••• Bitter Humours
After learning to both slow and quicken the Blood’s Healing properties, the Bron learns to twist it, turning his enemy’s own attempts to heal against her.
Effect
Dramatic Failure: The subject is not affected and is immune to any further uses of Bitter Humours for a week.
Failure: The character’s player loses or ties the contested roll, and the subject’s ability to heal himself is unimpeded.
Success: The character wins the contested roll. For each success the character’s player rolls, she may “twist” one attempt by the subject to heal himself by spending Vitae. As long as the character remains within five miles of the subject, she instinctively knows whenever the subject spends Vitae to heal himself (though she does not know what type of damage the subject is trying to heal). As a refl exive action, the character may spend one Vitae to corrupt the subject’s Healing efforts. Instead of Healing the damage, the subject instead suffers the same amount of damage. Each expenditure of Vitae on the Bron’s part can corrupt only one Vitae worth of Healing, regardless of how many Vitae the subject spends on Healing that turn. If the subject spends Vitae as part of an attempt to heal an aggravated wound, he merely loses that Vitae and must spend another on the Healing process.
For example, Angelica uses Bitter Humours against her rival, Manuel, and succeeds on the contested roll with four successes. After a confl ict outside Elysium, Manuel spends one Vitae to heal a point of lethal damage. Angelica is instinctively aware of the attempt and chooses to spend Vitae to thwart Manuel. Manuel loses the Vitae he spent toward Healing that point of lethal damage and instead suffers another point of lethal damage.
Later that evening, Manuel spends two Vitae to heal four points of bashing damage in a single turn. Angelica is once again aware of this attempted Healing, and chooses to spend another Vitae to twist Manuel’s Healing attempt. Manuel suffers two points of bashing damage thanks to Angelica’s curse, but heals two points of bashing damage with his second Vitae (as Angelica can twist only one Vitae worth of the subject’s Healing per Vitae point she spends).
Exceptional Success: The character wins the contested roll with fi ve or more successes. In addition to instinctively knowing when the subject attempts to heal himself with Vitae, the character knows the severity of the damage being healed. In addition, it is possible, though diffi cult, to cause the subject to suffer aggravated damage with an exceptional success. In order to infl ict a point of aggravated damage, the subject must spend all fi ve Vitae to heal the wound during the course of a single night. The subject also must not spend more than one Vitae per turn on the Healing process. Finally, the Bron must spend a Vitae of her own to corrupt each expenditure of Vitae (for a total of fi ve Vitae). If all of these conditions are met, the subject suffers a point of aggravated damage instead of Healing one. Note that attempting to infl ict damage in this fashion is mutually exclusive from spending Vitae to force the subject to lose a Vitae spent toward Healing an aggravated wound. The Bron must choose one effect or the other when he spends his Vitae.
Failure: The character’s player loses or ties the contested roll, and the subject’s ability to heal himself is unimpeded.
Success: The character wins the contested roll. For each success the character’s player rolls, she may “twist” one attempt by the subject to heal himself by spending Vitae. As long as the character remains within five miles of the subject, she instinctively knows whenever the subject spends Vitae to heal himself (though she does not know what type of damage the subject is trying to heal). As a refl exive action, the character may spend one Vitae to corrupt the subject’s Healing efforts. Instead of Healing the damage, the subject instead suffers the same amount of damage. Each expenditure of Vitae on the Bron’s part can corrupt only one Vitae worth of Healing, regardless of how many Vitae the subject spends on Healing that turn. If the subject spends Vitae as part of an attempt to heal an aggravated wound, he merely loses that Vitae and must spend another on the Healing process.
For example, Angelica uses Bitter Humours against her rival, Manuel, and succeeds on the contested roll with four successes. After a confl ict outside Elysium, Manuel spends one Vitae to heal a point of lethal damage. Angelica is instinctively aware of the attempt and chooses to spend Vitae to thwart Manuel. Manuel loses the Vitae he spent toward Healing that point of lethal damage and instead suffers another point of lethal damage.
Later that evening, Manuel spends two Vitae to heal four points of bashing damage in a single turn. Angelica is once again aware of this attempted Healing, and chooses to spend another Vitae to twist Manuel’s Healing attempt. Manuel suffers two points of bashing damage thanks to Angelica’s curse, but heals two points of bashing damage with his second Vitae (as Angelica can twist only one Vitae worth of the subject’s Healing per Vitae point she spends).
Exceptional Success: The character wins the contested roll with fi ve or more successes. In addition to instinctively knowing when the subject attempts to heal himself with Vitae, the character knows the severity of the damage being healed. In addition, it is possible, though diffi cult, to cause the subject to suffer aggravated damage with an exceptional success. In order to infl ict a point of aggravated damage, the subject must spend all fi ve Vitae to heal the wound during the course of a single night. The subject also must not spend more than one Vitae per turn on the Healing process. Finally, the Bron must spend a Vitae of her own to corrupt each expenditure of Vitae (for a total of fi ve Vitae). If all of these conditions are met, the subject suffers a point of aggravated damage instead of Healing one. Note that attempting to infl ict damage in this fashion is mutually exclusive from spending Vitae to force the subject to lose a Vitae spent toward Healing an aggravated wound. The Bron must choose one effect or the other when he spends his Vitae.
Material Components
Cost: 1 Vitae, plus see below
Gestures & Ritual
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Occult + Crochan versus subject’s Resolve + Blood Potency
Related Discipline
Effect Casting Time
Contested; resistance is reflexive
Level
3
Applied Restriction
Bitter Humours works only on Kindred, not on any other creature that has a regenerative or Healing ability. As well, this power requires the character to touch her target in order to infl ict this curse (see p. 157 of the World of Darkness Rulebook). The target of Bitter Humours suffers under the curse until the following sunset, or until the curse’s power is discharged.
Suggested | Modifiers
Modifier | Situation
+2 | Power is turned on a vampire with whom the user has a blood tie (see Vampire: The Requiem, p. 162).
+1 | Target has tasted the user’s blood within the past night.
–1 | Target has been the victim of this power earlier in the same night (cumulative, applies whether the earlier use succeeded or failed).
Suggested | Modifiers
Modifier | Situation
+2 | Power is turned on a vampire with whom the user has a blood tie (see Vampire: The Requiem, p. 162).
+1 | Target has tasted the user’s blood within the past night.
–1 | Target has been the victim of this power earlier in the same night (cumulative, applies whether the earlier use succeeded or failed).