychic Projection roll. If two astral shapes encounter one another, they interact as if they were solid. They may talk, touch, and even fight as if both were in the material world. Since they have no physical bodies, astral characters seeking to interact “physically” substitute Mental and Social Traits for Physical ones (Wits replaces Dexter-ity, Manipulation supplants Strength, and Intelligence replaces Stamina). Due to the lack of a material form, the only real way to damage another psychic entity is to cut its silver cord. When fighting this way, consider Willpower points to be health levels; when a combat-ant loses all of her Willpower, the cord is severed. Although an astrally projected character remains in the reflection of the mortal world, she may venture fur-ther into the spirit realms, especially if she becomes
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139 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION lost. Other beings with particular sensitivity to psychic activity, such as ghosts, werewolves, and even some magi, travel the astral plane as well, and can interact with a vampire's psychic presence normally (although the astrally projected character is not considered a “ghost” for powers such as Necromancy). The observ-ing character notices the astrally projecting vampire with a Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty 8), re-quiring more successes than the Psychic Projection activation roll. Even those who do notice you won't be able to identify you; you are merely an immaterial shade hovering in the general area. Storytellers are en-couraged to make trips into the spirit world as bizarre, mysterious, and dreamlike as possible. The world be-yond is a vivid and fantastic place, where the true na-ture of things is stronger and often strikingly different from their earthly appearances. Clairvoyance By using Clairvoyance, a vampire can perceive dis-tant events without using Psychic Projection. By con-centrating on a familiar person, place, or object, a character can observe the subject's immediate vicinity while staying aware of her own surroundings. System: The player rolls Perception + Empathy (dif-ficulty 6) and describes the target she's trying to look in on. If the roll is successful, the character can then perceive the events and environment surrounding the desired target for one turn per success. Other Auspex powers may be used on the scene being viewed; these are rolled normally. Clairvoyance does split the vampire's perceptions between what she is viewing at a distance and what is taking place around her. As a result, while using this power, a character is at +3 difficulty on all rolls relating to actions that affect her physical surroundings. Prediction Some people are capable of finishing their friends' sentences. Elder vampires with Prediction sometimes Auspex Rating No. of Targets Approximate Range Auspex 6 3 subjects 500 miles/800 kilometers Auspex 7 Perception rating 1000 miles/1500 kilometers Auspex 8 Perception + Empathy 500 miles/800 kilometers per point of Intelligence Auspex 9 2x (Perception + Empathy) 1000 miles/1500 kilometers per point of Intelligencebegin their friends' sentences. Prediction is a constant low-level telepathic scan of the minds of everyone the character is in proximity to. While this power does not give the vampire the details of his neighbors' conscious thoughts, it does provide a wealth of cues as to the sub-jects' moods, suppressed reflexes, and attitudes toward the topic of conversation. System: Whenever the character is in conversation and either participant in the discussion makes a Social roll, the player may pre-empt the roll to spend a blood point and make a Perception + Empathy roll (diffi-culty of the target's Manipulation + Subterfuge). Each success is an additional die that can be applied to the player's Social roll or subtracted from the dice pool of the Social roll being made against the character. Telepathic Communication Telepathy (p. 137) allows a character to pick up only the surface thoughts of other individuals, and to speak to one at a time. With Telepathic Communication, a character can form a more powerful link between his mind and that of other subjects, allowing them to converse in words, concepts, and sensory images at the speed of thought (and without the need for Willpower expenditure, unlike with Telepathy). Vampires with this level of Auspex can act as “switchboard operators,” creating a telepathic web that allows all participants to share thoughts with some or all other members of the network as they choose. System: The player rolls Charisma + Empathy (dif-ficulty equals the target's current Willpower points) to establish contact, although a willing subject may allow the vampire access and thus obviate the need for a roll. The maximum range at which a subject may be con-tacted and the maximum number of individuals who may be linked simultaneously with this power depends on the Auspex rating of the vampire who initiates con-tact (see sidebar).
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140 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES Karmic Sight The power of Aura Perception (Auspex 2) allows a vampire to take a brief glimpse at the soul of a sub-ject. This power takes Aura Perception several steps forward, allowing a vampire who has mastered Auspex 2 to probe the inner workings of a subject's mind and soul. System: The player rolls Perception + Empathy (dif-ficulty equals the subject's current Willpower). The de-gree of success determines the information gained. Successes Result Botch The character gains a Derangement or Psychological/Mental/ Supernatural Flaw similar to one of the target's for one night, at Storyteller discretion. 1 success As per five successes on an Aura Perception roll. 2 successes Subject's Nature, Demeanor, and Humanity or Path can be determined. 3 successes Any outside influences on the subject's mind or soul, such as Dominate or a demonic pact, can be detected. 4 successes Subject's Willpower, Humanity or Path, and Virtue ratings can be determined. 5 successes The state of the subject's karma may be determined. This is a highly abstract piece of information best left to Storyteller discretion, but should reveal the general balance between “good” and “bad” actions the subject has performed, both recently and over the course of his existence. If the plot merits it, the character may receive visions of one or more incidents in the subject's past that radically altered his destiny. With this degree of success, some fate-related Merits and Flaws (e. g. Dark Fate) can be identified as well.
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141 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION Mirror Reflex This power was developed by a Toreador elder who made a fearsome reputation through her fencing prow-ess, acting as a hired champion in dozens of Ventrue duels. Mirror Reflex is similar to Prediction in that it is in essence a low-level telepathic scan of an opponent, but this power taps into physical (rather than social) reflexes, allowing the character to anticipate an en-emy's moves in personal combat. System: The player spends a blood point and rolls Perception + the combat skill the opponent is using (difficulty of the subject's Manipulation + combat skill in use). Each success is an additional die that can he ap-plied to the character's dice pools during the next turn of combat for any actions taken against the scanned op-ponent. The use of Mirror Reflex does take one combat action, and the power has a maximum range in yards or meters equal to the character's Willpower rating. Psychic Assault Psychic Assault is nothing less than a direct mind-to-mind attack which uses the sheer force of an elder's will to overpower his target. Victims of Psychic Assault show little outward sign of the attack, save for nose-bleeds and expressions of intense agony; all injuries by means of this psychic pressure inflicted are internal. A medical examination of a mortal victim of a Psychic Assault invariably shows the cause of death to be a heart attack or aneurysm, while vampires killed with this power decay to dust instantly, regardless of age. System: The character must touch or make eye con-tact with his target. The player spends three blood points (and a Willpower point, if assaulting a vampire or other supernatural being) and rolls Manipulation + Intimidation in a contested roll against the victim's Willpower. The result depends on the number of net successes the attacker rolls. Successes Result Botch The target becomes immune to the attacker's Psychic Assault for one night per each “1” rolled. Failure The target is unharmed and may determine that a psychic assault is taking place by succeeding on a Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty 6). 1 success The target is shaken but unharmed. He loses a temporary Willpower point. 2 successes The target is badly frightened. He loses three temporary Willpower points and, if a vampire, must roll Courage (difficulty of the attacker's Auspex rating) to avoid Rötschreck. 3 successes The target loses six temporary Willpower points and, if a vampire, must roll Courage as above. If this causes him to lose his last temporary Willpower point, he loses a permanent Willpower point and receives three health levels of bashing damage (soaked normally). 4 successes The target loses all temporary Willpower points and half of his permanent Willpower points (round down) and suffers three health levels of lethal damage (soaked normally). 5 successes The target must roll his permanent Willpower (difficulty 7). If he succeeds, apply the effect of four successes, and is also rendered unconscious for the rest of the night. If he fails, the Psychic Assault kills him instantly. False Slumber Possibly the source of many Malkavians' conviction that their sire is alive and well on the astral plane, this power allows a Methuselah's spirit to leave his body while in torpor. While seemingly asleep, the vampire is able to project astrally, think, and perceive events normally. System: No roll is needed. This power is considered to be active whenever the vampire's body is in torpor, and astral travels are handled as per the rules for Psy-chic Projection. The vampire is not able to awaken physically at will, however — waking from torpor is handled per the normal rules for such an action (see p. 283). A vampire with this power whose silver cord is severed in astral combat loses all Willpower points, as per the rules for astral combat under Psychic Projection, but is not killed. Instead, he loses the use of this Auspex power and half of his permanent Willpower points. Both the Auspex 9 power and the Willpower must be bought back with experience points. The vampire's soul slowly returns to his body over the course of a year and a day, during which time he may not be awakened from torpor by any means.
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142 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES Seeing the Unseen Auspex enables Kindred to perceive many things beyond the limits of lesser senses. Among its many uses, Auspex can detect the presence of a supernatural being who is hidden from normal sight (a vampire using Obfuscate, for example, or a ghost) or pierce illusions created by the Discipline of Chim-erstry. Note: “Normal sight” includes regular, non-Auspex use of the Awareness skill. Obfuscate: When a vampire tries to use her heightened perceptions to notice a Kindred hidden with Obfuscate, she detects the sub-ject's presence if her Auspex rating is higher than his Obfuscate, and she succeeds at a Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty equals 7 minus the number of dots by which her Auspex exceeds his Obfuscate). Conversely, if the target's Obfuscate outranks her Auspex, he remains undiscovered. If the two ratings are equal, both characters make a resisted roll of Perception + Awareness (Auspex user) against Manipulation + Subterfuge (Obfuscate user). The difficulty for both rolls is 7, and the character with the most successes wins. Chimerstry: Likewise, vampires with Auspex may seek to penetrate illusions cre-ated with Chimerstry. The Auspex-wielder must actively seek to pierce the illusion (i. e., the player must tell the Storyteller that his character is trying to detect an illusion). The Auspex-user and Chimerstry-wielder then compare relative ratings, per Obfuscate, above. The process is otherwise identical to piercing Obfuscate. Other Powers: Since the powers of beings like magi and wraiths function differently from vampiric Disciplines, a simple compari-son of relative ratings isn't applicable. To keep things simple, both characters make a resisted roll. The vampire rolls Perception + Aware-ness, while the subject rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge. Again, the difficulty is 7, and the character with the most successes wins. Celerity Not all vampires are slow, meticulous creatures. When needed, some vampires can move fast — really fast. Celerity allows Assamites, Brujah, and Toreadors to move with astonishing swiftness, becoming practi-cally a blur. The Assamites use their speed in conjunc-tion with stealth to strike quickly and viciously from the shadows before they are noticed. Brujah, on the other hand, simply like the edge that the power gives them against overwhelming odds. The Toreador are more inclined to use Celerity to provide an air of un-natural grace to live performances or for an extra push to complete a masterpiece on time, but they can be as quick to draw blood as any assassin or punk when angered. System: Each point of Celerity adds one die to every Dexterity-related dice roll. In addition, the player can spend one blood point to take an extra action up to the number of dots he has in Celerity at the beginning of the relevant turn; this expenditure can go beyond her normal Generation maximum. Any dots used for extra actions, however, are no longer available for Dexteri-ty-related rolls during that turn. These additional ac-tions must be physical (e. g., the vampire cannot use a mental Discipline like Dominate multiple times in one turn), and extra actions occur at the end of the turn (the vampire's regular action still takes place per her initiative roll). Normally, a character without Celerity must divide their dice if she wants to take multiple actions in a single turn, as per p. 248. A character using Celerity performs his extra actions (including full movement) without penalty, gaining a full dice pool for each sepa-rate action. Extra actions gained through Celerity may not in turn be split into multiple actions, however. Celerity 6+ Usually, elders progress in Celerity according to the existing progression-more dots mean more dice and potential actions a turn that are available, and levels 6 through 9 have those powers available at each level, as normal. Similar to other Disciplines at level 6 or higher, though, alternative powers exist. If the elder wants to purchase an alternative power instead of the typical progression (as per the sidebar on p. 127), she can, but she forfeits the capacity an extra Dexterity die and potential for an extra action to gain the special
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143 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONpower instead. She can go back later and purchase the “normal” dot of Celerity later, as desired. Note that it isn't possible to “skip” levels of progres-sion for the normal Discipline-an elder with Celerity 7 that buys Projective at level 6 needs to go back and buy the normal level 6 power before getting the access to his level 7 power that grants the capacity for up to seven Dexterity dice or actions in a turn. Projectile Despite the fact that a vampire with Celerity moves at incredible speeds, any bullets he fires or knives he throws while in this state don't move any faster than they normally would. Scientifically minded Kindred have been baffled by the phenomenon for centuries, but more pragmatic ones have found a way to work around it. Projectile enables a vampire to take his pre-ternatural speed and transfer it into something he has thrown, fired, or launched. System: Projectile requires the expenditure of a blood point. In addition, the player must decide how many levels of his character's Celerity he is putting into the speed of the launched object. Thus, a character with Celerity 6 in addition to Projectile could decide to put three dots' worth of speed into a knife he is throwing, and use the other three dots as dice or potential extra actions as per normal. Each dot of Celerity infused into a thrown object becomes an automatic success to the attack's damage roll, assuming the weapon or projectile actually hits. Flower of Death In combat, speed kills. A proper application of Ce-lerity in combat can turn even the meekest Cainite into a walking abattoir. How much more deadly, then, is a vampire with the ability to utilize his preternatural speed to the utmost in combat? Flower of Death allows a vampire to take his Celerity and apply it in full to each hand-to-hand or melee attack he makes. System: Flower of Death costs four blood points, but the spectacular effect is well worth it. Once the power is in effect, the vampire's bonus dice for Dexterity rolls get added to every dice pool for attack the character makes (even if the roll doesn't use Dexterity) until the end of the scene. Further, even if the Kindred uses some of his Celerity dots for extra actions during the scene, these extra dice are still available. The effect is limited to hand-to-hand or melee weapon attacks — firearms,
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144 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESbows, and other ranged weapons are excluded — but does grant the attacker additional dice for damage rolls. Flower of Death is not cumulative — it is impossible to “layer” uses of the power over one another to create astronomical dice pools. Zephyr Zephyr produces an effect vaguely similar to one of the legendary comic book-style uses of enhanced speed, allowing its practitioner to run so fast he can run across water. Particularly successful applications of Zephyr al-low a vampire to go so far as to run up walls and, in at least one recorded instance, across a ceiling. System: Zephyr requires the expenditure of one point of blood and one point of Willpower. Unfortunately, Zephyr requires such extremes of concentration that it cannot be combined with any form of attack, or indeed, with most any sort of action at all. If a character using Zephyr feels the need to do something else while mov-ing at such tremendous speeds, a Willpower roll (dif-ficulty 8) is required. Needless to say, botches at Zephyr speed can be spectacular in all the wrong ways. Most times, a vampire moving at such a rate of speed is barely visible, appearing more as a vampire-shaped blur than anything else. Observers must succeed on a Perception + Alertness roll (difficulty 7) to get a de-cent look at a Kindred zooming past in this fashion. Chimerstry The Ravnos are known as masters of illusion, al-though the reason why is lost to history. Rumors abound of Ravnos ghûls, rakshasas, and shapeshifters, but whatever its origins, Chimerstry remains a potent and powerful weapon for the Deceivers. The Discipline is, fundamentally, an art of conjuration that converts the vampire's will into phantoms that confound the senses and technology alike. Even vampires fall under the sway of the Ravnos' illusory world, unless they have a strong enough grasp of Auspex (see p. 142). The Rav-nos often use this power to swindle and seduce their victims into acts that work out badly for the victim (but great for the Ravnos). Illusions created by Chimerstry can be seen for what they are by a victim who “proves” the illusion's false-hood (e. g., a person who walks up to an illusory wall, expresses his disbelief in it, and puts his hand through it effectively banishes the illusion), and explicitly in-credible illusions are seen as false immediately (e. g., dragons breathing fire or gravity working in reverse). Sometimes, frequent targets of Chimerstry end up at-tempting to disbelieve everything around them, lead-ing to derangements (and, quite often, to the amuse-ment of the Ravnos). Ignis Fatuus The vampire may conjure a minor, static mirage that confounds one sense. For instance, he may evoke a sul-furous stench, the appearance of stigmata, or the shat-ter of broken glass. Note that though tactile illusions can be felt, they have no real substance; an invisible but tactile wall cannot confine anyone, and invisible razor-wire causes no real damage. Similarly, the vam-pire must know the characteristics of what he's creat-ing. While it's easy enough to estimate what a knife wound might look like, falsifying a person's voice or a photograph of a childhood home requires knowledge of the details. System: The player spends a point of Willpower for the vampire to create this illusion. The volume of smells, ambient lighting, smoke clouds, and the like are limited to roughly 20 cubic feet (half a cubic me-ter) per dot the vampire has in Chimerstry. The illu-sion lasts until the vampire leaves its vicinity (such as stepping out of the room) or until another person sees through it somehow. The Cainite may also end the il-lusion at any time with no effort. Fata Morgana The Cainite can now create illusions that appeal to all the senses, though they remain static. For example, the vampire could make a filthy cellar appear as an opu-lent ballroom, though she could not create a glittering chandelier or a score of graceful dancers. Again, the illusion has no solid presence, though it's easy enough to fool an enraptured visitor with suggestions of what she might expect. A bucket of brackish water is as cool as chilled champagne, after all. System: The player spends a Willpower point and a blood point to create the illusion. These static images remain until dispelled, in much the same way that an Ignis Fatuus illusion does. Apparition Not really a power unto itself, Apparition allows a vampire to give motion to an illusion created with Ig-nis Fatuus or Fata Morgana. Thus, the Cainite could create the illusion of a living being, running water, fluttering drapes, or a roaring fire.
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145 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONSystem: The creator spends one blood point to make the illusion move in one significant way, or in any number of subtle ways. For example, the vampire could create the illusion of a lurking mugger lurching at her victim, or she could create the illusion of a desolate street, down which a chill wind blows trash while a streetlamp flickers and hums. Taking complicated ac-tions besides maintaining the illusion — that is, any-thing that would require a dice roll — first requires suc-cess on a Willpower roll, resulting in the dissolution of the false construct if the roll fails. Once the creator stops concentrating on the illusion, it can continue in simple, repetitive motions-roughly speaking, anything that can be described in a simple sentence, such as a guard walking back and forth in front of a steel door. After that, the vampire cannot regain control over the illusion-she can either allow it to continue moving as ordered, or let it fade as de-scribed under Ignis Fatuus. Permanency This power, also used in conjunction with Ignis Fatuus or Fata Morgana, allows a mirage to persist even when the vampire cannot see it. In this way, Ravnos often cloak their temporary havens in false trappings of luxury, or ward off trespassers with illusory guard dogs. System: The vampire need only spend a blood point, and the illusion becomes permanent until dissolved (including “programmed” illusions like those created by Apparition). Horrid Reality Rather than create simple illusions, the vampire can now project hallucinations directly into a victim's mind. The target of these illusions believes completely that the images are real; a hallucinatory fire can burn him, an imaginary noose can strangle him, and an il-lusory wall can block him. This power affects only one person at a time; though others can see the illusion, it doesn't impact them in the same way. Other people can try to convince the victim that his terrors are not real, but he won't believe them. Note that targets with enough dots in Auspex can still attempt to roll for See-ing the Unseen (p. 142). System: A Horrid Realty illusion costs two Will-power points to set in motion and lasts for an entire scene (though its effects may last longer; see below). If the vampire is trying to injure his victim, his player must roll Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty of the victim's Perception + Self-Control/Instinct). Each success inflicts one health level of lethal damage on the victim that cannot be soaked — the Cainite as-saults the victim's mind and perceptions, not his body. If the player wishes to inflict less damage or change it to bashing, he may announce a maximum amount of damage before rolling the dice. Secondary effects (such as frenzy rolls for illusory fire) may also occur. The victim heals all his damage instantaneously if he can be convinced that the damage he took was il-lusory, but convincing him may take some doing, such as with at least two successes on a Charisma + Empathy roll (difficulty equal to the Manipulation + Subterfuge of the Cainite using Horrid Reality). The target must be convinced of the attack's illusory nature within 24 hours of its taking place, or it becomes too well estab-lished in his memory, and he will have to heal the dam-age using blood (if a vampire) or over time (if mortal). This power cannot actually kill its victims (though a target with a heart condition may well die from fright). A victim “killed” by an illusory attack loses conscious-ness or enters torpor. False Resonance Illusions of living or unliving beings are all well and good until someone decides to read the illusion's mind or its aura. The automatic failure to perceive any sense of the target's thoughts or emotions will usually be passed off as bad luck, lack of concentration, or whatever reason any Kindred might construct to ex-plain why he didn't succeed in gleaning information through supernatural means. A vampire can use False Resonance to overlay auras and thoughts on illusions, as well as leave a trace that other emotionally resonant powers can detect later. System: This power automatically applies to any other use of Chimerstry as the user wishes. In effect, any attempt to use Auspex, the Dementation power Eyes of Chaos, or similar sensory powers that generates five or fewer successes will detect an aura, thoughts, Demeanor or whatever the power would normally de-tect. Thoughts won't be exceptionally complex, and will relate to whatever is going on around the illusion in a mundane and simplistic way. Auras will consist of colors related to specific emotions (anger, sadness, hatred, love, and happiness) and will not show much complexity beyond that. Spirit's Touch can pick up the same emotional resonance until the next sunrise.
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146 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES Fatuus Mastery A Ravnos with Fatuus Mastery has no restriction on how often she may use the first three levels (Ignis Fatuus, Fata Morgana, and Apparition) and can main-tain or control illusions with minimal concentration or fatigue. Kindred who rely on the high cost of Chim-erstry to limit a vampire's ability to use illusions are in for a very rude surprise when they encounter a Cainite with this power. System: Fatuus Mastery negates the Willpower and blood cost for using the first three levels of Chimerstry. In addition, the Kindred may direct movement for a number of illusions equal to his Intelligence without intense concentration. Furthermore, the character can maintain the illusion as long as it remains within his Willpower rating in miles (or about one and a half times that in kilometers), although he may not make it react to events around it if he has no way to perceive those events. Shared Nightmare Even though Horrid Reality is visible to all onlook-ers, it can only inflict “damage” on one victim. With Shared Nightmare, a vampire can inflict her tormented visions on a crowd. System: To use this power, the player must spend two Willpower points, plus one blood point per target. The player rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge once, but compares the results against each target individually. The difficulty is still each victim's Perception + Self-Control/Instinct. Far Fatuus This power allows a Kindred to project illusions to any area he can see or visualize. Under most circum-stances, accomplishing this requires him to have vis-ited the location in question before he can project il-lusions there. Although more difficult, a vampire may project illusions on the basis of a description, a photo, or a video clip. System: The difficulty for using Far Fatuus depends on the user's familiarity with the location. The player must roll Perception + Subterfuge to affect the loca-tion. Once this roll is successful, the vampire may then use any other Chimerstry power on that location. Difficulty Familiarity 6 As familiar as one's haven; currently viewing with Clairvoyance or Psychic Projection7 Visited three or more times 8 Visited once; viewing on a live feed 9 Described in detail; seen it in a video or have a undoctored photo Suspension of Disbelief A Ravnos with this power can imbue her Chimerstry with a sense of reality that makes it easier for view-ers to believe in the illusion. No matter how strange or surreal the illusion is, an onlooker will accept it as real. If the illusion is wildly unrealistic (fire-breathing dragons, a pack of aliens), once it is no longer in his sight, the observer will question what he saw and even-tually deny the event ever happened. A vampire can also use this power to make something appear unbe-lievable, whether it's real or not. In this case, observers will write off what they're seeing as some kind of trick or hallucination. System: The player rolls Manipulation + Subter-fuge (difficulty 7). The number of successes determines how many witnesses are affected. If the player uses the power to make something look unbelievable, Auspex will show the thing in question to be an illusion unless the Auspex rating is not high enough to penetrate the Kindred's Chimerstry. Successes Result 1 success Five people 2 successes 10 people 3 successes 25 people 4 successes 50 people 5 successes Everyone who can see it Synesthesia A Cainite who masters this power can shuffle oth-ers' senses around to suit his preferences. He can se-lect one target and inflict a serious, disorienting, and all-encompassing case of synesthesia upon her, mak-ing it impossible for her to interact meaningfully with the real world for the power's duration. The vampire has complete control over how the target's senses work and can manipulate them to suit. For example, he may decide that she smells all sounds as varieties of nauseat-ing stenches, or more subtly, he may exchange pain for pleasure. Used against a crowd, sensations are random-ly shuffled, so one man will see what the woman next
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147 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONto him sees, but hears what the man 15 feet behind him hears and feels what the child a block away feels. The end result is extremely disorienting for all victims. System: When used against a single victim, the play-er must spend one Willpower point and roll Manipula-tion + Intimidation (difficulty is victim's current Will-power points). For use against crowds, the difficulty is 7, and the power affects everyone within the vampire's line of sight and subtracts one point from Perception per success rolled. Victims whose Perception has been reduced to zero can only sit down and wait for the dis-orientation to end. Duration against a single victim is determined below. Against a crowd, the power persists until sunrise. Successes Result 1 success One week 2 successes One month 3 successes Six months 4 successes One year 5 successes Permanent Mayaparisatya This expression of Chimerstry allows the Cainite to directly alter or create real objects or creatures, al-though such changes are of finite duration. A vampire with this power can transform the air around a rival Kindred into fire or render a locked door insubstantial. A more harrowing use of this power enables the vam-pire to force an object out of existence by transforming it into nothing more than a wisp of its former reality. System: To use this power, the player must spend 10 blood points and one permanent Willpower point and roll Manipulation + Subterfuge. Difficulty for the roll is 6 for affecting inanimate objects, and the victim's Willpower rating for affecting characters. This power can affect anything within miles (kilometers) of the vampire, as long as the character is aware of the target in some way. If used with Far Fatuus, the effects are centered on the chosen location. This power can affect a number of conscious targets equal to the Kindred's Willpower per use. When dealing with inanimate objects, the number of successes determines how drastic the alteration may be. No matter how many successes the player rolls, the duration is always a scene. This power can affect any objects of a type within the vampire's targeted area. Successes Result 1 success Render an object harmless (swords won't cut, firearms won't shoot), create a large volume of obscuring smoke 2 successes Change an object into another object (turn candles into tarantulas, etc. ) 3 successes Render the object insubstantial, make smoke solid 4 successes Cause drastic changes (stone becomes highly flammable) 5 successes Cause the environment to behave illogically (gravity twists sideways, rivers stand still as hills flow upward) 6+ successes Delete any offending material objects from existence. This effect is permanent (to use this on conscious targets, follow the system described below). When using the power on conscious targets, consult the table above for alterations (such as forcing the vic-tim into another form or transforming her into a differ-ent substance). If using the power to negate the victim's existence, the power inflicts two levels of unsoakable aggravated damage per success. If the power doesn't kill the victim, subtract one dot of Strength and Stamina per success. The damage must be healed normally, but the lost Attributes return at the end of the scene. Vic-tims of this power look hazy and insubstantial. Victims destroyed with this power simply vanish. Dementation Dementation is the Discipline that allows a vampire to focus and channel madness into the minds of those around him. Though it's the natural legacy of the Mal-kavians, practitioners of Dementation need not actu-ally be mad to use the Discipline... but it helps. Disturbingly, Dementation doesn't actually make their victims mad, but rather it seems to break down the doors to the hidden darkness of the target's mind, releasing into the open whatever is found there. The Malkavians claim that this is because insanity is the next logical step in mental evolution, a transhuman-ist advancement of what modern people consider con-sciousness. Other Kindred scoff that this reasoning is an outright justification for the chaos that Dementa-
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148 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINEStion brings. They don't scoff too loudly, however, lest the Malkavian advance their consciousness next. Passion The vampire stirs his victim's emotions, either heightening them to a fevered pitch or blunting them until the target is completely desensitized. The Cain-ite may not choose which emotion is affected; she may only amplify or dull emotions already present in the target. In this way, a vampire can inflame mild irrita-tion into quivering rage or atrophy true love into ca-sual interest. System: The character talks to her victim, and the vampire's player rolls Charisma + Empathy (dif-ficulty equals the victim's Humanity or Path rating). The number of successes determines the duration of the altered state of feeling. Effects of this power might include one-or two-point additions or subtractions to difficulties of frenzy rolls, Virtue rolls, rolls to resist Presence powers, etc. Successes Result 1 success One turn 2 successes One hour 3 successes One night 4 successes One week 5 successes One month 6+ successes Three months The Haunting The vampire manipulates the sensory centers of his victim's brain, flooding the victim's senses with visions, sounds, scents, or feelings that aren't really there. The images, regardless of the sense to which they appeal, are only fleeting “glimpses,” barely perceptible to the victim. The vampire using Dementation cannot con-trol what the victim perceives, but may choose which sense is affected. The “haunting” effects occur mainly when the vic-tim is alone, and mostly at night. They may take the form of the subject's repressed fears, guilty memories, or anything else that the Storyteller finds dramatically appropriate. The effects are never pleasant or unobtru-sive, however. The Storyteller should let her imagina-tion run wild when describing these sensory impres-sions; the victim may well feel as if she is going mad, or as if the world is. System: After the vampire speaks to the victim, the player spends a blood point and rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (difficulty of his victim's Perception + Self-Control/Instinct). The number of successes determines the length of the sensory “visitations. ” The precise ef-fects are up to the Storyteller, though particularly ee-rie or harrowing apparitions can certainly reduce dice pools for a turn or two after the manifestation. Successes Result 1 success One night 2 successes Two nights 3 successes One week 4 successes One month 5 successes Three months 6+ successes One year Eyes of Chaos This peculiar power allows the vampire to take ad-vantage of the fleeting clarity hidden in insanity. She may scrutinize the “patterns” of a person's soul, the convolutions of a vampire's inner nature, or even ran-dom events in nature itself. The Kindred with this power can discern the most well-hidden psychoses, or gain insight into a person's true self. Malkavians with this power often have (or claim to have) knowledge of the moves and countermoves of the great Jyhad, or the patterns of fate. System: This power allows a vampire to determine a person's true Nature, among other things. The vampire concentrates for a turn, then her player rolls Perception + Occult. The difficulty depends on the intricacy of the pattern. Discerning the Nature of a stranger would be difficulty 9, a casual acquaintance would be an 8, and an established ally a 6. The vampire could also read the message locked in a coded missive (difficulty 7), or even see the doings of an invisible hand in such events as the pattern of falling leaves (difficulty 6). Almost anything might contain some hidden insight, no mat-ter how trivial or meaningless. The patterns are pres-ent in most things, but are often so intricate they can keep a vampire spellbound for hours while she tries to understand their message. This is a potent power, subject to adjudication. Sto-rytellers, this power is an effective way to introduce plot threads for a chronicle, reveal an overlooked clue, foreshadow important events, or communicate critical
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149 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONinformation a player seeks. Important to its use, though, is delivering the information properly. Secrets revealed via Eyes of Chaos are never simple facts; they're tanta-lizing symbols adrift in a sea of madness. Describe the results of this power in terms of allegory: “The man before you appears as a crude marionette, with garish features painted in bright stage makeup, and strings vanishing up into the night sky. ” Avoid stating plainly, “You learn that this ghoul is the minion of a powerful Methuselah. ” Voice of Madness By merely addressing his victims aloud, the Kindred can drive targets into fits of blind rage or fear, forcing them to abandon reason and higher thought. Victims are plagued by hallucinations of their subconscious de-mons, and try to flee or destroy their hidden shames. Tragedy almost always follows in the wake of this pow-er's use, though offending Malkavians often claim that they were merely encouraging people to act “according to their natures. ” Unfortunately for the vampire con-cerned, he runs a very real risk of falling prey to his own voice's power. System: The player spends a blood point and makes a Manipulation + Empathy roll (difficulty 7). One tar-get is affected per success, although all potential vic-tims must be listening to the vampire's voice. Affected victims fly immediately into frenzy or a blind fear like Rötschreck. Kindred or other creatures capable of frenzy, such as Lupines, may make a frenzy check or Rötschreck test (Storyteller's choice as to how they are affected) at +2 difficulty to resist the power. Mortals are automatically affected and don't remember their actions while berserk. The frenzy or fear lasts for a scene, though vampires and Lupines may test as usual to snap out of it. The vampire using Voice of Madness must also test for frenzy or Rötschreck upon invoking this power, though his difficulty to resist is one lower than nor-mal. If the initial roll to invoke this power is a failure, however, the roll to resist the frenzy is one higher than normal. If the roll to invoke this power is a botch, the frenzy or Rötschreck response is automatic. Total Insanity The vampire coaxes the madness from the deepest recesses of her target's mind, focusing it into an over-whelming wave of insanity. This power has driven countless victims, vampire and mortal alike, to unfor-tunate ends.
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150 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESSystem: The Kindred must gain her target's undi-vided attention for at least one full turn to enact this power. The player spends a blood point and rolls Ma-nipulation + Intimidation (difficulty of her victim's current Willpower points). If the roll is successful, the victim is afflicted with five derangements of the Sto-ryteller's choice (see p. 290). The number of successes determines the duration. Successes Result 1 success One turn 2 successes One night 3 successes One week 4 successes One month 5+ successes One year On a botch... well, the Storyteller can decide what a vampire inflicts upon herself by attempting to incite the primal hells lurking within the darkest recesses of a victim's mind. The victim (or the target of a botch) can spend a number of Willpower points equal to the successes rolled to end the duration prematurely. The Storyteller decides when such Willpower points can be spent (such as after a therapy session or after a friend has managed to prove a particular delusion to be false). Lingering Malaise While lesser Dementation powers allow a vampire to inflict temporary (though often long-lasting) madness upon a victim, elders of the Clan have developed the ability to infect the minds of their victims with per-manent maladies. Lingering Malaise causes permanent psychological shifts within the victim, making him, as one Gangrel elder remarked, “an honorary Lunatic. ” System: The character speaks to his victim for at least a minute, describing the derangement that Lin-gering Malaise will inflict. The player rolls Manipula-tion + Empathy (difficulty equal to the victim's current Willpower points); the victim resists with a Willpower roll (using his permanent Willpower at difficulty 8). If the user of Lingering Malaise scores more successes, the victim gains a permanent derangement chosen by the individual who inflicts it. Lingering Malaise may only be used to inflict one derangement per night on any given victim, though multiple attempts may be made until the derangement takes hold. Shattered Mirror Although Dementation's low-level effects are pri-marily to initiate or promote insanity rather than to create it spontaneously, some of its more potent mani-festations are not as subtle. The wielder of this fear-some power can transfer her own deranged mindset into the psyche of a hapless victim, spreading her own brand of insanity like a virus. System: The vampire must establish eye contact (p. 152) with her intended victim to apply this power. The player then rolls Charisma + Subterfuge (difficulty equal to the target's current Willpower points) resisted by the target's Wits + Self-Control/Instinct (difficulty equal to the Dementation user's current Willpower points). If the aggressor wins, the target gains all of her derangements and Mental Flaws for a period of time determined by the number of net successes the aggres-sor scored: Successes Result 1 success one hour 2 successes one night 3 successes one week 4 successes one month 5 successes six months 6+ successes one year per success over 5 Restructure The elder with this fearsome power has the ability to twist his victims' psyches at their most basic levels, warping their very beings. The subject of Restructure retains her memories, but her outlook on life changes completely, as if she has undergone a sudden epiphany or religious conversion. This effect goes much deeper than the implantation of a derangement; it actually performs a complete rewrite of the victim's personal-ity. System: As the description says, this power allows the vampire to change his target's Nature to one more suitable to his ends. To accomplish this, the character must make eye contact (p. 152) with his intended vic-tim. The player rolls Manipulation + Subterfuge (diffi-culty equals the victim's Wits + Subterfuge). If he rolls a number of successes equal to or greater than the tar-get's Self-Control/Instinct, the target's Nature changes to whatever the player using Restructure desires. This
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151 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONeffect is permanent and can be undone only by another application of Restructure (though subtle differences from the character's original Nature may still remain, as it is impossible for such a fundamental change to oc-cur flawlessly). A botch on this roll changes the char-acter's own Nature to that of his intended victim. Personal Scourge Similar to the Auspex power of Psychic Assault (p. 141), this fearsome ability allows the elder to turn the very strength of her victim's mind against him, inflicting physical harm with the power of his own will. Victims of this self-powered attack spontaneously erupt in lacerations and bruises, spraying blood in ev-ery direction and howling in agony. Those who have observed such an attack with Auspex note that the victim's aura swirls with violent psychosis and erupts outward in writhing appendages — a sight that can make even the most jaded Tzimisce quail. System: The vampire must touch or establish eye contact (p. 152) with her target. The player rolls Ma-nipulation + Empathy (difficulty equal to the target's Stamina + Self-Control/Instinct) and spends two Will-power points. For a number of turns equal to the num-ber of successes rolled, the victim rolls his own perma-nent Willpower as lethal damage against himself. This damage can be soaked with his own Humanity or Path of Enlightenment (difficulty 6); Fortitude does not add to this soak dice pool, nor does body armor. He may take no actions during this time other than thrashing and gibbering; this includes spending blood to heal. Lunatic Eruption This fearsome ability is only known to have been applied a few times in recorded Kindred history, most spectacularly during the final nights of the last battle of Carthage. It is effectively a psychic nuclear bomb, used to incite every intelligent being within several miles (kilometers) into an orgy of bloodlust and rage. It is suspected that the Malkavians have used the threat of this power as a bargaining chip in several key negotia-tions. System: The player spends four Willpower points and rolls Stamina + Intimidation (difficulty 8). The area of effect is determined by the number of successes scored: Successes Result 1 success One city block 2 successes An entire neighborhood3 successes A large downtown area 4 successes Several neighborhoods 5 successes An entire metropolitan area (approximately 30 miles or 45 kilometers) 6+ successes An additional 10 miles or 15 kilometers for every success past 5 Within this area, all sentient creatures fall prey to their baser instincts. Mortals spontaneously riot, looting and burning between bouts of mass violence. Kindred enter hunger-induced frenzies, draining dry as many vessels as they can sink their fangs into. An entire city can quite literally be driven temporarily in-sane by this power. Lunatic Eruption's effects persist until the next sunrise, and anyone entering its area of effect (centered on the site at which it was used, not on the character who applied it) falls under its spell. However, momentum may carry the violence spawned by this power much farther — and keep it going much longer — than the power itself can force. Victims of Lunatic Eruption may resist with Self-Control/Instinct rolls (difficulty equal to the Dementa-tion user's permanent Willpower rating); each success provides one hour of lucidity, which most wise indi-viduals use to leave the power's area of effect (leav-ing the “blast radius” removes the power's influence). The source of Lunatic Eruption may be pinpointed if a character is using Heightened Senses or an equiva-lent power at the time it is used; this is automatic and requires no roll. However, this grants no knowledge of what actually happened — the observer simply “feels” a massive psychic shockwave explode from the charac-ter using the power. Dominate Dominate is one of the most dreaded of Disciplines. It is a vampire's ability to influence another person's thoughts and actions through her own force of will. Dominate requires that the vampire capture her vic-tim's gaze (see p. 152) ; as such, it may be used against only one subject at a time. Further, commands must be issued verbally, although simple orders may be made with signs — for example, a pointed finger and force-ful expression to indicate “Go!” However, the subject won't comply if he can't understand the vampire, no matter how powerful the Kindred's will is.
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152 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES Perhaps unsurprisingly, vampires to which Dominate comes naturally tend to be from willful, domineering Clans. The Giovanni, Lasombra, Tremere, and Ven-true all consider an iron will to be a boon, and are ea-ger to impose that iron will on any who would move against them. Eye Contact Many myths and stories exist about a vam-pire's mystical ability to put people under her spell by looking deeply into her victim's eyes. The persistence of such stories through the ages isn't surprising, since a number of Kin-dred Disciplines powers (most notably Domi-nate) require eye contact in order to work. Other vampires, learning of this requirement, have attempted everything from wearing mir-rored sunglasses to gouging out their own eyes in order to prevent an elder from exerting his will upon them. But Kindred are not so easily thwarted. The need for eye contact stems from the ag-gressor Kindred's need to see his victim's soul, and the eyes are the traditionally known as the windows to the soul. While the vampire needs to capture his target's attention, the target's eyes need not be present for such a power to work (although the arts of the Tzimisce make this somewhat challenging at times) — they only need to find the soul of his victim laid bare. A target trying to avoid eye contact can make a Willpower roll against a difficulty equal to Dominate user's Manipulation + Intimida-tion (or other appropriate combination for other Disciplines or specific situations, at the Storyteller's discretion). The difficulty may be reduced for mitigating factors:-1 in the case of the target obscuring his eyes slightly (such as closing her eyes or wearing dark sunglasses) up to a-3 for the eyes being completely un-seen (such as with a thick blindfold or having her eyes torn out). Ultimately, however, it is up to the Storyteller to decide whether eye contact is established in a particular case. Command The vampire locks eyes with the subject and speaks a one-word command, which the subject must be obey instantly. The order must be clear and straightforward: run, agree, fall, yawn, jump, laugh, surrender, stop, scream, follow. If the command is at all confusing or ambiguous, the subject may respond slowly or perform the task poorly. The subject cannot be ordered to do something directly harmful to herself, so a command like “die” is ineffective. The command may be included in a sentence, there-by concealing the power's use from others. This ef-fort at subtlety still requires the Kindred to make eye contact at the proper moment and stress the key word slightly. An alert bystander — or even the victim — may notice the emphasis. Still, unless she's conversant with supernatural powers, the individual is likely to attribute the utterance and the subsequent action to bizarre coincidence. System: The player rolls Manipulation + Intimida-tion (difficulty equals the target's current Willpower points). More successes force the subject to act with greater vigor or for a longer duration (continue run-ning for a number of turns, go off on a laughing jag, scream uncontrollably). Remember, too, that being commanded to against one's Nature confounds the use of this power. Being told to “sleep!” in a dangerous situation or “attack!” in police custody may not have the desired effect, or indeed, any effect at all. Mesmerize With this power, a vampire can verbally implant a false thought or hypnotic suggestion in the subject's subconscious mind. Both Kindred and target must be free from distraction, since Mesmerize requires intense concentration and precise wording to be effective. The vampire may activate the imposed thought immediate-ly or establish a stimulus that will trigger it later. The victim must be able to understand the vampire, though the two need to maintain eye contact only as long as it takes to implant the idea. Mesmerize allows for anything from simple, precise directives (handing over an item) to complex, highly involved ones (taking notes of someone's habits and relaying that information at an appointed time). It is not useful for planting illusions or false memories (such as seeing a rabbit or believing yourself to be on fire). A subject can have only one suggestion implanted at any time.
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153 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONSystem: The player rolls Manipulation + Leader-ship (difficulty equal to the target's current Willpower points). The number of successes determines how well the suggestion takes hold in the victim's subconscious. If the vampire scores one or two successes, the subject cannot be forced to do anything that seems strange to her (she might walk outside, but is unlikely to steal a car). At three or four successes, the command is effec-tive unless following it endangers the subject. At five successes or greater, the vampire can implant nearly any sort of command. No matter how strong the Kindred's will, his com-mand cannot force the subject to harm herself directly or defy her innate Nature. So, while a vampire who scored five successes could make a 98-pound weakling attack a 300-pound bouncer, he could not make the mortal shoot herself in the head. If a vampire tries to Mesmerize a subject before the target fulfills a previously implanted directive, com-pare the successes rolled to those gained during the im-planting of the first suggestion. Whichever roll had the greater number of successes is the command that now governs in the target's behavior; the other suggestion is wiped clean. If the successes rolled are equal, the newer command supplants the old one. The Forgetful Mind After capturing the subject's gaze, the vampire delves into the subject's memories, stealing or re-creating them at his whim. The Forgetful Mind does not allow for telepathic contact; the Kindred operates much like a hypnotist, asking directed questions and drawing out answers from the subject. The degree of memory altera-tion depends on what the vampire desires. He may al-ter the subject's mind only slightly (quite effective for eliminating memories of the victim meeting or even being fed upon by the vampire) or utterly undo the vic-tim's memories of her past. The degree of detail used has a direct bearing on how strongly the new memories take hold, since the vic-tim's subconscious mind resists the alteration. A sim-plistic or incomplete false memory (“You went to the movies last night”) crumbles much more quickly than does one with more attention to detail (“You thought about texting your girlfriend while you were in line at the new movie theater, but you knew you'd have to turn your phone off once you got inside. You liked the movie well enough, but the plot seemed weak. You were tired after it ended, so you went home, watched a little late-night television, and went to bed. ”).
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154 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESEven in its simplest applications, The Forgetful Mind requires tremendous skill and finesse. It's a relatively simple matter to rifle through a victim's psyche and rip out the memories of the previous night without know-ing what the subject did that evening. Doing so leaves a gap in the victim's mind, however — a hole that can give rise to further problems down the road. The Kin-dred may describe new memories, but these recollec-tions seldom have the same degree of realism that the subject's original thoughts held. As such, this power isn't always completely effective. The victim may remember being bitten, but believe it to be an animal attack. Greater memories may return in pieces as dreams, or through sensory triggers like a familiar odor or spoken phrase. Even so, months or years may pass before the subject regains enough of her lost memories to make sense of the fragments. A vampire can also sense when a subject's memories were altered through use of this power, and even restore them, as a hypnotist draws forth suppressed thoughts. System: The player states what sorts of alteration he wants to perform, then rolls Wits + Subterfuge (dif-ficulty equal to the target's current Willpower points). Any success pacifies the victim for the amount of time it takes the vampire to perform the verbal alteration, provided the vampire does not act aggressively toward her. The table below indicates the degree of modifica-tion possible to the subject's memory. If the successes rolled don't allow for the extent of change the charac-ter desired, the Storyteller reduces the resulting impact on the victim's mind. Successes Result 1 success May remove a single memory; lasts one day. 2 successes May remove, but not alter, memory permanently. 3 successes May make slight changes to memory. 4 successes May alter or remove entire scene from subject's memory. 5 successes May reconstruct entire periods of subject's life. To restore removed memories or sense false ones in a subject, the character's Dominate rating must be equal to or higher than that of the vampire who made the alteration. In that situation, the player must make a Wits + Empathy roll (difficulty equal to the origi-nal vampire's permanent Willpower rating) and score more successes than his predecessor did. However, the Kindred cannot use The Forgetful Mind to restore his own memories if they were stolen in such a way. Conditioning Through sustained manipulation, the vampire can make a subject more pliant to the Kindred's will. Over time, the victim becomes increasingly susceptible to the vampire's influence while simultaneously growing more resistant to the corrupting efforts of other Kin-dred. Gaining complete control over a subject's mind is no small task, taking weeks or even months to ac-complish. Kindred often fill their retainers' heads with subtle whispers and veiled urges, thereby ensuring these mor-tals' loyalty. Yet vampires must pay a high price for the minds they ensnare. Servants Dominated in this way lose much of their passion and individuality. They follow the vampire's orders quite literally, seldom tak-ing initiative or showing any imagination. In the end, such retainers become like automatons or the walking dead. System: The player rolls Charisma + Leadership (dif-ficulty equal to the target's current Willpower points) once per scene. Conditioning is an extended action, for which the Storyteller secretly determines the number of successes required. It typically requires between five and 10 times the subject's Self-Control/Instinct rat-ing. Targets with more empathic Natures may require a lower number of successes, while those with willful Natures require a higher total. Only through roleplay-ing may a character discern whether his subject is con-ditioned successfully. A target may become more tractable even before becoming fully conditioned. Once the vampire accu-mulates half the required number of successes, the Sto-ryteller may apply a lower difficulty to the vampire's subsequent uses of Dominate. After being conditioned, the target falls so far under the vampire's influence that the Kindred need not make eye contact or even be present to retain absolute control. The subject does ex-actly as she is told (including taking actions that would injure herself), as long as her master can communicate with her verbally. No command roll is necessary un-less the subject is totally isolated from the vampire's presence (in a different room, over the phone). Even if a command roll fails, the target will still likely carry out part of the orders given, simply because her master wishes it.
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155 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONAfter the subject is fully conditioned, other Kindred find her more difficult to Dominate. Such conditioning raises others' difficulties by two (to a maximum of 10). It is possible, though difficult, to shake Condition-ing. The subject must be separated entirely from the vampire to whom she was in thrall. This period of separation varies depending on the individual, but the Storyteller may set it at six months, less a number of weeks equal to the subject's permanent Willpower rating (so a person with 5 Willpower must stay away from the vampire for just under five months). The subject regains her personality slowly during this time, though she may still lapse into brief spells of listless-ness, despair, or even anger. If the vampire encounters the target before that time passes, a single successful Charisma + Leadership roll (difficulty of the target's current Willpower points) on the part of the vampire completely reasserts the dominance. If the subject makes it through the time period with-out intervention by her master, the target regains her former individuality. Even so, the vampire may rees-tablish conditioning more easily than the first time, since the subject is now predisposed to falling under the Kindred's mental control. New attempts require half the total number of successes than the last bout of conditioning did (which means the subject reaches the threshold for reduced difficulties sooner, as well). Possession At this level of Dominate, the force of the Kindred's psyche is such that it can utterly supplant the mind of a mortal subject. Speaking isn't required, but the vam-pire must capture the victim's gaze. During the psychic struggle, the contestants' eyes are locked on one an-other. Once the Kindred overwhelms the subject's mind, the vampire moves his consciousness into the victim's body and controls it as easily as he uses his own. The mortal falls into a mental fugue while under possession. She is aware of events only in a distorted, dreamlike fashion. In turn, the vampire's mind focuses entirely on controlling his mortal subject. His own body lies in a torpid state, defenseless against any actions made toward it. Vampires cannot possess one another in this fashion, as even the weakest Kindred's mind is strong enough to resist such straightforward mental dominance. Only through a blood bond can one vampire control another to this degree. Supernatural creatures also cannot be possessed in this way, although ghouls that have drunk from the vampire using Possession can. System: The vampire must completely strip away the target's Willpower prior to possessing her. The player spends a Willpower point, then rolls Charisma + In-timidation, while the subject rolls his Willpower in a resisted action (difficulty 7 for each). For each success the vampire obtains over the victim's total, the target loses a point of temporary Willpower. Only if the at-tacker botches can the subject escape her fate, since this makes the target immune to any further Dominate attempts by that vampire for the rest of the story. Once the target loses all her temporary Willpower, her mind is open. The vampire rolls Manipulation + Intimidation (difficulty 7) to determine how fully he assumes control of the mortal shell. Similar to the Ani-malism power Subsume the Spirit, multiple successes allow the character to utilize some mental Disciplines, noted on the chart below. (Vampires possessing ghouls can use the physical Disciplines the ghoul possesses, but not the mental ones. ) Successes Result 1 success Cannot use Disciplines 2 successes Can use Auspex and other sensory powers 3 successes Can also use Presence and other powers of emotional manipulation 4 successes Can also use Dementation, Dominate, and other powers of mental manipulation 5 successes Can also use Chimerstry, Necromancy, Thaumaturgy, and other mystical powers The character may travel as far from his body as he is physically able while possessing the mortal. The vam-pire may also venture out during the day in the mortal form. However, the vampire's own body must be awake to do so, requiring a successful roll to remain awake (see p. 262). If the vampire leaves the mortal shell (by choice, if his body falls asleep, through supernatural ex-pulsion, after sustaining significant injury, etc. ), his con-sciousness returns to his physical form in an instant. Once freed from possession, the mortal regains men-tal control of herself. This can happen in an instant, or the victim may lie comatose for days while her psyche copes with the violation.
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156 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESThe vampire experiences everything the mortal body feels during possession, from pleasure to pain. In fact, any damage the victim's body sustains is also applied to the character's body (though the Kindred may soak as normal). If the mortal dies before the vampire's soul can flee from the body, the character's body falls into torpor. Presumably this is in sympathetic response to the massive trauma of death, though some Kindred be-lieve that the vampire's soul is cast adrift during this time and must find its way back to the body. The Kindred can remain in the mortal's body even if his own torpid form is destroyed, though such a pathetic creature is not likely to exist for long. At each sunrise, the vampire must roll Courage (difficulty 8) or be ex-pelled from the body. If forced from the mortal body, the vampire tumbles into the astral plane, his soul perma-nently lost in the spirit world. A vampire trapped in a mortal body may not be “re-Embraced. ” If the Embrace occurs to such a creature, he simply meets Final Death. Chain the Psyche Not content with merely commanding their subjects, some elders apply this power to ensure obedience from recalcitrant victims. Chain the Psyche is a Dominate technique that inflicts incapacitating pain on a target who attempts to break the vampire's commands. System: The player spends a blood point when her character applies Dominate to a subject. Any attempt that the subject makes to act against the vampire's implanted commands or to recover stolen memories causes intense pain. When such an attempt is made, the Storyteller rolls the character's Manipulation + In-timidation (difficulty equal to the subject's Stamina + Empathy). Each success equals one turn that the vic-tim is unable to act, as she is wracked with agony. Each application of Chain the Psyche crushes a number of resistance attempts equal to the character's Manipula-tion rating, after which the effect fades. Loyalty With this power in effect, the elder's Dominate is so strong that other vampires find it almost impossible to break with their own commands. Despite the name, Loyalty instills no special feelings in the victim — the vampire's commands are simply implanted far more deeply than normal. System: Any other vampire attempting to employ Dominate on a subject who has been Dominated by a vampire with Loyalty has a +3 difficulty modifier to his rolls and must spend an additional Willpower point. Obedience While most Kindred must employ Dominate through eye contact, some powerful elders may command loy-alty with the lightest brush of a hand. System: The character can employ all Dominate powers through touch instead of eye contact (although eye contact still works). Skin contact is necessary — simply touching the target's clothing or something she is holding will not suffice. The touch does not have to be maintained for the full time it takes to issue a Domi-nate command, though repeated attempts to Dominate a single target require the character to touch the sub-ject again. Mass Manipulation A truly skilled elder may command small crowds through the use of this power. By manipulating the strongest minds within a given group, a gathering may be directed to the vampire's will. System: The player declares that he is using this power before rolling for the use of another Dominate power. The difficulty of the roll is that which would be required to Dominate the most resistant member of the target group — if he cannot be Dominated, no one in his immediate vicinity can. For every success past that needed to inflict the desired result on the first target, the player may choose one additional target to receive the same effect in its entirety. The vampire needs to make eye contact only with the initial target. Still the Mortal Flesh Despite its name, this power may be employed on vampires as well as mortals, and it has left more than one unfortunate victim writhing in agony — or unable to do even that. A vampire who has developed this power is able to override her victim's body as easily as his mind in order to cut off his senses or even stop his heart. It is rumored that this power once came more easily to the Kindred, but modern medicine has made the bodies and spirits of mortals more resistant to such manipulations. System: The player rolls Manipulation + Medicine (difficulty equal to the target's current Willpower points + 2; a difficulty over 10 means that this power cannot affect the target at all). The effect lasts for one turn per success. The player must choose what func-tion of the target's body is being cut off before rolling. She may affect any of the body's involuntary functions; breathing, circulation, perspiration, sight, and hearing are all viable targets. While Still the Mortal Flesh is in
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157 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONeffect, a vampire can either stop any one of those func-tions entirely or cause them to fluctuate erratically. The exact effects of any given bodily function being shut off are left to the Storyteller. Most mortals panic if suddenly struck blind, but only the shutdown of the heart will kill a target on the spot. Vampires are un-affected by loss of heartbeat or breathing, but may be rendered deaf and blind as easily as mortals. Far Mastery This refinement of Obedience (though the character need not have learned Obedience first) allows the use of Dominate on any subject that the vampire is familiar with, at any time, over any distance. If the elder knows where his target is, he may issue commands as if he were standing face-to-face with his intended victim. System: The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Perception + Empathy (difficulty equal to the sub-ject's Wits + Stealth) to establish contact. If this roll succeeds, Dominate may be used as if the character had established eye contact with the target. A second Will-power point must be spent in order for a vampire to use this power on another vampire or other supernatural being. Speak Through the Blood The power structures of Methuselahs extend across continents and centuries. This power allows such an-cients to wield control over their descendants, even those far outside their geographic spheres of influence. Speak Through the Blood allows an elder to issue com-mands to every vampire whose lineage can be traced to her — even if the two have never met. Thus, en-tire broods act to further the goals of sleeping ancients whose existences they may be completely unaware of. The vampires affected by this power rarely act directly to pursue the command they were given, but over a decade or so, their priorities slowly shift until the ful-fillment of the Methuselah's command is among their long-term goals. Speak Through the Blood, because it takes effect so slowly, is rarely recognized as an outside influence, and its victims rationalize their behavior as “growing and changing,” or something to that effect. System: The player spends a permanent Willpower point and rolls Manipulation + Leadership. The dif-ficulty of this roll is equal to four plus the number of Generations to which the command is to be passed. Unless the character is aware of the location and pres-ent agenda of every descendant of his — a highly un-likely event — he may only issue general commands, half page art here
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158 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES such as “work for the greater glory of Clan Malkavian” or “destroy all those who seek to extinguish the light of knowledge. ” Speak Through the Blood can be used by a vampire in torpor. Commands issued through this power last for one decade per success on the roll. Dif-ficulties over 10 require one additional success for each point past 10, making it that much more difficult to issue long-lasting commands stretching down to the ends of one's lineage. A vampire who has reached Golconda is not affected by this power, and is completely unaware that it has been used. Her childer, however, are affected normally unless they are also enlightened. Ghouls of the victims of this power are also affected, but to a lesser extent. Resisting Dominate Most victims cannot stand against the ef-fects of Dominate. Still, there are situations where this Discipline is powerless to sway the subject. Mortals: Few mortals can hope to resist Dominate, as their strength of will nothing compared to the supernatural magnetism of a vampire. Still, there are extremely rare individuals who, due to strong religious faith, unique psychic talent, or extraordinary mental resolve, can shrug off this Discipline's effects. Only a foolish vampire ignores the potential threat such human beings represent. (See p. 372 for more information about True Faith, for example. ) Vampires: It is impossible to Dominate another Kindred who is of stronger Blood. The vampire must be of an equal or higher Generation than the target for the powers to be effective. Scholars of the Kindred condi-tion suspect that this is one of the protections Caine put in place to protect himself from the whims of his willful childer. A faction of those who believe this theory also maintain that this implies that Caine himself employed the Discipline of Dominate. Nature: A character's Nature can have a distinct impact on how easily Dominate influ-ences her. A vampire might easily control subjects with inherently empathic Natures (Caregiver, Child, Conformist), while those whose Natures denote a great degree of inner strength (Bravo, Director, Rebel) can be more of a challenge. The Storyteller may reduce the required difficulty or number of successes by one or two when the player rolls against those subjects with “weaker” Natures, or raise them by a similar amount for “stronger” Natures. On the other hand, “strong” Na-tures might be more easiliy influenced to take aggressive actions — for example, coaxing a Rebel to denounce the Prince is likely easier than goading a Conformist to do the same thing. Ultimately, the Storyteller must adjudi-cate. Botches: If a Dominate roll botches, the target is rendered immune to future attempts by the same vampire for the rest of the story. Fortitude Although all vampires have an unnatural constitution that make them much sturdier than mortals, Fortitude bestows a resilience that would make an action movie hero envious. Vampires with this Discipline can shrug off agonizing trauma and make the most bone-shatter-ing impact look like a flesh wound. The power even of-fers protection against the traditional banes of vampires, such as sunlight and fire, and the Gangrel, Ravnos, and Ventrue all find that edge incredibly useful. System: A character's rating in Fortitude adds to his Stamina for the purposes of soaking normal damage (bashing and lethal). A character with this Discipline may also use his dots in Fortitude to soak aggravated damage, though Kindred cannot normally soak things like vampire bites, werewolf claws, magical effects, fire, sunlight, or massive physical trauma. See p. 272, for further details on soaking and damage. Fortitude 6+ Elder vampires progress in Fortitude in the same way as Celerity (see p. 142). They can increase their basic mastery of the Discipline or to take an alternate power such as one of those detailed below.
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159 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION Personal Armor Nobody likes to get hit, not even Cainites. The easiest way to ensure that one is not hit (or shot, or stabbed) repeatedly is to take the weapon with which one is assaulted away from one's attacker and break it. That's where Personal Armor comes in. This applica-tion of Fortitude, derived from one popular in the 12th century, causes anything that strikes a Kindred who employs Personal Armor to shatter on impact. System: With the expenditure of two blood points, a vampire can add preternatural hardness to his flesh. Every time an attack is made on the Kindred using Per-sonal Armor (one which he fails to dodge), his player rolls Fortitude (difficulty 8). If the roll grants more suc-cesses than the attacker rolled, then the weapon used to make the attack shatters against the vampire's flesh. (“Magical” weapons may be resistant to this effect, at the Storyteller's discretion. ) The vampire still takes normal damage if the attack is successful, even if the weapon shatters in the process, though this damage may be soaked. If the attack roll botches, any normal weapon automatically shatters. A hand-to-hand attack causes the attacker equal damage to that suffered by the defender when Personal Armor comes into play. If the attacker misses entirely, she still takes one level of bashing damage. The effects of this power last for the duration of the scene. Shared Strength It's one thing to laugh off bullets, rather another to watch the ricochets mow down everyone around you. Many Kindred have wished, at one time or another, that they could lend their monstrous vitality to those around them. Those few vampires who have mastered Shared Strength can — if only for a little while. System: Shared Strength duplicates a portion of a vampire's Fortitude (one dot for every point of blood the vampire spends) to another being. Activating the power requires a Stamina + Survival roll (difficulty 8, increased to 9 if the target is not a normal mortal), and the expenditure of a point of Willpower. Furthermore, the vampire must mark his target by pressing a drop of his blood onto the target's forehead. This stain remains visible as long as the power is in effect, the duration of which is determined by the initial roll. Successes Duration 1 One turn 2 One scene 3 One hour 4 One night 5 One week 6 One month 7 One year The target of this power need not be willing to ac-cept the benefit to receive it, and the bestowing vam-pire can end the effect at any time for no cost. Particu-larly sadistic Kindred have come up with any number of ways in which a target's “devil's mark” and super-natural endurance can be used to land him in a great deal of trouble. A vampire can never bestow more levels of Fortitude than he himself possesses. Adamantine Adamantine functions as a more potent version of Personal Armor. System: This power mimics the effects of Personal Armor, save that the vampire who uses it takes no damage from attacks that shatter on her skin. Necromancy Necromancy is both a Discipline and a school of blood magic devoted to the command of the souls of the dead. It's similar to Thaumaturgy in that it has several “paths” and accompanying “rituals” rather than a strict linear progression of powers. The study of Necromancy is not widespread among the Kindred, and its practi-tioners — primarily the Giovanni — are shunned and despised for their foul practices (until those practices become useful, of course). Over the centuries, the various schools of vampiric Necromancy have evolved and diversified from an ear-lier form of death magic, leaving several distinct paths of necromantic magic available to Cainites. Nearly all modern necromancers learn the Sepulchre Path first before extending their studies to other paths. The pri-mary Necromancy path increases automatically as the character increases her overall Necromancy rating. Other paths must be bought separately, using the expe-rience costs for secondary paths.
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160 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESLike Thaumaturgy, Necromancy has also spawned a series of rituals. While not nearly so immediate in ef-fect as the basic powers of Necromancy, Necromantic rituals can have impressive long-term effects. Unsur-prisingly, the elements of Necromantic ritual are things like long-buried corpses and hands from the cadavers of hanged men, so obtaining suitable materials can be quite difficult. System: A Cainite necromancer must learn at least three levels in his primary path before learning his first level in a secondary Necromancy path. He must then master the primary path (all five levels) before acquir-ing any knowledge of a third path. As with Thaumaturgy, advancement in the primary path costs the normal experience amount, while study of additional Necromantic paths incurs an additional experience-point cost (see p. 124). Because Necromancy is not quite so rigid a study as Thaumaturgy is, the rolls required to use Necromantic powers can vary from path to path and even within individual paths. The common-ly-learned Sepulchre Path is presented first, with the re-maining paths presented in alphabetical order. Statistics for ghosts may be found in Chapter Nine, p. 385. The Sepulchre Path Through the Sepulchre path, the vampire can wit-ness, summon, and command the spirits of the dead. At higher levels, the necromancer can force the ghost to remain in a particular place or object, or even dam-age wraiths directly. Since many other areas of Nec-romancy involve dealing with ghosts, this is the most common path for necromancers to start with. Note: If a Kindred uses a Sepulchre Path power in the presence of something of great importance to the ghost the power affects, the chances for success in the summoning increase dramatically (reduce the difficulty by 2). This might be the bathtub in which the ghost's mortal body was drowned, the rusted-out wreck of the car where the ghost's physical body was trapped alive, or something unrelated to the ghost's demise, such as a favorite book or a child-ghost's beloved nursery. Witness of Death Before it is possible to control the dead, one must perceive them. This power allows just that, attuning a vampire's unliving senses to the presence of the in-corporeal.
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161 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONUnder its effects, a necromancer sees ghosts as trans-lucent phantoms gliding among the living and hears their whispers and moans. She feels the spectral cold of their touch and smells their musty hint of decay. Yet one cannot mistake the dead for the living, as they lack true substance, and appear dimmer and less real than creatures of flesh and blood. When a vampire uses this power, her eyes flicker with pale blue fire that only the dead can see. Ghosts resent being spied upon, and more powerful shades may use their own powers to inflict their dis-pleasure on the incautious. System: The player rolls Perception + Awareness (difficulty 5). Success allows the vampire to perceive ghosts as described for the rest of the scene (in the mortal world — seeing ghosts in the land of the dead requires Shroudsight, on p. 163 ). Failure has no special effect, but a botch means the vampire can see only the dead for the scene; everything else appears as shapeless, dim shadows. While the vampire's other senses remain attuned to the living, he is all but blind in this state and suffers a +3 difficulty to most vision-based Percep-tion rolls and attacks. Ghosts notice the glowing eyes of a vampire using this power only with a successful Perception + Alertness roll (difficulty 7). Summon Soul The power of Summon Soul allows a necromancer to call a ghost back from the Underworld, for conversa-tional purposes only. In order to perform this feat (and indeed, most of the feats in this path), the vampire must meet certain conditions: The necromancer must know the name of the wraith in question, though an image of the wraith ob-tained via Witness of Death (see above), Shroudsight (see p. 163), Auspex, or other supernatural perception will suffice. An object with which the wraith had some contact in life must be in the vicinity, though it need not be something of significant importance to the ghost's liv-ing consciousness. A piece of the ghost's corpse works well for this purpose (and even provides a-1 difficulty modifier). Certain types of ghosts cannot be summoned with this power. Vampires who achieved Golconda before their Final Deaths, or who were diablerized, are beyond the reach of this summons. Likewise, many ghosts of the dead cannot be called — they are destroyed, un-able to return to the mortal plane, or lost in the eternal storm of the Underworld. System: The player spends one blood point and rolls Manipulation + Occult (difficulty equal to 7 or the ghost's Willpower, whichever is higher). The vampire must know the name of the ghost and have on hand an object the ghost had contact with in life. Provided that the target has died and become a ghost, success means the shade appears before the necromancer as described above. Not everyone becomes a ghost — it requires a strong will to persevere in the face of death, and souls that have found peace pass on to their eternal rewards. Moreover, it is possible for the dead to suffer spiritual dissolution and destruction after they become ghosts. The Storyteller should consider all these factors when deciding whether a particular ghost exists for a vampire to summon. Vampires know if their summons should have suc-ceeded by a feeling of sudden, terrifying descent as they reach too far into the great Beyond, so this power can be used to determine whether a soul has endured be-yond death. While a failure means the vampire wastes blood, a botch calls a spirit other than the one sought — usually a malevolent ghost known as a Spectre (see p. 385). Such a fiend torments the one who summoned it with every wicked power at its disposal. Once a ghost is summoned, it may not deliberately move out of sight of the vampire, though it can take any other actions, including direct attack. The vam-pire's player may spend a Willpower point to dismiss the ghost at any time (unless he rolled a botch). Other-wise, at the end of the scene, shadows engulf the spirit once more and return it to its original location. Compel Soul With this power, a vampire can command a ghost to do his bidding for a while. Compulsion of the soul is a perilous undertaking and, when used improperly, can endanger vampire and wraith alike. System: The vampire locates and approaches the in-tended ghost or calls it to his presence with Summon Soul. As with the previous power, he must have the ghost's name and an object it handled in life. His player then spends one blood point and rolls Manipulation + Occult in a resisted roll against the ghost's Willpower (difficulty 6 for both rolls). If the vampire wins, the number of net successes de-termines the degree of control he has over the ghost (as described below). Moreover, the vampire's control keeps ghosts that have been called with Summon Soul from returning to their original locations at the end of the scene. If the ghost wins, the vampire loses a number
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162 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESof Willpower points equal to the ghost's net successes. On a tie, the roll becomes an extended contest that continues each turn until one side wins. If the vampire botches at any point, the ghost is immune to any use of the vampire's Necromancy for the rest of the scene. If the ghost botches, it must obey as if the vampire's player had rolled five net successes. Successes Result 1 success The ghost must perform one simple task for the vampire that does not place it in certain danger. It must attend to this task immediately, although it can delay the compulsion and pursue its own business at a cost of one Willpower point per scene. The ghost may not attack the vampire until this task is complete. It is possible to issue the task of answering one question, in which case the ghost must answer truthfully and to the best of its knowledge. 2 successes The vampire may issue two orders or ask two questions as outlined for one success. Alternatively, the vampire may demand a simple task with a real possibility of danger, as long as the danger is not certain. The ghost may delay this compulsion with Willpower. 3 successes The vampire may issue three orders as outlined for one success. Alternatively, he may demand the ghost fulfill one difficult and dangerous task or a simple assignment that has an extended duration of up to one month. The ghost may delay such orders with Willpower. 4 successes The vampire may issue four orders, as outlined for one success, or assign two tasks, as for two successes. Alternatively, the vampire may command the ghost to perform one complex assignment that puts the ghost at extreme risk, or perform any number of non-threatening tasks as the vampire's slave for up to one month (or, if the necromancer spends a permanent point of Willpower, for a year and a day). It is possible for ghosts to delay individual tasks, but not put off enslavement. 5+ successes The vampire may issue multiple orders that have a sum complexity or danger of five successes' worth. Instead, the vampire may order the ghost to perform any one action that it is capable of executing within one month. Such a task can place the ghost in immediate peril of destruction, or even force it to betray and assault loved ones. It is not possible for ghosts to delay a task of this magnitude with Willpower — they must obey. Haunting Haunting binds a summoned ghost to a particular location or, in extreme cases, an object. The wraith cannot leave the area to which the necromancer binds it without risking destruction. System: The player spends one blood point while standing at the location for the haunting or touching the intended prison. She then has the ghost brought to her by whatever means she desires, though Summon Soul is quickest and most reliable. Her player then rolls Manipulation + Occult (difficulty is equal to the target's current Willpower points if resisted, to a mini-mum of 4; otherwise it is 4). The difficulty rises by one if the vampire wishes to place the ghost in an object. As usual, the difficulty decreases by one if the necro-mancer has a part of the spirit's corpse in addition to knowing its name (minimum difficulty 3). Each success binds the ghost within the location or object for one night. This duration extends to one week if the player spends a Willpower point or a year and a day for a dot of permanent Willpower. A wraith at-tempting to leave the area of a haunting must make an extended Willpower roll (difficulty 9, four cumulative successes necessary in a single scene) or take a level of aggravated damage for each roll. If the wraith runs out of health levels, it is hurled deep into the Underworld to face destruction. Torment It is through the use of this power that powerful nec-romancers convince bound ghosts to behave — or else.
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163 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONTorment allows the vampire to strike a wraith as if he himself were in the lands of the dead, inflicting dam-age on the wraith's ectoplasmic form. The vampire remains in the real world, however, so he cannot be struck in return. System: The player rolls Stamina + Empathy (dif-ficulty equal to the wraith's current Willpower points), and the vampire reaches out to strike the wraith. Each success inflicts a level of lethal damage on the wraith. Should the wraith lose all health levels, it immediately vanishes into what appears to be a doorway to some hideous nightmare realm. Ghosts “destroyed” thus can-not reappear in or near the real world for a month. The Ash Path The Ash Path allows necromancers to peer into the lands of the dead, and even affect things there. Of the paths of Necromancy, the Ash Path is the most peril-ous to learn, because many of the path's uses increase a necromancer's vulnerability to wraiths. Shroudsight Shroudsight allows a necromancer to see through the Shroud, the mystical barrier that separates the living world from the Underworld. By using this power, the vampire can spot ghostly buildings and items, the land-scape of the so-called Shadowlands, and even wraiths themselves. However, an observant wraith may notice when a vampire suddenly starts staring at him, which can lead to unpleasant consequences. System: A simple roll of Perception + Awareness (difficulty 7) allows a necromancer to utilize Shrouds-ight. The effects last for a scene. Lifeless Tongues Where Shroudsight allows a necromancer to see ghosts, Lifeless Tongues allows her to converse with them effortlessly. Once Lifeless Tongues is employed, the vampire can carry on a conversation with the deni-zens of the ghostly Underworld without spending blood or causing the wraiths to expend any effort. System: To use Lifeless Tongues requires a roll of Perception + Occult (difficulty 6) and the expenditure of a Willpower point. Dead Hand Similar to the Sepulchre Path power Torment, Dead Hand allows a necromancer to reach across the Shroud and affect a ghostly object as if it were in the real world. Ghosts are solid to necromancers using this power, and can be attacked. Furthermore, the necromancer can pick up ghostly items, scale ghostly architecture (giving real-world bystanders the impression that he's climbing on air!), and generally exist in two worlds. On the other hand, a necromancer using Dead Hand is quite solid to the residents of the Underworld — and to whatever hostilities they might have. System: The player spends a point of Willpower and makes a successful Wits + Occult roll (difficulty 7) to activate Dead Hand for one scene. For each additional scene the vampire wishes to remain in contact with the Underworld, he must spend a point of blood. Ex Nihilo Ex Nihilo allows a necromancer to enter the Un-derworld physically. While in the lands of the dead, the vampire is essentially a particularly solid ghost. He maintains his normal number of health levels, but can be hurt only by things that inflict aggravated damage on ghosts (weapons forged from souls, certain ghostly powers, etc. ). A vampire physically in the Underworld can pass through solid objects in the real world (at the cost of one health level) and remain “incorporeal” for a number of turns equal to her Stamina rating. On the other hand, vampires present in the Underworld are subject to all of the Underworld's perils, including ulti-mate destruction. A vampire killed in the realm of the dead is gone forever, beyond even the reach of other necromancers. System: Using Ex Nihilo takes a tremendous toll on the necromancer. To activate this power, the vampire must first draw a doorway with chalk or blood on any available surface. (The vampire may draw doors ahead of time for exactly this purpose. ) The player must then expend two points of Willpower and two points of blood before making a Stamina + Occult roll (difficul-ty 8) as the vampire attempts to open the chalk door physically. If the roll succeeds, the door opens and the vampire steps through into the Underworld. When the vampire wishes to return to the real world, he merely needs to concentrate (and the player spends another Willpower point and rolls Stamina + Occult, difficulty 6). At Storyteller discretion, a vampire who is too deeply immersed in the Underworld may need to journey to a place close to the lands of the living in order to cross over. Vampires who wander too far into the lands of the dead may be trapped there forever. Vampires in the Underworld cannot feed upon ghosts without the use of another power; their only sustenance is the blood they bring with them.
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164 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES Shroud Mastery Shroud Mastery offers the Kindred the ability to manipulate the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead. By doing so, a necromancer can make it easier for bound wraiths in his service to function, or make it nearly impossible for ghosts to contact the material world. System: To exercise Shroud Mastery, the necro-mancer expends two points of Willpower, then states whether he is attempting to raise or lower the Shroud. The player then makes a Willpower roll (difficulty 9). Each success on the roll raises or lowers the difficulties of all nearby wraiths' attempts to cross the Shroud in any way by one, to a maximum of 10 or a minimum of 3. The Shroud reverts to its normal strength at a rate of one point per hour thereafter. The Bone Path The Bone Path is concerned primarily with corpses and the methods by which dead souls can be restored to the living world — temporarily or otherwise. Tremens Tremens allows a necromancer to make the flesh of a corpse shift once. An arm might suddenly flop forward, a cadaver might sit up, or dead eyes might abruptly open. This sort of thing tends to have an impressive impact on people who aren't expecting a departed rela-tive to roll over in his coffin. System: To use Tremens, the necromancer spends a single blood point, and the player must succeed on a Dexterity + Occult roll (difficulty 6). The more suc-cesses that are achieved, the more complicated an ac-tion can be effected in the corpse. One success allows for an instantaneous movement, such as a twitch, while five allow the vampire to set up specific conditions un-der which the body animates (“The next time someone enters the room, I want the corpse to sit up and open its eyes. ”). Under no circumstances can Tremens cause a dead body to attack or cause damage. Apprentice's Brooms With Apprentice's Brooms, the necromancer can make a dead body rise and perform a simple function. For example, the corpse could be set to carrying heavy objects, digging, or just shambling from place to place. The cadavers thus animated do not attack or defend themselves if interfered with, but instead attempt to carry out their given instructions until such time as they've been rendered inanimate. Generally it takes dismemberment, flame, or something similar to destroy a corpse animated in this way. System: A roll of Wits + Occult (difficulty 7) and the expenditure of a point of both blood and Will-power are all that is necessary to animate corpses with Apprentice's Brooms. The number of corpses animated is equal to the number of successes achieved. The nec-romancer must then state the task to which he is set-ting his zombies. The cadavers turn themselves to their work until they finish the job (at which point they col-lapse) or something (including time) destroys them. Corpses animated in this way have no initiative of their own, and are unable to make value judgments. They respond to very literal instruction. Thus, a zom-bie could be told “sweep this room every day until all the dust and cobwebs are gone” or “transcribe this manuscript” with an expectation of reasonable results, while a more open-ended command such as “fix this motorcycle” or “research this Necromantic ritual and write down the results” would be doomed to failure. Bodies energized by this power continue to decay, al-beit at a much slower rate than normal. Zombie Statistics Corpses animated by a necromancer of the Bone Path have Strength 3, Dexterity 2, Stamina 4, Brawl 2, and always act last in a turn (unless there are mitigating circum-stances). They have zero Willpower points to spend, but resist attacks as if they have Will-power ratings of 10. All Mental and Social ratings are zero for a reanimated corpse, and zombies never attempt to dodge. Zombies' dice pools are not affected by damage, except that caused by fire or the claws and teeth of supernatural creatures. Most zombies have 10 health levels, but they are incapable of healing any damage they suffer. They have no minds or personalities to affect, so they are immune to uses of powers such as Dominate and Presence. Unless otherwise noted, they likewise cannot be usurped from the control of the necromancer invoking them.
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165 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITION Shambling Hordes Shambling Hordes creates obvious results: reanimat-ed corpses with the ability to attack, albeit neither very well nor very quickly. Once primed by this power, the corpses wait — for years, if necessary — to fulfill the command given them. The orders might be to protect a certain site or simply to attack immediately, but they will be carried out until every last one of the decom-posing monsters is destroyed. System: The player spends a point of Willpower. The player then must succeed on a Wits + Occult roll (difficulty 8). Each success allows the vampire to raise another corpse from the grave, and costs one blood point. If the player cannot or chooses not to pay the blood point cost of additional zombies past a certain number, the extra successes are simply lost. Each zom-bie can follow one simple instruction, such as “Stay here and guard this graveyard against any intruders,” or “Kill them!” Note: Zombies created by Shambling Hordes will wait forever if need be to fulfill their functions. Long after the flesh has rotted off their mystically animated bones, the zombies will wait and wait and wait, still able to perform their duties. Soul Stealing This power affects the living, not the dead. It does, however, temporarily turn a living soul into a sort of wraith, as it allows a necromancer to strip a soul from a living body. A mortal exiled from his body by this power becomes a wraith with a single tie to the real world: his now-empty body. System: The player spends a point of Willpower and then makes a contested Willpower roll against the intended victim (difficulty 6). Successes indicate the number of hours during which the original soul is forced out of its housing. The body itself remains auto-nomically alive but catatonic. This power can be used to create suitable hosts for Daemonic Possession. It has no effect on Kindred or other supernatural creatures (except ghouls) until such creatures are dead-in the case of vampires, this means Final Death. Daemonic Possession Daemonic Possession lets a vampire insert a soul into a freshly dead body. This does not turn the reanimated corpse into anything other than a reanimated corpse, one that will irrevocably decay after a week, but it does
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166 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESgive either a wraith or a free-floating soul (say, that of a vampire using Psychic Projection) a temporary home in the physical world. System: The body in question must be no more than 30 minutes dead, and the new tenant must agree to in-habit it — a ghost or astral form cannot be forced into a new shell. However, most ghosts would gladly seize the opportunity. Should the vampire, for whatever reason, wish to insert a soul into another vampire's corpse (be-fore it crumbles to ash), the necromancer must achieve five successes on a resisted Willpower roll against the original owner of the body. Otherwise, the interloper is denied entrance. Note: The soul can use whatever physical abilities (Athletics, Brawl, Potence) his new fleshy home pos-sesses, and whatever mental abilities (Computer, Law, Presence) he already possessed. He cannot use the physical abilities of his old form, or the mental abilities of his new one. The Cenotaph Path Practitioners of the Cenotaph Path are primarily concerned with discovering or forging links between the living world and the Shadowlands. It functions on the principle that a Kindred, already a corpse, is an unnatural bridge between the living and the dead, and the necromancer can use this to find other, similar linkages. The basic rudiments of the Cenotaph Path function easily enough once the Kindred learns to at-tune himself to these connections. Advanced mastery of the path usually entails some brief ritual to forge ar-tificial connections, either through focusing unsavory passions or commanding this world and the Shadow-lands together. A Touch of Death Just as a necromancer may exert mastery over the Shadowlands, so too can some ghosts exert them-selves in the mortal world. Whereas obvious displays of ghostly power such as bleeding walls or disembodied moans certainly won't be mistaken, some ghostly abili-ties exert subtle effects that aren't easily recognized. A necromancer sensitized to the residue of the dead, though, can feel whether an object has been touched by a ghost or sense the recent passage of a wraith. System: The necromancer simply touches a person or object that he suspects is a victim of ghostly influence. The player rolls Perception + Awareness (difficulty 6). If successful, the necromancer can determine whether a ghost has exerted any sort of power on the subject, or even crossed nearby, to the duration detailed below. Successes Result 1 success Last turn; detect use of ghostly powers 2 successes Last three turns; detect use of ghostly powers 3 successes Last hour; detect ghost's touch and use of ghostly powers 4 successes Last day; detect ghost's touch and use of ghostly powers 5 successes Last week; detect nearby passage of ghost, ghost's touch, and use of ghostly powers On a failure, the necromancer receives no impres-sions. A botch reveals a misleading answer (an object may seem tinged with ghostly power when it's not, or vice versa). Should the necromancer succeed in detec-tion while touching an object or person that a ghost is possessing, he immediately becomes aware that the ghost is still inside. The impression gained in such a case is sufficient to count as an image of the spirit for purposes of the Sepulchre Path's powers, so the Kin-dred may be able to (for example) immediately com-mand a ghost to exit a person whom it possesses. Reveal the Catene Necromantic compulsions function much more ef-fectively when the caster uses an object of significance to the ghost in question. Such fetters tie the dead to the living lands through their remembered importance — a favored recliner for relaxing, a reviled piece of art foisted off by hated relatives, or some object of similarly intense emotion. Many necromancers can detect such catene through the use of rituals (see Ritual of the Un-earthed Fetter, p. 181). With this power, though, the necromancer can determine a fetter with just a few mo-ments of handling. The Kindred simply runs his hands over the object and concentrates on it. He quickly receives an impression of the item's (or person's) im-portance to wraiths, if any; should the wraith be one known to the necromancer, he immediately recognizes the object as a fetter to that (or those) ghost(s). Suc-cessful identification of a connected ghost is not exclu-sive; that is, if the vampire determines that the object is important to a given wraith, he can also determine if there are other ghosts tied to the item, though he must use the power again to gain their identities.
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167 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONMany necromancers use this power on objects al-ready identified with A Touch of Death, in order to determine whether the ghost is trying to attune a given fetter or simply toying with the world of the living. System: The necromancer holds and examines the object for at least three turns — if it's an item, this means turning it over in his hands, running his fin-gers along it, or otherwise giving it a critical eye; with a person, this may require a more... invasive... ex-amination. The player then spends a blood point and rolls Perception + Occult (difficulty 7). If successful, the Kindred determines whether the object holds any significance to any ghost and, with three or more suc-cesses, the identity of at least one such ghost (which allows the Kindred to use the Sepulchre Path on that wraith, if desired). If the necromancer already knows any of the ghosts involved, their ties are revealed with their identity — so, if the necromancer already knows a wraith well enough to summon and compel it with other powers, successful identification of a fetter tells whether the object is tied to that ghost, in addition to any other impressions gained. If a botch is scored, the necromancer can never suc-cessfully use this power on the item being examined. Tread Upon the Grave The extended awareness granted with the Cenotaph Path allows the necromancer to find locations where the Shadowlands and the living world come close. Often, the necromancer experiences a chill or shiver when stepping into an area where the Underworld lies near the living one. With practice, the vampire can tell exactly where such locations are. Experienced necromancers learn that certain loca-tions are susceptible to ghostly influence; these haunt-ed areas often become homes of a sort for ghosts. A knowledgeable vampire can thus discover places where the dead are likely to congregate, the better to snare them with other Necromancy powers. System: The player simply declares intent to sense the Shroud in an area and makes a Willpower roll (difficulty 8). Success reveals whether the location is highly attuned to the Shadowlands, about average (not particularly close to the world of the dead), or far re-moved from the realm of death. A failing attempt at using the power has no adverse effect, though it may be attempted only once per scene (so the necromancer must either wait for a time or move to a different area before attempting Tread Upon the Grave once more). A botch stuns the necromancer into inaction for a full turn and costs him a temporary Willpower point, as he is overcome by shivers and a sense of overwhelming despair. With three or more successes, the necromancer can determine whether the Shroud's strength has been ar-tificially altered in the area. Death Knell Not all who die go on to become ghosts — many lack the drive to hang on after death or simply have no overwhelming needs that compel them to stick around. Normally, even necromancers have no way to sort those who might become ghosts from the masses who go on to whatever rewards await. Over time, though, a necromancer can become sensitized to the pull that oc-curs when a soul escapes from a body only to hover in wait, enslaved by its desires. The weight of desperation becomes like a tangible tug, and some necromancers savor this emotion even as they follow the sensation to find the new ghost. Of course, actually discovering the new ghost can be problematic. The Kindred may need some means to see through the Shroud or may have to send other wraiths to look for the new unfortunate, especially if a large accident or massacre leaves too many corpses for the necromancer to easily discern and test names. System: Whenever someone dies and becomes a ghost within a half-mile or kilometer of the necroman-cer, she automatically senses the demise (though many choose to ignore this “always-on” power unless actively seeking someone). This power does not automatically pinpoint the location of the new ghost or identify it, but the player may spend one Willpower point and roll Perception + Occult (difficulty 7) for the necromancer to gain a vague sense of the distance and direction to the new wraith. With one success, the Kindred may sense a vague pull in a general direction; with three successes, the necromancer can sense the direction and guess distance to within a quarter-mile or half a kilo-meter. With five successes, the necromancer immedi-ately senses the location of the new ghost to within one foot or 30 cm. A failure carries no penalty but a botched attempt sends the necromancer scurrying off in the wrong direction. The Storyteller may rule that disturbances in the Underworld, intervening magic, or other similar phe-nomena cloud this sensation, simply to prevent over-burdening a chronicle with constant ghost-hunting and dice rolling.
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168 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINES Ephemeral Binding The most puissant necromancers learn not only to sense the ties between living and dead, but to forge such ties themselves. The master of Ephemeral Bind-ing turns an otherwise mundane object or person into a depository for his own necromantic energy. The undy-ing Curse transforms the subject into a sort of linkage between the living and dead. The necromancer smears his blood on the item in question, which mystically ab-sorbs the vitae and, in doing so, becomes a vessel to anchor a spirit. System: The necromancer must coat an object with his blood (a full blood point's worth); if the subject is a person, then that individual must ingest the vitae. The player marks off the blood point, spends a point of Willpower, and rolls Manipulation + Occult (dif-ficulty 8). If successful, the item temporarily becomes a fetter to one wraith. If the Kindred already knows the name of the wraith or has a strong psychic impres-sion, then the object can become a fetter at any range, even to a ghost who normally does not come near the living world (so long as the ghost still exists). Other-wise, the necromancer must be able to see or sense the ghost (with Witness of Death, Shroudsight, or other such means). A fetter artificially created in this fashion functions for all necromantic and ghostly purposes as a normal fetter: It can be detected with other Necromancy pow-ers, the vampire gains a bonus to Necromancy against the wraith attuned to it, and the ghost similarly finds exertion of its powers easier upon the subject (so the vampire might turn an unwitting ghoul into a consort for a wraith familiar with possession... ). The ghost can sink into the fetter to heal; conversely, if the fetter is destroyed, the wraith is banished to some inaccessible region of the Underworld, perhaps never to return. A fetter created with Ephemeral Binding lasts for one night per success scored. The expenditure of an ad-ditional point of Willpower increases this duration to a week per success, whereas spending a permanent dot of Willpower extends the duration to a year and a day. Botching with this power not only causes failure but also makes the ghost immediately aware of what the necromancer was trying to do. Most ghosts do not take kindly to meddling Kindred trying to make artificial chains for them. The Corpse in the Monster This path enhances the necromantic understanding of the unliving form and allows the user to fully experi-ence the corpse as a gateway between life and death. The path lets the vampire apply some of a corpse's traits to a vampire, and she can enhance or reduce these traits at various levels of the power. Whither Mortis? Lost Clans and bloodlines, such as the Cap-padocians and the Lamia, had access to an ancient Discipline known as Mortis. Some Kindred scholars claim that Mortis and Nec-romancy are distinct Disciplines, but for ease the three Mortis paths presented in this book are listed as Necromancy paths. The Cappa-docians (see p. 418) specialized in either the Corpse in the Monster or the Grave's Decay, while the Lamia (see p. 422) generally took the Path of the Four Humors as their primary path. Rumors are that the Harbingers of Skulls (see p. 402) in the Sabbat have relearned the Corpse in the Monster and the Grave's Decay, claiming them collectively as the “Mortuus Path,” but they still tend to follow most mod-ern necromancers and choose Sepulchre Path as their primary path before learning Grave's Decay or the Corpse in the Monster. Masque of Death The character with this ability can assume a visage of death or inflict that shape on another vampire. The victim's flesh becomes pallid and thin (if it is not al-ready), and skin pulls tight against bone. This ability can be very useful, as it allows one to hide in plain sight in a tomb or crypt at any time (though the character remains as vulnerable to sunlight and fire as ever). When a necromancer uses this power on another Kin-dred, the victim gains the same corpselike demeanor. In this sense, the ability works as something of a minor curse. System: The player spends one blood point for the character to gain the form described. Those afflicted
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169 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONwith the Masque of Death lose two points of Dexter-ity and Appearance (minimum of 1 in Dexterity and 0 in Appearance) for the duration of the power. The player also gets two extra dice to his Intimidation dice pool, should he wish to terrify any onlookers. Further, if the character remains perfectly still, observers must roll five successes on a Perception + Medicine roll (dif-ficulty 7) to distinguish the character from a normal corpse. The player doesn't need to roll anything to have the character stop moving — vampires have no autonomic functions. If the user inflicts Masque of Death on another vam-pire, he must spend a blood point, touch the target, and then make a Stamina + Medicine roll (difficulty equal to the target's Stamina + 3). The Masque of Death lasts until the next sunset, unless the character who created the masque wishes to extinguish its effects earlier. Cold of the Grave The dead feel no pain, though most undead do. With this ability, the character can temporarily take on the unfeeling semblance of the dead, in order to protect herself from physical and emotional harm. When as-suming the Cold of the Grave, the vampire's skin be-comes unusually cold. When she speaks, her breath mists even in warm air — those with exceptional sens-es might even see a slight red tinge to the breath. The power brings a sense of lethargy over the char-acter, as a mortal might feel under the influence of a mildly unpleasant disease. It becomes difficult to rouse oneself to action, and very little seems important enough to really worry about. A corpse has no worries, after all. System: The player spends one Willpower point. For the remainder of the scene, the character takes no wound penalties, and the player gains an additional die to all dice pools that involve resisting emotional ma-nipulation, such as Intimidation or Empathy. However, the player also loses a die from dice pools to emotion-ally manipulate others. The character is a cold fish to those she interacts with, and they do not respond read-ily to her. The Cold of the Grave does not protect the character against the depredations of the Beast. She may be emotionally cold on the surface, but if others taunt and anger her sufficiently, she is still subject to frenzy as normal. Curse of Life The Curse of Life inflicts some of the undesirable traits of the living upon the undead, removing their corpselike nature and creating a false life to remind them of the worst things about being alive. Targets of this power regain only the unpleasant aspects of life, as culled from the memory of the Discipline's user. This may include mundane hunger and thirst, sweat and other excretions, the need to urinate and defecate, a decrease in sensory acuity, and a particular vulnerabil-ity to attacks that the character might normally shrug off. System: The player spends one Willpower and rolls Intelligence + Medicine (difficulty 8) to affect a target within line of sight and no farther than 20 yards or me-ters from the character. If the roll succeeds, the target suffers the weaknesses of the living without gaining any benefit from that state. He does not become immune to sunlight or holy artifacts, for instance. However, he does become badly distracted by mundane needs, with the net result that his player suffers a +2 difficulty pen-alty to all rolls. He can ignore these distractions at the cost of one Willpower point per scene. Additionally, the victim cannot use blood to raise his Physical At-tributes while this power is in effect, and Willpower cannot eliminate this penalty. The power remains in effect until the next sunset. Gift of the Corpse This power, one of the most potent on the Corpse in the Monster path, enables a necromancer to ignore most of her race's inherent weaknesses for a short time. A dead body is not particularly vulnerable to sunlight, holy artifacts, frenzy, or being staked through the heart, after all, and so it is with a vampire using the Gift of the Corpse. As with the Cold of the Grave, above, the character using this power takes on an even more deathlike mien. It lasts for less than a minute, typical-ly, but that time may be enough to enable a character to charge through a burning building without fearing frenzy or instant death. System: The player spends one Willpower and rolls Stamina + Occult (difficulty 8). For every success, the character can spend one turn in a state in which he is more akin to an animated corpse than a vampire. Holy artifacts and sanctified ground have no effect, and the character is immune to frenzy and Rötschreck. Sun-light does only bashing damage, and then only if bare skin is exposed on a clear day. Being staked through the heart is only as much of a danger as getting stabbed through his dead spleen would be. Fire harms him only as it would a mortal — causing lethal damage instead of aggravated.
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170 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESShould the character end the power's duration while exposed to any of the aforementioned harmful things, he immediately takes their full effect. If he is staked, he become immobilized; if he is on or near fire, he begins to take the damage a Cainite should take, and he must immediately roll against Rötschreck. Gift of Life With the Gift of Life, the character can experience the best and most positive things about being alive. The overwhelming hunger for blood temporarily abates, al-lowing the character to consume and enjoy food and drink. She can also enjoy sex as she wishes, and the sun does not burn her. The Gift of Life comes with a dark, terrible cost, however. Its use is almost sure to result in the death of a mortal, as the vampire must expend an enormous quantity of vitae in order to initiate it. The Discipline's effects last until the midnight after the character uses the power, so it is in her best interests to use it just after midnight. System: The player spends 12 blood points, burning as much blood as possible each turn until she meets that level. She then rolls Stamina + Occult (difficulty 6) and needs only one success for the power to work. A botch has catastrophic effects. The character might be instantly killed or might inadvertently Embrace her victim, for example. If it takes longer than one turn to spend the necessary blood to enact this ability, it does not take effect until all 12 points have been spent. However, the blood must be spent continuously — the vampire cannot burn five, run off and feed, then burn seven more an hour later. On the other hand, she may feed as she activates the power — in one turn she might burn one blood point while drinking three. Since few Kindred above the Seventh Generation can easily ex-pend such an amount of blood, the most efficient way to activate this power is to have a human nearby who can be sacrificed to power the transformation. After her transformation, the character gains many traits of an ordinary human. She is largely immune to the scorching effects of the sun (Fortitude difficulties to soak damage from direct sunlight are halved, and she takes no damage if she is sufficiently covered), and she can experience and enjoy many of the fine things about human life. She retains a few of her vampiric benefits, however. Fortitude and Auspex abilities re-main in place if she has either of those Disciplines, and the Storyteller may allow her to retain other Disciplines as well if he deems them dramatically appropriate. She also retains a vampire's benefits when it comes to han-dling bashing damage. However, she is still vulnerable
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171 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONto holy artifacts, human faith, and being staked. Her blood remains vitae, not human blood. Use of this abil-ity — which creates a mockery of human life — may interfere with a character's Path advancement, at the Storyteller's discretion. The vampire is no more vulnerable to fire than any other mortal while in this half-alive state, but she still suffers somewhat from the Beast. Frenzy and Rötschreck difficulties are halved (round up). She can remain ac-tive during the day without Humanity or Path-based dice pool caps, although she is certainly tired during the day, since that is not her usual time of activity. Her Beast exacts a dangerous retribution when her day of “life” is done. Although its influence is greatly suppressed during this power's duration, the Beast has its way with the vampire for the next six nights, as all difficulties to resist frenzy increase by three. The wise necromancer hides herself away somewhere during that period, but, depending on morality and tempera-ment, enforced isolation might drive her to frenzy on its own. The Grave's Decay This path is derived from the observation of the working of time on all things mortal. Stone crumbles and the corpse rots away to nothing, a process of end-less fascination to the lost Cainites known as Cappa-docians. Indeed, for the undying, the process of decay is a fascinating disease that afflicts everyone and ev-erything save them. Under this path, a practitioner of Necromancy channels that force. Destroy the Husk Cainites who kill their victims, rather than just feed-ing upon them, frequently find themselves in need of a quick way to dispose of a corpse. While there are many ways to make sure that a corpse is not found — feed it to a pack of hounds or weigh it down and throw it in a river — many of these methods do involve risk to the vampire and are not guaranteed to succeed. Destroy the Husk, by contrast, is foolproof. Use of this power simply turns one human corpse to a pile of about 30 pounds (13 kilograms) of unremarkable dust, roughly the size and shape of that body. System: The player spends one blood point as the vampire drips her vitae onto the corpse. The player then rolls Intelligence + Medicine (difficulty 6). One success is all that is needed to render the corpse into dust, although the process takes a number of turns equal to five minus the successes. Rigor Mortis One of the first changes that comes over a dead body is rigidity; the corpse becomes stiff as a board, frozen in a single pose. The Cainite who wields Rigor Mortis is able to push a living or undead body to that frozen point using only his will and understanding of the forc-es of decay. She forces her target to become rigid and unable to move without enormous effort of will, as his very muscles betray him. System: The player spends a point of Willpower and rolls Intelligence + Medicine (difficulty 7). Each suc-cess freezes the target in place for one turn. A failure simply indicates the loss of the Willpower point, while a botch renders the target immune to powers in the Grave's Decay path for the next 24 hours. The target must be visible and within about 25 yards or meters for this ability to take effect. A frozen target is treated as though he has been staked (see p. 280). With a Will-power roll (difficulty 7) and two successes, the target can break out of the rigor on her turn. Failure causes her a level of bashing damage and means another turn wasted and frozen. Wither Reminiscent of some of the powers of Vicissitude, Wither allows a vampire to cripple an opponent's limb. Whether the foe is living or undead, muscle shrivels away, skin peels, and bone becomes brittle. The tar-get is unable to exert any noteworthy strength in the crippled limb. This injury lasts for far longer than most injuries trouble vampires, and in mortals it simply does not heal. Wither doesn't have to be used on a limb, although that is its usual purpose. It can also be used simply to affect the target's face and hair, making him appear far older than his years. It could also be applied to a tar-get's eye or ear, killing the sense in that organ (and thus requiring two uses to permanently blind or deaf-en). Wither cannot be used as an “instant-kill” power — necromancers cannot wither internal organs — but it can inflict a wide variety of injuries on a foe. System: The player spends a Willpower point. The character chooses a limb on the target and then touch-es that limb. If the target is trying to avoid contact, the invoker's player rolls Dexterity + Brawl to hit as nor-mal. If the character succeeds in touching the intended limb, the target suffers two aggravated wounds. Unless the target soaks both wounds (such as with Fortitude), the struck limb is crippled and unusable until both of those wounds have healed. Kindred heal the wounds as
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172 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESthey would any other aggravated wound (see p. 285). Mortals are incapable of healing aggravated wounds, so they suffer throughout their lives unless they are healed through supernatural means. A withered limb does not degenerate further, even on a mortal. The character may be crippled for life, but the limb won't become infected or gangrenous. The effects of the withering depend on the affected limb. A crippled arm has a Strength of 0, cannot ben-efit from Potence, and cannot carry anything heavier than about half a pound (200 grams). A crippled leg prevents the character from moving faster than a stut-tering hop or dragging limp. The character suffers the effects of the Lame Flaw (see p. 482). A single withered eye or ear imposes a +1 difficulty to relevant Perception rolls. Losing both eyes or both ears imposes the effects of the Blind or Deaf Flaws (see pp. 484 and 483). A withered tongue imposes the effects of the Mute Flaw (p. 483), while a withered face reduces the target's Ap-pearance by one for each aggravated wound suffered. Corrupt the Undead Flesh Corrupt the Undead Flesh blurs the line between life and undeath, turning an undead creature into some-thing just living enough to carry and suffer from dis-ease. The disease inflicts the target, causing lethargy, dizziness, loss of strength, clumsiness, and the inabil-ity to keep blood in his system. This pernicious influ-ence is extremely virulent among mortals. They pick the disease up simply by spending a few hours near the victim. Other vampires have a harder time acquiring the disease. They must consume the victim's blood to do so, but afterward, they suffer just as much as the original target — including passing the affliction on to others. The disease fades after roughly a week. System: The player chooses a target within her character's line of sight and no more than 20 yards or meters away. She rolls Intelligence + Medicine (diffi-culty 6) and spends a point of Willpower. The victim's player must roll Stamina (+ Fortitude, if appropriate) against a difficulty equal to the attacker's Willpower. If the player scores more successes than the victim, he ac-quires a virulent disease immediately. The disease has the following effects: The victim's Strength and Wits are halved (round down). The victim loses one point of Dexterity. The victim's player must spend one additional blood point every evening for the vampire to rouse himself to consciousness. Mortals lose one health level per day instead. The victim's player must roll Self-Control or In-stinct each time the character feeds (difficulty 8). On a failure, the vampire cannot keep the blood he just ingested inside his body, and he vomits it up in great horrifying gouts of gore, losing any benefit the blood might have provided. Humans vomit up food. Every evening at sunset, the victim has a chance to throw off the plague. The victim's player rolls Stamina, with a difficulty equal to 10 minus the number of sun-sets since acquiring the plague. On a successful roll, the character fights the disease to a standstill and begins to recover. He instantly regains his ability to manage blood, and he heals back one lost Attribute point per hour until all have returned. Dissolve the Flesh This ability brings the Grave's Decay path full circle, as it causes Destroy the Husk to apply to vampires. Dis-solve the Flesh allows a necromancer to attempt to turn vampiric flesh to dust or ash, as though the target had been burned or left out in the sun. System: The player spends two blood points and a Willpower point as the vampire extracts a quantity of her vitae charged with the power of the grave. If she drips it onto a single Kindred victim anytime within the next few turns (most of the blood must reach the victim, so flinging a few drops is ineffective), it causes whole chunks of the victim's body to crumble to ash. The player rolls Willpower against a difficulty of the victim's Stamina + 3. For every success, the target takes one aggravated wound. The undead flesh damaged by this power turns to dust (gone for the time being), and it must be regen-erated painstakingly by the victim, should he survive. That dust doubtlessly has mystical properties that vari-ous sorcerers might be able to take advantage of. Every wound inflicted by this ability represents the loss of about one-eighth of the target's weight; the Storyteller chooses where the loss comes from. (It might also be shed from all over, leaving the victim a bit gaunter or missing chunks of flesh. ) Regenerating body parts occurs naturally while heal-ing aggravated wounds at the normal rate (see p. 285).
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173 VAMPIRE THE MASQUERADE 20th ANNIVERSARY EDITIONPath of the Four Humors Philosophically, the four humors represent different qualities, split along two axes: hot and cold, and wet and dry. Blood is hot and wet; phlegm is cold and wet; yellow bile is hot and dry; and black bile is cold and dry. Historically, when a mortal was out of sorts or ill, it was said that his humors were out of balance, and a philoso-pher or physician would try to heal him by bringing his humors back into balance. Ancient necromancers be-lieved that in their undead forms, all four humors were held in a mystical stasis, and that they could tap into all four of them instead of merely tapping into blood in the form of vitae as other vampires did. This antiquated path was primarily considered the knowledge of the Lamia bloodline, and certainly very few necromancers have learned this path without tu-toring from a Lamia. Since the loss of the Lamia, elder necromancers have searched everywhere (both in this world and the next) for clues to its existence. Whispers to the Soul The necromancer with this ability can let slip a little of her own undead bilious humor as she speaks to an-other being (whether mortal or Kindred). The wicked vapor slips into the target's ear and whispers night-mares to the target throughout the day and night. The target has a harder time sleeping, and becomes irritable and distracted during his waking hours. System: The character must whisper the target's name (as she knows it) into his ear. The victim rolls Willpower (difficulty 8). If the roll fails, the victim suf-fers from nightmares and hears mad, wicked mutter-ings while awake, for a number of full days equal to the necromancer's Manipulation. The victim loses one die from all dice pools while thus afflicted, and at the Sto-ryteller's discretion, the difficulty to resist Rötschreck may be increased by one at the same time. Kiss of the Dark Mother Kiss of the Dark Mother allows the necromancer who uses it to mix her vitae with black bile, turning it into a noxious poison. The necromancer forces it into her mouth as saliva might once have come; the vitae tastes acrid and bitter, as though it had been scorched. Once the necromancer coats her teeth and lips with it, she can inflict terrible damage with her bite. System: The player spends one blood point; activat-ing this power is a reflexive action, but it must be done before making a bite attack. If the bite hits, the aggra-vated damage inflicted by a single bite is doubled be-fore soak is calculated. This power does not affect the character's ability to drain blood from the target, nor does it increase the amount of damage done by blood loss. The necromancer's bite remains potent until this ability is discharged by a successful hit or she spends one turn cleansing the dark blood from her mouth. Dark Humors The vampire can exude a coat of a particular humor onto her skin, causing all that touch it to experience the most intense form of that humor. After a necro-mancer has used this power, she generally feels the opposite of the sensation the humor usually conveys: Using blood leaves her depressed and pessimistic; using yellow bile renders her calm and placid; using black bile leaves her optimistic; and using phlegm makes her aroused and angry. System: The player spends two blood points. The necromancer chooses which humor she wishes to ex-crete. The humor can simply coat the skin — in which case touching the victim's skin lets the humor take ef-fect — or it can act as a poison if placed in a bever-age (or in vitae). The victim must make a Stamina roll (difficulty 8) to resist the effects of the humor: Phlegm: Target becomes lethargic; all dice pools are reduced by two for the remainder of the scene. Blood (vitae): Target becomes prone to excessive bleeding, and any lethal or aggravated wounds he suf-fers deal an additional health level of damage on the turn after they originally occur. Vitae altered by Dark Humors will not turn a human into a ghoul if ingested, nor will it initiate a blood bond. Black Bile: Target suffers a number of health levels of damage equal to the necromancer's Stamina. This damage is considered lethal and can be soaked (if the victim is normally capable of soaking such damage), though armor does not protect against it. Yellow Bile: Target becomes melancholic and is plagued with visions of death. He cannot spend Will-power for the remainder of the scene, and all Willpow-er rolls receive a +2 difficulty. Clutching the Shroud Blood, the sanguine humor, was regarded by philoso-phers as being both hot and wet. Blood from a cold corpse has been transubstantiated into a dead form — a cold incarnation of a hot, wet element. This trans-formation of the living into death holds great power; the necromancer knows how to infuse her own being with the blood of a cold corpse and transform herself
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174 CHAPTER FOUR: DISCIPLINESinto something not wholly vampiric. Instead, the nec-romancer edges closer to being an animated corpse in fact as well as name. She grows distant and chill, as though possessed by the spirit of Death itself; she has to work to push her attention into the physical world. System: The character must drink, and then spend, five blood points from a cold corpse (one dead for 24 hours or more, but generally less than three days). It will generally take at least two turns to consume that blood, and the power is not activated until the char-acter can spend all of it. For example, if the character is Twelfth Generation, Clutching the Shroud takes at least seven turns total to activate (two to consume the blood and five to spend it). After the power is active and for the rest of the scene, the necromancer gains several benefits. First, she re-ceives two additional soak dice, which may be used to soak any sort of damage, even if the character does not possess Fortitude. Second, she gains a mystic sense of how far those in the area are from death — whether they are healthy or infirm, suffer from diseases, or are undead, ghouls, or mortals. Finally, a Manipulation + Occult roll lets her speak with ghosts freely. The dif-ficulty for this roll depends on how attuned to death a locale is; a cemetery would be difficulty 5, while a cozy apartment might be difficulty 7. However, this ability makes the necromancer much more susceptible to the effects of powers used by ghosts, which means that she must act carefully. Black Breath A necromancer who has mastered this path can har-ness the undead black bile that festers at the core of her being; she pulls that melancholy to her lungs and lets it mingle with her outgoing breath. She then exhales the dark mist, letting it engulf those nearby. The necro-mancer feels curiously lightheaded and optimistic after using this power, as she has forced some of her most depressed nature out into the world; those caught in the black vapors grow despairing and hopeless. System: The player spends one Willpower and one blood point, and rolls Stamina + Athletics (difficulty 7). Black Breath allows the character to exhale a dark cloud of vapor that is five yards or meters in diameter per success rolled. Those caught in the mists may attempt a Dexterity + Athletics roll to escape it if they have an available action; otherwise, they may be overwhelmed by depression to the point of suicide. Those who can-not escape the mists must immediately roll Willpower (difficulty 8 for mortals, 7 for supernatural beings) and achieve more successes than the invoker did. Mortals who fail in this actively attempt to kill themselves on their next turn. They do not attempt such ludicrous suicides as praying for a lightning bolt or holding their breath; they use the most effective means at hand to end their own lives. If prevented from suicide, they at-tempt it again as soon as an opportunity presents itself. This impulse lasts for the rest of the scene, and the Sto-ryteller may impose flare-ups over the next day or so at his discretion. Those who succeed on the Willpower roll still become enchanted with the prospect of death, whether mortal or Kindred, and lose two dice from all dice pools for the rest of the scene. Kindred who fail the Willpower roll do not attempt suicide; as they are already dead, the malign influences of undead humors do not have as strong an effect on them. Instead, the affected vampire sinks into torpor. The duration of this torpor is based on the vampire's Humanity or Path rating, just as if lethal wounds had forced him into it. Vitreous Path The Vitreous Path allows a necromancer to control and influence the energies pertaining to death. This extremely rare path manipulates entropy, a force that even most necromancers are uncomfortable harness-ing. A development of the Nagaraja bloodline (p. 406, although they sometimes call the path “Nihilistics”), the Vitreous Path makes a formidable complement to the necromantic craft, and those obsessed with mas-tery over death and souls — such as the Harbingers of Skulls — would certainly risk much to uncover this path's secrets. Like most necromancers, Nagaraja generally learn the Sepulchre Path before any others. The Vitreous Path is usually their second focus of study. Eyes of the Dead The necromancer employing the Eyes of the Dead can see with the perceptions of the Restless Dead (called Deathsight). To such a manipulator of ghostly energies, the auras of surrounding beings give off tell-tale hints as to their health and even their ultimate fate; the necromancer can see the energies of death flowing through everyone, just as ghosts can. By look-ing at the entropic markings on a person's body, the necromancer can gain rough knowledge of how far that person is from death, how soon that person is likely to die, and even what the cause of her death is likely to
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