Right at the very moment of his Embrace, Owen Thomas Jones internalized the cocktail of poisonous gases — phosgene, chlorine, mustard gas — that may or may not have killed him. They infused his blood and body, and by exerting his will, he found that he could create the symptoms caused by the gas in the living, and eventually become the gas itself.
The powers of Asphyx are quite potent, but have one drawback: they have no direct effect on the Kindred. The only real difference that Asphyx makes to a vampire is that the blood of a human victim of Asphyx tastes absolutely vile (unless the consuming vampire is a Jones, in which case it tastes wonderful), even though it is no less nutritious.
The Asphyx Toxin
The effects of the second to fifth dot Asphyx powers depend on it being a supernatural poison (rules for poisons can be found on p. 180 of the World of Darkness Rulebook, but also see the addendum in the Introduction to this book). As a toxin, the Asphyx poison causes lethal damage and has a Toxicity of: Dots in Asphyx + Blood Potency.
Characters who come into contact with the poison can roll to escape its effects with a reflexive roll of Stamina + Resolve - Toxicity. If the victim’s player rolls one or more successes, the victim suffers no damage.
If she fails, she suffers levels of lethal damage equal to the Toxicity of the vampire’s poison.
The poison, like mustard gas, works on contact with skin: protective clothing offers victims a bonus to dice pools of +1 (a simple breath mask of the kind worn by
urban cyclists, a wet rag pressed to the mouth) to +5 (a full hazmat suit). A Brother can gain Vitae from victims of Asphyx poison, whether it was his own efforts or someone else’s that caused the poisoning.
Other Supernatural Beings
Asphyx works on all living flesh, which means that while it doesn’t work on vampires (nor does it affect zombies or any other undead beings that a Jones might meet), it is quite effective on the living supernatural creatures that inhabit the World of Darkness.
It being a supernatural poison, however, other not-quite-human creatures get to add their unique supernatural traits when resisting Asphyx: werewolves add Primal-Urge to dice pools to resist, mages use Gnosis, Prometheans use Azoth and changelings use Wyrd. Other resistance to poison that a character might have still counts (for example, all Prometheans benefit from a +4 on dice pools to resist poison).
The vampire draws the poison in his body out through his fingertips — which let out the slightest of vapors — and touches his victim. Seconds later, the mortal’s eyes water. He begins to choke slightly, and coughs uncontrollably for a few seconds, making it difficult to act.
Cost: None
Dice Pool: Dexterity + Medicine + Asphyx vs. victim’s Stamina + Resolve
Action: Contested To use this power, the vampire must first touch the victim (as per the rules found in the World of Darkness Rulebook, p.157).
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The victim suffers no ill effect at all, and carries on as if nothing had happened.
Failure: The poison wells on the vampire’s fingertips for a split-second and then dissolves. Nothing else happens.
Success: The victim instantly feels an irritating, choking sensation in his throat and begins to cough. He suffers a -1 penalty to all dice pools for a number of turns equal to the number of the Jones’s successes.
Exceptional Success: The victim’s cough causes him a small amount of pain — he even hacks up a few tiny spots of blood. The penalty is the same, but the victim now counts as having been poisoned (and hence a valid choice of victim for a member of the Jones bloodline) until the end of the scene.
One of the most dreadful effects of mustard gas is that it doesn’t really dissipate — it taints objects and flesh. The Jones smears a layer of his Vitae over a hand-held object or a small area, about equal to a square foot of space. The blood vanishes into the substance of the object. The next time a mortal touches the contaminated object or space, he risks being poisoned, and must roll to resist the toxicity of the Jones’s poison.
Cost: 1 Vitae for every object or square foot of space tainted
Dice Pool: No roll is required to activate this power. Once contact transmits the poison, the victim’s player must roll to resist the poison as described above.
Action: Instant
The poison remains in place from the moment the vampire applies it until the next sunrise, or until someone touches it. It cannot be removed in any way before it is touched; but when the sun rises, it vanishes as if it were never there. Likewise, once the poison has infected someone, the affected area is no longer hazardous.
The vampire can now directly poison his victims: the poison that exudes from his fingertips bubbles and burns, and when it contacts human flesh, it causes deep and wide blisters that itch and throb. The victim’s eyes water, and she might suffer bleeding in the lungs, as if she had inhaled mustard gas.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: No roll is required to activate this power, but the character must touch the victim for it to have any chance of causing harm. The poison has instant effect, although the victim may roll to avoid suffering damage as above.
Action: Instant
The monster breathes out a cloud of acrid, deadly gas that settles over the immediate area. Any living creature in the area risks terrible pain and possibly death.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Strength + Science + Asphyx
Action: Instant
The gas is of a volume sufficient to fill a room roughly 15’ long, 15’ wide and 10’ high.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character fails completely to create the poison cloud — worse, he suffers some of the ill-effects himself. His skin blisters and cracks and he coughs, once, vomiting a small amount of blood. He loses another Vitae and suffers two points of lethal damage.
Failure: The character breathes out the gas, but it dissipates almost immediately.
Success: The character exhales a cloud of greenish gas that smells a little of chlorine, a little of horseradish and a little of cut grass. Anyone who comes into contact with the affected area must roll to avoid damage, as described above.
The cloud of gas persists for a length of time that depends on the number of successes rolled:
Successes — Duration
1 success — One turn
2 successes — Two turns
3 successes — Four turns
4 successes — Until the end of the scene
5+ successes — Until sunrise
Exceptional Success: The gas fills twice the usual area.
Suggested Modifiers
Modifier — Situation
-1 — Attempting to create gas cloud outdoors
-1 — Light rain
-2 — Heavy rain
-2 — Attempting to create cloud in air-conditioned area
-2 — Light breeze
-3 — Strong wind
At the highest levels, the character develops the power to dissolve his body into the choking cloud of gas, becoming the poison, directing and controlling it.
Cost: 1 Vitae + 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: No roll is required to effect the transformation.
Action: Instant
In gaseous form, the character can move at her normal Speed, slip under doors and through cracks in window frames.
She can also force living victims to inhale her poison, curling smoky tentacles around her victim’s throat, driving gas into the mouth and nose. The character must make a grapple attack (see the World of Darkness Rulebook p. 157) to do so. The vampire only needs to succeed in one grapple attack for the poison to take effect, at which point the victim’s player must roll to avoid poison damage.
If the gaseous vampire is caught in high winds or heavy rain, the player must roll Stamina + Resolve. If the weather is particularly bad, the dice pool suffers a penalty of -1 to -3 at the Storyteller’s discretion. If the roll fails, the gas disperses, and the character reforms at the next sunset in the same spot. A character can return to solid form at will with an instant action.