Obtenebration

This power grants the vampire control over natural shadows present in an area. Spend 1 Blood and expend a simple action to animate nearby patches of darkness for the next five minutes. Your animated shadows are not truly intelligent, but they have a form of rudimentary cunning, which allows them to follow your simple instructions. Your shadows are semi-solid and capable of moving objects weighing up to one pound. Animated shadows have one standard action each turn and can use that action to move up to three steps, to perform a simple action, or to attack. Your animated shadows always move and attack as a group. If directed to attack, the shadows wrap themselves around a single target, attempting to draw out her breath. The shadows' attack test pool is 8. Undead are not affected by this attack, but living individuals take 1 point of damage per successful attack, which cannot be reduced or negated, as they desperately gasp for breath. Your animated shadows are independent creatures, and directing them to attack does not require an action. If you are affected by a Mental or Social power, your shadows are similarly affected. If you cannot break your target's Majesty, your shadows are also unable to attack. These shadow-helpers do not normally take damage from Physical attacks, but are dispelled if exposed to bright light or to fire. Even a single point of fire damage, such as one from an incendiary bullet, is enough to send your shadow spawn back to the Abyss. A character can only have one application of Shadow Play active at a time.

Spend 1 Blood and expend a simple action to summon forth a cloud of viscous shadow, the utter essence of the Abyss. You can call this darkness into existence anywhere within your line of sight. The Shroud of Night has a six-step diameter and obscures all light within it, thus creating an utterly unnatural-looking area of pitch darkness. Anyone trapped in your Shroud of Night is blinded, unless she has some preternatural method of seeing through the formless void. Individuals within the shroud must use the Blind Fighting combat maneuver to attack. Characters with powers such as Eyes of the Beast can see through a Shroud of Night, and characters with other sensory powers, such as Heightened Senses, can compensate for lost sight, allowing them to attack normally. Within a shroud, most living beings, such as animals or people, suffer 1 point of normal damage on your initiative each turn, as the Abyss steals their breath and saps their will to live. This damage cannot be reduced or negated. Undead are immune to this effect, as are Stamina-focused living characters. You are immune to the effects of your own Shroud of Night; you see normally through the Shroud, and you are not disconcerted by its touch. After creating a Shroud of Night, you may use a simple action to move your Shroud three steps in any direction. Alternately, you can use a simple action and spend 1 point of Blood to increase your shroud's radius by two steps, after it has been summoned into existence by the first use of this power.

Spend 1 Blood and expend your simple action to cause dark tentacles to rise from shadows within your line of sight. These tentacles are a tangible manifestation of the primal sentience within the Abyssal void. When you activate this power, you create one Arm of the Abyss for each Obtenebration power you possess, including techniques, to a maximum of five. Arms of the Abyss cannot move from the spot in which they are summoned. Each Arm of the Abyss acts independently of the rest, functioning as an entirely sentient creature. An Arm of the Abyss has one standard action each turn. It can use this action to attack any target within two steps. Arms of the Abyss have an attack test pool of 8, and a successful attack inflicts 1 point of normal damage. However, instead of inflicting damage, you may choose to have an Arm of the Abyss Grapple its target. In this manner, an Arm of the Abyss can use the Grapple combat maneuver without spending Willpower. In mass combat, Arms of the Abyss can provide the assist attacker tactic to a nearby ally. If this occurs, the Arms of the Abyss give that ally a +1 bonus to her attack test pool, similar to a Stock NPC. Arms of the Abyss cannot provide the assist defender tactic. Arms of the Abyss have no mind and cannot be targeted by Mental and Social powers. However, if you are incapable of attacking a target, your arms are also incapable of taking hostile action. For example, if you cannot break your target's Majesty, your Arms of the Abyss are also unable to attack. An Arm of the Abyss has 4 health levels. Arms are immediately destroyed if exposed to sunlight.

Spend 1 Blood and use your simple action to transform into a monstrous creature of shadow. The raw material of the void envelops you in undulating bands, and four tentacles (similar in appearance to Arms of the Abyss) rise from your ribcage. The additional limbs provided by Black Metamorphosis cannot attack independently, but add to your own actions. Once each turn, on your initiative, you can make a Brawl attack using the arms provided by Black Metamorphosis, without using an action. This attack can target anyone within five steps. Attacks made with Black Metamorphosis use your normal Brawl test pool and inflict your normal Brawl damage. Black Metamorphosis attacks may be modified by your Potence powers, including elder Potence and Potence-based techniques, but cannot be modified by any other discipline powers. Black Metamorphosis cannot be used to attack during Celerity rounds. Attacks made by Black Metamorphosis can be modified by the Grapple combat maneuver, although you must still pay the normal cost to use that maneuver. Black Metamorphosis cannot be modified by any combat maneuvers other than Grapple. Black Metamorphosis is a transformative power and cannot be combined with other transformative powers. You may end this transformation at any time by expending a simple action. Black Metamorphosis' transformation is close enough to human to allow you to use weapons.

Spend 1 Blood and expend both your simple and standard actions in order to transform into a flowing creature of liquid shadow. While in Tenebrous Form, you cannot spend Blood, activate powers, or physically attack, but you are also immune to Physical attacks from sources other than fire and sunlight. You can be injured by non-Physical attacks, and you can be harmed by flaming weapons, such as a torch or a road flare; however, incendiary ammunition passes through your form too quickly to inflict damage. You take 1 additional point of aggravated damage from fire, flaming weapons, or sunlight while in this form. While in Tenebrous Form, you are not truly intangible. You are capable of slipping through small openings, sliding under doors, and oozing through holes, but you cannot pass through solid objects. A character in Tenebrous Form can talk and move normally. Additionally, you can move at normal speed along any solid surface, including up a wall or across a ceiling. Though you cannot actually fly, you don't take damage from falling while in Tenebrous Form. You can be touched if an individual passes her hand through your form, and you may touch other characters by extending a shadowy limb or by slithering against them. Touching or being touched may require a Brawl attack. Tenebrous Form is a transformative power and cannot be combined with other transformative powers.

Spend 1 Blood and expend your standard action to step into one shadow and exit from another, teleporting up to 50 steps in any direction. To use Shadowstep, you must step into a patch of natural darkness, one not created by Shroud of Night or currently affected by Obtenebration powers. You immediately exit from another natural shadow within your line of sight, as though it were your next step. Shadowstep cannot be used in brightly lit areas and cannot be used if you are grappled. You can bring another individual with you, so long as you hold her in a firm grip. To do so, you must spend 2 additional Blood, 3 Blood total, to Shadowstep and bring the subject along. If the subject is unwilling, you must Grapple the target before using Shadowstep in this manner. It is not possible to take more than one additional character with you when using Shadowstep; you also cannot bring items that you cannot carry easily.

When you learn Shadow Twin, your shadow becomes infused with the power of the Abyss and gains a semblance of life. Your shadow is attuned to your will and can follow your mental commands. You do not need to speak aloud to issue commands, although you must be within line of sight to do so. Your shadow moves, performs simple actions, or attacks as you direct. Your shadow possesses all of your skills and has a Physical, Mental, and Social attribute equal to one-half of each of your attribute ratings (round up). It can manipulate physical objects, lifting items or carrying objects weighing up to one pound for each dot of the Occult skill you possess. Note that your Shadow Twin cannot wield a weapon in combat unless you are wielding a melee weapon, in which case it holds a shadowy version of that same melee weapon, which provides all the same bonuses and drawbacks as the original. Weapons held by your Shadow Twin cannot have the Flaming quality; the shadow simply refuses to use such weapons. Your shadow is immune to Physical harm, but can be affected by Mental and Social powers. It can detach itself from you, in which case you have no shadow until it returns. A Shadow Twin can seep through cracks, move along solid surfaces, and ooze through small holes in a manner exactly like that described by Tenebrous Form. It can use each of the first 2 dots of Obtenebration once per hour, without cost, and you can see through your shadow's Obtenebration effects as though you had created them. Your shadow does not have access to any other powers. A Shadow Twin is dispelled if exposed to bright light, fire, or sunlight. If exposed to bright light, your shadow returns one minute after the light fades, or you leave the brightly lit area. If damaged by fire or exposed to sunlight, your Shadow Twin cannot return until 10 minutes have passed. If you and your shadow are separated, you can summon it by spending 1 Blood and expending a simple action, which causes your shadow to dissipate in its current location and return to your side as a normal shadow. You can then choose to reawaken it with another activation of this power. When your Shadow Twin is not active, it behaves like a normal shadow and cannot be attacked or dispelled. If you command your shadow into action, it can be attacked or dispelled as described above.

Spend 1 point of Blood and your standard action as you entice your target's shadow to attack her. If you succeed in an opposed challenge using your Social attribute + Occult skill versus your target's Social attribute + Willpower, your target is assaulted by her shadow. The shadow will immediately strike her for 2 points of normal damage. The attacking shadow does not count toward the maximum number of physical attackers per round. On successive turns, you may spend simple actions during the everyman round to cause the target's shadow to strike her again, causing an additional 2 points of damage for each simple action spent this way. If multiple simple actions are spent in a single round to cause the shadow to attack, the combined damage is considered a single source for the purposes of damage reduction. The effects of this power end after you have spent 3 simple actions in this way, or once 10 minutes have passed. Your target's shadow can only attack the target herself and cannot be used to attack other characters. If affected by this power, a target's shadow is considered invulnerable and cannot be targeted or affected by other powers. For the duration of this power your target's shadow is considered hostile and she cannot use powers that require her shadow to provide assistance, such as Shadow Twin or Tenebrous Ally. This power has no effect on targets that have lost or are separated from their shadow due to mystical means. If you fail an attempt of Shadowy Betrayal against an opponent, you can try again against that same opponent (or someone else) on the next turn as an exception to the rule disallowing repeated Social challenges after failure. A target may only be affected by a single application of this power, with new instances replacing older ones.

Whenever you are unconscious due to sleep or torpor, or your consciousness is separated from your body due to Possession, Psychic Projection, or similar powers, you may allow your shadow to take control of your physical body. This is an exception to the rules limiting which powers can be used while in torpor or during Possession and Psychic Projection. By spending 2 points of Blood to activate this power, your consciousness will remain separated or dormant, but your body will be fully animate under the control of your shadow; however, because you consciousness remains separated or dormant, you are unable to directly observe the actions of your body unless you have at least one dot in the Awareness skill. To all onlookers, your body will appear to immediately wake and will be able to act at the beginning of the next turn. While this power is active, your eyes become dark pools of shadow, fully black, and somewhat disconcerting to behold. Your Storyteller will control your shadow while it is active. Your shadow shares some of your motivations but will act on its own. It will defend your physical body if threatened and will feed if your body is low on blood. However, it will not risk itself for your allies nor will it place itself in danger for your cause. Instead, your shadow will seek to preserve its own life and kill anything that threatens it. Your shadow will avoid lengthy conversation, but when it speaks its voice sounds hollow and otherworldly. It may act in ways that you find reprehensible to achieve its ends, although it does not indulge in chaos for chaos' sake. Once you regain consciousness you will remember what your shadow did, and you gain up to 5 Beast traits for its actions as if you had committed them yourself. Any modifiers such as those from paths still apply, and you may attempt a degeneration challenge to reduce 1 of the points. Your shadow can spend your Blood and Willpower and can use your powers and test pools. If you activate this power when you are in torpor due to damage suffered, your shadow will awaken your body with a number of health levels equal to the number of levels you have in Obtenebration. Once activated, this power lasts for 1 hour, or until the effect that keeps your consciousness separated from your body ends.

Spend a standard action and 3 points of Blood and designate a number of targets up to your dots in the Occult skill that are within your line of sight. Inky black tendrils of the abyss erupt from nearby shadows to envelop your targets. Initiate an opposed challenge against your targets using your Social attribute + Occult skill versus your targets Physical attribute + Dodge skill. Should you expend a point of Willpower to retest any of these opposed challenges, you also gain that retest for the remainder of the opposed challenges without spending further Willpower. If you spend the Willpower to retest after some challenges have been resolved, you cannot go back to previous challenges you have lost and apply that Willpower retest retroactively. Characters who are successfully targeted by The Darkness Within are considered Grappled and immediately gain 1 Beast trait and lose 1 Blood. You may choose to ingest the blood drained, without risk of blood bonds, or you may feed the blood to the Abyss, consigning it to Oblivion. However, any harmful effects such as Acid Blood, still affect you. At the beginning of each everyman action that she remains Grappled she gains an additional Beast trait and loses an additional point of Blood. If an individual Grappled by this power attempts to escape, she must succeed in an opposed challenge using her Physical attribute + Brawl skill versus your Social attribute + Occult skill. A victim who succeeds in breaking free or that you willingly release from The Darkness Within must immediately test for fear frenzy. Characters affected by this power gain Beast traits and test for frenzy even if they are not normally susceptible to those effects. The Beast traits gained through this power fade at the end of combat and cannot cause Morality loss.

When activating Shroud of Night, you may spend 2 additional points of Blood to summon an Oblivion Orb within the area of effect of your Shroud of Night. This creates a terrifying storm of entropy within the shroud that is harmful to those who remain within it. Non-Supernatural Stock NPC creatures in the Oblivion Orb are instantly killed. Stock NPC Wraiths of rating 4 or below are dragged into Oblivion and destroyed. At the end of each turn any remaining creatures suffer 2 levels of aggravated damage that cannot be reduced or negated. This replaces any damage Shroud of Night would cause to a living creature. While within the Oblivion Orb, movement is reduced by one step to a minimum of one. As with Shroud of Night, you are immune to the effects of your own Oblivion Orb. Being able to see through a Shroud of Night does not prevent the effects of an Oblivion Orb. The effects of Oblivion Orb are not cumulative if two Oblivion Orbs are created in the same space.