Thin-Blood
Changes to Thin-Blood Alchemy
All thin-blood characters may purchase and use Thin-Blood Alchemy. They no longer require the Thin-Blood Alchemist Merit. Purchasing this Merit still grants the first dot of Thin-Blood Alchemy and one formula for free.
Thin-Blood Alchemy Formulae
Level 1
Gaoler's Bane
This formula allows the alchemist to be unrestricted by bonds, restraints, or the grip of an enemy combatant.
System:
Once imbibed, this potion requires one Rouse Check to activate. Thereafter, the alchemist becomes immune to the Grappled condition and can automatically escape any physical bonds or handcuffs for the next 10 minutes.
Mercurial Tongue
The alchemist can speak the native language of the mortal whose blood is used during distillation and any mortal they feed on for the rest of the night.
System:
Once imbibed, the alchemist can speak the native language of the mortal whose blood was used in this formula. In addition, whenever the alchemist feeds, they may spend 1 willpower to switch their new language to the native language of the mortal they just fed on. A native language is the first language or dialect a mortal learned during their life.
Plug-In
With this formula, the alchemist can produce low level electrical current from their body capable of powering a variety of objects.
System:
Once imbibed, the alchemist's body fills with electrical currents that can be used to power devices up to the size of a smart car, including mobile phones, laptops, or a light bulb, so long as the alchemist remains in contact with them. As well, by expending the charge and ending the effects of Plug-In, the alchemist can refill a device's battery to half charge by spending a simple action and touching a device powered by a battery that has run out of power.
Portable Shade
Often referred to as 'suntan lotion', this formula was developed by Cainites on the Path of the Sun to enhance the already substantial resistance to sunlight that a thin-blood possesses.
System:
Once the potion has been distilled and consumed, the alchemist is immune to all effects of sunlight for 10 minutes, including being immune to the reduced effects of the sun if you possess the Day Drinker thin-blood Merit. When the potion's effect ends, the alchemist suffers 1 Aggravated damage. If this formula expires while the alchemist is in sunlight, she suffers the effects of sunlight immediately.
Level 2
Friend's List
This formula allows the alchemist to see the connections between Kindred and mortals.
System:
Once the potion has been distilled, the alchemist must drink it within 24 hours and focus on a target mortal. The alchemist must make a test using her Intelligence + Science vs. a difficulty of 5. On a success, the ritualist can determine whether the mortal is a ghoul, Touchstone, Contact, or Ally to another vampire. The effects of this formula end after successfully using this potion or if 24 hours have passed without the alchemist making a test to use it.
Red's Flamin' Hot Sauce
Discovered by total accident, this formula turns blood into an accelerant that cannot easily be extinguished once it is ignited.
System:
The introduction of any flame to the imbued blood will cause it to burn slowly. It will continue to burn despite any efforts to extinguish it for 1 scene or 1 hour, whichever is shorter. A fire created by this formula spreads slowly. At its slow acceleration rate, it will never spread to an area larger than 1 house before the duration ends. If used like a molotov cocktail, the initial splash of oily fire does 1 aggravated damage. It then drips off the target and spreads as mentioned above, doing no further damage unless the target refuses to move. If any vampire consumes the blood and that vampire then takes damage from a source of fire in the same scene in which she consumed the blood, that vampire will suffer 1 additional Aggravated damage. This additional damage applies to every hit from a source of fire taken in the scene. Fire created with this formula causes appropriate Frenzy tests as normal for the size of the fire.
Level 3
Chemically Induced Flashback
Your knowledge of Ashe has deepened. You may now experience flashbacks of memories of the deceased vampire used to create your Ashe.
System:
When creating Ashe with Concoct Ashe, you may choose to modify its outcome with this formula instead. You create Ashe in all the same ways, except you must melt down one of the target vampire's personal belongings and combine the remains with the ingredients for Concoct Ashe. When the Ashe made using this formula is consumed, the user may make one Rouse Check to unlock a Memoriam. A Memoriam is a flashback of one of the destroyed vampires' memories. The Ashe user immediately enters a trance and has no way to determine what memory is experienced. They cannot guide the vision in any way. What memories they experience and how long the trance lasts is determined by the Storyteller, though its maximum length is 1 scene. The more personal the belongings used in creating the Ash, the more potent the memory becomes. Non-thin-blood vampires may trigger this ritual but gain no other benefits of consuming the ashe; this is an exception to the rule preventing non-thin-blood vampires from benefiting from thin-blood formulas. To learn this formula, a character requires two dots in the Ashfinders Loresheet or must be a thin-blood receiving the instruction of someone who possesses the formula.
Concoct Ashe
This formula is the basis for all Ashfinder alchemy. It allows a Duskborn to reduce a torpid vampire to Ashe regardless of age. In its purest form, this Ashe can be used to keep the Beast in check and avoid failing a Rouse Check. Ashe can then also be enhanced in other formulae.
System:
If the dead vampire chosen for this formula is not old enough to turn to ash, it must be reduced to ashes by fire. Afterward, the vampire's ashes are combined in a vessel that can sustain the extreme heat of the fire and aluminum filings and mixed with the alchemist's blood. The alchemist must then make a number of Intelligence + Science challenges equal to the alchemist's dots in Thin Blood Alchemy plus the number of dots of Blood Potency the dead vampire possessed. Each win or tie on these challenges yields one single dose of Ashe. Consuming Ashe takes a simple action and can only be done by a thin-blood. Doing so allows the user to succeed in her next Rouse Check automatically, provided it occurs within the next 30 minutes. This can be used during a combat scenario. To learn this formula, a character requires two dots in the Ashfinders Loresheet or they must be a thin-blood receiving instruction from someone who possesses the formula.
Stay the Falling Sand
The alchemist can extend the static nature of the vampire condition to a small external area around her. This does not affect vampires, humans, or any other living things, but it can temporarily halt explosions, speeding bullets, and falling debris.
System:
You may activate this power outside your normal initiative. Once activated, the alchemist gains limited control over the passage of time within five steps of them. You may choose one of the following effects without expending an action. Once one of the effects has been used, the effect of this formula ends. • Ranged Attack Defense: You may automatically succeed in one test to defend against a single incoming ranged attack. The projectile freezes and falls to the floor harmlessly a few feet from the alchemist. You do not need to be able to perceive the incoming attack. • Pause an Explosion: You may pause an explosion originating or traveling within five steps of you for up to 3 turns. This allows the alchemist and her allies a chance to move out of the way. Once the 3 turns are over, the containment ends and the explosion proceeds as normal. • Defy Gravity: You may freeze a falling object no larger than a refrigerator within five steps of you in place for up to 3 turns. Once the turns are over, the object falls as normal.
Tank
This potion greatly enhances the alchemist's resistance to damage for a short period of time.
System:
Once imbibed, the first time within a scene, the alchemist suffers damage (Aggravated or Normal), she may make one Rouse Check to reduce that damage to zero. Secondary effects of the attack, such as a Condition being applied to the alchemist, proceed as normal. An alchemist can only consume one Tank potion per night.
Level 4
Discipline Channeling
Similar to counterfeiting Disciplines, you can imbue the powers of a dead Kindred into your created Ashe. This is never a precise process, but it can yield more powerful results than counterfeiting Disciplines if the deceased vampire was powerful enough.
System:
When creating Ashe with Concoct Ashe, you may choose to modify its outcome with this formula instead. You create Ashe in all the same ways, except you must combine leaves from an indigo plant in the distillation process. For each dose of Ashe you create, you may choose 1 Discipline power of any level that the destroyed vampire had for that dose. When a thin-blood consumes a dose of Ashe created with this formula, they must make a Willpower test vs. a difficulty of the Discipline level in the dose. If she fails the test, she loses 1 point of Willpower in addition to any other Willpower loss for consuming Ashe, but she may use the power contained in that dose normally. To learn this formula, a character requires two dots in the Ashfinders Loresheet or must be a thin-blood receiving the instruction of someone who possesses the formula.
Short Circuit
Using this formula allows an alchemist to overload electronics such as a car battery or the fuses of a building.
System:
Once imbibed, the alchemist may use her simple action to touch a machine or device powered by electricity or batteries, releasing a pulse of energy. All electrical equipment within 30 steps ceases to function immediately. Even backup generators or other electrical equipment that only function in response to a power loss or malfunction are affected by this formula. The effects of this formula appear coincidental, and repairing anything affected by it requires an appropriate skill and roughly an hour of work.
On-Demand Sunburn
The most dangerous weapon that a Heliophile possesses, this formula allows a thin-blood to store the power of the sun inside herself and unleash it upon her enemies.
System:
Once consumed, the alchemist stores the power of the sun within her veins and may use it as a weapon against another vampire by making Brawl attacks. To activate the effects of this formula, make one Rouse Check. For the remainder of the scene, the Alchemist's brawl attacks deal Aggravated damage equal to the target's Bane Severity as if she were exposed to daylight for a turn (minimum of 1). This damage occurs instead of the Alchemist's normal brawl damage. Attacks benefiting from this power do not gain additional damage or benefits from critical wins or other powers such as Potence. Each hit causes an obviously supernatural flash of bright light.
Level 5
Flowering Amaranth
A form of shared pseudo-diablerie, this formula allows multiple thin-bloods to usurp the basic powers of a full-blooded Kindred.
System:
All participants must form a circle by tying themselves together with a silk cord. Inside the circle, the Helpless true Kindred must also have their hands and feet bound by a silk cord. The participants then begin draining the blood of the vampire as if to drain them of all their blood. The alchemist then makes a Resolve + Science roll vs. the target vampire's Resolve + Composure + Blood Potency. Each participant adds a +1 bonus to the alchemist's pool. Upon success, all participants gain one dot of their choice from one of the victim's in-clan Disciplines. They may not choose a Discipline they already have dots in. Gaining a Discipline dot in this way does not require the expenditure of experience points. Participants cannot learn or purchase this Discipline higher than the first dot. In all other respects, they can use it as though they were true Kindred. Similar to diablerie, all participants lose one dot of Humanity and gain black veins in their aura for 1 year, which are indistinguishable from those caused by normal diablerie. However, they do not gain generation or Blood Potency, and they remain thin-blooded. The victim dies, regardless of whether or not the challenge is successful.
Moment of Clarity
Upon consuming this potion, the alchemist temporarily suppresses their vampire instinct, making the Beast an ally instead of a detriment to their mental acumen.
System:
Upon imbibing this potion, the alchemist becomes immune to Messy Criticals and Bestial Failures. In addition, when resisting powers of Dominate, Animalism, Presence, Auspex, and any of their amalgams, the alchemist can treat her resistance pool as 8 if her own pool is lower. An alchemist can only benefit from Moment of Clarity once per night.
Additional Thin-Blood Merits and Flaws
Among vampires, the thin-blooded are a mercurial standout. Whether it is due to adaptation through desperation or a quirk of their pliable blood, thin-bloods are known for manifesting all kinds of new adaptations.
Merits
Abhorrent Blood
Your blood is repulsive to other vampires. This could be due to your state between life and undeath, or your questionable usages of thin-blood Alchemy. Drinking from your veins is an act of sheer resolve. Vampires who bite you must spend 1 point of Willpower per turn to successfully drink from you to gain any benefit from doing so.
Faith-Proof
Whether you consider yourself an atheist or you maintain deep, personal religious beliefs, your mortality is stronger than your vampiric nature. You are immune to the powers of True Faith.
Low Appetite
By a quirk of your Duskborn state, your body requires less Blood to carry out the basic functions of vampiric existence. You begin the game with 1 less starting Hunger (to a minimum of 0). If your Storyteller is using the optional rule requiring a Rouse Check to Awaken, you always succeed.
Lucid Dreamer
While most vampires do not dream in the typical sense, your Blood carries an element of innate prophecy, akin to the premonitions had by true Kindred. Once per session, if the Storyteller deems it appropriate, she will describe for you one of your dreams that provides a clue or hint for an unresolved issue from the previous game session. This clue or hint may be cryptic, but it should be helpful to you.
Humanistic Mien
The strength of your Humanity is more powerful than your Beast. Treat your Humanity as 2 higher for the purposes of penalties when interacting with mortals and how Blush of Life applies to you.
Swift Feeder
You have perfected the routine of finding blood. Reduce the time it takes to sip from a human to 1 minute out of play, and the amount of time to take a Non-Harmful Drink to 3 minutes. In addition, once per game, your Herd will come to you. This allows you to utilize your Herd without spending time out of play. Note that this may expose your Herd to other characters.
Flaws
Heliophobe
You have seen the effects of the sun on true vampires, and it terrifies you. Unlike most thin-bloods, you must still test for frenzy from sunlight.
Night Terrors
When you sleep during the day, you have terrible dreams that you can never seem to remember when you awaken. The first time you are stressed out, the dreams come flooding back like a disjointed hallucination. Once per game, when you are under extreme stress, you suffer the Weakened condition for one hour. Extreme stress could include a combat scenario, suffering from a Bestial Failure, or any other significant stressor that the player and the Storyteller agree to.
Plaguebearer
You are susceptible to human illness and disease. At the start of any game and whenever you feed from any kind of human blood, you must make a test. If you lose the test, you gain the Weakened condition for the night as your body is wracked with illness. A win or a tie on this test means that you do not fall ill.
Sloppy Drinker
Whenever you feed from animals, sip from a human, or attempt a non-harmful drink, you must make a Dexterity + Medicine test against a difficulty equal to the total Hunger slaked. If you fail, your bite wound is too ragged to close. Without medical or supernatural aid, the animal or mortal will bleed out and die with Masquerade-threatening neck wounds.
Repulsive Aura
While the vampiric curse has not fully manifested itself in you, it has changed your physiology such that you are unusually susceptible to faith. You take one additional damage from weapons considered holy, and any weapon branded by a character with True Faith. The Storyteller may exercise their discretion to determine if a weapon is considered holy. In addition, when a character uses Level 3 True Faith on you, they automatically identify you as a vampire.
Unending Hunger
Your Beast always hungers for more blood. Your minimum Hunger score is raised from 1 to 2. You may still drain a mortal to reduce your Hunger to zero.