Blood
Blood
Blood is life. To sustain her immortality, a vampire must periodically consume blood, preferably that of humans. Some penitent vampires eke out a pale existence drinking only animal blood, and some ancient vampires have become so monstrous that they must hunt and kill others of their kind to nourish themselves, but these are rare, extreme examples. Generally, vampires consume the blood of humanity in order to survive. In Mind’s Eye Theatre, the amount of blood within a living creature is measured in units called Blood points. The full amount of blood in a creature’s system is referred to as its Blood pool. A healthy mortal adult is presumed to have 10 points of Blood in her system. A vampire may contain more points of Blood, depending upon her Generation. A vampire has the special ability to purposefully expend Blood points in order to fuel a variety of functions. Weaker vampires, with thinner blood, can utilize their Blood less swiftly, while more powerful Generations can expend several points of Blood in a single action.
A fledgling quickly learns to use her vampiric blood in the following ways:
• A vampire can feed a Blood point to a mortal in order to transform that mortal into a ghoul.
• One Blood point enables a vampire to appear lifelike for a scene. The vampire’s skin grows warm and shows a normal mortal coloration, and the vampire’s autonomic systems mimic human activity (such as blinking, sneezing, or natural breathing). Vampires who follow Paths of Enlightenment, rather than Humanity, cannot spend Blood for this purpose, and they are incapable of appearing mortal even for short periods of time. Supernatural disguises (like Obfuscate) can mask the physical marks of following a path, but no disguise can suppress the subtle terror that surrounds a vampire who’s forsaken her Humanity in favor of a Path of Enlightenment.
• A vampire can spend Blood points to heal wounds, quickening the flesh to heal an injured area.
• A vampire can spend a Blood point to activate or power some disciplines, such as Celerity.
• A vampire may spend Blood to boost her Physical attribute, raising her rating for the duration of one challenge. Each point of Blood spent in this way boosts a vampire’s Physical attribute rating by 1. Blood spent to increase your Physical attribute does not require an action, and this expenditure can be done at any time. It may even be done before your initiative. Note that the amount of Blood a character can spend per turn, and eventually her overall Blood pool, will limit how much a character can boost her attribute.
Storing Vampiric Blood
Vitae removed from a vampire’s body retains its supernatural qualities for up to 10 minutes. After that time has elapsed, the blood becomes non-supernatural. Vampire blood stored in an airtight container keeps its supernatural qualities for up to one week. Preserving vitae for longer requires use of the Medicine skill or a supernatural power, such as Principal Focus of Vitae Infusion.
Biting
A vampire can extend her fangs and use her standard action to bite a grappled opponent, choosing either to draw blood or to attack and inflict aggravated damage. Grappling an opponent requires a combat maneuver, but once a vampire has successfully grappled an opponent, she can bite that opponent without spending additional Willpower. It is not possible to feed and bite for damage at the same time.
Biting for damage converts a character’s normal brawling damage into aggravated damage.
Biting to feed does no damage to vampires, but drains 1 Blood point per standard action used to feed. Drawing Blood in this manner harms mortals, inflicting 2 points of normal damage per Blood drained from a living victim.
See also: Feeding
