Quietus

The Discipline of silent death, Quietus is practiced by those of Clan Assamite. Based on elements of blood, poison, vitae control, and pestilence, Quietus focuses on the destruction of a target through a variety of means. This Discipline doesn’t always cause a quick death, but the Assamites rely on its lethality to hide their involvement with their victims.

Rank 1: Silence of Death
Many Assamites claim never to have heard their targets’ death screams. Silence of Death imbues the vampire with a mystical silence that radiates from her body, muting all noise within a certain vicinity. No sound occurs inside this zone, though sounds originating outside the area of effect may be heard by anyone in it. Rumors abound of certain skilled Assamite viziers who have the ability to silence a location rather than a circumference that follows them, but no proof of this has been forthcoming.

System: This power (which costs one blood point to activate) maintains a 20-foot (6-meter) radius of utter stillness around the Kindred for one hour.

Rank 2: Scorpion's Touch
By changing the properties of her blood, a vampire may create powerful venom that strips her prey of his resilience. This power is greatly feared by other Kindred, and all manner of hideous tales concerning methods of delivery circulate among trembling coteries. Kindred with Quietus are known to deliver the poison by coating their weapons with it, blighting their opponents with a touch, or spitting it like a cobra. An apocryphal account speaks of a proud Prince who discovered an Assamite plotting her exsanguination and began to diablerize her would-be assassin. Halfway through the act, she learned that she had ingested a dire quantity of tainted blood and was then unable to resist the weakened assassin’s renewed attack.

System: To convert a bit of her blood to poison, the Kindred’s player spends at least one blood point and rolls Willpower (difficulty 6). If this roll is successful, and the vampire successfully hits (but not necessarily damages) her opponent, the target loses a number of Stamina points equal to the number of blood points converted into poison — vampires attempting to drink the blood of the Kindred with Scorpion’s Touch are automatically considered to be “successfully hit.”

The victim may resist the poison with a Stamina + Fortitude roll (difficulty 6); successes achieved on the resistance roll subtract from the vampire’s successes. The maximum number of blood points a Kindred may convert at any one time is equal to her Stamina. The number of successes scored indicates the duration of the Stamina loss.

Result 1 success: One turn 2 successes: One hour 3 successes: One day 4 successes: One month 5 successes: Permanently (though Stamina may be bought back up with experience)

If a mortal’s Stamina falls to zero through use of Scorpion’s Touch, she becomes terminally ill and loses any immunity to diseases, her body succumbing to sickness within the year unless she somehow manages to increase her Stamina again. If a Kindred’s Stamina falls to zero, the vampire enters torpor and remains that way until one of her Stamina points returns. If a Kindred is permanently reduced to zero Stamina, she may recover from torpor only through mystical means.

To afflict someone with the poison, the Cainite must touch her target’s flesh or hit him with something that carries the venom. Many Assamites lubricate their weapons with the excretion, while others pool the toxin in their hands (or fleck their lips with the poison, for a “kiss of death”) and press it to their opponents. Weapons so envenomed must be of the melee variety — arrows, sling stones, bullets, thrown weapons, and the like cannot carry enough of the stuff to do damage, or it drips off in flight. Players whose vampires wish to spit at their targets must make a Stamina + Athletics roll (difficulty 6). No more than two blood points’ worth of poison may be expectorated, and a Kindred may spit a distance of 10 feet (3 meters) for each point of Strength (and Potence) the character possesses. Vampires with Quietus are immune to their own poison, but not the blood-venom of other Kindred with this power.

Rank 3: Dagon's Call
This terrible power allows a vampire to drown her target in his own blood. By concentrating, the Kindred bursts her target’s blood vessels and fills his lungs with vitae that strangles him from within. The blood actually constricts the target’s body from the inside as it floods through his system; thus, it works even on unbreathing Kindred. Until the target collapses in agony or death throes, this power has no visible effect, and many Kindred like it because it leaves no trace of their presence.

System: The vampire must touch her target prior to using Dagon’s Call. Within an hour thereafter, the vampire may issue the call, though she need not be in the presence or even in the line of sight of her target.

Invoking the power costs one Willpower point. The Kindred’s player makes a contested Stamina roll against the target’s Stamina; the difficulty of each roll is equal to the opponent’s permanent Willpower rating. The number of successes the vampire using Dagon’s Call achieves is the amount of lethal damage, in health levels, the victim suffers. For an additional point of Willpower spent in the next turn, the vampire may continue using Dagon’s Call by engaging in another contested Stamina roll. So long as the Kindred’s player continues to spend Willpower, the character may continue rending her opponent from within.

Rank 4: Baal's Caress
The penultimate use of blood as a weapon (short of diablerie itself), Baal’s Caress allows the Kindred to transmute her blood into a virulent ichor that destroys any living or undead flesh it touches. In nights of yore, when Assamites led the charges of Saracen legions, the Assassins were often seen licking their blades, slicing open their tongues and lubricating their weapons with this foul secretion.

Baal’s Caress may be used to augment any bladed weapon; everything from poisoned knives and swords to tainted fingernails and claws has been reported.

System: Baal’s Caress does not increase the damage done by a given weapon, but that weapon inflicts aggravated damage rather than normal. No roll is necessary to activate this power, but one blood point is consumed per hit. For example, if a Cainite poisons his knife and strikes his opponent (even if he inflicts no damage), one blood point’s worth of lubrication disappears. For this reason, many vampires choose to coat their weapons with a significant quantity of blood. If the vampire misses, no tainted blood is consumed.

Rank 5: Taste of Death
A refinement of Baal’s Caress, Taste of Death allows the Cainite to spit caustic blood at her target. The blood coughed forth with this power burns flesh and corrodes bone; some vampires have been reported to vomit voluminous streams of vitae that reduce their targets to heaps of sludge.

System: The vampire may spit up to 10 feet (3 meters) for each dot of Strength and Potence he possesses. Hitting the target requires a Stamina + Athletics roll (difficulty 6). Each blood point spewed at the target inflicts two dice of aggravated damage, and there is no limit (other than the vampire’s capacity and per-turn expenditure maximum) to the quantity of blood with which a target may be deluged.