The greatest gift of Durga to her chosen warriors, the Amara Havana possess a unique Discipline that makes use of the very blood that sustains their existence as both a weapon and a means of defense and rejuvenation. Its mastery transforms any individual vampire of this bloodline into a self-contained army and armory, possessed of an extraordinary capacity for lethal violence and an ability to survive all but the most certain of Final Deaths.
The first level of Sakti Pata invokes the toxic essence of the demon-taint that runs in the blood of the Amara Havana, transforming it into a deadly poison that, if consumed, can kill human beings outright or send vampire assailants into a pain-wracked torpor. This blood-poison may also be used to coat weapons, though such treatments gradually lose their potency over time. It is not possible to use this power to poison bullets (rather, the poison can be applied, but the heat and the speed of the shot removes the blood), though the vampire can poison arrows. Under normal circumstances, the vampire’s toxic blood does him no personal harm, and the invocation may be halted at will.
Cost: 1 Willpower + 1 or more Vitae (if poisoning a weapon)
Dice Pool: Stamina + Occult + Sakti Pata
Action: Instant.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The power is successfully invoked but, rather than running harmlessly through the Amara Havana’s body, it instead affects the flesh of the warrior who called upon it. Refer to the effects of success below, but apply the results to the Discipline’s user.
Failure: The attempt to invoke this power fails.
Success: The invocation of the power succeeds and, depending on the nature of the attack, can have a variety of deleterious effects on its victim. If the toxic blood is consumed, either by a human or a vampire, the poison takes effect instantly. The Toxicity Rating of the venom is equal to the player’s successes + the vampire’s Blood Potency (see p. 15 for a discussion of poisons). If the victim’s player fails the roll to resist the poison (Stamina + Resolve – Toxicity Rating), the character suffers lethal damage equal to the Toxicity Rating. If the toxic blood is introduced via a poisoned weapon, the effect is the same, and in the event that the player fails the roll to resist the poison, the character suffers the poison damage in addition to any damage caused by the weapon. A poisoned weapon only inflicts its damage once before the poison fades. The Amara Havana must inflict at least one point of damage with a poisoned weapon for the toxin to have any effect. If the attack misses, the weapon retains its poison.
Exceptional Success: Extra successes result in a higher Toxicity Rating.
The vampire need expend no Vitae to make his blood poisonous for purposes of consumption, but poisoning a weapon requires the expenditure of one Vitae per point of the weapon’s Size.
This gift, named for the warrior king of the gods, is a flexible one. Its invocation allows a vampire to draw forth his own blood in the form of a semi-solid weapon forged from Vitae. Traditionally, this weapon is one favored by the patron goddess of the bloodline: a knife, a sword, a spear or a trident. Alternately, this gift can be invoked in a defensive mode, bending to absorb the impact of others’ weapons or fists, spreading out to form a small shield, or wrapping around an attacker’s body or weapon to aid in grappling or disarming maneuvers.
Cost: 1 Vitae plus 1 point of lethal damage required to shed the necessary blood
Dice Pool: Stamina + Weaponry + Sakti Pata
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The invocation of this power seems to succeed but does no damage when attacking an opponent or does not offer any protection from an assailant’s attacks.
Failure: The invocation fails.
Success: The invocation summons a weapon with traits matching those of its physically ordinary counterpart (a trident has traits identical to a spear; see p. 170 of the World of Darkness Rulebook). When invoked in a defensive mode, it provides armor equal to the character’s Blood Potency against bashing and lethal damage. This armor imposes a Defense penalty of -1, as it forces muscle to shift in order to maximize its effects.
Exceptional Success: The invocation summons the chosen weapon and its wielder ignores any and all Size/Strength penalties that would otherwise apply. When invoked for defense, it provides armor equal to Blood Potency against bashing and lethal damage with no Defense penalty.
This power may also be used multiple times, to create both an offensive weapon and a defensive form, either a shield or armor or both, but each use requires a separate expenditure of Vitae and an activation roll. However, the character need only suffer one point of lethal damage for all usages of this power in a scene. Changing the weapon’s form, for example from a knife to a spear, or from an offensive to a defensive form, is an instant action.
Disarming an opponent with this power consists of a contested action using the vampire’s Dexterity + Weaponry vs. the opponent’s Strength + Weaponry. Success on the vampire’s part results in immediate disarmament. Disarming an opponent in this manner is an instant action.
Note: this power cannot be used to create projectile weapons such as firearms or throwing weapons such as chakrams or throwing knives. It must be something that can be held in the (wounded) hand of the vampire whose Vitae creates it. Casting the weapon aside or otherwise dropping the item causes it to revert to ordinary Vitae. The weapon may also be reabsorbed (or drunk) in order to end the invocation, in which case the vampire gets the spent Vitae back.
Also called the Blessing of the Blood’s Fire, this ability allows the vampire to channel her Vitae to keep her undead form free from injury — a rather necessary consideration within the martially aggressive culture of the kshatriya vampires.
Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: This power does not require a roll.
Action: Reflexive
Once activated, this power lasts for one scene. The vampire can expend one more Vitae than her Blood Potency would normally allow for healing purposes only.
The blessings of the Amara Havana’s patron sometime literally fall from the sky. As these Kindred were created during a rain of demon blood (or so legend says), they can draw sustenance from the rain. Invocation of this ability allows the vampire to completely refill his blood pool when in the midst of a rainstorm or other natural phenomenon of weather, echoing the legend of the line’s origin. Certain penalties pertain for phenomena that do not involve rain, but even a violent windstorm offers these vampires some benefit.
Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: This power does not require a roll.
Action: Instant
Blood Pool Penalties
-5 for a wind-storm lacking rain
-4 for a dust/sand storm
-3 for a mud storm (a dust/sand storm in which rain is also falling)
-2 for a light mist
-1 for a heavy mist
These modifiers apply to the maximum that a storm could provide to the user of this power, i.e., if the vampire’s maximum blood pool is 10 and currently contains only five Vitae, he would obtain no benefit from a wind-storm.
This is a gift of manifold applications. In its most basic form, it allows a Guardian to wholly extract herself from her body in the form of blood — independently mobile, sentient blood that can flow in any direction. This leaves behind the desiccated hulk of the original physical body. What can then be accomplished depends entirely on the amount of blood contained in the vampire’s body when this power is invoked. A vampire with a healthy supply of blood can attack, escape and even establish a Vinculum with sleeping victims by dripping a tiny bit of blood between their lips. A vampire who is nearing Final Death or torpor, though, can use this power to “Embrace” a nearby corpse, fooling the attacker into thinking he has won.
Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: This power does not require a roll.
Action: Instant
If the vampire’s blood pool is substantially diminished (no more than three Vitae remaining), this ability can be used as an option of last resort to avoid Final Death. The vampire needs to escape the scene without being captured or set on fire (but receives a +3 modifier to all Stealth rolls, as she exists as a small puddle of dark liquid). Once she does, she has until sunrise to find a human corpse. She can then slither into the body’s mouth, at which point the player expends a Willpower dot. From this moment on, the vampire claims the corpse as her own. Over the course of the next month, the vampire alters the corpse’s physical form, causing it to take on the vampire’s Attributes and Skills. The character’s features, when the process is complete, resemble an odd amalgam of the vampire’s original body and the pilfered corpse’s. If the vampire cannot find a suitable corpse before sunrise, the puddle of blood loses sentience and dries up (the vampire, of course, meets Final Death).
If the vampire’s blood pool is robust (more than three Vitae), this form can be used to invoke any and all of the other abilities of this Discipline, both offensive and defensive. In such cases, engaging in acts of espionage and combat are the favored activities. In this form, invocation of Gift of Indra becomes a reflexive action. The disembodied blood-being generally repossesses its own body rather than take a new host when this invocation is complete, though the vampire can claim a new body if she so desires. She can even use the blood-form to kill a mortal of her choosing, and then inhabit the resulting corpse.