Sanguine Strength

Spoiling • to •••, Vigor • to •••

Vampire the Requiem - Covenant - Ordo Dracul

Effect

This Solution is thought to be one of the first created by the covenant’s early blood alchemists in the 1860s. It is, in a way, the archetypal Mr. Hyde brew. With a successful activation roll, the character infuses the power of his own Vigor into a liquid medium. For each success on the activation roll, another “bonus dot” of Strength can be suspended in the brew, so a maximum of three bonus dots. The effects of this Solution last for the remainder of the scene in which it is ingested. A given subject can only be affected by one volume of Sanguine Strength at a time.
Along with the supernatural Physical power comes an echo of the Beast. Subjects — even mortals and Ghouls — who drink this Solution are prone to a kind of violent tantrum that weakly approximates frenzy. If the subject is confronted with stimuli sufficient to provoke an anger frenzy in a vampire, she must (or, at least, should) attempt an extended Resolve + Composure action to overcome her own rage, just as a vampire would. Mortals and Ghouls may be subject to unique modifiers to this action, however, at the Storyteller’s discretion. The drinker’s false frenzy isn’t really much more than a terrible display of anger. She retains her own mind, but suffers a –2 penalty to Mental actions for the rest of the scene, and attempts to use his Strength to solve as many problems as possible. She is shaken by an overwhelming violent urge, but she is not truly given over to the Beast.

“What is this shit?” Holden snapped his nose away from the bottle. “Smells like, what, pennies and sweat, man. Rank.” John looked into space. “Just drink it so we can be done.” Holden tipped his head from side to side, preparing himself. “Shit. I swear, man. Shit,” said Holden. John held out a baseball bat. “Well, what do you want, man? You want to be the guy? Huh? The man? Do you want to be the real thing? Then pucker up, be a man, and down the hatch. We don’t got all night.”

Material Components

Cost: 2 Vitae

Gestures & Ritual

Dice Pool: Strength + Athletics + Vigor versus subject’s Stamina + Blood Potency

Related Discipline

Spoiling • to •••, Vigor • to •••

Effect Casting Time

Instant and contested; resistance is reflexive. (An instant action is required to make the Solution; its effects are resisted with a contested action.)

This power costs six, 12 or 18 experience points to learn, depending on the level learned. The Solution must always be purchased with equal dots’ worth of Spoiling and Vigor. The character can bestow a Strength bonus equal to or less than the dots he had in Vigor when he purchased this power, to a limit of three dots. A character who purchases this power with Vigor • or •• may upgrade this power later by paying the difference in experience points necessary to purchase the power at new its level originally.
Example: A Nosferatu blood alchemist purchases this power when he has two dots in Vigor. He may only create Solutions infused with a +1 or +2 bonus to Strength dice pools. Later, the Nosferatu buys a third dot of Vigor, but he can still only create Solutions with a +1 or +2 bonus, unless he pays the experience points necessary to “upgrade” this power. For the Nosferatu, who originally paid 12 experience points, the cost is an additional six experience points.