Atomos

(ah-TOME-ose)

By Jay Knioum (madafro@trip.net) for the Gestalt bloodline.

Description

Atomos is the power of the atom fused with the vitae of the Cainite. It signifies the Gestalts' ability to harness the radiation within their blood to produce useful mutations, cause technology to become useless, or lash out with horrible, destructive attacks.

* Sense of Geiger

Simply put, the Gestalt can sense the presence and strength of radiation in the area. The energy is felt, not seen, smelled, or heard.

System: The Gestalt must roll Perception + Science, with a difficulty assigned by the Storyteller based on the radiation's magnitude and proximity. Bear in mind that some large radiation sources, like reactors, will have many controls and safeties to keep the radiation from escaping, increasing the difficulty to find them.

** Blood Fire

The Gestalt can take in large amounts of radiation and use it to give power to her vitae. This can make her blood very potent, but does not affect her Generation.

System: The Gestalt must be in close proximity with a powerful source of radiation (X-Ray machine up to nuclear reactor). She then rolls Stamina + Science with a difficulty assigned by the radiation level (a reactor would be 9, an X-Ray machine would be a 6). Each success indicates an additional "Blood Point" that the Gestalt may add to her total.

This blood may be used just like normal vitae, and the extra points are subtracted before the real Blood is. The Gestalt may even exceed her normal Blood Pool, but may never do this by more than 100%. Attempting to go over this amount will mean even worse mutation or even destruction.

In any case, the radiation tends to leave the vampire's body very quickly, and she will lose 2 points of this pseudo-vitae every dawn, until the actual blood levels are reached, in which case normal nightly reduction will resume.

*** Clutches of the Dark Gift

The Gestalt may cause various substances (even metals) to melt with a touch. The vampire may even cause aggravated damage by merely grasping another creature, as radiation pours from her hand into her victim.

System: The Gestalt spends a Blood Point and touches an object or material capable of melting. For every dot possessed in Atomos by the vampire, about three cubic feet of material can be melted in a turn. However, the vampire does not have to spend any more Blood as long as the power is left "on," or she continues to melt something every round, with continuous contact.

If the power is used to attack, one Blood Point is spent for every attack made. The vampire must roll Dex + Brawl, and a successful hit will do aggravated levels of damage equal to the vampire's rating in Atomos. The damage is very similar to fire damage, in that the victim's skin will be horribly burned, and with larger levels of damage, will actually melt right off.

**** Silence the Machine

This power allows a Gestalt to emit a form of Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) that renders all microchips in the area of effect inert and useless. The Gestalt use this power to great effect when breaking into nuclear reactors, as the advanced security systems fall dormant with the vampires' presence.

System: The Gestalt spends at least one Blood Point^* and rolls Intelligence + Computer, difficulty 8. The number of successes scored indicates the area of effect in all directions:

One Success:	Ten feet
Two Successes:	Ten yards
Three Successes:	Fifty yards
Four Successes:	Two hundred yards
Five Successes:	One mile

^*The amount of Blood Points spent must correspond with the area of effect the vampire desires. For example, if she wants to affect a mile in every direction, she must spend five Blood Points and score five successes.

The pulse only last a few moments, and only renders inert those microprocessors within the area in those few moments. To affect a new area, the Gestalt must once again use this power.

***** Toxic Avenger

Even though it has a silly name (given by a Gestalt who enjoyed bad sci-fi movies), this power is a terrible weapon, and nothing to laugh at. When unleashed, the Gestalt's entire body glows with a white light, as she sends tremendous amounts of radiation into the area, possibly killing every living thing around, and doing no small amount of aggravated damage to supernatural creatures. Even so, the Avenger is dangerous to the Gestalt who uses it, for it can serve to worsen her own mutations.

System: The Gestalt spends three Blood Points to unleash the Avenger. She then rolls her Stamina + Science against a difficulty of 8. Each success indicates tens of feet that the Avenger will effect, among other things.

Every creature caught in the area will take a number of aggravated wounds equal to the successes the Gestalt rolled, and his skin will be horribly burned. In addition, each person must roll his Stamina against a difficulty equal to the Gestalt's successes, or suffer a mutation which takes the form of a physical flaw. Finally, the area will be considered radioactive for the next few years at least.

The Gestalt must also roll Stamina against the difficulty of her own successes on Stamina + Science. This roll is exactly the same as the roll she must make upon waking every evening with one change: All effects are shifted one category downward. Thus, a botch is not required for a permanent mutation, only a failure to achieve successes. The discipline of Fortitude can count as successes against the mutation, but only if the vampire spends a Willpower point.

****** Decomposition (the "D-touch")

This power allows the Gestalt to break down the molecular bonds of a substance with a touch, causing it to effectively disintegrate. Any substance can be effected by this powerful ability, but the Gestalt must take care not to allow his hands to brush himself while Decomposition is activated.

System: The Gestalt must spend a Willpower Point to activate this power for a scene. While in effect, the vampire's hands will annihilate anything they touch. Only the material actually touched will decompose. For example, a Gestalt could easily put his hand into the engine block of a car as the hood and engine decompose at his touch, but he could not obliterate the entire car at once.

However, if the vampire makes any sudden or violent moves while this power is activated (even running), she must make a Dexterity + Wits roll every turn to avoid accidentally brushing herself with her hands. The difficulty for this is 8, unless the vampire is taking special precautions against an accident.

Against an opponent, the Gestalt must make a normal Dex+Brawl to strike successfully. Damage, however, is not based on physical power, but on agility; the vampire rolls Dex + Brawl a second time to determine how much of her opponent she "erased." The difficulty for this roll is normal for damage, and all damage is aggravated. The D-touch can be blocked (by grabbing the Gestalt's arm...only the hands are deadly) or dodged, but not soaked.

In the case of a Gestalt accidentally striking herself, the damage is considered 5 levels minus the number of successes scored on a Dexterity roll. The difficulty is based on the situation (For example, if the vampire trips and starts rolling down a hillside, the difficulty to avoid obliterating oneself would be 10).

If the vampire wants to use the D-touch on a specific body part or item (disintegrating the stake in the hunter's hand) then the difficulty is raised by 3.

******* Recombination

This versatile ability allows the Gestalt to take full control of atoms, allowing transformation of finite amounts of substance into a different substance. Wood can be transformed to steel, or even silver. Rubber tires could be turned to concrete. A vampire's blood could be turned to glass for very interesting effects.

System: The Gestalt spends three Blood Points and must touch the substance to be Recombined. The vampire must then roll Intelligence + Science, difficulty 8. The number of successes required depends on the amount of variance between the initial and target substances. Here is a rough example:

Metal to metal (steel to tin, etc.)	One success.
Metal to plastic	Two successes
Metal to radioactive substance	Three successes
Metal to blood	Four successes

******** Holocaust

This is considered by the Gestalt to be the most Divine manifestation of the Foxfire within them. The Manifest teaches that once a hundred thousand Gestalt have reached this level in Atomos, that the Gestalt shall purge the impurities from the world in a storm of cleansing fire.

Basically, a Gestalt who has reached the level of Holocaust can split the atoms in his own body, drawing upon the radiation inherent in his vitae as a reactant. In short, using himself as a bomb, the Gestalt can create a nuclear explosion at least as powerful as Hiroshima.

It must be noted that Holocaust as an ability is as yet only a matter of faith for the Gestalt. As yet, none of them have manifested this level of Atomos, and none may ever. However, the Gestalt clan believes that each one of them has the potential to transform herself into Purging Fire, so if the Gestalt are capable of this horrible power, one will discover it sooner or later.

System: Only a vampire with a 10 Willpower can make use of the Holocaust. To do this, she must spend all 10 of her Willpower points and every Blood Point in her body (she must be at maximum). She then rolls Intelligence + Science with a difficulty of 10. Five successes are required.

The result is...well, the surrounding city vanishes; as well as much of the surrounding countryside. The vampire, of course, ceases to be. The Holocaust can only be used once per Gestalt vampire.