Niveo

By Jay Knioum (madafro@trip.net) for the Codex of Whispers

Description

This Discipline gives the Cainite power over frost, ice, snow and bone-numbing cold.

Niveo is an old but obscure Discipline, apparently created and used by an isolated group of Siberian Gangrel, led by a female named Nive. These Gangrel do not figure prominently in vampire history, and have faded into obscurity. Their Discipline of Frost, however, is recorded here.

* Born from the Ice

This basic level of Niveo allows the vampire to function normally in extreme cold temperatures. Even in subartic zones, the vampire will not become lethargic, even if she stays there for centuries.

System: This power can remain activated as long as necessary, but costs two Blood Points per week to maintain.

** Frigid Grasp

This power enables the vampire to project freezing cold with her touch. Water will freeze solid as she touches it. Living things will immediately suffer frostbite when she grasps or touches them. She may even be able to shatter hard objects by suddenly freezing them.

System: The vampire spends a Blood Point to activate this power for a scene. One of her hands will turn dead-white, and will appear to be made of ice. Anything she touches with this hand will be frozen solid. Up to three cubic feet of matter may be affected by a touch. To living creatures or opponents, the freezing touch will do three dice of normal damage. In addition, if the vampire spends an extra Blood Point per attack, an opponent's limb may be frozen solid, this time taking six levels of damage. The victim may make a Stamina roll to resist this effect, difficulty 9. To mortals, the frozen limb is a serious matter, and will probably need to be amputated. Vampires and other supernatural creatures may regenerate the damage as normal.

*** Breath of the Cold Maiden

This power, the Codex of Whispers tells, was named for the Discipline's creator. Its effect is simple, yet deadly. The Cainite exhales a cloud of freezing, eldritch mist that can freeze solid anything it touches.

System: The vampire spends two Blood Points and breathes out a cloud of freezing mist approximately ten feet in diameter. Anything caught in that area is immediately frozen. Creatures or opponents suffer seven dice of normal damage, and must succeed a Stamina roll, difficulty 9. Failure means that the victim is now considered frozen, in addition to the damage. Mortals will probably die from this, unless thawed out and resuscitated. Vampires, Garou, and the like may either regenerate the damage normally, or spend a Willpower point (or Rage) to break themselves free into motion. This last effort will cause an additional five dice of damage, however, as the creature's muscles shatter and tear.

Remember that everything in the cloud's area is also frozen. Those standing in hip-deep water will find themselves stuck fast. Fires will go out as the material ceases to burn. No blood may be taken from a frozen victim, but their heads may be broken off with relative ease.

**** Icecrafting

This power enables the vampire to spontaneously create shapes and structures out of ice. The vampire may create ice out of thin air if she needs to, but this is more costly than if existing ice is used.

In any case, these structures are quite solid, although they are subject to melting or shattering. Using this power, the vampire can create a temporary one-piece object that will function just as well as a real one. Thus swords of ice, staircases, walls, and bridges may be formed, but not chains, hinges, or any other multi-part item.

System: The vampire spends two Blood Points to craft existing ice and four to form it from thin air. As a rule of thumb, a vampire can create/mold about 100 cubic feet of ice per use of this power. Melee ice-weapons do damage as per the regular version, but they are prone to breakage (3 in 10 chance on any hit).

The vampire may create ice up to twenty feet away. Thus, the vampire may simply form a large ice-slab above an opponent and let it fall. This will do about ten dice of damage, and may be dodged.

***** Winter's Thorns

The Cainite may summon forth a howling storm of snow and ice over an area. Hailstones will pummel everyone in the area, the snow will blind all those caught within, and ice will make even walking extremely difficult.

System: The vampire spends four Blood Points and must roll her Stamina + Occult, with a difficulty of 7. The size of the storm, and it's effects, are determined by successes:The Cainite using this Discipline may resist the effects of the storm herself at a cost of one Blood Point per level of the storm. In any case, the storm lasts for about ten minutes for every success scored in its creation.




***** Icy Tomb

This power enables the vampire to encase an object or even another creature in ice for an indefinite period of time. The object or creature so entombed will live, remaining in a state of suspended animation until it is freed. Even normal aging will cease.

System: This power may only be performed on a creature if it remains still long enough...thus, it must either be willing or restrained somehow. The Tomb takes about one to six hours to form, depending on the size of the object/creature to be entombed. The vampire spends one Willpower point and five Blood Points and must completely concentrate on the formation of the icy coffin. When completed, the creature or object will remain in suspended animation until the ice is shattered. This ice is not mundane, and the coffin may only be shattered or melted by extreme damage (jackhammer) or extreme heat (torch, sunlight isn't good enough). However, just one drop of Cainite vitae spilled upon the ice will shatter it completely, freeing the entombed article.

Successes	Effect
1	About 20' in area. All within suffer one level of damage/turn, -1 to all Physical rolls.
2	About 50' in area, two levels damage/turn, -2 to all Physical rolls, -2 to all Perception rolls.
3	About 100' in area, three levels damage/turn, -3 to all Physical and Perception rolls.
4	About 200' in area, four levels damage/turn, -4 to all Physical and Perception rolls.
5	400' in area, five levels of damage/turn, -5 to all Physical and Perception rolls.