Investments
Once a member of the Brood has progressed far enough in his Pursuit, his soul comes to know the secret of manifesting abilities unlike anything he’d ever known before. The Forsworn call these dark gifts Investments, and the source of their power is the subject of much discussion. Some maintain that Investments are at once the purest and most attained form of vampiric power, and that all others are merely either precursors or outright distractions to one’s true potential. Others hold that Investments are gifts from the Adversary himself, funneled by his grace through the power and presence of the Forsworn’s emergent Beast.
In terms of game mechanics, the Investment system is similar to a Dragon’s progress through The Coils of the Dragon. Each Investment is a separate “level,” the purchase of which is accompanied by an incremental rise in experience cost. Unlike Coils, however, the specific multiplier of that cost can vary from level to level, depending on the character’s Humanity rating (see Investments and Humanity, below). Similar to other covenant-based gifts, the ability to manifest Investments is linked to membership in Belial’s Brood. If one has not experienced Cathexis or otherwise been ritually inducted into a covey (i.e., does not simultaneously have at least one dot of Covenant Status (Belial’s Brood) and no dots of Covenant Status in other covenants), one cannot learn Investments at all.
Some Investments also have specific prerequisites listed in their description, all of which must be met before a character can purchase that Investment. The nature of these prerequisites varies from Investment to Investment, and involves everything from knowledge of other Investments to minimum Blood Potency ratings and in some cases, even the character’s possession a specific Vice. Prerequisites still apply after the vampire has manifested an Investment, so if an event or condition would permanently alter the character’s ability to qualify for a given power, he loses that Investment and must repurchase it with experience. (Temporary alterations, such as through suffering a power’s effect, do not count.)
The Investments below are divided into three subcategories, one for each aspect of the Trinity — pneuma, sarx and soma. Accompanying each category is a benefit reserved for those whose favored aspect corresponds to it. If a vampire shifts from one faction to another during the course of play, he loses the old favored aspect benefit and acquires the new one. All Forsworn are free to select any Investment for which they meet the prerequisites, but some choose to focus their efforts toward unearthing those secrets most pertinent to their spiritual view. Faction | Favored Aspect
The Nameless | pneuma
The Roaring Serpent | soma
The Pandaemonium | sarx
The Mercy Seat | pneuma
The Throne of Smokeless Fire | soma
The Scarlet Rite | sarx
While it may seem economical for a Forsworn to wait until he’s fallen to Humanity 1 before manifesting his first Investment, it’s generally not a good idea; the Pursuit is about understanding the path, not just arriving at the destination. Smart vampires know better than to rush through the descent, and elders often advise younger members to learn at least one new Investment at each step of the way.
The unusual bond Investments share with Humanity also lends the two traits some measure of mutual exclusivity. If a vampire ever chooses to raise his Humanity once he’s dropped it low enough to manifest Investments in the first place, he immediately loses all Investments known. (Re-losing the regained Humanity does not bring them back; they must be relearned from scratch.)
Similar to many other vampiric powers, Investments receive a +2 bonus to their appropriate dice pools when turned on those with whom the user has a blood tie. The dice pools for Investments involving Empathy, Persuasion or Socialize don’t suffer when turned on mortals, regardless of the Humanity rating of the user.
Brood members who excel in the way of the flesh, such as the degenerate Hyletics and the Antinomians of The Pandaemonium, can draw upon their intimate understanding of sarx to widen their own capacity for indulgence. Each night, any Forsworn whose favored aspect is sarx may by silent act of will expand his blood pool maximum by one for each sarx Investment he knows. This expansion does not mystically grant the Vitae that comes with the extra space, but merely allows the vampire to store more blood in his system. Every such expansion lasts for one scene or one hour (whichever is shorter), but the vampire needn’t “spend” all his bonus slots at once.
Consider an Antinomian with a Blood Potency of 1 and three sarx Investments. Normally, he can only store a maximum of 10 Vitae in his system at one time. Because he has three sarx Investments, however (and because he’s an Antinomian), he can raise his blood pool maximum by a total of 3 over the course of each night; he can do it all at once, granting him a blood pool of 13 for one scene, or he can spread it out across two or even three different scenes over the course of the evening (assuming he finds enough benefit in raising his blood pool by just 1 each time). This benefit does not create Vitae, or affect how much Vitae one may spend per turn. Any blood in excess of the vampire’s normal maximum is vomited forth in a crimson gout unless spent before the end of the scene.
In terms of game mechanics, the Investment system is similar to a Dragon’s progress through The Coils of the Dragon. Each Investment is a separate “level,” the purchase of which is accompanied by an incremental rise in experience cost. Unlike Coils, however, the specific multiplier of that cost can vary from level to level, depending on the character’s Humanity rating (see Investments and Humanity, below). Similar to other covenant-based gifts, the ability to manifest Investments is linked to membership in Belial’s Brood. If one has not experienced Cathexis or otherwise been ritually inducted into a covey (i.e., does not simultaneously have at least one dot of Covenant Status (Belial’s Brood) and no dots of Covenant Status in other covenants), one cannot learn Investments at all.
Some Investments also have specific prerequisites listed in their description, all of which must be met before a character can purchase that Investment. The nature of these prerequisites varies from Investment to Investment, and involves everything from knowledge of other Investments to minimum Blood Potency ratings and in some cases, even the character’s possession a specific Vice. Prerequisites still apply after the vampire has manifested an Investment, so if an event or condition would permanently alter the character’s ability to qualify for a given power, he loses that Investment and must repurchase it with experience. (Temporary alterations, such as through suffering a power’s effect, do not count.)
The Investments below are divided into three subcategories, one for each aspect of the Trinity — pneuma, sarx and soma. Accompanying each category is a benefit reserved for those whose favored aspect corresponds to it. If a vampire shifts from one faction to another during the course of play, he loses the old favored aspect benefit and acquires the new one. All Forsworn are free to select any Investment for which they meet the prerequisites, but some choose to focus their efforts toward unearthing those secrets most pertinent to their spiritual view. Faction | Favored Aspect
The Nameless | pneuma
The Roaring Serpent | soma
The Pandaemonium | sarx
The Mercy Seat | pneuma
The Throne of Smokeless Fire | soma
The Scarlet Rite | sarx
Investments and Humanity
Investments, whatever their origins, interact with a vampire’s Humanity in several substantive ways. First and foremost, Investments become easier to learn as the Forsworn’s Humanity fades (see table). Vampires cannot manifest Investments at all until their Humanity scores drop to 4, when the Beast within has finally grown prominent and receptive enough to call upon their power. After that, manifesting Investments grows easier with each successive drop until the character’s Humanity reaches 1, at which time learning Investments becomes as second nature to him as learning even the most familiar of vampiric powers. While Investments are tied undeniably to the Beast, a vampire who retains no shred of Humanity cannot learn new ones, for the truly unfettered Beast lacks both the patience and focus required to learn much of anything.While it may seem economical for a Forsworn to wait until he’s fallen to Humanity 1 before manifesting his first Investment, it’s generally not a good idea; the Pursuit is about understanding the path, not just arriving at the destination. Smart vampires know better than to rush through the descent, and elders often advise younger members to learn at least one new Investment at each step of the way.
The unusual bond Investments share with Humanity also lends the two traits some measure of mutual exclusivity. If a vampire ever chooses to raise his Humanity once he’s dropped it low enough to manifest Investments in the first place, he immediately loses all Investments known. (Re-losing the regained Humanity does not bring them back; they must be relearned from scratch.)
Similar to many other vampiric powers, Investments receive a +2 bonus to their appropriate dice pools when turned on those with whom the user has a blood tie. The dice pools for Investments involving Empathy, Persuasion or Socialize don’t suffer when turned on mortals, regardless of the Humanity rating of the user.
Pneuma Investments
The aspect of pneuma is the aspect of the spirit, the soul and the will. Pneuma Investments often rely on the user’s own understanding of vice and of his spirit’s place in both its covey and in the corrupt material world. For a Brood member affiliated with a faction whose favored aspect is pneuma — either The Nameless or The Mercy Seat, most commonly — increasing knowledge of pneuma bestows a commensurate rise in the Forsworn’s ability to fool the living world into believing he isn’t the monster he appears. Every pneuma Investment such a character knows raises his equivalent Humanity by 1 for the purposes of interacting with non-vampires, to a maximum equivalent Humanity of 10. For example, a Nameless Forsworn with a Humanity of 2 and three pneuma Investments interacts with the living world as though he had a Humanity of 5 in every regard. This benefit does not affect how long a character spends in involuntary Torpor, how active he is when roused during the day or any other element pertaining to or derived from Humanity. This benefit only affects how he appears to those non-vampires with whom he comes into contact (see Vampire: The Requiem, p. 185).Sarx Investments
Sarx is easily the most primal and visceral aspect of the Trinity. The sarx is the flesh, purely and simply, and it will be neither denied nor cast aside. The vampire cults of the sarx believe in the importance of the material in a material world, and the powers they manifest tend to focus heavily on the strengthening and manipulation thereof. At their most powerful, these Investments can effect drastic and often monstrous changes to flesh both alive and undead.Brood members who excel in the way of the flesh, such as the degenerate Hyletics and the Antinomians of The Pandaemonium, can draw upon their intimate understanding of sarx to widen their own capacity for indulgence. Each night, any Forsworn whose favored aspect is sarx may by silent act of will expand his blood pool maximum by one for each sarx Investment he knows. This expansion does not mystically grant the Vitae that comes with the extra space, but merely allows the vampire to store more blood in his system. Every such expansion lasts for one scene or one hour (whichever is shorter), but the vampire needn’t “spend” all his bonus slots at once.
Consider an Antinomian with a Blood Potency of 1 and three sarx Investments. Normally, he can only store a maximum of 10 Vitae in his system at one time. Because he has three sarx Investments, however (and because he’s an Antinomian), he can raise his blood pool maximum by a total of 3 over the course of each night; he can do it all at once, granting him a blood pool of 13 for one scene, or he can spread it out across two or even three different scenes over the course of the evening (assuming he finds enough benefit in raising his blood pool by just 1 each time). This benefit does not create Vitae, or affect how much Vitae one may spend per turn. Any blood in excess of the vampire’s normal maximum is vomited forth in a crimson gout unless spent before the end of the scene.
Soma Investments
The aspect of soma is the aspect of the body. Investments of this kind revolve around the eminence of the vampire’s Beast, and around his empowerment over the physical form. For any Forsworn affiliated with a soma heavy ideology, such as that held by the Archons and the Djinn, the understanding of soma itself is like unto a nurturing womb for the Beast within. For those whose favored aspect is soma, every soma Investment adds 1 to the vampire’s effective Blood Potency score, but only as it pertains to the Predator’s Taint system. Whenever such a Forsworn touches Taints with another vampire, his Beast appears for all the world as though it were commensurately stronger, more quintessentially predatory. For example, an Archon with a Blood Potency of 2 and four soma Investments gives off the “vibe” of being a Blood Potency 6 vampire. This benefit does not grant extra dice to rolls made to resist Disciplines, and does not grant any other benefit associated with higher Blood Potency. The benefit merely affects the seeming of the Beast as it relates to other creatures’ Beasts.Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Comments