Psychic Vampires. Template Features and Merits. Unaging

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1 Psychic Vampires Psychic vampires take the vital essence and force of will from their victims, taking it for their own benefit. Most psychic vampires are born with their gifts. Some develop the ability through ancient rituals, curses, strange relics, or other oddness. Some others become vampires by infection; some psychic vampires can pass their condition when they feed from another s life force. Unlike some of the other groups in this chapter, psychic vampirism is a relatively common phenomenon, and not tied to any specific group or organization. Psychic vampires almost always walk alone, finding themselves in other groups, or around other supernatural creatures. Typically, they must keep their hunger a secret. A psychic vampire learns of her condition usually when it s quite benign; she causes fatigue and minor illness in her victims. But as she increases in power, as time goes on, she becomes more and more dangerous. The temptation to take becomes too great, as she learns more and more uses for the psychic energy she steals. Then eventually, psychic vampires learn to use their condition for protection, as a weapon. Template Features and Merits Psychic vampires receive their signature Merit, Psychic Vampirism, with a single dot for free. If her vampirism is tied to a relic or something that can be taken away from her, gain an additional dot in any of the below Merits for free. Psychic Vampirism abilities steal and utilize Ephemera, a sort of psychic fuel. Her dots in Psychic Vampirism determines how efficiently she can take and use this Ephemera. She cannot store more Ephemera than her Resolve dots; additional Ephemera must be used the turn it s acquired, for one of the things she is able. The Ephemeral Battery Merit can increase this amount. Unaging All psychic vampires can spend a number of Ephemera equal to their current age to not age for one year. For example, a thirty-three year old psychic vampire can spend 33 Ephemera to not show the signs of age for a year. This counts her full age, not her apparent age. If she does not continue the unaging effect, she continues aging as normal once the year is up. Theoretically, this could result in eternal youth.

2 These points do not have to be spent all at once; they can be spent at any time during that year. Ephemera Bleed Psychic vampire characters lose one Ephemera per day. If your character has no Ephemera, she loses Willpower instead, and cannot regain Willpower until she has at least one Ephemera. If she loses all Willpower this way, she begins taking lethal damage instead, and cannot heal until she recovers at least a point of Ephemera. If your character has no Ephemera, she becomes extremely irritable and volatile. She suffers a cumulative 1 per day to all Resolve + Composure actions. This continues to get worse until she replenishes at least a point of Ephemera, or the penalty is equal to her Psychic Vampirism dots. Note on Supernatural Victims By and large, Psychic Vampirism works on most things in the World of Darkness. However, a Psychic Vampire cannot steal the life energy of an actual vampire. She can steal Willpower if her Psychic Vampire Merit is strong enough. Psychic vampires cannot steal the life of ghosts or spirits, unless they have the Soul Eater Merit. Using psychic vampirism on supernatural creatures is slightly tougher; subtract their supernatural potency trait (Blood Potency, Gnosis, Primal Urge, et cetera) from the roll to activate the power. Psychic Vampirism ( to, Style, Supernatural Merit) Effect: To use Psychic Vampirism, your character must touch a victim, skin-to-skin. The Breath Stealer Merit alters this. Any use of Psychic Vampirism is an instant action, so it cannot be combined with other instant actions, such as physical attacks. However, she can use it as a grappling maneuver (use the grappling maneuver dice pools instead of the normal Psychic Vampire dice pool in that case). Use of Psychic Vampirism abilities requires a roll of Intelligence + Occult + Psychic Vampirism - the victim s Resolve dots. Successes determine the level of effect. She can combine effects and divide her successes between health levels of damage and Willpower. Each level of Psychic Vampirism has two effects: One enhances your character s ability to feed from Ephemera, the other allows your character to use Ephemera. The Ephemera expenditure ability may be used reflexively once per turn; only one such ability can be used per turn. : With this basic level, your character can cause bashing damage. She causes one bashing damage per success on her roll. Every two points of bashing damage gives her one Ephemera

3 (this can be accumulated over multiple turns). She can use one Ephemera to heal a level of bashing damage, or two Ephemera to heal one lethal damage. : With this level, she can steal psychic energy from her victim. For every two successes, she steals one Willpower from her victim and converts it into one Ephemera. For two Ephemera, she can regain one spent Willpower point. : Now, her ability to harm is intensified. Every success causes two bashing damage or one lethal damage, and gives her one Ephemera. She can heal two bashing or one lethal with a point of Ephemera. : Her psychic draining improves. Now, every success drains a point of Willpower from her victims and gives her one Ephemera. A point of Ephemera regains a point of Willpower. : With this pinnacle of psychic vampirism, the character s ability to steal life becomes utterly fearsome. Every success causes BOTH one lethal damage and one Willpower loss if she wishes, and gives her two Ephemera. A single Ephemera point recovers a point of Willpower, and one lethal or two bashing damage. Breath Stealer ( to, Supernatural Merit) Effect: Your Psychic Vampire may steal breath instead of touching a victim. Each level in this Merit modifies the distance from which she can activate Psychic Vampire abilities. : Your character must be very close to steal breath. Her mouth must be close to her victim s; she must be able to feel her victim s breath. : The range extends. If she could touch her victim with an outstretched arm, she can steal breath. : At the pinnacle of ability, she can steal breath from a number of meters equal to her Willpower dots. But to do so, she must spend a point of Willpower in addition to any other costs for Psychic Vampirism abilities. This Willpower enables this ability for the scene. Note: This may limit usage in certain situations. For example, if trying to leech Ephemera from a monster which doesn t breathe, Breath Stealer is useless. Burst of Speed (, Supernatural Merit) Effect: Your character may use Ephemera to push her body to briefly inhuman speeds. Spend a point of Ephemera to add +5 to Initiative and Speed for a turn, and +1 to Defense. Only one point may be spent in this way per turn.

4 Ephemeral Battery ( to, Supernatural Merit) Effect: Your Psychic Vampire may store more Ephemera than most. For every dot in this Merit, she may store an additional point of Ephemera above her Resolve. Euphoric Touch ( to, Supernatural Merit) Effect: Your Psychic Vampire s touch numbs or creates euphoria when she uses her gifts. Any time she touches a victim and activates Psychic Vampirism, you may choose to activate Euphoric Touch. Her dots in Euphoric Touch determine her choices; she may administer any or all of her Euphoric Touch abilities at once. Numbing Touch ( ): At this level, your character s touch numbs. Victims of her Psychic Vampirism suffer no wound penalties for the scene. Additionally, any rolls to detect by touch -including detecting your character s vampirism- suffer a -5 penalty. Sensual Touch ( ): At this level, your character s touch becomes euphoric. Victims of her psychic vampirism gain the Swooned Condition toward her. Addicting Touch ( ): With this level, her touch is addicting. Victims gain the Addicted Condition in regards to her touch. Nocturnal Supremacy (, Supernatural Merit) Effect: Your character has an affinity for the darkness, like the vampires with which she shares a name. When the sun is down and she has at least a point of Ephemera, she gains one of the following advantages, chosen when you take this Merit: Her body becomes more robust, more perfect. She gains a dot of Strength and a dot of Stamina. She becomes charismatic and sly. She gains a dot of Presence and a dot of Manipulation. Her flesh becomes tight as marble, as strong as leather. She gains 1/1 armor, which stacks with any worn armor. Her senses sharpen and perfect themselves for the dark. Take +3 to all perception-based rolls, and take no penalties from darkness. Double the range of all your character s senses. Additionally, your character benefits from the Danger Sense Merit.

5 During the day, your character suffers a -2 to all actions. If she does not sleep at least eight hours of the day, she suffers the Lethargic Condition (see p. XX). Dots gained by this Merit affect all derived traits, and can increase Attributes beyond their normal maximums. You may purchase this Merit multiple times, however, each additional expenditure costs an additional dot. So the first purchase costs two dots, the second costs three, the third costs four. Psychic Infection (, Supernatural Merit) Effect: Your character spreads her vampirism to others. After any scene where a human character without the Psychic Vampirism Merit marks their last Health box because of your character s psychic vampirism, or suffers a wound penalty from it, roll your character s dots in Psychic Vampirism. Success means that character gains the first dot of Psychic Vampirism and a single point of Ephemera. If he loses that Ephemera and all his Willpower from Ephemera Bleed before he feeds on Ephemera, the Psychic Vampirism Merit fades. But if he chooses to feed from Ephemera, the Merit becomes permanent. Psychic Seduction (, Supernatural Merit) Prerequisites: Psychic Vampirism Effect: Your character s psychic connection subtly but intimately changes his victims. When successfully stealing Ephemera from a victim, you may choose to change her Vice (or equivalent trait). Unlike a normal Vice, this can be highly specific (for example, submit to me would be a valid choice). To shed this Vice, the victim must spend Willpower points equal to the combined lethal damage and Willpower lost to your character s vampirism. These Willpower must be spent for this purpose alone. The victim may choose to adopt the new Vice permanently and take a Beat. The Vice cannot be changed by any means for at least one chapter. Psychic Transference (, Supernatural Merit) Effect: Your Psychic Vampire may not only heal herself with her abilities, but may transfer life energy from one person to another. Any use of Psychic Transference costs one Ephemera and one Willpower in addition to any other costs; her soul acts as a conduit for vital essence. She

6 must be touching both the victim, and the person she wishes to gift. When activating Psychic Vampirism with Psychic Transference, she may offer Willpower and health levels to the subject, instead of taking them for herself. Shapechanging ( or, Supernatural Merit) Effect: Your Psychic Vampire can spend Ephemera to change into animal forms. Each purchase of Shapechanging allows for a different animal form. Typically, these animals are regionally or culturally appropriate to your character or your character s home: A teenager in Minnesota isn t likely to turn into a howler monkey. Also, while not exclusive, this Merit favors predatory and nocturnal animals. Predatory or nocturnal animal forms are Merits; other animals are Merits. Your character takes the shape of the animal, and all its Physical Attributes. Other Attributes and Skills remain the character s own, while some may be effectively useless (a bat can t likely use Firearms, for example). As a general guideline, animal attacks cause 0 Lethal damage, or 1 Lethal damage for large natural weapons (like bear bites). Some especially massive natural weapons, like alligator bites, can cause 2 Lethal. Work with your Storyteller to determine other basic traits and advantages animal forms might have. Soul Eater (, Supernatural Merit) Effect: Your Psychic Vampire s abilities extend beyond the physical, and the living. If she touches a ghost or spirit, she can use her Psychic Vampirism abilities on the creature. This requires the creature be manifest, or the vampire have another awareness with which to find and touch the victim. Supernatural Resistance ( to, Supernatural Merit) Prerequisites: Mortal with at least one Supernatural Merit Effect: Your character s brush with the supernatural left her with an inborn tolerance for the unknown. This Merit acts as a supernatural potency trait for the purpose of resisting supernatural powers. So if a power calls for Blood Potency, Primal Urge, Gnosis, or other traits, use her Merit dots. However, this Merit s effectiveness is limited by your character s current Ephemera as well. If she possesses Supernatural Resistance, but only has 3 Ephemera at the time, she may only use three Supernatural Resistance dice.

7 Unearthly Beauty ( or, Supernatural Merit) Effect: Your Psychic Vampire can use her Ephemera to assume an inhumanly beautiful appearance. By spending one Ephemera, she may emulate the Striking Looks Merit at two dots (see The God-Machine Chronicle, p. 170). If she already has Striking Looks at one dot, she gains a second dot, and apply the 9-again quality to all rolls on which Striking Looks applies. If she has Striking Looks at two dots, apply 8-again instead. With the two-dot version of this Merit, the effect lasts for the full lunar month with each activation, if your character spends one additional Ephemera. Vampiric Potency ( to, Supernatural Merit) Effect: Your Psychic Vampire can channel her Ephemera into inborn ability. When taking this Merit, choose a single Attribute. At any time, she can spend an Ephemera to increase that Attribute by one dot for the scene, including all derived traits. She can do this to a limit of her Vampiric Potency Merit dots. This can take her above her normal dot limit (usually 5) for Attributes. Notes: You may take this Merit multiple times, each representing a different Attribute. Using this Merit for Resolve allows for a greater temporary amount of stored Ephemera. Lucia Merchant-Esposito Background: Lucia was an orphan in Naples; she thinks her family comes from Romania thanks to a pendant that was with her. She has no strong memories of that time; the church that raised her for the first few years sold her off quickly to a farm, where she and many other children worked. Lucia was always defiant, always trying to escape. So in her early teens, she was sold off and smuggled away to New York to serve as a maid, a nanny, or whatever else to a wealthy family. Desperate at sixteen, she searched for a way out, and found it in Mr. Merchant, a much older man looking for a trophy wife. While she had no affection for him, she found their arrangement to be a comparatively equitable exchange; she lived in comfort, and only had to attend the occasional event, dress up, smile, and nod. He was barely interested in her sexually, and in her time in the house, she realized that somehow, he was over one hundred years old but barely looked fifty. Eight years passed without issue.

8 As Mr. Merchant was deeply entrenched in organized crime, his life came crumbling down when two rival families decided to ally against him. They burned him and his assets, both literally and figuratively. Lucia watched him fight off the gangs soldiers. She watched him drain their souls before her eyes, healing his wounds rapidly. But it just wasn t enough. As the last soldier fell, Merchant slowly faded from life. With his final breaths, he offered her a choice, a choice to be like him. She accepted. Since, she s attempted to gather her late husband s few remaining resources, and start a life of her own. As she knew his criminal business, she positioned herself to take up where he left off. She kept his name for that reason. Description: Lucia is a lovely young woman of deeply mixed ancestry. She s tall, confident, with dark features and deep olive skin. She grooms herself immaculately, and despises disorder and filth, since it reminds her of her time on the farms. She speaks slowly, with a vaguely European accent that makes listeners wonder and ask questions about her. She often trails off her sentences, seducing her partners into finishing for her, to learn what they want and expect. With her clothing and makeup, she tries to downplay her physical prowess; her years of manual labor have left her rather robust, but she prefers to be underestimated. Storytelling Hints: Lucia lived a hard, complicated life. She never truly felt free until Merchant s death. And she s never going to let it go. She knows it s her time now; she s going to build an empire, and nothing will stop her. She takes an utterly ruthless approach to anything even resembling slavery or indentured servitude. She surrounds herself in the trappings of luxury, both as a personal defense mechanism to assure herself she ll never be poor again, and as a sort of trap to those she preys on. Before she became what she was, she never really dealt with people; she was always behind closed doors, working. So she s just now learning how to be manipulative. She s learning quickly, but she s not quite there yet. Her psychic abilities will help bring her to that point soon. Virtue: Freedom Vice: Uncompromising Physical Attributes: Strength 3, Dexterity 2, Stamina 3 Social Attributes: Presence 1, Manipulation 2, Composure 3 Mental Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 3, Resolve 2 Social Skills: Empathy 1, Intimidation 1, Socialize 1 (Fitting In), Streetwise 1 Physical Skills: Athletics 1, Brawl 2 (Street Fights), Larceny 1, Stealth 1, Survival 2 Mental Skills: Crafts 1, Investigation 1 (Domestic), Medicine 1, Politics 1

9 Merits: Contacts 1, Nocturnal Supremacy (Strength and Stamina) 2, Psychic Vampirism 2, Resources 3, Street Fighting 2, Unearthly Beauty 1 Health: 8 (9 with Nocturnal Supremacy) Willpower: 5 Ephemera: 2 Integrity: 7 Size: 5 Speed: 10 Defense: 3 Initiative: 5