Mind's Eye Theatre - Vampire The Requiem.pdf - RoseRed

chapter one: blood society supply of the • damned ghouls
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one Health point worth of blood from her each night, the victim recovers from that feeding
completely only after two days. This is the reason why many Kindred vary their vessels (to
avoid killing them, ultimately), and also the source of tales that involve vessels feeling woozy,
sickly and exhausted when a vampire feeds from them.
Animals provide less Vitae. An animal that’s smaller than an adult human often contains
less blood to begin with. Animal blood also carries less vital force than human blood does,
or at least it isn’t as useful to the Kindred. An animal whose blood the Kindred consumes
still suffers one point of lethal damage for each quantity of blood taken, it simply doesn’t
nourish the Kindred as much. Most animal blood is worth only half as much Vitae as an
equivalent amount taken from a human being. Kindred who feed on mammals other than
people receive only half the value in Vitae that they actually take from the vessel, rounded
down. For example, a dog has 7 Health dots. Even if a Kindred drank all of the dog’s blood,
he would gain only three Vitae (the dog’s 7 Health divided in two and rounded down). Lesser
beasts such as vermin (including rats and bats), fi sh and other aquatic creatures yield only
one-quarter Vitae per Health point of blood taken, again rounded down.
Kindred can also drink stored blood such as plasma reserves or the contents of a blood
bank, but this, too, contains less vital force than the hot blood of a living person. Kindred
fi nd it much less satisfying. Stored blood yields only one-eighth the Vitae of a similar quantity
taken from a live source. For example, a Kindred would have to consume an amount roughly
equal to 86 percent of the blood in a human body to glean a single Vitae if the blood in
question was stored.
Vampires feeding from other Kindred do not infl ict damage on those Kindred, they simply
drain a direct quantity of Vitae. (Vampires may, however, choose to aggressively bite another
vampire with the express purpose of causing damage.) Note that feeding from other vampires
comes with its own host of other problems in the form of possible Vinculums and blood
addiction.
Kindred rumor holds that Lupine blood is far more potent than mortal blood. Werewolf
Vitae yields two-and-a-half times the equivalent amount taken from a human source, rounded
down; two Health points of blood taken from a werewolf equal fi ve Vitae. The tales also say,
however, that Kindred who drink werewolf blood become prone to frenzy for several nights
afterward. Vampires who drink Lupine blood suffer -2 penalties to their draws to resist frenzy
for two nights per Health point (not the multiplied Vitae) so consumed. Therefore, taking
two Health points worth of blood from a werewolf causes a vampire to suffer a -2 frenzy
penalty for four nights.
Mortal mages, meanwhile, contain no more blood than any other human, but legend says
their Vitae can induce strange hallucinations in Kindred who drink it. At least, they’d better
be hallucinations. If these Kindred actually see aspects of reality known only to mages… well,
most Kindred would not like to think that they know so little about the World of Darkness.
Still, few Kindred feel much desire to test the truth of such stories. Kindred who take at least
one Vitae from a mage suffer a derangement as chosen by the Storyteller for one night per
Vitae so consumed. Storytellers are advised to take mages’ mystical abilities into account when
deciding what derangement is most appropriate.
GHOULS
A ghoul is a creature somewhere between the deathless state of the Kindred and the normal
state of most mortals. In fact, ghouls are mortals, with the added condition that they have
been fed Kindred Vitae and invested with some aspect of the curse of undeath. Not every
mortal who simply tastes vampiric Vitae becomes a ghoul, though. It takes a specifi c devotion