Serpentis
"The Serpent was in the garden first, you know." -- Hesha Ruhadze
In ancient Egyptian temples and sleek, modern sky rises, the clan of serpents practices its arts and worships its founder: the vampiric god, Set. Setites consider the Serpentis discipline to be a gift of Set's benevolence, and they treat its practice with reverence, praising Set with each use and invocation of these powers.
Serpentis Test Pool: The Serpentis wielder uses her Social attribute + Subterfuge versus the target's Social attribute + Willpower.
Contents
• Eyes of the Serpent
Like the snake-charmers of old, your gaze has the power to soothe and hypnotize. When you use this power, your eyes turn shining gold, capturing the attention of those who meet your gaze. As long as you hold her attention, your subject remains completely immobilized.
System: Expend 1 Blood and use a simple action to activate Eyes of the Serpent. You must have your target's attention and engage your target in an opposed challenge using the Serpentis test pool. If you succeed, the target is paralyzed so long as you hold her gaze with your own. If you break eye contact, utilize any other powers, or if the target is attacked, injured, or targeted by hostile powers, your hypnotic spell breaks.
Exceptional Success: Your Eyes of the Serpent lasts for three rounds after you break eye contact, so long as your opponent is not attacked, injured, or targeted with an aggressive power.
Focus [Appearance]: You can utilize other powers while holding a target paralyzed with your Eyes of the Serpent. However, if your target is attacked or injured, this hypnotic spell breaks.
•• Tongue of the Asp
By activating this power, you gain several of the natural and mythical powers associated with serpents. You may speak with, control, and summon snakes. Some who are particularly blessed may even gain a natural advantage in spoken persuasion, much like the Serpent of old.
System: Spend 1 Blood and use a simple action to activate Tongue of the Asp for one hour. While this power is active, your tongue is forked and you may speak to snakes (or individuals in serpent form) with a sibilant whisper so quiet that the sound can go completely undetected by anyone who does not possess Heightened Senses or a similar power. While Tongue of the Asp is active, you can sense your surroundings perfectly even in the depths of night or in unnatural darkness such as that caused by Obtenebration. Normally, characters who cannot see while in combat must use the Fighting Blind combat maneuver. So long as your character's Tongue of the Asp is active, you may fight without needing the Fighting Blind combat maneuver.
Further, by expending an additional Blood and a standard action, you can summon up to five local small serpents or two medium-sized serpents. These snakes take up to 10 minutes to appear, and must be able to naturally travel to your location. They have only animal intelligence, but are loyal to you and will attempt to do your bidding until dawn. Treat small serpents as 1-point Retainers, and medium serpents as 3-point Retainers.
Focus [Charisma]: When using Tongue of the Asp, you also gain a +1 bonus to any tests based on the sound of your voice, including persuasion related skills and Presence powers such as Entrancement (assuming you speak to reinforce your use of the power).
••• Skin of the Adder
With but a moment of concentration, you cause your skin to erupt into slick, protective scales, and your limbs and muscles lengthen. While this power is active, you have a hideous, snakelike appearance, but gain significant defense against Physical attacks.
System: By spending 1 point of Blood and expending a standard action to invoke this power, you acquire defensive scales and become extremely flexible. While this power is active, you have a +2 bonus to Dodge-based defense test pools. Individuals using Skin of the Adder can also bite without first needing to Grapple their opponents.
Obviously, being seen by mortals while using Skin of the Adder is a breach of the Masquerade.
Skin of the Adder is a transformative power and cannot be combined with other transformative powers. You can end this transformation at any time by expending a simple action. Skin of the Adder's transformation is close enough to human to allow you to use weapons.
Focus [Charisma]: Your bonus to Dodge-based test pools increases to +3 (instead of the standard +2). Additionally you receive a +1 bonus to Brawl test pools when attempting to bite your opponent.
•••• Form of the Cobra
Myth states that ancient priests of Egypt could command their staves to turn into snakes. You can perform an even greater metamorphosis, transforming yourself into a massive cobra, which retains the size and weight of your original form. This reptile shape grants a venomous bite and the ability to slip through small passages, while still allowing you to use any disciplines that do not require hands or speech.
System: Spend 1 Blood point and use a standard action to transform into a massive, human-sized cobra, approximately 15 feet long. You may end this transformation at any time by expending a simple action. A character in Form of the Cobra is extremely lithe, and cannot be grappled; attackers who attempt to Grapple you automatically fail. Further, you may bite your foes without the need to Grapple first, and your bites are venomous.
Individuals who are bitten by a vampire in Form of the Cobra must resist a virility 15 poison. Poison inflicted by this power damages living characters and destroys the blood of vampires. Remember that all vampiric bites, including those by characters in Form of the Cobra, inflict aggravated damage.
Form of the Cobra is a transformative power and cannot be combined with other transformative powers.
Focus [Appearance]: You can modify your Form of the Cobra, becoming as large as a massive python, or as small as a viper. Your length and mass may increase up to three times your natural body weight, or reduce to as small as one-tenth your normal size.
••••• Heart of Darkness
In Egyptian legends, the hearts of the dead are removed so that they may be weighed against the feather of truth. Those found wanting are thrown into a lake of fire and devoured, while those who are worthy are accepted into paradise. It is within your power to remove the hearts of undead creatures, taking judgment into your own hands.
System: Spend 1 Blood and one hour performing a complex ritual in order to draw the heart from an unliving (vampiric) body: either your own, or that of another willing participant. No test is necessary to remove a heart.
This power can only be utilized on the night of a new moon. While most vampiric flesh rots and decays in a single turn after being separated from its body, a heart removed with this power remains intact. The heart can be replaced by another use of Heart of Darkness, so long as the power's user possesses the correct heart to restore. It is not possible to install a fake heart or the heart of another individual using Heart of Darkness.
Anyone whose heart is removed in this fashion is immune to staking. Further, when this character attempts to resist frenzy, she does so as if she had one less Beast trait. A separated heart may be staked, even if the target vampire is not otherwise wounded. If the heart is staked, then that vampire is immediately paralyzed as though she had been staked normally. Should the heart be exposed to even a single point of damage from fire or sunlight, it is destroyed, and its owner erupts into flame and is reduced to ash, meeting Final Death in a single turn.
Obviously, trying to use this power on a mortal, even a ghoul, is messily fatal.
Focus [Charisma]: You can perform Heart of Darkness any night of the month, and can do so on an unwilling target, so long as she is in torpor.
