Oblivion: Hecata

Description:

Oblivion is a mysterious, unpalatable power that most vampires rightly fear to use, witness, or fall victim to. Only vampires of Clans Lasombra and Hecata wield it with any frequency, and even they do so tentatively. Oblivion requires cautious masters who know the power’s risks, as no other Discipline reaches into the Underworld and allows its manipulator to extract tangible darkness or furious spectres. Oblivion is the darkest of arts. Notably, while the Lasombra are prone to expanding their repertoire of Oblivion powers, the Hecata focus their energies on developing Ceremonies (see p. 208). Ceremonies take longer, but are required for communing with and making passage through to the lands of the dead.

Characteristics:

Oblivion allows for the manipulation of creatures and substances originating from the Underworld.
When the Hecata use this Discipline, they tend to channel the entropic nature of the Underworld and its surroundings, decaying flesh, calling forth spirits, and posing a dangerous risk to the living.
Oblivion projections and spirits sustain damage from fire and sunlight, counting as vampires with Blood Potency 1 in this regard. They also take one level of Aggravated damage per round from bright, direct lights, and may also be damaged (Superficially or Aggravated) from blessed weapons and artifacts, depending on the strength of the blessing and any True Faith of the wielder.
Oblivion’s powers are ineffective in brightly lit areas.
Daylight and rooms without shadows are particularly prohibitive, preventing the Discipline’s successful function, though ultraviolet light and infrared light places no restriction on the Discipline’s use. Moderately lit rooms apply a one die penalty to the Discipline roll involved.
The use of these powers takes a heavy toll on the psyche of the user, and many powers cause Stains as the numbing emptiness of Oblivion seeps into the spirit of the wielder.

Type
Mental

Masquerade threat
Medium-High
Spirits rarely show up well on cameras but are obviously unnatural if witnessed in person.

Blood Resonance
Psychopaths and the emotionally detached. Blood empty of Resonance.

Note
When making a Rouse check for an Oblivion power, a result of "1" or "10" results in a Stain, in addition to any Hunger gained. If the user’s Blood Potency allows for a re-roll on the Rouse check, they can pick either of the two results.

Powers - Level 1:

Name & Requirements	Description & Cost	Dice Pools	System	Duration
Vampire the Masquerade: Cults of the Blood Gods
Ashes to Ashes	Destroying evidence of feeding is a common necessity among vampires who leave screaming, resisting vessels, especially when those same vessels end up dead. This power enables a vampire to destroy a corpse by introducing their vitae to its body. This power does not work on vampires, but does work on animated cadavers. Cost: One Rouse Check	Stamina + Oblivion vs Stamina + Medicine or Fortitude	The vampire makes a Rouse Check to expend vitae, and introduces the vitae to the corpse. Unless the corpse is animated, the body disintegrates over three turns with no test necessary. If it is, the user rolls a contest of Stamina + Oblivion vs Stamina + Medicine (Corpses with Fortitude may resist with Stamina + Fortitude). If the user wins, the animated corpse dissolves in five turns, minus the margin (minimum one, and disintegrating corpses suffer physical Impairment). On a critical win, the corpse disintegrates immediately. On a total failure, the corpse putrefies but does not disintegrate, and is subsequently immune to this power from any user.	Variable
The Binding Fetter	The vampire closes their eyes. Upon opening them, the irises of their eyes display a dull reflection of their surroundings and they can identify objects or locations important to ghosts. These “fetters” act as icons that bind the dead to their existence. Knowing if an object is a fetter allows a necromancer to better manipulate the ghost. Fetters emanate variable auras, some bursting with vitality and glowing gold light, others radiating decay, or odors important to the bound wraith, such as the smell of freshly baked bread, gasoline, or cigarette smoke. Cost: Free	N/A	On activation, the user’s senses become supernaturally attuned to the energies of fetters, and they may identify these auras by sight, smell, and their other senses. While this power is in use, the necromancer is distracted from other activity around them, conveying a −2 penalty to all Awareness, Wits, and Resolve linked rolls.	One Scene

Powers - Level 2:

Name & Requirements

Description & Cost

Dice Pools

System

Duration

Vampire the Masquerade: Cults of the Blood Gods

Fatal Precognition

Requires:
Auspex 2

It is said by many necromancers that the Lady of Fate rules the Underworld through her Stygian servants, and through communion with her certain death-dealers have learned this power. Fatal precognition allows a vampire to scry any non-vampire and experience a vision of their impending death, whether it’s due a minute from now or several decades away. The Kindred’s eyes turn black and they stand, sit, or lie completely still as the fate plays out in their mind. Fate can of course be cheated, though there’s a cost for doing so.

Cost:
One rouse check

Resolve + Oblivion

The vampire must be able to see or hear their target when they use this power. After rolling Resolve + Oblivion (Difficulty 3 or more at the Storyteller’s discretion), the vampire becomes paralyzed in place as the vision plays out, preventing them from any form of physical or social interaction for that turn. The higher the margin, the clearer the vision. A win grants sight of the corpse, and with each point of margin an additional clue is provided, such as the manner of death, time and place of death, or the name and face of the first living person to find the corpse. A critical win on this roll grants the vampire a vision of crystal clarity, along with a sense of the motive, if the target is intentionally killed. A total failure renders the vampire blind for the remainder of the scene, and unable to use this power on the same target again. If anyone attempts to subvert the fate observed in this way, they find everything working against their hubristic ambition. Add one to all Difficulties while working to directly circumvent the precognition as cars break down, storms erupt from nowhere, and people become hostile for no reason. This penalty applies until the prophecy is fulfilled or avoided, or the current story ends.

Until fulfilled, avoided, or the story ends.

Where the Shroud Thins

Vampires with an affinity for Oblivion can sense locations where the Shroud between the world of the living and the Shadowlands thins. Though this Discipline doesn’t directly tell a vampire why the Shroud between worlds is thin in a certain place, it may be due to a grisly murder that took place there many years before, or because necromancers have frequently used the location to summon spirits, or it might be a location of holy or unholy resonance, among other reasons. In locations where the Shroud is thinnest, mortal health suffers and use of the Oblivion Discipline becomes easier, if the vampire knows how to harness the gap in the Shroud.

Cost:
One rouse check

Wits + Oblivion

Following a Rouse Check, the player rolls Wits + Oblivion (Difficulty 3) and on a win may determine the density of the Shroud in their nearby area, as large as an entire building or landmark. On a critical win, this roll reveals whether the Shroud’s density recently changed. On a total failure, the power backfires and gives a false reading. Without use of this power, Oblivion users cannot benefit from a thinning of the Shroud. The following table expresses the different degrees of Shroud density, and the effects they have:

Density	Possible Cause	Effect
Impenetrable	No deaths, consecrated land	The shroud is closed to all
Thick	A place of Joy, long ago a death took place	No effect
Thin	A death recently took place; melancholic mortals frequent here	-1 Difficulty on oblivion rolls
Frayed	Many deaths occured here; Necromancers use this place regularly	-2 Difficulty on oblivion rolls
Absent	A necromancer has Split the shroud, specters often cross here	-2 Difficulty on oblivion rolls; Wraiths can travel to and from the shadow lands freely; Humans take 2 superficial damage until they leave

One scene

Powers - Level 3:

Name & Requirements	Description & Cost	Dice Pools	System	Duration
Vampire the Masquerade: Cults of the Blood Gods
Aura of Decay	Kindred with a strong connection to Oblivion find the Discipline affecting the world around them, making plants wilt, animals and humans grow sick, and food go bad. Some harness this aura as a power, polluting vitality with rot, and speeding up the erosion of life. This power does not speed up the decay of dead bodies. Cost: One rouse check	Stamina + Oblivion vs Stamina + Medicine or Fortitude	The vampire makes a Rouse Check. Following a Stamina + Oblivion roll (Difficulty 3), unintelligent organic and inorganic material within 5 yards/ meters of them suffers — plants turn black and die, food rots in its packaging, and even bricks start crumbling. Material affected in this way can become toxic to ingest, if for instance this power is used in a kitchen or a water supply. Such toxic food and drink, if consumed, can be expected to inflict two unhalved Superficial Health damage in the following scene to the individual who eats it, and for each scene thereafter until treated with an Intelligence + Medicine roll (Difficulty 3). If anything living is caught in the aura, it makes a Stamina + Medicine (Those with Fortitude may resist with Stamina + Fortitude) contest against the vampire’s activation roll. For every point of margin the vampire has, the victim suffers one point of unhalved Superficial Health damage. This damage is slowly applied throughout the scene. Repeated applications of the power in the same scene have no effect on the Health of mortals already affected. The power is an aura that lasts for an entire scene before it fades away. Anyone with a sense of smell can detect a rotting odour emanating from the vampire during the time the power is active, inflicting a two-dice penalty to any Social rolls the vampire makes in a positive or diplomatic context, if doing so in person.	One scene
Passion Feast Requires: Fortitude 2	The relationship between vampires and their need for blood as sustenance is well known, but when a vampire needs to spend an extended period in the Shadowlands, or wishes to torment a spirit, this Oblivion power allows them to subsist on the passions of wraiths. Wraiths have no bodies, nor do they have blood. Instead, their raw emotions drive them. Love, hatred, greed, or even a need for vengeance might keep a wraith around after their former body’s death. An accomplished necromancer can feed on these passions for a time, enabling them to survive without blood for longer than their fellow Kindred. The feeding manifests as a swirling vortex of power between the wraith and the vampire’s maw, as the vampire doesn’t need to actually bite down on anything to consume passions. Cost: Free	Resolve + Oblivion vs Resolve + Composure	A vampire with this power can drain a wraith of their passion. While in close proximity (three yards/meters or closer) to the wraith, they may roll a contest of Resolve + Oblivion vs. the wraith’s Resolve + Composure. A win for the vampire inflicts one Aggravated Willpower damage to the wraith and reduces the vampire’s Hunger by one for the remainder of the night. That Hunger returns on the following night regardless of Rouse Checks, as the feeding is only a nepenthe to dull the vampire’s hungry urges. Feeding from a wraith may merit a Stain at the Storyteller’s discretion, as the consumed passion dulls the wraith’s reason for being, likely sending them down a path to self-destructive acts. The Storyteller determines the number of passions a wraith possesses (though five or more is rare), and may deem that the wraith becomes an uncontrollable, murderous spectre once all passions have been consumed.	Passive

Powers - Level 4:

Name & Requirements

Description & Cost

Dice Pools

System

Duration

Vampire the Masquerade: Cults of the Blood Gods

Stygian Shroud

Darkness spews out of a nearby shadow as the vampire blankets the area around them in gloom equivalent to a moonless night, while sounds are muffled and indistinct. Anyone viewing the effect from without see it as a shadow expanding over every surface, including the bodies of any victims, in the area. Those apart from the invoker caught in the effects find themselves struggling to see and hear their surroundings, and mortals are drained of their very life by the suffocating power.

Cost:
One rouse check

N/A

The user makes a Rouse Check and spends a turn concentrating, spreading the shadow over the desired surfaces. The effect covers a circular area with a radius equal to twice the user’s Oblivion rating in yards/ meters. The area is centered on the user or a spot in their line of sight.

Anyone caught in the Stygian Shroud receives a three-dice penalty to all rolls, unless they possess the ability to see through supernatural darkness. Any mortals caught in the Stygian Shroud suffer one level of Superficial damage for every turn they remain within it, due to the power’s suffocating effects.

One scene

Powers - Level 5:

Name & Requirements	Description & Cost	Dice Pools	System	Duration
Vampire the Masquerade: Cults of the Blood Gods
Shadow Step	Stepping into a nearby shadow, the user disappears only to reappear from the same or another shadow further away. Whether they enter the Labyrinth or merely pass along its surface is a source of conjecture among many Lasombra and Hecata, but the spiritual damage with which they can emerge implies they are touching something foul as they use this power. Cost: One rouse check	N/A	The vampire must enter a shadow large enough to cover them, and emerge from another one turn later. The target shadow must be within sight, though it can be perceived by mystical means, such as Shadow Perspective, if desired. It is possible to bring another through the passage, but unless that person is willing, they must be held by a successful grapple. If a Stain is incurred as a result of using this power, the passenger also receives one.	One turn
Tenebrous Avatar	The vampire gains the ability to change their very substance into that of a shadow, becoming a two-dimensional patch of darkness able to slither over any surface and through miniscule gaps and cracks. While in this form the vampire is only harmed by fire and sunlight. Cost: Two rouse check	N/A	The transformation takes one turn, during which the vampire is unable to do anything else. Once the transformation is complete the vampire can move at walking pace across the ground or along walls, hampered only by hermetically sealed barriers. Vampires using Tenebrous Avatar can envelop victims, causing the victim to reduce all their dice pools by three and suffocating mortals as with Stygian Shroud, above. If surrounding a mortal, the vampire can feed from them without penetrating the skin with fangs. Practitioners of this power take no damage from physical sources but can be harmed by fire and sunlight as normal. Mental Disciplines can still be used at the Storyteller’s discretion.	One scene or until ended