DISCIPLINES

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been introduced. Circumstances may mean that a Spina is forced to perform the introduction himself, but the practitioners of Courtoisie do not forgo the chance to talk first if they can help it. This is not a negotiation — it is often already decided that the conversation will end with a fight. A preceding conversation does, however, ensure that the combat is raised somewhat above the level of two beasts brawling in the gutter. A combat that is informed by the wit and passions of its participants has an elevated meaning for both participants and the ideas they represent.

Cost: 1 Willpower per scene

Dice Pool: Manipulation + Socialize + Courtoisie – subject’s Composure

Action: Instant

To use this power, the character must engage an opponent in polite conversation for at least a few moments, and expend one Willpower to make the activation roll. A rude, silent or brutish opponent does not make it impossible for the Spina to use the power, but the Spina must not be rude to his enemy in turn. However, if an opponent simply refuses to talk at all, this power has no effect — the Spina must get a sense, a “vibe,” from his opponent to hone his Blood against him. Once the power has been activated, its effects persist for the rest of the scene.

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: If the Spina fights the opponent during the course of the night, he is wracked with shame and doubt stemming from his poor performance in the

social arena. He suffers a –3 penalty to all non-reflexive dice pools during the fight with that opponent.

Failure: The vampire gets no benefit from the Discipline.

Success: For each success on the activation roll, the Kindred may invoke one of the following effects in a scene when fighting that opponent:

•Substitute Presence for Strength in a close combat dice pool.

•Substitute Manipulation for Dexterity in a close combat dice pool.

•Substitute Manipulation for Wits when calculating Defense.

•Substitute Manipulation for Dexterity when calculating Defense.

•Substitute Socialize for Weaponry in a close combat dice pool.

•Substitute Intimidation for Brawl in a close combat dice pool.

•Add a +1 bonus to a single attack.

For the purposes of the list above, “a close combat dice pool” indicates the dice pool for one weapon against one target for one scene. The Spina must decide what effects to invoke when he activates the Discipline, not at the time of combat.

For example, consider a Kindred with Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Wits 2, Presence 4, Manipulation 4, Weaponry 2 and Socialize 5. He activates this power, and gets three successes on the activation roll. He expects to be fighting with Strength + Weaponry when he faces this opponent.

For one success, he can opt to use Socialize instead of Weaponry, which increases his dice pool by three. For another success, he can opt to use Presence instead of Strength, giving him another two dice, as Presence is two dice higher than Strength. For his third success, he could opt to use Manipulation in place of Dexterity for Defense, but as his Wits is still lower, it would grant no benefit. Thus, he chooses instead to save that success to add an additional die to an attack later on. This gives the Spina a base dice pool of 12 (4 Presence + 5 Socialize + 3 damage) when using his sword against this particular enemy in this particular fight.

If he had scored four successes on the activation roll, he could have substituted Manipulation for both Dexterity and Wits in Defense, increasing his Defense from 2 to 4.

Exceptional Success: No additional benefit, beyond being able to make at least five choices from the list of options given above.

••• Fair Warning, Fairly Given

There are times when it is essential to attack someone at his most vulnerable, and most practitioners of Courtoisie recognize this sad fact. However, it is most certainly boorish to do so and falls short of the highest standards of polite combat celebrated by the Spina. It is far better if the Knight can magnanimously hand your opponent the chance to prepare. This power allows a Kindred to gain some benefit from his magnanimity, as he draws mystical insight from studying his opponent’s preparations.

The character may cut the preparations short at any time by announcing his intention to fight now. This can be very brief: “Enough delay, Dragon. Defend yourself,” is ample. The character may not, however, attack completely by surprise and retain the bonuses gained from this power.

Cost: 1 Willpower per scene

Dice Pool: Wits + Weaponry + Courtoisie – subject’s Composure + Blood Potency

Action: Instant and reflexive. Though the character must take an action to activate this power, he may devote several turns to the study of his opponent between the time of the activation action and the time when the actual activation roll is made. This facilitates advantageous modifiers, as described below.

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The character gains no benefit from allowing the preparations, and loses the ability to use any other Courtoisie powers for the duration of this combat.

Failure: The vampire gains no benefits from his opponent’s preparations. Attacking quickly would be in his best interests.

Success: For every success the Spina achieves on the activation roll, he gains the benefit of insight into the way his opponent moves and thinks. This benefit takes the form of a +1 bonus to the Spina’s Defense for each success. This bonus lasts for the remainder of the scene,

Suggested Modifiers

•••• Penalty of Discourtesy

Many Kindred, particularly outside the Invictus, fail to appreciate the importance of courtesy. They seem to believe that being rude to their opponents makes them seem somehow more formidable or increases their chances of victory over a rattled foe. Spina with this level of control over Courtoisie are most able to show such Kindred the error of their ways, for being rude to such a vampire makes you very likely to lose a fight.

Attempting to dismember someone cannot, in itself, be considered impolite for the purposes of this power since such an action is intended to work primarily in combat. A statement of disgust or disapproval regarding the vampire’s actions, Allies or fashion cannot necessarily be considered rude wither. Using foul language, however, or simply slinging insults does qualify as rude. If you wish to criticize a Spina without risking the invocation of this power, you must choose your words extremely carefully.

Formally, a Spina can choose to regard a criticism as an insult and demand an apology for the slander. If the apology is not forthcoming, the criticism becomes an act of discourtesy. An apology in this context can be quite brief, however, and does not need to be sincere.

Cost: —

Dice Pool: Resolve + Composure + Courtoisie versus a variety of contesting dice pools

Action: Reflexive and contested. This power is rolled automatically in response to the actions of an enemy to provoke, taunt or intimidate the Spina, in place of any other dice pool that might normally be used to contest the opponent’s action. This power can even be used to combat attempts to terrify or undermine the Knight using Dominate, Majesty or Nightmare. For example, if an enemy attempts to goad the Knight’s Beast using the Intimidation Skill, the Knight may activate this power as a reflexive action to show his opponent the penalty for discourtesy.

If the action targeting the Spina does not allow for a contested resistance, then a Spina with this power may

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choose to substitute his dots in Courtoisie for either Resolve or Composure with subtracting dice from an opponent’s dice pools.

This power can only be employed when the Spina is directly involved in a fight. The enemy who provokes this power does not have to be directly involved in the fighting, however.

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The Spina gains no benefit from the power, and takes a –3 penalty to his next action, as his opponent’s insult surprisingly rattles the Knight.

Failure: The Spina fails to muster the righteous mystic verve necessary to activate this power.

Success: The Spina achieves more successes on the activation roll than the provocateur did on his attempt to goad, frighten or humiliate the Spina. The Spina immediately regains one Willpower point, and his opponent immediately loses one. This power does not allow a Spina to store more Willpower points than his Willpower score would normally allow. In the event that a Knight uses this power while he still has all of his Willpower points, he instead enjoys a +2 bonus to Defense for one turn.

Exceptional Success: The Spina wins the contest against the provocateur and achieves at least five successes in the process. The result is the same as above, but the provoker loses two Willpower points and the Spina gains two. If the Spina is unable to regain either of the Willpower points, he instead enjoys a +2 bonus to Defense for one turn per excess Willpower won.

••••• Barbed Words

At the highest levels of Courtoisie, a Spina’s words alone are deadly weapons. Even if his opponents attack with steel, he can turn their blades aside with a few wellchosen quips, belittling their abilities without even resorting to harsh language.

A Spina using this power does not fight physically. Instead, he chastises and demoralizes his foes’ very flesh with his words. Victims may cough up Vitae or suffer terrible chest and head pains.

Indeed, it is not even necessary for the Kindred to move, or be able to move, to use this power, as long as he can speak. Ferrand, a European Spina elder, is renowned for dispatching his enemies without raising his body from his chair or his voice above a gentle murmur. On one occasion, he defeated and rendered torpid a Sanctified assassin without leaving the game of chess he was playing against the assassin’s employer. He won the chess match, as well.

Cost: 1 Vitae

Dice Pool: Presence + Intimidation + Courtoisie – the higher of the subject’s Composure or Resolve

Action: Instant

The Spina must be able to see his target directly to use this power, but it is not necessary for the target to see the Spina.

The real disadvantage of this power is that it is not possible to use weapons while fighting in this manner, so the vampire does not get the benefit of any weapon bonuses or effects.

This power can only be used on vampires.

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The character is unable to muster the supernatural presence to hurt his foe. The Vitae spent is wasted, and this power may not be used on that same target for the rest of the night.

Failure: The Spina fails to injure his target. The Vitae spent is wasted.

Success: The Spina’s words penetrate the sturdy will of his target. Each success causes the subject vampire one point of lethal damage as his insides wither and split from the destructive force of the Kindred’s mystic voice.

Exceptional Success: An exceptional success grants no special result beyond the formidable damage dealt to the subject.

Suggested Modifiers Modifier Situation

–1 to –4 The character is difficult for the target to hear.

Domus

This Discipline reflects a Malocusian’s connection to the haven he has bound to himself. As Spiders grow older and more powerful in this Discipline, the distinction between the vampire and his haven breaks down.

Before a Kindred can use any of the powers of the Domus Discipline, he must perform what Malocusians call “the investiture.” Investiture requires the Kindred to mark the perimeter of his haven with his own Vitae. The larger the area claimed, the more Vitae the investiture requires. Full investiture (i.e., completely marking a haven’s perimeter) requires several nights and a great deal of Vitae. Even a modest haven consequently requires the Kindred to feed much more than he would need to under normal circumstances. The investiture is something of a rite of passage and sometimes the most dangerous portion of a new Malocusian’s Requiem. Once it’s completed, however, the investiture provides the Kindred with security and power within his haven that other Kindred can only envy.

Each dot of Haven Size requires five human or vampire Vitae for a complete investiture, and the Spider must release this blood from his own body for the ceremony to be effective. The Spider has only as many nights to seed the ground of his haven with blood as he has dots in Haven Size. Spiders with larger havens, worth at least four or five dots, must then acquire and use as much as 20 Vitae in just four nights. Even if the Malocusian has no moral or physical difficulty

with hunting so many targets (or utterly ruining a poor few), the local consequences of such a spree are considerable. Some Spiders cast a large net in those first nights, while others go on a hunting craze in some far-removed neighborhood.

• The Web Trembles

So attuned to his property is the Malocusian that he knows when the boundary of his territory is crossed. The land tells the house, the house conveys the information to its master. The very boards and nails whisper the intelligence to him. In time, many Malocusians come to think of this sensation as akin to the ringing of the dinner bell. Most think of it also as something like a brush against the skin

— subtle, acute and intimate. Any material creature sets off this territorial sense. If the Malocusian in question has some other ability to sense ephemeral creatures, such as ghosts and spirits, even they are detectable with this power.

Cost: —

Dice Pool: Wits + Empathy + Domus versus subject’s Composure (+ Obfuscate, if applicable and activated). In practice, this Discipline is considered to be “always on,” even if the Spider is away from his haven. The Storyteller makes the roll on the player’s behalf any time he has a guest. Due to the sensual connection the Spider has to his web, the supernatural potency of another vampire’s blood

is no help in combating this power. Indeed, Malocusians can instinctually distinguish between the arrival of Kindred and other creatures with this power, in much the same way that the Predator’s Taint informs their senses of nearby Beasts.

Action: N/A

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: The Spider’s sense of his web is numbed by the trespass. He has no idea intruders are present and suffers a –2 penalty to all dice pools related to this power for the rest of the night.

Failure: The Spider does not sense the intruder at all.

Success: The Malocusian knows when and where an intruder has entered the ground he has claimed in his investiture. The moment the intruder crosses the Spider’s blood perimeter, the Spider feels his blood thrum like a plucked string. This effect occurs whether the Spider is awake, in daysleep or in torpor (though he may be helpless to act). This power senses flying creatures (vampires in bat form, for example) as high up as 100 feet above the ground.

Exceptional Success: Achieving an exceptional success gives the Spider a taste of the power that this Discipline grants at its more advanced levels. Not only does the vampire know when and where an intruder enters his haven, he knows where that individual is at all times

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until the intruder leaves. If the intruder is anyone the vampire has ever met, the vampire instinctually recognizes the intruder’s identity, too.

•• The Web Speaks

Beyond simply knowing when the boundary around his property has been crossed, this power lets the Malocusian sense everything that’s taking place throughout his haven, as though the building were a part of his body. He sees, hears and feels everything that goes on within the walls of the house, everything that happens under his dark roof. He senses the rugs beneath an intruder’s feet, the dust as it swirls before a trespasser and the rain as it streaks down the windows. There is no surprising him.

Cost: 1 Vitae per scene

Dice Pool: Wits + Empathy + Domus. For mundane tests of Perception against subjects not trying to be stealthy, this power requires no roll; the Spider can observe the trespassers in his mind as though he were watching them directly. For all sorts of covert actions within the haven, the Malocusian rolls Wits + Empathy + Domus in place of any other Perception dice pools he would normally use in the contest. The Spider can even use this dice pool in place of Wits + Investigation + Auspex to contest Obfuscate and other powers, as described in the “Clash of Wills” sidebar on p. 119 of Vampire: The Requiem.

Though a Spider has an excellent sense of his lair, he can still be fooled into misreading what he perceives. In many ways, the greatest advantage of this power is the massive sensory organ it gives to the Malocusian — he suffers no penalties for darkness, for distance, for background noise or other similar conditions. The house is his.

Action: Instant and contested; resistance is reflexive.

••• Loyal Web

This power allows the Spider to inflict a variation of his own blood’s weakness in reverse: those within his boundaries experience terrible anxiety, physical weakness and, in the case of mortals, intense nausea. Those who stray into the Malocusian’s web often realize too late that they are on cursed territory, where even normally easy tasks seem difficult and challenging tasks become nighimpossible. Intruders find themselves growing dull and clumsy while they’re in the lair of the Malocusian, while he grows more powerful. The house itself seems to oppose all trespassers in subtle yet disconcerting ways: a nail may catch a jacket, a floorboard may give way at an inopportune moment or a bulb may burst when switched on.

Cost: 1 Vitae per subject, per scene. The Spider may continue to apply this power’s effects to more and more subjects provided he takes the necessary action and has the Vitae to spend. Any creature within the haven is an eligible subject.

Dice Pool: This power requires no roll to activate. Instead, the Malocusian sacrifices Vitae to the house (usually by opening a vein and bleeding onto the floor or flinging his Vitae across the walls), and the place becomes attuned to his needs and hostile to the needs of others. Subtle effects drive this home:floorboardscreakoftheirownaccordtofoilatrespasser’s Stealth efforts or the air inside the house may grow stale and dusty during a physical confrontation, causing intruders to falter or stumble. For the rest of the scene, the haven grants a +3 bonus to the Malocusian’s Physical and Social dice pools as though it were a specialized piece of equipment. At the same time, the haven imposes a –3 penalty on the Physical and Social actions of all targeted subjects.

Action: Instant

•••• The Spider’s Cocoon

At this advanced level of the Discipline, the Malocusian literally becomes one with his haven, much in the way that Kindred who have studied Protean can become one with the earth, but with much more powerful results. When fused with his haven, the Spider can do more than sense anything that goes on within the place: the actual structure of the building becomes an extension of his undead body. The doors, windows and fixtures become his limbs, the air becomes his forced breath, the pipes become his veins and every nail becomes a fang.

Cost: 1 Vitae plus 1 Willpower per scene Dice Pool: Presence + Occult + Domus

Action: Extended. Five successes, plus one success per dot of Haven Size of the subject haven, must be accrued to complete this power’s activation. Each roll represents one turn of bloody dissolution.

Roll Results

Dramatic Failure: A dramatic failure at any point of the process ruins the attempt and wastes the Vitae and Willpower spent on the attempt. The Spider is also subject to damage for being forcibly rejected by the haven. Roll the haven’s dots in Haven Size; each success deals the Spider one point of lethal damage.

Failure: The Spider makes no headway toward his transformation. If the effort is abandoned, the Vitae and Willpower spent on the attempt is wasted.

Success: The character makes headway towards his absorption by the haven.

Exceptional Success: The character makes considerable progress towards his assimilation into his haven.

As the process progresses, the Spider’s body seems to dissolve into blood, which soaks into the haven’s surfaces. When the process is finished, the Malocusian’s body is nowhere to be seen. In effect, the entire haven is now the Kindred’s form. He can sense everything going on within his blood boundary, and the house itself becomes his body. He controls the structure of the house and everything in the house as he would his limbs. The vampire’s dice pool for attacks while

merged with his haven in this way is Presence + Weaponry + Domus, plus a weapon bonus determined by the Storyteller based on the fixtures used to attack. Only objects that are installed in the body of the haven may be used by the Spider in this way. For example, chandeliers, doors and shutters may be used to attack, but furniture may not. Enemies within the haven can find little cover and are almost certainly caught by surprise during the initial attacks.

The vampire can use nails in the walls, glass in the windows and any other sharp edges to feed on trespassers in his haven. As with any feeding attempt, the appropriate dice pool must be determined by the Storyteller, but the Spider may attempt to feed blatantly by swinging the sharp edges of broken light fixtures or subtly by extending nails from a hardwood floor.

Damaging the haven does not damage the vampire directly, but it can force him out of the haven’s physical structure. Damage to the walls or fixtures of the haven merely rob the Spider of weapons to use. Fire damage to the haven, however, forces the Spider to resume his own form, which he may do anywhere within the confines of the blood boundary, including the grounds outside the house. The precise amount of fire damage varies based on the nature of the haven, as decided by the Storyteller, but a good guideline is this: once the fire inside the haven is large enough to deal damage equal to the Spider’s Health + Haven Size, the Malocusian is ejected.

••••• The Living Web

This power transforms the Malocusian’s very haven into the geomantic equivalent of the Spider himself: a vampire. The entire area within the haven’s blood-soaked perimeter draws life force and blood from the landscape around it and feeds it to the Spider in his web. When this power is in effect, the Malocusian need not hunt, as he is already passively preying on every living thing in the entire countryside. His haven and grounds maintain themselves perfectly to his standards — his gardens remain in a state of perpetual bloom or naked sorrow, as he sees fit. The whole of the haven estate changes expressions to reflect the master’s mood. The haven even discretely repairs itself of any damage and stores blood for its master.

Cost: 2 Vitae plus 1 Willpower per day or night

Dice Pool: This power requires no roll to activate, but numerous actions are affected or made possible through the power’s use. The Spider’s haven becomes a subtle extension of his psyche, much as the previous power made it a gross extension of his body. The character’s dots in Domus become a bonus to all Social rolls he makes in the vicinity of the haven as the garden grows welcoming and colorful for Socialize rolls or falls dark and fierce for Intimidation efforts. The Malocusian might subtly alter the grounds to draw in animals (Manipulation + Animal Ken + Domus) or dramatically alter the grounds to draw in curious schoolchildren (Presence + Persuasion + Domus).

SPIDERS AND WEREWOLVES

If you’re using elements of Werewolf: The Forsaken in your chronicle, you might suspect that the geomantic forces a Spider manipulates to alter or repair his haven are some form of Essence. Maybe the haven has even become some sort of locus. That’s really up to the Storyteller. If you want to attract a few werewolves into the story, it certainly seems reasonable that the evil, predatory home of an aging monster like a Malocusian could alter the resonance of a site over the years. That, in turn, might draw hungry spirits that terrorize or cooperate with the vampire, or it might provoke local Lupines to investigate the site.

If Essence is important enough in your chronicle to be tracked, then it’s fair to say that The Living Web uses Essence to repair havens. As a rule of thumb, every time this power is used, all the Essence available at the site is used up, even if only one point of Structure is repaired, even if the haven isn’t used for a hunting check. Whenever the mystic properties of the blood are used to tamper with Essence, Essence is sure to be wasted.

The haven also hunts and stores blood for its master, though it has no special ability to alter the nature of Vitae. For example, if the haven is far removed from human society, it may be unable to procure human Vitae. Once a day, while the Spider sleeps, or once a night, while the Spider is out, the haven may hunt for blood from foraging animals, neighbor kids and even errant vampires. As with all hunting actions, no single dice pool is appropriate for this task. However, the haven has the advantage of being able to use its dots in Haven Location or Haven Size to form dice pools as well. As with other hunting rolls, each success brings in one Vitae, which the haven stores within its walls and grounds. Two Vitae may be stored by a haven for each dot it has in Haven Size.

Finally, the haven is also capable of “healing” itself over time by channeling geomantic forces into its form. All damaged surfaces, fixtures and so forth within the haven repair one point of Structure each night this power is activated. Destroyed objects cannot be repaired.

Example: Dorian, an Invictus Malocusian nesting in a forgotten farmhouse, chooses to activate The Living Web upon his return home shortly before dawn. He’s been sensing the crunching of gravel under bicycle tires and the shouts of roughhousing boys in his sleep of late, and he wants his haven to fetch him some of their blood. His player spends the necessary Vitae and Willpower and informs the Storyteller that he’d like to alter the atmosphere of the haven to lure the boys playing on his property closer to the farmhouse with a Presence + Subterfuge + Domus roll — young kids can’t resist a mystery. That’ll be the haven’s dice pool for hunting.