Vicissitude

Vicissitude is one of the most feared and reviled Disciplines among vampires, and rightly so. Its practitioners, the Tzimisce, wield it to shape flesh and bone to their whim, to craft beasts and monsters, or to punish those who cross them by inflicting horrific disfigurement upon their flesh.

Body Crafts
Vicissitude requires expansive knowledge of the human body, the kind usually only available through Medicine. The Tzimisce, not particularly given to the art of healing, have developed an alternative: Body Crafts. Body Crafts is a unique Skill (not to be confused with the more generalized Crafts Skill) that combines knowledge of vivisection, anatomy, taxidermy, scarification, tanning, and sculpting into a new kind of artisan Ability. Its primary purpose is to augment the application of Vicissitude. Without Body Crafts, Vicissitude rolls may be made at +2 difficulty using the Medicine Ability. Almost no one outside of clan Tzimisce knows — or needs to know — this highly specialized Skill.

Uncontrolled Flow
Believed by some Tzimisce not to be a derangement but rather an inspired state of mind, this condition affects the character’s control over her fleshcrafting powers. Spontaneous flesh- and bonecrafting effects manifest from time to time, usually as a response to outside stimuli. An angered Tzimisce might find herself growing claws, while one caressing a favored servant might find herself altering said servant to be more beautiful.

Malleable Visage
The user may alter their own body in simple, cosmetic ways. He can be taller or stockier. He can change his voice by reshaping his larynx. He can adopt new skin tone, new eye color, new hair, and so on. The process is not simple; it requires the user to actually craft these changes in his own form, which can be disturbing and painful. True to its name, only flesh (including muscle, fat, and cartilage) can be manipulated with Malleable Visage.

System: The player must spend one blood point for each desired change and roll Intelligence + Body Crafts (difficulty 6). If the character is trying to duplicate another person’s appearance or voice, the roll is Perception + Body Crafts (difficulty 8); the number of successes rolled sets the number of successes a friend or acquaintance of the imitated subject would need to get on a Perception roll to detect the deception. Increasing one’s Appearance has a difficulty of 9 and requires an extra blood point for each dot above their natural total. A botch permanently reduces his Appearance by one.

Transmogrify the Mortal Clay (Fleshcraft)
While Malleable Visage is relatively inoffensive, Transmogrify the Mortal Clay (known in modern nights as Fleshcraft) is where Vicissitude’s real power takes shape. Now the Tzimisce may perform dramatic alterations, and not just upon himself, but upon any subject she can subdue long enough to impart her vision. Tzimisce often use Transmogrify the Mortal Clay to craft monstrous servants, torture enemies, and bestow “gifts” upon those who please her.

System: After spending a blood point, the vampire must grapple or otherwise subdue her intended subject. She then rolls Dexterity + Body Crafts (difficulty varies, depending upon the changes sought). Appearance can be changed as described under Malleable Visage; reducing Appearance is easier (difficulty 5), unless the Tzimisce pursues an especially complex and nuanced kind of disfigurement. Each success increases or decreases the Attribute by one. Furthermore, the Tzimisce may arrange flesh to improve upon the subject’s defenses. Each success scored (difficulty 8) allows the vampire to increase the subject’s soak pool by one, though it comes at the cost of a dot of Strength or a health level (vampire’s choice).

Rend the Osseus Frame (Bonecraft)
At this stage of mastery, the Tzimisce has progressed to manipulating bone. Used on its own, Rend the Osseous Frame (known in modern nights as Bonecraft) can inflict terrible damage upon a subject. When used in conjunction with Transmogrify the Mortal Clay, nightmares become possible.

System: The vampire spends a blood point and makes a Strength + Body Crafts roll (difficulty as above). When used on its own to inflict harm, the difficulty is 7 and each success scored inflicts one level of lethal damage upon the subject as bones are forced through flesh. The Tzimisce may “arm” a subject with spikes, claws, talons, quills or other weapons formed from the subject’s own bones. Most such weapons inflict one health level of lethal damage as they burst out of the subject’s flesh. Defensive weapons that cover larger surface areas do lethal damage equal to five minus the number of successes (a botch kills a mortal subject or sends a vampire into torpor) when they’re formed. Spikes and claws deal Strength+1 levels of lethal damage. Quills inflict lethal damage equal to the subject’s Strength upon an attacker, unless the attack succeeded with three or more successes on the attack roll, in which case the attacker takes no damage. The defender still takes damage normally. Additionally, quills improve damage from holds, clinches, and tackles by two. The vampire can craft bone plates to improve a subject’s defense; this works in the same fashion as Transmogrify the Mortal Clay, save that each additional point of soak comes at the expense of a dot of Dexterity or a health level (vampire’s choice). Creative users of this power will find different and interesting ways to apply it, to the advantage of themselves and their allies and the detriment of their enemies. An old favorite involves turning a subject’s ribs inwards until they pierce the heart and lungs. Five successes are required to achieve this effect; on mortals, it is almost always fatal, while vampires erupt in an uncontrollable sanguine shower that drains them of half their blood pool.

Awaken the Zulo Shape (Horrid Form)
Kindred use this power to become hideous and deadly monsters. The vampire’s stature increases to a full eight feet (two and a half meters), the skin becomes a sickly greenish-gray or grayish-black chitin, the arms become apelike and ropy with ragged black nails, and the face warps into something out of a nightmare. A row of spines sprouts from the vertebrae, and the external carapace exudes a foul-smelling grease.

System: By spending two blood points, the Tzimisce awakens the zulo shape. All Physical Attributes increase by three, while all Social Attributes drop to zero (save for those also capable of assuming the zulo form, in which case Social Attributes are treated as normal). A vampire in Zulo form may use the Intimidation Ability with his Strength. All brawling damage is improved by one.

Bloodform
A vampire with this power can physically transform all or part of her body into sentient vitae. This blood is in all respects identical to the vampire’s normal vitae; she can use it to nourish herself or others, create ghouls, or establish blood bonds. If all this blood is imbibed or otherwise destroyed, the vampire meets Final Death.

System: The vampire may transform all or part of herself as she deems fit. Each leg can turn into two blood points worth of vitae, as can the torso; each arm, the head, and the abdomen convert to one blood point each. The blood can be reconverted to the body part, provided it is in contact with the vampire. If the blood has been utilized or destroyed, the vampire must spend a number of blood points equal to what was originally created to regrow the missing body part. A vampire entirely in this form may not be staked, cut, bludgeoned, or pierced, but can be burned or exposed to the sun. The vampire may ooze along, drip up walls, and flow through the narrowest cracks, as though she were in Tenebrous Form. Mental Disciplines may be used, provided no eye contact or vocal utterance is necessary, although the vampire can perceive her surroundings just fine (but the perceptions are always centered on the largest pool of blood). If a vampire in this form “washes” over a mortal or animal, that mortal must make a Courage roll (difficulty 8) or fly into a panic.

The Body Impolitic
Arguably the most ghoulish of Vicissitude’s gifts, The Body Impolitic allows the user to invest a portion of her sentience in the flesh of her body, then sever it from the trunk to do the Tzimisce's bidding.

System: By infusing an extremity with blood, the Tzimisce gives it awareness and a life of its own. Only one blood point is required, though some body parts can be gifted with more; the smallest of extremities (eyes, tongue, etc.) can hold only one, but a limb may hold two or three depending on where it is severed, the head can hold three, and the trunk can hold as much as five. Once imbued with awareness, the Tzimisce can then remove the extremity (Dexterity + Body Crafts to do so without inflicting one level of lethal damage upon herself) and set it free to do her bidding. When needed, an extremity can tear itself free from the main body; doing so requires two rounds and deals the usual level of lethal damage to the body. The Tzimisce can have as many servitor “parts” as she has extremities to use (and blood points to fuel them). While a body part is detached and still sentient, the Tzimisce cannot regrow it. Disembodied parts are always aware of all other parts of itself, but otherwise have only the sensory input normally available to them. Some Tzimisce will use Vicissitude to craft additional sensory organs onto these extremities to give them the tools to perform specific tasks (mouths and tongues to deliver messages, eyes to spy with, and so on). The master can use Disciplines through a disembodied extremity, but only if that body part can fulfill the Discipline’s requirements (that is, it must have blood enough to fuel the Discipline, must be able to make eye contactif that’s a requirement of the Discipline, etc.) If an extremity uses up its blood points to fuel a Discipline, it withers into nothingness moments after doing so. Independent extremities have one health level each. They are almost preternaturally aware of danger and gain three dots in Athletics. If an extremity is destroyed, it can be recreated by spending one blood point and successfully using Transmogrify the Mortal Clay and Rend the Osseous Frame to shape a replacement. So long as the Tzimisce has a living extremity tucked away somewhere, she can’t fully be killed and may be able to reconstruct herself given time.

Blood of Acid
At this level of mastery, the vampire has converted his blood to a viscous acid. Any blood he consumes likewise becomes acid, which is corrosive enough to burn human (and vampiric flesh) as well as wood. This effect is particularly potent when the vampire assumes the Bloodform. One of the side effects of this power is the complete inability to create new vampires and ghouls, or give blood to another vampire — the acid would corrode them as they drank it. The obvious benefit, however, is that would-be diablerists are likewise unable to devour the Cainite’s blood.

System: Each acidified blood point that comes in contact with something other than the vampire himself does five dice worth of aggravated damage. If the vampire is injured in combat, his blood may spatter on an opponent — foes must make Dexterity + Athletics rolls to avoid the blood, which must be accomplished by splitting their dice pools. (Unless an opponent knows the vampire has this power, she’s unlikely to split her dice pool on her first attack, which causes many Tzimisce to cackle with glee.)

Chiropteran Marauder
The Tzimisce who obtains this level of mastery within Vicissitude learns to improve upon his zulo form, expanding its physical capabilities by melding its form with that of a terrible bat. So fearsome is the Chiropteran Marauder that a mere glance from it triggers eons-old prey instincts within mortals and younger vampires.

System: The Chiropteran Marauder is an evolution of the zulo form; it has all the same advantages, though the Tzimisce must spend three blood points to assume it. In addition, the vampire grows bat-like wings upon which it can fly at 25 mph/40 kmh, and can carry objects (but not manipulate) objects that it could normally bear in two hands. With a Strength + Body Crafts, difficulty 7, it may manifest bony claws along its wings or a fang-filled maw; these new natural weapons inflict Strength+2 aggravated damage. Finally, it subtracts two from all aural Perception checks (but increase the difficulty of visual Perception checks by one), and gain two dots in Intimidation.

Ecstatic Agony
Pain is transformative. Pain awakens primal potential in the tortured flesh. A Fiend with this ability delights in every slash of the blade and caress of bullet, transmogrifying agony into physical prowess and incredible displays of Caine’s Gifts.

System: After spending two Willpower points, the character becomes empowered by pain. Add his wound penalties to all non-reflexive actions involving a Physical Attribute or use of a Discipline. As the character heals, this bonus wanes. Treat Incapacitated and Final Death normally. This power lasts for one scene.

Graft Life to Life
With normal Vicissitude, a Tzimisce may take the arm from one person and graft it to another, but the recipient is unable to control the arm and it soon begins to decay. With this power, the user may take body parts from living creatures and graft them on to others, living or undead, and allow for the recipient to use the new limb. Exceptionally monstrous and disturbing creatures can be created with this power or one may graft extra organs into others, allowing them to function longer while wounded.

System: Removing a limb requires an Intelligence + Body Crafts roll (difficulty 6). Extracting an organ is an extended Intelligence + Body Crafts roll (difficulty 7), with 10 successes required and each roll representing an hour of work. The process of grafting must then begin within an hour, or the limb or organ dies. Attachment is an extended roll of Intelligence + Body Crafts (difficulty 7), requiring 10 successes and each roll representing half an hour’s work. Attaching an appropriate limb, such as a human arm to a human, is difficulty 7. Attaching an inappropriate limb, such as horse legs to a human, is difficulty 8. Inserting organs is difficulty 9. Attaching limbs to a vampire is somewhat easier (difficulty 6). Theoretically, one could put organs inside a vampire, but this has no effect. The effect of attaching extra limbs is entirely up to the Storyteller. Extra arms might help in grappling and multiple attacks and extra legs might aid stability, but the main effect is generally freakishness rather than effectiveness, since coordinating the extra limbs is very difficult. Extra organs grant the recipient an additional Wounded health level per organ, though a maximum of two can be grafted.

Blood of the Earth
The Tzimisce with this power has converted all of her blood into a dark viscous substance far more deadly than any regular vitae.

System: The Tzimisce blood is dark and oily. The gooey blood clings to surfaces and is hard to remove; to do so in a hurry requires an attack against whatever it is attached to with a sharp weapon of some sort. Because of its viscosity, it takes twice as long to feed from a vampire with Blood of the Earth (making it twice as deadly to diablerize such them as well). Most terrifyingly, when exposed to open air, this blood becomes highly flammable; if set ablaze, it will burn in a white-hot conflagration for one round per blood point, doing three dice aggravated damage each round until it burns itself out. The individual Tzimisce is immune to damage from its own blood, though other Tzimisce are not. Blood of the Earth is an automatic effect; once taken, all of the vampire’s blood and all blood they consume is affected.

Cocoon
The vampire can form an opaque cocoon from blood and other fluids excreted from her body. The cocoon hardens after a few moments, turning into a tough, white shell. This cocoon provides considerable protection to the vampire, even shielding her from sunlight and, to a limited degree, fire.

System: A vampire may only cocoon herself, and the process takes 10 minutes. Additionally, creating a cocoon costs three blood points. The cocoon offers complete protection from sunlight, and provides a number of dice of soak equal to twice the vampire’s unmodified Stamina against all damage, aggravated or otherwise. It lasts as long as the vampire wishes, and she may dissolve it at her whim, emerging from a pulpy, bloody paste. A vampire contained within a cocoon may still use mental Disciplines that do not require eye contact or other conditions to be met.

Kraken’s Kiss
The Fiend’s face erupts into a mass of tentacles, a foot in length and similar to that of a squid. These tentacles can be used to grasp and constrict a foe. Moreover, in place of a squid’s suckers are rows and rows of fanged, drooling mouths, permitting incredibly rapid blood drain.

System: The vampire spends a Willpower point and rolls Stamina + Body Crafts (difficulty 8). Success enables formation of the tentacles with no loss of sensory abilities. The tentacle mass can be used in melee (difficulty 5; Strength +2 damage). A successful hit indicates a grab. Feeding begins on the same turn as the initial grab, and for each success scored on the attack roll, one additional blood point can be drained from the victim each turn, as dozens of mouths bite and suck. To break the grip, the victim must score three more successes than the vampire in an extended contest of Strength.

Transcend the Flesh
Initiates to the Road of Metamorphosis knows that the body is irrelevant and can be commanded by a sufficiently strong will. Transcend the Flesh allows the user to exert such delicate control over her body as to expel anything unwanted that might be in her body, be it a stake, a sword in her belly or a poison in her blood. With extreme effort, the user may even walk through solid walls.

System: Expelling large objects, such as a spear in the gut, simply requires a roll of Perception + Body Crafts (difficulty 6). Cleansing oneself of minor object imbedded in the flesh or impurities in the blood is difficulty 7. Purging a poison requires the expenditure of a blood point (which is then vomited up along with the poison) and is difficulty 8. Excising a stake is immensely difficult, requiring a Willpower point and an extended roll of Stamina + Body Crafts (difficulty 8), with each roll representing 30 minutes and 10 successes required. Without any expenditure, however, the character can actually move while staked. This is not real movement per se, but simply flesh- and bonecrafting oneself slowly into a new position. Such movement is exceptionally slow, but within a few hours a character should able to move her arm enough to pull out the stake. Walking through a wall or other solid object requires a minute in absolute concentration, the expenditure of a Willpower point and a Willpower roll (difficulty 8). This also results in a naked Tzimisce, unless the clothing he wears is made from living tissue.

Breath of the Dragon
The vampire becomes like one of the terrible draculs of the Old World, able to exhale a deadly gout of flame. This flame does not hurt the vampire himself, though he may become trapped in flames if it engulfs flammable objects.

System: The flaming cloud affects a six-foot area, doing two dice of aggravated damage to anyone in the flames’ circumference. This fire may cause combustible items to ignite, and it may ignite victims who suffer fire damage as per the fire rules.

Sublimation of the Larval Flesh
A ghoul tells of a battlefield he once encountered deep within the Carpathian rim. There, soldiers from both sides lay dead, their flesh stripped cleanly from their glistening bodies. More disturbing were the strange flesh-colored sacs that hung pregnantly from tree branches above, some pulsing with inner life. He slashed at one within easy reach of his sword and what fell out was the most hideous sort of monstrosity, some half-formed melding of man and beast writhing in a pool of ichor and goo. Its soft, painful mewling brought about a seething response from the other cocoons. He left before seeing what might emerge.

System: The Tzimisce can, with a successful Strength + Body Crafts roll (difficulty 6, five successes required), jerk the living flesh from a subject’s body, immediately dropping him to Incapacitated as he collapses into shock (all health levels lost due to this power are considered lethal damage). The vampire then spends a round shaping the flesh into a cocoon-sac in which she wraps the victim; this requires a Dexterity + Body Crafts roll (difficulty 7). The Tzimisce finishes by imagining a form she’d like the creature within to take (it must be a form the Tzimisce is actually capable of imparting upon the subject) and sealing the cocoon with blood (one blood point’s worth). The cocooned subject will heal normally inside, but remain Incapacitated until at full health. Once he regains all health levels, he may fight his way out the cocoon; when he emerges, the cocoon will have twisted him into the shape the Tzimisce desired for him. In this manner, the Tzimisce can create servants en masse without the need for hours of labor to perfect any single individual. The Tzimisce may use this upon herself; when she does, the cocoon need not be constructed from her own flesh, Tzimisce and she may emerge at any time and in any form she chooses.

Will over Form
Those who have yet to attain this level of Vicissitude are still bound by proximity when using Vicissitude — they must touch and sculpt in order to use the Discipline. A sufficiently enlightened Tzimisce can exert the same level of control with her mere thoughts.

System: A Cainite with Will over Form can use any Vicissitude power without touching — simply seeing the target is enough. If the character wishes to use Vicissitude on herself, only concentration is necessary. Will over Form even allows for Vicissitude to be used through the Auspex power Farsight or various Koldunic Sorcery effects. In this case, however, a point of Willpower must be spent and all effects are at +1 difficulty.

Earth’s Vast Haven
This power, allows the vampire to sink into and disperse himself through the ground. Unlike the Protean power of Earth Meld, however, the vampire actually dissolves his body into the ground; nothing short of a wide-area explosion can affect him, and he may not be dug up bodily. In addition, from sunset to sunrise, the vampire may see and hear everything happening in his environment through his mystical connection to the land. The mere fact that this power exists terrifies many Tzimisce, who are secretly unsure of whether or not the diablerie of their Antediluvian was successful.

System: This power costs six blood points to activate, and it lasts as long as the vampire wishes to remain contained within the soil. As per the Cocoon, the vampire may use mental Disciplines that do not require physical solvency or eye contact. He may communicate mentally with anyone who wanders into the area under which he rests.

Perfect Essence
A Tzimisce with this power has near-perfect control over her blood and body. She uses her vitae more efficiently than ever before (and thus need not feed as often) and can alter herself without so much as lifting an arm. The Metamorphosists strive for this state, but only Methuselahs are thought to be able to achieve it.

System: Perfect Essence allows for impressive effects. First and foremost, any blood spent to heal, power Disciplines or boost Physical Attributes counts double. All vitae taken from a mortal victim also counts double; each blood point taken counts as two added to the character’s pool. In addition, the character automatically detects any special substances or effects in blood she consumes (such as the Quietus power Ripples of the Heart) and may choose not to be affected by it. Any supernatural effects that seek to control or alter the character’s blood are at +3 difficulty, and if an opposed roll is allowed, the player gains three additional dice. Finally, drinking or draining the character’s blood is impossible unless she is in torpor, and even then an opposed Willpower roll must first be made. The character also has an exceptional level of control over her own body. She need no longer touch herself to use Transmogrify the Mortal Clay and Rend the Osseous Frame. In addition, she may have the effects of these applications manifest themselves in a single turn, simply by concentrating and making the appropriate roll.

The Last Dracul
The most fearsome of the Tzimisce's monstrous forms, this power allows the Dragons to assume the shape from which their ancient nickname is derived.

System: By expending six blood points, the Tzimisce grows in size and girth, its flesh sloughs off reveal gleaming scales, wings sprout from its back, and its head becomes crocodilian. Its Strength and Stamina doubles, its scaly hide becomes the equivalent of 4 Armor, it gains five additional “Bruised” health levels, and difficulties to hit it are decreased by one because of its huge size. Its enormous wings function in the same way as the Chiropteran Marauder’s. The dragon uses Strength with the Intimidation Ability and its mere presence triggers an Intimidation check each turn; this is a free action that happens automatically unless the Tzimisce deliberately suppresses it. While in dragon form, the vampire’s blood immediately bursts into flame when exposed to open air, doing damage as described for Blood of the Earth. Those who manage to damage the dragon must take a dodge action to avoid being splashed with one blood point’s worth of dragon’s blood; those who have never fought a dragon before will not likely know to save actions for this eventuality. Even worse for its opponents, the dragon can spit any amount of its blood at its foes as a one-round action, even splitting blood points up among closely clustered opponents. This fiery vitae does damage as described for Blood of the Earth. The dragon cannot consume blood in the normal fashion due to its size, but can supplement its diet by consuming fresh human corpses. Consuming a corpse requires an entire turn’s action and grants the Tzimisce blood points equal to however many blood points remain in the corpse’s veins.