Scourge is the Discipline of flagellance and pain practiced by the Mortifiers of the Flesh. Through centuries of penitent self-torture, the Kindred of the bloodline have managed to manifest their insights into pains of the flesh and purity of the soul through the Blood. This Discipline is the proof that Mortifiers of the Flesh can attain spiritual freedom and mystical powers through penance; it is the proof that the Flagellants are not simply an extremist faction of the covenant.
Scourge is excruciating to learn, and several of its powers require the Mortifier to endure pain to be used effectively. In time, however, Scourge enables the Mortifier the ability to gain insight through suffering, displace pain, augment and create physical anguish and free himself from some of the limitations of the body. Pious and penitent Flagellants may be tempted to use some of these powers to create needless suffering, however, and thereby require new penance from themselves.
Several of the following powers temporarily alter the way wound penalties and Health charts operate. See “States of Being” on p. 171 of the World of Darkness Rulebook for information on Health boxes and wound penalties in general. See “Damage, Wounds and Healing” on p. 170 of Vampire: The Requiem for relevant information specific to vampires.
The first thing a practitioner of Scourge learns is how to strengthen his will by enduring the torments of the world — that which does not destroy him makes him stronger. Every rushing spike of pain, every sting and burn, is like a taste to be savored. Mortifiers develop a sophisticated palate for pain. With that palate comes insight, and with insight comes the strength to endure. When a Mortifier is wounded badly enough to suffer wound penalties, whether by his own hand or another, he has a chance to regain Willpower.
Cost: —
Dice Pool: Wits + Medicine + Scourge
Action: Reflexive
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character is overwhelmed by the qualities of pain and a surging sense of his own sinful failings. He loses one Willpower point.
Failure: The character gets no sense of purification from his pain. He regains no Willpower.
Success: The rush of pain washes over the character like a cleansing water. He feels a sense of forgiveness and personal renewal and regains one Willpower point.
Exceptional Success: The wave of pain is like a surge of self-confidence and personal empowerment. The rush of pain gives the character strength and certainty; he feels unbeatable. He regains a number of Willpower points equal to his Stamina dots.
Once the character has taken enough damage (of any type) to subject him to wound penalties, he may attempt to regain a Willpower point as a reflexive action. The character can only use this power as a reflexive action on a turn in which he suffers damage. As long as the character is hindered by at least a –1 wound penalty, he may attempt to make use of this power whenever he takes damage.
Penitence Through Pain can only be successfully used once in any given scene. A character that attempts to regain Willpower and fails can try again in the same scene only if he is wounded again. There is no limit to the number of times the character can attempt to use this power, but he can reap its benefits just once per scene.
Example: Aaron, a Flagellant, has come under attack by a vampire of Belial’s Brood. After being beaten with a bat for several points of bashing damage, he is knifed for three points of lethal damage, which puts marks into all three of Aaron’s penalty boxes. As a reflexive action, Aaron attempts to regain some of his Willpower, but with the –3 wound penalty to his dice pool, he scores no successes. On his turn, he attempts to flee but his attacker is too fast for him. He’s beaten with the bat again, then, for just one point of bashing damage. Because he still has marks in his penalty boxes but has not yet successfully used the power this turn, Aaron gets to attempt Penitence Through Pain again, this time scoring two successes! He regains one Willpower point and cannot use the power again for the rest of the scene.
This power does not allow the character to “store” more Willpower points than his Willpower dots would normally allow. Willpower points in excess of the character’s maximum are lost.
A Mortifier who is no longer hindered by wound penalties as a result of the higher-level power, Endure Pain, can still make use of this power whenever his wounds reach his three right-most Health boxes.
A Mortifier knows that pain is transient. With a touch and an expenditure of Blood, the Mortifier can steal the pain from a subject or cast off his own anguish onto an unwilling host.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Stamina + Empathy + Scourge versus subject’s Stamina + Blood Potency
Action: Contested; resistance is reflexive. A willing subject can choose to forego the resistance action.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The character draws out pain from his own past and possibly that of his subject. He is struck by a rush of guilt and pain that leaves him reeling. He can do nothing but stand still or move his Speed on his next turn.
Failure: The attempt fails. No pain is transferred to or from either party.
Success: The character can choose to accept the wound penalties of the subject or pass his own wound penalties on to the subject.
Exceptional Success: The character can dull the pain being transferred, if he wishes. Transferred pain that is dulled by the Mortifier of the Flesh goes unfelt by both the character and the subject for the rest of the scene, unless the power is reversed prematurely.
Share Pain subtracts the wound penalties currently affecting the source character and applies them to the target character. If the source character is further injured after this power is used, any new wound penalties are not transferred to the target character. Imagine the pain being transferred is a physical thing, handed from one character to the other; once the hand-off is complete, no more pain is transferred. Subtract any penalties that have been transferred away from those that are now being suffered by the source character so that, for example, a character with a –2 wound penalty transferred away by a Mortifier suffers just a –1 wound penalty when his right-most Health box is marked.
All transferred wound penalties are cumulative, so a Mortifier of the Flesh who is enduring a –3 wound penalty from his own body when he takes on the –2 penalty of his ally suffers a –5 wound penalty, in total. A subject whose wound penalties are removed does not heal any damage; he is simply no longer subject to the wound penalties for any damage he had already sustained when Share Pain was invoked. Wound penalties transferred with this power remain transferred for the rest of the scene unless the Mortifier of the Flesh chooses to cancel the power’s effects prematurely. The Mortifier can cancel the power with just a thought. Once canceled, wound penalties return to the character they were originally drawn from. If that character no longer has damage sufficient to impose a wound penalty when his pain is “returned,” the pain disappears.
The Mortifier can have only subject’s pain in transference at one time, though with subsequent uses of this power he can pass that pain onto a target other than himself. To transfer the pain of another subject, the Mortifier must first cancel any persisting use of this power he has in effect.
Example: Aaron’s childe, Marcus, has been stabbed by a vengeful Acolyte. Aaron touches Marcus on his forehead, spends a Vitae, succeeds on his roll to use Share Pain and takes Marcus’s pain (that is, his –2 wound penalty) onto himself. Aaron is already suffering a –1 wound penalty of his own, so he is hindered by a –3 total wound penalty. Stepping over to the staked Acolyte attacker, Aaron uses Share Pain again to deliver the pain he took from Marcus onto the body of the Acolyte (who is already suffering a –3 wound penalty of his own). When Aaron removes the stake from the Acolyte’s heart and questions him, the pagan will be suffering a total of –5 dice in wound penalties (-3 from his own wounds and –2 from Marcus’s wounds). If Aaron wants to share someone else’s pain, he’ll first have to return Marcus’s back to him.
To use this power in combat, the Mortifier needs only to make contact with his subject. See “Touching an Opponent” on p. 157 of the World of Darkness Rulebook.
Suggested Modifiers
Modifier Situation
+2 The power is applied to a target with whom the user has a blood tie.
+1 The Mortifier is transferring pain that he caused.
Over time, the Flagellant learns to separate the sensations of pain from its ability to hinder. The Flagellant continues to feel the singeing heat of a bullet wound or the stinging ache of a slash across his flesh, but he does not let his body limit his focus and drive. With this power, the Flagellant begins to rise above his pain.
Cost: —
Dice Pool: No roll is required to activate this power. It is considered “always on.” So long as the he has three or more dots in Scourge, the Flagellant diminishes wound penalties affecting him (whether from direct damage or through Share Pain) by a value two less than his dots in Scourge. So, with three dots in Scourge, the Flagellant ignores –1 die of wound penalties; with four dots in Scourge, he ignores –2 dice of wound penalties; and with five dots in Scourge, he ignores –3 dice of wound penalties.
Only wound penalties stemming from bashing and lethal damage can be diminished with this power — when even one of the Flagellant’s three penalty Health boxes is marked with aggravated damage, the full force of his wound penalties come rushing back to him, even the remaining Health box or boxes are marked only with bashing or lethal damage. Even a single wound penalty from aggravated damage nullifies this power’s effects until the Flagellant’s last three Health boxes are free of aggravated damage.
At the Storyteller’s discretion, particularly destructive attacks may still impose penalties on a Flagellant with access to Endure Pain. If, for example, the Flagellant’s legs are smashed underneath a truck, he may be unable to support himself or move his legs at all, despite being able to separate himself from the pain of the experience.
Action: N/A
A powerful Mortifier can change the way a body feels pain. With this power, the Mortifier heightens the sensitivity of a healthy body he touches, so that every bruise feels like a broken bone and every scratch feels like a gouge. The victim becomes impeded by even minor injuries.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Empathy + Scourge versus subject’s Stamina + Blood Potency
Action: Contested, resistance is reflexive
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The Mortifier is horrified by the misery he would’ve bestowed and loses one Willpower point.
Failure: The subject’s body resists the Mortifier’s power, possibly without the subject even knowing he was under attack.
Success: The victim’s Health chart is altered to double the number of boxes that impose wound penalties. The last two Health boxes on the chart impose a –3 penalty, the next two Health boxes (third- and fourth-to-last) impose a –2 penalty and the next two Health boxes to the left (fifth- and sixth-to-last) impose a –1 penalty.
Exceptional Success: As a success, except the victim also loses a Willpower point each time he passes from one penalty threshold to the next (from no penalty to a –1 penalty or from a –2 penalty to a –3 penalty, for example).
By using this power, the Mortifier sets the victim up for pain and suffering in the future. Its effects last until the victim has been completely healed of all damage, so that her Health boxes are all empty, after which her Health chart returns to normal.
To use this power in combat, the Mortifier needs only to make contact with his subject. See “Touching an Opponent” on p. 157 of the World of Darkness Rulebook.
When the Mortifier masters Scourge, he achieves an increased understanding of the pains that straddle the gulf from the body to the soul. With just a look, the Mortifier is able to tear open the invisible scars of the mind and flood the body and the soul with immense pain. The victim must be able to see the Mortifier directly (not on television, for example) for this power to have any effect.
To activate this power, the Mortifier must cause himself damage sufficient to draw his own blood. Some Mortifiers swallow a razor blade. Some drive a nail through their hand.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Presence + Intimidation + Scourge versus subject’s Stamina + Blood Potency
Action: Contested; resistance is reflexive
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The Mortifier is incapable of using Know Pain for the remainder of the scene.
Failure: The victim successfully resists the power, possibly experiencing a fluttering memory of pain, but nothing more.
Success: The victim, whether mortal or supernatural in nature, is wracked with physical and emotional anguish. She feels as though she has been lashed with a whip. She feels as though her heart has been broken. She suffers a –5 penalty to all non-reflexive actions for the rest of the scene. The victim can break through the pain with an extended Stamina + Resolve action; when she has achieved a number of successes equal to the Mortifier’s dots in Presence + Scourge, she is free of this power’s effects. Note that this action is not reflexive and is therefore impeded by the power’s –5 penalty.
Exceptional Success: As a success, except the victim must accrue successes equal to the Mortifier’s Presence + Scourge + 5 to overcome her pain.
This power can be used on only one target at a time. Any number of potential victims may see the Mortifier, but only one can be afflicted with this power. Once a victim has been subjected to this power, it cannot be used against her again in that scene by any vampire.
Suggested Modifiers
Modifier Situation
+2 The power is applied to a target with whom the user has a blood tie.
+1 The Mortifier has caused the victim physical harm in the past.