Obtenebration
"Where can you go, when the night conspires against you? Where will you hide, while the shadows whisper your name? Come with me. There is no other choice." -- Romero de la Salle
The masters of Obtenebration can command darkness itself, ordering it to carry out their will. While the untutored believe these are simple tricks of shadow, the truth is far more dangerous. Obtenebration is wholly unnatural, calling on the essence of the Abyss and drawing it into the physical world. This darkness mutes sound, absorbs light, and seems almost tangible. It is willful, as well, twisting and writhing with a sentience of its own, unless tightly controlled by its wielder.
Spirits of all kinds fear the Abyss, and ghosts will flee from it rather than be driven murderously insane by its touch. All powers of Obtenebration, including elder powers and techniques, are automatically dispelled if exposed to sunlight. There is no standardized Obtenebration test pool.
Contents
• Shadow Play
At your command, the shadows in an area fill with the energy of the Abyss, moving and shaping as you require. These shadows animate, move about, flicker, and even achieve a limited form of perverse sentience, reaching out to brush icy cold fingers against anything that comes too close.
System: This power grants the vampire control over natural shadows present in an area. Spend 1 Blood and expend a simple action to animate nearby patches of darkness for the next five minutes. Your animated shadows are not truly intelligent, but they have a form of rudimentary cunning, which allows them to follow your simple instructions.
Your shadows are semi-solid and capable of moving objects weighing up to one pound. Animated shadows have one standard action each turn and can use that action to move up to three steps, to perform a simple action, or to attack. Your animated shadows always move and attack as a group. If directed to attack, the shadows wrap themselves around a single target, attempting to draw out her breath. The shadows' attack test pool is 8. Undead are not affected by this attack, but living individuals take 1 point of damage per successful attack, which cannot be reduced or negated, as they desperately gasp for breath. Your animated shadows are independent creatures, and directing them to attack does not require an action. If you are affected by a Mental or Social power, your shadows are similarly affected. If you cannot break your target's Majesty, your shadows are also unable to attack. These shadow-helpers do not normally take damage from Physical attacks, but are dispelled if exposed to bright light or to fire. Even a single point of fire damage, such as one from an incendiary bullet, is enough to send your shadow spawn back to the Abyss.
A character can only have one application of Shadow Play active at a time.
Focus [Appearance]: You can instruct your shadows to cling to your body, making you extremely intimidating to behold. While this power is active, your terrifying countenance makes you immune to the exceptional successes of Dominate and Presence.
•• Shroud of Night
By calling upon the eternal depths of the Abyss, you evoke a swath of thick, preternatural blackness, which absorbs all light and distorts sound. Those within it feel an aching chill, hear murmured weeping, and sense the soft pressure of an ocean's waves rolling through their bodies and out into...nothingness.
System: Spend 1 Blood and expend a simple action to summon forth a cloud of viscous shadow, the utter essence of the Abyss. You can call this darkness into existence anywhere within your line of sight. The Shroud of Night has a six-step diameter and obscures all light within it, thus creating an utterly unnatural-looking area of pitch darkness. Anyone trapped in your Shroud of Night is blinded, unless she has some preternatural method of seeing through the formless void. Individuals within the shroud must use the Blind Fighting combat maneuver to attack. Characters with powers such as Eyes of the Beast can see through a Shroud of Night, and characters with other sensory powers, such as Heightened Senses, can compensate for lost sight, allowing them to attack normally.
Within a shroud, most living beings, such as animals or people, suffer 1 point of normal damage on your initiative each turn, as the Abyss steals their breath and saps their will to live. This damage cannot be reduced or negated. Undead are immune to this effect, as are Stamina-focused living characters. You are immune to the effects of your own Shroud of Night; you see normally through the Shroud, and you are not disconcerted by its touch. After creating a Shroud of Night, you may use a simple action to move your Shroud three steps in any direction. Alternately, you can use a simple action and spend 1 point of Blood to increase your shroud's radius by two steps, after it has been summoned into existence by the first use of this power.
Focus [Manipulation]: Your Shroud of Night manifests a much stronger conduit to the unnatural energies of the Abyss. Undead remain unaffected by the damaging effects of your shroud, but living creatures take 3 points of normal damage per turn, instead of the standard 1 point. Even living creatures who are Stamina-focused cannot so easily shrug off the effects; they take 2 points of damage each turn within your shroud. Additionally, all individuals within your shroud suffer a -2 penalty to attack test pools (Physical, Mental, and Social). Characters using supernatural powers to bypass the blinding effect of your shroud are not immune to this -2 penalty. Characters using the Blind Fighting combat maneuver do not suffer this -2 penalty.
••• Arms of the Abyss
As your mastery of Obtenebration grows, your ability to summon the Abyss becomes ever more frightening. You can call forth tentacles of Abyssal darkness, creatures bound to the shadows themselves. These servants strike and coil at your command, serving your every wish.
System: Spend 1 Blood and expend your simple action to cause dark tentacles to rise from shadows within your line of sight. These tentacles are a tangible manifestation of the primal sentience within the Abyssal void. When you activate this power, you create one Arm of the Abyss for each Obtenebration power you possess, including techniques, to a maximum of five. Arms of the Abyss cannot move from the spot in which they are summoned.
Each Arm of the Abyss acts independently of the rest, functioning as an entirely sentient creature. An Arm of the Abyss has one standard action each turn. It can use this action to attack any target within two steps. Arms of the Abyss have an attack test pool of 8, and a successful attack inflicts 1 point of normal damage. However, instead of inflicting damage, you may choose to have an Arm of the Abyss Grapple its target. In this manner, an Arm of the Abyss can use the Grapple combat maneuver without spending Willpower. In mass combat, Arms of the Abyss can provide the assist attacker tactic to a nearby ally. If this occurs, the Arms of the Abyss give that ally a +1 bonus to her attack test pool, similar to a Stock NPC. Arms of the Abyss cannot provide the assist defender tactic.
Arms of the Abyss have no mind and cannot be targeted by Mental and Social powers. However, if you are incapable of attacking a target, your arms are also incapable of taking hostile action. For example, if you cannot break your target's Majesty, your Arms of the Abyss are also unable to attack. An Arm of the Abyss has 4 health levels. Arms are immediately destroyed if exposed to sunlight.
Focus [Manipulation]: Your Arms of the Abyss have an attack test pool of 10. If you possess even 1 dot of Potence, your Arms of the Abyss inflict 2 points of normal damage, rather than 1. If you possess even 1 dot of Fortitude, your Arms of the Abyss have 6 health levels, instead of the normal 4.
•••• Black Metamorphosis
By wrapping the darkness of the Abyss around your body, you meld your corpse with the sentience of the ancient depths. Bands of darkness ripple across your pale flesh, and flailing tentacles manifest from your ribcage, transforming you into a creature of the Abyss.
System: Spend 1 Blood and use your simple action to transform into a monstrous creature of shadow. The raw material of the void envelops you in undulating bands, and four tentacles (similar in appearance to Arms of the Abyss) rise from your ribcage. The additional limbs provided by Black Metamorphosis cannot attack independently, but add to your own actions. Once each turn, on your initiative, you can make a Brawl attack using the arms provided by Black Metamorphosis, without using an action. This attack can target anyone within five steps. Attacks made with Black Metamorphosis use your normal Brawl test pool and inflict your normal Brawl damage. Black Metamorphosis attacks may be modified by your Potence powers, including elder Potence and Potence-based techniques, but cannot be modified by any other discipline powers. Black Metamorphosis cannot be used to attack during Celerity rounds.
Attacks made by Black Metamorphosis can be modified by the Grapple combat maneuver, although you must still pay the normal cost to use that maneuver. Black Metamorphosis cannot be modified by any combat maneuvers other than Grapple.
Black Metamorphosis is a transformative power and cannot be combined with other transformative powers. You may end this transformation at any time by expending a simple action. Black Metamorphosis' transformation is close enough to human to allow you to use weapons.
Focus [Appearance]: While in Black Metamorphosis, you can sense your surroundings perfectly, even during the depths of night, or while within the unnatural darkness of other Obtenebration effects. You are immune to all of the effects of Shroud of Night, even the -2 penalty inflicted by Shroud of Night's focus effect. Additionally, your terrifying countenance makes you immune to exceptional successes generated by Dominate and Presence powers.
••••• Tenebrous Form
By invoking this power, you do not merely summon forth the might of the Abyss; you actually allow the void to enter your spirit and manifest within your soul. Your physical form transmutes into a body of shadow: a rippling, liquid shape of utter void. While in this form, you can slither through holes and cracks, and you can see through all forms of darkness.
System: Spend 1 Blood and expend both your simple and standard actions in order to transform into a flowing creature of liquid shadow. While in Tenebrous Form, you cannot spend Blood, activate powers, or physically attack, but you are also immune to Physical attacks from sources other than fire and sunlight. You can be injured by non-Physical attacks, and you can be harmed by flaming weapons, such as a torch or a road flare; however, incendiary ammunition passes through your form too quickly to inflict damage. You take 1 additional point of aggravated damage from fire, flaming weapons, or sunlight while in this form.
While in Tenebrous Form, you are not truly intangible. You are capable of slipping through small openings, sliding under doors, and oozing through holes, but you cannot pass through solid objects.
A character in Tenebrous Form can talk and move normally. Additionally, you can move at normal speed along any solid surface, including up a wall or across a ceiling. Though you cannot actually fly, you don't take damage from falling while in Tenebrous Form. You can be touched if an individual passes her hand through your form, and you may touch other characters by extending a shadowy limb or by slithering against them. Touching or being touched may require a Brawl attack. Tenebrous Form is a transformative power and cannot be combined with other transformative powers.
Focus [Manipulation]: You may spend 1 Blood while in Tenebrous Form to manifest a pair of red, glowing eyes. Doing this allows you to use the first 3 dots of Dominate and Presence while in shadow form, as long as you already possess those powers. This is an exception to the rule that prevents a character from using disciplines or spending Blood while in Tenebrous Form.
