Misterio del Dragón

The common view of vampirism treats the condition as a curse, a supernatural affliction of body and soul. Initiates of the Wyrm spurn this notion. Within their doctrine the Requiem is a blessing. But for all its power the Beast is savage and easily roused to panic. The Mystery of the Wyrm intends to correct this, to refine the Beast and make it obedient to a Dragon’s desires.

Scales of the Wyrm are savage, even by Order standards; subjects are dissected, or ravaged by frenzy. These experiments focus on guiding the Beast, and the augmentation of a vampire’s natural prowess.

Coil of the Wyrm

Stir the Beast •

Before the Beast can be tamed a Dragon must first know how to wake it. For a point of Willpower he may enter frenzy unprompted. When he does so the Dragon selects a target or goal, no more than a few words, which becomes the objective of his frenzy. He has no more control over his actions than he would in an involuntary frenzy (p. 103), and all rolls to escape frenzy before the stated objective is met are made at a –2 die penalty.

When the original goal is no longer pressing or possible, the frenzy ends.

Using Stir the Beast is a reflexive action, and it can be used to avoid involuntary frenzy.

Beast’s Hunger ••

The Beast provides all Kindred with the tools they need to be apex predators; a Dragon need only learn how to tap them. Whenever he frenzies, voluntarily or involuntarily, add the Dragon’s dots in Coils of the Wyrm to his Blood Potency for determining the acuity of his Kindred senses (p. 90) and intensity of his predatory aura (p. 91).

Leash the Beast •••

As he comes to know the Beast, and the Beast him, the Dragon may direct it with greater ease. Riding the wave (p. 105) no longer costs Willpower to attempt, and he adds his dots in Coils of the Wyrm as a bonus when attempting to ride the wave.

Beast’s Power ••••

The Beast is a source of unlimited power and savagery, held back by mortal cowardice and inhibition. The Dragon can free himself, and by extension his Beast, of these restraints. When he enters frenzy the Dragon may opt to forego all resistance, falling into a state that will not cease until the Beast is sated (though he may still ride the wave). If he does so the Dragon adds his Blood Potency to his Defense, Health, and Speed for the duration of the frenzy.

Eternal Frenzy •••••

By this point the Dragon and his Beast are close to becoming one. He seethes with power at every moment, wielding his inner monster like a weapon against all challengers. While he
is in frenzy the Dragon will not fall into torpor even if all his Health levels are filled with lethal damage. Should he end frenzy with all his Health boxes full of lethal damage, the Dragon immediately succumbs to torpor. Fortunately, he may now retain his frenzy past the end of the scene, riding the wave from impulse to impulse until he is destroyed, or sleep takes him. (He may also choose to leave frenzy at the end of any scene.)

Sample Scales of the Wyrm

Augmented Vitae Draught

Prerequisite Coil: Beast’s Power
Procedure: Needles, glass tubing, and an air-tight container must be acquired and cleansed in an alchemical solution before performing this Scale. Once ready, the Dragon inserts the needles into key veins in his chest, arms and legs. Then he spends a single action making his blood flow, equivalent to using Physical Intensity (p. 91).

Outcome: The Dragon’s physical prowess remains unaltered; instead the Vitae drains out through glass tubes and into the storage container, where it remains potent for a number of hours equal to his Blood Potency. If imbibed by a mortal during this time the Vitae augments her physical attributes in the same manner in which the Dragon would have augmented his own. In a human host, however, Vitae circulates and endures for a much longer period, bolstering her physique for an entire scene.There are some side effects to this process. The solution is extremely poisonous, and the augmentations hazardous to the mortal’s physical well being. At the end of the scene the subject collapses and takes levels of bashing damage equal to twice the Vitae invested in the Scale. She also develops blood addiction (p. 99).

Kindred Sense Endowment

Prerequisite Coil: Beast’s Hunger
Procedure: The Dragon prepares a concoction of blood and bone, which is boiled and distilled over the course of two hours into a noxious burnt sludge. This substance is subsequently applied to a mortal subject’s nose and eyes, with the rest being ingested. This is a sickening procedure, soon after which the subject vomits out the ingested portion of the draught.

Outcome: The subject is sickened, but gains the ability to see and smell blood as though she were a vampire with two dots of Blood Potency (p. 89). The subject also acquires a hunger for human blood, as a newly embraced vampire would, though it offers nothing more than the risk of Integrity loss and terrible sickness. All these effects endure for approximately 24 hours.

Surgical Heart Removal

Prerequisite Coil: Eternal Frenzy
Procedure: Over the course of about six hours the Dragon surgically cuts out a Kindred subject’s heart (which is customarily stored in a black onyx box), and re-binds the veins in a mockery of their original order. This process is both risky and demanding, requiring an extended Intelligence + Medicine roll with a target of ten successes and an interval of one hour. If successful, this procedure can be reversed with an identical roll.

Dramatic Failure: The heart of the subject is destroyed in the process. The shock is so terrible and sudden that the subject flies instantly into a mindless frenzy before succumbing to Final Death at the end of the scene.

Failure: The heart of the subject is disconnected improperly. She immediately falls into torpor as if staked, and will not recover until her heart is returned to its proper location.

Success: Without a heart the subject cannot be staked. She also cannot gain additional Vitae from feeding, though she may still spend Vitae previously stored or gained through blood sorcery rites. Should her body be destroyed the subject will regenerate from the heart itself after the proper interval of torpor. Should the heart be destroyed she dies instantly.

Exceptional Success: All the normal benefits of an Exceptional Success on an extended roll, but nothing more.