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

chapter one: society torpor of the • damned staking
251
draw (if he has that Discipline) at a -2 penalty. If he recognizes trouble, a Humanity draw
is made for the vampire to rouse himself. If the disturbance is at night, a successful draw
means the character wakes completely. During the day, the character can stay awake for one
turn per success drawn.
The player can also make extended Humanity draws to prolong the character’s period of
activity (see p. 265). The character achieves full wakefulness if the player accumulates fi ve
successes in the extended action, but the character falls asleep again if the player fails any of
these draws. (This is the same as the normal system for a character to wake up during the
day, but under more challenging circumstances for rousing from voluntary torpor rather
than from normal sleep.)
Note that no Vitae is spent upon waking from torpor, as it is upon waking from a day’s sleep.
STAKING
Finally, a vampire enters torpor when a wooden stake penetrates his heart. Only wood has
this effect. Rods of metal, plastic or other substances can damage the vampire by piercing the
heart, but only wood induces torpor. Kindred mystics offer a number of religious and occult
theories for why wood has this power. Most Kindred simply accept it as a fact of unlife.
Driving a stake through a vampire’s heart is extraordinarily diffi cult. The feat requires a
melee or ranged attack with the stake. In combat, the attacker suffers a -3 penalty to strike so
precisely. Then the attacker must infl ict at least three points of lethal damage for the stake to
actually thrust through the vampire’s body and into the heart. The staked vampire immediately
collapses into torpor, appearing stone dead for all that a mortal could tell.
A staked vampire remains in torpor indefi nitely. The Kindred awakens only when someone
or something removes the stake from his heart. An unwary mortal might remove the stake
from what looks like a mummifi ed corpse. A rat might gnaw at the stake enough to dislodge
it, or termites might eat the stake away completely. Until something like this occurs, however,
the vampire sleeps.Characters that seek to avoid Humanity loss by simply torporing or staking
characters indefi nitely are effectively committing murder, since they are destroying the
consciousness of another sentient being without any chance for recourse. The same Humanity
tests should take place if a character tries to dispose of another vampire in this fashion,
a murder by any other name.
EFFECTS OF TORPOR
During torpor, a vampire’s body seems utterly inert. Over the decades, it slowly shrivels in
on itself until it seems like a mummifi ed corpse. This happens more quickly if the character
lacks the Vitae to heal all the damage he suffered when forced into torpor. A vampire starved
into torpor looks withered already.
The vampire dreams slowly during torpor. These dreams tend to refl ect the Kindred’s state of
mind when he entered torpor. If he slumbered willingly, his dreams remain largely peaceful, if
not particularly sensible. If the Kindred entered torpor during a struggle (as is often the case),
his dreams are full of wrath and terror. His mind can stay frozen on one thought or emotion for
centuries. Kindred might awaken obsessed with Kindred or kine who became dust long ago.
Then there’s the culture shock. Most of the world has changed more in the last century
than it did in the previous thousand. Kindred who awaken from centuries of torpor often
seem out of their minds, just because they are so out of touch with the modern world.
Decades or centuries of torpid dreaming scramble a Kindred’s memory. Events from his
past lose order. Fantasies and nightmares from dreams mix into real memories, so a vampire
cannot tell which is which. Did he really hear two Primogen plotting against him — or was
that just what he feared was happening? Did unbound Kindred really destroy his hated sire,