A Sourcebook for Vampire: the Requiem Second Edition

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Author: Chris Allen

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2 Spectral Hunger
“It doesn't matter how many drugs I take, I'm not fulfilled. This isn't satisfying. There's a spiritual hunger going on.
Everybody feels it. If you don't feel it now, you will. Trust me. You will...”
— Alice Cooper
T
he world shivers in invisible frequencies. Unseen
horrors writhe like worms just beneath its rotting
skin, mewling and cavorting a scant breath away
from mortals and Kindred alike. Ghosts, spirits, and worse
beings yet all press against the flesh of reality and slither
through its cracks, hungering for the life and vitality of the
living world. For most vampires, these nightmare beings are
inexplicable phenomena that cannot be understood, only
survived; a spiteful force in a haunted house, a nightmare of
threshing tendrils and maws in an old stone circle, or a
pulsating mass of smoke that sets the dead to dancing with
malevolent will.
Some Kindred hunger for understanding of, and power
over, the realms invisible and their gibbering denizens. They
seek out hidden paths into strange frequencies of reality,
plead with spectral forces for insight into the intangible
powers of death, or even attempt to gorge themselves on
otherworldly energies in the hope of growing attuned like
ticks suckling at the flanks of a beast immeasurably
greater than they. Through transgression and Vitae,
the necromancers and spiritualists of the
Kindred seek to confront and dominate the
unknown.
Most suffer their Final Death, brought
low by arrogance and the unreasoning
hunger of the Beast. A scant few emerge
from their ordeals with hard–won and
bloody scraps of knowledge. Fewer still
share such lore with disciples or childer.
Yet some rare handful do, and upon their
tribulations, their hunger, and their revelations
are the glimmerings of understanding built.
Apostles and progeny and opportunists alike covet
such precious secrets. It’s easy enough to see why
Kindred end up drawn to the realms invisible, even though
they’ll never be welcome in such dismal worlds. Reaching
out to dead souls and alien minds offers some hope of an
answer to it all, of making sense of the dread condition of
vampirism; it gives practitioners power, a precious edge in
the cut-throat unlife of the courts and the clubs and the
cemetaries; and of course it’s about indulging hunger, the
craving to know more and reach ever further, the urge to
feed the vampire’s eager pride and, like the proverbial moth,
to draw ever-closer to the danger.
This supplement details three occult paths by which the
Kindred can reach out into those ephemeral states of being,
attuning themselves to unearthly energies in the search for
perfection, protection, or predation. Lemurifex is a rare
Discipline born of the resonance between Vitae’s deathly
power and shades of the unquiet dead, said to be created by
a Roman necromancer of terrible puissance. The Mystery of
Polyphonte, developed by radical adherents of the Ordo
Dracul, seeks to learn lessons from the terrible Strix
themselves. Finally, the Mystery Tenebrous steeps
its practitioners in the secrets of the Shadow
Realm, luring the attention of spirits through
the false passions of the Beast and the
Blood.
To fully make use of all the content of
Spectral Hunger, Storytellers will need
access to the rules for ephemeral beings.
The Strix are covered in the Vampire: the
Requiem Second Edition Core
Rulebook, but ghosts and spirits require the
core rulebooks of either the Chronicles of
Darkness, the Werewolf: the Forsaken Second
Edition Core Rulebook, or the Mage: the
Awakening Core Rulebook.
Spectral Hunger 3

Lemurifex
The first practitioners of Lemurifex clawed revelations
from gravedirt and corpse-flesh in the catacombs of Rome,
the caves of Thessaly, and the mausoleums of the Qin.
These blood-spattered witches, cavorting with the shades of
the dead, learned how to tantalize the hunger of the Beast
with the hollow existence of such ghostly beings – and how
Vitae’s corrupted vitality might lure and bind them. No
single tradition emerged from such ancient days; instead,
Kindred would rediscover Lemurifex again and again,
building brief and jealous legacies each time.
Societies and bloodlines wielding Lemurifex sprang up
among medieval demoniacs, Enlightenment alchemists, and
Victorian spiritualists, usually self-destructing through
hubris or madness. In modern nights, practitioners remain
few and far between, although several minor bloodlines
possess the secrets of Lemurifex. They’re most commonly
found within the ranks of the Ordo Dracul or the Lancea et
Sanctum.
4 Spectral Hunger
As well as the direct powers of the Discipline, a
practitioner of Lemurifex experiences another strange
phenomenon while in torpor. Her dead dreams are plagued
by shuddering phantasms and broken memories – the
psychic detritus of ghosts active in the surrounding region.
It’s rare for such a torpor-dream to deliver clear information
into the nature of such shades, but careful analysis can
reveal useful insight or clues about these macabre activities
of the unquiet dead.
Lemurifex does not come naturally or instinctively to
vampires. For one of the Kindred to access the power of this
Discipline, she must either belong to a bloodline that grants
access to Lemurifex, or she must drain dry a mortal who is
currently possessed by a ghost, killing the human by
drinking all their blood down. Once this sanguinary
initiation has been performed, the vampire can access
Lemurifex as an out-of-Clan Discipline.
Ghost Eater •
Power is to be had from the ectoplasmic tatters of a
ghost, if one knows where to look. Such an echo of life is a
faint glimmer of the vitality that a vampire feeds upon, but
Kindred are nothing if not adaptive in their parasitism.
Hunger honed to a keen edge can taste the deathly presence
of a ghost; Vitae’s dark energy can be tuned to those same
hollow frequencies to bring hunter and prey together.
Cost: None or 1 Vitae.
Action: Instant
Duration: Scene
By taking an Instant action and embracing her hunger,
a vampire with this Discipline can perceive ghosts clearly for
the remainder of the scene. The vampire is treated as being
hungry for the remainder of the scene; if already hungry, she
is treated as if she was starving. There is no additional
penalty for using Ghost Eater when already starving.
The vampire can see ghosts in any state while Ghost
Eater is active. She can tell that a materialised ghost is a
ghost, rather than a human or other type of entity. By
spending 1 Vitae, the vampire can attune her dead flesh to
the ghostly frequency of Twilight, allowing her to attack and
physically interact with dematerialised ghosts with her body
for the remainder of the scene. Only the vampire’s own
body is attuned in this way; the Ghost Eater cannot strike a
ghost with a sword, only her own unarmed attacks and her
fangs.
Finally, the vampire is able to feed from a ghost just as
from any other target, following the usual rules for doing so;
however, the ghost loses a point of Essence rather than
taking damage from the Feed move, and the vampire gains
only a single point of Vitae for every three points of Essence
drained in this way.
Erichtho’s Threads ••
Though merely a memory of life, a ghost’s essential
substance still resonates to the presence of vitality. Fine-tune
the corrupted life energy that roils within Vitae, and it can
ensnare even ectoplasm.
Duration: Permanent
A vampire with this Discipline can cause her Vitae to
affect ghosts as if they were living humans. Specifically, this
renders such Vitae consumable by ghosts, and can inflict
Vitae addiction, create blood bonds or even be used to turn
a ghost into a ghoul. Ghosts can attempt to resist blood
bonds and Vitae addiction as Kindred to, rolling Resistance
to avoid Vitae addiction and rolling Rank instead of Blood
Potency against blood bonds.
A ghost can contain Vitae up to its Rank, and may
spend one point of Vitae to regain a point of Willpower, to
fuel a Manifestation of any cost in Essence, or on other
appropriate effects if ghouled. While ghosts don’t age per se
anyway, a ghost ghoul doesn’t suffer any further dissolution
or fragmentation of its will due to the ravages of time as
long as it can pay its monthly tithe of Vitae.
Ghosts tainted by a vampire’s blood often take on a
grim red hue or ghastly, twisted appearance. Being blood-
bonded or ghouled does not change a ghost’s fundamental
sentience (or lack thereof); a foolish vampire who has fed
Vitae to gibbering phantasm-splinters that lack actual
awareness may find herself plagued by tattered ghosts driven
by a hunger they do not and cannot understand.
Stygian Subversion •••
The roiling crucible of life and death that is a vampire’s
body and soul is the perfect trap for ghostly energy. The
vampire usurps the anchors that tie a ghost’s presence to
this world, forcing the shade to linger and to serve as the
Kindred so wills.
Cost: 3 Vitae
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Subterfuge + Lemurifex vs.
Resistance + Rank
Action: Instant
Duration: 1 month
To use this Discipline, the vampire must be touching
an object, character or location that is the anchor of a ghost.
If performed upon the resting place or over the remains of
the ghost’s physical corpse, the entity does not benefit from
its Rank when contesting the power.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: Stygian energies lash out at the
vampire’s attempt to hijack them, leaving the character
unable to attempt to use Stygian Subversion on this anchor
again and immediately freeing every other ghost the vampire
has anchored to herself.
Failure: The Discipline fails.
Success: The vampire changes the ghost’s anchor from
its current anchor to the vampire. The vampire can
maintain herself as anchor for up to her Lemurifex dots in
ghosts simultaneously; once she has reached her limit, she
must release a ghost in order to add a new anchor. If the
vampire dies, releases a ghost, or allows the effect to lapse
after one month, the ghost’s anchor returns to its original
target.
The vampire can use this Discipline again, paying the
cost and rolling the same dice pool, against a ghost she has
already anchored to herself and that she can perceive.
Success allows the vampire to do one of the following: she
can force the ghost to use one of its Manifestations,
Numina, or Influences of her choice; she can inflict lethal
damage equal to successes to the ghost; or she can banish
the ghost to the Underworld for a number of days equal to
successes rolled.
After a month has elapsed, the vampire may pay an
additional Vitae to retain the anchor for a further month
without any dice roll required.
Exceptional Success: The ghost does not add its Rank
to its dice pool against this Discipline for one month.
Spectral Hunger 5
 Ghost Sculptor ••••
Shaped by shame and passion, ectoplasm is easy to
shape and knead. It quivers in obedience to the deathly
power of the Beast, letting the vampire coax the ephemeral
matter of a ghost into whatever form her whims desire – or
to twist the shade into tortured ruin.

Cost: 1 Vitae, or 3 Vitae for the Extended action

Dice Pool: None, or Presence + Expression +
Lemurifex vs Resistance + Rank
Action: Reflexive, or Extended (10 successes; each roll
represents half an hour)
Duration: Until healed, or permanent
The vampire may use this Discipline upon dealing
damage on a ghost with an unarmed attack to immediately
inflict the Arm Wrack or Leg Wrack Tilt on the ghost in the
process. Alternatively, the vampire can use Ghost Sculptor
as an extended action on a ghost that she has subdued,
bound, contained or which is otherwise not resisting.

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The attempt to reshape the ghost
goes wildly awry. The ghost suffers the Madness Tilt, and
the Storyteller may reassign up to five of the ghost’s
attribute dots as she sees fit, or entirely at random.
Failure: No progress is made in shaping the ghost.
Success: Successes are accrued towards reshaping the
ghost’s Essence and ectoplasm. If enough successes are
gathered to finish the task, the vampire can remove a Exceptional Success: The vampire treats her Lemurifex
number of Attribute dots from the ghost, up to a total of rating as being one higher than it actually is for the purposes
her Lemurifex dots. Attribute dots removed in this way can of reassigning Attribute dots.
then be spent as follows:

• Reassigning the dot to one of the ghost’s other Attributes, Hades’ Stride (•••••)
although the ghost is still subject to the usual maximums for its
Suffused with ghostly energy, the vampire steps out of
Rank.
the world of the living entirely and enters the breathless,
• Turning the dot into either 1 point of Armour or +1
twilit frequency where shades and phantasms dwell.
damage on its attacks, to a maximum of its Rank in bonus.
Cost: 2 Vitae
• Changing the ghost’s appearance to match the vampire’s
Action: Instant
desires; this could result in anything from a perfect copy of someone
Duration: 1 scene
else, to a bizarre abstract agglomeration of ectoplasm.
The vampire can use Hades’ Stride to enter the deathly
• Changing the ghost’s Bane to match those of the vampire;
frequency of Twilight, her material body and possessions
the ghost gains all the vampire’s Banes, greater and lesser. becoming entirely ephemeral. She is treated exactly like any
• Changing one of the ghost’s Manifestations or Numina. other Twilight being, including in how her Banes interact
• Encoding a single command into the ghost’s substance, with her dematerialised state.
including a trigger that will activate the compulsion.
The vampire can also use this Discipline to open an
Once sculpted, a ghost retains the changes indefinitely. Avernian gate she is in the presence of, although the
A vampire with this Discipline can attempt to remove the Discipline grants no specific ability to locate such gateways,
changes inflicted on a ghost by performing the Extended nor to survive on the other side.
action on the target and allowing its Attribute dots to return
to their original state.

6 Spectral Hunger

Devotions
Blood Vessel
(Dominate ••, Lemurifex •••)
The vampire weaves threads of blood and death into a
strong fetter between a ghost’s empty passions and a
mortal’s vital existence.
This Devotion costs 1 Experiences to learn.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: None
Action: Instant
The vampire forges a link between a mortal who has
any level of blood bond towards her and a ghost whose
Anchor she is acting as through Stygian Subversion. For the
following month, the ghost treats the mortal as having the
Open Condition. Furthermore, upon discorporating, the
ghost may reflexively spend a point of Vitae. If it does so, it
begins reforming within the linked mortal. It regains three
points of Essence per day until reconstituted and, upon
waking, may use any Manifestations it possesses on the
mortal for the duration of the scene at no cost. While
playing host to a discorporated ghost, the mortal suffers the
Spooked Condition every sunset and takes twice the usual
time to heal any damage suffered.
Erichtho’s Call
(Majesty ••••, Lemurifex •••)
The vampire calls out to the dead, her lament for their
passing an echo in Twilight that draws shades and ghosts
into the witch’s presence. She may name a particular ghost
to try and compel its attendance, or she can sing a threnody
to catch the attention of whatever spectre happens to be
nearby. This Devotion provides no means by which a
conjured ghost can be bound or contained once it arrives,
however.
Cost: 2 Vitae
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Expression + Lemurifex vs.
Resistance (if the ghost wishes to contest)
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The vampire’s Beast slips the leash
and, instead of reinforcing her call, it lashes Twilight into
turmoil. The vampire has a Hostile impression with all
ghosts for a number of days equal to her Blood Potency.
Failure: No ghost responds to the vampire’s call.
Success: The ghost feels compelled to come to the
vampire’s presence. It travels towards her location as swiftly
as it can, avoiding obstacles if possible. If the vampire does
not know the ghost’s name, it must be present somewhere
in Twilight; named ghosts can be raised even from the
Underworld. Ghosts that are currently discorporated can
never hear the call. The call lingers until sunrise, after which
the compulsion lifts from the ghost and it can act as it sees
fit once more.
Exceptional Success: The call endures for a number of
days equal to the vampire’s Blood Potency. The ghost adds
the vampire’s dots in Lemurifex as automatic successes on
Clash of Wills rolls to escape, break, or pass through any
bindings or wards that might prevent it from reaching the
vampire.
Mystery of Polyphonte
The Coil and Scales of Polyphonte are the components
of a truly bizarre and very dangerous Mystery, one looked
upon with intense suspicion even among other Dragons.
The practitioners of Polyphonte’s Mystery seek occult
lessons from a monstrous source very close to the vampiric
state – the inscrutable, unpredictable, malevolent power of
the Strix themselves. Some of the Polyphonte seek a means
of combatting the shadow owls, but most see in the Strix a
different evolution of the same forces that underpin
Kindred existence, and desire to alter their own eldritch
nature to adopt the best parts of that path.
In the Greek myth of Polyphonte, adherents of the
Mystery see the hints of a tale of a vampire – probably a
Gangrel or Daeva – who first delved into the Mystery and
achieved ascension, of a sort, in her embrace of the power of
the Strix. Cynics see a rather more blunt lesson in the story;
that Polyphonte was never one of the Kindred at all, but
rather the tale is a depiction of a true Strix wreaking havoc.
Regardless, students of the Mystery claim their particular
lore to be much older than the other Mysteries, much older
than the Ordo Dracul itself. Some whisper rumors of
Kindred displaying the Coil’s traits who have never been
part of the Ordo at all, taught by the whispered blasphemies
of the Strix themselves.
Practitioners use several of the Scales of Polyphonte to
earn trust in the Kindred communities they inhabit; the
procedures can empower other vampires against the Strix, a
significant bargaining chip when the shadow-owls are
scratching at the door. Yet this hard-won legitimacy only
serves to conceal deeper blasphemies among the Scales –
rites by which the vampire might mimic the body-snatching
powers of the Strix, or even spawn more such nightmares
from the latent power of the blood. Mystique and fear hang
over the students of Polyphonte, but attempting to conceal
the nature of a Kindred’s research into this path is an
unwise idea; it only invites further suspicion and mistrust
from others of the Ordo Dracul if discovered.
Spectral Hunger 7

The Coil of Polyphonte
Drink the Breath •
The first of Polyphonte’s lessons is the art of drawing
life from breath rather than blood. When using the Feed
move, the vampire can now choose to extract Vitae from the
subject’s breath rather than by drinking directly from their
flesh. The Dragon cannot drink the breath of another
vampire or revenant, but otherwise this works in the same
way as drinking blood, as it drains Vitae and deals lethal
damage in the process — except that it leaves no physical
marks or wounds on the victim. Nor is it ever euphoric; a
sleeping victim will remain slumbering and ignorant, but
conscious targets suffer the Scarred Condition. Critically,
however, Drink the Breath does allow the Dragon to attempt
to drain Vitae from a Strix; this still requires a ‘grapple’
before using the Feed move, but the grapple can only be
established for that purpose, and cannot be used to apply
other effects to the target.
Bind Smoke to Flesh ••
The underlying life-energy of Vitae can flow more
swiftly and surely than mere blood, if only unshackled from
its physical medium. The Dragon can choose to spend
Willpower points instead of points of Vitae to heal, causing
smoke and shadow to writhe from her flesh and knit
wounds together. Willpower points spent in this way are not
subject to the limits on Vitae per turn, or the usual limit on
spending a single Willpower point per turn.
Unchain the Spirit •••
Polyphonte’s wisdom teaches the Dragon to unshackle
mind and Beast from the anchor of corpse-flesh, to become
the body’s master rather than its slave. The Dragon no
longer falls into torpor upon marking her last health box
with lethal damage. Furthermore, attempts to possess the
Dragon — such as through a Strix’s Embodiment — no
longer benefit from the 10-again rule, and every 1 rolled on
the dice pool subtracts a single success from the would-be
possessor’s total.
Heart of Smoke ••••
Vitae no longer flows through the Dragon’s veins in the
form of glistening, crimson blood but instead as roiling
smoke and shadow. The Dragon can force it to congeal into
oily blood, if she wishes, but it is no longer possible for an
attacker to drain her Vitae by drinking her blood or
otherwise extracting it from her body except through using
8 Spectral Hunger
Drink the Breath from this Coil. The Dragon can also now
cause her Vitae to enter the body of another character while
breath-drinking from them, capable of inflicting a blood
bond or Vitae addiction as normal but without leaving any
physical trace of blood.
Tears of Polyphonte •••••
The Dragon’s spirit becomes ever closer aligned to that
of the Strix. Once per scene, she may spend three points of
Vitae to regain a single expended point of Willpower. If
donating Vitae to cause a posthumous Embrace, the Dragon
does not need to roll Blood Potency to be successful and the
new vampire rises immediately, although the other
restrictions of posthumous Embraces still apply. The
Dragon can hear the Gathering Cry power if a Strix uses it
within range, can identify the direction from which it came,
and becomes aware of the Shadow Potency of the
originating Strix. Finally, the Dragon can sense any Vitae
within her Blood Potency x 2 yards, whether in a vampire,
ghoul, reliquary, Strix, or other form.
Scales of Polyphonte
Blood Shadow Purge
Prerequisite Coil: Heart of Smoke
Procedure: The Dragon prepares a room to be pitch-
black; the vampiric subject is seated at the room’s centre. He
is surrounded by a ring of lighting equipment, each of
which is anointed with a mixture of crushed human eyeballs
and ash. The subject’s eyelids are wired open, and the
lighting equipment is set to strobe and pulse at a nauseating
rate while hallucinogenic compounds of Vitae mixed with
drugs are injected into the subject. At the culmination, the
subject suffers a convulsing fit of nausea and panic,
vomiting up a thick slew of shadowy ooze from which rises a
newborn Strix.
Outcome: The subject rolls his Blood Potency, creating
a Strix with Shadow Potency equal to the number of
successes rolled and reducing the vampire’s Blood Potency
by an equal amount (to a minimum of 1). Since the Scale
offers no control over the created Strix, a dedicate of
Polyphonte using Blood Shadow Purge to quickly reduce
Blood Potency will need to prepare a means to bargain with
or destroy the creature.
Citrine Oculus
Prerequisite Coil: Bind Smoke to Flesh
Procedure: The Dragon prepares a concoction of ash,
crushed animal eyes, sulphur, yellow ochre, and her Vitae.
This substance is injected into the eye-sockets of the subject;
the Dragon burns the carcass of an owl, and the subject
must inhale the smoke.
Outcome: The Dragon rolls her Blood Potency; for a
number of hours equal to successes rolled, the subject can
see perfectly in utter darkness, adds the Dragon’s Blood
Potency to rolls to track or hunt a victim she has taken Vitae
from before, and can clearly see possessing Strix with a
Shadow Potency equal to or less than his Resolve + Blood
Potency; to the subject’s sight, the Strix appears overlaid on
the possessed host.
Intervention of Ares
Prerequisite Coil: Unchain the Spirit
Procedure: This Scale is performed on subjects
possessed by Strix, who are therefore unlikely to be very co-
operative and are high-risk. The Dragon must mix her Vitae
and some poison with the blood and ground meat of a
human from whom she has fed in the last week; she must
have swallowed at least a mouthful of the human’s flesh
down then regurgitated it before then pulping and grinding
it into the mixture.
Outcome: Upon entering the body of the Strix’s host,
the mixture causes a Clash of Wills between the Dragon and
the Strix, using the Dragon’s dots in the Coil of Polyphonte
plus her Blood Potency and granting her the rote quality on
the roll. Success immediately ejects the Strix from the host.
This can be done via injecting the concoction into the host
through a syringe, or possibly by adding it to food or drink
that the host consumes.
Oreius Ingestion
Prerequisite Coil: Heart of Smoke
Procedure: The Dragon takes a finger severed from a
living mortal human (or, alternatively, an internal organ
from a human who has died up to a day ago) and, within an
hour, soaks it in a solution of her Vitae, ash, ink, and the
blood of a predatory bird. After it has soaked for a day and a
night, the subject of the Scale then eats the finger.
Outcome: For a number of days equal to the Dragon’s
Blood Potency, the subject treats Strix — or any other
creature or effect wrought from shadow — as solid creatures
and can attack them with natural weapons, grapple them,
block their path, and so forth.
Polyphonte’s Escape
Prerequisite Coil: Tears of Polyphonte
Procedure: The Dragon prepares a bath of Vitae, ink,
ashes, salt, and oil, bleeding points of Vitae into it equal to
her Blood Potency at a rate of one point per day. A living
Spectral Hunger 9
 human adult is then placed in the bath — and likely needs to
be restrained for what comes next. The Dragon drowns the
human in the ritual concoction that fills the bath, then uses
Heart of Smoke to pour her remaining Vitae into the dying
The Coil Tenebrous
victim’s body. As she does so, her own soul breaks loose
from her flesh and pours out of her orifices in a thick, Revelry of the Wyrm’s Nest •
curling mass of smoke, oozing into the human’s mouth and
Death pulls the vampire away from the invisible world
pores and settling into the new body. At the culmination,
of spirits, but that weight can be counterbalanced with the
the vampire’s old body drops dead, and she regains
vigour of life. When the Dragon activates the Blush of Life,
consciousness now inhabiting the new body.
and for as long as it remains in effect, she can perceive
Outcome: The new body is effectively ‘embraced’ in the
spirits in Twilight and can sense spiritual phenomena such
process, so the Dragon remains a vampire, retains her
as Loci if she is within their area of effect. Her perception
existing Blood Potency, and all other capabilities and
covers all five senses, although while she can hear spirits’
characteristics other than her Physical Attributes, the latter
speak she gains no innate understanding of the First
for which she gains the scores that her new body possessed.
Tongue, and while she can feel a spirit’s presence on her
Various Merits may also be refunded under Sanctity of
skin she gains no capacity to physically interact with, block,
Merits as appropriate, such as Fame dots associated with her
or attack them. Having acquired this Coil, the Dragon can
old appearance, certain physical Merits, and so forth. The
always perceive death spirits in Twilight, even if she has not
vampire has essentially transferred her soul as a Strix-like
activated the Blush of Life.
being to the new body on a permanent basis, or until she
uses Polyphonte’s Escape once more to steal another
victim’s corpse. Strix can instinctively sense if a vampire they Tenebrous Blood ••
encounter has used this Scale to transfer her consciousness
Through stoking the vital energies of her being and
between bodies.
fuelling them with her own mystical condition, the Kindred
can fill her blood with the dynamism of the Beast and

Mystery Tenebrous render it a feast for the hunger of the Shadow. While the
Dragon’s Blush of Life is active, any points of Vitae she

The ephemeral madness of the Shadow Realm is a far

cry from the macabre physicality of the vampiric state. The
pounding pulse of blood firmly roots the Kindred in the
fleshy reality of existence. Still, some few Dragons seek a
perilous path reaching out through the intangible passions
and hungers that boil within the Beast — transcendental
concepts strong enough to stir the Shadow’s broth. Usually,
even the Beast offers no more of a connection than the
rippling wake left behind a ship at sea, but through this
Mystery the Dragon seeks to sense those ripples she leaves
behind, and to attune herself to the ebb and flow of that
turmoil.

Scales of the Mystery Tenebrous are ritualistic practices,

used to influence the Shadow and its denizens. While often
viewed as excessively irrational in their practices, followers
of the Mystery Tenebrous serve an important role in the
Ordo Dracul when dealing with spiritual Wyrm’s Nests or
Shadow-beings whose attention the Covenant has caught.
Dabbling in the spirit world is a profoundly dangerous past-
time, and prone to attracting the ire of Circle of the Crone
members who dislike such rival interference in the spiritual
realm. Still, it earns respect from those Dragons who need
the help of the Tenebrous but would rather pursue safer
paths leading more directly to transcendence.

10 Spectral Hunger
sheds through spilling her own blood transform into
Essence. The blood can now be consumed by spirits,
creating one point of Essence per point of Vitae bled. The
Essence-rich blood remains empowered this way for a
minute, after which it loses its potency. Although the
Essence does not inflict Vitae addiction, it can inflict a blood
bond on a spirit that consumes it. The spirit instinctively
attempts to resist the bond as a Kindred would, spending a
point of Willpower and using its Rank in place of Blood
Potency.
Flay The World’s Skin •••
Stoking the pretence of life can split Beast from dead
meat just long enough to tear open a crack between worlds.
By activating the Blush of Life while within the area of a
Locus, the Dragon can step across into the Shadow or back
again, taking 10 turns to transition fully over. Stirring the
Beast in this manner has its risks; the Dragon gains the
Tempted Condition in the process. The vampire gains no
special capability to deal with the threats and risks of the
Shadow beyond her natural capabilities.
Tenebrous Fury ••••
A cold, dead thing like a vampire cannot reach into the
frequency of reality where spirits dwell; even spirits of death
are more vibrant in their existence than the Kindred. Let
the Beast loose from the cage of old meat, forge it into
something hotter and crueller, and perhaps the Dragon can
carve her own path through the denizens of the Shadow.
While Frenzying, the Dragon’s unarmed attacks can strike
and affect spirits in Twilight. These benefits do not apply if
she is Riding the Wave; she must give herself totally to the
rage of the Beast for it to cut through the buzzing static that
separates their state of being from hers.
Driving Back the Devil •••••
Dabbling with spirits is dangerous business. Letting one
into the mind and body can grant insight and power, but
the Kindred risks ending up hollowed out and driven by the
alien will of such a being. With this Coil, the Dragon learns
to better protect herself, wrapping the core of her self-
identity and being in the Beast’s frothing anger. Whenever a
spirit would possess or Claim the Dragon, the vampire may
choose instead to enter wild, uncontrolled Frenzy; she
cannot Ride the Wave while doing so, but it immediately
terminates the spirit’s attempt to control her. Alternatively,
she may choose to allow Claiming when it happens, but she
is able to shield that core of her will; she must negotiate
with the controlling spirit to have it follow her desires, and
it is under no requirement to do so, but at any point she
can enter wild Frenzy to immediately eject it from her body,
ending all of the effects of Claiming mutation and inflicting
points of aggravated damage equal to the spirit’s Rank on
her in the process.
Scales of the Tenebrous
Chrysalis Procedure
Prerequisite Coils: Tenebrous Fury
Procedure: The Dragon performs this Scale on another
vampire, immersing him in a bath of carefully blended oils
and lymph extracted from a human. The Dragon then spills
two points of Essence-rich blood created through the
Tenebrous Blood Coil into the bath and mixes the resultant
mess until it congeals around the vampire subject. After one
hour, the Dragon pulls open the glutinous chrysalis that has
formed around the vampire, who slithers out and shucks his
epidermis in the process; he emerges skinless, his raw meat
and bone exposed to the world like some nightmare
mannequin.
Outcome: The procedure inflicts two points of
aggravated damage on the vampire. However, he suffers no
worse ill-effects from his denuded flesh, other than blatantly
and strikingly being a supernatural horror. His innards
remain in rather than slopping out. While in this state, the
vampire may interact fully with entities in the spiritual
frequency of Twilight, including the capacity to see and
physically attack or obstruct them. When the sun next sets,
the vampire loses this ability, and his skin begins to heal —
although it only completely returns once he has healed all
the aggravated damage suffered. The Dragon may extend the
effects of the Chrysalis Procedure for a day by daubing
another point of Essence from her transmuted blood over
the vampire subject, who also suffers an additional point of
aggravated damage; doing so adds 24 hours to the effect,
and can be repeated each day. Healing any points of
aggravated damage inflicted by performing or sustaining the
Chrysalis Procedure immediately ends the benefits granted.
Feast of Blood
Prerequisite Coils: Tenebrous Blood
Procedure: The Dragon slaughters several large animals
of at least Size 3 (mortal humans being a valid target),
eviscerating their guts and arranging the coils of innards to
form a bounded space; she seals it by spilling a point of her
own Vitae. Within the circle of viscera, the dragon places
the animals’ hearts and paints each one with a symbol of
spiritual power, using a mixture of ash and crushed glass.
Finally, she takes a shard of broken mirror and drives it into
her own stomach, suffering a point of lethal damage in the
process.
Outcome: The Dragon enters communion with any
spirits present in the scene. She can communicate with
them without speaking on her part, and she can understand
Spectral Hunger 11
 the alien syllables of their First Tongue replies as long as she
remains within the circle of viscera. Furthermore, she can
offer a place at the feast of blood to any of the spirits; a
spirit who accepts the offer gains a single point of Essence as
it slurps down spilled gore and effluent, can use a single
Manifestation within the circle of viscera at no cost in
Essence, and can use the Materialize Manifestation even if it
would not normally possess it. While attending the feast,
the spirit’s Impression towards the Dragon is improved by
two steps, and it must spend a point of Willpower if it
wishes to instigate hostilities towards the vampire. Each
spirit-guest causes one of the slaughtered hearts to blacken
and rot; the Dragon can invite no more guests than she has
prepared hearts for.
Spirit-guests do not bleed Essence each day while in the
Flesh as long as they remain in the circle of viscera. In the
Shadow, the immediate area of the circle of viscera and its
surroundings becomes strongly resonant with blood and
death. The power of the circle remains for up to the
Dragon’s Blood Potency in days, even should she leave it;
however, once she leaves the circle or removes the broken
piece of mirror from her gut, she loses the ability to
commune with spirits and can invite no more spirit-guests
to attend the feast.
Opening of the Way
Prerequisite Coils: Revelry of the Wyrm’s Nest
Procedure: This Scale is performed on a mortal subject
who must be subject to at least a stage one Blood Bond
towards the Dragon. The mortal takes hallucinogenic drugs
while within the area of effect of a Locus, and must spill a
point of lethal damage’s worth of his blood. The Dragon
travels to the Shadow through the Locus and there spills her
own blood, collecting a point of Vitae turned to Essence
through Tenebrous Blood, then returning with it to the
physical world before it loses its potency. She feeds the
blood to the mortal — who does not suffer further Vitae
Addiction or Blood Bonding, nor does he gain any Vitae, as
it is now rich with Essence instead.
Outcome: The mortal gains the ability to perceive
spirits in Twilight until the sun next rises. He also suffers
the Open Condition towards all spirits.
Slake the Devil’s Thirst
Prerequisite Coils: Driving Back the Devil
Procedure: The Dragon performs this Scale while
Claimed by a spirit. She must sit within a Locus resonant to
the spirit’s nature, and paint out symbols of blood in First
Tongue as directed by the spirit, losing one point of Vitae
per point of the spirit’s Rank. She inserts tubes into the
arteries and veins of her throat and neck, threading the
12 Spectral Hunger
other ends into her mouth, and drinks down her own Vitae
in an autocannibalistic act.
Outcome: The Dragon may turn the spirit currently
Claiming her into a ghoul. This incurs the usual cost in
Willpower, and the Dragon gives as many points of Vitae to
the spirit as she chooses to drink down from herself; she
does lose these points of Vitae in the process, the gory slurry
turning to dead filth in her throat as she guzzles it down.
The spirit uses twice its Rank to determine its maximum
Vitae. The spirit is otherwise affected as normal by ghouling,
although rather than ceasing to age, the spirit will no longer
change in a different way — it no longer adapts with the
Essence it consumes, nor will it rise in Rank at all, until it
ceases to be a ghoul.
Steal the Devil’s Skin
Prerequisite: Flay the World’s Skin
Procedure: This Scale is performed upon a single spirit,
which must be either bound or a willing recipient of the
transplant. The Dragon soaks herself in a mixture of oil,
perfume, and sulphur, before flensing off strips of skin in a
painful procedure that deals her two points of lethal
damage, plus an additional point for each point of Size
above 5 the spirit possesses. She then lays out the pieces of
her skin in a shallow bath of chemical salts, into which the
spirit Materializes.The vampire’s shed skin wraps around the
spirit’s corpus, stretching and flowing to entirely encase it.
Outcome: The cocoon of skin disguises the spirit as the
Dragon, making it appear as her perfect simulacrum with its
ephemera all concealed within. If it speaks, it uses her voice;
it carries her scent and instinctively copies her basic
mannerisms. Other vampires sense it as a fellow Kindred,
although the seeming does not tug on blood bonds to the
Dragon nor copy any connections of blood sympathy. The
spirit retains its Influences and Numina but can also use the
Feed move to extract Vitae from victims; it can store up to
twice its Rank in Vitae and, while masked by the Scale, can
spend Vitae in place of Essence to pay for Essence bleed in
the Flesh. The mask tears and shucks off if the spirit
chooses to reveal its true form or if it takes any aggravated
damage at all; unless the spirit is also a ghoul, it loses any
stored Vitae at this point, oozing out of the discarded
cocoon of skin as blood.
Merits
Torpor Spectre ••
Prerequisites: Lemurifex •••
Effect: When your character enters torpor, a spectral copy
of her rises from her body. This is a Rank 1 ghost; it
remains active for as long as she stays in torpor, vanishing
when she wakes. The ghost attempts to protect the Wraithcatcher Ghoul •••
vampire’s body; if she is not in immediate danger, it will
Prerequisites: Occult •••, Resolve•••, ghoul whose
patrol the area and keep watch. The ghost is only an
regnant has Lemurifex •+, Coil of Polyphonte •+ or Coil
impression of the vampire’s personality, but it is aware
Tenebrous •+
enough to act with relative intelligence, and can recognize
Effect: Your character can tell, by sight, whether her regnant
allies and friends. Should your character stay in torpor for a
is currently possessed by a ghost, spirit, or Strix.
long time, the ghost’s Rank increases by one each time the
Additionally, she can act as a secondary actor providing
vampire’s Blood Potency drops by one due to years spent in
teamwork to help your regnant contest possession by such
torpor, to a maximum of Rank 5.
entities; only a single wraithcatcher ghoul can help a
Drawback: The ghost’s mind is based on your character’s
vampire in this way at a time.
last awareness of events prior to falling into torpor; it will
Drawback: Your character does not benefit from the 10-
act in what it thinks are her best interests, but may not
again quality on dice pools to contest attempts to possess
always be.
her by ghosts, spirits, or Strix.

Spectral Hunger 13