Torpor Connection
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Effect: The connection between the vampires of a dynastic House allows torpid members to perceive the trusted and familiar voice of fellow House Kindred, even through the rush of frightening visions and memories that come with torpor, like drowned-out shouts through a waterfall of blood. Torpid Kindred are not truly aware of the vague communication they participate in through this connection — the words they hear are swallowed by the shadows of cursed sleep — but they may respond by “talking in their sleep” all the same. Only the voice of a character with this Merit can penetrate the dead ears of a torpid vampire; witnesses to the consultation go unheard by the subject.
A character who purchases this Merit is presumed to have a torpor connection with another vampire, but the connection is one-sided. For a shared connection, both vampires must purchase this Merit. Two-sided torpor connections do not have to be balanced.
Without this Merit, speaking to a torpid vampire has little reliable effect. With it, your character may consult with his trusted, slumbering kin to gain advice, facts and other bits of information. In many cases, this consultation is awkward and imprecise, but straightforward questions may be heard and answered without an action, at the Storyteller’s discretion. Generally speaking, the more dots in the Torpor Connection, the clearer the messages whispered by the torpid vampire.
If it becomes necessary to gauge this connection mechanically, the questioning character should make a Presence + Empathy roll. This dice pool suffers a –5 penalty due to the fog of torpor, but each dot the character has in his Torpor Connection reduces the penalty by one. Each success on this roll allows the character to receive the answer to one question asked of his torpid ally.
A character with this Merit also has a chance to rouse a partner in involuntary torpor without donating Vitae of the correct potency. To do so, the character must feed two Vitae of vampire blood to the torpid subject and attempt a Presence + Empathy roll. This dice pool gains a +2 bonus if the character and his subject share a blood bond. If the result is an exceptional success, the torpid vampire can choose to awaken or remain in his dead sleep. Anything less than an exceptional success merely invokes the benefits described above.
This Merit may be purchased multiple times to gain a connection with other Kindred, one per purchase.
A character who purchases this Merit is presumed to have a torpor connection with another vampire, but the connection is one-sided. For a shared connection, both vampires must purchase this Merit. Two-sided torpor connections do not have to be balanced.
Without this Merit, speaking to a torpid vampire has little reliable effect. With it, your character may consult with his trusted, slumbering kin to gain advice, facts and other bits of information. In many cases, this consultation is awkward and imprecise, but straightforward questions may be heard and answered without an action, at the Storyteller’s discretion. Generally speaking, the more dots in the Torpor Connection, the clearer the messages whispered by the torpid vampire.
If it becomes necessary to gauge this connection mechanically, the questioning character should make a Presence + Empathy roll. This dice pool suffers a –5 penalty due to the fog of torpor, but each dot the character has in his Torpor Connection reduces the penalty by one. Each success on this roll allows the character to receive the answer to one question asked of his torpid ally.
A character with this Merit also has a chance to rouse a partner in involuntary torpor without donating Vitae of the correct potency. To do so, the character must feed two Vitae of vampire blood to the torpid subject and attempt a Presence + Empathy roll. This dice pool gains a +2 bonus if the character and his subject share a blood bond. If the result is an exceptional success, the torpid vampire can choose to awaken or remain in his dead sleep. Anything less than an exceptional success merely invokes the benefits described above.
This Merit may be purchased multiple times to gain a connection with other Kindred, one per purchase.