MET LARP SRD
(2013 BNS MET System)
La Llorona’s Lament
Dementation • Level 6
The power of grief, though all but forgotten in modern times, was once widely respected. Among some cultures it was believed that if no one wept for a fallen soul it could not find its way to the afterlife. The expression of grief was an outpouring of emotion, unburdening the soul of its sorrow and the pain of regret. With this power, your sorrow is infectious, as your tears prompt outpourings of grief in others. The use of this power in modern times is attributed to Manuela Bolivar, the Malkavian Justicar, whose dissent over an action taken at the Sao Paulo conclave of 2011 is reported to have reduced the assembly to open wailing.
Cost
1 Blood
System
Spend 1 point of Blood and your simple action to emanate feelings of despair, angst, and anguish. You must then issue a prohibition of your choosing to everyone in your vicinity. For example, you might say “do not disturb my roses” to someone about to trample your garden, or “do not defile the sanctuary” to a group of burglars who broke into your property. Regardless of their affiliation with you, whenever a character within your line of sight spends an action to violate your prohibition, she gains a point of Despair. She gains this point whether or not she succeeds in the action. For example, if you proclaimed “don’t hurt me” to a character and that character attempts to attack you but fails, that character gains a point of Despair. Characters who have one or more points of Despair feel a growing sadness within them and understand intuitively that what they are doing will result in harm. A character receives a -3 penalty to her initiative score for each point of Despair she has. If a character accumulates 3 points of Despair, she is overcome with grief and must spend her next simple and standard action openly and violently sobbing as she cries tears of blood in great quantity. As she cries she loses 3 points of Blood and her Despair traits revert to zero; however, if you possess the Dementation elder power Lingering Malaise, your target reverts to 1 point of Despair instead.
If this power is activated outside of combat, you must spend 1 point of Blood every 5 minutes to maintain it. Once combat begins, this power lasts until your next action on the everyman round, and you must spend 1 point of Blood and a simple action every turn you wish to maintain it. In combat you can change the prohibition on your action by speaking a new one aloud. Doing so does not cost an action. Despair traits fade away at a rate equal to one every 5 minutes.
The prohibition given must be simple and direct. Prohibitions that are roundabout commands or that require inferences to be drawn from a statement, such as “don’t allow him to live a second longer” which implies that someone should be killed, are invalid. This power cannot be used to gain information through specific wording such as “any diablerists shall not remain silent”. Non-vampires affected by this power are able to cry actual tears and do not lose blood when they are overcome with grief.
Source: MET - VTM - V2 (2021)