Etheria

By Seth Kawi (the_dark_pagan@hotmail.com) for the Kawi bloodline

Description

Etheria is the art of teleportation, reality shifting, and manipulating chaos. It was developed, along with Ombraballo (shadow manipulating), by the founder of Clan Kawi. Between the two disciplines, a Kawi can trick even a Ravnos out of his money (more than likely in his own con-game, no less). The Discipline revolves around controlling the Nether. The Nether is a vortex of pure chaos energies, it hides right below every reality. Working with the substance is dangerous, as handling chaos tends to make the mind unstable. The substance is also highly unpredictable and any slip-up at all could be hazardous to a Kawi's unlife. All botched rolls in Etheria are severely punished, though most consequences are not pre-defined (it is pure chaos after all, who knows what will happen), a Storyteller's field day! Feel free to dish out something extremely nasty or just make nothing happen at all, it's up to you! [A good idea someone suggested to me is to roll a die when someone botched in Etheria. The higher the roll, the worse the consequence. One being nothing and ten being Final Death or close to it.]

* Navigate the Narrow

This ability allows the Kawi to partially submerge his body into the Nether. While he is riding the border between Nether and reality, he can move through spaces half as small as he could normally. This is also great for running through crowds (especially when you're being chased by a cheesed-off Assamite!). Anybody who sees you use this power will not see anything abnormal about your movement no matter how small the space you crawl through, you just seem to shrink a little.

System: Burn one blood to activate this power. It lasts for about half an hour.

** Nether Edge

This ability allows the Kawi to summon a piece of Nether, binding it together with his blood, and forging it into a weapon. This weapon will cause aggravated wounds. If the victim takes more than one wound from the weapon, he must immediately make a Frenzy check.

System: The Kawi spends blood to bond the Nether into the solid form of a weapon. The more blood spent, the bigger the weapon can be. With one blood, one could bind together a pocket knife, three could get a decent long sword, five could get the Buster Sword (for those who have not played Final Fantasy 7, this is a sword about the size of a grown man). If one wants to make a gun, he must also spend a Willpower point (to get those intricate parts inside) and must spend blood for ammo. To form any weapon, the Kawi must score three successes on a Manipulation+Repair roll (Diff 3+ blood being spent, Max 10) and spend a turn to forge it correctly. If the roll is botched, then the Nether explodes in the vampire's hands. Roll damage dice equal to blood spent +1; this is aggravated and soak rolls are at difficulty + blood spent.

*** Discorporate

This ability allows a Kawi to instill Nether into any object. As a result, the object becomes vapor-like. It doesn't blow away or separate; it just becomes non-solid, kind of like a hologram. If used on an organism, organs may malfunction, causing severe wounds.

System: The Kawi spends a turn and two Willpower to instill an object with chaos and rolls Perception + Repair (Medicine if against a living creature) roll (Diff 4-10 depending on size of object, or Willpower if against a living target). If less than three successes are scored, the power has no effect and living creatures will be aware that they are being targeted by something, though they won't necessarily know what. Any living thing successfully discorporated will panic (Rötshreck test!). While in this state, living things are subject to only aggravated damage. Also, discorporated organs may malfunction, for every turn a creature is in this state, roll aggravated damage dice equal to the Kawi's Etheria rating. The Kawi must spend a Willpower point for every turn he wishes to keep an object in this state.

**** Here to There

At this level of mastery, a Kawi can begin to navigate the Nether a little easier. Using this power, he can quickly go through the Nether, causing him to shift through space. A Kawi can effectively teleport to anywhere he can see. If someone using this power is using binoculars or such to see farther, it is allowed (but quite personally, I think it's kinda cheap, so if they botch, give 'em Hell).

System: Burn a blood and a Willpower. Roll Perception + Etheria (Diff 8). Three successes are required to go the full distance, though one or two will get you about half way. A botch usually will have the effect of landing a Kawi in some strange place he's never seen before, but if you want to get more creative, go ahead. A Kawi can take with him whatever he can carry. Additionally, the Kawi can also send something through the Nether besides himself. Anything that can be hand-held can be transported with the same system.

***** Netherling

This ability, similar to Nether Edge, allows a Kawi to bind together not a weapon, but a creature similar to a wolf from the twisting Nether. The Netherling's being is actually the soul of some creature trapped within the Nether. This beast is terrifying to mortals and quite unnerving to supernaturals as well. It is relentless in combat and does not feel pain, thus suffering no penalties for lost Health Levels.

System: To properly tame one of these creatures, you must spend two turns, three blood, and two Willpower. Roll Manipulation + Animal Ken (Diff 8). A botch, of course, will probably cause the beast to attack you, or cause it to explode (kinda reminds me of the Critters in Warcraft II). If successfully summoned, the creature has these stats:

Strength: 4, Dexterity: 5, Stamina: 3
Perception: 4, Intelligence: 3, Wits: 3

Willpower: 7 Health Levels: OK, OK, OK, OK, OK, OK

Attack: Claws/4 dice, Bite/5 dice, Breath/dice equal to Kawi's Etheria (can be used at range of up to about 4 meters) [All attacks cause aggravated wounds]

Alertness: 4, Athletics: 3, Brawl: 4, Dodge: 3

Another strange thing that has been developed over the years is the ability to spend an amount of Willpower equal to the creature's remaining Health Levels to cause it to explode. It detonates with about the same amount of force as a heavy grenade, and fires started by explosion are treated the same as chemical fires. (Storytellers need not include this part if undesired)

***** * Chaos's Tempering

Discorporate taken up a few notches. By instilling even more chaos into an object, a Kawi can make it extremely volatile. Objects that are affected by this power will explode at almost the lightest contact, indeed sometimes they blow up immediately.

System: Use the same system as Discorporate, except spend three Willpower and all difficulties are increased by two. If more than three successes are scored, the Kawi can decide to immediately detonate the object. When exploded, the object shoots out chaos flame that is treated in the same way as chemical fires. Creatures may make a resisted Willpower vs. Willpower (Diff 6) roll against this ability.