By Omnicynic (minelson@primenet.com)
Articulus is a Discipline of joints and limbs. It allows a vampire an unnatural range of motion, as well as the ability to create allies and servants from the pieces and parts of one's own body.
System: The vampire can bend his limbs in any direction and manner he chooses, and can even spin his head 180 degrees. This has a number of uses, and the ST should give the player appropriate bonuses when in use. Social rolls may suffer, though...
System: The vampire must snap off a few fingers; this does no damage in itself, but it costs a blood point to regenerate the fingers later. Once the digits are thrown down, they mutate into small, wormy creatures under the vampire's control. The worms have no eyesight, but possess excellent senses of hearing and touch, and can move at about the speed of a normal walking pace. They are sticky, and can crawl up walls if need be. They each have a single health level, but take no damage from sunlight.
The vampire can, by concentrating, hear and feel what any particular worm is hearing and feeling. He can also direct it, no matter what the distance is between him and the worm. The worms each demand a blood point at sunrise to remain alive. If the vampire doesn't burn a point of blood to keep a worm active, it turns to dust at first light.
System: The vampire can dismember himself, pulling off arms, legs, fingers, hands, etc. at will, then re-attach them without harm. However, the vampire as yet cannot remove his head, although eyes, tongue, and other members can be detached. It costs a blood point to attach something someplace it doesn't normally go, and any injuries a detached limb sustained will have to be healed before that limb can be used (a hand or foot can take two wounds, arms and legs three -- this is also the number of blood points it takes to regenerate a destroyed or detached limb). Incidentally, a leg or arm does ST+2 damage when used as a club, ST+3 if the vampire it came from has Fortitude.
System: The vampire spends a Willpower point, and until the end of the scene, any body parts of his which might be disconnected from his body come to life, and obey his commands. The animated limbs have basic levels of all five senses, which the vampire can use should he concentrate, and can move in their own manners at about walking speed. They're also smart enough to obey commands from the vampire, like, "Fetch me the red book from the top shelf." or "Bring me his eyes."
The limbs also share in the vampire's Disciplines (those appropriate to a disembodied limb, anyhow), and the vampire can use his blood to support the limbs as if they were still connected to his body. While the vampire must spend blood to heal each limb individually, blood Disciplines are shared by the whole group -- if the vampire grows Wolf Claws, all his disconnected hands grow Wolf Claws as well without any extra blood being spent.
If the vampire touches a particular limb and spends an extra Willpower point, that limb will stay animated until destroyed, allowing the vampire to keep a couple of extra hands around the haven. If commanded to attack, a limb does ST-1 damage, modified by the vampire's Disciplines, and attacks with the vampire's Brawl dice pool.
System: The vampire can now remove his head without damage or death. Additionally, the vampire's head can be forcefully removed (by a sword, say...), and the vampire will suffer no real injury for the doing.
While decapitated, the vampire can control his body and use his Disciplines as if he was still attached, but it costs a Willpower point to allow the head to speak for the rest of the scene.