Powers

Here, you will find all Powers, Rituals, Ceremonies, and Formulae that are allowed in play! Regular powers are marked in red while amalgams will be marked in yellow.

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Animalism

Bond Famulus, Animalism 1 (Core p.245)

Dice Pools: Charisma + Animal Ken

Cost: The animal must be fed the user’s Blood on three separate nights, each of which requires a Rouse Check by the user. The amount of Blood needed to sustain the ghoul-state of the animal after this is negligible. Players starting with this power have completed this process and can chose a famulus for free.

System: Without the use of Feral Whispers, below, giving commands to the animal requires a Charisma + Animal Ken roll (Difficulty 2); increase Difficulty for more complex orders. A vampire can only have one famulus, but can get a new one if the current one dies. A vampire can use Feral Whispers (Animalism 2) and Subsume the Spirit (Animalism 4) on their famulus for free.

Duration: Only death releases a famulus once bound. As long as it receives vampire Blood on a regular basis, the famulus does not age.

Sense The Beast, Animalism 1 (Core p.245)

Cost: Free

Dice Pools: Resolve + Animalism vs Composure + Subterfuge

System: Roll Resolve + Animalism vs Composure + Subterfuge. A win allows the user to sense the level of hostility in a target (whether the person is prepared to do harm or even determined to cause it) and determine whether they harbor a supernatural Beast, marking them as a vampire or werewolf. On a win, a critical gives the user information on the exact type of creature (for example, a werewolf), as well as their Hunger (or equivalent) level, and their Resonance. This power can be used both actively and passively, warning the user of aggressive intent in their immediate vicinity.

Duration: Passive

Feral Whispers, Animalism 2 (Core p.246)

Dice Pools: Manipulation + Animalism, Charisma + Animalism

Cost: One Rouse Check per type of animal chosen for the scene. Allows one summoning and unlimited communication. Free when used on famulus.

System: Simple communication requires no dice pool test. Persuading an animal to perform a service requires a Manipulation + Animalism roll; the Difficulty depends on the task required. Having a bird keep an eye out for anyone entering the park at night is Difficulty 3, while ordering any animal to defend a place with their lives is Difficulty 6.

Summoning animals uses a Charisma + Animalism roll; Difficulty depends on the scarcity of the animals summoned. The number of animals summoned depend on the margin on the test; a critical win summons most, if not all, animals of the type in the area.

Duration: One Scene

Animal Succulence, Animalism 3 (Core p.246)

Cost: Free

System: Feeding from animals slakes 1 additional Hunger, and the vampire counts their Blood Potency as two levels lower in regards to penalties to slaking Hunger from animal blood. Consuming one's famulus slakes 4 Hunger, regardless of animal size. This act can never remove the final Hunger die. In addition, consuming one's famulus increases the vampire’s Attribute most associated with that animal (as determined by the Storyteller) by two dots. Consuming a cat might raise Dexterity or Composure; consuming a dog might raise Charisma or Resolve. Storytellers may vary the reward from famulus consumption: draining an owl might raise the Attribute in any perception pool by two dots, or in pools involving wise decision making. The bonus lasts until the vampire’s next feeding or until their Hunger reaches 5.

Duration: Passive

Quell The Beast, Animalism 3 (Core p.246)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Charisma + Animalism vs Stamina + Resolve

System: Roll Charisma + Animalism vs Stamina + Resolve. A win against a mortal target incapacitates them for that scene, instilling severe lethargy. They act only to preserve themselves, not against the user or anyone else. A win against a vampire prevents the target from performing Blood Surges. While their Beast is quelled, vampires do not score messy criticals. Against vampires, this power lasts a turn plus a number of turns equal to the win margin on the contest. A critical win against a vampire target also ends their frenzy.

Duration: One scene, or a number of turns equal to the test margin plus one.

Augury, Animalism 3 + Auspex 1 (Tattered Facade pp.89-90)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Manipulation + Animalism

System: Test Manipulation + Animalism against a Difficulty based on the detail of the question being asked. In general, the Difficulty increases from places (easy), to things (moderate), to people (difficult).

Using Augury to ask “Where is Clarice’s bar?” would be a Difficulty 2; asking “Who is Lyle’s secret Blood Bond?” might be a Difficulty 5 or more if the subject in question has taken pains to hide the answer. The Storyteller answers the vampire’s question by describing the image the flock forms, usually the most direct answer to the question possible. Perhaps it’s the likeness of a person’s face, or a house front, or the briefly animated depiction of someone’s workroom. A critical win reveals something important (regardless of the question directly asked), as the animals sense the changing tides of action and inaction.

This experience terrifies the animals the vampire harnesses, and their terror scars the vampire’s Animalism until it has time to fade. For the rest of the session, any Animalism test the vampire makes involving this Power or living creatures increases in Difficulty by 1 for each use of this Power.

Duration: A few minutes to gather the swarm’s knowledge

Awaken the Parasite, Animalism 3 (Tattered Facade p.90)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Resolve + Animalism vs Humanity (Stamina + Wits for mortals)

System: The vampire Rouses the Blood and spends their action concentrating before testing Resolve + Animalism against the Humanity of their target (mortal targets resist with Stamina + Wits). The victim must be within close proximity to the vampire. Results are based on the margin of the contest, while a critical win also increases a vampire target’s Hunger by one:

Basic Win (Margin 0): The victim reduces Social and Mental dice pools by one die as maggots burrow and writhe beneath their flesh, causing confusion and headaches to the victim, and nausea among onlookers. Margin 1: The victim suffers a two-dice penalty on all pools as larvae burst from their flesh in significant numbers. In most cases, Social tests simply fail without needing to roll. At this stage, the Masquerade becomes severely strained, at best. Margin 2+: Eggs go from larvae to pupae in seconds, and pupating blowflies erupt in a shower of gore; killing mortal victims, while supernatural targets receive a two-dice penalty to pools, 2 unhalved Superficial damage, and find themselves unable to speak as their throats fill with squirming maggots.

If the vampire uses Awaken the Parasite on themselves, perhaps to intimidate or disgust a foe, the vermin burst from their flesh and they suffer a two-dice penalty on any other pools this scene. The target resists with Composure + Resolve. If the vampire wins, the target cringes away, flees, or otherwise loses face; they also lose Willpower equal to the margin.

Duration: One scene

Unliving Hive, Animalism 3 + Obfuscate 2 (Core p.247)

Cost: No additional cost

System: This power extends all powers previously restricted to vertebrates to insect swarms, treating a swarm as a single creature. The vampire can bind the swarm as a famulus, and some even give it the ability to nest inside the cavities of their body. This hides the swarm from sight while allowing it to nurse the minute amounts of Blood needed to sustain it indefinitely. While nested, the swarm is undetectable by anything less than X-rays.

Swarms do little damage in combat. They have Health 5 and a pool of 8 dice to resist attacks. Swarms take Superficial damage from Brawl; flame and insecticide cause Aggravated damage. Vampires can use swarms for spying, as distractions (resulting in a two-dice penalty on any roll for a single swarmed individual), or to intimidate mortals (add between one and three dice to Intimidation pools, depending on the type of insect and the victim’s phobias). Players and Storytellers can doubtlessly come up with even more creative uses of this power.

Duration: Passive

Subsume The Spirit, Animalism 4 (Core p.247)

Cost: One Rouse Check. Free if used on famulus.

Dice Pools: Manipulation + Animalism

System: Make a Manipulation + Animalism test; Difficulty 4. On a win, the vampire can inhabit the animal’s body for one scene. On a critical win, the vampire can inhabit the animal indefinitely.

Extending this possession into the daylight hours requires the vampire to stay awake (p. 219); seeing the sun requires a test for fear frenzy though the sunlight does not damage the animal being ridden. The user remains oblivious to their original body, but harm to it pulls them out of the trance and releases the animal. Death of the possessed animal also ends the trance, and the vampire takes a point of Aggravated Willpower damage from the shock.

Duration: A scene / indefinitely (see above)

Spirit Walk, Animalism 5 (Gehenna War p.46)

Prerequisite: Subsume the Spirit

Cost: None, though the cost for Subsume the Spirit remains

System: When using Subsume the Spirit, the duration is always indefinite as though a Critical result was obtained. Furthermore the Kindred can activate Subsume the Spirit even while inhabiting an animal’s form, transferring their consciousness to beast after beast.

Animal Dominion, Animalism 5 (Core p.247)

Cost: Two Rouse Checks

Dice Pools: Charisma + Animalism

System: Choose a type of animal and make a Charisma + Animalism roll with a Difficulty depending on the nature of the animals and the order given. Getting a flock of crows to disperse and look for a specific individual (given some means of identifying their target) is relatively easy (Difficulty 3), but getting a pack of dogs to give their lives in a suicidal attack on another vampire is more of a challenge (Difficulty 5). The power does not allow the user to summon animals, but compels those already present to obey. The vampire can command the animals to return after completing their task, if they have means to do so.

Duration: A single scene or until the directive is fulfilled, whichever is shortest.

Drawing Out The Beast, Animalism 5 (Core pp.247-248)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Wits + Animalism vs Composure + Resolve

System: Instead of the Willpower roll to resist a terror or fury frenzy, roll Wits + Animalism vs Composure + Resolve of the target. If the user fails, they enter frenzy as though they had failed the Willpower roll. On a win, the target experiences that frenzy instead of the user. Later stimuli can still provoke frenzy in the user, but they can use this power as long as they can make Rouse Checks and further targets remain available. This power cannot transfer a hunger frenzy.

Duration: Frenzy duration (see p. 220)

Auspex

Heightened Senses, Auspex 1 (Core p.249)

Cost: Free (but see below)

Dice Pools: Wits + Resolve

System: The user adds their Auspex rating to all perception rolls. If exposed to extreme sensations, such as loud bangs, flashes of intense light or overpowering smells while the power is active the user must succeed on a Wits + Resolve (Difficulty 3 or more) roll to dampen their senses in time, or the overload causes them to sustain a -3 dice penalty to all perception-based rolls for the rest of the scene.

Duration: Until deactivated. Having the power active for longer stretches of time without rest (more than a scene), especially so for high-stimulus environments, might necessitate spending Willpower, at the Storyteller’s discretion.

Sense The Unseen, Auspex 1 (Core p.249)

Cost: Free

Dice Pools: Wits + Auspex or Resolve + Auspex

System: Whenever there’s something supernatural hiding in plain sight, the Storyteller makes a hidden roll of Wits + Auspex against a Difficulty they choose. Against an entity actively trying to stay hidden, the Storyteller can call for a blind roll (“Lisa, roll seven dice for me”) as a contest against the target’s relevant pool. (For example, detecting a vampire using Obfuscate would be a roll of Wits + Auspex vs Wits + Obfuscate) If the vampire actively searches for a hidden supernatural entity, they roll Resolve + Auspex similarly.

Duration: Passive

Premonition, Auspex 2 (Core pp.249-250)

Cost: Free or one Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Resolve + Auspex

System: Whenever the Storyteller deems it appropriate, this power gives the character a sudden hint that aids them in some way: letting them find a clue they’ve missed or saving them from danger. Whether it gives the character a sudden vision of themselves walking into a trap, an inviting red glow over the second right turn during a chase, or the brief flash of a skeleton beneath the floorboards in the Prince’s office, this power always gives the Storyteller license to subtly speed up play or move the story onto a desired track. The suggested limit is one premonition per scene, even if more than one character has Premonition.

The user can also actively provoke a premonition by focusing on a subject, making a Rouse Check and rolling Resolve + Auspex. The number of successes rolled determines the level of insight on the subject, if any.

Duration: Passive

Haruspex, Auspex 3 + Oblivion 1 (Tattered Facade p.91)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Resolve + Auspex

System: The vampire spends a turn examining the body of the recently dead or dying (they must have died within the scene), during which time they remove and scatter organs, stare into vacant eyes, and otherwise desecrate the corpse. Once complete, they Rouse the Blood and test Resolve + Auspex against Difficulty 3. Characters gain a one-die bonus if they killed the victim themselves, or two dice if they’re killed while undergoing the scrying process (such a torturous death likely grants Stains). If successful, the vampire can reroll every die in any single dice pool before the night’s end as the insight prepares them for such an eventuality. On a critical win, they may reroll up to three pools. When a pool is rerolled, the player may choose the most preferable result. This Power only works with mortal victims — vampires and animals provide no spark of insight.

Duration: One night

Scry The Soul, Auspex 3 (Core p.250)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Intelligence + Auspex vs Composure + Subterfuge

System: Make an Intelligence + Auspex vs Composure + Subterfuge roll. On a win, the Storyteller truthfully answers a number of questions equal to the margin of the roll about the target’s aura and psyche, including:

• The emotional state of the subject • The Resonance in the subject’s blood • Whether the subject is a vampire, werewolf, ghoul or any other supernatural being • Whether the subject is under the influence of Blood Sorcery or other magic • Whether the subject has committed diablerie in the last year • A critical win allows discovery of something unexpected, as determined by the Storyteller

If scanning a crowd, roll versus a Difficulty determined by the size of the crowd and external distractions, as well as the type of trait being sought. (Finding the vampire in the living room might only be a Difficulty 3, while finding the most nervous person at a crowded rave is most likely Difficulty 6 or higher.)

Duration: One turn, or Storyteller’s discretion

Share The Senses, Auspex 3 (Core p.250)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Resolve + Auspex

System: Roll Resolve + Auspex at Difficulty 3. This Difficulty can go up depending on distraction, distance, and other factors, such as the amount of the user’s Blood that remains in the target. The target usually remains unaware of the intrusion, but Sense the Unseen can allow the passenger to be noticed. To get rid of an unwanted rider, the victim must beat the intruder at a Wits + Resolve vs Wits + Resolve roll. An Auspex user thrown out this way cannot make another Sharing attempt until the next night.

Duration: One scene

Heart Laid Bare, Auspex 4 (Tattered Facade pp.91-92)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Intelligence + Auspex vs Composure + Subterfuge

System: The user decides on whether they are looking for fears or desires and then engages the target in conversation for a few minutes before making the Power test. The test is made against Difficulty 0 on unsuspecting mortals, but mortals aware of vampiric abilities — as well as all supernatural creatures — can resist with Composure + Subterfuge. The margin on success determines how much information is gained:

1–2: The user gets a general notion of the victim’s fears or desires, such as: “wealth”, “bugs”, or “loneliness.”

3–5: The sense becomes more specific: “making it on the stock market”, “hornets”, or “losing my partner”

6+: The user receives a clear picture of the element sought, complete with context or history: “getting away with that NDX Insider deal”, “a threesome with Billy and Jeanette”, “hornets, ever since I whacked that nest on a dare in third grade”, or “Warren finding out I lied about Billy and Jeanette.”

Add one success to the result if the object of desire or fear is present, and add another success if the conversation touches upon the topic. (Though the victim can catch on to the intent unless the user wins a Composure + Subterfuge vs Wits + Insight test.)

Duration: N/A

Spirit’s Touch, Auspex 4 (Core pp.250-251)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Intelligence + Auspex

System: Make an Intelligence + Auspex roll versus a Difficulty depending on the information sought. Gleaning the emotional state of the user of a murder weapon used a few days before is Difficulty 3, but sensing the surroundings in which a 300-year-old letter was written approaches Difficulty 6 or higher. Each point of margin on the roll allows the user to sense roughly one additional previous handler and set of circumstances, counting backwards from the most recent.

Duration: One turn

Clairvoyance, Auspex 5 (Core p.251)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Intelligence + Auspex

System: Roll Intelligence + Auspex against a Difficulty based on the security and level of activity of the area. Using Clairvoyance on one’s own mansion would be Difficulty 3 while an unfamiliar city block in the slums of a major city would amount to 7 or more. The user adds their base Haven rating in extra dice to the pool when using Clairvoyance on their own haven. The Storyteller answers the vampire’s questions about the comings and goings in the area, what people have seen and heard, topics of local gossip, recent major shocks or impressions, and so forth. The player can ask roughly one question per point of margin; answers about deliberately concealed information might consume more than one point. A critical win reveals something major, regardless of the questions asked, assuming there is something to reveal. The vampire can also clairvoyantly monitor events in progress, though this requires them to remain in the area for as long as the effect is active.

Obfuscate

Duration: A few minutes for information gathering, up to a night for vigilance.

Possession, Auspex 5 + Dominate 3 (Core pp.251-252)

Cost: Two Rouse Checks

Dice Pools: Resolve + Auspex vs Resolve + Intelligence

System: This power can only be used on mortals. If the mortal is a ghoul, they must first be Blood Bound to the user. Before possession can begin, the vampire must have eye contact with their victim (See Dominate, p. 254). The user then engages in a Resolve + Auspex vs Resolve + Intelligence conflict with the victim in order to inhabit their body. If the vampire’s player rolls a total failure, the victim becomes immune to further Possession attempts for the duration of the story.

Once the vampire inhabits the body of their victim, their own body falls into a torpor-like trance, completely unaware of their surrounding and their own physical state except for Aggravated damage, which breaks the trance and ends the effects. A vampire possessing a mortal can use Auspex, Presence, and Dominate through them. If the user wishes to extend Possession into daytime, they must make a roll to stay awake (p. 219). Failure to stay awake ends the power. Any Aggravated damage to the subject also risks ending the possession – the user must succeed at a Resolve + Auspex roll (Difficulty 2 + damage taken) to stay in control. If the subject dies during Possession, the resulting spiritual trauma immediately causes the user to sustain three levels of Aggravated damage to Willpower.

This power does not give the user the ability to read the mind, use the skills, or emulate the manners of the victim. Any skills employed use the possessing vampire’s rating. The user must make a Manipulation + Performance vs Wits + Insight roll to successfully impersonate the victim’s manners, expressions, and the like.

Finally, Possession violates the victim even more profoundly than a Blood Bond. The Storyteller should consider awarding Stains for this action.

Duration: Until ended, voluntarily or involuntarily.

Telepathy, Auspex 5 (Core p.252)

Cost: One Rouse Check (plus one Willpower vs non-consenting vampires)

Dice Pools: Resolve + Auspex vs Wits + Subterfuge

System: The user is not required to roll any dice to project their thoughts to another, vampire or mortal, though they do require line of sight. To read the mind of a mortal within line of sight, roll Resolve + Auspex vs Wits + Subterfuge while looking into their eyes. (Unless the mortal consents, in which case no roll is required.) A win means that the user can discern surface thoughts as a stream of images, with higher margin allowing the user to probe for more distant or buried memories. A critical win gives a coherent picture of the subject’s current thoughts and intentions. To read the mind of a non-consenting vampire, spend one Willpower point before rolling.

Duration: Roughly one minute per Rouse Check. Increased to a full scene on consenting subjects.

Celerity

Cat’s Grace, Celerity 1 (Core pp.252-253)

Cost: Free

System: The user automatically passes any Dexterity- or Athletics-based roll needed to keep their balance. Note that this power does not allow them to balance on support that cannot take their weight.

Duration: Passive

Fluent Swiftness, Celerity 1 (Gehenna War p.46)

Cost: None

System: Whenever the vampire uses a Blood Surge to augment a Dexterity or Celerity test, they may reroll the Rouse Check.

Rapid Reflexes, Celerity 1 (Core p.253)

Cost: Free

System: With this power, vampires suffer no penalty to their defense pools for lack of cover against Firearms attacks. They can also take a minor action (see p. 298) worth up to two dice per turn, such as readying or reloading a weapon, for free.

Duration: Passive

Fleetness, Celerity 2 (Core p.253)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: Add the Celerity rating to user's dice pool for non-combat Dexterity tests. Once per turn the user may also do this when defending with Dexterity + Athletics.

Duration: One scene

A Thousand Cuts, Celerity 3 (Tattered Facade pp.95-96)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: The vampire may add their Celerity rating to any single Brawl or Melee attack (not otherwise augmented by a Discipline) made with claws or an edged weapon. For mortal victims, the cuts and slices caused by this flurry of attacks only cause Superficial damage, but automatically inflict enough additional Superficial damage for the victim to be Impaired. (At the Storyteller’s discretion, victims are overcome with pain and effectively out of commission.) The attack also splashes blood far and wide, causing vampires at Hunger 3 or more to make Hunger Frenzy tests. Used against Kindred, the attack is relatively harmless, but the scores of vicious yet unbleeding wounds leave the victim a walking Masquerade violation, and might provoke a Fury Frenzy test at the Storyteller’s discretion.

Duration: One action

Traversal, Celerity 3 (Core pp.253-254)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Dexterity + Athletics

System: Make a Dexterity + Athletics roll with a Difficulty of 3 (inclined surface with traction) to 6 (slick vertical surface, open water), depending on the surface and angle. Each point of margin gets the vampire further up or out; a margin of 0 gets to a close target, a margin of 1 to one farther than that, and so forth. The Storyteller should inform the player beforehand if a target is too distant to even attempt Traversal; as a rule of thumb, anything over water farther than 60 meters (or more than 30 stories up a building) probably exceeds this power’s range.

Duration: One turn

Draught Of Elegance, Celerity 4 (Core p.254)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: Drinking a Rouse Checks worth of Blood directly from the user gifts the drinker with temporary Celerity equal to half the Celerity dots (rounded down) of the donor. The drinker gains the same non-Amalgam powers as the donor’s, up to that level.

Duration: One night; for vampires, until the next feeding or the vampire reaches Hunger 5

Unerring Aim, Celerity 4 + Auspex 2 (Core p.254)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: Use before making a ranged attack. The target makes no roll to dodge or defend; make the attack at Difficulty 1. An opponent possessing Celerity 5 can nullify this power by making their own Rouse Check, defending at the same speed.

Duration: A single attack

Lightning Strike, Celerity 5 (Core p.254)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: Use before making a Brawl or Melee attack. The opponent makes no roll to dodge or defend; make the attack at Difficulty 1. An opponent possessing Celerity 5 can nullify this power by making their own Rouse Check, defending at the same speed.

Duration: A single attack

Split Second, Celerity 5 (Core pp.254-255)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: The player can supersede the Storyteller’s narration of events, within reason. They can choose to have their character move through a door before it closes, circumvent an ambush after it has been triggered, roll out of the way of an explosion, and so forth. The action taken must be reasonable and should not take more than a few seconds in real time. The Storyteller decides what Skills, if any, need to be checked to successfully accomplish an action begun using this power.

Duration: Roughly one action, as determined by the Storyteller.

Dominate

Cloud Memory, Dominate 1 (Core p.256)

Cost: Free

Dice Pools: Charisma + Dominate vs Wits + Resolve

System: No roll is required against an unprepared mortal victim. Clouding the memory of a resisting victim or another vampire requires a Charisma + Dominate vs Wits + Resolve roll.

Duration: Indefinitely

Compel, Dominate 1 (Core p.256)

Cost: Free

Dice Pools: Charisma + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve

System: No roll is required against an unprepared mortal victim. Commanding a resisting victim, a victim the vampire has previously Dominated in the same scene, or another vampire requires a contest of Charisma + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve. Commands that go against the victim’s nature also require such a contest.

Duration: No more than a single scene

Dementation, Dominate 2 + Obfuscate 2 (Core pp.256-257)

Cost: One Rouse Check per scene

Dice Pools: Manipulation + Dominate vs Composure + Intelligence

System: After engaging in conversation with a victim, the user can activate this power. For the duration of the scene, the use may attack a single individual each turn in a Manipulation + Dominate vs Composure + Intelligence conflict, causing Superficial damage to Willpower. A mortal who becomes Impaired by this power experiences a nervous breakdown or psychotic break, the shape and nature of which depends on their personality (and perhaps their blood Resonance). A vampire that becomes Impaired by this power must immediately succumb to a Compulsion, as chosen by the power’s user.

If the user wants to affect multiple victims, they need to make a separate Rouse Check for each one.

Duration: One Scene.

Mesmerize, Dominate 2 (Core p.256)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Manipulation + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve

System: No roll is required against an unprepared mortal victim. Commanding a resisting victim or another vampire requires a contest of Manipulation + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve. Commands that go against the victim’s nature also require such a contest.

Duration: Until the command is carried out or the scene ends, whichever comes first.

The Stolen Voice, Dominate 2 (Tattered Facade pp.96-97)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Composure + Dominate vs. Resolve + Performance

System: The vampire must be able to make eye contact with the victim. They need no test to activate the Power against mortals; Kindred and other supernatural beings can resist with Resolve + Performance. Anyone affected by this Power finds it impossible to meaningfully communicate — their voice makes no sound, writing becomes illegible, their gestures or signs shudder spastically, and even banging against walls produces nothing but a dull thud as their limbs fail to exert force.

Duration: One scene

The Forgetful Mind, Dominate 3 (Core p.257)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Manipulation + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve

System: The user rolls a contest of Manipulation + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve. Each point of margin allows the user to add or remove an additional memory. The victim recalls the edits vaguely, foggy ideations that can fall apart under close questioning. A critical win creates a flawless imprint, as real as any true memory.

Duration: Indefinitely

Submerged Directive, Dominate 3 (Core p.257)

Cost: No additional cost

System: As Mesmerize, though the Storyteller might want to make any rolls in secret. There’s no way of knowing if the submerged suggestion works until the conditions are met.

Duration: Passive

Rationalize, Dominate 4 (Core p.257)

Cost: No additional cost

System: If pressed on their belief, the victim can make a Wits+Awareness test (Difficulty 5). A win makes them question their own statement, and possibly their sanity.

Duration: Indefinitely

Lethe’s Call, Dominate 5 (Gehenna War p.46)

Prerequisite: Cloud Memory or The Forgetful Mind

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Manipulation + Dominate vs Intelligence + Resolve

System: The user tests Manipulation + Dominate vs a target’s Intelligence + Resolve, though unprepared mortals cannot resist this power. Each success in the margin allows the user to wipe up to an entire week’s worth of memories from the target. This use of Dominate does not require any verbal instructions, but will in this case simply blank the remembered time from the victim indiscriminately. With the addition of a verbal command, the Kindred can instead simply erase all knowledge of one individual or event from the same time, including the user themself.

The user may choose to simply leave the target’s memory blank or leave the victim with a generic sense of time having passed and the assumption that the time passed about as expected, though the latter quickly reveals inconsistencies if the victim is pressed for details later.

Duration: Indefinitely

Mass Manipulation, Dominate 5 (Core p.257)

Cost: One Rouse Check in addition to the cost of the power amplified

System: The vampire can amplify any of their other powers to affect a group of people, mortal or vampire, at once. All of the victims need to see the eyes of the user. The user makes any needed roll against the strongest opponent in the group.

Duration: As per power amplified

Terminal Decree, Dominate 5 (Core pp.257-258)

Cost: No additional Hunger cost, but the Humanity cost is potentially severe

System: Terminal commands now must be resisted (see individual powers regarding rolls involved), rather than failing automatically.

Duration: Passive

Fortitude

Fluent Endurance, Fortitude 1 (Gehenna War p.46)

Cost: None

System: Whenever the vampire uses a Blood Surge to augment a Stamina or Fortitude test, they may reroll the Rouse Check.

Resilience, Fortitude 1 (Core p.258)

Cost: Free

System: The user adds their Fortitude rating to their Health track.

Duration: Passive

Unswayable Mind, Fortitude 1 (Core p.258)

Cost: Free

System: The user adds their dots in Fortitude as extra dice in any roll made to resist coercion, intimidation, seduction, or any other attempt to sway the user’s mind against their will. This power also works against supernatural abilities such as Dominate and Presence.

Duration: Passive

Toughness, Fortitude 2 (Core pp.258-259)

Cost: One Rouse check

System: Subtract the Fortitude of the defender from all Superficial damage sustained. This occurs before halving the damage, and cannot reduce the damage below one.

Duration: One scene

Enduring Beasts, Fortitude 2 + Auspex 1 (Core p.259)

Cost: Free (for famulus); One Rouse Check (for other animals)

Dice Pools: Stamina + Animalism (for non-famulus animals)

System: The vampire can choose to extend some of their Fortitude powers to animals affected by their Animalism. Any animal thus imbued gains additional Health levels equal to the Fortitude dots of the vampire. Using this power on their famulus is free and automatic. To imbue other animals besides their famulus, the user must make a Rouse Check and roll a test of Stamina + Animalism (Difficulty 3). The user can fortify one animal per point of margin. When the effect ends, remove unmarked Health first; this may result in the animal expiring.

Duration: One Scene.

Calloused Soul, Fortitude 3 (Tattered Facade pp.97-98)

Cost: Two Stains

Dice Pools: Varies with the atrocity

System: The vampire must carry out a well-planned and premeditated atrocity, thereby suitably numbing their mind for what is to come. The nature of this act depends on the Chronicle Tenets, but must involve at least three mortal deaths; their revulsion to this horror is such that the vampire gains three Stains (one of which they can mitigate by a Conviction). For the rest of the night, they cannot gain Stains from any future trigger, no matter how severe, and even diablerie has its potential for Humanity loss limited to one point — although if the tests would have the victim assume control, this still happens despite this power.

Duration: One night

Defy Bane, Fortitude 3 (Core p.259)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Wits + Survival (to activate reflexively)

System: The user can convert a number of Aggravated damage equal to their Fortitude rating to Superficial damage when sustained. They may not heal that Superficial damage for the rest of the scene. This power converts a number of damage per scene, not per wound or per attack.

The user can renew this power once expired by making another Rouse Check. If endangered unexpectedly, the user can activate this power reflexively with a Wits + Survival roll (Difficulty 3) upon receiving Aggravated damage. If the user fails the test, the power does not activate; if they win the test, they must make a Rouse Check to pay for the power.

Duration: One scene or until expired, whichever comes first

Fortify The Inner Facade, Fortitude 3 (Core p.259)

Cost: Free

System: Increases the Difficulty of using Scry Soul (Auspex 3), Telepathy (Auspex 5), and similar powers on the user by half their Fortitude rating (round up). If the rules allow the user to resist these powers, they add their Fortitude rating to their dice pool instead.

Duration: One scene

Draught Of Endurance, Fortitude 4 (Core pp.259-260)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: Drinking a Rouse Check's worth of Blood directly from the user gifts the drinker with temporary Fortitude equal to half the Fortitude dots (rounded down) of the donor. The drinker gains the same powers as the donor’s, up to that level.

Duration: One night; for vampires, until the next feeding or the vampire reaches Hunger 5

Flesh Of Marble, Fortitude 5 (Core p.260)

Cost: Two Rouse Checks

System: With this power active, the vampire ignores the first source of physical damage each turn, including fire but not sunlight. If confusion arises about which source is “first,” the Storyteller either decides based on the narrative, or the vampire ignores the most damaging single source that turn. A critical win on an attack roll bypasses this power.

Duration: One scene

Meat Shields, Fortitude 5 (Tattered Facade p.98)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: With this Power active, the vampire temporarily increases their Fortitude by a number of dots equal to half the weak mortals present (rounded down). They can gain up to five extra dots of Fortitude through this method. This increase does not provide any new Powers, but counts for the purpose of dice pools and other effects.

The Storyteller counts all bystanders categorized as Weak Mortals (Vampire: The Masquerade, p. 185) toward this power, along with wounded or sick Average Mortals.

Duration: One scene, or when the vampire leaves the presence of the affected mortals — whichever comes first.

Prowess From Pain, Fortitude 5 (Core p.260)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: Upon activating the power the vampire no longer suffers any dice penalties from Health damage sustained, such as physical Impairment. Additionally, they can increase one Physical Attribute by one dot (derived stats are unaffected) for each level of damage on their Health track, aggravated or superficial. The user’s Attributes cannot exceed a value equal to their Blood Surge + 6 through this ability.

Duration: One scene

Obfuscate

Cloak Of Shadows, Obfuscate 1 (Core p.261)

Cost: Free

System: Follow the general rules for Obfuscate. The effect lasts until the user moves or they are detected by other means.

Duration: One scene

Ensconce, Obfuscate 1 (Gehenna War pp.46-47)

Cost: None

System: The Kindred can hide a number of small, hand-held objects in their hands or on their person equal to their Obfuscate rating. Mortals ignore dangerous or out-of-place objects that the user is enshrouding or miss them in a search. Kindred with Sense the Unseen or others with supernatural senses can attempt to notice them as usual. Objects in plain view cannot be hidden by this power, nor can animate creatures.

Duration: One scene

Silence Of Death, Obfuscate 1 (Core p.261)

Cost: Free

System: The user silences their footsteps, clothing, minor collisions, and other sounds of their person. This makes the vampire undetectable if an observer could only notice them by sound, such as when on a different floor of a house.

This power does not eliminate sounds the user makes outside their personal space (throwing or dropping objects, or slamming doors, for example). Failing that, only Sense of the Unseen (Auspex 1) can detect the user.

Duration: One scene

Cache, Obfuscate 2 (Gehenna War p.47)

Prerequisite: Ensconce

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: Objects affected by Ensconce need merely be touched, not held or carried by the Kindred. Furthermore, the user need not maintain physical contact with the object. The effect lasts for a scene. The user may make an additional Rouse Check to extend the duration for the remainder of the night. In that case, the enshrouded object remains hidden until dawn.

Duration: One scene or until dawn

Unseen Passage, Obfuscate 2 (Core pp.261-262)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: As long as the user emits no overpowering odors and no sound louder than a whisper, this power automatically works. Only if the observer has their attention drawn to the user can they make a detection roll.

Sense the Unseen (Auspex 1) can also detect the hidden vampire, as per the general Obfuscate rules.

Note that the user cannot use this power to disappear while being actively observed; it automatically fails in such a case.

Duration: One scene or until detection.

Doubletalk, Obfuscate 2 + Auspex 1 (Blood-Stained Love p.152)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: The Kindred adds a secret message (up to one sentence) to their words that only a single intended listener can hear. Anyone else present only picks up the message if they can beat the user’s Composure + Obfuscate with their Wits + Auspex.

Duration: One utterance.

Ghost In The Machine, Obfuscate 3 (Core p.262)

Cost: No additional cost

System: No additional roll is required when being viewed on a live feed. Treat observers as present with the vampire, with regard to the Discipline. The observer adds +3 to their Difficulty on tests to identify the user on film, video, in photographs, or the like taken during active Obfuscation. The user also gains three additional dice to pools they use when trying to circumvent automated electronic surveillance and countermeasures.

Duration: As power used

Guise of the Departed, Obfuscate 3 + Oblivion 1 (Tattered Facade pp.98-99)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Wits + Obfuscate

System: The user touches a mortal corpse that has been dead for less than a week. The Storyteller then makes a hidden test of Wits + Obfuscate at Difficulty 3. A failure means that the resemblance is less than convincing, and anyone close to the person copied notices something amiss automatically. A win creates a convincing disguise, but the user must win a Manipulation + Performance vs Wits + Insight contest against anyone close to the copied person or they will sense something is wrong.

Sense the Unseen (Auspex 1) can pierce the mask as usual.

Duration: Until dawn

Mask Of A Thousand Faces, Obfuscate 3 (Core p.262)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: No test is required. Anyone viewing the vampire sees a forgettable face of the same gender and approximate build and height as the user. Clothes take on the same kind of blandness, depending on the environment. At an office the user might appear as a nightwatchman, while they may seem to wear overalls at an assembly plant. Sense the Unseen (Auspex 1) can pierce the power as usual.

Duration: One scene

Seclusion, Obfuscate 4 + Dominate 1 (Tattered Facade p.99)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Manipulation + Obfuscate vs Resolve + Awareness

System: The user catches the eye of the victim and must then succeed at a Manipulation + Obfuscate vs. Resolve + Awareness test. On a win, the user and everyone near appears to disappear to the victim, and the effect lasts for one scene (or night), plus one for each success in the margin. While under its effect, the victim is unable to perceive any living or unliving person. They will unconsciously avoid them and will be deaf to any sounds made by them. Only if someone attempts to do physical harm to the victim will they be momentarily perceived, as a person using Unseen Passage would. (See Vampire: The Masquerade, p. 261). Each time this happens, make another Discipline test. If the victim successfully resists, the power’s effect breaks prematurely.

Duration: Margin number of scenes or nights, or until broken

Conceal, Obfuscate 4 + Auspex 3 (Core pp.262-263)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Intelligence + Obfuscate

System: The vampire touches the object and rolls a test of Intelligence + Obfuscate against a Difficulty from 2 (Concealing a ring in a drawer filled with other memorabilia) to 6 (Concealing a house in the middle of an open square), depending on the target’s size and location. The power lasts for one night. Each point of margin on the win conceals the object for an additional night.

This power conceals anyone and anything inside the object (e.g., people in a car or shed), as long as the viewer remains outside. This power cannot affect anything larger than a two-story house or any object moving under its own power (such as a moving car). Someone with the Auspex power Sense the Unseen (or equivalent) can notice the object by winning a contest of Wits + Auspex vs the Intelligence + Obfuscate of the user.

Duration: One night, with an additional night per point of margin on the win.

Vanish, Obfuscate 4 (Core p.263)

Prerequisite: Cloak of Shadows

Cost: As per power augmented

Dice Pools: Wits + Obfuscate vs Wits + Awareness

System: When vanishing in front of a mortal, roll a contest of Wits + Obfuscate vs Wits + Awareness. On a win, the observer questions whether the vampire was ever there to begin with; their memory clouds on the topic. With a critical win, the vampire vanishes entirely from the observer’s memory. This power does not affect vampires’ memories, but any win by the user hides them as if they initiated their power unobserved. This power can only be used once per scene.

Duration: As per power augmented

Cloak The Gathering, Obfuscate 5 (Core p.263)

Cost: One Rouse Check in addition to the cost of the power extended

System: The vampire can extend their power of Obfuscation to a number of additional willing subjects equal to their Wits, plus one for each additional Rouse Check made. The Obfuscate power used on the group can be any known to the user, and every member of the group count as having used it on themselves, using the Obfuscating vampire’s rating as their own when needed for a roll. Members of the group can still perceive each other while under the effects of the power. If anyone besides the user is revealed, either through their own doing or an astute observer, the rest of the group remains hidden. If the user is revealed, so is everyone else.

Duration: As power extended

Impostor’s Guise, Obfuscate 5 (Core p.263)

Prerequisite: Mask of a Thousand Faces

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Wits + Obfuscate, Manipulation + Performance

System: The user must study the face to be copied for at least five minutes, from different angles. The user requires another ten minutes of observation to mimic the subject’s voice and mannerisms. The user can only copy human appearance, not animal form. The Storyteller then makes a hidden test of Wits + Obfuscate (Difficulty 4). A failure means that the resemblance is less than convincing, and anyone close to the person copied notices something amiss automatically. A win creates a convincing illusion, but the user must make a Manipulation + Performance roll to impersonate speech and mannerisms. A critical win creates a perfect illusion with no further roll necessary. Sense the Unseen (Auspex 1) can pierce the mask as per General Rules.

Duration: One scene

Potence

Lethal Body, Potence 1 (Core p.264)

Cost: Free

System: The user’s unarmed attacks can now do Aggravated Health damage to mortals, if desired. They also ignore one level of armor per Potence level of the user.

Duration: Passive

Soaring Leap, Potence 1 (Core p.264)

Cost: Free

System: The user can jump a number of meters equal to three times their Potence level vertically, and five times their Potence level horizontally. The user needs no run-up to make these leaps.

Duration: Passive

Prowess, Potence 2 (Core p.264)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: When activated, add the Potence rating of the user to their unarmed damage value as well as to feats of Strength, and add half their Potence rating (round up) to their Melee damage.

Duration: One scene

Brutal Feed, Potence 3 (Core pp.264-265)

Cost: Free

System: The vampire can drain a human completely in seconds, usually within a single turn. Every point of Hunger slaked causes one point of Aggravated Health damage to the victim, as their blood vessels burst and organs bruise and rupture internally. Using Brutal Feed on a vampire does only Superficial Health damage to their dead and inert organs.

In combat, Brutal Feed comes immediately after a successful Brawl attack using fangs. The victim first takes bite damage, followed by a number of automatically successful feeding actions up to the user’s Potence rating. Against vampires, the number of feeding actions is halved (round down). Armor does not protect against Brutal Feed, as the wounds are, or at least begin as, mainly internal. Of course, armor can protect against the bite itself as normal.

Storytellers may decide such mutilation-killing warrants Stains (p. 239).

Duration: One feeding

Exuberance, Potence 3 (Tattered Facade p.103)

Cost: Free

System: Whenever using Potence (including pools using half the Potence rating, such as Prowess), the vampire treats their Potence rating as if it were two levels higher — this can take the relative Discipline rating above the normal limit of 5. On any such test, if the vampire rolls a critical (messy or otherwise) or a failure (bestial or otherwise) they sustain 1 Aggravated damage as their own body tears itself apart from the strain.

Duration: Passive

Draught Of Might, Potence 4 (Core pp.265-266)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: Drinking a Rouse Checks worth of Blood directly from the user gifts the drinker with temporary Potence equal to half the Potence dots (rounded down) of the donor. The drinker gains the same powers as the donor’s, up to that level.

Duration: One night; for vampires, until the next feeding or the vampire reaches Hunger 5

Spark Of Rage, Potence 4 + Presence 3 (Core p.265)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Manipulation + Potence

System: When active, the user can add their Potence rating to any attempt to rile or incite a person or a crowd to violence. In addition, the user can activate this power and roll a contest of Manipulation + Potence vs Composure + Intelligence of another vampire. If they win, the opposing vampire must make a fury frenzy test at Difficulty 3.

Duration: One Scene

Uncanny Grip, Potence 4 (Core p.265)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: A vampire using this power automatically succeeds on any Skill test to climb a non-metallic surface. The user might also be able to climb copper or bronze cladding or other softer metal surfaces, at the Storyteller’s discretion. Thin glass surfaces (though generally not the glass curtain walls of modern office buildings) may shatter under the stress. In the same way, a vampire can hang from a wall or ceiling for up to one scene, though only barefoot vampires can hang by their feet.

The climb or clinging leaves obvious tracks detectable by anyone with an Intelligence + Investigation test at Difficulty 2. Detecting Uncanny Grip tracks on glass doesn’t even require a roll.

Duration: One scene

Earthshock, Potence 5 (Core pp.265-266)

Cost: Two Rouse Checks

System: No additional test is needed to create the shockwave. (The ground is hard to miss.) Anyone within a five-meter radius of the user must make a Dexterity + Athletics roll (Difficulty 3), with the results below. Anyone prepared for the Earthshock (such as the user’s companions) can shift their results up by one step.

Critical Win: No effect.

Win: Knocked off balance. Lose current action

Failure: Fall prone. Lose current action; must spend a turn getting up.

This power causes significant collateral damage. If used on the ground, the earth cracks. If used indoors, furniture breaks and mirrors shatter. On anything but the ground floor the floor might shatter, causing everyone within the radius to plummet to the floor below. This power can only be used once per scene.

Duration: One use

Fist Of Caine, Potence 5 (Core p.266)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: For one scene the user can inflict Aggravated Health damage to mortals and supernaturals alike while Brawling, as they literally rend flesh and tear their opponents limb from limb with their bare hands.

Duration: One scene

Presence

Awe, Presence 1 (Core p.267)

Cost: Free

Dice Pools: Manipulation + Presence vs Composure + Intelligence

System: Add the Presence rating to any Skill roll involving Persuasion or Performance as well as to other Charisma-related rolls, at the Storyteller’s discretion. Anyone aware that they’re being affected can try to resist with a contest of Composure + Intelligence vs the user’s Manipulation + Presence. On a win, the target can resist the effects for one scene; a critical win makes the target immune for the entire night. Once the power wears off, victims revert to their previous opinions.

Duration: One scene or until intentionally ended

Daunt, Presence 1 (Core p.267)

Cost: Free

System: Add the user’s Presence rating to any Intimidation rolls. Attacking the user requires a Resolve + Composure roll at Difficulty 2.

Vampires cannot use Awe and Daunt simultaneously.

Duration: One scene or until intentionally ended

Lingering Kiss, Presence 2 (Core pp.267-268)

Cost: Free

System: The vampire can choose to use this power during each feeding where they sate at least one Hunger. The victim gains a bonus equal to half the user’s Presence (round up) to one Social Attribute of their choice. This benefit lasts for a single night. Once it fades, withdrawal strikes and all the victim’s actions not spent working toward acquiring a new fix receive a dice penalty equal to the initial bonus. A victim in withdrawal can spend Willpower to ignore the penalties for a scene, and the penalties go away after a number of nights equal to the user’s Presence rating.

This power cannot be used on other vampires by a user who is under the thrall of a Blood Bond. Also, vampires with the Unbondable Merit cannot acquire this power.

Duration: A number of nights equal to the user’s Presence rating

Dread Gaze, Presence 3 (Core p.268)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Charisma + Presence vs Composure + Resolve

System: Displaying their fangs, their face twisted in a predatory grimace, the user rolls a contest of Charisma + Presence against their target’s Composure + Resolve.

Failure: Mortals are unable to act other than in their own defense, backing off for a turn. Vampires are unaffected.

Win: Mortals run in fear. Vampires are unable to act other than in their own defense for a turn unless they spend Willpower equal to the users margin of win (to a minimum of one).

Critical Win: Mortals freeze or crumple into a fetal position. Vampires must make a terror frenzy test (Difficulty 3). If they win, they are still affected as above.

Duration: One turn

Entrancement, Presence 3 (Core p.268)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Charisma + Presence vs Composure + Wits

System: The vampire only needs to gain the subject’s attention and win a contest of Charisma + Presence vs Composure + Wits. The effect lasts for roughly one hour plus one per point of margin on the win. The vampire can renew this effect indefinitely, but a failure ends the effect and makes the subject immune for the rest of the night.

After succeeding, the user adds dice equal to their Presence rating to any Social dice pool against the entranced subject. Requests resulting in obvious harm to the subject or their loved ones, or that oppose the subject’s Tenets, fail and require an immediate power contest roll as above, or the Entrancement immediately fails.

Duration: One hour plus one per point of margin

Passion Leech, Presence 3 + Auspex 2 (Tattered Facade p.104)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Composure + Auspex

System: The vampire must spend a scene in close proximity to a mortal target but needn’t directly engage them. (This Power has no effect on Kindred targets, even Humanity 10 Kindred.) After rousing, test Composure + Auspex against Difficulty 3 (Storytellers might lower this in situations where emotions are running high or are deliberately provoked). On a success, the vampire gains all the benefits of Humanity 10 until sunset (although they still gain Stains and roll Remorse at their current Humanity rating). On a critical win, they may also heal a Willpower damage of either type. On a bestial failure or Messy Critical, the surge of emotion is too much to bear, and the vampire suffers a Compulsion. Vampires can only benefit from this euphoric feeling once per night but can keep trying should they fail.

Human targets of this Power lose all trace of Resonance in their blood for three nights, turning it to a fleeting Empty Resonance (p. 48–49) . While empty of Resonance, the target can freely indulge their basest desires, descending into psychopathy with no higher nature or positive emotion to push back on these impulses.

Duration: Until sunset for the vampire, three nights for mortal victims

Inflame Desire, Presence 4 + Obfuscate 1 (Tattered Facade pp.104-105)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Manipulation + Presence vs Composure + Resolve

System: The user must touch the subject and win a Manipulation + Presence vs Composure + Resolve test for the power to take effect. (At the Storyteller’s discretion, mortals are affected with no test necessary.) If affected, the victim is afflicted by the Need Compulsion (see below), directed at whatever the target wanted most in the current scene, excluding any desire provoked by supernatural means, such as through other Presence powers, as well as desires unattainable in the current scene. At the Storyteller’s discretion, a vampire with Hunger 3 or above gains the Hunger Compulsion instead.

If the subject’s object of desire is up for bargaining, the user gains a four-dice bonus to any negotiation test.

Duration: One scene

Irresistible Voice, Presence 4 + Dominate 1 (Core p.268)

Cost: No additional cost

System: The user's voice alone is now enough to Dominate a target. This does not apply to voices transmitted through electronic media such as phones, television, or apartment door-buzzer speakers.

Duration: Passive

Summon, Presence 4 (Core pp.268-269)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Manipulation + Presence vs Composure + Intelligence

System: The user needs to concentrate for five minutes and think of the person being summoned, then rolls Manipulation + Presence vs Composure + Intelligence. On a win, the target hears the summoning, but may or may not heed it. On a critical win, the target arrives as quickly as possible, barring immediate risk to their well-being.

Duration: One night

Wingman, Presence 4 (Blood-Stained Love p.152)

Cost: One Rouse Check in addition to power used

System: As a full action and with an additional Rouse Check, the user can provide the benefits of one of their Presence powers to another willing vampire, using the Presence rating and Blood Potency bonus of the vampire using Wingman.

If the subject also possesses Presence, use the higher of the bonuses but not both. The subject cannot gain the benefit of the same Presence power twice. The vampire using Wingman cannot use the same power on themselves while extending it to another subject. Both the user or the subject must be visible to anyone affected by the extended power.

Duration: As power used.

Majesty, Presence 5 (Core p.269)

Cost: Two Rouse Checks

Dice Pools: Charisma + Presence vs Composure + Resolve

System: People in the presence of the user can only stare, slack-jawed, or avert their eyes in fear or submission. Anyone wanting to act in any way in opposition to the user, except for self-preservation, must successfully win a contest of their Composure + Resolve vs. the vampire’s Charisma + Presence. A win allows one turn of freedom, plus one per point of margin; only a critical win resists the effect for the entire scene.

Duration: One scene

Star Magnetism, Presence 5 (Core p.269)

Cost: One additional Rouse Check

System: Awe, Daunt, and Entrancement can be transmitted through live feeds via screens or phones. If Entrancement is used, the victim’s name must be spoken clearly, as that power only affects one person at a time. Anyone else viewing the same transmission only finds the user charming, but not supernaturally so.

Duration: As power used

Protean

Eyes Of The Beast, Protean 1 (Core p.270)

Cost: Free

System: No roll is required to activate Eyes of the Beast. While active the user ignores any sight penalties imposed by darkness, including supernatural. While active, the inhuman appearance of the eyes confers two bonus dice to Intimidation pools against mortals.

Duration: As long as desired

Squirm, Protean 1 (Tattered Facade p.105)

Cost: Free or 1 Rouse Check

System: Add the user’s Protean rating to any dice pools to wriggle through tight spaces, escape a grapple, or escape any form of restraints. The user can squeeze into tight spaces so long as their head fits into the space as their other bones can dislocate and reconnect with ease.

If the user has about five minutes, they can make a Rouse Check to force their body into an even more pliable state. Their flesh and bones spread and collapse to let them fit through impossibly tight spaces about two inches (or five centimeters) in diameter. If the user is interrupted or forcibly yanked out of such a tight space, they suffer one Aggravated damage to Health.

Weight Of The Feather, Protean 1 (Core p.270)

Cost: Free

Dice Pools: Wits + Survival

System: If the vampire has time to prepare, no roll is required. As a reaction, such as during a sudden fall, activating the power requires a Wits + Survival roll at Difficulty 3. As long as the power is in effect, the vampire is immune to damage from falls, collisions, and being thrown. The user also avoids triggering devices that rely on pressure, at the Storyteller’s discretion.

Duration: As long as desired

Feral Weapons, Protean 2 (Core pp.270-271)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: No skill roll is needed to activate this power. When activated, the vampire’s natural weapon of choice becomes a light piercing Brawl weapon with a +2 modifier to damage. Vampiric Bite Attacks still only deal two points of Aggravated damage despite the number of successes, but do not suffer the 1-Success penalty. Superficial damage inflicted by the user’s natural weapons is not halved while Feral Weapons is active.

Duration: One scene

Serpent’s Kiss, Protean 2 (Blood-Stained Love p.153)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: When the Kindred bites or kisses another, they may make a Rouse check to force some of their own vitae into their victim. The victim of the bite or kiss is treated as though they tasted the Kindred’s Blood for purposes of the Blood Bond, learning a Discipline Power, becoming a Ghoul, or other effects of imbibing blood.

If the Kindred’s Blood normally or temporarily has deleterious effects, those are passed on to the victim as well. Additionally, Blood Sorcerers can use powers such as Scorpion’s Touch or Baal’s Caress via their bite, much to the surprise of those they Kiss.

Duration: One scene

Protean ••, The False Sip + Fortitude • (Blood-Stained Love p.153)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: The character must activate this power immediately upon consuming blood from any source. The user is able to keep the blood down, but it doesn’t enter their system nor slake any Hunger, though the user can taste it. No other blood or vitae can be consumed during this time. The Kindred has one scene to vomit the blood back up, otherwise it enters their system. The effect can be extended to another scene by a second Rouse Check.

Duration: One scene or more

Earth Meld, Protean 3 (Core p.271)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: No test is required, but the vampire must be on a natural surface: rocks, raw earth, grass, etc. This power does not work on concrete, asphalt, or other artificial surfaces. It takes a turn for the vampire to sink into the earth, leaving carried objects behind atop the soil. While in the earth the vampire is aware of their surroundings, except during day-sleep. At those times, disturbances (e.g., digging or loud noises) awaken them or not as with all vampires (p. 219).

Duration: One day or more, or until disturbed

Shapechange, Protean 3 (Core p.271)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: No test is required. The transformation takes one turn, during which the user may take no other actions. Upon transformation, the vampire gains the Physical Attributes, senses, and native Skills associated with that ani mal (see p. 373) and also gains that animal’s natural limits of communication, manipulation (most animals can carry one thing in their mouth), and so forth. The vampire can use other Disciplines, at the Storyteller’s discretion. (By and large, they can use Auspex, Animalism, Celerity, Fortitude, Potence, and Protean; many powers of Dominate, Obfuscate, and Presence pose problems; Blood Sorcery is completely off the table.)

Duration: One scene unless ended voluntarily before that

Metamorphosis, Protean 4 (Core p.271)

Prerequisite: Shapechange

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: Same as Shapechange.

Duration: One scene unless ended voluntarily before that

Bloodform, Protean 5 + Blood Sorcery 2 (Gehenna War p.47)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: The user transforms themselves into a liquid. In this form, they cannot be harmed by most conventional weapons (including stakes), though sunlight and fire still affect them as normal. The user can squeeze through small cracks, and even flow cleanly up walls or across ceilings. While in bloodform (or partially in bloodform), the user can perform general actions such as pushing and pulling, but the difficulty of fine manipulation of electronic devices or liquids increases by two if manipulating them as Blood.

The user may use Disciplines as normal, provided they do not need to make eye contact or speak, though they can make a Rouse Check to partially reform eyes, a vocal tract, limbs, or head.

The Kindred can transform only part of the body, such as a finger or leg, as desired, though it still needs to remain in touch with the main body. If part of the mass is separated (or entirely consumed) the user’s consciousness goes with the largest portion of Blood and the user reforms with one additional level of Hunger for each limb (or equivalent body mass) lost. If a portion of the user is consumed, it creates Blood Bonds as normal but the user cannot control their Blood after its been ingested by another.

Duration: One scene or until the user ends the transformation

Master of Forms, Protean 5 (Gehenna War p.48)

Prerequisite: Shapechange

Cost: None

System: The user is no longer limited to choosing one animal form when using Shapechange or Metamorphosis. Rather, they can take on the form of any creature that falls within the limits of those abilities, different each time if they so wish. Each time they choose a beast form, such as a wolf, owl, or bat, they assume the same specific form, which may be recognized by witnesses. Thus, if the character turns into a swan on multiple nights, it always looks like that specific swan.

All other limitations of Shapechange and Metamorphosis still apply.

Duration: As Shapechange or Metamorphosis

Mist Form, Protean 5 (Core pp.271-272)

Cost: One to three Rouse Checks

System: No roll is required. The transformation takes three turns, though it can be sped up with additional Rouse Checks on a one-for-one basis. While in mist form, the vampire moves at walking pace and perceives their surroundings through mystical means as if there as normal. A vampire in mist form cannot make eye contact or speak. They can use only those Disciplines requiring no physical form or presence, at the Storyteller’s discretion. While in mist form the vampire can only be damaged by sunlight, fire, and immaterial supernatural attacks (such as some Rituals).

Duration: One scene unless ended voluntarily before that.

Swarm, Protean 5 (Tattered Facade p.106)

Prerequisite: Shapechange

Cost: Two Rouse Checks

System: The vampire Rouses the Blood and spends a full turn, their body breaking down into a swarm of creatures. The vampire may choose the species, but the creatures must be small, barely bigger than a human hand. Typical choices include bats, crows, rats, mice, cockroaches, spiders, flies, locusts, snakes, and leeches. Once chosen, the species remains constant for all uses of Swarm.

While transformed, the vampire gains all the features of the swarm, including speed and movement abilities, and perceives everything the swarm does (although the mass of input makes it hard to focus on detail without concentrating). Disciplines cannot be used, as the vampire’s consciousness is spread too thin.

The swarm can attack a number of individuals equal to the vampire’s Blood Potency rating each turn. Swarmed targets receive a two-dice penalty to all tests and sustain 1 damage each turn (Aggravated for mortals, Superficial for supernatural creatures). Conventional attacks aren’t enough to meaningfully damage the swarm, but fire and sunlight are still just as deadly, as are area effects. If even a single member of the swarm survives, the vampire can fully regenerate with no ill effects; if none remain, they meet their final death.

Many mortals must make Willpower tests or flee in terror when swarmed. Difficulties start at 3 but may be raised or lowered depending on potential phobias or mental conditioning.

Duration: One scene, or until ended voluntarily

The Unfettered Heart, Protean 5 (Core p.272)

Cost: Free

System: Increases the Difficulty on any non-combat test to stake the vampire by three. In Melee combat, only if the stake-wielder rolls a critical win does the stake penetrate the user’s heart. Even if staked, the user can make a Rouse Check and roll their Strength + Resolve (Difficulty 5) once per hour. A win means they manage to free themselves from paralysis as the stake is pushed out of their body. They cannot attempt such stake expulsion at Hunger 5.

Duration: Passive

Blood Sorcery

A Taste For Blood, Blood Sorcery 1 (Core p.273)

Cost: Free

Dice Pools: Resolve + Blood Sorcery

System: The user dabs the blood on their tongue and makes a Resolve + Blood Sorcery roll (Difficulty 3). With a win, the user can determine the resonance and intensity of the blood if human. They can also identify whether the blood belongs to a mortal, ghoul, vampire, or other supernatural creature (it may not necessarily be able to identify the supernatural creature if not Kindred or ghoul). Tasting vitae also determines the relative Blood Potency (and thus the likely generation band) of the vampire. A critical win also reveals whether the subject has ever committed diablerie, and the generation (within one) of the vampire. If the user knows of the supernatural creature in question, they can identify the specific supernatural creature on a critical win after tasting the blood.

Duration: N/A

Corrosive Vitae, Blood Sorcery 1 (Core p.273)

Cost: One or more Rouse Checks

System: No additional skill roll is required. The user concentrates for a turn and forces Blood through an open, usually self-inflicted, wound. The user then spills their Blood on a nonliving object (except unliving flesh such as that of the Kindred) to corrode and decompose it. Each Rouse Check corrodes approximately 35 cm of matter in all directions from the splash; this takes approximately five minutes (longer on soft metals like copper or cast iron). Harder metals such as alloys and steel merely scar and pit; whether they meaningfully weaken remains at the Storyteller’s discretion. (This power might corrode through handcuff chains given enough time and vitae.)

Duration: N/A

Koldunic Sorcery, Level 1 (Blood Sigils p.61)

Cost: One Rouse Check, and some Aggravated Health damage.

System: After making the Rouse Check, the koldun opens the old cut of their initiation. They may inflict 1 point of Aggravated Health damage to themselves per dot of Blood Sorcery they possess. For each point of damage taken, the koldun extends their senses farther out.

1

15 meters

2

90 meters

3

500 meters

4

1.5 kilometers

5

8 kilometers

Their perceptions focus through their chosen element. For example, a fire-bonded koldun sees, smells, hears, and feels through flames, stoves, furnaces, heater coils, lit cigarettes, etc., within their radius of effect. Koldunic Sorcery can perceive mystically-hidden beings such as Obfuscated vampires with a successful contest of Resolve + Blood Sorcery against Wits or Resolve + Obfuscate (or other relevant supernatural Trait).

Duration: One scene, although the koldun can renew this power at its previous level at any time that night by making another Rouse Check and losing 1 point of Aggravated Health damage. The power expires completely at sunrise.

Shape the Sanguine Sacrament, Blood Sorcery 1 (Tattered Facade p.92)

Cost: Free (or one Rouse Check if using your own Blood)

Dice Pools: Manipulation + Blood Sorcery

System: The vampire makes a Manipulation + Blood Sorcery test and by concentrating on the image to be formed, sends the blood or vitae flowing into the prescribed pattern or shape. Difficulty varies with the pattern’s complexity: from a simple “SOS” (Difficulty 2), to a portrait (Difficulty 4), or topologically complex sorcerous sigil (Difficulty 6). Failure spatters the blood randomly; a critical win not only forms the desired image but also allows the vampire to change its shape freely during the scene.

Duration: For the remainder of the scene or until dispelled by user

Blood’s Curse, Blood Sorcery 2 (Gehenna War p.48)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Intelligence + Blood Sorcery vs Stamina + Occult or Fortitude

System: The user targets another vampire or ghoul. On a win, add two (or four on a critical win) to the victim’s Blood Potency for purposes of Bane severity and feeding penalty (for vampires) only. When targeting a ghoul, Caitiff, or thin-blood, the target gains a clan Bane based on the clan of the vampire they most recently fed from or their own ancestry, as determined by the Storyteller.

Duration: Until dawn

Extinguish Vitae, Blood Sorcery 2 (Core p.273)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Intelligence + Blood Sorcery vs Stamina + Composure

System: The user rolls a contest of Intelligence + Blood Sorcery vs the Stamina + Composure of a target vampire in line of sight while concentrating for a turn and gesturing subtly. A win increases the target’s Hunger by one while a critical win increases it by two. The victim can discern who afflicts them if they can see the user while making an Intelligence + Occult vs Wits + Subterfuge roll.

Duration: N/A

Scour Secrets, Blood Sorcery 2 (The Book of Nod Apocrypha p.34)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: The user makes the Rouse Check and tests Intelligence + Blood Sorcery against a Difficulty set by the Storyteller: anything from 2 for a single letter in a regular office up to 5 for encrypted information hidden in a vast library. If the information has been supernaturally concealed the Difficulty increases further. The time spent depends on the size of the area to be searched: A single room might be scoured in minutes, while a library requires hours, if not the whole night. Additionally, the power does not impart the ability to parse the information if it comes in an unknown language or in a cipher. If the knowledge sought is stored in non-written formats, such as painting, music, or on old floppy disks, the power works at the Storyteller’s discretion, though the Difficulty is likely higher.

Duration: One night or until the information is found or the search comes up short, whichever comes first.

Blood Of Potency, Blood Sorcery 3 (Core pp.273-274)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Resolve + Blood Sorcery

System: The user makes a Resolve + Blood Sorcery roll against a Difficulty of 2 + their Blood Potency. A win increases their Blood Potency by one for that scene; a critical win increases it by two. The vampire can use this power to exceed their generation limit on Blood Potency during its duration.

Duration: One scene or one night

Ripples of the Heart, Blood Sorcery 3 (Blood-Stained Love p.153)

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: The vampire chooses to affect their own Blood, or the blood of a mortal or Kindred from whom they are feeding. Choose any compulsion (including a clan compulsion). The next Kindred to drink the altered blood is affected by that compulsion. In a mortal, the blood remains altered for one month. In a vampire, the blood remains altered until they reach Hunger 5 or one month has passed, whichever happens first. The user of this power does not suffer its effects.

Alternatively, the user may augment or reduce the target’s blood Resonance. The user may reduce the target’s blood Resonance from acute to intense, intense to fleeting, or fleeting to none. A Kindred may augment a Resonance only from fleeting to intense. The change is instantaneous, but not necessarily long-lasting as blood Resonance naturally changes and can be further influenced. Typically the Resonance of mortal blood has changed again after a few days, a week at the most.

Scorpion’s Touch, Blood Sorcery 3 (Core p.274)

Cost: One or more Rouse Checks

Dice Pools: Strength + Blood Sorcery vs Stamina + Occult or Fortitude

System: The user concentrates for a turn and forces Blood through an open, usually self-inflicted, wound. Each Rouse Check worth of poison made takes a turn and emits enough Blood to coat one bladed melee weapon stickily or to fill one mouthful to be spat at a foe. Spitting poison at someone involves a Dexterity + Athletics attack roll (which can be dodged like any ranged attack), although vampires have been known to French kiss a victim and transfer the poison that way. Even more subtle vampires scorpionate their Blood to poison would-be diablerists: drinking poisoned Blood from the vein guarantees a hit! Aside from such vein-to-fang transmission, however, scorpionated Blood is a contact poison that sublimes away in liquids and is too viscous to inject with a syringe. The user cannot poison beverages with it or (thanks to the pressure differential) inject it by their own bite. Arrowheads and bullets carry too little Blood to use this power with ranged weapons; the effect does not last long enough for the user to fill hollow bullets with scorpionated Blood.

If the poison hits, the user rolls a contest of Strength + Blood Sorcery vs Stamina + Occult. (Vampires with Fortitude may resist with Stamina + Fortitude.) If the user wins, the poison does the margin in Aggravated Health damage to mortals and in non-halved Superficial Health damage to vampires. A mortal who takes even one point of damage collapses unconscious.

Duration: The poison remains potent for one scene

Fulminating Vitae, Blood Sorcery 4 (Tattered Facade pp.92-93)

Cost: Two Rouse Checks

Dice Pools: Stamina + Blood Sorcery

System: When the vial is broken — whether that’s by a cleverly timed explosive, a well-aimed throw, or an accident — the Fulminating Vitae explodes outward in a radius of approximately 20 feet. It deals Aggravated damage to any Kindred in its path equal to the margin on a Stamina + Blood Sorcery vs Wits + Athletics test. Mortals take only Superficial damage, in part due to the accelerated healing brought on by the Blood mixing with theirs. Inanimate objects are completely unaffected.

Anyone taking damage from this Power also is affected by the vitae as though they tasted it for purposes of learning Disciplines and the Blood Bond.

Duration: The vial remains “armed” until dawn

Marionette, Blood Sorcery 4 (Tattered Facade p.93)

Prerequisite: Shape the Sanguine Sacrament

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Manipulation + Blood Sorcery

System: The vampire concentrates for a turn, Rouses the Blood, and makes the activation test. Make tests against spilled blood (or dead bodies) at Difficulty 2, while living creatures can resist with Stamina + Occult (or Fortitude). For each point of margin, the vampire has full control over the blood for one turn and uses Manipulation + Blood Sorcery for all the marionette’s physical actions.

Living targets maintain their faculties while being puppeteered and can still speak — although this rarely amounts to more than terrified screams once they realize their body moves seemingly of its own volition. Living targets can force control for a turn; however, the effort inflicts 1 point of Aggravated damage as their blood shreds their flesh from within. Blood without a body temporarily solidifies and sharpens, and inflicts +2 damage during combat.

During the process, the sorcerer must maintain concentration — simple movement and conversation is fine, but most offensive actions requiring dice pools break the spell and end the power unless the user has a Critical Win on the offensive action’s test. Vampires and vitae cannot be puppeteered, only the blood of the living.

Duration: One turn per point of margin

Theft Of Vitae, Blood Sorcery 4 (Core p.274)

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Wits + Blood Sorcery vs Wits + Occult

System: The user makes a beckoning gesture toward a mortal target in line of sight and rolls their Wits + Blood Sorcery vs Wits + Occult. A win opens an arterial wound, and the vampire can start feeding from across the room. (A target wearing full-body protection such as a hazmat suit merely bleeds ecstatically out into the suit.) The user can do nothing else while feeding, but they can feed at twice the normal speed (at triple speed on a critical win) thanks to the sorcerous pressure of this power.

Duration: One feeding

Baal’s Caress, Blood Sorcery 5 (Core pp.274-275)

Cost: One or more Rouse Checks

Dice Pools: Strength + Blood Sorcery vs Stamina + Occult or Fortitude

System: This power uses the same system (and its poison has the same restrictions) as Scorpion’s Touch (p. 273), with increased damage.

If the poison hits, the user rolls a contest of Strength + Blood Sorcery vs Stamina + Occult. (Vampires with Fortitude may resist with Fortitude in lieu of the Occult Skill.) If the user wins, the poison does the margin in Aggravated Health damage to mortals and vampires alike. A mortal who takes even one point of damage dies instantly.

If a vampire target takes Aggravated damage from this poison, the user rolls the contest again; on a win, the vampire enters torpor when next they go to sleep.

Duration: The poison remains potent for one scene

Cauldron Of Blood, Blood Sorcery 5 (Core p.275)

Cost: One Rouse Check and gain one (or more) Stains

Dice Pools: Resolve + Blood Sorcery vs Composure + Occult or Fortitude

System: The user pays the cost and touches the victim (Dexterity + Athletics in combat or similar situations), rolling a contest of Resolve + Blood Sorcery vs Composure + Occult. (Vampires with Fortitude may resist with Composure + Fortitude.) On a win, each point of margin causes one point of Aggravated damage in the victim. Mortals taking at least one point of damage die screaming. Vampire victims add 1 Hunger per point of damage inflicted, until Hunger is at 5.

Duration: One turn

Rituals

Astromancy, Level 1 (Blood Sigils p.59-60)

Ingredients: The night sky; a silver mirror or platter; the blood, hair, spit, or flesh of the target

Process: In the middle of the night, the caster goes to an area with a clear view of the stars in the sky and places their target’s biological material on the silver surface and spreads a Rouse Check’s worth of blood over the surface. The caster spends up to a half hour watching their blood shape itself into patterns and images regarding the answers they seek about the subject.

System: A win on the Ritual roll reveals the target’s greatest aptitudes (i.e., any Attribute or Skill 4 or higher) and their current Ambition. A critical win also reveals their current Desire and at least one of their Convictions. If the sorcerer knows the correct birth date or Embrace date of the target, they can add one die to the Ritual pool. Knowing both still only adds one die.

Bind the Accusing Tongue, Level 1 (Blood Sigils p.60-62)

Ingredients: A picture, effigy, or image of the target, a lock of the target’s hair, a black silken cord.

Process: The caster winds the cord around the hair and image while intoning the ritual charm.

System: A win on the Ritual roll prevents the target from saying, writing, or otherwise directly communicating anything negative or harmful — even, or rather especially, if it’s true — about the caster without a Composure + Resolve test (Difficulty equals the caster’s Blood Sorcery rating +2). On a critical win, the Difficulty of the test equals the caster’s Blood Sorcery rating +3. The ritual lasts until the target succeeds on their test, or until the cord unwinds, at which point the hair and image crumble into dust.

Blood Walk, Level 1 (Core p.276)

Ingredients: A silver cup filled with Blood from the subject. (One Rouse Check’s worth).

Process: The user mixes their Blood with the subject’s and repeats an incantation over the cup, spending an roughly an hour.

System: A win on the Ritual roll (see General Systems) allows the user to learn the generation and name of the subject as well as the subject’s sire. A Critical Win also informs the user of any Blood Bonds active on the subject, as regnant or thrall.

Blood Apocrypha, Level 1 (The Book of Nod Apocrypha p.34)

Ingredients: A drop of mercury and one rouse check’s worth of blood.

Process: The Kindred whispers a message to the mercury, which carries it through the blood collected in a ceremonially prepared bowl.

System: The Kindred encodes about one minute of speech into one Rouse Check worth of blood in a ritual bowl. The ritualist then designates one or more intended recipients of the message whose blood they have tasted. As part of the ritual, a Kindred, mortal, or beast messenger must consume the blood to transfer the message to their own body, otherwise the blood—and message—will rapidly sour.

The first person to consume the ensorcelled blood from the messenger automatically receives the message mentally if they are the intended recipient or possess A Taste for Blood. Any other imbiber must succeed on a Wits + Occult roll (Difficulty 3) to understand the message.

Duration: One month plus another month for each point of the margin of success

Blood to Water, Level 1 (Gehenna War p.48)

Ingredients: Pure water, whether from a natural spring or purified mechanically.

Process: The ritualist smears their own Blood on their hands, pours water through their fingers, and splatters it about the room.

System: If the ritual is successful, blood (including the performer’s spilled Blood) exposed to the air is transmuted into water, leaving no traces behind. The ritual affects a space roughly the size of a living room. Larger spaces require repeated performances to cleanse.

Clinging Of The Insect, Level 1 (Core p.276)

Ingredients: A living spider.

Process: The caster fills a vial with their own Blood and crushes the spider into it, mixing the ground bits with the Blood before ingesting it. (This does not refund any Hunger gained.) The caster can only perform this ritual on themselves; others gain no benefit from drinking the mixture.

System: A successful Ritual yields the ability to cling to walls and ceiling for a scene, while a critical win extends the duration to a whole night. The caster must cling to the surface with both hands and feet; they move at approximately half their usual rate.

Craft Bloodstone, Level 1 (Core pp.276-277)

Ingredients: A pebble of iron ore or a small magnet and a liter of blood from any source in a silver bowl.

Process: The user spills their Blood into the blood in the bowl and then recites a chant over it for an hour, repeating the chant over the next two nights. The pebble (or magnet) absorbs the blood over the three nights; upon successful completion, the liquid appears translucent.

System: Make the Ritual roll at the end of the third night. On a win the caster attunes their mind to the Bloodstone. The caster can unerringly sense the direction and distance to the stone. This effect lasts until the Bloodstone is destroyed or a week has passed. A caster can have and keep track to a number of stones up to their Resolve.

Revealing the Crimson Trail, Level 1 (Gehenna War p.48)

Ingredients: A needle with an eye.

Process: The Kindred ritually prepares the needle by stabbing themselves in one eye with it, and must then peer through its eye.

System: If the ritual is successful, the vampire can clearly see any spilled blood, dried or not, as long as they keep looking through the eye of the needle. Exceptionally old or minute traces can require a Resolve + Awareness or Investigation test to spot, as determined by the Storyteller. The ritual lasts for the rest of the scene.

Wake With Evening’s Freshness, Level 1 (Core p.277)

Ingredients: The burnt bones and feathers of a rooster.

Process: The caster mixes the ashes with their own Blood, drawing a circle with the mixture around their place of sleep.

System: Do not make a Ritual roll unless true danger appears. If the caster is threatened during the day, make the Ritual roll then, with the caster rousing on a win. For the duration of the scene the vampire ignores the daytime penalties for staying awake. On a critical win, the effects last until the following dawn.

Ward Against Ghouls, Level 1 (Core p.277)

Ingredients: Nothing apart from the caster’s Blood.

Process: The caster pours their Blood on the object to be warded, tracing the glyph in it with their bare finger. Once the caster wipes the Blood off, the ward becomes invisible. The Ward lasts until the warded object is physically destroyed or broken; the trespasser cannot do this.

System: Do not make the Ritual roll until the first time the trespasser touches the Ward, triggering its effect. Gloves or other garments offer no protection. If the caster wins the Ritual test, the victim suffers one point of Aggravated Health damage. On a critical win, damage for this Ward is three points of Aggravated damage. The caster does not need to make the Ritual roll for each trespasser touching the Ward, only the first. Anyone affected who wants to touch the warded object again must spend a point of Willpower and then win a Stamina + Resolve test (Difficulty 4, or 7 for a critical-success Ward) to make the attempt.

Sense the Unseen (Auspex 1) can detect a Ward with a contest of Intelligence + Auspex vs the caster’s Intelligence + Blood Sorcery.

Communicate With Kindred Sire, Level 2 (Core p.277)

Ingredients: An object previously possessed by the sire and a silver bowl filled with clear water.

Process: The caster submerges the object in water and lets their Blood drip into the bowl, concentrating upon the last memory of their sire for up to 30 minutes.

System: Make the ritual roll after 15 minutes have passed. A win allows for ten minutes of two-way silent mental communication once 15 more minutes have passed. A critical win allows immediate communication. Any major disturbance on either end breaks the connection.

Craftmaster, Level 2 (Blood Sigils p.62)

Ingredients: Blood of a gifted subject, representative craft object such as a needle, page of a book, playing card, chisel, etc., vulture bones.

Process: The caster chars the vulture bones in a fire and places the representative object in a bowl over the flames. They pour the blood of the subject into the bowl, completely covering the object. As the last of the bones crack and burn, the vampire drinks the blood from the bowl, letting the object touch their lips as they drink.

System: On a win, the caster gains the subject’s dots and specialty in Academics, Craft, Performance, or Science until sunrise. The dots replace, not add to, any already possessed by the caster. If the caster already has that specialty, they gain one extra die on top of the specialty die. On a critical win, the Ritual lasts for a week. On a total failure, the caster accidentally swallows the craft object and takes 2 Aggravated Health damage from it traveling through their body, the object spiritually furious at its skill being stolen.

Depths of Nightmare, Level 2 (Blood Sigils p.62)

Ingredients: Target’s hair; melted wax; natron (soda ash)

Process: The caster mixes a Rouse Check’s worth of blood into the melted wax, then rolls their target’s hair in the mixture. The vampire shapes the bloody wax into a humanoid shape, as close to their target’s body shape as possible. After writing glyphs or curses in their native language, the sorcerer soaks the figurine in a bowl of water mixed with natron.

System: On a win, the target receives a number of nightmare-filled days (or nights, for mortal targets) equal to the number of successes rolled. When they first awaken after each sleep, the target receives 1 Superficial Willpower damage. On a critical win, the damage is Aggravated instead. This damage cannot be healed normally until the spell has run its course: only magic or the like can remove the shock and horror of these dreams. On a total failure, the target not only has pleasant dreams, but dreams of an ibis-headed man who points the target in the caster’s direction. This occurs even if the caster used no Kemetic imagery on the figurine.

Elemental Grasp, Level 2 (Blood Sigils p.62-63) *

Prerequisite: Koldunic Sorcery

Ingredients: A handful of the koldun’s element or a ritual representation of it, such as a wooden staff for earth, a knife or bunch of feathers for air, etc.

Process: The koldun scratches open their initiation scar and makes a Rouse Check while commanding the element to hinder a target the koldun perceives. Magical perception counts for this purpose.

System: On a win, the element rises against the target. If the element is already awake during the casting (commanding air during a thunderstorm, for instance), the koldun adds one die to their Ritual pool. The target takes one point of Superficial Health damage per success, and must make an appropriate skill roll (e.g., Toughness + Athletics, or Composure + Drive) to continue against the element against a Difficulty equal to 1 + the total successes on the Ritual roll. On a critical win, the element rises against every suitable target within sight of the main target. The effect continues until the koldun does anything else besides command the elements: fight, move, make any other skill roll, etc.

Eyes Of Babel, Level 2 (Core p.277)

Ingredients: A fresh eye and tongue of a person

Process: Plucking the ingredients fresh from the victim, the vampire chews and swallows them. (This most likely incurs a Stain.)

System: The Rouse Check required for this ritual allows for the supernatural dissolution of the ingredients once swallowed. Once this is done, make the Ritual roll. A win gives the caster the ability to read and speak any language known by the victim, at the same skill level for a week. A critical win extends the duration to a month.

Illuminate The Trail Of Prey, Level 2 (Core p.277)

Ingredients: A white satin ribbon.

Process: The performer of the ritual soaks the ribbon in their own Blood, setting it alight.

System: If the Ritual roll is a win the ribbon catches fire despite being wet, burning fiercely like a fuse. Once consumed, the ritual takes effect. While the ritual remains active, the caster can follow faint traces of the target even in areas where they left no tracks, such as crowded cities. To follow the tracks, the caster makes an Intelligence + Survival roll against a Difficulty equal to 6 minus the margin on the ritual test. The target must be known by face by the caster, who sees the path travelled by the victim over the previous 24 hours. The path remains visible for the entire night; a critical win extends this to two nights.

Le Sang de l’Amour, Level 2 (Blood-Stained Love p.154)

Ingredients: Blood of the caster and their lover, two glass vials on chains.

Process: The caster collects their own blood and their lover’s at the same time, careful to keep the two separate. They don’t need much blood—only a teaspoonful. The only requirement: both must desire the other at the time of the casting. The caster seals the two blood samples inside the vials, hanging each from a chain. As the lovers exchange vials and hang them around their necks, the caster sings a song in praise of their lover to Aphrodite, Ishtar or another love or lust deity.

System: With a win on the Ritual test, le Sang de l’Amour allows both participants to concentrate (Resolve + Awareness) and know approximately where the other is on a success. They don’t get an exact location, but have a rough sense of distance — in the same city, the same state, across the ocean from each other. With more successes, they get more information, small details of the sensation of being in the other’s location: they feel a deck pitching up and down, the strain of climbing harsh terrain, or the vibration of loud noise. With a critical win, the ritual provides one automatic success on the lover’s perception roll. Any other successes let them actually see brief glimpses of their lover and their surroundings, and even hear snatches of conversation. On a total failure, the blood accidentally mixes in the vials and both participants get disoriented and confused if they try to concentrate on the other. Their Composure suffers, reducing by 1 until the end of the next scene even if they break both vials and end the ritual.

The ritual only remains effective as long as both wear their partner’s vial and as long as the vials remain unbroken. If one of the participants does not actually desire the other during the ritual (if a player, they should state as much privately to the Storyteller), their vial dries and clots the first time they use it, becoming useless muck. This has no adverse effect on the two participants beyond the personal fallout.

Silentia Mortis, Level 2 (Blood Sigils p.64)

Ingredients: Paw of a cat or other silent desert predator, blood from caster (and from holder, if different), corpse-wax candle (p. 139), a white rose.

Process: The caster whispers the words of this ritual, cuts their palm, and clenches the paw in their fist, soaking it in a Rouse Check worth of their blood. If intended for a holder besides the caster, the holder also cuts their palm and holds the paw, making their own Rouse Check and mingling their blood. The holder remains completely silent during this ritual. After burning the rose in the candle, the caster quenches the candle flame with the bloody paw.

System: A win on the Ritual roll creates a 6-meter radius of magical silence around the holder once they activate the talisman by making a second Rouse Check. The talisman must touch the holder’s flesh, but they need not keep it in their hand. The silence ends when the holder loses the talisman or after one hour, and the talisman shrivels into nothingness. A critical win increases the radius to 12 meters.

Tiamat Glistens, Level 2 (Blood Sigils pp.64-65)

Ingredients: A place of power such as a furcus, dust of a precious metal (which one depends on the magical valence of the site).

Process: The caster mixes a Rouse Check’s worth of blood with the precious metal dust. At the site of a place of power, they shout praises to Tiamat, scattering the bloody metal dust mixture into the air and on the ground for at least fifteen minutes.

System: On a win, the sorcerer primes the place of power for any ritual taking place there for a number of nights equal to the number of successes on the Ritual test. During this time, any ritual performed by the caster on this place of power gains the bonuses or other advantages associated with it — usually a dice bonus to Ritual pools (see Furcus, p. 35). On a critical win, the sorcerer also automatically succeeds on one die of their Ritual roll. Only one caster receives the benefits of Tiamat Glistens per place of power. If another caster successfully performs the Ritual during the time of another caster’s successful casting, the first caster immediately loses the dice bonus.

Truth Of Blood, Level 2 (Core pp.277-278)

Ingredients: One pint of blood from the subject.

Process: The performer of the Ritual mixes their own Blood with that of the subject in a vessel large enough to allow for the dipping of the finger.

System: Instead of the regular Ritual roll, the caster immerses their finger in the mixture and makes a Resolve + Blood Sorcery vs Composure + Occult roll for every statement made by the subject. The first failed contest ends the Ritual. A Win tells them whether that statement is true, as far as the subject knows. On a critical win by the caster, the subject involuntarily expands upon their answer, providing more information, including details they glancingly saw or subconsciously forgot. (The Storyteller should inform the caster if there is no more information about that topic.) The mixture bubbles and seethes during the process, turning completely to ash at the end of the scene.

This Ritual cannot pierce Cloud Memory, the Forgetful Mind, or other memory-wiping powers. The caster may well guess the cause of a blank or foggy recollection, but cannot recover the actual memory.

Viscera Garden, Level 2 (Blood Sigils p.65)

Ingredients: A plot of land, a day-old human or animal corpse, the caster’s Blood (for upkeep).

Process: The caster clears out a plot of land and digs a hole. They tear open their wrist and pour a Rouse Check’s worth of Blood into the human or animal corpse. The corpse being a day old is essential in the human corpse’s case; accidental Embraces have occurred when a human corpse is too fresh. The corpse is eviscerated, and its mass thrown into the hole. The caster plants or transfers their preferred plants to the plot, then covers them in the corpse’s viscera.

System: A win instantly disintegrates the buried body and viscera into blood-scented smoke. In addition, plants grown in the plot are unusually hardy and vampires can ingest them (consuming these plants as food slakes no Hunger, but it stays down). Vampiric influence Discipline tests against a mortal who ingested a viscerated plant take −1 to Difficulty (or the target loses two dice from their resistance pool, for contests). The plants must receive a Rouse Check’s worth of Blood every month, or else they wither and die within a week. A critical win extends the length of time between waterings to two months. An animal corpse can fertilize a Viscera Garden of about 1 x 1 meters, or about 3 x 3 feet. A human corpse doubles these dimensions.

Ward Against Spirits, Level 2 (Core p.278)

Ingredients: A handful of salt (in some versions, a handful of brick dust) mixed with the Blood.

Process: The caster mixes the salt or dust with their Blood and pours it on the object to be warded, tracing the glyph in it with their bare finger. Once the caster wipes the Blood off, the ward becomes invisible. The Ward lasts until the warded object is physically destroyed or broken; the trespasser cannot do this.

System: Do not make the Ritual roll until the first time the trespasser touches the Ward, triggering its effect. Gloves or other garments offer no protection. If the caster wins the Ritual test, the victim suffers one point of Aggravated Health damage. On a critical win, damage for this Ward is three points of Aggravated damage. The caster does not need to make the Ritual roll for each trespasser touching the Ward, only the first. Anyone affected who wants to touch the warded object again must spend a point of Willpower and then win a Stamina + Resolve test (Difficulty 4, or 7 for a critical-success Ward) to make the attempt.

Sense the Unseen (Auspex 1) can detect a Ward with a contest of Intelligence + Auspex vs the caster’s Intelligence + Blood Sorcery.

Warding Circle Against Ghouls, Level 2 (Core p.278)

Ingredients: The caster draws the Warding circle with a human bone dipped in three Rouse Checks worth of Blood.

Process: The caster paints the circle and pentacles, which can cover up to a three-meter radius. It takes one full night to cast and a Ritual roll made at the time (at +2 to Difficulty) if the caster wants it to last a year and a day; otherwise it dissipates at dawn.

System: When the trespasser attempts to cross the circle, roll a contest of Intelligence + Blood Sorcery vs the trespasser’s Willpower. (If the Storyteller or player wrote down the result of the original Ritual roll used to cast a year-long Warding circle, they can use that result here.) If the Warding circle fails, the trespasser can enter it. If the caster wins, the trespasser takes three points of Superficial Health damage (three points of Aggravated damage on a critical win) and cannot enter. The trespasser must spend a point of Willpower to attempt to enter the circle again. If the trespasser wins the contest, enters the circle and leaves it again, they must repeat their half of the contest (the caster’s initial result remains) to re-enter it.

Blood Sigil, Level 3 (Blood Sigils p.66)

Ingredients: Tattoo ink or other substances that can stain skin, a written message on paper, a photograph, or a painting, a sharp object with a tip heated by candle flame.

Process: The vampire to be tattooed opens a vein in their wrist with the sharp object — usually a scalpel, a knife, or the needle in a tattoo gun — and bleeds into containers with their chosen painting material. Then, the caster tears the paper or picture, mixing the remains into the paints while chanting for fifteen minutes. The caster applies the Blood Sigil on another vampire by heating the sharp object’s tip, dipping the sharp object into the paints, and carefully carving an image into the vampire’s skin. This image need not be relevant to its hidden information.

System: Make no Ritual roll until after applying the Blood Sigil. A win permanently seals the tattooed image into the vampire’s skin and perfectly preserves the message within. A failure creates a tattoo and preserved message that fades away upon the vampire’s next rising. Read the message within a Blood Sigil by viewing or touching the sigil for fifteen minutes and either winning a Resolve + Occult Test at Difficulty 5 (Difficulty 4 if touching the tattoo) or using Sense the Unseen (Auspex 1). The sorcerer who applied the Blood Sigil can erase the tattoo (and the message) by spending one Willpower and touching the tattoo for fifteen minutes.

Dagon’s Call, Level 3 (Core p.278)

Ingredients: A gold inlaid ceremonial dagger.

Process: Before proceeding with the ritual the victim must be exposed the caster’s Blood, either by drinking it or having it touch an open wound or even their bare skin: a single drop smeared across the arm is enough. After an hour but before a week has passed the caster can perform the ritual by piercing their own skin with the ceremonial dagger, shedding blood. As their Blood hits the ground the ritual takes effect.

System: Make a Resolve + Blood Sorcery vs Stamina + Resolve roll. Every point of margin on a win does a point of damage to the victim, as their blood vessels burst and their lungs fill with blood. This damage is Aggravated for mortals, but only Superficial on vampires. The caster can repeat this process up to two more times, each time requiring them to make an additional Rouse Check.

Deflection Of Wooden Doom, Level 3 (Core pp.278-279)

Ingredients: Wood splinters or shavings.

Process: The vampire mixes the shavings with their Blood and draws a circle around themselves. They must then meditate in this circle for an hour, concluding by placing one splinter of wood under their tongue.

System: Make no Ritual roll until the vampire is staked. If the Ritual roll is a win, the stake shatters as it touches the skin of the vampire. (A critical win blinds the attacker for two turns, showering their face with splinters.) This only works on genuine attempts at staking - merely holding the stake against the vampire does not trigger the effect. The protection lasts until the end of the night or until the splinter is removed from under the tongue of the vampire, whichever comes first.

Elemental Shelter, Level 3 (Blood Sigils p.66) *

Prerequisite: Koldunic Sorcery

Ingredients: At least enough of the element in question to envelop the koldun’s body.

Process: The koldun scratches open their initiatory scar, bleeds into the element, commands it to receive them, and falls or dives into it.

System: On a win, the koldun melds into the element. No physical attack can injure them, nor can sunlight or fire. While in the element, the koldun remains aware of their surroundings, except during day-sleep. At those times, disturbances such as digging or loud noises awaken them or not, as with all vampires (Vampire: The Masquerade, p. 219). The koldun’s form remains waveringly visible to Sense the Unseen (Auspex 1) or to normal sight (Wits + Awareness) with a Difficulty equal to the margin of the Ritual roll. On a critical win, the koldun completely merges with the element, becoming entirely invisible. The koldun can emerge from the element at will by night at the spot they entered it. If a fire-bonded koldun’s fire goes out (or less likely, if someone drains a water-bonded koldun’s aqueous shelter), the koldun enters torpor within or beneath the ashes and coals. They can make a Resolve + Awareness test (Difficulty 2) to awaken in the presence of potential prey just as if they had fallen into torpor from hunger.

Essence Of Air, Level 3 (Core p.279)

Ingredients: Leaves and berries of belladonna.

Process: The caster steeps the belladonna in their Blood, reducing the brew over a brazier while incanting words

System: Make the Ritual roll when reducing the mixture. (A critical win prepares two doses worth of potion.) The caster can tell whether the ritual succeeded, so they won’t end up with a dud. The resulting black potion retains its potency for a night and activates when imbibed. The potion enables the caster (and only them) to fly or hover at approximately running speed for a scene. The caster can carry a human-sized mass, though their speed drops to walking speed. Grabbing and carrying aloft an unwilling subject, or pulling the flier to the ground, both require a contest between the caster’s Strength + Blood Sorcery and the other’s Strength + Athletics.

Firewalker, Level 3 (Core p.279)

Ingredients: A fingertip of the caster.

Process: The vampire cuts one of their fingertips off and burns it together with their Blood in a golden chalice or bowl.

System: Make a Stamina + Resolve test (Difficulty 3) to cut off a fingertip. On a winning Ritual roll, a bluish flame consumes the Blood and fingertip, signaling the completion of the ritual. For the rest of the night fire damage to the caster is halved. This ritual can be performed on others, but the fingertips sacrificed must all belong to the caster. The mutilation is not enough to count as damage to the caster; the fingertip regrows during day-sleep.

Grim Chrysalis, Level 3 (Tattered Facade pp.93-94)

Ingredients: 200g of human hair, a moth or butterfly. Old-school sorcerers insist on death’s-head moths and hair from a corpse; younger licks suggest that a store-bought bottle of keratin supplements and any random caterpillar works just as well.

Process: The vampire makes a Rouse Check, ingests and swallows the hair and the moth over a fifteen-minute period. It can form the Grim Chrysalis any time that night, and automatically begins forming it three minutes before sunrise unless it can vomit up the mass with a Resolve + Athletics test (Difficulty 3).

System: The vampire begins drooling its keratin-laced saliva into the air, where it expands and hardens into the Grim Chrysalis. The Ritual test determines whether the cocoon forms entirely or remains incomplete. It only takes three turns to form the cocoon. Inside the cocoon, the vampire can mend all Superficial damage in one night, or 2 Aggravated Health damage; no Rouse Checks are needed for this mending. If the vampire has Vicissitude (Players Guide, p. 81), use of this Power within the cocoon requires no test but assumes a number of successes equal to the user’s Discipline pool.

The shell of the cocoon is hard as nails yet pliant. It protects the user from sunlight, lets in no air or liquids, and protects the user from fall damage from less than a hundred meters. Breaking it open by force requires inflicting a total of 30 levels of damage with an appropriate tool or weapon, such as an axe. The cocoon also takes damage from fire and acid, smelling like burning hair and giving off a thick black smoke. It takes three turns to destroy a Grim Chrysalis in this way, and the vampire within, floating in a thick blood sludge, may emerge before the damage reaches them.

The process of breaking out of the cocoon can be a disturbing sight. Vampires that have undergone extensive Vicissitude within emerge, shredding their previous form like a molting insect.

Duration: At least one day unless the cocoon is broken earlier. Vampires that remain in the cocoon risk torpor according to the usual starvation rules.

Nepenthe, Level 3 (Blood Sigils pp.66-67)

Ingredients: Poppy seeds, starflower, honey, the subject’s tears, the caster’s Blood.

Process: The caster pulverizes the solid ingredients together in a bowl and mixes in the Blood and honey. The last ingredient added should be the tears of the ritual’s subject. The potion gives off a strong, sickly sweet smell. The subject must drink the entire draught in one go.

System: With a win on the Ritual roll, Nepenthe removes 1 Stain from the drinker’s tracker before a Remorse roll. On a critical win, Nepenthe removes 2 Stains before a Remorse roll at the end of the session. However, on a Total Failure, 1 Stain carries over to the next session, regardless of whether the Remorse roll succeeded or not. If a vampire uses Nepenthe more than two sessions in a row, their mind becomes dependent on it and one of their Stains becomes permanent. This is a cumulative effect—four sessions in a row results in two permanent Stains, etc.

Seeing with the Sky’s Eyes, Level 3 (Blood Sigils p.67)

Ingredients: Euphoric mortal blood (usually from someone high on cannabis), incense, brazier, an effigy or photo of a target.

Process: The caster drinks the euphoric blood, lights a mixture of their own Blood (one Rouse Check worth) and incense in a brazier, inhales it and falls into an ecstatic trance while studying the target image.

System: After a half-hour of the trance, make the Ritual roll. On a win, the caster may ask the Storyteller one question about the target’s location and surroundings for every success rolled. On a critical win, the caster receives an additional three questions, and may ask about the target’s Ambition, Desire, Convictions, and Humanity in addition to any questions about the target’s location and whereabouts.

Seeking Tiamat, Level 3 (Blood Sigils p.68)

Ingredients: A foot-long, sharpened piece of witch hazel or magnetized iron.

Process: The caster jams the wood or iron into their forearm along the ulnar vein, causing themselves 1 point of Aggravated damage, and makes a Rouse Check. Then they must walk around the city or region for at least fifteen minutes.

System: On a win, their arm begins twitching and pointing toward the closest furcus in the area; by changing their direction, intelligent casters can triangulate a location within a few minutes. On a critical win, the tool discovers the closest vein of the Earth, and points toward two furcae on that vein.

Soul of the Hemonculus, Level 3 (Blood Sigils p.68)

Ingredients: Glass bottle blown on the night before the new moon, semen, chalk, graveyard dirt, the caster’s Blood, a dead man’s thumb, and a dead pig.

Process: The caster puts the Blood and other ingredients in the glass bottle, corks it with the thumb, shakes well, and lets it sit in total darkness until the full moon. The bottle is then bathed in moonlight while the caster recites a short chant, before sewing it into the pig’s stomach. The caster buries the pig in consecrated ground, at least three feet deep, and makes the Ritual roll. If it succeeds, on the next new moon when the caster digs it up, the pig looks like a miniature version of them. The caster commands it to arise, and it must obey.

System: Make the Ritual roll against the higher of 3 or the user’s Stamina: their very flesh resists this blasphemy. If the roll succeeds, the hemonculus quickens and births in a month. A hemonculus has its maker’s Attributes and the Skills from their mortal life, but each at one dot lower, to a minimum of 1, half the maker’s Health and one dot of Willpower. Hemonculi can’t become ghouls, be Embraced, or be Blood Bound, and any vampire who feeds on one gains no nourishment and finds the process repellent.

Stone of the True Form, Level 3 (Blood Sigils p.68)

Ingredients: A hunk of metamorphic rock, such as slate or marble.

Process: The caster must smooth, carve, or tumble the rock into a sphere somewhere between the size of a marble and a baseball. If they have a relevant Craft specialty, or access to a geology lab, they can make a test to do it in an hour; otherwise it takes six hours. The caster then coats the sphere in a Rouse Check worth of their boiling Blood and commands it to reveal in the oldest language they know.

System: When the vampire throws the stone (Dexterity + Athletics) and hits something that is either an illusion, a being created by a Discipline or ritual (such as a Tzimisce’s vozhd or a hemonculus), or a shapeshifted being (either by Protean or by inherent means), the sorcerer rolls the Ritual roll versus the target’s Resolve + Occult. On a win, the illusion dispels in a spray of blood, the created being tears apart into its individual components, or the shapeshifter painfully shifts into its original form. This unveiling effect lasts for one round. Any margin equals the dice penalty to the illusion resuming, creation repair, or next shapeshifting attempt. On a failure, the caster may try again until sunrise, assuming they can recover the stone without being slaughtered. Once the ritual succeeds, the stone breaks in half and cannot be reused.

Trespass, Level 3 (Blood Sigils p.69)

Ingredients: Fragment of the desired location’s cornerstone or doorstep, the blood of a thief, thread.

Process: The caster ties one end of the thread around the fragment of cornerstone and soaks both in the blood. They then chant an efficacious prayer to Hermes or Set — the traditional patrons of the Trespass ritual — or any other spirit or deity associated with trespass. The caster wraps the thread about the trespasser’s body, starting at the heel and ending around the forehead.

System: The ritual lasts for as long as the thread remains wet with blood (one scene, or about 30 minutes). When the vampire attempts to actually enter the building, make the Ritual roll. On a win, the caster enters without problem. With a Willpower spend, they can flow through air vents, cracks under doors, or anywhere else liquid blood could flow. On a critical win, they don’t need to spend Willpower to flow through such cracks, and gain an intuitive knowledge of the structure’s layout. On a total failure, the building itself rejects the caster. Everyone passing by gains two dice to their pools to notice and suspect the trespasser, who takes Superficial Health damage equal to the number of failed dice in that pool every turn they remain in the building.

Viral Haruspex, Level 3 (Blood Sigils p.69)

Ingredients: Live rhinoviruses in caster’s Blood, a rat, a bowl or dish. Plague oracles love to use stainless steel surgical bowls for their rituals, but that’s not a hard requirement.

Process: The caster mingles a Rouse Check worth of their Blood in the bowl with the brains of the rat and stirs it up widdershins. The vampire then drinks the blood while staring into the dish.

System: A win on the Ritual roll produces a vague impression of the sought data, overlapping or echoey if more than one sick mortal is looking at or listening to the target. For factual knowledge, the information flows into the caster’s head: “That store was on 19th Street but it closed in 2009 when the owner got divorced.” More successes over the Difficulty provide more complete vision, knowledge, or other results.

Ward Against Lupines, Level 3 (Core p.279)

Ingredients: A handful of silver dust mixed with the Blood.

Process: The caster mixes their Blood with the silver powder and pours their Blood on the object to be warded, tracing the glyph in it with their bare finger. Once the caster wipes the Blood off, the ward becomes invisible. The Ward lasts until the warded object is physically destroyed or broken; the trespasser cannot do this.

System: Do not make the Ritual roll until the first time the trespasser touches the Ward, triggering its effect. Gloves or other garments offer no protection. If the caster wins the Ritual test, the victim suffers one point of Aggravated Health damage. On a critical win, damage for this Ward is three points of Aggravated damage. The caster does not need to make the Ritual roll for each trespasser touching the Ward, only the first. Anyone affected who wants to touch the warded object again must spend a point of Willpower and then win a Stamina + Resolve test (Difficulty 4, or 7 for a critical-success Ward) to make the attempt.

Sense the Unseen (Auspex 1) can detect a Ward with a contest of Intelligence + Auspex vs the caster’s Intelligence + Blood Sorcery.

Warding Circle Against Spirits, Level 3 (Core p.279)

Ingredients: The caster draws the Warding circle with an iron knife dipped in salt and Blood.

Process: The caster paints the circle and pentacles, which can cover up to a three-meter radius. It takes one full night to cast and a Ritual roll made at the time (at +2 to Difficulty) if the caster wants it to last a year and a day; otherwise it dissipates at dawn.

System: When the trespasser attempts to cross the circle, roll a contest of Intelligence + Blood Sorcery vs the trespasser’s Willpower. (If the Storyteller or player wrote down the result of the original Ritual roll used to cast a year-long Warding circle, they can use that result here.) If the Warding circle fails, the trespasser can enter it. If the caster wins, the trespasser takes three points of Superficial Health damage (three points of Aggravated damage on a critical win) and cannot enter. The trespasser must spend a point of Willpower to attempt to enter the circle again. If the trespasser wins the contest, enters the circle and leaves it again, they must repeat their half of the contest (the caster’s initial result remains) to re-enter it.

Compel the Inanimate, Level 4 (Blood Sigils pp.69-70)

Ingredients: Any inanimate object.

Process: The caster smears a glyph on an inanimate object with one Rouse Check’s worth of their Blood and gives the object a quick order. After the caster’s Blood dries on its surface (about five minutes), the object carries out the order to its best ability.

System: A win on the Ritual roll allows the object to understand their order as the caster intended it. A critical win allows for one additional order, which does not have to be carried out at the exact same time as the first order but must be carried out before the night’s end.

Orders must be simple commands, not complex sentences: fall over, crash, or erase your databanks. Objects do not have concepts of time and cannot easily recognize individual people, so orders concerning a specific time or person cannot be carried out perfectly. The caster must be in the same relative environment as the object when the order is carried out, such as a caster ordering a lamppost in a park to shut off must still be in the park, a caster who commands a museum suit of armor to tumble must be in that museum, etc.

Sense the Unseen (Auspex 1) can detect the caster with a contest of Wits + Auspex vs. the caster’s Composure + Blood Sorcery.

Defense Of The Sacred Haven, Level 4 (Core pp.279-280)

Egregore Consultation, Level 4 (Blood Sigils p.70)

Ingredients: Live influenza viruses in caster’s Blood,worms, flukes, or other parasites, a knife, a magnet.

Process: The caster chops up the worms with the knife and smears them on the magnet. Holding the magnet in their left hand and facing north, they intone the ritual chant.

System: The sorcerer picks a Skill they wish to enhance before making the Ritual roll. On a win, the next three times the plague oracle uses that Skill in a pool, they get a dice bonus equal to one plus their margin on the Ritual test. If the Storyteller decides the Skill is only somewhat uncommon, add a die to that bonus; if the skill is very common, add two dice. On a critical win, add a free Specialty or another bonus die if the caster already has the desired Specialty. For example, a Tremere in Cairo hunted by an Islamic anti-vampire society could use this to speed her research in this ancient center of learning. She rolls six successes: a margin of 1 plus 1 die, plus 1 more die for the numerous fluey scholars in the area. She gets three dice to add to her next three Academics rolls. She could similarly play the stock market with Finance in New York or Shanghai, or get off a crack shot or three in Dallas.

Eyes Of The Nighthawk, Level 4 (Core p.280)

Ingredients: The eyes of the bird used, taken at the conclusion of the Ritual.

Process: The caster feeds their Blood to the bird and enters a trance.

System: On a winning Ritual roll the caster can control the bird and see through its eyes. On a critical win, the bird can perform simple actions under control, such as picking up objects or manipulating keys or dials. The caster can use most non-physical Disciplines through the bird, even Dominate assuming the caster has Telepathy (p. 252) or some other way to communicate with targets non-verbally. There is no limit to the range the bird can fly, though unless the caster plucks the eyes out of the bird at the end of the night they themselves suffer blindness for three nights to come.

Incorporeal Passage, Level 4 (Core p.280)

Innocence’s Veil, Level 4 (Gehenna War pp.48-49)

Ingredients: A silver knife, a white candle, a mortal victim

Process: The ritualist stokes their Hunger (usually through fasting or bloodletting) until they are at the verge of frenzy (Hunger 5), then slakes their Hunger on a mortal, draining them completely.

System: If the ritual is successful, signs of diablerie on the user cease to manifest. Powers such as A Taste for Blood or Scry the Soul do not detect any evidence the ritualist has committed diablerie in the past.

Duration: Until the ritualist slakes their Hunger again.

Land’s Sustenance, Level 4 (Blood Sigils pp.70-71)

Ingredients: A place of power such as a furcus, anything that demarcates a territory such as police tape, a sign post, an enclosed space, etc., a dagger.

Process: Over four nights, the caster uses a dagger to carve occult symbols into the corner of a plot of land or the corners of a wall within a place of power, one corner for each night. On the fifth night, the caster must stain all these symbols with half of a Rouse Check’s worth of blood, circumventing the entire location and staining them before the night ends. With the other half, the vampire stains something that demarcates the territory they’ve carved out and places it either around the area (if it’s something like police tape) or in a corner of the area (if it’s something like a sign).

System: On a win, the land the vampire marked off hungers. A simple cut turns into a laceration. An otherwise harmless fall breaks necks. In general, injuries and accidents become bloodier. As the land sups on the blood of innocents, the benefits mystically pass on to the caster. Once per session, the caster may choose to automatically pass a number of Rouse Checks equal to their margin on the Ritual test. This ritual lasts until the end of the story. After that, the caster must recoat the symbols with a Rouse Check and a Ritual roll.

Riding the Earth’s Veins, Level 4 (Blood Sigils p.71)

Ingredients: A furcus, a physical sign of entrance such as a ticket, key, or doorknob.

Process: At the furcus, the caster bathes the sign of entrance in a Rouse Check’s worth of Blood while singing praises to a deity or famous figure representing escape, travel, or the wind. Traditionally, this ritual calls upon the Mesopotamian god Enlil. After ten minutes, pour the Blood on the ground.

System: Make no Ritual roll until the vampire touches the soil (or floor) of their chosen furcus with their physical sign of entrance. On a win, the caster dissolves into a bloody mist, drawn into the Earth’s veins and reincorporated twenty minutes later at a furcus of the Storyteller’s choosing. On a critical win, they arrive at the nearest furcus to their Haven or to a place of power attuned to the caster by Tiamat Glistens (p. 64). This ritual is one-way, and only activates at the specific furcus where the sorcerer first cast it.

The Balm of Bathory, Level 4 (Tattered Facade p.94-95)

Ingredients: One cup of vitae from the sorcerer, one pint of blood from a youthful victim (or victims) of clear complexion (the needed amount doubles per brewing, see below), chamomile flowers, and shea butter or sheep’s fat; optional essential oils for scent

Process: The sorcerer collects their own Blood and that of their victim in a heat-resistant container, adding the other ingredients while stirring and heating up the mixture. While brewing the mixture, the sorcerer concentrates on how it will perfect their imperfections, making them young and beautiful. Some believe it strengthens the balm if the victim suffers as much as possible when their blood is drawn.

System: Make the Ritual test before taking the mixture off the heat. On a win, the balm emulsifies into a smooth and fragrant blend that can be used directly on the skin or dissolved in bath water. It remains effective for a week past brewing, as long as it’s applied regularly. The user gains the temporary effect of the Stunning Advantage (Core, p. 179) This effect supersedes any innate Beautiful or Stunning Advantage possessed by the user and is not cumulative with these.

However, the use of the Balm of Bathory can be highly addictive and the amount of mortal blood required doubles per brew. (The eighth brew requires 128 pints, enough blood to fill a small bathtub, but the amount does not increase afterward.) The first batch of the balm has no side effects, but after the second batch, the balm turns toxic on the user’s flesh past the first week. They suffer 1 Superficial damage worth of necrotic flesh wounds nightly, affecting any part of their body exposed to the balm, until they either brew another batch or until they go without the balm for one month per batch brewed.

Ward Against Cainites, Level 4 (Core p.280)

Ingredients: Ash warm from a still-burning fire; casters risk terror frenzy, and cannot inscribe this Ward that night if they succumb to it.

Process: The caster mixes their Blood with the hot ashes (Getting the ashes requires a frenzy check at Difficulty 2) and pours their Blood on the object to be warded, tracing the glyph in it with their bare finger. Once the caster wipes the Blood off, the ward becomes invisible. The Ward lasts until the warded object is physically destroyed or broken; the trespasser cannot do this.

System: Do not make the Ritual roll until the first time the trespasser touches the Ward, triggering its effect. Gloves or other garments offer no protection. If the caster wins the Ritual test, the victim suffers one point of Aggravated Health damage. On a critical win, damage for this Ward is three points of Aggravated damage. The caster does not need to make the Ritual roll for each trespasser touching the Ward, only the first. Anyone affected who wants to touch the warded object again must spend a point of Willpower and then win a Stamina + Resolve test (Difficulty 4, or 7 for a critical-success Ward) to make the attempt.

Sense the Unseen (Auspex 1) can detect a Ward with a contest of Intelligence + Auspex vs the caster’s Intelligence + Blood Sorcery.

Warding Circle Against Lupines, Level 4 (Core p.280)

Ingredients: The caster draws the Warding circle with a silver knife dipped in wolfsbane and Blood.

Process: The caster paints the circle and pentacles, which can cover up to a three-meter radius. It takes one full night to cast and a Ritual roll made at the time (at +2 to Difficulty) if the caster wants it to last a year and a day; otherwise it dissipates at dawn.

System: When the trespasser attempts to cross the circle, roll a contest of Intelligence + Blood Sorcery vs the trespasser’s Willpower. (If the Storyteller or player wrote down the result of the original Ritual roll used to cast a year-long Warding circle, they can use that result here.) If the Warding circle fails, the trespasser can enter it. If the caster wins, the trespasser takes three points of Superficial Health damage (three points of Aggravated damage on a critical win) and cannot enter. The trespasser must spend a point of Willpower to attempt to enter the circle again. If the trespasser wins the contest, enters the circle and leaves it again, they must repeat their half of the contest (the caster’s initial result remains) to re-enter it.

Atrocity’s Release, Level 5 (Gehenna War p.49)

Ingredients: Human reproductive organs thinly sliced, moss or a sea sponge, and scrapings of bezoar.

Process: The performer must first create a number of poultices from the ingredients, something that takes at least one night to prepare, disregarding the time it takes to procure the components. Then, the sorcerer presses the ritually prepared poultices to a series of deep cuts on their target’s body, drawing out the stolen Blood. The Blood-soaked poultices are then burnt, their ashes left exposed to the sunrise.

System: An unwilling target may resist with Resolve + Blood Potency, the Ritual’s Difficulty counting as the greater of the target’s successes or the standard difficulty. If successful, The Ritual reverses the most recent instance of diablerie that the target has committed, including changes to Blood Potency, Disciplines, or personality, though not Humanity.

Even if the ritual is successful, the spirit of the previous victim of the diablerie remains destroyed. On a total failure, the target’s essence is destroyed instead, the victim becoming effectively possessed by their latest diablerie victim.

Elemental Attack, Level 5 (Blood Sigils pp.71-72) *

Prerequisite: Koldunic Sorcery

Ingredients: A weapon representing or made from the element, such as a wooden club, an icicle, a meteoric iron knife, a torch, etc.

Process: Wielding the weapon, the koldun opens their initiation scar and makes a Rouse Check while commanding the element to attack a target the koldun perceives. Magical perception counts for this purpose.

System: On a win, the element attacks the target. If the element is already awake during the casting (commanding air during a thunderstorm, for instance), the koldun adds one die to their Ritual pool. The target takes one point of Aggravated Health damage per success, and the same damage again every round afterward until they win an appropriate escape contest (e.g., Dexterity + Athletics) vs. the koldun’s Resolve + Blood Sorcery. Excepting fire, the elements only do Superficial damage to vampires, but they may still bury them, carry them away in a flood or tornado, etc. On a critical win, the element attacks every suitable target at the caster’s discretion within sight of the main target. The effect continues until the koldun does anything else besides command the elements: fight, move, make any other skill roll, etc.

Chain: When chained with Elemental Grasp (p. 62) and Tiamat Glistens (p. 64), this ritual unleashes a nigh-apocalyptic elemental effect: earthquake, tsunami, tornado, magma flow, etc. Damage doubles to the targets, but collateral damage gets wildly out of hand, and continues until the kolduny stop casting.

Escape To True Sanctuary, Level 5 (Core pp.279-280)

Ingredients: Two charred circles of approximately a meter in diameter.

Process: The caster burns the circles into the ground or floor with an open flame, then consecrates each circle. Consecration requires two hours of chanting per night and two Rouse Checks, for three consecutive nights. In total, this ritual takes twelve Rouse Checks worth of Blood from the caster.

System: Once the circles are complete the caster need but step into the one designated for departure and concentrate for a turn, making a Ritual roll. (The caster makes the Ritual roll each time they attempt to travel, but can only make one attempt per scene.) On a win the caster vanishes, reappearing in an instant in the middle of the exit circle. There is no limit to the distance between the two circles, but they must be inscribed on the ground or on the floor of a building, not on the floor of a vehicle. The caster can transport one person or an object or objects totaling roughly human mass with them. Damaging either circle ruins the ritual completely and renders both circles inert. A vampire can only have one pair of these circles functional at any given time.

Fisher King, Level 5 (Blood Sigils pp.72-73)

Ingredients: A landmark representing a region, dirt from the region, a horse-hair paintbrush

Process: The vampire blends a Rouse Check’s worth of blood with dirt from the region they wish to observe. With the blend, the sorcerer paints magical symbols on a landmark important to the land’s inhabitants.

System: On a win, the caster develops a mental connection to the land. Once per session, the sorcerer may make a Wits + Streetwise (if urban or suburban) or Wits + Survival (if rural) test. For each success, the Storyteller truthfully answers one question the player has about the land: its greatest threat, does an enemy reside there, the Resonance of its inhabitants’ blood, etc. This ritual lasts until the end of the story, during which the caster may ask one more question per session. After that, the caster must replenish their symbols, making another Rouse Check and Ritual roll to renew it.

Chain: When chained with Land’s Sustenance (p. 64) and Compel the Inanimate (p. 69), the coterie has almost total control over the place of power and its surrounding area. They have near-omniscience over the land, with three free questions about it per session, per caster. The land’s structures or trees watch and warn the casters of hostile approach, unless magically disguised or shielded. While on the land, the casters can mend up to 5 points of Aggravated damage per night, total (split between the casters on a first-come, first-serve basis).

Heart Of Stone, Level 5 (Core p.281)

Ingredients: A stone slab and a wax candle drenched with the Blood of the caster.

Process: The caster lies on the stone slab with the candle on their chest letting it burn down to nothing over the course of a night. As the fire reaches their chest, it causes one point of Aggravated damage and forces a terror frenzy roll (Difficulty 3). If the caster fails the frenzy roll, the ritual ends. If the caster does not enter frenzy, they make the Ritual roll. On a win the ritual completes; a critical win heals the candle-fire damage. The effect persists indefinitely, and should the caster wish to reverse the process they must repeat the ritual.

System: While under the effect of the ritual, the caster’s heart is literally made of stone. Stakes fail to penetrate it, breaking if forced. The caster also exhibits a complete emotional detachment, subtracting three dice from any Remorse rolls as well as active (not resisting) Social-related rolls, except for Intimidation and Dominate. The caster cannot employ Presence but gains three bonus dice to pools used to resist the effects of that Discipline.

Reawakened Vigor, Level 5 (Gehenna War p.49)

Ingredients: 5 or more Rouse Checks worth of the sorcerer’s vitae, a finely crafted ceramic receptacle, molten lead

Process: The sorcerer pours their vitae into the receptacle, stoppers it with lead and bloody sigils, and buries it in a place of power.

System: The Sorcerer places at least 5 Rouse Checks worth of Blood into the receptacle. They may stop to feed while enacting this Ritual, but the ritual fails if interrupted for more than an hour, meaning any vessels needed to slake Hunger must be kept close at hand. On completing the task, the vampire crafts a rust-colored orb containing a small amount of their concentrated vitae. If this vitae is consumed (and on a successful ritual test), it restores one point of Blood Potency lost due to Torpor. For each success in the margin, another lost point of Blood Potency can be restored. If no Blood Potence has been lost to torpor, the ritual has no effect on the user.

Any vampire other than the ritualist drinking the essence must test Stamina + Blood Sorcery or Fortitude against a difficulty of 6. For each point of margin of failure, they suffer one Aggravated Health damage.

A sorcerer can only have one active use of this ritual cast at a time, and it loses potency at dawn once unearthed.

Shaft Of Belated Dissolution, Level 5 (Core pp.281-282)

Ingredients: A stake carved of rowan wood, inscribed with baneful runes.

Process: The caster drenches the stake with two Rouse Checks worth of their Blood, while blackening it in an oak-wood fire while reading incantations over it. The ritual takes five hours to complete.

System: This stake confers a three-dice bonus to any pool on any attempt to stake a vampire, whether hammered in while the victim sleeps, wielded in melee, or fired from a crossbow. The caster need not wield the stake themselves. If the attack roll wins with a margin of five or better, the vampire withers to dust in a single turn as if consumed by an invisible fire. If the stake hits, but the roll has insufficient margin (under five) to pierce the heart, the stake breaks off in the wound, the tip burying itself as it slowly begins to inch its way toward the heart of the victim. Depending on where it struck this can take hours or nights, but unless extracted by medical or mystical means, Final Death is assured. To remove it surgically someone other than the victim needs to win a roll of Dexterity + Medicine (Difficulty 6) in a process that takes up to four hours. If no medical expertise can be found, someone can remove the splinter by severing the afflicted limb – unless the splinter has already reached the torso.

Warding Circle Against Cainites, Level 5 (Core p.282)

Ingredients: The caster draws the Warding Circle with a rowan wand dipped in the mixture of ash from a still-burning fire and Blood.

Process: The caster paints the circle and pentacles, which can cover up to a three-meter radius. It takes one full night to cast and a Ritual roll made at the time (at +2 to Difficulty) if the caster wants it to last a year and a day; otherwise it dissipates at dawn.

System: When the trespasser attempts to cross the circle, roll a contest of Intelligence + Blood Sorcery vs the trespasser’s Willpower. (If the Storyteller or player wrote down the result of the original Ritual roll used to cast a year-long Warding circle, they can use that result here.) If the Warding circle fails, the trespasser can enter it. If the caster wins, the trespasser takes three points of Superficial Health damage (three points of Aggravated damage on a critical win) and cannot enter. The trespasser must spend a point of Willpower to attempt to enter the circle again. If the trespasser wins the contest, enters the circle and leaves it again, they must repeat their half of the contest (the caster’s initial result remains) to re-enter it.

Oblivion

Profane the Sanctified, Oblivion 4 (Tattered Facade p.100) *

Prerequisite: Aura of Decay or Touch of Oblivion

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Resolve + Oblivion vs. Willpower

System: The user must make a contest of Resolve + Oblivion vs. the True Faith holder’s Willpower. On a win, the user can direct this Power against their opponent or one of their holy symbols. Used on the symbol, it corrodes it and renders it inert. Used on a believer, it negates their True Faith rating for one turn and causes them to stagger, costing them an action. (The apparent rot and decay does no damage; the shades merely reveal what inevitably must occur.) The vampire can repeat this contest each subsequent turn, without the need for additional Rouse Checks; however, the opponent loses no more actions. Losing the contest ends this power.

If the user has a religious Conviction with this attack, the use of this Power incurs a Stain.

Duration: One scene

The Darkness Within, Oblivion 5 (Tattered Facade pp.100-101) *

Cost: Two Rouse Checks

Dice Pools: Manipulation + Oblivion vs. Composure + Resolve

System: The vampire makes a series of beckoning gestures toward their target as the two enter into a contest of Manipulation + Oblivion vs. Composure + Resolve. If the vampire wins, they summon a dark entity from the victim, inflicting one level of Aggravated damage as it separates itself from its host. The victim must be clearly visible to the vampire.

The entity possesses the same Physical Attributes and Skills as its host, no Willpower, six Health levels, and takes damage as a vampire. If its host has supernatural powers that supplement their physical capabilities — such as Disciplines — the doppelganger possesses those (ratings are halved and rounded down, while activation costs consume Health instead). It has one goal — the destruction of its living host — and ignores all other distractions.

Duration: One scene, or until either it or its host are destroyed

Ceremonies

Ashen Relic, Level 2 (The Book of Nod Apocrypha p.35) *

Prerequisite Power: Ashes to Ashes or Oblivion’s Sight

Ingredients: The decaying body of a vampire, plus salt and herbs associated with embalming.

Process: The concoction is applied to the body or body part of the destroyed vampire. Since the decay of the remains — especially supernatural features such as fangs — only takes a few minutes at most, a swift performance is essential.

System: The player makes their Ceremony test. A win preserves one small body part, such as a finger bone or a fang, while three successes in the margin can preserve a femur or skull.

Once created, the relic (usually in the form of a mummified hand, skull, femur, or desiccated eye) persists until destroyed or exposed to sunlight. At the Storyteller’s discretion, a particularly high roll or a critical success may grant the relic the power to persist despite sunlight.

Maw of Ahriman, Level 2 (Blood-Stained Love p.152)

Ingredients: A room that no light enters and is quiet as the grave.

Process: The vampire performing the Ceremony contemplates the darkness and the silence, then unleashes their voice as loudly as possible, casting it out to make room for the darkness of the Abyss.

System: The vampire’s player makes a Ceremony roll. The character’s mouth or another orifice becomes a void of inky blackness, destroying inanimate objects placed within in a matter of seconds.

For the duration of the Ceremony, the character cannot speak if the power was used on the mouth, as it most commonly is. A bite attack deals 1 aggravated point of Willpower damage in addition to the fang damage. The vampire is unable to slake Hunger while this Ceremony is in effect, though, as any blood swallowed is annihilated.

The Ceremony lasts until sunrise or the vampire cancels it. Canceling the Ceremony requires the character to pay in flesh: they must stick a small portion of their body into an orifice, dealing 1 point of Superficial damage which cannot be reduced in any way as a bit of flesh is consumed by the Abyss. It can be mended normally.

Craft Flesh Golem, Level 3 (Tattered Facade p.101) *

Prerequisites: Aura of Decay or Necrotic Plague

Ingredients: At least three dismembered adult-sized corpses, embalmed or otherwise relatively free of decay; sea-bed clay and copper dissolved in nitric acid; a brass or platinum burin or other engraving tool

Process: This Ceremony must be carried out in a location with a split or extraordinary thinning in the Veil. The vampire stitches the corpse parts into a single golem, pouring the acid into the golem’s body along the patterns of spine, viscera, and veins. The final step is engraving the word of Power tzel in the golem’s mouth with the burin, and dripping the vampire’s vitae onto the word to control and charge it. This act draws shadows from the Abyss into the golem’s body and animates it.

System: The stitched corpse can be assembled manually (with a successful Difficulty 3 Resolve + Medicine or Difficulty 4 Resolve + Crafts test) or with the aid of a successful Difficulty 2 Fleshcrafting (Players Guide, p. 82) test while the bodies are alive and then turned into corpses. Make a Ceremony test once the prepared corpse is ready. A failure on either the preparation or ceremony test ruins the body parts and wastes the acid. On a total failure, the shadows break free from the golem and attack the vampire in a three-round contest of Intelligence + Oblivion (they have four dice in their pool), doing Aggravated Willpower damage with their wins. The flesh golem’s Strength equals the total margin of success on both the preparation and Ceremony tests. It obeys the orders of its creator until the word in its mouth is destroyed; if its creator enters torpor or otherwise becomes uncommunicative, it follows its last order.

Wisdom of the Dead, Level 3 (The Book of Nod Apocrypha p.35) *

Prerequisite Power: Oblivion’s Sight or Where the Veil Thins

Ingredients: The head or skull of the deceased, pure water and a small flame.

Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Resolve + Oblivion

System: The cermonist must possess a skull or head. After rolling Resolve + Oblivion (Difficulty 2 for a mostly intact head, or 3 for a skull), the Kindred begins to glean knowledge from the deceased. The Storyteller will name one skill the deceased was most knowledgeable about in life (or unlife if a Kindred skull) and an additional skill per point of the margin of success. For the rest of the night, the user may draw upon the deceased’s knowledge: each time the user rolls one of the deceased’s skills, so long as they are still carrying their skull or head, they may add 2 dice to your dice pool. This only applies if the deceased had a higher skill rating than the user.

At dawn, roll one die for each skill roll boosted: a failure on any of these dice indicates the skull or head dissolves to ashes as the Ceremony ends and it cannot be reconstituted by any means.

Duration: Until dawn or the head/skull is destroyed.

Create Corpse Suit, Level 3 (Tattered Facade pp.101-102) *

Prerequisite: Shadow Perspective or Touch of Oblivion

Ingredients: Sufficient skin of a mortal with Melancholy Resonance, fat of a mortal with Phlegmatic Resonance, waxed thread, any decorative elements desired Process: The vampire calls on the powers of Oblivion and their hands fill with shadows from the Abyss as they cut, treat, and sew their chosen garment. It’s considered best to do this work by candlelight. Once sewn, the vampire rubs the garment with the fat while speaking to it as a friend.

System: The more successes the vampire has on the Ceremony test, the nicer the Corpse Suit will look. At the end of the Ceremony, the vampire must convince the now vaguely sentient Corpse Suit that it will be their new closest and most treasured companion, making a test of Manipulation + Persuasion or Subterfuge (depending on sincerity) at Difficulty 2. The Storyteller need not reveal whether the test has been successful. If the vampire fails to convince the suit, it waits for an opportunity to betray them. When the vampire dons the suit, they gain a Folkloric Bane and Folkloric Block flaw chosen by the Storyteller.

A correctly functioning Corpse Suit attunes to subtle signs of danger and senses all types of curses, wards, and the presence of ill-willed monsters. Noticing when its maker is about to walk into danger, the suit makes their skin prickle as if stuck by many small needles — assuming they’re wearing it. A discontented suit occasionally times these warnings to put the wearer at risk. The suit never contains any money except what others place in it.

Duration: The suit lasts forever, re-knitting any damage over the course of a night. It cannot be destroyed except with fire, Blood Sorcery, or Oblivion.

The Shallow Slumber, Level 3 (Gehenna War p.50) *

Prerequisite: Passion Feast or Touch of Oblivion

Ingredients: Charcoal and one Rouse Check of the user’s vitae.

Process: The performer carefully writes a series of sigils on themselves or another vampire, while cursing the names of various gods or saints responsible for good health.

System: So long as the sigils remain on the target’s body, for each success in the margin on the ceremony test, their Blood Potency counts as one lower for the purpose of torpor duration and premature awakening. Likewise, their Humanity counts as a similar number of dots higher but only for purposes of torpor duration. A total failure on the Ritual test extends the torpor instead, as if the subject had another dot more in Blood Potence and a dot less in Humanity. Only one attempt per subject per torpor can be made.

A vampire can use this ceremony on themselves or another vampire, even if the subject has not yet fallen into torpor. The sigils stay on the subject’s body until they are washed away, marred by injury, or intentionally defaced, though rarely longer than a week due to natural abrasion.

Duration: Indefinite, so long as the sigils remain.

Bind to Mortal Form, Level 4 (Tattered Facade p.102) *

Prerequisite Power: Necrotic Plague or Skuld Fulfilled

Ingredients: The chosen mortal, an Oblivion-touched iron chain, a candle made with human tallow, dirt from a fresh grave, a thimble of blood or other body fluids from the mortal

Process: The vampire must be in possession of an iron chain that has been marked by the shades of Oblivion. They can create this themselves using Touch of Oblivion (Players Guide, p. 89) on the chain, or use one prepared by someone else or which hails from the Abyss. They begin the Ceremony proper by lighting the candle, which sputters and casts a circle of warm light around the two. The mortal must then swallow the grave dirt. Using a blowtorch or a similar high-power heat source, the vampire proceeds to heat up the chain, using it to brand the mortal. This sucks all the light out of the room, extinguishing the candle. It also traps the spirit of the mortal within their decaying flesh. The vampire then has three nights to deliver the blood or fluids gathered from the mortal to the same grave where they got the dirt.

System: The necromancer tests Resolve + Oblivion (Difficulty 5). Each rolled success adds a decade to the mortal’s natural lifespan, but if the test is not an overall win, or if the vampire fails to take the mortal’s blood to the grave within the deadline, the mortal ages at twice the speed they would have otherwise aged, as the shadows binding their spirit eat away at their life force.

Bind to Mortal Form can be performed several times on the same mortal; however, the chain loses its power with use. The shadows binding the mortal’s lifeforce also grow stronger with each Ceremony. Thus, the Difficulty for the Resolve + Oblivion test increases by 1 with each subsequent casting. A mortal sustained by Oblivion shades eventually grows withdrawn, confused, and fearful of the light.

Gift of True Life, Level 5 (Tattered Facade pp.102-103) *

Prerequisite Power: Necrotic Plague or Passion Feast

Ingredients: Two willing or unwilling mortals, a length of silk rope

Process: Opening a vein on each mortal’s wrist, the vampire presses their wounds together, securing them with the rope. Holding on to each mortal, the vampire channels shadows from the Abyss to push vitality from one mortal into the other.

System: The vampire makes their Rouse Check as they open the veins and a Ceremony contest of Resolve + Oblivion against the Stamina + Resolve of the mortal being drained as they start channeling the Abyss. A failed Ceremony contest forces the shadows to slink back to where they came from. A win starts the process of pushing vitality from one mortal to another. The results become apparent quickly. For every five minutes of siphoning, the targeted mortal loses 10 years’ worth of life they could have lived to the other. When the target has lost their ordained lifespan (traditionally 70 years), they start deteriorating quickly. The effect on the receiving mortal is more subtle. They become the image of health but aren’t otherwise immediately affected. Following the Ceremony, they age half as quickly as other mortals until the extra lifespan they have been granted has been spent (at which point, they once again age normally). Diseases develop at half the speed as well. They aren’t in any other ways protected from death.

The conversion rate of vitality is 1:1 for mortals who are related or deeply emotionally bonded. Otherwise, the targeted mortal must give a decade for each three years of life received by the other.

The vampire must make a Ceremony test of Resolve + Oblivion at Difficulty 6 to stop the process and cut the bond before the targeted mortal shrivels up like a dried prune and turns to dust. If the vampire cannot stop the Ceremony this way, simply killing the mortal works as well. Regardless of the outcome, the vampire performing this Ceremony most likely gains one or several Stains.

Even more than most, this Ceremony is likely to attract attention from the other side of the Veil.

Formulae

Body Paint, Level 1 (Blood Sigils p.73)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, choleric mortal blood, tattoo inks, henna, marker fluid, or any substance that stains skin.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Dexterity + Craft; Stamina + Resolve

System: On Distillation rolls with 1–3 successes, the body paint dries faster, and the alchemist must Win a Dexterity + Craft test at Difficulty 3 to finish their work before drying. On Distillations with 6 or more successes, the target may reshape the tattoo any time after a week with a Stamina + Resolve Test at Difficulty 5. The alchemist may change the fluid’s colors at will while working, as can the target if they’re able to reshape their tattoo.

Duration: Permanent, unless erased by flesh colored Body Paint.

Checkout Time, Level 1 (Blood Sigils p.74)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, phlegmatic mortal blood, embalming fluid, myrrh, a toad’s skull.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

System: The alchemist writes a span of times and dates on the subject’s left arm in Roman numerals. The subject can be the alchemist themself. At the starting time, the subject enters a deep torpor and cannot be awakened until either the ending time transpires, or someone rewrites the ending time. Coming out of this slumber does not require a Rouse Check. While in this state, the recipient is indistinguishable from a corpse. They have no aura, they don’t need to make nightly Rouse Checks, and they don’t take damage from any accidental exposure to sunlight or similar banes.

Duration: The written time span determines the duration, but cannot exceed nine nights.

Elevate, Level 1 (Blood Sigils p.74)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, sanguine mortal blood, fermented chocolate, rice vinegar, black coffee, often some kind of fun street drug.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Stamina + Alchemy

System: Whoever consumes the formula instantly feels a rush of warmth and pleasure flowing through them, relaxing their muscles and quickening their nerves. They get a +1 on any Dexterity dice that they roll during the scene. El also can act as a carrier for regular street drugs, although the effects shift unpredictably if usually toward ecstatic stimulation. Badly made El makes the user feel great, but actively degrades Dexterity with a −1 penalty.

Duration: One scene

Far Reach, Level 1 (Core pp.284-285)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, choleric human blood, melted nylon fibers or a grated refrigerator magnet or weird nootropics ordered off the internet

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Resolve + Alchemy vs Strength + Athletics

System: The alchemist can lift, push, or pull a physical object or person under 100 kg, within their sight and closer than 10 meters. The object moves swiftly, but not rapidly enough to injure a person with the blow; the object may break if it is fragile. The exception: knives or other small metal tools, which the alchemist can wield with a Resolve + Alchemy test, at a two-dice penalty because of the need for precision. A knife used this way does only one point of extra damage.

Trying to move someone actively resisting requires a contest of Resolve + Alchemy vs Strength + Athletics. On a win, the alchemist can pull the victim within grabbing or clawing range, or throw them one meter for each point of margin on the contest, doing an equal amount of Superficial damage. They land prone. Keeping someone or something floating in mid-air requires a Resolve + Thin-Blood Alchemy (Difficulty 3) roll every turn. Fine manipulation (such as pulling the pin of a grenade) requires a Wits + Alchemy roll at a suitable Difficulty, as determined by the Storyteller.

Duration: One turn unless held (see above).

Food Stain, Level 1 (Blood Sigils pp.74-75)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, melancholic mortal blood, some highly colored flavoring such as BBQ sauce, mustard, cheez-puff flavor dust, etc.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

System: If someone — mortal or Kindred — is marked by consuming or contacting this goo, the next individual who feeds from them becomes obvious to the alchemist who made it. Obvious means that if they see that person, hear them or smell them, they know. In the rare case that the alchemist has at least Auspex 2, they become aware the instant the feeding occurs. Moreover, for about an hour after, they know the direction toward the drinker, though not distance.

Duration: Once created, the mystic potential of the substance persists until consumed or applied, but it starts to smell pretty bad after a week, even if refrigerated.

Speak From the Heart, Level 1 (Blood Sigils p.75)

Ingredients: A soft drink, the alchemist’s Blood, melancholic human blood, mercury, ink or paint.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

System: The alchemist imprints the message while brewing the soda. Grape soda can carry seventy-one words or less. Orange reveals a sketched image in the drinker’s mind for about a minute. Lemon-lime conveys a brief but vivid emotional sensation. It’s possible that a mortal who drank the carrier’s blood would also get the effects, but no one’s run that experiment.

Duration: The messages take about sixty seconds. They persist in the carrier until death, or until someone drinks their blood.

Advanced Torpor, Level 2 (Blood Sigils p.75)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, choleric and phlegmatic mortal blood, neem extract, diazepam, diphenhydramine, chamomile flower.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

System: The alchemist creates (or for other Distillations, they or their vessel bleeds) a bright pink, watery fluid. Mixing this substance with mortal blood creates an elixir that causes its imbiber to immediately fall into torpor. This torpor lasts as long as if they have entered it through ordinary means.

Unlike regular torpor, a vampire in Advanced Torpor always has a Rouse Check re-roll while under its effects, whether it’s for the day passing or for mending any damage. Should the vampire end their Advanced Torpor not at Hunger 5, they may keep their current level of Hunger when they awaken. All vampires in Advanced Torpor mend as a vampire, even if a Thin-Blood Flaw otherwise makes that impossible.

If the vampire’s Hunger rises above Hunger 5 while in Advanced Torpor, the vampire enters regular torpor for the remaining portion of their torpor, and standard rules apply.

Athanor Corporis: The alchemist can tap their vein once per night until their next feeding or reach Hunger 5. There is no further Distillation cost.

Calcinatio: If the vessel survives the tap, the alchemist can tap them again in one week. The vessel takes 5 Aggravated Health damage per tap.

Duration: Until the target awakens from torpor.

Blacklight Surprise, Level 2 (Blood Sigils pp.75-76)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, sanguine and choleric mortal blood, sunflower seeds, hand sanitizer, Luminol.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

System: A UV source smeared with Blacklight Surprise does 1 point of Aggravated damage every turn its light hits a vampire. It provokes fear frenzy like sunlight does. Kindred who already take damage from UV take an extra point.

Duration: At least one hour, plus an additional hour for every success the alchemist scores with the dice. If the light source breaks, the formula burns off.

Blue State, Level 2 (Blood Sigils p.76)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, melancholy and phlegmatic mortal blood, cobalt.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

System: Someone under the effects of Blue State cannot forgive. The next time a friend or ally violates the target’s Convictions, the target takes 1 Stain. A mortal target merely holds a seemingly unreasonable, intractable grudge.

Duration: The Stain remains until the characters have, at least, a very uncomfortable conversation.

Haze, Level 2 (Core p.285)

Ingredients: In addition to the alchemist’s Blood and phlegmatic human blood, dry ice or cigar smoke or auto exhaust

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

System: Upon activation a cloud of mist-like vapor surrounds the alchemist, masking their features and obscuring their silhouette. Anyone attempting to identify the user or hit them with ranged weapons suffers a two-dice penalty to their pool. The user can extend the cloud to encompass a group of up to five people by making another Rouse check.

Duration: One scene or until voluntarily ended.

Envelop, Level 2 (Core p.285)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, melancholic and phlegmatic human blood, potassium chlorate, smog or halon gas

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Wits + Alchemy vs Stamina + Survival

System: The alchemist activates the power and chooses a target within sight. A swirling mist envelops the target, obscuring their sight and penalizing them three dice from all sight-based detection and ranged attack dice pools. In addition, the alchemist can make the mist suffocate a mortal with a contest of Wits + Alchemy vs. Stamina + Survival. On a win, the target can take no action except coughing and choking; on a critical win, the target loses consciousness. The alchemist can only employ Envelop on single targets, and only on one at a time.

Duration: Until scene ends or the alchemist ends the effect voluntarily.

Whiff-Its, Level 2 (Gehenna War pp.50-51)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s vitae, phlegmatic or sanguine human blood, cologne or perfume, fresh compost, ammonia, crushed fingernails from an animal

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

System: When used, the potion grants the alchemist heightened olfactory abilities. For the next night, the alchemist can catch the scent of the Kindred with the highest Blood Potency in the area (as determined by the Storyteller). If there are multiple Kindred who share the same Blood Potency in the area, success on a subsequent Resolve + Awareness test at Difficulty 3 allows the alchemist to distinguish between individual Kindred and follow their trail. Kindred sealed in containers might likewise require a similar test to detect, with a Difficulty determined by the Storyteller.

Duration: Until dawn

Bleed Out, Level 3 (Tattered Facade p.107)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, Melancholic human blood, diuretics, energy drinks, cornflower

Distillation Cost: One Rouse Check

Activation Cost: Free

System: The alchemist vomits the formula into the victim’s mouth (Athanor Corporis), forces the victim to drink it from the vessel’s mouth (Calcinatio), or forces the victim to drink from the elixir container (Fixatio). Once the victim consumes the formula, the alchemist makes the activation test to determine the results. On a failure, the victim simply dies; their blood feeds one vampire as normal. On a total failure, their blood turns septic and can feed nobody. On a win, victims choke and drown on their own blood over an agonizing hour. This death provides enough blood to feed an entire coterie of Duskborn (and only Duskborn — true vampires can’t stomach the blood), reducing everyone’s Hunger to zero. Every participant gains at least one Stain from the act. The remains must be properly disposed of, as the resultant sack of skin and bones is bound to rouse suspicion.

Defractionate, Level 3 (Core pp.285-286)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, sanguine and melancholic human blood, O-negative human blood (only a few ml), moldy spinach, hot black coffee, sodium octanoate

System: The alchemist taps their vessel (Calcinatio), or their own vein (Athanor Corporis) to get the Defractionate elixir if they do not use Fixatio. For each success on the distillation roll, they get enough elixir to turn one blood bag (slakes 1 Hunger) from fractionated to unfractionated blood. Any vampire can consume this blood and slake Hunger with it.

Athanor Corporis: The alchemist can tap their own vein once per night for this elixir until their next feeding, or until they reach Hunger 5. They need not pay the distillation cost again.

Calcinatio: If the vessel survives the tap, the alchemist can tap them again in a week for more elixir. They need not pay the distillation cost again, but the vessel pays the Health cost (3 Aggravated damage) each time they are tapped.

Diamond Skin, Level 3 (Blood Sigils p.76)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, melancholic human blood, ground up granite, diamonds, or ceramics, lotion or oil.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

System: A number of Aggravated damage points equal to the alchemist’s successes on the Distillation roll become Superficial damage to the user. This only affects physical damage from slashes, punctures, or impact; it has no effect against fire, sunlight, sorcery, or acid.

Duration: Until the margin is used up; on a critical win on the Distillation roll, the effect lasts for one scene.

Fireskin, Level 3 (Blood Sigils p.76)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, powdered elemental salamander bone, tobacco, sulfur.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

System: Whoever drinks the Fireskin formula feels like their skin and the air around them is strangely cold — at odds with the little flames that start to lick up and down their skin. The fire doesn’t spread from them, but their body is superheated and painful to the touch. They do +1 fire damage when they strike with their body (only the additional damage counts as fire), and can increase that to +2 if they manage to grapple someone. Fire does no damage to the user during this period, but cold damage is doubled.

Duration: One scene

Hospital Chains, Level 3 (Blood Sigils pp.76-77)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, phlegmatic mortal blood, a sample from a fatal carcinoma, hydrofluoric acid.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Distillation Roll vs. Stamina

System: Once Hospital Chains touches an injured person, they cannot clear physical injury by any means. Blood is Roused in vain; hospital visits yield no improvement, only bills.

Duration: The restriction on improvement lasts for 2 days per point of margin; on a critical win, it lasts 2 days for each success on the Distillation roll.

Martian Purity, Level 3 (Blood Sigils p.77)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, choleric mortal blood, iron filings, gunpowder ash.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

System: This only works on a mortal or Kindred carrying a blood-transmissible infection. When consumed, the elixir forces the impurity out through their skin, outgassing through the pores of the back. It ignites on contact with air, doing 2 points of Aggravated damage to the carrier. It is up to the Storyteller whether this works on individual supernatural infections.

Duration: Two rounds

Mask Off, Level 3 (Blood Sigils p.77)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, choleric and melancholic mortal blood, ground mustard seed, lemon juice, amphetamines, ground match heads.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Distillation roll vs target’s Stamina + Resolve

System: The alchemist creates (or for other Distillations, they or their vessel bleed) a yellow-reddish paste. When loaded into an explosive and detonated, it creates an acrid gas that covers an area 3 by 6 meters, roughly the size of a large meeting room. The explosion and the gas inflict no damage, but any true vampires with the Blush of Life caught in the blast must make a contest of their Stamina + Resolve versus the alchemist’s Distillation roll. Any true vampires that lose the contest have their Blush of Life instantly, painfully come to an end for all to see. They also cannot use Blush of Life for the rest of the night.

On Distillation rolls between 1–3 successes, true vampires that lose the contest have a few moments to hide before the gas takes effect. On a critical win on the Distillation roll, true vampires that lose the contest must also make a Fury Frenzy check at Difficulty 2.

Duration: One scene

Profane Hieros Gamos, Level 3 (Core pp.286-287)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, melancholic and phlegmatic human blood, entheogenic substances.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Stamina + Resolve

System: Whoever imbibes the formula mixed with a Rouse Check worth of their own Blood instantly falls into a catatonic fever dream until the following night, the depths of their psyche plumbed for their personal idealized form, or a form strongly desired.

The effects of Profane Hieros Gamos are limited to the external morphology of the human form, the body refusing transformations too outlandish and fantastical to be without the wondrous spectrum of human anatomy. The imbiber makes a Stamina + Resolve roll against a difficulty of 8 minus the successes on the distillation roll, adding their Bane Severity to the Difficulty of the test. On a win, the transformation process is successful and their physical body molds to the desired shape. A critical win can grant and remove Merits and Flaws of the Looks category, though like all Advantages they need to be paid for with Experience points (p. 180). A messy critical or a bestial failure might cause a new Flaw to manifest, ranging from Repulsive, Obvious Predator, Stigmata or even Organovore as the Beast interferes with the transformation.

Not even the blood of the Duskborn can spare the Nosferatu from their Bane, the process incorporating the clan’s hideous affliction despite the user’s mental image.

Duration: Permanent until performed again.

Saraimu, Level 3 (Tattered Facade p.107)

Ingredients: A cup of vitae each from three vampires including the alchemist, baking powder, crushed chalk (optional, for a soft voice), iron nails (for strength), battery acid (for oomph)

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Resolve + Alchemy

System: The alchemist combines the ingredients by heating up the three cups of vitae in the athanor and adding baking powder and chalk. As the mixture bubbles, they stir in the nails, and when they add the battery acid and activate the mixture, it hisses aggressively and comes to something resembling life. The blob familiar is approximately the size of a football. Its personality takes a bit from each of the vampires whose Blood it was made from, and it can speak in simple, fragmented sentences. It probably calls the alchemist mommy or master.

The blob is affectionate but slimy and inherently unstable. It can perform many simple tasks, including spying, fetching things, and tasks around the alchemist’s lab. It knows it’s incomplete and longs to be back inside the bodies where it came from. It never sleeps and tries to burrow inside its masters while they do, assuming it’s not currently out on a mission for them. It has many rows of short, sharp nail-teeth.

Duration: The blob falls apart one to three weeks after it was created. The Storyteller may roll a die to determine the exact time. If its masters die before it does, the saraimu knows enough alchemy to prolong its existence until it can find — and burrow its way into — a new alchemist.

TLC, Level 3 (Blood Sigils pp.77-78)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, animal blood, choleric mortal blood, nettles, iron pieces, meat glue.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

System: The alchemist creates (or for other Distillations, they or their vessel bleed and must sift out) a bluish-brown powder. Feeding the powder to an animal allows a vampire to feed on the animal as if it were a human. For every success on the Distillation roll, the alchemist can enrich enough animal blood to slake one point of Hunger, although only the largest dogs can slake more than 1 point of Hunger without dying. Horses, cattle, and other large mammals contain enough blood to slake 8–10 points of Hunger, if it’s dosed with TLC. Killing an animal under the effects of TLC cannot slake a vampire’s Hunger to 0.

Troll the Pious, Level 3 (Blood Sigils p.78)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, melancholic mortal blood, used hot tub water, cornstarch, a body hair from a living green-eyed natural redhead.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

System: The procedure produces enough goo to wax about three square meters of floor — you can rub it into carpet, but it’s messy — or anoint one person all over, or smear a dozen books or about half the tools in a small workshop. Anyone who believes in a benign higher power, or whose profession involves religion, feels uneasy when in a waxed location, or when their attention is drawn to an anointed object. This is sufficient to give a one-die penalty to Social and Mental pools, and to Physical pools requiring close concentration. People with True Faith take a two-dice penalty and also have horrible hallucinations that feel like profound insights into the nature of evil but are actually expressions of their own fears and prejudices.

To be fair, it is possible the fears of the truly faithful really could provide insights into evil. This penalty does not affect any pool (such as resisting vampires) to which they would add their True Faith, however.

Duration: On a location, one dose lasts a couple of months. On an object, two months if no one touches it, one month if it’s handled infrequently, a week if it’s handled often. On a person, a dose lasts three days, and on the first day their skin looks waxy and oily.

Airborne Momentum, Level 4 (Core p.287)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, choleric and sanguine human blood, champagne, bird blood, helium, scopolamine or belladonna extract

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Strength + Alchemy vs Strength+Athletics (if resisted)

System: The potion enables the alchemist (and only them) to fly or hover at approximately running speed. The flier can carry a human-sized mass, though their speed drops to walking speed. Grabbing and carrying aloft an unwilling subject or pulling the flier to the ground both require a contest between the alchemist’s Strength + Alchemy and the other’s Strength + Athletics.

Duration: One scene

Copycat, Level 4 (Blood Sigils p.79)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, choleric and phlegmatic mortal blood, mirror glass, donor blood, Boquila trifoliolata leaves, chameleon skin.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

System: Upon drinking, the user feels the unpleasant sensation of something wet and sticky oozing to cover their face. That feeling remains for the next twenty minutes, slightly itchy and tight as the Copycat brew slowly loses potency. When it’s finally through, a slightly itchy white residue like dry glue is left over the skin.

For those who know the donor by sight, telling the drinker from the donor requires an Intelligence + Awareness test against a Difficulty equal to the Distillation roll’s successes.

Duration: Twenty minutes (usually one scene if you’re smart).

Half-Living Conductor, Level 4 (Blood Sigils p.79)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, choleric and sanguine mortal blood, molten conductive metal (gold, silver, copper, and aluminum are popular choices), ground rubber, rainwater from a thunderstorm.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

Dice Pools: Stamina + Alchemy

System: The alchemist is immune to all physical damage taken from any electrical source, be it lightning, tasers, live wires, or a supernatural ability. Upon exposure to an electrical current, the alchemist may choose to redirect the current. They amplify the incoming electricity in their body and shoot it out in an arc from their fingertips, mouth, or eyes.

Using electrical redirection in a conflict is a ranged attack using Dexterity + Alchemy. It inflicts margin + 2 in Superficial Health damage for vampires and in Aggravated Health damage for mortals.

On Distillation rolls with 1–3 successes, the alchemist is protected from electrical forces, but their redirected electrical attacks do no additional Health damage. On Distillation rolls with 6 or more successes, the alchemist’s body bursts with electrical power. Their attacks inflict Aggravated Health damage to mortals and supernaturals alike.

Duration: One scene or until voluntarily ended.

Juice Box, Level 4 (Gehenna War p.51)

Ingredients: The ingredients required for the original formula, methuselah vitae, and an empty juice box, complete with traces of concentrated fruit juice.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

System: The alchemist distills the target formula as normal, but includes methuselah vitae in the concoction before performing additional treatment to it. Once distilled, the brew must rest in the juice box for 24 hours before activation. The result allows any Duskborn or Kindred to benefit from the brew created by the alchemist. All activation costs, dice pools, and duration apply per the original blood alchemy formula.

Duration: As target formula

Red State, Level 4 (Blood Sigils p.79)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, sanguine and phlegmatic mortal blood, iron oxide.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

System: When applied or consumed, this places the subject in a peculiar state of moral forgetfulness. The next time someone close and trusted violates the drugged person’s Convictions or commits an act against them, those memories simply do not take. It slips free of the mind like amnesia, and cannot be restored. Being told, “Saphir killed your sister, man! Why are you still friends with him?!?” sounds fake and makes no sense. The very notion that the crime might have occurred fades within moments.

Duration: Permanent until the target imbibes a choleric Dyscrasia.

Vitae MSG, Level 4 (Blood Sigils pp.79-80)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, sanguine mortal blood, MSG, powdered sugar, knockoff (not genuine) Chanel No. 5.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

System: The production process yields a clear, watery liquid that smells faintly of vanilla and jasmine. It does nothing until it is rubbed onto the skin of a person or animal, causing that being to inflame vampiric thirst. Any vampire who sees or smells anyone who has Vitae MSG on them feels an intense desire to feed on them. They can resist this urge with a point of Willpower, or by accepting an additional point of Hunger. If the vampire spends more than thirty minutes in the presence of the anointed one after that, they must feast — or else spend another Willpower, or accept more Hunger. The compulsion partially offsets the Ventrue Bane — blue bloods can feed from the person enhanced by Vitae MSG by spending 1 Willpower less if they aren’t in their preferred category.

Duration: Once someone is anointed, the desire lasts until the next dawn, if they survive.

Awaken The Sleeper, Level 5 (Core p.287)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, choleric or sanguine human blood, adrenaline, ammonium carbonate, hartshorn, caffeine or benzedrine, melatonin

System: The alchemist taps their vessel (Calcinatio), or their own vein (Athanor Corporis) to get the Awaken the Sleeper elixir if they do not use Fixatio. They then mix the elixir into human blood. For each success above 2 on the distillation roll, the elixir can awaken a vampire of that Blood Potency.

Athanor Corporis: The alchemist can tap their own vein once per night for this elixir until their next feeding, or until they reach Hunger 5. They need not pay the distillation cost again.

Calcinatio: If the vessel survives the tap, the alchemist can tap them again in a week for more elixir. They need not pay the distillation cost again, but the vessel pays the Health cost (5 Aggravated damage) each time they are tapped. The Alchemist can also simply feed the vessel’s blood to the sleeper directly.

Beast Mode, Level 5 (Gehenna War p.51)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s vitae, choleric or sanguine human blood, vitae of Blood Potency 4+, phenylcyclohexyl piperidine, adrenaline injector, spoiled two percent milk, sodium bicarbonate

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

System: Beast Mode imbues the alchemist with access to a single level 5 power from the Disciplines of Celerity, Fortitude, or Potence, counting that Discipline rating as 5 for the duration of the formula. When consumed, the alchemist must succeed on a Willpower test (Difficulty 2) to avoid frenzy. The Kindred whose vitae was used in the distillation must possess the power’s associated Discipline at level 5 or the brew fails.

Duration: One scene

Da Bomb, Level 5 (Tattered Facade p.108)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, Sanguine human blood, accelerants, matchstick heads, grains of sand from a sand timer

Cost: One Rouse Check

System: This Formula is very temperamental and only works when imbibed by mortals (or brewed directly in a mortal via calcinatio). Once consumed, the potion remains in the drinker’s system for a week, during which time the mortal feels nauseous and unwell. The alchemist can activate the Formula at any time by making a Rouse Check, but if not activated while still potent, it passes harmlessly from the drinker’s system.

When activated, the victim experiences a turn of panicked awareness, before exploding in a torrent of gore. Those within close range take Aggravated damage equal to twice the victim’s Stamina, while those further away halve that. Any vampires caught in the blast must also test for Hunger Frenzy at Difficulty 3.

Duration: One week

Saturn’s Flux, Level 5 (Blood Sigils p.80)

Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, phlegmatic mortal blood, lead, laxative, horse hair.

Activation Cost: One Rouse Check

System: The process yields a thumbnail sized pellet, crackly and gray. To gain the effect, smoke it in a steel pipe on a bed of ash, taking precautions as Kindred must for dealing with a small open flame. Within twenty-four hours of ingestion, the smoker literally shits out the Blood Bond — painful and bloody but not injurious for mortals. Kindred, with withered digestive tracts, take a point of Aggravated damage as the unwholesome influence resists expulsion.

Duration: As mentioned above, the effect kicks in within a day’s span of ingestion—sometimes waking Kindred from daysleep with agonizing cramps. Until used, the pellet seems to stay fresh indefinitely. Given that this stuff has only been around two years, it may just be that its shelf life has not yet been reached.

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