Dare to Walk

the Onyx Path...

Onyx Path Publishing was founded by industry veteran and

long-term White Wolf Creative Director Richard Thomas.
The company has partnered with CCP/White Wolf and
collaborates with other experienced designers, developers, artists,
and writers to bring new (and existing) games like Scion,
Vampire: the Requiem, and Mage: the Ascension
20th Anniversary Edition.
Games from Onyx Path Publishing and
CCP/White Wolf are currently available at
DriveThruRPG.com.
This free RPG Day quickstart for
Vampire: the Requiem features:
* Fully playable excerpts from the updated World of Darkness and
Vampire rules from Blood and Smoke: The Strix Chronicle.
* Character creation for vampires.
* The first two dots of all the revised Clan Disciplines.
* A free copy of the best-selling adventure "Into the Void,
by noted horror author Chuck Wendig.
For more information, visit the Onyx Path
website at: http://www.theonyxpath.com

Credits

Writers:
Reap the Whirlwind: Rose Bailey, David Hill, Alec
Humphrey, Stew Wilson
Into the Void: Chuck Wendig
Developers:
Reap the Whirlwind: Rose Bailey and Audrey Whitman
Into the Void: Eddy Webb and Chuck Wendig
Editors: David Hill and Genevieve Podleski
Creative Director: Richard Thomas
Interior and Cover Design: Mike Chaney
Artists: Avery Butterworth, Jean Sebastien Rossbach, Mark
Nelson, Pat Loboyko, Greg Boychuk, Mark Poole, Pat Loboyko,
Sam Araya

2013 CCP hf. All rights reserved. Reproduction without the written
permission of the publisher is expressly forbidden, except for the purposes
of reviews, and for blank character sheets, which may be reproduced for
personal use only. White Wolf, Vampire, and The World of Darkness
are registered trademarks of CCP hf. All rights reserved. Storytelling
System, Vampire the Requiem, Mage the Awakening, Werewolf the
Forsaken, World of Darkness, and The Danse Macabre are trademarks
of CCP hf.
All rights reserved. All characters, names, places and text herein are
copyrighted by CCP hf.
CCP North America Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of CCP hf.
This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements are fiction
and intended for entertainment purposes only. This book contains mature content. Reader discretion is advised.
Check out White Wolf online at http://www.white-wolf.com

Reap The Whirlwind

Contents
Vampire: The Requiem

Into The Void

32

Themes 4

Whats Inside

32

How to use this book

Treatment 32

Life After Dark

5
5

Rules of the Night

Introduction 4

Introduction 32

A Chapter in Your Chronicle

33

Background and Setup

33

The Cast

35

Prince Tiberias

35

Conditions 12

Harmon Kale (Sheriff)

36

Laws of the Dead

14

Amelie (The Princes Attach)

37

Humanity Examples

16

Vampires of the City

38

Common Actions

17

Miscellaneous Enemies

40

Combat Summary Chart

19

Scene Flowchart

42

Ranged Weapons Chart

20

Scenes 43

Melee Weapons Chart

21

Character Creation

Size 21
Disciplines 23
Animalism

23

Auspex

24

Celerity

25

Majesty

27

Obfuscate

29

Protean

30

Good Night, Sweet Prince

45

Secrets on the Wind,

Like Blood in the Water

47

Pandoras Box

50

Encounter Scenarios

53

Aftermath

57
3

VAMPIRE: THE REQUIEM

Old + New

Introduction

Vampire is a game of visceral drama and personal horror.

Vampire is about sex and murder, about power and wild
defiance. Its about urban squalor and the romance of the city.
Its about whats wrong with you -- yes, you -- and how that
shapes the monster youll become.
Vampire is also about thrilling action and nail-biting
paranoia. Its about dying young and being a great-looking
corpse. Its about acting out in all of the ways we imagine we
would, if only we couldnt see ourselves in the mirror.
Vampire is a game about dead people and it should make
you feel alive.

Established 1856. Thats what the firms sign says. The owner
was established 1856, too, even though his sharp-cut suit was
made tomorrow. Hes one of your guys. One of the sharks you
swim with.
The Kindred are the real predators of the modern age.
Theyre hip to our tricks but theyve got a hundred years of
history behind them. Youre one of them. So, congratulations:
you are the child-stealer, the plague-bearer and the faceless
corporate titan sucking the life out of your own hometown.

Themes

How did you get to be what you are? Were you a good girl,
dragged kicking and screaming from heaven? Or a bad boy,
brought back from the grave cause hell didnt deserve you?
Little of both, probably.
Somebody cheated death to bring you back, and now you have to
make up the debt. You can devote yourself to faith and good works.
Play philanthropist. Play superhero. Or you can accept that youre
damned and get the party started. Piss on the cross. Get some head.
Little of both, probably.

Vampire is built on contrast, taking place in a World of Darkness

with blinding whites and pitch black. Characters try to stay in the
cool, comfortable grays, but they cant hide all the time. And, hey,
they look good in black.

Requiem + Masquerade

What are you going to do to make it through tonight? What

about tomorrow night? And after the deeds are done and your
bellys full, how are you going to live with yourself? What are
you going to do with your damnation that makes it worth all
the sins along the way?
Thats the Requiem.
Only half the question, though. Mortals are dinner but
theyre also what youve got for dates. No matter how callous
you become, youll need to move among them. How will you
keep your connection to Humanity, even as a sham?
Thats the Masquerade.
The song and the dance dont always play well. Devote
yourself to redeeming human sinners and you may discover
theyre the only creatures you understand.
Spend your nights in a vault perfecting your monstrosity
and you may find yourself trapped, unable to flee through the
masses when the hunters bash down the gates.

Reap The Whirlwind

Piety + Blasphemy

How to use this book

Reap the Whirlwind is an introduction to Vampire: The

Requiem which previews Blood and Smoke: The Strix Chronicle.
Blood and Smoke is a reimagined core rulebook for Requiem,
containing a complete set of overhauled rules and a brand new setting.
It replaces the original Requiem core book and is standalone.
Reap the Whirlwind is divided into two parts.
Life After Dark (p. 5) contains all the rules you need to create
your own vampire and play the included story.
Into the Void (p. 32) presents an adventure that kicks off
with the unthinkable: murdering the Prince of your city. And
then things get crazy.
Together, these give you an exciting look into the world of
Vampire, a world like our own, but sexier, glitzier, and much,
much bloodier.

LIFE AFTER DARK

Character Creation

Step One: Concept

Come up with a basic concept for your character. Pick an

Aspiration -- something your character hopes to gain from the
Princes death.

Step Two: Attributes

Prioritize categories. They receive 5/4/3 dots, distributed

among the primary, secondary, and tertiary categories.

Step Three: Skills

Prioritize categories. They receive 11/7/4 dots, distributed

among the primary, secondary, and tertiary categories.

Step Four: Add Kindred Traits

Choose clan, covenant, Masquerade, Requiem, and

Disciplines.
Set Blood Potency to 3. This enables your character to hold
up to 12 Vitae and spend up to 3 of it per turn.
Set Humanity to 5.

Step Five: Advantages

Willpower is equal to Resolve + Composure. Humanity is 7. Size is

5. Health is Size + Stamina + Resilience. Speed is Size + Strength +
Dexterity. Defense is the lower of Dexterity and Wits, plus Athletics.

Clan

Choose the clan to which your vampire belongs. A clan is

an extended family of vampires, with common powers and
sometimes common personality traits. Sometimes, ty work
together. But theyre family, so thats not always the case.

Daeva

Hungry, passionate, seductive. The ones you die for.

Disciplines: Celerity, Majesty, Vigor

Primal, hardy, feral. The ones you cant kill.

Disciplines: Animalism, Protean, Resilience

Gangrel
Mekhet

Quiet, cunning, knowing. The ones watching you sleep.

Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Obfuscate

Nosferatu

Unsettling, mysterious, fearsome. The ones you fear.

Disciplines: Nightmare, Obfuscate, Vigor

Ventrue

Unflappable, domineering, confident. The ones who win.

Disciplines: Animalism, Dominate, Resilience

Covenant

Choose a covenant to which your character belongs. Covenants

are groups of vampires who take a similar approach to life after
death; a combination of political party and support group.
The Carthian Movement applies mortal solutions to immortal
problems with modern and experimental government.
The Circle of the Crone venerate the Mother of Monsters and the
old ways. The Invictus safeguard the Masquerade with old world
tradition, cutting edge intelligence gathering, and ruthless violence.
The Lancea Sanctum are the twisted conscience of the
Kindred, and keep the secret history of vampires.
The Ordo Dracul seek to turn vampiric Damnation into
monstrous Transcendence.

Disciplines

Pick four dots of Disciplines. Three must be from Disciplines

belonging to your characters clan. This book covers only the
first two dots of each Discipline.
Animalism: The ability to communicate and command
animals.

Life After Dark

 Auspex: Sight beyond sight.

Obfuscate: Powers of invisibility and distraction.

Celerity: Inhuman speed.

Protean: The power to change shape.

Dominate: The ability to control the mind.

Resilience: Immense toughness.

Majesty: The power to sway emotions.

Vigor: Impossible strength.

Nightmare: The power to harness terror.

Rules of the Night

The Basics

When your character tries to accomplish something or avoid

danger, you roll dice to determine the outcome. The dice youll
use are ten-sided, and youll roll a pool of them based on your
characters relevant traits. For example, to punch someone in
the face, you might add your Strength Attribute of 3 to your
Brawl Skill of 2 and pick up five dice.
When you roll the dice, each one that comes up 8, 9, or 10 is a
success. Usually, you only need one success to accomplish what
you intended, but more are always better. (Especially if youre
trying to hurt someone -- successes add to damage in combat.)
Any die that comes up a 10 counts as a success, but re-roll
it, potentially adding another success. In fact, if it comes up 10
again, roll it a third time, and so on.
Many rolls will have modifiers, ranging from -5 to +5, but usually
within the range of -2 to +2. These reflect circumstances that make
your characters action easier or harder. You add or subtract the
appropriate number of dice from your pool before rolling.
If modifiers reduce your dice pool to zero, you roll a single
die, called a chance die. A chance die counts as a single success
if it comes up 10. Any other result is a failure, and a 1 is an
automatic dramatic failure.
There are a few different kinds of success and failure:
Success: Your characters action goes off as planned. (Or
almost as planned.) Achieved by having one or more dice come
up greater than or equal to 8.
Failure: Your characters action fails. Sometimes, that means
nothing happens, other times it means complications are on
the way. This occurs when none of your dice are successes.
Exceptional Success: Your characters action succeeds
beyond her expectations. This is achieved when you roll five
or more successes. Your character also gains the Inspired
Condition. She can take this for herself or, if appropriate to
the story, give it to another players character.
Dramatic Failure: Your characters action fails badly... and
things are probably going to get worse. This is suffered under
two circumstances. The first, and less common, is when you
roll a 1 on a chance die. More often, youll choose to turn a
regular failure into a dramatic failure. When you do that, you
get a Willpower point, which can make a big difference down
the road. (In the full game, rather than Willpower, you get
points which help you improve your character.)

Reap The Whirlwind

Willpower

Willpower represents a characters determination to carry

through and see her desires fulfilled. Spending a point of
Willpower adds three dice to most dice pools. Only one point
of Willpower can be spent in this way on a single action.

Types of Actions

Most actions are instant. They take place in a relatively small

space of time. In a fight, an instant action takes up your turn.
An action can also be reflexive, something your character
barely has to think or act to do. Reflexive actions can happen
at any time, and dont take your turn.
Some actions are contested. These work just like instant
actions, except youre rolling dice for your character against
another player or the Storyteller rolling dice for theirs. In a
contested action, victory is achieved by rolling more successes
than the opposing player. Contested actions only take the turn
of the player who initiated the contest.
Characters can use teamwork on a single action. One character
is the primary actor, and her player assembles her dice pool as
normal. For example, Dexterity + Medicine to administer first aid.
However, anyone assisting rolls the same pool first. Their successes
become bonus dice on the primary actors roll. Obviously, some
kinds of action lend themselves better to teamwork than others.

The Passage of Time

Weve talked about turns, periods of about three seconds

each. The games tracked in turns when in combat or other
time-critical situations.
The second important measure of time is the scene. Scenes
are an abstract measurement of time, lasting roughly long
enough to take care of all of the action the characters want to
take part in in a particular place.

Characters

Characters are made up of a set of traits. Some of them are

numbers, others are descriptors that have an effect on other
game mechanics.

 Attributes are raw potential.

Stamina: Your characters ability to suffer physical stress

and power through obstacles.

Skills are trained areas of expertise.

Advantages cover things like how fast a character moves
or how much Willpower she can bring to bear.
Disciplines are the monstrous powers of the dead.

Attributes

Attributes are a characters innate capabilities. Theyre rated

from one to five, and come in three categories: Physical, Mental,
and Social. They determine the power a character can apply
to a task, the finesse with which he can perform it, and his
resistance to harm and interference by others.

Mental Attributes
Intelligence: Your characters ability to recall information,
form plans, or solve puzzles.
Wits: Your characters ability to think on her feet and improvise.
Resolve: Your characters raw determination.

Physical Attributes
Strength: How much your character can lift, and how
hard he hits.
Dexterity: How fast your character can react physically,
and how deft her movements are.

Social Attributes
Presence: Your characters assertiveness and raw appeal.
Manipulation: Your characters ability to appeal to the
desires of others and get them to cooperate.
Composure: Your characters poise, and ability to keep
apparently calm under pressure.

Skills

While Attributes represent innate ability, Skills represent

abilities trained and honed over years. Theyre also rated one
to five.
Skill Dots

Proficiency Level
Novice. Basic knowledge or techniques.
Practitioner. Solid working knowledge or
techniques.
Professional. Broad, detailed knowledge or
techniques.
Expert. Exceptional Depth of knowledge
or techniques.
Master. Unsurpassed depth of knowledge or
techniques. A leader in the field.

Life After Dark

Skills can also have Specialties, which contribute an extra

die when relevant. For example, a character with the Drive
Skill might focus on trucks, giving him +1 when behind the
wheel of a big rig.

Mental Skills

Mental Skills are applications of a characters insight, acumen

and focus, such as examining a crime scene for clues, unraveling
an enigma or diagnosing an illness. If your character tries to use
a Mental Skill she doesnt possess, take a -3 penalty.
Academics: Academics is a broad-based Skill that represents
a characters degree of higher education and general knowledge
in the Arts and Humanitieseverything from English to
history, economics to law.
Computer: All characters can perform basic tasks with a
computer, such as using office programs or social networking
sites. Characters possessing this Skill have the necessary
training or experience to operate a computer beyond the level of
a normal user. With 1 dot, a character can program at a casual
level or replace hardware components in a desktop computer. At
2 dots, the character is a moderately skilled programmer. At 3
or more, hes qualified for work on major software applications.
People with this Skill are often familiar with a variety of
programming languages and operating systems.
Crafts: Crafts represents a characters training or experience
in creating works of physical art or construction with his
hands, from paintings to car engines to classical sculpture.
Characters possessing this Skill typically have the knowledge,
but not necessarily the tools or facilities to make use of their
capabilities. A character might be an exceptional mechanic,
for example, but still needs to sweet-talk her boss into opening
up the garage after hours to work on her friends car.
Investigation: Investigation is the art and science of solving
mysteries, examining seemingly disparate evidence to find a
connection, answering riddles and overcoming paradoxes. It not
only allows your character to get into the head of a killer to grasp
his motives or plans, it allows her to look beyond the mundane
world to guess at answers to mysterious problems, or to have a
eureka moment that offers insight into baffling circumstances.
Medicine: The Medicine Skill reflects a characters training
and expertise in human physiology and how to treat injuries and
illness. The trait represents knowledge of human anatomy and
basic medical treatments. Characters with a low level in this
Skill (1 to 2) often possess only rudimentary first-aid training,
while characters with high levels (3+) are the equivalent of
nurses, physicians or surgeons.
Occult: The Occult Skill reflects a characters knowledge
and experience with the worlds various legends and lore about
the supernatural. A character with this Skill not only knows
the theories, myths and legends of the occult, but can generally
discern fact from rumor.
Politics: Characters possessing this Skill are not only familiar
with the way the political process works, theyre experienced with
bureaucracies and know exactly who to call in a given situation

Reap The Whirlwind

to get something done. Your character keeps track of whos in

power and how she got there, along with her potential rivals.
Science: This Skill represents your characters understanding
of the physical and natural sciences: biology, chemistry, geology,
meteorology, physics and so on. Science is useful not only for
understanding how the world works, but it helps characters
make the most of the resources at hand to achieve their goals.

Physical Skills

Physical Skills are applications of a characters might,

endurance and coordination, such as climbing a mountain,
driving a car or shooting a gun. If your character tries to
use a Physical Skill he does not possess, take a -1 penalty.
Athletics: Athletics encompasses a broad category of physical
training, from rock climbing to kayaking to professional sports.
The Athletics Skill can be applied to any action that requires
prolonged physical exertion or that demands considerable agility
or hand-eye coordination. Examples include climbing a high
wall, marching long distances and leaping between rooftops.
In combat, the Skill is combined with Dexterity to determine
the accuracy of thrown weapons, and is also factored into your
characters Defense.
Brawl: Brawl defines your characters prowess at unarmed
combat, whether hes a black belt in karate, a hard-bitten street
tough or a college student whos taken a few self-defense courses.
Characters with this Skill know how to hit an opponent, where to
hit for maximum effect and how to defend themselves from attack.
In combat, Brawl is combined with Strength for unarmed attacks.
Drive: The Drive Skill allows your character to operate a vehicle
under difficult or dangerous conditions. Characters dont need this
Skill simply to drive a car. Its safe to assume in a modern society
that most individuals are familiar with automobiles and the rules
of the road. Rather, this trait covers the training or experience
necessary to operate at high speeds, to tackle hazardous road
conditions and to push a vehicle to the limits of its performance.
Drive is the difference between a typical suburban parent with a
minivan and a police officer, car thief, or racecar driver.
Firearms: Firearms allows your character to identify, operate
and maintain most types of guns, from pistols and rifles, to
military weapons such as submachine guns, assault rifles, and
machine guns. This Skill can represent the kind of formal
training provided to police and the military, or the basic,
hands-on experience common to hunters, criminals and gun
enthusiasts. Firearms also applies to using bows. Your character
can use guns and bows equally.
In combat, Firearms is combined with Dexterity to make
ranged attacks.
Larceny: Larceny is a broad Skill that covers everything
from picking locks to concealing stolen goods and everything
in between. Most characters obtain this Skill the hard way,
by committing crimes and often paying the price for their
mistakes. Some individuals such as government agents and
members of the military receive formal training in bypassing
security systems and stealing valuable assets.

Stealth: The Stealth Skill represents a characters experience

or training in avoiding notice, whether by moving silently,
making use of cover or blending into a crowd. When attempting
to sneak silently through an area or to use the local terrain as
concealment, roll Dexterity + Stealth + equipment. When trying
to remain unseen in a crowd, Wits + Stealth is appropriate.
Survival: Survival represents your characters experience or
training in living off the land. He knows where to find food
and shelter, and how to endure harsh environmental conditions.
The more capable your character is, the fewer resources he
needs in order to prevail.
Weaponry: As the name implies, the Weaponry Skill
represents your characters experience or training in fighting
with everything from beer bottles to pipes, knives to swords.
While formal instruction in Weaponry is uncommon (restricted
to military and law-enforcement training and a few martial arts),
any character who has grown up on the street or spent a lot of
time in seedy bars has had ample opportunity to learn this Skill.
In combat, Weaponry is added to Strength to make armed
attacks at close range.

Social Skills

Social Skills are applications of your characters bearing,

charm and poise, such as negotiating with a bank robber,
wooing a crowd or telling a faultless lie. If your character tries
to use a Social Skill he does not possess, take a -1 penalty.
Animal Ken: Anticipating and understanding human
emotions is one thing, but being able to interpret and recognize
the behavior of animals is something else entirely. Your
character intuitively grasps or has been trained to read animals
to know how they react to situations. The Skill also involves
innately understanding how the animal mind operates, and
what may appease or enrage beasts.
Empathy: This Skill represents your characters intuition
for reading peoples emotions. For some, its a matter of
observing body language and nonverbal cues. Others employ
an extraordinary sense that helps them divine a persons true
mood. As the name implies, Empathy also involves the capacity
to understand other peoples views and perspectives, whether
your character agrees with those positions or not.
Expression: Expression reflects your characters training
or experience in the art of communication, both to entertain
and inform. This Skill covers both the written and spoken
word and other forms of entertainment, from journalism to
poetry, creative writing to acting, music to dance. Characters
can use it to compose written works or to put the right words
together at the spur of the moment to deliver a rousing speech
or a memorable toast.
Intimidation: Intimidation is the art and technique of persuading
others through the use of fear. Your character can intimidate
someone with a show of brute force (Strength + Intimidation),
through more subtle means such as verbal threats (Manipulation +

Intimidation), or simply through menacing body language (Presence

+ Intimidation). It can be used to get other people to cooperate (even
against their better judgment), back down from a confrontation, or
reveal information that theyd rather not share.
Persuasion: Persuasion is the art of inspiring or changing
minds through logic, charm or sheer, glib fast-talking. Persuasion
is the Skill of convincing others by force of personality alone,
making ones point through carefully chosen words, body
language and emotion.
Socialize: Socialize reflects your characters ability to interact
with others in a variety of situations, from chatting people up at
bars to comporting himself with dignity at state dinners. This
Skill represents equal parts gregariousness, sensitivity, etiquette
and custom. Knowing how to make friends is no less important
than understanding how to treat guests in formal situations.
Streetwise: Characters possessing this Skill know how life on
the streets works and are adept at surviving by its harsh rules.
Streetwise characters can gather information, make contacts,
buy and sell on the black market, and otherwise make use of
the streets unique resources. The Skill is also important for
navigating urban dangers, avoiding the law, and staying on the
right side of the wrong people.
Subterfuge: Subterfuge is the art of deception. Characters
possessing this Skill know how to lie convincingly, and they
recognize when theyre being lied to. Subterfuge is used when
telling a convincing falsehood, hiding ones emotions or
reactions, or trying to pick up on the same in others. The Skill
is most often used to trick other people, but characters also
learn it to avoid being tricked themselves.

Advantages

Characters possess a few inherent Advantages used in play.

Health: Determines the overall amount of physical harm a
character can suffer, and how that harm affects their performance.
Defense: A characters ability to avoid being hurt in violent
confrontations.
Speed: Determines the number of yards or meters a character
can move in a turn without sacrificing their instant action.
Initiative Modifier: Affects when a character takes his turn
in combat.
Size: An adult human has a Size of 5.

Anchors

Vampires are no longer human, but they yet have ties to the
world. These anchors, whether they provoke the vampire to
humane actions or cruel ones, reinforce her sense of self, and
give her the strength to carry on. Accordingly, each anchor
provides ways to refill the vampires Willpower.
(Mortals have Virtues and Vices -- moral strengths and
weaknesses -- in place of these anchors.)

Life After Dark

Masquerade

The Masquerade is the face a vampire wears before his prey.

Its the immaculately groomed executive, the long-haired guru,
or the cute hipster with the black-rimmed glasses. A vampires
Masquerade allows her to operate in human society, without
the herd recognizing her presence.
Any time a vampire overcomes a small hurdle in defense
of her Masquerade, she gains a point of Willpower. When
committing atrocious or existentially risky acts in defense of
her Masquerade, she regains all her spent Willpower points.
Example Masquerades:
Artist

Any time a vampire withdraws from the false life of his

Masquerade and into the world of the Damned, she gains a point of
Willpower. When committing terrible, damning acts in defense of
ones personal identity, she regains all her spent Willpower points.
Example Requiems:
Courtesan
Enforcer
Horror
Manipulator
Prophet
Martyr

Priest

Nomad

Junkie
Investigator

Merits

Scholar

Merits are special distinctions that give characters access to

abilities or resources. Merits relevant to this book are included
with the appropriate character descriptions.

Socialite
Child

Requiem

The Requiem is a vampires life among the Damned. The

enforcer with the calloused fists, the preacher of dark salvation,
the martyr who longs to atone. A vampires Requiem is who she
is in the dark... and to the people who dwell there.

10

Reap The Whirlwind

Disciplines

Disciplines are the disturbing powers of the Kindred, ranging

from controlling hearts and minds to moving in the blink of
an eye. Many are fueled by Vitae, the stolen blood that clots
in Kindred veins. Discipline powers are included with the
appropriate character descriptions.

Action
Combat

Vampires affect civility. Among the prey, they may even

affect innocuousness. But the truth is, theyre creatures of
violence. They want and they take and they hurt. And that
gets them into fights.
Combat starts when two or more people who are, ninety
percent of the time, rational individuals, fail to come to an
agreement, and come to blows instead. Violence, for vampires,
is generally a means to an end.
The first step in starting combat, then, is to determine what
everybody wants. You dont have to be formal about it... just
make sure you know why it is the characters are in this fight.
After that, start tracking time in turns. At the start of the
turn, each player rolls Initiative. Unlike a normal roll, Initiative
is a single die, the result of which you add to your characters
Initiative Modifier. (A characters weapon may also add or
subtract from Initiative.)
After that, players choose actions for their characters in
Initiative order, highest to lowest. When a characters turn
comes up, they can perform one of the following actions.

Attack

A character can lash out blindly, or take careful aim. When

your character attacks somebody, roll one of the following dice
pools.
Unarmed Combat: Strength + Brawl - victims Defense
Melee Combat: Strength + Weaponry - victims Defense
Ranged Combat: Dexterity + Firearms
Thrown Weapons: Dexterity + Athletics - victims Defense
Judge the attack roll the same as any other action. The
damage inflicted by a successful attack is equal to the successes
on the attack roll plus the weapons damage bonus. See Injury,
below.

Dodge

A character can also sacrifice their action to dodge. In this

case, double the characters Defense rating, but dont subtract
it directly from attackers dice pool. Instead, roll the doubled
Defense as a dice pool and subtract the successes from the
attackers successes.
Willpower may be spent to increase a dodge roll. Ranged
attacks cant be dodged.

Injury

Fists and feet deal bashing damage. Weapons, like brass

knuckles and knives, crack skulls and pierce lungs. To mortals,
they deal lethal damage. Vampires only suffer bashing damage
from mundane weapons, since theyre less fazed by pain and

dontdepend on their internal organs. Vampires still suffer

lethal damage from massive bodily destruction, like being hit
by a truck.
A special type of damage, aggravated damage, is only suffered
by vampires when theyre exposed to their great banes, fire and
sunlight. Each vampire suffers aggravated wounds differently.
Flesh may brittle and burn like paper. Tissue may bubble
and stink. Blackened veins may streak across the victims
body. Foamy pustules may taint the area around the injury.
Aggravated wounds appear as manifestations of the natural
world violently eliminating something that does not belong.
If a mortals health track is filled with bashing damage, he
falls unconscious. If it fills with lethal, he dies within minutes.
If a vampires health track is filled with bashing damage, he
remains conscious. If it fills with lethal, he falls into torpor.
If it fills with aggravated damage, he suffers the Final Death,
and his body rapidly decays to the point it would have if it had
been left to rot when he was first Embraced.
Marking Damage: When a character suffers damage, the
player marks off that number of Health points, starting with the
box under the leftmost dot of his Health trait and proceeding
left to right. The symbol used depends upon the type of damage.
Bashing damage is marked with a slash (/) in the first
available empty box. So imagining that Thomas (who has seven
Health dots) had just taken one point of bashing damage, his
Health boxes would look like this:

Lethal damage is marked with an X, and it pushes any

existing bashing damage right on the track (so that it always
appears to the left of bashing damage). If Thomas next took a
point of lethal damage, his track would be:

Aggravated damage is marked with a large asterisk (*) by

adding a vertical bar to an X. It also pushes any existing lethal
and bashing damage right on the track (so that it always appears
to the left of lethal or bashing damage). If Thomas next suffered
a point of aggravated damage, his track would be:

No More Health: Marking off a characters last Health

box usually means the character has become incapacitated. If
that rightmost wound is bashing, he falls unconscious. If that
rightmost wound is lethal or aggravated, the character quickly
bleeds to death. Note that this would mean the character has
no bashing damage at all, since it will always be the rightmost.
These are the rules for humans see below for vampires.
Additional Damage: An unconscious or severely battered
person can still be damaged by further attacks. Without further
Health boxes to mark off, you represent this damage by upgrading
existing wounds. Any new bashing wound upgrades an existing
bashing wound to lethal (make the leftmost / into an X), while

Life After Dark

11

new lethal damage can upgrade older wounds to aggravated

(make the leftmost X into an asterisk). Additional aggravated
damage also converts a point of bashing or lethal damage to
aggravated (make the leftmost / or X into an asterisk).
Healing: Mortals recover from damage with rest and medical
attention. Left to heal naturally, characters recover one point
of bashing damage every 15 minutes, one point of lethal
damage every two days, and one point of aggravated damage
every week. Lost Health is recovered from right to left on the
character sheet.
For vampires, spending a single point of Vitae heals two
bashing damage, or one lethal damage. A single aggravated
wound requires five Vitae and a full days sleep. Aggravated
damage is the only type of wound that leaves a scar on Kindred.

Conditions

Conditions are (usually temporary) states that affect what

your character can do. For example, your character might
defeat a complex security system with ease and be Inspired by
her exceptional success.
A Condition typically consists of a modifier in the +2 to -2
range to a certain type of action, or actions taken with a certain
motivation. Larger modifiers are rare, but exist.
Conditions are resolved and removed when the characters
done something significant to act on the Condition or
addressed the original source. The sample Conditions here
have example resolution Conditions, but you can also resolve
them after other events if it just makes logical sense.
When a character resolves a Condition, she gains a point of
Willpower. For certain Conditions, if a Condition biases her
towards a certain type of behavior... say, a Reckless Condition
that encourages her to throw caution to the wind, she also
gains a point of Willpower.
Youre encouraged to make up Conditions to fit events in
your game. Theyre little reminders of how whats gone before
influences character abilities and behavior.
(In Blood and Smoke and The God-Machine Chronicle,
Conditions help your character gain experience, rather than
replenishing her Willpower. These books also contain many
more sample Conditions.)

Inspired

Your character is deeply inspired. When your character takes

an action pertaining to that inspiration, you may resolve this
Condition. An exceptional success on that roll requires only
three successes instead of five.
Common Causes: An exceptional success, a comrade
delivering a stirring call to arms.
Resolution: You spend inspiration to spur yourself to greater
success, resolving the Condition as described above.
Willpower: n/a

12

Reap The Whirlwind

Wanton

Your character wants, for the sake of wanting. Hes distracted with
temptations of excess and indulgence. Any Composure or Resolve
rolls to resist temptation suffer a -2 penalty. As well, the character that
brought forth this Condition achieves exceptional success on three
successes instead of five, when making any rolls to tempt your character.
This could apply to Majesty rolls as well as mundane social rolls.
After resolving Wanton, your character cannot be subject
to this Condition again for a full month.
Common Causes: A seductive predatory aura conflict, a
failed Detachment roll
Resolution: Indulge in something that constitutes a breaking
point (see Humanity, p.15)
Willpower: n/a

Charmed

Youve been charmed by a vampires supernatural force of

personality. You dont want to believe that anything he says is
a lie, and you cant read his true intentions. The vampire adds
his Awe successes to Manipulation rolls against you, and any
rolls you make to detect his lies or uncover his true motives
suffer a penalty equal to his Awe successes; any supernatural
means you use to detect his lies become a Clash of Wills.
You want to do things for the vampire, to make him happy. If he
asks, youll do favors for him like he was one of your best friends
giving him a place to crash, lending him your car keys, or revealing
secrets that you really shouldnt. You dont feel tricked or ripped
off unless you resolve the Condition. It expires normally (without
resolving) after one hour per dot of the vampires Blood Potency.
Common Causes: The Majesty Discipline.
Resolution: The vampire attempts to seriously harm you
or someone close to you, you make a significant financial or
physical sacrifice for him.
Willpower: You divulge a secret to or perform a favor for
the vampire.

Competitive

Your character must assert dominance and superiority. Either

she gives it her all, or she falters. Any time shes in direct
competition with another character, she suffers -2 on any rolls
where she doesnt spend Willpower. This includes contested
rolls. As well, any rolls to tempt or coerce her into competition
achieve exceptional success on three successes instead of five.
After resolving Competitive, your character cannot be
subject to this Condition again for a full month.
Common Causes: A challenging predatory aura conflict, or
a failed Detachment roll.
Resolution: Win or lose a competition where someone
reaches a breaking point
Willpower: n/a

Dominated

A vampire has given your character a specific command that

she cannot go against. You dont have a choice whether or not
to follow the command your will is no longer your own. If
your task has a natural end, such as Follow that man until he
enters an apartment then call me with the address, you resolve
the condition once you complete it, otherwise it ends at sunrise.
Once you resolve this condition, you cant quite remember what
happened while you were under the vampires spell.
Common Causes: The Dominate Discipline
Resolution: Take more bashing or lethal damage than your
Stamina. Experience a breaking point when following the command,
and succeed at the degeneration roll. Follow the vampires command.
Willpower: N/A

Frightened

Somethings scared you to the point where you lose rational

thought. Maybe youve just looked down at a hundred-story
drop, or seen a tarantula the size of your fist crawling up your leg.
Whatever the case, you need to leave right the hell now.
Your only priority is getting the fuck away from the thing thats
frightened you the hell with your stuff, your friends, and
your allies. If someone tries to stop you escaping, youll attack
them. You cant approach the source of your fear or act against
it and if the only way out involves going near the source of
your fear, youll collapse on the ground in terror.
Supernatural creatures prone to loss of control, including
vampires, must roll to avoid frenzy. This Condition lasts until
the end of the scene; suppressing its effects for a turn costs a
point of Willpower.
Common Causes: The Nightmare Discipline
Resolution: The character escapes from the source of his fear.
Willpower: N/A

Mesmerized

Your characters will is subordinate to that of a vampire.

Youre not obviously hypnotized youre a bit quiet and
reserved compared to normal, but nothing out of the ordinary.
When the vampire who inflicted this condition gives you a
command, you cannot resist. If its something that you wouldnt
normally do, you might look like youve been hypnotized or that
youre sleepwalking, but otherwise you look and act normally.
Once you resolve this condition, gain 3 dice to resist further
attempts to Mesmerize you in the same scene; you also cant
quite remember what happened while you were under the
vampires spell. This Condition fades naturally after a scene.
Common Causes: The Dominate Discipline.
Resolution: Take any amount of bashing or lethal damage.
Experience a breaking point as part of a vampires command.
Willpower: N/A

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Laws of the Dead

Tricks of the Damned

The Blush of Life: Normally, a vampires body maintains

only a semblance of human function. She has no pulse, her body
is room temperature, and her eyes always look a little dry. Solid
food is disgusting to her, and results in immediate vomiting.
However, by spending one Vitae, she can counterfeit life.
She doesnt really feel alive (thats something most vampires
experience only while feeding), but her heart pumps, her flesh
warms, and shes persuasive enough to pass the most personal
inspections.
Kindred Senses: As nocturnal predators, vampires can see in
the dark better than humans. Storytellers are encouraged not to
apply vision-based penalties against them. The vampires sense of
smell is attuned to the scent of blood. She can smell the presence
of blood from about ten yards per dot of Blood Potency without
rolling. If shes tasted a particular humans blood, she can add her
Blood Potency to any rolls to track him by scent. Kindred blood
does not offer this advantage, since its mostly old, dead, and its
smell is a blend of all the vampires recent victims.
Predatory Aura: As rival predators, vampires know
their own. By touch, by sight, by smell. This awareness
is called the predatory aura. In a social situation or a
confrontation, a vampire can manipulate her aura to try
and provoke a fight-or-flight response from the other party.
A vampire can make her aura take on the feel of a Monstrous
Beast, who wants to rend and destroy; a Seductive Beast, who
offers blasphemous intimacies, or a Challenging Beast, who
seeks control.
She lashes out, rolling Blood Potency and one of three
Attributes: Strength (for the Monstrous Beast), Presence (for
the Seductive Beast), or Intelligence (for the Challenging
Beast). The defender has two choices: fight or flight.
If he fights, he rolls Blood Potency plus the Attribute
appropriate to the Beast hes countering with. Whoever rolls
more successes inflicts the Condition associated with their
Beast on the loser. The winner also gets +2 to pursue actions
associated with the theme of their chosen Beast for the rest of
the scene. (Mortals cant inflict a Condition.)
Fighting costs a Willpower point for the defender if his Blood
Potency is less than the aggressors.
If he flees, he withdraws from the situation. In a social setting,
this might mean making a convenient excuse. He takes the
Condition associated with the aggressors Beast.
The Monstrous Beast inflicts the Bestial Condition, the
Seductive Beast inflicts Wanton, and the Challenging Beast
inflicts Competitive.
Physical Intensity: Vampire tales speak of creatures stronger
and faster than anything humans could strive to. With Vitae,
any Kindred can accomplish massive bursts of physical prowess.

14

Reap The Whirlwind

By spending a point of Vitae, he may add two dice to rolls

involving his choice of Strength, Dexterity, or Stamina for
the turn. This does not increase traits derived from these
Attributes. However, it will increase relevant resistances. For
example, a Strength increase will reduce an opponents rolls
to grapple him.
Healing: Vampire flesh wants to return to the moment of its
death. Vampires can heal as described on p. 12.

Feeding

This is the moment it all turns on. The moment when a

vampires teeth sink into the flesh of someone who fears her
or trusts her or doesnt even know shes there. The moment
she tastes his blood. The moment she start to feel alive again.
Vampires call it the Kiss.
Human blood is best warm, from the living. Kindred can
pull a number of Vitae from a mortal equal to the mortals
unmodified Health dots. Every point of Vitae she takes causes
one point of lethal damage.
Humans have different reactions to being fed from. The
victim of a savage attack may suffer lingering fear, while a
donor who gave himself willingly succumbs to a pleasant
languor. These reactions are explored in more detail in Blood
and Smoke.

Daysleep and Waking

Kindred sleep by day. As they dream long, slow dreams,

they appear truly dead to any observer. At sunset, they come
shuddering to life again.
When something disturbs a slumbering vampire or puts her
at risk, roll her Humanity. On a success, she wakes.
Waking, either normally or because the characters slumber
is interrupted, costs one point of Vitae. If the vampire cant
pay this cost, she falls into torpor.

Torpor

When starved or grievously wounded, a vampire falls into

torpor, unable to rise during at night -- or any other time. As
a vampires heart becomes less human and her blood becomes
more potent, the duration of torpor increases. Multiply her
Blood Potency by the chart below.
Torpor can also be caused by a stake through the heart. In
that case, the torpor ends as soon as the stake is removed. In
combat, an attempt to pierce a characters heart is a Weaponry
attack with a -3 penalty. The attack must cause five damage
to pierce the heart.

Humanity
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0

Base Duration
One night
Two nights
One week
Two weeks
One month
One year
Five years
Ten years
Fifty years
100 years
250 years

1
0
Blood Potency Dots
1
2
3
4
5-6
7-8
9-10

Fire

Fire represents humanitys defiance against the dark, and the

things that dwell there. It is therefore inimical to the Kindred.
To determine how much damage a fire does per turn, add the
base damage for size to the damage modifier for heat.
Size of Fire
Torch
Bonfire
Inferno

Base Damage
1
2
3

Heat of Fire
Candle (first-degree burns)
Torch (second-degree burns)
Bunsen burner
(third-degree burns)
Chemical fire/molten metal

Damage Modifier
0
+1
+2
+3

Sunlight

The sun gives life to the world. The Kindred, not truly alive,
must shun it. Sunlight burns them... and as they begin to truly
embrace their inner predators, as the concept of human sin and
even Humanity itself means less to them, it burns all the more.
The type and amount of damage inflicted by the sun is
determined by the vampires Humanity. The frequency with
which the damage occurs is determined by his Blood Potency.
Humanity Dots
7-10
6
5
4
3
2

Damage Type
1 lethal
2 lethal
3 lethal
1 aggravated
2 aggravated
3 aggravated

4 aggravated
5 aggravated
Damage Frequency
Half-hour
Ten minutes
One minute
One turn
2x / turn
3x / turn
5x / turn

Frenzy

The Beast is anger, fear, temptation. And most of all, it

is hunger. When provoked strongly enough, the Beast can
overwhelm a vampires Humanity. This raging storm of instincts
has the vampires best interests at heart, but it doesnt much
plan and it certainly doesnt care who gets hurt.
When the vampire is exposed to strong provocations, such
as fire, injury to a loved one, or the sight of that loved ones
bleeding wounds, he must fight to remain in control. Roll
Resolve + Composure. On a success, the vampires human side
stays in the drivers seat. On a failure, he enters frenzy.
When in a frenzy, a vampire acts on the feeling that provoked
the frenzy. He does so free of moral restraint or long-term
planning. He remains smart enough, though, that he can act
effectively to fulfill his desires, and cautious enough to minimize
risk to himself. Frenzy isnt suicide.
Frenzy lasts until the end of a scene, until another character
calms the Beast with a Manipulation + Empathy roll, or until
the Beast has satisfied its rage, fear, or hunger.

Humanity

Vampires are not human. They were, once, but now theyre
something entirely different. However, to blend in with
mortals, to walk among the flock, Kindred must maintain
perspective and understanding of their former existences.
Humanity reflects this perspective. Vampires that maintain
high Humanity scores live side-by-side with mortals, and can
relate to the living. Vampires with low Humanity scores grow
distant and alien, and lose sight of who they once were, and
more importantly, who they prey upon.
When a vampire faces (or self-inflicts) trauma that calls her
Humanity into question, she hits a breaking point, and must
roll to resist Detachment. Weve listed some sample breaking
points. In general, a vampire must roll when she reaches a
breaking point tied to her current Humanity or lower.
If she fails the Detachment roll, she gains one of the three
Conditions also associated with the predatory aura: Bestial,
Wanton, or Competitive.

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Humanity Examples
Humanity 10 (Five Dice)
One night without human contact.
Lying in defense of the Masquerade.
Spending more than one Vitae in a night.

Humanity 9 (Five Dice)

Watching humans eat a meal.
Committing a superhuman feat of physical prowess.
Feeding from the unwilling or unknowing.
Urging anothers behavior with a Discipline.
Spending an hour in the sun.

Humanity 8 (Four Dice)

Creating a ghoul.
Rejected by a human.
Riding the wave of frenzy.
Taking anothers consent with a Discipline.
Spending most of a day in the sun.

Humanity 7 (Four Dice)

One week without human contact.
Surviving something that would hospitalize a human.
Injuring someone over blood.

Humanity 6 (Three Dice)

Falling into torpor.
Feeding from a child.
Reading your own obituary. Surviving something that
would kill a human.

Description of how each Humanity level affects the vampire

follows.
Ascetic (Humanity 9-10): A rare vampire with this degree
of Humanity goes out of her way to immerse herself in mortal
affairs, and to feed sensibly. Shes poised and confident in her
dealings, shes an expert in the way humans behave, feel, and
think. Gain +2 to any rolls to relate to humans.
Humane (Humanity 7-8): Most vampires in this range of
Humanity are either very good at maintaining their attachments,
or theyre very new to the Danse. She has little difficulty blending
in with humans. She remembers with perfectly clarity what
mortal life was like. She remembers the way food tasted. She
remembers the way sweat felt across her skin. She feels pain for
those hurt by her actions and those of her kind.
Balanced (Humanity 5-6): At this point, shes been around the
block. Most neonates and some ancilla fall into this range. Shes seen
pain and anguish as result of her condition, and is beginning to accept
it as part of existence. She still has no issue relating to mortals; she
just recognizes that shes never going to be one again. Shes selfish,

16

Reap The Whirlwind

Humanity 5 (Three Dice)

Two weeks without human contact.
Reaching Blood Potency 3.
Death of a mortal parent, sibling, or cousin.

Humanity 4 (Two Dice)

Impassioned violence.
Spending a year or more in torpor.
Surviving a century.
Accidentally killing. Taking a leadership role in a covenant.
Learning a dot of Crac.

Humanity 3 (Two Dice)

One month without human contact.
Reaching Blood Potency 6.
Death of a mortal spouse or child.
Impassioned killing.

Humanity 2 (One Die)

One year without human contact.
Premeditated killing.
Seeing a culture that didnt exist when you were alive.
Surviving 500 years.
Creating a revenant.

Humanity 1 (Zero Dice)

One decade without human contact.
Heinous, spree, or mass murder.

and lies like second nature. Take -1 in any roll to relate to humans.
Weathered (Humanity 4): A weathered Kindred has seen
more death and devastation than most mortals will in a lifetime.
Most ancilla fall into this range of Humanity. While not
spree killers, most Kindred at this level have taken lives, and
understand that they probably will again in order to guarantee
continued survival. They see humans as fragile and temporary.
Take -2 in any roll to relate to humans.
Callous (Humanity 3): At this level, a callous Kindred
maintains a cynical and jaded world perspective. Hell step over
anyone and anything in the name of survival, and humans are
little more than tools. Most elders fall into this range. By this
point, Humanity takes its toll, and the vampire appears deathly
and pallid. This appearance isnt unnatural, per se, but it makes
humans uncomfortable. Take -3 in any roll to relate to humans.
Monstrous (Humanity 2): A monstrous Kindred is barely
recognizable as human, unless hes specifically acting the part and
using the blush of life. Hes short-tempered, selfish to a fault, and
will kill to suit minor interests and petty desires. Not only does

he have difficulty dealing with people, he doesnt want to. Most

of the mortals in his life are servants and feeding stock, viewed as
resources at best. Take -5 in any roll to relate to humans.
Animalistic (Humanity 1): A Kindred this close to the
Beast barely registers as sentient most of the time. She can
speak and interact just like anyone else, but she chooses not
to. Every action is a step toward the next meal; nothing but
blood is worth her time. While she could fake humanity with
a bit of blood, she cant be bothered, and instead looks like a
corpse, a statue, a morbid doll. Shes a menace, and crowds
part when she walks through. Your character cannot relate to
humankind. Any such rolls use only a chance die.
Draugr (Humanity 0): A character that reaches zero Humanity
dots becomes draugr, lost to her Beast. She becomes ravenous and
animalistic, no longer able to interact with societyKindred or
mortal. Draugr are forever lost to their monstrous natures; only
the vaguest rumors suggest they can be redeemed. In most cities,
the authorities kill draugr immediately and without mercy.

Common Actions

Here are some sample ways you can apply your skills.
Remember, you can invent your own at any time.

ARGUMENT
(Intelligence + Expression - victims Resolve)
You try to sway someone with a rational argument. (If arguing
with a crowd, use the highest Resolve in the crowd.
Dramatic Failure: You convince them of quite the
opposite.
Failure: They listen, but are ultimately unaffected.
Success: They accept the truth (or apparent truth) of
your words.
Exceptional Success: Theyre convinced, and become a
recruit to your point of view. Though they might change
their minds if they find themselves at risk.

CAROUSING
(Presence + Socialize or Streetwise)
You mix with a group, bringing high spirits with you and
using them to loosen tongues.
Dramatic Failure: A faux pas reveals that you dont
belong... and maybe even hints at your supernatural nature.
Failure: You end up a wallflower, with a drink in your
hand that you dont even want.
Success: You make a single-serving friend, who might be
willing to pass secrets or go with you somewhere private.
Exceptional Success: You make a friend you can contact again

FAST-TALK
(Manipulation + Subterfuge - victims Composure)
You may not be able to win the argument with facts, but you
can try to get out of trouble with a little judicious spin.
Dramatic Failure: The other party has a good idea what
the truth is.
Failure: The other party doesnt believe you.
Success: The other party swallows your story.
Exceptional Success: The other party believes you so
thoroughly that theyre even willing to offer a little aid...
though they wont put themselves at any kind of risk.

INTERROGATION
(Manipulation + Empathy or
Intimidation - victims Resolve)
You try to dig secrets out of a reluctant informant.
Dramatic Failure: The informant is alienated or injured
beyond the point to which he will reveal information.
Failure: The informant blabs a mix of truth and
falsehood -- even he may not know the difference.
Success: You get the information you were looking for.
Exceptional Success: You get the information you were looking
for, and the informant is willing to continue cooperating.

INTIMIDATION
(Strength or Manipulation +
Intimidation - victims Composure)
You try to get someone to do what you want by making them
afraid of you.
Dramatic Failure: They dont take you seriously, even
if you knocked them around a bit. They wont be doing
what you want.
Failure: Theyre unimpressed with your threats.
Success: Theyre coerced into helping you.
Exceptional Success: They develop a lasting fear of you,
which could make them easier to coerce in the future.

INVESTIGATING A SCENE
(Intelligence + Investigation)
You look for clues to whats happened in the recent past... or
tidy up so that no one else can find them.
Dramatic Failure: You find clues, but you contaminate
them, or you leave evidence of your presence.

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 Failure: You find evidence, but its damaged and hard

to interpret. Or you miss a spot in your cleanup that you
wont find out about until later.
Success: You find a clue of exactly the sort you need, or
manage to significantly confuse future investigators.
Exceptional Success: You find a clue, and know exactly how it fits
in, or you leave the scene immaculate and impossible to decipher.

REPAIR
(Intelligence + Crafts)
You try to fix something thats broken down.
Dramatic Failure: The broken objects a lost cause. Itll
never work again.
Failure: Youre stymied by the problem, but could come
back to it in another scene.
Success: You get the thing working... for now.
Exceptional Success: The object works better than
before. It wont break again anytime soon.

RESEARCH
(Intelligence + Academics or Occult)
Using your existing knowledge, you look for information on
a current mystery.
Dramatic Failure: You learn something, but it doesnt
help. In fact, it sets you back. If using Occult, it might
also give you nightmares.
Failure: You turn up a lot of promising leads, but theyre
all dead ends.

18

Reap The Whirlwind

Success: You find the basic facts you were looking for.
Exceptional Success: You find what you were looking for,
and leads towards a much bigger score of information.

SHADOWING A MARK
(Wits + Stealth or Drive)
You follow someone, perhaps in the hopes of ambushing
them, or of finding out their destination.
Dramatic Failure: Youre caught, either by the mark or
some observer thats become suspicious of you.
Failure: The mark senses hes being followed, and
manages to lose you.
Success: You follow the mark to his destination.
Exceptional Success: You find some means by which you
can continue following the mark, such as an unlocked
entrance into the building he arrived at.

SNEAKING
(Dexterity + Stealth)
Youre trying to avoid notice by someone... or multiple
someones. Maybe you want to get into a place undetected.
Maybe youre trying to break out.
Dramatic Failure: You attract a lot of attention... enough
that now its going to be hard to get out.
Failure: Youre noticed, but still have the chance to slip away.
Success: You avoid notice and get closer to your goal.
Exceptional Success: You avoid notice and get away
before anyone has another chance to catch you.

Combat Summary Chart

Stage One: Intent
The players and the Storyteller describe what their
characters want out of the fight.
Decide whether characters can surrender and can
become Beaten Down.

Stage Two: Initiative

Everyone rolls Initiative: the result of a die roll +
Dexterity + Composure. If the character has a weapon
readied, apply its Initiative Modifier.

Stage Three: Attack

Unarmed Combat: Strength + Brawl - victims
Defense
Melee Combat: Strength + Weaponry - victims
Defense
Ranged Combat: Dexterity + Firearms
Thrown Weapons: Dexterity + Athletics - victims
Defense
A characters Defense is normally subtracted from any
attack dice pools where it applies. If she chooses to Dodge,
the defender rolls her Defense as a dice pool against each
attack. Each success reduces the attackers successes by one.
If the attacker is reduced to zero successes, the attack does
nothing. If the attacker has successes remaining, add any
weapon modifier to the number of successes to determine
how many points of Health the target loses. All weapons deal
lethal damage to humans, bashing to vampires.

Stage Four: The Storyteller describes the

attack and wound in narrative terms.
Possible Modifiers

Aiming: +1 per turn to a +3 maximum (aiming takes

a characters action for a turn)
All-Out Attack: +2 with Brawl or Weaponry attack;
lose Defense

Armor Piercing: Ignores amount of targets armor

equal to items rating
Autofire Long Burst: 20 or so bullets, no target limit
pending Storyteller approval. A +3 bonus is applied to
each attack roll; 1 per roll for each target after the first
Autofire Medium Burst: 10 or so bullets at one to three
targets, with a +2 bonus to each attack roll; 1 per roll
for each target after the first
Autofire Short Burst: Three bullets at a single target
with a +1 bonus to the roll
Concealment: Barely 1; partially 2; substantially 3;
fully, see Cover
Cover: Subtract 2 from damage for light cover, 4 from
damage for heavy cover
Dodge: Double Defense, roll as a dice pool with each
success subtracting one from the attackers successes
Drawing a Weapon: Requires instant action
Firing from Concealment: Shooters own concealment
quality (1, 2 or 3) reduced by one as a penalty to
fire back (so, no modifier, 1 or 2)
Offhand Attack: 2 penalty
Prone Target: 2 penalty to hit in ranged combat; +2 bonus
to hit when attacker is within close-combat distance
Range: 2 at medium range, 4 at long range
Shooting into Close Combat: 2 per combatant
avoided in a single shot (not applicable to autofire);
4 if grappling
Specified Target: Torso 1, leg or arm 2, head or heart
3 (requiring 5 successes), hand 4, eye 5
Surprised or Immobilized Target: Defense doesnt
apply
Touching a Target: Dexterity + Brawl or Dexterity +
Weaponry; armor may or may not apply, but Defense
does apply
Willpower: Add three dice or +2 to a Resistance
trait (Stamina, Resolve, or Composure) in one roll
or instance

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19

Ranged Weapons Chart

Type
Revolver, lt
Revolver, hvy
Pistol, lt
Pistol, hvy
SMG, small*
SMG, large*
Rifle
Assault Rifle*
Shotgun**
Crossbow***

Damage
1
2
1
2
1
2
4
3
3
2

Ranges
20/40/80
35/70/140
20/40/80
30/60/120
25/50/100
50/100/200
200/400/800
150/300/600
20/40/80
40/80/160

Clip
6
6
17+1
7+1
30+1
30+1
5+1
42+1
5+1
1

Initiative
0
2
0
2
2
3
5
3
4
5

Damage: Indicates the number of bonus successes added

to a successful attack. Firearms deal lethal damage against
ordinary people. The type of damage may vary against
supernatural opponents.
Ranges: The listed numbers a short/medium/long ranges in
yards. Attacks at medium range suffer a 1 penalty. Attacks
at long range suffer a 2 penalty.
Clip: The number of rounds a gun can hold. A +1
indicates that a bullet can be held in the chamber, ready
to fire.
Initiative: The penalty taken to Initiative when wielding
the gun.

20

Reap The Whirlwind

Strength
2
3
2
3
2
3
2
3
3
3

Size
1
1
1
1
1
2
3
3
2
3

Example
SW M640 (.38 Special)
SW M29 (.44 Magnum)
Glock 17 (9mm)
Colt M1911A1 (.45 ACP)
Ingram Mac-10 (9mm)
HK MP-5 (9mm)
Remington M-700 (30.06)
Stery-Aug (5.56mm)
Remington M870 (12-gauge)

Strength: The minimum Strength needed to use a weapon

effectively. A wielder with a lower Strength suffers a 1
penalty on attack rolls.
Size: 1 = Can be fired one-handed; 2 = Must be fired
two-handed and can be hidden in a coat; 3 = Can be fired
two-handed but not hidden on ones person
* The weapon is capable of autofire, including short bursts,
medium bursts, and long bursts.
** Attack rolls gain the 9-again quality
*** Crossbows take three turns to reload between shots. A
crossbow can be used to deliver a stake through the heart (3
penalty to attack rolls; must deal at least 5 damage in one attack)

Melee Weapons Chart

Type
Sap
Brass Knuckles
Baton
Crowbar
Tire Iron
Chain
Shield (small)
Shield (large)
Knife
Rapier
Machete
Hatchet
Fire Ax
Chainsaw
Stake*
Spear**

Damage
0
0
1
2
1
1
0
2
0
1
2
1
3
5
0
2

Initiative
1
0
1
2
3
3
2
4
1
2
2
2
4
6
4
2

Strength
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
3
1
1
2
1
3
4
1
2

Type: A weapons type is a general classification that can

apply to anything your character picks up. A metal club might
be an antique mace, a metal baseball bat, or a hammer, while
a hatchet might be a meat cleaver or an antique hand-ax.
Damage: Indicates the number of bonus successes added
to a successful attack. Weapons always deal lethal damage.
Initiative: The penalty taken to Initiative when wielding
the weapon. If using more than one weapon, take the higher
penalty and increase by 1.
Strength: The minimum Strength needed to use a weapon
effectively. A wielder with a lower Strength suffers a 1
penalty on attack rolls.
Size: 1 = Can be hidden in a hand; 2 = Can be hidden in
a coat; 3+ = Cannot be hidden.

Object/Creature
1
2
3
4
5

Size
Human infant, pistol
Sword
Human child
Wolf, spear
Adult human, Door

Size
1
1
2
2
2
2
2
3
1
2
2
1
3
3
1
4

Special
Uses Brawl to attack
n/a
+1 Defense
Grapple
Concealed
Concealed

Armor piercing 1

9-again, two-handed
9-again, two-handed
n/a
+1 Defense, two-handed

Concealed: A character who wields a shield but doesnt use

it to attack can add its Size to his Defense, and uses its Size
as a concealment modifier against ranged attacks.
Grapple: Add the chains weapon bonus to your dice pool
when grappling.
Two-handed: This weapon requires two hands. It can
be used one-handed, but doing so increases the Strength
requirement by 1.
* A stake must target the heart (3 penalty to attack rolls)
and must deal at least 5 damage in one attack.
** The reach of a spear gives a +1 Defense bonus against
opponents who are unarmed or wield weapons of Size 1.

Size

Object/Creature
6
7
10
15
20

Size
Gorilla
Grizzly bear
2-seat sports car
SUV
Dump truck

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21

Type

Rating

Reinforced clothing*
Kevlar vest*
Flak Jacket
Full Riot Gear

1/0
1/3
2/4
3/5

Leather (hard)
Chainmail
Plate

2/0
3/1
4/2

Armor

Strength
Defense
MODERN
1
0
1
0
1
1
2
2
ARCHAIC
2
1
3
2
3
2

Rating: Armor provides protection against normal attacks

and Firearms attacks. The number before the slash is for
general armor, while the number after the slash is for ballistic
armor. Reduce the number of damage levels your character
takes by the appropriate number.
Strength: If your characters Strength is lower than that
required for her armor, reduce her Brawl and Weaponry dice
pools by 1.
Defense: The penalty imposed on your characters Defense
when wearing the armor.

22

Reap The Whirlwind

Speed

Coverage

0
0
0
1

Torso, arms, legs

Torso
Torso, arms
Torso, arms, legs

0
2
3

Torso, arms
Torso, arms
Torso, arms, legs

Speed: The penalty to your characters Speed for the

armor worn.
Coverage: The areas of a character protected by the armor.
Unless an attacker targets a specific unarmored location (Specified
Targets, above), the armors protection applies. Wearing a helmet
increases the armors coverage to include a characters head.
* This armor is concealed, either as normal clothing (e.g.
biker leathers) or being worn under a jacket or baggy shirt.
Attackers have no idea the target is wearing armor until after
they land a successful hit.

Disciplines
The Kindred wield strange powers a vampire could
sway mens minds, vanish from plain sight, or manifest her
victims worst nightmares. These powers come unbidden in
the vampires blood, and call on not just his human mind
but the Beast hidden just under the surface. The Beast walks
unseen through the world of men and cows lesser animals.
It slips the bonds of flesh and inspires awe and jealousy
from other people.

Animalism

A vampires Beast is not just a facet of her predatory

nature, but a predator in and of itself and it is top of
the food chain. A Kindred can slip the leash of her Beast
just a little to overpower weaker animals, forcing her will
on them. Most Animalism powers affect predators and
scavenging animals. In a city, the Kindred can call on feral
cats and dogs, pigeons and crows, foxes and more rats than
anyone suspects. Rural vampires can summon bats, wolves,
mountain lions, and even bears any animal that feasts
on the flesh of another.

Feral Whispers

To those she would command, a vampire must first make

herself understood. So it is with beasts as well as men. A vampire
using Feral Whispers overpowers the animals instinctive
reactions and forces it to understand. She can ask questions of
a creature and it must respond as best it can, and with a further
slight nudge, she can compel it to obey her. A canny vampire
can use magpies and crows to spy on her victims from above, or
command a gangsters mastiffs to savage their owner.
The vampire talks to the animal, either using human words or
by making animal sounds of her own. She can command groups of
animals, such as a flock of birds or a swarm of rats, as long as she is close
enough that the animals can all hear her, and she can see all of them.
Cost: None
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Animal Ken + Animalism
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The victim misunderstands the vampires
command, giving false information when the vampire asks, or
obeying a twisted version of the vampires command.

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Failure: The animals fear the Beast, fleeing from a

superior predator.
Success: You can communicate with an animal, asking it
what it has perceived. Most animals can remember what has
happened over the last night. Animals relate what they have
encountered through the lens of their own perceptions
dogs answer in terms of smell and hearing, while birds relate
what they could see. The vampire can also give the victim a
simple command, equivalent to what the animal could do on
its own, such as attack him, follow her then return here,
chew through these cables. The command doesnt normally
persist for more than a night, but the vampire can add simple
contingencies such as forcing the beast to go to ground if
noticed, or to return once the command is complete.
Exceptional Success: The animal is exceptionally obedient to the
vampire, improvising to follow the spirit of the kindreds command.

Raise the Familiar

If a vampire needs an animal servant, death is no obstacle.

This Discipline raises a creature from the dead as her servant,
infusing it with her Vitae and making it more obedient to her
will. The undead creature looks like it did when it died, but
can still function a coyote crushed by an SUV has a tire
track running across it but no crushed bones, and a crow with a
busted wing has bone jutting out of the wound but can still fly.
It doesnt act like a normal animal it doesnt hunt for food,
nor is it spooked by loud noises. It sleeps throughout the day, but
becomes active at night. Even a human observing such an animal
can tell somethings wrong, but most dont take the time to look.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Requirement: Feed 1 Vitae to the corpse (included in cost)
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
The vampire feeds one point of Vitae to the animals corpse.
The animal returns to a semblance of life for a number of nights
equal to (Blood Potency x animals Stamina). Once she has raised
a beast, a vampire can feed it more Vitae; each point ensures the
animals continued unlife as though the vampire had just raised it.
The raised creature gains a semblance of intelligence and
a certain low cunning, enough to follow complex orders that
most animals could not understand, and to interpret the spirit
of commands rather than the letter. Treat the familiar as having
one dot of Intelligence.
Infused with Vitae, the familiar takes bashing damage from
attacks like a vampire, and does not fall unconscious or bleed
out. Unlike a vampire, the familiar continues to decompose.
The Vitae burning within the animals dead veins forges
a sympathetic link it and the vampire. The vampire can use
Feral Whispers on her familiar at any time, over any distance,
communicating silently or issuing commands at any range.
Though she must still roll to see if her familiar interpreted her
command, the animal does not resist.

24

Reap The Whirlwind

Auspex

Auspex turns the Beasts predatory instincts loose on secrets,

finding points of weakness and hidden gems that the vampire can
exploit to his advantage. Auspex is an internal Discipline, revealing
information to a Kindred through visions that range from the direct
to the hallucinatory. Other vampires have no way to know when
someone is using Auspex to discover their secrets, and for that reason
many Mekhet feel the stares and whispered barbs of other vampires
who worry what secrets the clan of shadows will uncover next.
Its easier for a vampire to use Auspex on another person if
hes spent some time in intimate contact with her. The contact
doesnt need to be sexual, any period of platonic physical
contact is enough. Digging a bullet out of someones side or
carefully severing her arm reveals her secrets to Auspex.
Intimate contact gives a bonus to the vampires roll equal to
his Auspex rating.

Beasts Hackles

The Beast focuses on danger and weakness. A vampire who

borrows his Beasts senses can use that focus to know if someone is
about to attack her, or to pinpoint the weakest person in the room.
The Beast is sensitive to things that other people cannot normally
see; using this Discipline can pierce Obfuscate with a contested
Blood Potency + Auspex vs. Blood Potency + Obfuscate roll.
Cost: Varies; the first use in a scene is free, but subsequent
uses in the same scene cost 1 Vitae each.
Dice Pool: Wits + Empathy + Auspex
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The player asks a question as though
he had rolled a success; the Storyteller should give false or
misleading information.
Failure: The vampires senses cloud; his Beast doesnt see
any immediate point of weakness.
Success: The player can ask one question of the Storyteller. The
Storytellers answer should include the imagery conjured by the
Beast to convey the answer. This level of Auspex can only answer
immediate questions about danger or weakness; the sample questions
below cover much of the information the Beast can provide.
Exceptional Success: The player can ask two questions.
Sample Questions
Who here is the most likely to give me what I want?
Blood throbbing through the victims jugular vein. The
sound of jingling coins from the victims pocket.
Who/what here is most likely to lapse into violence?
The victims hands stained with blood. The smell of
gunpowder wafting from the victim.
Who here is most afraid? The smell of urine from the
victims pants. A whimpering sound from the victim.

 Who/what here is most likely to hurt me? Blood drying

on a car crusher. Waves of hot rage boiling off the victim.
Who here is closest to frenzy? The victims face twists
into a frenzied rictus. The taste of hot bile when facing
the victim.
Is a vampire here using Auspex ? A pall of grey
smoke hanging in the air. A feeling like someone walked
over the vampires grave.

Uncanny Perception

The vampire focuses on a single victim, peeling back the

layers of lies and misdirection to the truth underneath. The
Beast sniffs out the victims dark secrets, things that she doesnt
want anyone else to know. What the vampire does with that
information is up to him.
Cost: Varies; the first use in a scene is free, but subsequent
uses against the same target that scene cost 1 Vitae each.
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Empathy + Auspex
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The player asks a question as though
he had rolled a success; the Storyteller should give false or
misleading information.
Failure: The Beast unveils no secrets. Does the victim really
have nothing to hide?
Success: The player can ask the Storyteller one question per
success. The Storytellers answer should include the imagery
conjured by the Beast to convey the answer. This level of Auspex
focuses on questions the secrets and weaknesses of a single character.
Exceptional Success: The images give the vampire further
insight into the questions asked.
Sample Questions
What is this persons mood? A flash of emotion on the
victims face. A smell that the vampire associates with the
emotion the smell of fresh blood signifying rage, the sound
of grinding stone signifying isolation.
What is this person afraid of right now? Shock as lights
suddenly shine on the victim. The sound of dogs barking.
What is this persons Vice/Requiem? The whispering
sound of conspiracy. The smell of drugs wafting off a junkie.
What is one of this persons Derangements? A sudden
feeling of incredible depression. Shifting walls and colors as
if in a hallucination.
Is this person a diablerist? The smell of brimstone and clotted
blood. Thick black blood dripping off the victims chin.
Is this person being controlled by someone else? Marionette
strings leading from the victims limbs up to the ceiling. A
whispered voice that tells the victim what to do as she acts.

Is this person a supernatural creature and if I have

seen them before, what is she? The taste of torn flesh. The
glowing halo of a mages nimbus.
Who here does this person want to hurt most? A bloody
dagger drops from the victims hand, pointing to the answer.
The taste of bile when looking at the target of the victims ire.

Celerity

Vampires can cross vast distances in the blink of an eye,

catch a thrown punch before their attacker has even moved a
muscle, or snatch a gun barrel away from a mans temple before
he can pull the trigger. Celerity makes a vampire so fast that
its as if she never has to move at all.
Cost: None (or 1 Vitae per effect)
Dice Pool: None
Action: Reflexive
Duration: Turn or permanent
Like other physical Disciplines, Celerity has two types of
effects: passive and active. Passive effects are always on.
Active effects require Vitae to be spent and actions to be used.
Passive: Add the vampires dots in Celerity to her Defense, and
to the Wits or Dexterity + Athletics roll when defending actively.
Celerity also permits feats of evasion far beyond human reflexes,
such as dodging gunshots. Any time a Firearms or Athletics attack
denies the character her normal Defense, the attacker takes a
penalty on the attack equal to her celerity rating. The vampire
must still be aware of an incoming attack, and capable of evasion
for the benefits of Celerity to apply. If she is restrained, slumbering,
or otherwise unable to respond, Celerity offers no advantage.
Active: By spending a point of Vitae for each effect, the
vampire may reflexively do one or more of the following.
Immediately move to the head of the initiative queue.
If this function is employed as an opening move, before
combat begins, it is still necessary to roll initiative,
despite being assured to act first. This boost in initiative
lasts only a single turn, after which point characters
return to acting in the rolled order. If multiple vampires
attempt to jump ahead simultaneously, they roll Blood
Potency + Celerity and act in order of their results.
Spend her own action to interrupt the action of another
character. This may be an attack, making it possible to disarm
or damage an opponent in the instant before they act. It may
be a movement, which allows the vampire to dodge harm
merely by shifting out of reach. The decision to interrupt is
made after another characters intended action is declared,
but before it actually occurs (i.e. before they roll). Once the
interrupt action is taken, the enemy must continue with
their action as declared, even if it is no longer viable. Celerity
cannot interrupt reflexive actions, or actions of which the
vampire is unaware. Finally, a character may not interrupt
more actions in a scene than she has dots in Celerity.

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 Multiply her speed by her Celerity rating plus one. For

example, a character with two dots of Celerity and a
Speed of 9 has an effective 27 Speed for the turn. Moving
in this way is sudden, jarring, the vampire appears to
move from point to point without crossing the space
in-between. This can therefore be activated to briefly
avoid detection or to launch sudden surprise attacks.

Dominate

The Beast demands obedience from lesser creatures. It slips

into the Kindreds voice, modulating his tone and his words
to control anyone it can. It progresses from the simple barked
commands of a guard dog or a drill sergeant to creating false
memories of whatever the vampire desires or letting her steal
her victims body to walk in the sunlight once again.

Mesmerize

All a vampire has to do is meet her victims eye to catch him

in her thrall. Her control isnt obvious; she just asks him to do
something and her victim acquiesces. He could unlock a door,
pass her a gun or forget ever meeting her. Some cruel vampires
mesmerize passers-by just to take the rap for their crimes.
Cost: None

26

Reap The Whirlwind

Dice Pool: Intelligence + Expression + Dominate vs. Resolve

+ Blood Potency
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The victim sees through the vampires attempt
to control his mind, emboldened, he gains the Steadfast Condition.
Failure: The vampires victim proves stronger-willed than
shed thought.
Success: The vampire holds her victims gaze for just a
second, but its enough to inflict the Mesmerized Condition.
Exceptional Success: Your control flows over the victims
brain like water. They want to do whatever you say. You can
issue a command in the same action as mesmerizing your target.
Once she has inflicted the Mesmerized Condition, the vampire
can command the victim as an instant action. Her commands
cant be longer than three or four words, and she has to be
direct her control doesnt extend to issuing vague commands.
Follow me, Shoot your husband, and Repeat after me are
all suitable commands, while Forget, Submit, and Do my
bidding have too much room for interpretation. She can even
mess with the victims memory, making one statement about the
current scene that victim will remember as truth. While she can
still only use simple and unambiguous commands, she can pack
a lot of changes into four words: You killed that man and I
was not here combine to frame the victim for murder.

Iron Edict

Once shes got a hotline into her victims mind, the vampire
can take some time to play with his thoughts and memories.
While it takes more of her power to relay complex commands,
she goes from jerking her victims strings to controlling him
like a puppeteer, making his ever movement dance to her tune.
Cost: 1 Vitae; none if victim is in Viniculum with the vampire
Dice Pool: None
Requirement: The vampire must have inflicted the
Mesmerized Condition on the victim
Action: Instant
The vampire can issue a longer command to a Mesmerized
victim. This edict can be up to three sentences long, and can
include a successive series of actions. The command takes
two turns per sentence. As with Mesmerize, the vampires
control doesnt extend to commands that rely on the victims
interpretation. The victim takes the Dominated Condition
and will follow the vampires commands as soon as she finishes
speaking them. He continues to follow the order until he has
completed his task, or the sun rises. A few Kindred use Iron
Edict to issue a simple command, such as Obey my direct
instructions when I give them to you, which effectively gives
them control over the minion for longer than Mesmerize
though it doesnt extend the duration of the Mesmerized
Condition.

Majesty

Majesty amplifies a vampires force of personality, making

people like him and want to make him happy even though
normally they wouldnt give a shit about him. They like him
and want to be around him just because it makes them feel
good. Using Majesty isnt like leaning forward and slipping a
command behind a humans eyes, its arranging the world so
that people will kill or die for his attention.

Awe

Awe shines a spotlight on the vampire even in a crowded

room. Hes the most important person around and people want
to be around him. Awe creates an aura of power, a sense that the
vampires important, like a billionaire playboy or a movie star.
He could be wearing tattered clothes, with open wounds and
his face caked in shit but people still think hes more important
than them, and they want to be around him.
Cost: None
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: Sure, the vampires the center of attention,
but for all the wrong reasons. People think hes a boor or a slob,
grabbing the limelight rather than waiting for it to be shone upon
him. For the rest of the scene, he has a 2 penalty to all Social rolls.

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Failure: The spotlight finds someone else, or the vampires

audience isnt swayed yet.
Success: All eyes fall on the vampire, and nobody cares what
hes doing. For the rest of the scene, he suffers no penalties to
Social rolls from his actions or appearance even if hes just
beaten another man to death or waved a gun in a crowded
nightclub. Given a chance, he can talk his way out of minor
criminal offenses and almost any social faux pas. As the center
of attention, he adds his Awe raiting to any Presence rolls
when talking to people around her. Anyone paying attention
to him subtracts his Awe rating from any Wits + Composure
rolls to notice anything other than the vampire. With a word,
he can summon anyone in the room to his side not by any
mystical compulsion, but by making her aware that he wants
her to approach.
Exceptional Success: It feels good to have people looking at
him. The vampire regains a point of Willpower.

Confidant

A vampire doesnt have to shout to be heard, and in a crowd

that hes already Awed, sometimes speaking quietly is the best
way to get attention. With little more than a soft voice and a
knowing look, the vampire brings someone new into the fold
as a trusted confidant.
Cost: None
Requirement: The vampire must have used Awe on the
victim.
Dice Pool: Presence + Empathy + Majesty vs. Resolve +
Blood Potency
Action: Contested; resistance is reflexive
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The vampire slips up, letting some of what
he wants the victim to feel leak back into himself. Hes affected
by the Swooning Condition for the victim.
Failure: The victim doesnt feel that shes worthy of joining
the vampires inner circle just yet.
Success: The vampire successfully charms his victim. She
gains the Charmed Condition.
Exceptional Success: Its incredibly hard to resist the force
of the vampires personality. The victims Charmed Condition
lasts for nights, rather than hours.

Nightmare

The Beast doesnt need fear. Fear is rational, understandable

a reaction to a presented stimulus. Any idiot can make
people fear them. Nightmare indulges the Beasts desire to cause
abject terror. It starts slowly at first: just for a second, you see a
human face in the path of a circular saw. Your keyboard feels
unaccountably warm and fleshy, but when you look down its
fine. Walking down the street the shadows fall at the wrong
angles. You bump into someone, an old friend from your

28

Reap The Whirlwind

childhood, and all you can do is run and scream. You fall into
the arms of your wife, shaking and sobbing, but shes holding
you too tight and she smells wrong. Your daughter comes up
behind you and sinks her teeth into your thigh. You scream
in pain and bolt out of the door. Looking back, you see your
daughters face.
Only then does the real terror begin.

Dread Presence

Everyone around the vampire feels the world go slightly

wrong as she exudes a deeply unsettling aura. Even if they barely
notice her, they feel a wave of fear and uncertainty. The world
seems colder, everythings just that bit more distant. People feel
like someones watching them even when theyre otherwise
alone, and for just a second they see horrible truths manifest
in the world around them.
Cost: None
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
The vampire exudes an aura of fear for the rest of the scene
that gives her a number of benefits. She adds her Nightmare
dots to all mundane Intimidate rolls. People around her
subconsciously register her as the cause of their fear, and they
shy away from her. Her victims can act against her but their
hearts arent in it they cant spend Willpower to bolster their
actions, though they can still use it defensively. A Kindred can
lash out against this aura of fear with his Predatory Aura, if he
succeeds, he isnt affected by Dread Presence.
As a reflexive action, the vampire can conjure brief illusions.
One persons food looks rotten and maggot-ridden, another
raises her steak-knife but sees a murder victims head on his
plate. A woman reaches for a doorknob but when she pulls
her hand back its covered in blood. These illusions can only
affect two senses each, and must be small no larger than
a small dog, and no louder than a shout. They only last for a
turn or two at most, but theyre always unsettling. The vampire
chooses who can see each illusion, and she can only project one
at a time. Though equal parts frightening and disgusting, the
illusions cannot themselves cause any harm or significant pain.

Face of the Beast

All it takes is a glance, and the vampire can magnify one of

his victims fears to truly horrifying levels. If she knows what
sort of things her victim fears, she can choose to magnify
that fear specifically, otherwise, she inspires an unguided
terror that flares up in the victims heart without her knowing
precisely what hes afraid of. Whatever the case, the victim
flees immediately.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Presence + Empathy + Nightmare vs. Composure
+ Blood Potency

Action: Contested; resistance is reflexive.

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: Something goes wrong. Though the
victim sees visions of his fear made manifest, and stares them
down. He regains a point of Willpower.
Failure: The victims fear troubles him, but he doesnt flee
Success: The victim gains the Frightened Condition. If the
vampire activates Dread Presence, she can designate himself
as the source of the victims fear.
Exceptional Success: The vampire gains a vision of precisely
what the victim is so afraid of. While this has no mechanical
advantage, it gives her something else to exploit.

to draw attention, nobody particularly cares or remembers. If

hes violent towards someone if he punches someone or
starts feeding in a crowded subway station his victim will
notice but everyone else must score more successes on a Wits +
Composure roll than the vampire did on his activation roll to
notice the vampire. The vampires Predatory Aura seemingly
disappears so that other vampires cant sense it.
Exceptional Success: The vampire doesnt stand out to
anyone watching, even if theyre looking at photographs or
video featuring him.

Obfuscate

With just a touch, the vampire can extend the muted attentions
of Face in the Crowd to an object or animal, rather than himself.
His subject fades out if he occludes a desk, people subconsciously
register that its there and wont bump in to it, but they cant
recognize whats right in front of them unless the vampire forces
them to interact with it. Even a forensic team would only remember
seeing a desk if they examined photos of the scene after the fact.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Requirement: The vampire must touch the object he wants
to occlude, in the case of an unwilling victim, the vampire must
roll to touch his opponent (Dexterity + Brawl - opponents
Defense). The person or object cannot have Size greater than
the vampires own (but see Suggested Modifiers).
Dice Pool: Wits + Larceny + Obfuscate
Action: Reflexive
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: Something draws peoples attention to
whatever the vampire wanted to hide. Its the first thing they
notice when they come onto the scene, and they want to find
out more about it.
Failure: The object or creature doesnt fade into the
background just yet.
Success: For the rest of the scene, peoples eyes slide off
the object. The vampire can affect an inanimate object or
animal with the same effects as Face in the Crowd people
subconsciously register that the subject is present, but theyre
not actively aware of it. If an observer is forced to deal with
something affected by Touch of Shadow being thrown into
an occulted table or door, or bitten by an occulted dog that
observer can then recognize the subjects existence.
Since people have a hard time noticing occluded objects,
the vampire can hide behind an object affected by Touch of
Shadow to remain unnoticed. In order to notice the occluded
object, observers must roll Wits + Composure and score more
successes than the vampire gained on his roll to activate Touch
of Shadow. A living creature affected by Touch of Shadow can
see anything else that the vampire has Obfuscated without a roll.
Exceptional Success: The victim of this power doesnt stand
out to any observer, even if theyre looking at photographs or
video featuring him when the power was active.

The Beast is a hidden killer. It lurks just below the surface,

unnoticed by its prey until its too late. Just another man in the
street, entirely faceless. Just another woman passing by. Why
cant you remember what they looked like? One of them turns,
and you cant quite see his face, but hes walking towards you.
Another second and hes grabbed you. His teeth sink into your
neck and all you can think is why wont anyone do anything?
Why wont they help me?
Obfuscate is the reason youll never be sure that youre alone again.

Face in the Crowd

The vampire can turn his Predatory Aura inwards, walking

through crowds of people who pay him no heed. As long as
he doesnt do anything to obviously draw attention to himself,
nobody notices him. Hes just one more person on the street,
part of the night-life of the city. People dont shy away from
him because of what hes wearing or what he looks like. Hes
just part of the city, like the rats and the graffiti.
Cost: None
Dice Pool: Wits + Stealth + Obfuscate
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: Something about the way the vampire
walks or how he looks draws people to him. He sticks out like
a sore thumb. Anyone who was present during the scene will
remember seeing him there.
Failure: The vampires no more a face in the crowd than usual.
Success: For the rest of the scene, peoples eyes just slide off
the vampire. People can tell that someones there, but they dont
remember who he is or what he looks like; hes just some guy,
average height and build, average hair, average clothes. Unless
the vampires doing something to draw peoples attention
pulling a gun, or screaming at people or hes in a place where
someone doesnt expect anyone else to be, everyone around him
ignores him. They dont care what hes carrying; he could walk
down the street with an assault rifle strapped across his back or a
body slung over his shoulder, and as long as he doesnt use them

Touch of Shadow

Life After Dark

29

Suggested Modifiers
-1
-2
-3

Increase the maximum affected Size by 1

Increase the maximum affected Size by 2
Increase the maximum affected Size by 3

Protean

Every vampire is one bad day away from giving in to the

Beast. Some keep the creature leashed within, holding it back
and only letting it out to prey on the weak. Others indulge their
Beast, reveling in their descent from an undead thing yearning
for its grave to a force of savage power. A Gangrel who attains
the pinnacle of Protean becomes a formless creature, nothing
more than smoke and hunger.

Unmarked Grave

With a silent command, the earth itself yawns open to

embrace the vampire. She merges with the ground, becoming
immune to almost any harm. She can remain there indefinitely,
waiting in a cocoon of stone until the time is right for her to
emerge. She does not have to find stone or mud, she can just as
easily slip into concrete as long as she has servants willing
to feed her while she rests.
Cost: Varies; 0 for soil or earth, 2 for concrete, 4 for metal
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
The vampire sinks bodily into the earth, for as long as she
desires. Once interred, shes mostly insensible to the outside
world, though she can remain conscious if she so wishes, and
has a sense of the ground above her shes well aware if
someone tries to concrete over her hiding place. Her Kindred
Senses continue to function, and she remains capable of sensing
the Predatory Aura. Her safe haven means another vampires
Predatory Aura cant force her into a fight-or-flight reaction.
Should someone spill blood or Vitae upon the ground, she can
absorb it. The ground dilutes Vitae enough that it cant result
in a blood bond, but to a Vitae-addicted vampire just the taste
might be enough to drive her out of the ground, thirsty for more.
The only way to harm the vampire is to damage or destroy the
ground she resides in; she takes one point of bashing damage for
each point of Structure that her haven loses. When she takes
her first point of lethal damage she emerges from the ground,
unable to hold herself in.

Predatory Aspect

All the vampire has to do is give in just a little bit, and her
Beast can slip into her flesh, warping her body into a monstrous
form. While every Gangrels Beast is different, the ways it
manifests usually takes inspiration from a predatory animal of
some form. Some twist their bodies to run on all fours like a wolf,
while others take on the rough scales and electrosense of a shark.

30

Reap The Whirlwind

Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: None
Action: Reflexive
By spending a point of Vitae, the vampire can manifest a
small host of bestial traits. When she first learns Predatory
Aspect, she picks three adaptations from the list below. From
then on, she can manifest any or all of these changes for the
rest of the scene by spending a point of Vitae.
If none of these adaptations make sense for the character,
the player and Storyteller should work together to create new
ones, using these as guidelines.
Aquatic: Growing webbed hands or slick scales, the
vampire can swim at the same Speed he can run on land.
Claws: Sharp claws grow from the vampires fingers.
They give a +1 weapon modifier on all Brawl attacks;
as weapons, they deal lethal damage to mortals.
Enhanced Senses: Taking on a hawks eyes or a dogs
sense of smell allows the vampire to hear heartbeats and
see or smell blood as though his Blood Potency were two
dots higher.
Extra Sense: The Kindred grows extra sensory
organs, giving her tremor sense, echolocation, or
electroperception that allows her to see without using
her eyes, and that give her a 360-degree field of vision.
Patagia: By growing a flap of leathery skin between
her arms and torso, the vampire can glide as long as
she falls at least ten yards, she can travel thirty yards
horizontally, and she takes no damage from the fall.
Prehensile Tail: The vampire grows a long, prehensile tail.
She can use it to grab things as though it were an extra
arm, though it doesnt have a hand and cant be used for
fine-motor tasks like unlocking a door or firing a gun.
Quadripedal: Longer arms and shorter legs allow a
vampire to run on all fours like a cheetah or wolf. When
running on all fours, add +4 to her Speed and double all
jump distances.
Climb: The vampire grows hundreds of insect legs, claws on
his feet, or tiny barbed hairs on his body that allow him to
move freely across walls and ceilings without an Athletics roll.
A character can change her adaptations by spending a day in
her Unmarked Grave and spending one point of Vitae for each
adaptation she wants to replace. When she changes adaptation,
the player should work to maintain the theme of a specific
predatory creature though she may pick a different predator
to copy when the vampires adaptations change.

Resilience

The Kindred are walking corpses, free of the frailties of a mortal

form. Their bodies are capable of great endurance, but Resilience
takes that endurance beyond great and into impossible. With

Resilience a vampire could continue to act even when his body

has been reduced to little more than bone and tendon.
Cost: None (or 1 Vitae per effect)
Dice Pool: None
Action: Reflexive
Duration: Turn or permanent
Like other physical Disciplines, Resilience has two types
of effects: passive and active. Passive effects are always on.
Active effects require Vitae to be spent and actions to be used.
Passive: Add the vampires resilience dots to his Stamina.
This can raise the characters effective Stamina above the
normal limits imposed by his blood potency. Additionally,
whenever the character receives aggravated damage, downgrade
a number of points of that damage to lethal before marking it
on his health track. This applies to all damage from fire, as well
as other acquired banes, but not sunlight. Resilience offers no
reprieve from the suns blazing eye.
Active: By spending a point of Vitae for each effect, the
vampire may reflexively do one of the following. Effects last
until the start of the vampires next turn. No effect of Resilience
may be invoked more than once in a scene.
Subtract the characters Resilience dots plus one from
all sources of damage other than fire or sunlight. This
is mechanically, but not aesthetically, similar to armor.
The vampires flesh does not harden, nor do blades and
bullets bounce harmlessly away. Rather, the vampires
body operates despite grievous injury. Even damage
completely by Resilience still leaves apparent wounds.
Huge gashes, shattered bones, and gaping holes are
all typical. Regardless of their apparent severity such
wounds do not inhibit the vampire. These wounds
remain until healed with Vitae (a single point will do),
or until the vampire next slumbers.
Subtract the characters Resilience dots from all damage
suffered from fire (though not sunlight). As with the

previous features, visible signs of damage remain. Even

if a vampire took no damage while dashing through an
inferno, they still emerge a blackened corpse. Visible
wounds remain as above.

Vigor

While all Kindred possess the power to bolster their might in

short bursts, Vigor allows some vampires to kick like a freight
train or rend steel with their bare hands.
Cost: None (or 1 Vitae per effect)
Dice Pool: None
Action: Permanent (or Reflexive)
Like other physical Disciplines, Resilience has two types
of effects: passive and active. Passive effects are always on.
Active effects require Vitae to be spent and actions to be used.
Passive: Add the characters dots in Vigor to her effective
Strength rating.
Active: By spending a point of Vitae for each effect, the
vampire may reflexively do one of the following. No effect of
Vigor may be invoked more than once in a scene. Effects last
until the start of the vampires next turn.
Add his Vigor dots as a weapon bonus to all Athletics,
Brawl, and Weaponry attacks made this turn. This can
put enormous strain on weapons, especially if the tool is
not one generally intended for heavy hitting. Improvised
weapons are likely to break after a turn or two of this
kind of use.
Lift and hurl objects normally too unwieldy to use as
weapons, such as people and even cars. Any object the
vampire can lift, can be used as an improvised melee or
throwing weapon. Improvised weapons have a weapon
bonus equal to their Size. Objects with Size greater than
five deal lethal damage to mortals, while those with Size
ten or more deal lethal even to the kindred.

Life After Dark

31

INTO THE VOID

This isnt the end of the war. This isnt the fall of the Third Reich
with Hitler painting the bunker walls with his fucked-up brains
nobodys going to cheer in the streets. Youre not going to hear the
Lollipop Guild doing its rendition of Ding Dong The Witch Is
Dead. What you did was kill the jailer. Sure, the warden was
an asshole. But he kept all us monsters in check. You didnt think
about that, did you? Now hes gone, the cages are all open, and its
time for the monsters to run free once more. Were all bad, bad
peopledo you really want to see what kind of party we throw?

Introduction

At the top of it all, sitting comfortably at the zenith of

the citys nocturnal hierarchy, is the Prince. The Princein
this city and othersrepresents an unholy host of things
to the vampires beneath him: The Prince is oppression, the
Prince is brutality, the Prince is solipsistic self-interest, the
Prince is hunger and callousness and fascism. (Or, as the
youngest Kindred might say, The Prince is a dick.)
Its all true, of course. The Prince represents all of those
things. He is a corrupt figure, not at all noble. He is mired
in his own desires. The Prince is lord of those younger
than him and bulwark against (or slave to) those elders
above him.
So everyone wants the Prince gone. The covenants dont
like that he pushes his agenda above theirs. The clans not
represented by the Princes own lineage want to see themselves
on the pedestal of power. The elders grow weary that this
wicked upstart is a constant thorn in their side, the ancillae
see themselves as the bloated and discarded middle class, and
the neonates think well, they just think, Fuck that guy.
So it is that night after night, year after year, whispers
circle the citycarried forth by hollow conspirators and
chattering Harpiesof plans to kick the pyramid out from
under the Prince and let him fall on his own sword (or
stake, as it were).
Everybody talks about getting rid of the Prince. Few,
however, actually make it happen.
Maybe in their dead hearts and kinked-up bowels lurks
a glimmer of instinct that tells them the truth: the Prince
is a bastard and monster, yes, but he is also the cork in a
bottle. In the bell of that bottle lurks a grim swarm of horror,
and anybody who deigns to pop that cork will find that the
shadows within are now the shadows without. The Prince

32

Reap The Whirlwind

has been holding this city back from its own baser instincts
for decades now. Hasnt anyone noticed the relative stability,
the continuing Masquerade, the unbroken Elysium? Do
they think that all happens magically on its own? Nobodys
suggesting the Prince is a hero, but to suggest that he doesnt
play his role is tantamount to a childs illusion.
And now somebodys gone and fucked that all up.
In fact, the players own characters are the ones who
screwed it all up. They are the conspirators who bring the
Prince down, not realizing that what theyre doing isnt
setting the city freebut rather, setting the monsters free.
This product is about what happens when the city suffers
a major void of power, and about navigating the horrors that
swiftly move to fill that void.

Whats Inside

This scenario is broken down into three sections:

In this Introduction youll get the background of the story
to come, the full write-ups of the Storyteller characters and
some other general notes.
The Scenes of the story are the heart of the action. Because
of the way in which storytelling games can flow, these scenes
are modular and provide you with a framework upon which
you can improvise, rather than locking you into rigid patterns.
The Scene Cards at the end of the scenario are a quickreference resource for you to use as the Storyteller. If you dont
have the option of printing up the entirety of Into the Void,
you can just print up the scene cards instead and use those to
get the overall gist of the story.

Treatment

The adventure begins with a bang: In the very first scene, the
characters off the Prince. It seems like a moment of triumph,
but the victory lap is short-lived.
Morning comes, and by the following evening, the truth has
been loosed upon the city: the Prince is deadreally, truly,
finally dead. The jailer is gone. The result? Chaos. Vampires
feed wantonly. Political maneuverings cast aside all pretense
of subtletyyou cant call it backstabbing if the stake goes
in through the chest. The clans and covenants all set to a boil:
They want power, and they want it now.

As the nights worsen, as the madness escalates, the

Masquerade strains at its stitches to contain it all. The
human response is already rising to the surface as the herd
unknowingly seeks to countermand the deepening shadow.
Somewhere it becomes clear: the Prince had a very
tight grip on this city. The response to any deposition of
leadership is usually a period of chaos, but this is fucking
nuts. This Prince had something special going onsome
factor of control that went well beyond the norm. And so,
early on in the adventure the players learn the truth: the
Prince had orchestrated power and wrested control from the
other vampires in the city by holding their darkest secrets
above their head. He went well above and beyond the call
of duty in learning the vulnerabilities and discovering the
closeted skeletons of the citys vampires, from the lowliest
neonate worm to the eldest sanguinary scion.
And now that hes gone, the puppet strings have been cut.
But those secrets remain; the Prince had them concealed
somewhere in the city. If the players hope to restore order to the
city and claim leadership for themselves, they damn well better
try to find the Princes box of secrets before someone else does.
Or before the city cannibalizes itself and is left a bloodless
corpse.

A Chapter in Your Chronicle

This game is certainly well-served by becoming an organic

part of your pre-existing Vampire: The Requiem chronicle. To
do so isnt particularly difficult, but will take some maneuvering
to ensure that this adventure is a natural part of the storys flow.
First, be advised that the characters in this game are meant
to be of a fairly high-level. These are not neonate characters;
they are potent ancillae or young elders, most likely.
Second, the conspiracy to bring down the Prince isnt something
someone concocted overnight. Whether the characters birthed this
conspiracy on their own or they are shepherded forth by a Patron
character (the Patron is described later in this document on p. 35), it
didnt come from nothing. The resentment and the hunger for power
have been simmering for a long while. It is worth taking time not
only to think about how this will build up but also taking a number
of game sessions to actually start the ball rolling. Yes, this adventure
begins right in the thick of it, but the overall story doesnt have to.
If the players are on board, you can build up to the first scene (The
Perished Prince) over the course of several game sessions.
Third, its worth putting into play a relationship with the
Princehis demise will feel all the more organic and affecting
if the players get to witness the man in action.

Background and Setup

Some pieces of information should be made available to the
vampires right off the bat, with no roll necessary.

A Hint of the Truth

Characters (and by proxy, their players) want to feel active,

not passivethey should not be dragged along to the truth
but rather shown only the door. Its up to them whether or not
they care to walk through it.
In this case, you want to show them how the Prince has
been keeping order in the city without explicitly stating it. The
backstory is therefore a good place to set this up.
Someone in the last ten years went against the Prince. He or
she (hereby known as The Defiant) stood up against the Princes
presumably draconian policies and, three nights later, was beheaded
on a rooftop, body turned to ash, skull left as a charred artifact. Seems
a not unusual course of eventsdefy the Prince, end up decapitated
but how those three nights unfolded is what was unusual.
Various power players across the city received packages.
These packages were all different, and all seemingly tailor-made
for the recipients.
Each package was reflective of The Defiant in some way.
One package revealed a recorded conversation where the
Defiant badmouthed and conspired against a powerful Crone
Hierophant (who received the tape).
A second package showed a map to (and of) the Defiants
haven and was sent to various neonates across the city.

A third package revealed forensic evidence that the Defiant

was the malefactor responsible for the Final Death of a young
vampire who happened to be the child of a prominent elder.
(And who got that evidence? You guessed it: the prominent elder.)
A fourth package was sent to the Prince. The evidence
within revealed various Masquerade breaches committed by
the Defiant, his coterie and his childer.
So, when the time came and the Defiant wound up headless and
burned, nobody can really say for sure exactly who did the deed because
out of nowhere a whole lot of vampires suddenly gained motive.
The truth of the whole thing is that the Prince was the one who
had all this information and was the one responsible for putting it
into the hands of the citys vampiresbut he put it into his own
hands publicly, thus attempting to draw attention away from himself.
The citys vampires dont know this, of course. Some may
have a suspicion, but thats all they have to go on; the situation
remains hidden behind clouds of rumor. The player characters
probably know the core of the situation: the Defiant went
against the Prince publicly, then was the target of some kind
of smear campaign just before he got his ass handed to him.
If you dont have this story connected to your pre-existing
chronicle, thats okay, we have it covered: the Defiants name
was Kunz and he was a firebrand Carthian who refused to be
contained. The important thing to note is that he wasnt some
small fish in a big pond: he was a powerful ancilla with notable
connections and ambitions. It shows that even those with power
can have it snatched away at the last moment.

Into the Void

33

The Set-Up

The story begins in the set-up. Its where youll provide

the narrative impulse to get the game moving. Backstory is
important, but dont focus on it. The springboard to action
(and thus, player interest) starts here.

Dark Secrets

The Prince possesses a treasure trove of secrets. He has

something on every vampire in the city: haven locations, access
codes, duped SIM cards, recordings, documents, blurry photos,
lettersthe works. He has something different on every vampire.
Before play, discuss separately with each player exactly what he
might have on them. Have the player clearly identify up to three dark
secrets that few others know about the character. (Its ideal if these dark
secrets remain hidden from the other players and their characters.)
The player may have an idea, or may be willing to offer the
Storyteller a little creative license in coming up with some dangerous or
deranged backstory for her character that has yet remained unknown.
If you require it, work a roll into the mix. Have the player roll
her characters Manipulation + Stealth dice pool. Failure indicates
that the Prince had three pieces of evidence serving to illuminate
three of the characters darkest secrets. Success drops this number
to one revealed dark secret, whereas an exceptional success means
that the character was lucky enough to have scraped by without
the Prince ever having any evidence; whatever lies in the Princes
box of secrets is inconclusive and ultimately useless.
Why does this matter?
First, no vampire wants to learn that another vampire holds
secrets over their head. Yes, the Prince gets offed after the first scene,
but it wont be long before the players learn about the box of secrets
(if they didnt already know of it). Clearly the Prince had a threat
in place: you mess with him, you get your secrets released into the
wild. Even if thats not the case, that still means the characters
darkest secrets remain out there for any other vampire to discover.
Second, the final scene of this pieceprovided the
characters make it that farreveals a pivotal problem. The
players characters dont know one anothers dark secrets
though, lets be honest, they probably want to. That final scene,
when the vampires discover the box, is a turning point. Do they
agree to burn the box? Throw the secrets wide open? How can
they negotiate one anothers vulnerabilities? Its like a minefield.
Now, if youre not really into those games where treachery and
duplicity come into play at your own gaming table, we understand.
In that case, we recommend removing the characters from this
equation. Reframe the story so the reason the characters are the
ones to go after the Prince is because they have nothing to lose.
He never got secrets on any of them and so they remain protected.

Motivations: Whats at Stake?

Killing another vampire is a big deal. And its generally a big nono in terms of keeping order and maintaining the Masquerade.
Killing the Prince is therefore the extreme fringe of this if

34

Reap The Whirlwind

murdering a common vampire is a scary proposition, offing the

Prince is pretty batshit.
Thus its important upfront to establish the motivations of
the characters. They arent just doing this for kicks. This is
serious business that demands serious motive.
Its okay if each character has a separate motive, but its just
as okay if they share a single motive. (In the latter case, its
recommended that the characters belong to one coterie as
opposed to merely being co-conspirators).
Here youll find a handful of potential motivations that
drive the characters. This is not an exhaustive list and youre
encouraged to come up with your own. Moreover, they arent
exclusive to one another and in many cases can be combined
to form an even more powerful motive.
Reward. Some vampires have moved past material reward,
but lets be honest: most havent. Money is great. So is
territory. And fast cars. And blood dolls. A vampire may be
willing to off the Prince for a rewardmind you, its probably
a very big reward, but that makes the sting all the sweeter. The
important thing to note here is that reward as motivation
means that the task at hand is externally-driven; killing the
Prince is, for the character, nothing personal. Someone else
is the one pointing the character like a gun (and here well
refer you to the Patron section on p. 35).
Status and Allies. Whats often more important than
material reward is political and social reward. A vampire is
only as good as her place in the hierarchy, and if offing the
Prince improves that for her in a big way, the idea becomes
a lot more seductive. Note that this could go either way:
its possible that the character has been put to the task by
another individual. Destroy the Prince and the Bishopric
awaits you, or Cast him into Final Death and I shall owe
you the biggest favor you could imagine. Alternatively, the
character may believe that offing the Prince will yield status
and allies in much the same way that a knight slaying a
dragon might be viewed as a hero. Obliterating the Prince
is surely the way toward a bump in status, is it not?
Secrets. In general, the citys vampires dont know that
the Prince has a box of secretsand those that do dont
necessarily know he has something on everyone. It remains
possible, however, that one or all of the characters do
know this. If one of them thought to stand against the
Prince (perhaps on a political issue), then its likely that
the Prince would have issued a warning that hinted at his
cache of dark secrets. As a result, its very possible that the
motivation to attack and destroy the Prince is to reclaim
and liberate those secrets for themselveseither to bury
their own dark secrets or to exploit the secrets of others.
Revenge. Any Prince makes enemies. You cant make
a city without breaking a few heads. As such, revenge
represents a perfectly viable motive behind his execution.
If a character doesnt like how the Prince done her wrong,
well, revenge is a dish best served with an axe to the neck.

 Religion. Its nave to think that only humans kill one another
over religionvampires, already driven by their most basic
instincts, often view their religious beliefs with an almost
reptilian sense of protectiveness. Consider that the Prince (as
hes shown here) is an atheist capitalist whose only gods were
blood and money. His policies on the two ostensibly religious
covenants within the city kept them largely politically
neutered. It makes sense, then, that a religious vampire (or a
character hired by just such a religious character) would want
him out of the picture. Alternately, if youre using a Prince
character of your own design, that Prince might very well be
a Crone or one of the Sanctified, earning his own brand of
enmity from the other side (think religious crusade).
Puppet. Blood is addictive, and a lot of vampires are on
the hook for it: many, in fact, end up in service to other
vampires. One of the characters may very well be acting
at the behest of a vampiric master: a mad elder, a crass
Archbishop or a callous Hierophant.
Something Far More Sinister. Killing the Prince is a
significant enough event that it may demand a truly sinister
reason. In this, you have unlimited options. Is the Prince
a sacrifice for some kind of blood demon? Is one of the
characters a diablerist? Perhaps the murder of the Prince is
driven by the mysterious sect known as VII, or one of the

characters is possessed and controlled by a foul Strix spirit.

It could even be that one of the conspirator characters is
nothing more than an entropy-loving sociopathic monster
whose only desire is to see the city go down in flames of chaos.

The Patron

This story works well without a patron characteras noted,

offing the Prince is a big damn deal and is very likely born of
personal motivations.
Of course, nobody said those personal motivations had to
be from the players charactersits possible that a Storyteller
character in the city is the one harboring said motivations, and
this character can then become the groups patron.
Why would a Patron have the characters perform this onerous,
odious task? Check the motivations listed above and choose
one for the patron; is it personal? Infernal? Political or religious?
The other question to ask is: why is the patron figure not
performing the task himself? Is he afraid of getting caught? Is
he trying to create an alibi for himself?
The patron neednt be a single character. This conspiracy
may be born of an entire covenant. If the Dragons in a city
decide that they want the Prince cast down, then they might
all be in on it.

The Cast
Below is a cast you can use for Into the Void. Weve only statted
out a handful of characters, but below that you will find a list of other
vampires that can fill in the remainder of the citys hierarchy if
you dont have one ready to go. These vampires do not receive any
stats, but each get a paragraph or so of information to help you drop
them into a scene or two. (Obviously, should they become more
important, feel free to give them stats when appropriate.)

Prince Tiberias

Quotes: Oh-ho-ho. Come in. Have a drink. Its been too long.
Whatll you have? Blood of an Englishman? (Socialize)
You have no idea what Hell youve opened up. Not just for
yourselves, but for the whole city. Would you burn down a forest
just to get a single fox? (Intimidation or Empathy)
Please. This has gone too far. You dont want to do this. I can
help you. I can offer you so many things. Will you listen? Will you
wait? (Persuasion)
Description: Tiberias is a hearty, physically robust rulera
plump gut beneath a broad chest, a tangled top of red hair
(coupled with a sideburns that look like fire leaping off his
rough-hewn face), and hands that could crush a monkey skull.
He carries himself with a rakish, almost drunken charm.
It is a ruse, at least in part. Tiberias pretends to rule as a sloppy,
sometimes slovenly Princehe enjoys his food and his wine, but

Into the Void

35

most of all he seems to enjoy ruling by letting things fall as they

may. In reality, hes a sharp and vicious manthe fat-bellied spider
at the center of a very complicated web. He is a man who, with
his box of secrets, is running a very long con, and who governs
more behind the scenes than up front.
Its earned him a great deal of enmity, though few Princes
can say they escape each night without added scornbut
certainly many of the vampires in the city believe that Hell
holds a special place for Tiberias.
Storytelling Hints: Imagine that an old English king has a few
flagons of wine gurgling around his gut and you come to understand
exactly how Tiberias acts most of the timethat is, until he is
somehow cornered or forced into acting like a Prince. At that point,
the illusionary fog clears, the lips purse or scowl, and his eyes darken.
Name: Tiberias
Concept: Prince That Got Himself Dead
Clan: Ventrue
Mental Attributes: Intelligence 4, Wits 5, Resolve 3
Physical Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 4, Stamina 5
Social Attributes: Presence 5, Manipulation 3,
Composure 4
Mental Skills: Academics 2, Computer 1, Investigation 3,
Occult 3, Politics 5
Physical Skills: Athletics 3, Brawl 5, Drive 1, Firearms 1,
Larceny 2, Stealth 3, Survival 3, Weaponry 5
Social Skills: Animal Ken 2, Empathy 4, Expression 3,
Intimidation 5, Persuasion 5, Socialize 5, Streetwise 3,
Subterfuge 4
Disciplines: Animalism 2, Dominate 2, Majesty 2,
Resilience 2, Vigor 3
Willpower: 7
Morality: 4
Initiative: 8
Defense: 7
Speed: 13
Health: 10
Blood Potency: 12
Weapons/Attacks
Type
VigorJuiced
Haymaker

Civil War
Saber

36

Damage Range Dice

Pool
3(L)
n/a
12

2(L)

Reap The Whirlwind

n/a

12

Special
Must spend
Willpower
point to utilize
Haymaker
maneuver

Harmon Kale (Sheriff)

Quotes: Citys fucked. Plunged into chaos and darkness because

of what you done. Thats unacceptable. You violated the peace, so
now I violate you. (Intimidation)
Only person I trust to step into the void on this one is me. Im
making a play for the city, an Im the only one who knows how
its really done. (Politics)
I can give you the carrot, or I can give you the stick. The carrot
is you help me lock this city down and I give you some territory,
maybe a better title. The stick is well, we dont talk about the
stick. (Persuasion)
Description: Kales built like a fire-plug: round chest, meaty
fists, bulldog face. He isnt particularly charismatic, nor is he
all that attractiveits why the role of sheriff has been ideal
for him. It grants him a measure of power and authority over
the citys vampires without making him the face of the city.
He can operate in shadow, be equal parts tough goon and
long arm of the law, and play good cop/bad cop all by himself.
Hes long been the Princes right hand man when it comes to
keeping order in the city; Kales been the one who has done
most of the collection for the Princes mighty box of secrets.
Kale is equal parts Sheriff and Head of the Secret Police.
Thing is, Kales always wanted more. He has long felt that in
reality, hes been the one keeping the cap on thingsthe Prince
has just been a figurehead. A very important figurehead, no
doubt, but hes been the guy with his hands on the reins, right?
It doesnt matter if its true or not. What matters is that, despite
being the Princes go-to guy and being the one who has collected
most of the Princes prized collection, Kale has no idea where the

Prince actually keeps this mythic collection of secrets.

He knows that if he can get to it, itll put him in a position of
unparalleled powermore specifically, itll allow him to claim the
mantle of Prince. A curious thing: Kale doesnt really want power for
the sake of power. He finds it distasteful. But he thrives on authority
and is obsessed with keeping order, which is what fuels his drive.
Storytelling Hints: Kale is gruff and straightforward, but
that doesnt mean more isnt going on beneath the surface.
Hes always playing an angle, and is far craftier than he seems.
Hes got the demeanor (and face) of a bulldog, true. But hes
got the mind and heart of a fox.
Name: Harmon Kale
Concept: Beleaguered Sheriff
Clan: Mekhet
Mental Attributes: Intelligence 4, Wits 4, Resolve 4
Physical Attributes: Strength 5, Dexterity 3, Stamina 5
Social Attributes: Presence 4, Manipulation 3,
Composure 4
Mental Skills: Computer 2, Crafts 2, Investigation 5,
Medicine 1, Occult 3, Politics 3
Physical Skills: Athletics 3, Brawl 4, Drive 3, Firearms 3,
Larceny 3, Stealth 5, Survival 2, Weaponry 4
Social Skills: Empathy 3, Intimidation 5, Persuasion 3,
Socialize 3, Streetwise 5, Subterfuge 5
Disciplines: Auspex 2, Celerity 5, Obfuscate 2
Willpower: 8
Humanity: 5
Initiative: 9
Defense: 6
Speed: 13
Health: 10
Blood Potency: 5
Weapons/Attacks
Type

Damage Range

Remington
M870 12
Gauge

4(L)

20/40/80

Dice
Pool
6

Special

Amelie (The Princes Attach)

Quotes: Hey, to hell with you. Im free, and death is short, and
now its every blood junkie for herself. (Politics)
I hold the keys to the kingdom. You didnt know that, do you?
(Subterfuge)

Tiberias, he loved me. He trusted me. He made me his. And so

he gave me the greatest secret in the city, and now Im going to use it
to keep my head attached to my shoulders. The bidding starts in one
hour. (Persuasion)
Description: Amelie is a waifish pixie-girl with closecropped dark hair, wearing a black pinstripe suit just a bit
too large for her. (This was what Tiberias demanded she
wear, and if the characters catch her unawares, she might
have dressed in a white wife-beater and a pair of baggy
cargo pants.)
Amelie has long been Tiberiass attachshe has served as
advisor, liaison, and lover for a pair of decades. It was not her
choice; her sire (long dead) made the first of many grievous
errors and as a result was forced to give his childe to the
Prince as restitution. The Prince bound her to him and came
to love her. She, too, came to love him but only because of the
bondnow that Tiberias is gone, she feels free, unburdened
by her fetters.
As a character, Amelie remains in an interesting place should
you care to use her beyond this adventure. She could really go
either way now that shes free. She will certainly seek to find
herself, but does this mean she drags herself out of Tiberiass
long, dark shadow, or does it mean she only becomes more of
a monster in turn?
Storytelling Hints: Amelie is finding her feet, so to speak
she is equal parts brash and cowardly. Its as if she wants to spit
in the eye of the Danse Macabre so bad, her bravura keeps
pushing past her fear and rising to the surface.

Into the Void

37

Name: Amelie Villarosa

of God. He yearns for a violent crusade to cleanse the city of

its naysayers, but the Prince has been holding him back.

Concept: Broken Doll

Clan: Daeva
Mental Attributes: Intelligence 3, Wits 3, Resolve 3
Physical Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 4, Stamina 2
Social Attributes: Presence 3, Manipulation 4,
Composure 3
Mental Skills: Academics 2, Computer 2, Crafts 2,
Investigation 4, Occult 2, Politics 1
Physical Skills: Athletics 4, Brawl 1, Drive 2, Larceny 4,
Stealth 4, Weaponry 2
Social Skills: Empathy 2, Expression 4, Intimidation 1,
Persuasion 3, Socialize 2, Subterfuge 3
Disciplines: Auspex 2, Celerity 2, Dominate 2, Majesty 2
Willpower: 6
Morality: 6

Harpy: Blackmoore (The Comedian)

Ventrue
Dark Secret: Despite all his callousness and Harpy judgment,
Blackmoore still has a mortal family that he keeps in touch
with and protects.
Blackmoore is equal parts Tim Gunn from Project Runway
and court jester. Though hes not gay, he acts the stereotype:
sassy, snide, cruel, always fast with a jibe or a verbal riposte. If
he had a Social Fighting Style, its opening move would be, Oh,
Snap. The thing is, despite all the jokes and hilarious cruelty,
hes very good at a) knowing all the most forbidden gossip while
keeping to himself until its advantageous to release it and b)
knowing how to really make it hurt. He can sting the most
stalwart of monsters. Of course, he never turned his wicked
tongue against the Prince because hes one of the Kindred
in town who knows full well about the box of secrets.

Initiative: 8
Defense: 7

Hierophant: Daciana (The Monster)

Speed: 15
Health: 7
Blood Potency: 3
Weapons/Attacks
Type

Damage Range

Straight
Razor

0(L)

na

Dice
Pool
5

Special
na

Vampires of the City

Below youll find a handful of vampires (in most cases, those

potent Kindred who sit closer to the top of the pyramid than
the bottom) for use in this adventure. With each you will find
the vampires clan and any dark secrets the vampire possesses
(important in terms of the Princes box of secrets).

Cardinal: Thabit (The Hand of God)

Daeva
Dark Secret: Was once a violent diablerist, uses forgotten
Theban Sorcery to hide it as he claims it was the hand of
God that made him do those things.
Thabit is a self-righteous brute. His version of the Sanctum
is walled-off and restrictive: a castle in which those who belong
are protected and those who do not are held outside the gate.
His version of the Danse Macabre is an exalted condition, but
only if you accept God and the story of Longinus. He cares not
to preach. He has little interest in convincing you of the glory

38

Reap The Whirlwind

Nosferatu
Dark Secret: The evidence the Prince possesses is about
where Daciana sleeps. Shes very paranoid and does not want
that information out there.
Daciana is a night terroran ancient, decrepit elder who has
carved out a pretty good swath of territory across the citys park
system. Despite being a possibly insane and monstrous elder,
Daciana remains as an active part of the Circle of the Crone. She
serves as Hierophant, yes, leading the local cultists in the various
rites and services. But she also serves as an emblem of the Crone
herselfDaciana even claims to be the childe of the Crone. As
such, her role as leader of the local Crones is not just as a taskmaster
or actor; she is also a creature who earns her worship directly. With
the Prince gone, she knows that the lock has been knocked off
the cage, and she has little interest in restraint or prudence. The
covenantwith her at its headmust be ascendant at any cost.

Judex: Atticus (The Rational)

Ventrue
Dark Secret: Was once a prominent Carthian in a different
city under a different name (Aaron).
Atticus has long been neutered. Yes, hes the standing Judex in
a city full of Invictus, and yes, the Prince was himself Invictus.
But the Prince chose to mediate disputes himself (or have Sheriff
Kale do it), thus leaving Atticus relatively toothless in the face of
conflict. Atticus wasnt without tasks, of course; nobody wants a
bored Judex wandering around. But the conflicts he was called
upon to mediate were thin and shallow, divisions that could
have been bridged by a neonate with a year of the Requiem

under his belt. Now, the shackles are off. The Prince is gone.
Atticusjudgmental, rational, icyis ready to work.

Kogaion: Saladin (The Obsessive)

Mekhet
Dark Secret: He has been accused of giving away the Orders
secrets to outsiders. The Prince, however, intervened and
ensured that the letters from the seven other Kogaions never
made it to their recipients.
Like many Kogaions, Saladin is an obsessive hermit driven
to the brink of madness by his consuming need to study the
occult forces behind the city, its construction, and its politics.
He believes he will be able to predict the next Prince by
examining the occult forces surrounding the city at this time,
which causes him to leave his penthouse tower and descend
into the fray for the five days that comprise this adventure.

Master of Elysium: Owen (The Ludicrous)

Daeva
Dark Secret: Owen has a ghoul lover, Miranda. He is
technically her master and her keeper, and that role plays out
in public quite nicely. But its not the entire truth. In reality,
Owen has given himself to her completely: she owns him body
and soul. Miranda is running the showand that means she
is essentially the Master of Elysium, not him.
Owens Elysium is full of vampiric bread and circuses. He
is the king of pomp and circumstance, establishing lunatic
carnivals and orgies and balls to keep the citys Kindred amused
(and to keep them from ripping out each others throats). Owen
himself is, as his name suggests, ludicrous. If the vampires of
the city released a Blackwells Worst Dressed list of the year,
hed be top of the list every time. Yes, its high fashion, but in
the lowest way possible. Owen didnt like the Princeruse or
no, he found Tiberias slovenly, careless and a real lout. But
he also recognized that the Prince was the one who put him
in the role and who kept him there by dint of containing his
secrets; in this sense, Owen is one of the few within the city
who actively misses the Princes control over the city, because
now his role is threatened.

Prefect: Quinn (The Madam)

Ventrue
Dark Secret: Quinn is blood-bound to Daciana, and is a
secret Crone worshipper, a fact that would not sit well with
her Carthian servitors.
They call Quinn the Madam not only for her lucrative
prostitution racket, but because she is willing to sell the body
of her covenant; for any goal, at any price. Carthians are asked,
influenced, or ordered to perform tasks for the rest of the

citybodyguard, dancer, debate moderator, blood wrangler.

And Quinn is behind every one, pimping out her own people
to meet her private ends. But just as Quinn whores out her
own people, the Prince reserves the right to call on Quinn to
perform secret tasks for him. Shes been drenched in resentment
in so long she may well throw a party.

Clan Speaker Daeva: :

Mercedes The Blasphemer

Dark Secret: Mercedes has exquisite taste; so particular

that shes had to breed it into a large private herd she keeps
sequestered outside the city. The bloodbaths she holds in
her private mansion would put the Bathories to shame.
When shes not presiding over her personal slave farm,
Mercedes is an advocate for neonate representation in requiem
politics, and a powerfully empathetic, nominally unaligned
voice. (She is actually a member of good standing within
the Ordo Dracul, but does not campaign under their name.)
She cultivates a humane and gentle public personae, and has
acquired a subtle army of idealistic young vampires who see in
her a symbol of reform and freedom.

Clan Speaker Gangrel:

Robicheaux (The Domesticated)

Dark Secret: Robicheaux claims to be about a hundred years

oldand that is a tremendous lie. This Gangrel is actually well
over a thousand years old. But the years have not been kind
to his mind and he finds it easier to play younger. If anyone
found out that his blood was of significant potency, they might
come after him.
The citys Gangrel dont much like Robicheaux. They call
him domesticated, because hes like a wolf who has become
a doga lap dog, at that. Robicheaux is a weak-kneed, bentspined noble savagea wild man dragged out of the Bayou
(or so the story goes) and turned civilized. Hes now a hungry
politico who will give his vote to whoever is standing downwind.
A small conspiracy of Gangrel now wants to drag him away and
reintroduce him to his wild side by whatever means possible.

Clan Speaker Nosferatu:

Grolsch (The Brown Recluse)

Dark Secret: Grolsch is, yes, a powerful Nosferatu elder.

He is also Karl, the not-so-powerful leader of a rag-tag
Unaligned neonate coterie known as the Red Scare. Grolsch
is political, while Karl wants to tear down the political structure.
Ultimately, he does so to undermine any attempts by the lower
class to bring down those atop the pyramid. How does he keep
up the ruse? Grolsch never shows his face: he always wears a

Into the Void

39

mask that is reportedly bolted to his misshapen skull. Karls

face, however, is always on display and hard to forget: noseless,
with a mouth full of fangs and bloodshot eyes.
Grolsch is the king of the subterranean spaces, and can
be found in every shadow and around every dark corner in
the city (hence his epithet, the Brown Recluse). But despite
being the leader of the Nosferatu warren beneath the city, hes
alarmingly political as far as the Freaks gohes forever active
in campaigning and politicking for his own weird pet causes.

Clan Speaker Mekhet:

Siobhan (The Go-Getter)

Dark Secret: Siobhan has long been the keeper of the citys
mortal political dynastiesthe Allertons, the Whitworths, the
Macbrides. Common vampire wisdom exhorts the bloodsuckers to
stay away from directly manipulating important mortals, but Siobhan
has ignored that advice for centuries. She doesnt just control these
familiesshe has integrated herself into them, nesting there as
the leader of various shadowy blood cults. No, the Illuminati dont
control local politics, Siobhan does. And she wants that kept secret.
Siobhan is not the typical cold, stodgy Mekhet. She dresses
brightly, she smiles, her voice has a lyrical lilt. She could sell
milk to a cow: her words are that compelling even without the
judicious use of her Disciplines. Its not a ruse, exactlyshe really
is that way. But it betrays what is for her a completely eroded
sense of Humanity. She is debased in ways one cannot even
imaginebehind those bright eyes are the memories of countless
human sacrifices, endless tortures and blood-soaked orgies.

Miscellaneous Enemies

Throughout this adventure, we will refer to a number of

enemies that may plague the characters through the various
scenes and encounters.

Cop

Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 2, Resolve 3, Strength 2,

Dexterity 3, Stamina 3, Presence 3, Manipulation 1, Composure 3
Skills: Investigation 2, Athletics 1, Brawl 1, Firearms 3,
Weaponry 3, Stealth 1, Intimidation 1
Attacks:
Pistol: 6 (Dexterity 3, Firearms 3); Damage +2L;
Initiative -3
Baton: 5 (Strength 2, Weaponry 3); Damage +1B; ;
Initiative -1
Defense: 3 (2 In Armor)
Armor: 1/3 (Kevlar Vest)
Merits:
Cover Combat: Cops reduce the penalty to their rolls
for firing from behind cover by one point.

40

Reap The Whirlwind

Report In: A cop can access and use their radio easily
while performing other actions, they can both report in
and take a combat action at no penalty to their roll.
Tactics: Modern police officers carry tasers and pepper spray,
which they will usually default to using unless they expect lethal
danger. Both of these are wholly ineffective against Kindred.
However, police are trained to call for back up the second they
expect any form of physical danger, and report their position
frequently. Thus while a single officer may go down quickly,
they tend to bring about serious repercussions.

Gangbanger

Attributes: Intelligence 1, Wits 2, Resolve 3, Strength 4,

Dexterity 2, Stamina 3, Presence 3, Manipulation 3, Composure 2
Skills: Athletics 1, Brawl 3, Firearms 1, Weaponry 2,
Intimidation 3
Attacks:
Knuckle Duster: 7 (Strength 4, Brawl 3); Damage +0B;
Initiative -0
Knife: 6 (Strength 4, Weaponry 2); Damage +0L;
Initiative -1
Pistol*: 3 (Dexterity 2, Firearms 1); Damage +2L;
Initiative -3
*Not all gangbangers carry guns, but those who do love to
threaten with them.
Defense: 5
Armor: 1/0 (Leather Jacket)
Merits:
Brawling Dodge: Gangbangers use Brawl instead of
Athletics when calculating defense.
Damage Tolerance: The hard knock life numbs ones
senses, gangbangers dont take wound penalties from
bashing damage.
Tactics: A long gangbanger isnt much of a threat, indeed at
the first sign of real trouble theyll generally hightail it away.
However, in groups they become extremely tenacious, likely to
follow combatants well beyond the point of safety. This can be
both a huge threat or great advantage, depending on how the
vampire is handling the situation.

Daeva Thug

Attributes: Intelligence 3, Wits 3, Resolve 2, Strength 3,

Dexterity 3, Stamina 4, Presence 3, Manipulation 3, Composure 2
Skills: Athletics 2, Brawl 4, Weaponry 2, Stealth 3,
Intimidation 2
Attacks:
Fists: 9 (Strength 3, Brawl 4, Vigor 2); Damage +0L;
Initiative -0

Defense: 6
Armor: 0/0
Blood Potency: 2
Vitae: 7
Disciplines*: Majesty 1, Celerity 1, Vigor 2
Tactics: Daeva favor a strong first impression and a stronger
opening shot, when combat starts a Daeva thug is likely to
jump the queue with celerity and put in a heavy, vigor powered
attack. Indeed theyll tend to favor activation of their physical
disciplines; interrupts, long dashes, and heavy hits, over the
use of vampires inherent advantages. Fortunately, however,
being kindred they know a fight between two of their kind is
liable to invoke the princes wrath so theyll try to resolve most
altercations with their predatory aura before turning to fists.

Special Forces/SWAT

Attributes: Intelligence 3, Wits 3, Resolve 3, Strength 3,

Dexterity 4, Stamina 3, Presence 2, Manipulation 2, Composure 3
Skills: Athletics 3, Brawl 3, Firearms 4, Weaponry 4, Stealth 2
Attacks:

for unexpected action. Unlike normal cops soldiers are prone to

use more lethal force, especially once their life has proven to be at
risk. Military training teaches them to be thorough as well, theyll
shoot a downed vampire in the head just to confirm the kill, and
willingly shatter bones and dislocate joints while grappling. Worst
of all they tend to be adaptive and organized, they arent likely to
take off on their own, and if bullets arent working the team will
think of something else.

Vampire Hunter

Attributes: Intelligence 3, Wits 2, Resolve 4, Strength 3,

Dexterity 2, Stamina 4, Presence 2, Manipulation 4, Composure 3
Skills: Occult 3, Athletics 2, Brawl 1, Firearms 2, Weaponry 4,
Stealth 3
Attacks:
Stake: 6 (Strength 3, Weaponry 4); Damage +0L;
Initiative -2
Pistol: 4 (Dexterity 2, Firearms 2); Damage +1L;
Initiative -2

Knife: 7 (Strength 3, Weaponry 4); Damage +0L;

Initiative -0

Improvised Flamethrower: 3 (Dexterity 2, Firearms 2,

Penalty -1); Damage +1L; Initiative -6
Defense: 4
Armor: 3/5 (Riot Gear)
Merits:

Assault Rifle: 8 (Dexterity 4, Firearms 4); Damage +3L;

Initiative -3
Defense: 6 (4 in armor)
Armor: 3/5 (Riot Gear)
Merits:

Staking Specialty: Hunters train in the tactical

application of the wooden stake, if they score at least
three successes on an attack they may forgo their
normal damage to stab the vampire through the heart,
paralyzing them.

Krav Maga: Add two additional dice when Brawling.

Hardened: The hunters resolve and composure are

considered two dots higher when used to resist or contest
vampiric Disciplines.
Tactics: Vampire hunters greatest advantage is also their
greatest weakness, paranoia. They know vampires exist and thus
they see them around every corner. Hunters are good a picking
up on the telltale signs of discipline usage, they avoid eye contact,
stay close to crowds and dont blunder around at night. In combat
this is especially evident, hunters rarely fight fair. They attack
during the day, use fire, and will attempt to draw attention to
monsters when ambushed hoping that the fear of discovery with
dissuade a vampiric attacker. Most importantly, however, a good
hunter is a cautious one, they know what they are up against and
wont be as easily goaded into traps as most other foes.

Unarmed: 6 (Strength 3, Brawl 3); Damage +0B; ;

Initiative -0

Marksmanship: Soldiers are well trained marksmen, they

double the bonus dice added by taking an aim action.
Cover Combat: Cops reduce the penalty to their rolls
for firing from behind cover by one point.
Small Unit Tactics: SWAT units operate best in small
groups, supporting each other and getting one anothers
back. All characters with small unit tactics add a +1
bonus to all physical rolls while in close proximity to
one another, and increase their defense by 1.
Tactics: Spec ops and anti-riot units are bad news, even for
the indred. They are well trained, well composed and prepared

Into the Void

41

Scene Flowchart
Good Night, Sweet Prince
Secrets on the Wind,
Like Blood in the Water

Pandoras Box

Dead Mans Party

Fire It Up! Fire It Up!

Hanging Posse

Pick a Side, Any Side

SWAT Got You Surrounded, Son

Dragged Into The Dark Masquerade, Shattered
An Army of Inquisitors
The Terrorism Tango

The Five-Day Forecast

First Night
(Party Down)

Second Night
(Party Down)

Third Night
(Agitation)

Fourth Night
(Boilover)
Fifth Night
(Apocalypse)

42

Reap The Whirlwind

Scenes
Scene Flowchart

The narrative of Into the Void unfolds in a way that allows

the characters (and their players) a hefty measure of freedom.
The adventure itself features only three truly critical scenes:
a beginning scene (kill the prince), a middle scene (discover
location of the box of secrets), and an ending scene (reclaiming
the box of secrets). The other scenes listed in this SAS are
ultimately optional encounter scenes.

The Five-Day Forecast

Into the Void is meant to unfold over the course of five

nightsthe characters may complete the story before those
five in-game nights are up, but unless the Storyteller decides
otherwise, the adventure wont go beyond those five nights.
Over these five nights, the tensions in the city according to
the following scheme:
First Night: Party Down. The news is out: the Prince is
dead. The atmosphere is festive, celebratory, a real party. Of
course, the way monsters party isnt exactly sane: Masquerade
breaches pop up around the city as the vampires wantonly fill
up on blood. For the most part, the vampires keep the peace
with one another on this night, but theyre damn sure not

keeping the peace with the human herd. If anyone has claimed
themselves to be the Prince on this night, the narrative doesnt
stick: nobody believes it, and frankly, nobody really cares.
Second Night: Hangover. The chickens come home to
roost. Increased vampire activity looks on the surface to be
crime-related, and so the city puts out police in force. Nobody
is restraining the monsters, and so their response isnt to retreat
to the shadows but rather, to push back. Meanwhile, the citys
dominant nocturnal predators begin to jostle for position, each
claiming some kind of ownership over the city, justifying why he
or she should end up in the citys seat of power. The problem is,
no one vampire has the cachet or the muscle to really back this
up, so the void will remain unfilled. Resentment and madness
breed in the margins. Its becoming clear: offing the Prince
broke the picture into a thousand puzzle pieces, then shook up
the box. Now, nothing is certain. No outcome is guaranteed.
Third Night: Agitation. The dominant players and factions
in the citys vampire society are now in competition to show
who has the biggest, sharpest teeth: its everybody against
everybody. Normally, the Danse Macabre is a slow-burning
chess match, but tonight? Tonight its a brutal hockey match-up
with lots of blood on the ice. Violence ensues. Chaos reigns.
The mortal authorities push back even harder, believing this to
be some kind of underworld gang violence, which puts a lot

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43

Plotting

They say real estate is about location,

location, location. Telling a good story is about
escalation, escalation, escalation. This tale
starts off innocuous enough, but swiftly swells
with an intensification of threat from all sides:
physical, moral, spiritual, social. The characters
will have respite, but it shouldnt be long-lived.
If a scene seems to exist without tension, feel
free to mine other scenes for new ideas and
ways to ratchet up the conflict. Remember that
in life, we hope to avoid conflict, but in fiction,
we hope to achieve it.

of innocent humans in the cross-fire. Real gangs take notice,

and they start acting upsome just because they can smell a
power grab, some at the behest of unseen masters.
Fourth Night: Boilover. Up until this point, the citys
elders have remained largely silent on the citys future. Many
are slow to act in general, preferring instead a slow, calculating
approach. That is no longer possible. The citys power hierarchy
is in shambles, and so they must act. Unfortunately, they do not

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Reap The Whirlwind

act as a single entity. Each elder is his own tangle of motives

and peccadilloes, and as a result each elder chooses to back a
different horse (be it individual or faction). This fails to resolve
anythingand in fact only ratchets up the conflictbecause
now the stage is complicated by a host of definitely powerful
and possibly insane elders. Violent clashes spill over into the
street. The Masquerade is in tatters. Vampiric authorities begin
to weigh in: Inquisitors sent from Rome, negotiators arriving on
behalf of the First Estate, elders from neighboring cities (who
fear spill-over damage), and so forth. The news goes out that
tomorrow night, the mortal authorities are putting the city
under martial law. With martial law comes a curfew and a
military presence.
Fifth Night: Apocalypse. Apocalypse infers the end of the
world, but it also translates into revelation, and both of those things
are apropos, here. Martial law is in place. The military comes
rolling in to set up a presence and to quash rioters. The elders
use their considerable power to complicate the lives and unlives
of both mortal and immortal competitors. Nobody is Prince.
The shit has hit the fan, and now the fan has exploded and the
drapes are on fire. And so comes a shining light early in the night:
Amelie, the Princes attach, emerges from hiding. She reveals the
existence of the Princes box of secrets, and makes it clear that
she knows where it is. She will offer the box in its entirety to the
highest bidderbut the bid must include safe passage out of the
city. Amelie doesnt want to be here anymore.

GOOD NIGHT, SWEET PRINCE

Overview

The characters-as-conspirators have trapped the Princeand

now its time to drag the bastard into Final Death. This is the first
dominos toppling that leads to the citys plunging into chaos.

that youre really starting this way; surely its a trick? Have Tiberias act
suspiciously, as if this might be a reverse trap. You may want to hint
that this is the climax and the rest of the story will be a flashback
building up to this point. When they finally take the Princes head as
a trophy, theyll be forced to wonder: what now? What can top this?

Description

Character Goals

Its early in the morning. The sun will be up in the next hour. Already
the sky has that purple tinge bleeding along the horizons edge. Tiberias
kneels before you, grinning, eyes flashing. On the surface he seems
defiant, but as you press him, the faade trembles and the cracks begin
to show. He sees the writing on the wall. Nothing to be done, nowor
is there? He begins to beglike any creature at the end of its life, he
struggles to make sense of it and bargain his way out. Whatever you
want, hell offer it. As if that matters.
You have two ways into this scene.
The first is that you and the player group sit down before
this scene really begins and ask the question, How do you
kill the Prince? The question comes with no wrong answers,
reallytheyre ultimately describing the machinations that
will lead to this scene. Do they trap him in the basement of a
club? Do they somehow attack his haven, heist-style? Can they
use some drunken Irish girl as bait? (His favorite.)
From that point, you play out the scene in its entirety. The
Prince isnt going down without a fight, and if given half an
opportunity, hell run. Ultimately, the characters have the
advantage, as they outnumber himbut if you play this scene
out accordingly, expect them to suffer at his hands. He will
not go quietly.
The other way into this scene is to begin at its end. This might
be best if you dont have a lot of time to run this adventure. Jump
right in with the characters having surrounded him and with
Tiberias on his kneeshe moves from cocky to cajoling, from
blustery and brash to begging in short order. You can have the
players describe how the scene built to this point, but its purely
for narrative expression. In this mode, theres no need to roll dice.

Storytelling Goals

Youre coming into this scene with the energy of a climactic

narrative moment. This scene should feel like its the endthis is a
huge deal. In video game terms, Prince Tiberias is the end boss. This
should feel like an insane way to open a story: offing the Prince? Really?
It cant be this easy. The players should be made to feel uncertain

Establish motivations and destroy the Prince.

Actions

Below are some of the actions that may impel the scene
toward its conclusion. Note that these are all focused on the
Prince. If Tiberias feels he has an advantage, hell try to engage
in combat in an effort to hinder the characters. If he feels
overwhelmed, hell run for it. And, when hes finally left with
no other option, hell try to talk his way out.

Combat Attacks

Dice Pool: Any appropriate attack roll

Action: Instant
Hindrances: The Princes Animalism may invoke a fear
frenzy; the Princes Dominate may attempt to manipulate one
of the characters.
Help: Its perhaps been a long night and the Prince is low(er)
on Vitae; hes alone; if the characters so declared it, consider the
possibility that the Prince has consumed drunken or drugged
blood and thus suffers a -3 penalty to his own attacks

The Chase

Dice Pool: Stamina + Athletics vs. Stamina + Athletics

Action: Instant and Contested
Hindrances: Tiberias can boost his speed with his limited
dots in Vigor. Further, hell do more than runhell knock
down obstacles to separate him and his pursuers (-3), hell jump
across rooftops or over dangerous territory (-3), and hell do
whatever it takes to put himself ahead.
Help: The Prince might be suffering wound penalties already
(-1 to -3) and could be lower on blood; a character might have
Vigor or, even better, Celerity to boost Speed; the Prince may
run into some obstacles all on his own (-3).

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45

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: Character fumbles, takes a point of lethal
damage (goes through a window, scrapes across a piece of metal,
tumbles down steps, etc)
Failure: Character fails to make any ground.
Success: Character gains ground on enemy.
Exceptional Success: Character inadvertently creates difficulty
for pursuers (knocks over trashcans, puts traffic or a train between
groups) and causes them a -5 penalty on their next roll.

Navigating the Princes Pleas

This isnt an action in the strictest sensebut it is likely

where the scene will end up presuming the characters didnt
manage to preemptively destroy Tiberias.
Tiberias will attempt to talk his way out of the situation. Hell
use Dominate if need be. (Characters may bolster themselves
against his Dominate before this scene by spending a Willpower
to gain +2 to resistance.)
Hell also beg and make offersand as the Prince, he can
make some very promising offers. The trick here is that he
cannot make equitable offers across the board. He cant promise
that each character will become his second in command. He
cant give each character the sweetest hunting grounds in the
city. Theres only so much reward to go around, and this is
what complicates his pleado the characters squabble over
the choices? Do they see that this is ultimately just a way to
get them to turn against one another?

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Consequences

Its worth asking right up front: what if Tiberias succeeds?

What if he escapes, or what if he manages to talk his way into
a stay of execution?
Those things are perfectly acceptable, if a bit trickyit
certainly complicates the rest of this adventure as written.
Which leaves you with two options:
One, fuck it. The story is what the story is, and the players
have made the choice for the characters. The Prince survives
and a whole other story will grow out of this scene. Let it
happen organically.
Two, game on. Sure, the characters didnt manage to finish
the job, but later that night someone else damn sure does.
Imagine it: they let him go or he escapes, and what happens
the next morning? The news comes out that the Prince is
dead. A mystery ensues: who finished the job? Did Amelie or
Harmon find the Prince in a weakened state, and decide to
take advantage? If the characters were driven to this point by
a Patron figure, did their Patron have a back up plan handled
by other conspirators? Or is it possible that the Prince, smelling
the blood in the water, decided to flee the city before dawn
and create a false narrative about his own murder? In any of
these instances, the course of Into the Void remains largely as
written (though it may now feature a minor murder mystery
component).

SECRETS ON THE WIND,

LIKE BLOOD IN THE WATER
Overview

This isnt so much a single scene as it is a collection of actions

that lead the group to discover the existence of the Princes
box of secrets.

Description

Note that the pieces of this scene can be interspersed with

any of the Encounter Scenarios found later in this document
(as always, feel free to come up with your own to match any
pre-existing chronicle elements in play).

Character Goals

The rumors are true: the Prince has more than just his drunken
charm and casual intimidation to keep the citys blood-hungry
monsters in line. He was the keeper of a cache of secrets, secrets
that, if unearthed, would kick over the hive. No vampire wants his
dirty, gore-caked laundry hung out for all to see. Thats how the
Prince kept order.
This scene involves the characters uncovering the truth about
the existence of the box of secrets. It is not, strictly speaking, a
necessary sceneif enough time passes, eventually Amelie will
come out of hiding and offer the box to the highest bidder.

This is tricky, because the characters dont necessarily know

that they have this as a goalits hard to have as a goal a thing
you dont know exists in the first place.
The goal, then, is really to find an edge. The characters just
dont have it. The city is sliding swiftly into violence, and if
they want to get any kind of foothold, they need something,
anything, to give them that edge. So the goal here is the
characters reaching out and looking for a hook, a handhold,
some kind of advantage.
That advantage just so happens to be the Princes box of
secrets.

Storytelling Goals

Actions

The value in this scene is that it puts additional stress on

the charactersbut it also offers them a solution that as yet
few others in the city possess.
After the end of the last scene (Good Night, Sweet Prince),
the characters may be inclined to believe that the city will
simply fall into a new orderits even possible that one of the
characters will name himself Prince. (Though how this sits with
the other characters remains to be seen.) The problem is, order
and stability just wont stick. As the nights go on, all manner of
vampire will name themselves Princejust because a vampire
calls himself that doesnt mean the title holds water. One has
to have the authority to lay claim to the highest position in
the land, and as it stands no one vampire holds the edge over
all others. In the absence of that kind of authority, the city
will plunge into chaos.
However, the discovery of the existence of the box of secrets
is a big deal. Its how the Prince gained an edge, and its similarly
how any vampire will do the same.
With this, you create a great McGuffin that everybody
wants (but doesnt yet know about) and a ticking clock. The
characters must surely realize that if they dont get to the box
soon enough, somebody is going to get itand then one devil
will replace another.

Investigating the Prince

Dice Pool: Wits + Investigation

Action: Instant (but takes at least an hour)
Hindrances: Assuming that the characters are investigating
the Princes haven (or at least a satellite office), they must
contend with the fact that the Prince didnt exactly leave
everything out in a nice, neat pile (-2); further, assume that they
only have about an hour before they must escape the area and
hide from the coming sun. Which means that, given that this is
an extended roll, they only have so much time and opportunity
to do so. (Its safe to assume that the next night this haven or
office will no longer be available to themSheriff Kale may
lock it down, or may even burn it to the ground).
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character does something that makes
discovery of this information impossible by the other characters
he accidentally sets a fire, spills ink on critical documents, does
something that alerts mortal (or immortal) authorities, etc.
Failure: The character fails to turn up any information regarding
the box of secrets (though reduced successes on the extended roll
may have earned the character other, lesser rewards).

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47

Success: The character discovers a wall safe behind a

removable wainscoting panel. In the safe is Tiberiass journal,
an overstuffed ledger of coded transactions and missives. Its not
coded in a secret cipher sort of way, but rather all written in
shorthand. It should require no roll to decode, as it in and of itself
does not contain much actual information. It instead contains
references to people and events but no critical detailshowever,
it does consistently refer to a secret weapon the Prince possesses,
and this weapon is consistently tied to both Amelie and Sheriff
Kale. Kale seems to be the one who maintains the weapon,
while Amelie is the one responsible for its location.
Exceptional Success: In addition to finding information
regarding the box of secrets, the character also finds cell phone
numbers for both Kale and Amelie.

Confronting Harmon Kale

Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion or Presence +

Intimidation versus Kales Resolve + Composure
Action: Instant and contested
Hindrances: Kale is generally distrustful and on edge since
the Princes demise (-2), but if Kale learns that the characters are
the ones who did in the Prince, then the penalty increases (-5)
Help: Characters mention the box of secrets (+1); Kale is an
ally (+3); Characters offer Kale something he wants, such as
information, a patsy, or a cherished object (+3)
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character inspires only violence in
Kale. Maybe Kale knows what the characters did, maybe he
doesnt, but now his suspicious side has been triggered into
full-blown paranoia: He and any lackeys he has with him will
move against the charactersif not now, then when he has
an advantage.
Failure: The characters fail to impress Kale. He wants
nothing to do with them; he has enough on his plate.
Success: The characters get Kale to open up. Hes ready to make
a deal in order to keep this city under lock and key. Of course, the
deal Kale wants is the one that puts him in charge of the whole
city, as Prince. If the characters can convince him that this is their
aim, too (and hey, who knows, maybe it is), then hell help them
procure the box of secrets and purge their own dark secrets from the
box. He tells them the truth: he procured the secrets, but Amelie
was the one who administrated them. He tried time and again to
discover the location but was never successful.
Exceptional Success: An exceptional success gives Kale
pausehe will now consider making a deal that allows him to
serve not as Prince but as Primogen or Seneschal provided he
helps pick the next Prince from the group of characters. Further,
Kale will give up some of the secrets contained in the box
after all, he is the one that obtained them. They only have so
much value, however, because they are at present without any
kind of evidence. That said, the characters could conceivably
bluff and use the secrets against some of their targets to sway
them (for instance, getting a vampire to back off his attacks
or to redirect his vitriol elsewhere).

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Reap The Whirlwind

Finding Amelie

Dice Pool: Manipulation + Investigation

Action: Instant (takes at least one night, may also incur one
of the Encounter Scenarios described on p. 53)
Hindrances: Characters dont know or havent have much
contact with Amelie (-1), characters are hostile (-3), Amelie
discovers that they are on her trail (-5; feel free to give her a
chance to discover this with a Wits + Investigation roll)
Help: Characters know Amelie fairly well (+2), characters
offer bribes (+3). Characters can of course use Disciplines, too,
which create different rolls but also make easier the ability to
manipulate others into telling the characters where Amelie
is hiding.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The characters arouse suspicionsnow
other vampires are wondering whats so important about the
Princes ex-lover and seneschal. Other bloodsuckers begin
following her trail.
Failure: Characters meet one dead end after another.
Success: The characters track down Amelieshe has
been in hiding, moving night after night. One night shes
hiding in a tenement. The next shes hunkered down in
some artists studio apartment. The third shes at some CEOs
penthousean old ally of the Prince. Shell hop from place
to placehomeless shelter to abandoned asylum to house in
the suburbsrelying on the kindness of humans with whom
shes cultivated relationships over the years. She does not
contact any Kindred during this time; she hides only among
her human herd.
Exceptional Success: An exceptional success grants the
characters the ability to also note if theyve been followed;
it remains possible that other vampires remain in their
peripheryKale, for instance, is likely to cling to the shadows
to see where they go.

Dealing with Amelie

Unless Disciplines come into play, no rolls are necessary

to deal with her at the outset. If the characters dont really
know much about the box of secrets, she certainly wont offer
anything to the characters unless theyre particularly kind to
her.
If they do mention the box of secrets, however, shell react
with surprise anddespite being scared out of her witswill
discuss the box with the characters.
She will first make an offershe wants a way out of
town and $100,000. If the characters can get that to her
by the start of the following night, she will take them to
the box of secrets.
However, if the characters push or attempt to intimidate
her, shell offer to give them the box for freebut from this
point forward, she will take every opportunity to betray the
characters. She will, if given half a chance, perform one or
several of the following actions:

 Flee.
Attack.
Call for help.
Offer the box to someone else if they agree to take care
of the characters.
Manage to put the box up for bidding.
Destroy the box and its secrets.
No matter what happens, she wont tell the characters that
the box of secrets:
a) is contained in a heavy gun safe with a keypad
combination, and
b) actually has a smaller duplicate out in the open that is
both fake and a trap (explodes with white phosphorus, burning
any who are attempting to get into it)
Its important to note that Amelie responds well to the characters
if she discovers that they are the ones who killed the Princeyes,
she was his lover, but that was a role she was forced into and is
frankly pleased that her old master has gone the way of the dodo.

Gaming the Auction Crowd

If the nights go on and nobody tracks down Amelie or the

box of secrets, she will choose to hold an auction in order to
put the box of secrets into the hands of a vampire earn herself
a passage out of the city.
The way the auction works is this: Amelie appears out of
hiding to deliver the message of the auction by waltzing into
Elysium and telling the gathered vampires that the auction
begins there, at midnight. If she is hurt, the auction is off and
Amelie or her minions will destroy the box of secrets.
Otherwise, itll work like a silent auction: bids go in a box at
midnight. Bids can contain any kind of offer imaginable over the
course of one hour. At the end of that hour, Amelie examines the
bids and chooses one; if your game has more room for it at the
table, the auction may continue as Amelie announces the bid and
allows for one more round of counter offers (i.e. upping the ante).
The vampire who wins the auction will go with Amelie to the
location of the box of secrets (see the next scene, Pandoras Box).

Consequences

The primary consequence of this scene (or rather, sequence)

is that reveals to the characters the existence of the box of
secretsand they may even get put on its trail.
However, negative consequences are inbound. First, other
vampires may be sniffing around and end up following the same
trail. Second, both Kale and Amelie represent uncertain allies
any help they offer could go south if they sense an opportunity
to do better elsewhere. They arent dedicated to helping the
characters. Third, this sequence can and should be interspersed
with the Encounter Scenarios (which start on p. 53)without
those, this entire adventure ends up a little bit toothless.

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PANDORAS BOX
Overview

The characters arrive at the location of the box of secrets

the basement of an abandoned hospital in the worst part of
town. Theyve possibly gone through hell to get here (having
had to cross a city in chaos and endure various Encounter
Scenarios), and what they find here isnt much different:
complication after complication blocks their path.

Description

The hospital is falling down around your ears. The place is littered
broken tile, shattered wall, pipe and conduit and bundles of wire dangling
from pockmarks of ruined mortar. A lone wheelchair sits in the corner,
covered in dust. Graffiti stains every inch of exposed wall. It smells of
death and decay. This was where the Prince was keeping his secrets?

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The hospital is two floors and a basement sublevelif the

characters know roughly where the box of secrets is located,
theyll head to the basement. Otherwise, they may need to
search the upper two floors.
Once they head down into the basement
The steps are concrete. Your footsteps echo. Cockroaches
run up the walls while rats flee from your feet. The basement
appears to be mostly a repository of junk: hospital beds piled in
a tangled pyramid, ratty curtains and boxes of equipment that
have been defunct for two decades. No light shines down here:
everything in the beam of the flashlight (or in your Auspexenhanced gaze) casts a shadow that looks like a wretched
monster forever reaching.
If they are lead to or discover the false box of secrets, theyll
discover it in the morgue hidden behind the only body drawer
that still has a door:

You pull out the warped metal body drawer, the human-sized
tray rattling and screeching as it rolls a bit before sticking halfway
out. At the far back of the empty drawer you see it: a little green
blinking light. You want to get in there? You want to get to the box
of secrets and unlock the keypad? Then youre going to have to
crawl into that dark drawer on your back or on your bellyonly
one of you can get in there to open the box.
Of course, that box is a trap. The real box of secrets is
disguised to look like a rusted medical cabinet (about humanheight) at the far end of the basement, surrounded by nothing
but piles of debris and boxes.
You open the medical cabinet and find another door beyond
itthis one belonging to a Fort Knox-brand fire-protected gun safe.
Its clean. Smells like gun oil. Got a big wheel to turn and a keypad
with nine numbers on it.
If the characters crack it open
Inside you find what youve been looking for all along: the box
of secrets. Except its not just one box. Its a dozen file boxes all
containing documents, tapes, photographs, mapsan unholy host
of evidence and secrets regarding the citys nocturnal population.
Not only is this a major potential Masquerade breach, but it also
guarantees the wielder of such information a great deal of sway
over the unruly hierarchy.

Storytelling Goals

This is an its too good to be true scenario. In some sense, it

is true, and it is pretty damn fantastic for the characters which
is why its your job as Storyteller to escalate, escalate, escalate.
Its impossible to predict exactly how the characters got here or
what theyll do once here, but your job is to make this difficult
and throw the final conflict into high gear. Options include:
Utilize the trap in the morgue.
Have the characters get attacked before they manage to
get a hold of the box of secrets: a mortal gang attacks,
a neonate mob tracks them here, or one of any major
vampire characters (Hierophant, Cardinal, Sheriff)
decides its high time to clean up the mess and secure
the box for themselves.
Amelie may betray them. If she believes that she herself
will be betrayed or she recognizes that the characters
have been intimidating her this whole time, she will
lead them to the trap, she will attempt to run, and she
may even attempt to lock the characters in the basement
while she sets other vampires on the trail.
Fire bad. Imagine finding the box of secrets just as a fire
breaks out? First, nobody wants the box of secrets to
burn up. Second, vampires + fire = frenzy. Who set the
fire? Amelie, perhaps. A throng of neonates. Or maybe
its one final trap set on the Fort Knox safecracking
into the safe may set it off.

And at the end of it all? When the smoke clears and the bodies
are on the floor? Confirm the moral dilemma at hand: the box
of secrets contains information on all the characters. Do they
really want their dark secrets exposed to one another? Further,
only one character can be Prince. Are they really willing to let
one of their own take the helm while the others step back? Can
a deal be arranged where one becomes Prince and the others
Primogen? Could they all agree to back a different vampire for
Prince, or is it possible that their goal is to either destroy the
box or be the ones to put it up on the auction block and share
whatever (likely significant) profits come rolling in?

Character Goals

One assumes that the characters goal is to get the box of

secrets at any costthe question is, why do they want it? To
gain power? To destroy it? Sell it?
How will they use it?
Must they betray one another to gain advantage from it?

Actions
Lockpicking and Safecracking

The hospital basement features a number of barriers.

First, the door to the basement is locked with a heavy chain
and has reinforced hinges and fixtures. Lockpicking here
isnt terribly difficult, but the time it takes could expose the
characters to danger.
Second, the trapped proxy safe in the morgue drawer is
pretty tough. Lockpicking is a little more difficult... a burst of
Vigor-induced strength might be more effective.
Note, however, that this safe is trapped. Tampering with it or
opening it causes a white phosphorus explosion. This explosive
is incendiary: its blast area is restricted to the confines of the
morgue drawer, but that also means it deals 4 damage to each
character fire damage.
A character could attempt to notice the trap before triggering
ita Wits + Investigation roll is necessary. Note, however,
that the character is in the dark and so a -3 penalty is in play
(but a powerful flashlight or Auspex may help to diminish this
penalty to zero).
Finally, the Fort Knox reinforced gun safe is, as its brand
name suggests, very difficult to damage: the characters may
want tools here, a lot of Vigor or even explosives.

Combat

Our opinion is that this scene should not occur without

some manner of combat. The box of secrets is a powder keg of
possibility, and a whole herd of vampires would love nothing
more to exploit or destroy it (the characters chief amongst

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them). Hence, this hospital basement needs to be a chokepoint

of agitation and violence.
The question is, who is doing the attacking? Do the
characters happen upon someone already trying to bust open
the safe? Or are they ambushed themselves?
Through the course of the first two scenes and the
intermingled Encounter Scenarios, the characters will likely
have earned some enemies.
Still, if you dont find that such an option is available to you,
consider using one of the following five options:
Sheriff Kale converges on the hospital basement at the
same time as the characters. Hes brought with him a host
of lackeysjust enough to outnumber the characters
by one or two. Fortunately, these lackeys arent highcaliber vampires. What begins is a good old-fashioned
standoff: can the characters convince Kale to back off
or share the prize? Or is the only result a blood-soaked
ballet of violence?
Pick a big, powerful vampireDaciana or the Cardinal
will doand have the characters come upon this
vampire already working to open the box of secrets. This
powerful vampire will likely be alone as they have little
interest in letting their dark secret (whatever it may be)
fall into the hands of a neonate attendant.
Human beings arent always the toughest predators
after all, they break so easilybut consider having
the hospital basement be home to a shitload of them.
Imagine that a gang is down there having some kind of
initiation or partythey broke in, have no idea whats
down there, and theyre raging until the morning light.
Maybe they have a dog fight going in the one corner
and a bonfire in the other. Ten thugs together could
make trouble for even the most potent vampire (the
danger of humans is often the same as a herd of cattle
stampeding). Of course, if the characters can make short,
brutal work of just a handful of the thugs, the rest will
back off and fleebut until that time, its game on for
a host of ultra-violence.
Some Vampire: The Requiem games just dont end
happily. Vampires backstab. They manipulate. They
hold secretswhich, in a way, is exactly what this
whole thing is about. Secrets. Some people will go to
extreme lengths to protect their secrets, and so we
come to perhaps the darkest twist on the ideathat the
characters must battle one another for access to the box
of secrets. This can start easilyone plans to use the
box to her own ends, another wants to be Prince but

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the others dont agree. From there, blood boils, frenzy

ensues, and its a claws-out fangs-ready fracas.
Worth mentioning are some of the combat considerations
that could come into play:
Cover: Characters will be able to conceal themselves or
take cover behind a whole host of objectshospital beds,
tables, piles of file boxes, and so forth. Assume that partial
concealment (-2) is easily accessible, but that characters willing
to take a turn or two to move can find full cover fairly easily.
Debris: The hospital is debris-strewn. And its dark.
Assuming that the fight is a dynamic one and the characters
arent merely standing together like Rock Em Sock Em
Robots, that means debris is going to come into play in terms of
complicating combat. Every turn presents a new complication
(replacing the previous turns, not adding to it). Roll a single d10
and compare the results on this table to determine the effect:
Die Roll
1-2
3-4
5-6

7-8

9-10

Effect
Characters each lose Defense this turn
(debris as disadvantage)
Characters each double Defense this turn
(debris as advantage)
Failures become dramatic failures this turn
(character swings, misses, missteps and trips
over an old desk)
Each character must succeed on a Stamina +
Dexterity roll to first make an attack (avoiding debris, keeping balance)
Character finds a found object weapon
nearby (board with a nail in it, hunk of
rebar, conduit). Remember that using such
a weapon confers a -1 penalty for being an
improvised weapon

Consequences

Getting hold of the trove of dark secrets once possessed

by the Prince is a powerful game-changer: one or all of the
characters now has a leash connected to most, if not all, of the
citys vampires. As such, this adventure can nicely serve as the
opening for a much larger, high-powered chronicle.
Of course, it can also serve as a tragic end to a chronicle.
Characters reaching for the brass ring of the box of secrets may be
destroyed in the conflict. They may be destroyed by the box itself
as their secrets are leaked. They may be destroyed as they kill one
another for power. Or they may be wiped out as the vampires
rise up against them to bury the box and its contents for good.

ENCOUNTER SCENARIOS
Below are a series of encounters you can drop into the game
at nearly any point. These are story-based scenarios of conflict
meant to illustrate a city sliding into chaos and further meant
to serve as dangerous roadblocks preventing easy access to the
box of secrets. You will find ten possible scenariosthe first
five are a little milder, and fairly well in-theme with what you
normally get out of Vampire: The Requiem. The latter five,
however, are more gonzothey contain scenarios that are,
succinctly put, way more fucked up.
It would not be unusual to use at least five of these (one for
each night of Into the Void). The more gonzo selections,
should you choose to use them, are perhaps better reserved for
the latter two nights.

Dead Mans Party

The characters receive an invite to a party. Its a celebration for

the revolution, a party honoring a free city where the so-called
tyranny of the Prince is gone. Ding dong, the dickhead is dead.
The party takes place in Elysiuma nightclub, a bar, maybe
a museum.
Thing is, nobody can tell whos throwing the party.
Everybodys invitation says a different name, a name that
will help ensure that the recipient will attend. The result is a
well-populated party full of nocturnal monsters. Its a powerful
social occasion filled not with physical violence but rather the
personal and emotional violence so common to the Danse
Macabre. Its a good time to get the characters some face-time
with the other vampires to test the waters, see who knows what.
But the mystery remains: who sent the invitations? Whoever sent
them has a plan: now that many of the citys vampires are in one
place, its time to burn every last one of them. The doors are barred,
and someone starts throwing Molotov cocktails. Given that fire
and vampires dont mix, the event swiftly descends into a chaos of
potentially-frenzying monsters. Granted, most of the vampires will
probably surviveits something of a clumsy plan, which is intentional.
So, whos behind that plan? Its up to you. It could be a band
of neonates who thought, Hey, if we can scrape clean the
upper echelons of vampire society, then we might actually
have a shot at this Requiem thing. It could be a compact or
conspiracy of vampire hunters who seize on the opportunity of
a politically destabilized Danse Macabre and think they have
the perfect solution. It might even be a single ancilla or elder
(even the Keeper of Elysium himself) who figures its high time
to eliminate some competitors from the blood pool.

Fire It Up! Fire It Up!

On the streets, its madness. The human herd can smell the
ash and char on the wind and acts up accordingly, clogging the
streets with looters and rioters. At first its just gang members,
but after that? Anybody and everybody joins in the fray.
The characters may come upon a scene of such chaos. They
may find a truck thats been overturned, and the driver has been
dragged out and is being beaten and threatened by rioters. A
mob has grown upmost have makeshift weapons (signposts,
kitchen knives, hunks of brick), but a few have real weapons
(machetes, shotguns, a Tec-9). Something is probably on fire.
The characters have to make it through the insanity. They
find that backtracking just wont do: the mob has enclosed
them unwittingly.
Do the characters decide to help the innocent? Maybe
notafter all, vampires arent superheroes. But maybe they
smell the opportunity to save a man and, as a result, own him
body and soul. Or maybe they just dont give a rats ass and
decide to push through.
Pushing through seems easy, but isnt. The mob turns on
them. They can smell something is different: its like a herd of
wildebeest realizing that a crocodile walks among them. They
can sense the predatory nature of the characters.
And so the characters become the target. How do they deal
with it? How can they move forward? Acting out with Kindred
powers is a breach of the Masqueradebut the citys in flames,
so who really cares?

Hanging Posse

The characters come acrossor are invited toa scene of

retribution. A sympathizer to the Prince has been captured a
band of vampires (neonates lead by an elder, perhaps, or a pack
of Cronies stirred up by Daciana). Theyve got him strung up
and hanged. It wont kill him, of course, but with hands behind
his back and legs bound, its hard to make any kind of a physical
effort and break free. Theyre planning a long night of torture
maybe theyre doing it just for shits and giggles, or maybe they
think they can get something out of the victim. Maybe they
want to know about the box of secrets. Or perhaps they think
they can find their way to accessing the Princes assets.
Do the characters participate? Do they intervene? Perhaps
they simply walk away. But is there something to be gained or
lost in this encounter? What if the vampire that gets strung up is

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53

Amelie or Harmon Kale? What if the one character whos

about to get tortured and torched is the one character who
can lead the characters to the box of secrets?

Pick a Side, Any Side

With the Prince destroyed, the city ends up like a box

of puzzle pieces thrown up into the airany picture of
order is gone, and so too is any semblance of a protected
hierarchy. Now, its every vampire for himself, which
means a whole lot of blood-hungry monsters jockeying
for position.
Its this jockeying for position that draws the
characters in. Vampires need to test loyalty, and they
need to earn supporters for any presumptive bid for Praxis.
Every vampire is going to attempt to secure support in
a different way. A monster like Daciana will attempt to
show her power and create worship. Someone like the
Cardinal will use shame, guilt, and the threat of Godchosen violence. One vampire will use honey, another
will use vinegar.
The characters will get dragged into thisif youd like,
more than once. They may first be invited to a meeting,
which is really a social ambush by either one powerful
vampire or by a whole covenants worth of vampires
standing together (for now). Or they might be abducted
or even attacked.
The end result is that theyre stuck in a rooma board
room, the back room at a strip-club or the belly of a yacht
floating out in the harborwhere someone is trying to
sway or even force their hand to offer support. The only
way out of that room might be to lieor kill.

SWAT Got You Surrounded, Son

Maybe its just bad luckwrong place, wrong time.

Or maybe someone set them up. Either way, the result is
the same: the characters are the target of an incoming
SWAT team.
This scenario is best when indoors or in a cramped
vehicle. Consider that, as the characters follow the trail
of the box of secrets, theyre going to end up in places
that are claustrophobic and walled-off, with fewer exits
then theyd prefer. This is an excellent place to set up a
SWAT siege. And thats exactly what it is: SWAT thinks
they have some high-profile agitatorseven domestic
terroristson their hands. Theyre not fucking around.
Theyll bring the smoke bombs, the door knockers, the
riot shotguns that can blow off limbs. They might even
have an armored vehicle.
Now, to be clear, the characters are likely strong enough
to put a deep hurt on the SWAT officers. But that doesnt
mean this isnt a bad situation: a normal human could
easily crush a scorpion underfoot, but that doesnt mean

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a well-placed stinger wont deliver an unholy dose of venom.

This isnt meant to be a serious threat, but it is meant to act
as a roadblock. The SWAT siege can delay characters, which is
all the more troubling if their situation is time sensitive. Plus,
dispatching a whole team of SWAT doesnt magically end the
problem. It could mean that theyre bringing hell down on
their heads. The police will send a stronger response next time.
Or the FBI will get involved. Or, if this happens later in the
adventure, the military will come calling. Do the characters
really want that kind of attention?

An Army of Inquisitors

They arrive on the third night: an army of Lancea Sanctum

Inquisitors, put together from surrounding cities (those within,
say, 200 miles). They are here not on behalf of the Cardinal,
not on behalf of the Princes lineage, but as the standard bearer
of the Lancea Sanctum itself.
The idea is this: yes, generally the Danse Macabre is an
expressly local affair. What happens in Las Vegas stays in
Las Vegas. Same with Denver, Philadelphia, London, and
Johannesburg. Each city serves as its own fiefdom. In reality,
those cities are lined up like dominoes. If one city falls to
chaos, the others may, tooand the Masquerade is not a local
affair. If the truth of the Kindreds existence is revealed, in
this hyperconnected age it is revealed globallyand almost
instantly. And thats not just bad for the vampires in that city.
Its bad for vampires everywhere.
The Sanctified Inquisitors on the citys doorstep arrive under
the auspices of restoring order in this dark timewhich is
perhaps true as a side benefit, but they have other goals. The
Inquisitors are here for a twofold purpose: one, to enforce the
standards of the Lancea Sanctum and to convert vampires
who are found weakened and confused in the chaos; and two,
to evaluate the Cardinal as a proper replacement for Prince. If
they find him wanting (and they will if his secret is exposed),
they will choose a different horse to back.
The characters will have to negotiate the Inquisitor presence.
Inquisitors may oppose them at every turn just by remaining
present and obstructive. Further, the Inquisitors will doggedly
seek out the box of secrets should they catch even a whiff of
its existence.

Dragged Into The Dark

Interested in turning this adventure into something

retributive and, perhaps, even redemptive? Want equal parts
The Labyrinth at Minos and the torture-porn of Saw?
Below the city sits a massive Nosferatu warren: a tangle of
passages that borrow from sewer lines, defunct subway tunnels,
aquifers, wells and sandhog passageways. Connecting them all
are the many caves and passages hand-carved by the Freaks
themselves over the course of the last 100 years. The warren
is, frankly, way bigger than the Nosferatu population deserves:

the city maybe has a dozen prominent Freaks, and the warren
labyrinth itself covers at least 50 square miles in multiple
directions (up and down included).
In their search, the characters may fall prey to a trap put forth
by the Nosferatu Priscus, Grolsch. How the trap is sprung is up
to youits possible that he knows what theyre seeking and
sends them on a wild goose chase into the sewers, or maybe he
sets p some rigged portion of a buildings subbasement to send
the characters tumbling into an old cistern. The only way out
is down, through the channels and tunnels.
What follows is a bizarre morality play lasting an entire
night, where the characters must stumble through the maze
and brave traps and physical dangers put forth by Grolsch and
the other Nosferatu.
The question is, why? Grolsch is an intensely political
Kindred. Why resort to such brutal Freak tactics? Its possible
that hes doing this under another false identity maybe he
speaks to the characters only through a rusty old intercom
system the Freaks installed.
His goal may be to punish the characters. If he discovers they
destroyed the Prince, he may be tormenting them to invoke
some semblance of order or accountability. Its also possible
hes trying to suss out why they did what they did, and what it
is theyre looking for.

Masquerade, Shattered

The city has eyes, you know: Closed circuit TV cameras.

Traffic light cameras. Helicopters filming. All of it is amped
up as the chaos ramps: the vampires come out to drink and
laugh and fuck and kill, and the city sees.
Everything is connected. Savvy usershumanscan tap
into traffic feeds, listen to cop radios and baby monitors and
even use their own equipment to capture the goings-on of the
city. With only the push of a button and a few clicks on the
keyboard, a person could upload feeds and videos and audio clips
not just to a friend but to the entire worldtorrents and Reddit
and email and blogs and Twitter and well, the list goes on
and on. That means vampires have to be extra careful, because
one slip-up and a Masquerade breach ends up on Facebook.
The problem is, the vampires of this city are doing everything
but being careful. Kindred are woefully anachronistic, and
while some may be vaguely tech-savvy, most have never heard
of social media. So, over the course of the five nights, its
more than likely that a Masquerade breach will be caught on
camera and thrown up on the Internet.
Except that whats captured isnt just a breachwere
not talking about a muddy, uncertain video of something
weird going on. Its a full-bore shattering: a foot through the
Masquerades mirror. A high-definition (video and audio)
camera captures it crisply: a pack of vampires hunting in the
middle of a street or a nightclub or shopping mall. They can
do things that nobody else can do: leap great heights, turn
to wolves, grow claws. Its all there, on a three-minute video.

Into the Void

55

Sure, the vampires shouldve caught it before it ever went to

air. But theyre too preoccupiedremember, the city is going
apeshit right now. Nobodys paying the right kinds of attention.
Sure, maybe the characters could debunk it, but the
authorities have tried. By the time it makes it on the news, they
already have a video expert and an audio guru and they cant
find any manipulation or any signs of special effects.
For bonus points: what if its the characters who are the ones
caught on tape? Or what if its their enemies? Can they exploit
this? Can they undo it?
What happens when the city plays sudden host to vampire
hunters, drawn to the evidence, ready to recruit, ready to hunt
and kill, ready to turn the tables on the nocturnal predators?

The Terrorism Tango

You know what this story needs? More terrorism.

When the city plunges into chaos, the humans feel it. Hell,
they dont just feel it, they witness it on their sidewalks and
street corners. They may not know what is going on (after
all, the news cant keep a single narrative this time), but they
can see whats right in front of their eyes, and whats there is
violence and anarchy.
Most humans know this to be a good time to hunker down
and stay safe. Others, though, are malefactors who seek to

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exploit the pandemonium for their own needsso you get

looters and rioters and gang members murdering one another.
Some malefactors are not content with small acts, however,
so we come back to the subject of terrorism. With the police
occupied (and the military not yet on the scene), its a good time
for a domestic terror group to put in motion a hasty plan to create
big damage city-wide. What does this mean? An assassination is
big, but not big enough. Think bombs. Bombs city-wide? Bombs
on city buses and trains? Anything that would snarl transportation
is going to be bad for the city and bad for its vampire population,
too. Further, that means the military comes rolling in early, it
means the news media fall all over themselves to capture it, and it
means that the city is on high alert. All bad news for the Kindred.
And if you want to tweak it just that much more, assume
that the bombs set off one or both of the following:
First, they cause a small earthquake. Its just enough to crack
the street and bring down a few old buildings, but its just
enough to deepen the citys isolation and insanity. (If youre so
inclined, jack the earthquake up to a full-bore mega-disaster,
and next thing you know you have an event similar to Batmans
No Mans Land where disaster strikes and the super-villains take
over the city in territorial pockets.)
Second, the event exposesand awakensa millennia-old
vampire, a vampire unlike anything any of the Kindred in town
have ever seen before. With such a true elder suddenly on
scene, the power dynamic is sure to shift.

AFTERMATH
As noted earlier, this adventure can either set up a major
chronicle or be the end of one: it represents a significant sea
change in the citys nocturnal hierarchy.
No matter how it shakes out, things are going to look a lot
different. Here are some options:
If the characters get hold of the box of secrets, they can
be kings or king-makers. Do they all survive? Do they
set up one of their own as Prince with the rest filling in
as Primogen? Consider the possibility that they set up a
political structure that doesnt involve a Prince at all. A
Carthian approach might set up presiding Parliament or
even a vote-by-vote democracy. (Earning votes can create
an intensely more political story. Democracy sounds
cuddlybut take a look at the bloodthirsty politics of
the United States, then frame it as the political model
of actual bloodthirsty monsters, and you have a recipe for
brutally fantastic political storytelling.)
Beyond the characters, the most obvious choice for
Prince is Sheriff Harmon Kale. Kale as Prince, however,
creates a more tyrannical vibe than Tiberias ever put
forth. Tiberias was ultimately a fairly lax leader; Kale
is authoritarian. He demands obeisance and obeys
the Traditions and the Masquerade above all else.
This means, ultimately, hes not long for this world
someone will seek to usurp him and take from him
the box of secrets. Besides, the chaos that erupts from
Tiberiass death cannot so easily be contained: once
the snakes are out of the bag, its hard to get them back

inside. However, its worth considering that Kale could

become a good Prince with proper advisorsare the
characters those advisors?
If the characters do not manage to procure the box of
secrets, then someone else will. And that someone will
become the Prince. For instance, the Cardinal seeks the
role of Prince above all else, and will create something
of a vampiric theocracy which will foment a cold war
between the Sanctum and the Circle. Daciana doesnt
really want the Prince role, but will find someone in her
covenant deserving of the role. (By deserving, we of
course mean able to serve as Dacianas blood puppet
consider Quinn as a curious option). Some characters
are more capable than others. Siobhan or Atticus would
make good, somewhat moderate Princes. Robicheaux
would be a strip of taffy pulled this way and that. Owen
probably wants the role but ultimately wouldnt be able
to handle the pressure.
What happens if the characters destroy the box and
with it, all of those secrets? The city will continue on in
chaos for a couple more nights until enough vampires get
put out of their misery to balance the scales toward one
side or another. Eventually someone will find their way
to the Princes seat and saner minds will win outbut
it takes a number of fiery, uncertain nights to get to that
point. In the grand scheme of vampiric politics, this is
just a drop in the bucket. But its a major flashpoint just
the same: over the course of 5-10 nights, the landscape
of the Danse Macabre changes.

Into the Void

57

SCENE:

MENTAL

Good Night, Sweet Prince

PHYSICAL
SOCIAL

HINDRANCES

HELP

P r i n c e c a n f i g h t h e h a s V i go r a n d
Resilience, will knock down obstacles if he
ees (-3)

58

If Prince has been poisoned (-3)

STs

Set up a false climax scenestart off with a bang,

but it only escalates from here

PCs

For the Prince? Off with his head.

SCENE:

Secrets on the Wind, Like Blood in the Water

MENTAL
PHYSICAL
SOCIAL

HINDRANCES

HELP

Everybodys distrustful (-2), everythings

a mess (-5)

Characters can shine a light on things in the

form of allies (+3), a ashlight (+1 to +3), a
bribe or blackmail (+1 to +5 depending on
potency)

STs

Time is running out and the city is in chaos:

Make the characters feel the burn, make them dance for their dinner.

PCs

Track down the trail of the box of secrets.

Reap The Whirlwind

SCENE:

MENTAL

Pandoras Box

HINDRANCES
Darkness (-3)

PHYSICAL
SOCIAL

HELP
Light source (+1 to +3)

STs

Follow threads to their conclusion and organically include awesome threats

and escalation (see scene description for handful of ideas)

PCs

Find the box, crack it open, access the box of secrets

and deal with the consequence

MENTAL

SCENE:
HINDRANCES

PHYSICAL
SOCIAL

HELP

STs
PCs

SAS Cards

59

mental

(-3 unskilled)

Academics __________OOOOO
Computer__________OOOOO
Crafts ______________OOOOO
Investigation_______OOOOO
Medicine ___________OOOOO
Occult ______________OOOOO
Politics _____________OOOOO
Science ____________ OOOOO

physical

(-1 unskilled)
Athletics ___________OOOOO
Brawl _______________OOOOO
Drive _______________OOOOO
Firearms ___________OOOOO
Larceny ____________OOOOO
Stealth______________OOOOO
Survival ____________OOOOO
Weaponry _________ OOOOO

social

(-1 unskilled)

Animal Ken _______OOOOO

Empathy ___________OOOOO
Expression _________OOOOO
Intimidation ______OOOOO
Persuasion _________OOOOO
Socialize ___________OOOOO
Streetwise __________OOOOO
Subterfuge ________ OOOOO

60

Reap The Whirlwind

vitae
blood potency

OOOOOOOOOO