Celerity

Not all vampires are slow, meticulous creatures. When needed, some vampires can move fast — really fast. Celerity allows Assamites, Brujah, and Toreadors to move with astonishing swiftness, becoming practically a blur. The Assamites use their speed in conjunction with stealth to strike quickly and viciously from the shadows before they are noticed. Brujah, on the other hand, simply like the edge that the power gives them against overwhelming odds. The Toreador are more inclined to use Celerity to provide an air of unnatural grace to live performances or for an extra push to complete a masterpiece on time, but they can be as quick to draw blood as any assassin or punk when angered.

System: Each point of Celerity adds one die to every Dexterity-related dice roll. In addition, the player can spend one blood point to take an extra action up to the number of dots he has in Celerity at the beginning of the relevant turn; this expenditure can go beyond her normal Generation maximum. Any dots used for extra actions, however, are no longer available for Dexterity- related rolls during that turn. These additional actions must be physical (e.g., the vampire cannot use a mental Discipline like Dominate multiple times in one turn), and extra actions occur at the end of the turn (the vampire’s regular action still takes place per her initiative roll).

Normally, a character without Celerity must divide their dice if she wants to take multiple actions in a single turn. A character using Celerity performs his extra actions (including full movement) without penalty, gaining a full dice pool for each separate action. Extra actions gained through Celerity may not in turn be split into multiple actions, however.

## **Celerity 6+**

Usually, elders progress in Celerity according to the existing progression – more dots mean more dice and potential actions a turn that are available, and levels 6 through 9 have those powers available at each level, as normal. Similar to other Disciplines at level 6 or higher, though, alternative powers exist. If the elder wants to purchase an alternative power instead of the typical progression , she can, but she forfeits the capacity an extra Dexterity die and potential for an extra action to gain the special power instead. She can go back later and purchase the “normal” dot of Celerity later, as desired.

Note that it isn’t possible to “skip” levels of progression for the normal Discipline – an elder with Celerity 7 that buys Projective at level 6 needs to go back and buy the normal level 6 power before getting the access to his level 7 power that grants the capacity for up to seven Dexterity dice or actions in a turn.

### **••••• • Momentum**

A large part of impact comes from the force it moves with, but also with its speed. A master of Celerity can focus her speed all into one forceful instant, allowing her to briefly lift things no human should ever be able to, or to strike with deadly force.

System: Spend two blood points reflexively to activate Momentum. You may add your character’s Celerity dots as additional dice on any single Strength-based roll. In combat, this adds Knock Down to any attack made with Momentum.

### **••••• • Precision**

A master of Celerity with this manifestation can use her immense dexterity to conduct acts of fine manipulation with inhuman precision.

System: Spend a blood point to activate Precision. Add the character’s Celerity dots as automatic successes to a single roll requiring fine manipulation or precise movement instead of adding dice to Dexterity as normal. This does not work only on rolls using the Dexterity Attribute, but Storyteller discretion is required to determine what Precision benefits.

### **••••• • Projectile**

Despite the fact that a vampire with Celerity moves at incredible speeds, any bullets he fires or knives he throws while in this state don’t move any faster than they normally would. Scientifically minded Kindred have been baffled by the phenomenon for centuries, but more pragmatic ones have found a way to work around it. Projectile enables a vampire to take his preternatural speed and transfer it into something he has thrown, fired, or launched.

System: Projectile requires the expenditure of a blood point. In addition, the player must decide how many levels of his character’s Celerity he is putting into the speed of the launched object. Thus, a character with Celerity 6 in addition to Projectile could decide to put three dots’ worth of speed into a knife he is throwing, and use the other three dots as dice or potential extra actions as per normal. Each dot of Celerity infused into a thrown object becomes an automatic success to the attack’s damage roll, assuming the weapon or projectile actually hits.

### **••••• • Tireless Tread**

*[Anarch]*

Much of the initial Anarch Revolt was spent fleeing from unfavorable odds and vengeful elders. This power made some of those escapes possible, enabling the Kindred of those early nights to put far much more ground between themselves and their antagonists than the rest of the world could imagine at the time.

As long as the Anarch devoted himself to escape, he could cover enormous distances in a single night. This power has fallen into some disuse, due to the prevalence of modern transportation methods. The most significant benefit it still has, however, is a virtual inability to be traced. Those flying on planes or riding buses require tickets, and even a properly registered car leaves a paper trail or at least bears a license plate.

When a Kindred invokes the Tireless Tread, however, the only evidence of her passing is herself.

System: This power costs one blood point per night. The Kindred “treads” at a rate of 50 miles per hour. This power must be used for at least eight hours, meaning the Kindred must travel a distance of at least 400 miles. Any less and the power fails to work. The Kindred finds a rhythm and stays in it, as opposed to merely sprinting for eight hours.

If the Kindred tarries too much along her way, she will find herself unable to find that traveler’s pace, and the power will fail entirely.

### **••••• •• Flower of Death**

In combat, speed kills. A proper application of Celerity in combat can turn even the meekest Cainite into a walking abattoir. How much more deadly, then, is a vampire with the ability to utilize his preternatural speed to the utmost in combat? Flower of Death allows a vampire to take his Celerity and apply it in full to each hand-to-hand or melee attack he makes.

System: Flower of Death costs four blood points, but the spectacular effect is well worth it. Once the power is in effect, the vampire’s bonus dice for Dexterity rolls get added to every dice pool for attack the character makes (even if the roll doesn’t use Dexterity) until the end of the scene. Further, even if the Kindred uses some of his Celerity dots for extra actions during the scene, these extra dice are still available. The effect is limited to hand-to-hand or melee weapon attacks — firearms, bows, and other ranged weapons are excluded — but does grant the attacker additional dice for damage rolls.

Flower of Death is not cumulative — it is impossible to “layer” uses of the power over one another to create astronomical dice pools.

### **••••• •• Quickness**

A character with Quickness breaks normal limitations of speed even for her own Celerity.

System: Spend a blood point to activate Quickness on a turn where you have activated Celerity’s normal effect. Quickness offers one additional action beyond what the character receives for Celerity, as if her Celerity were one level higher. She can spend additional blood, cumulatively, for additional Celerity levels that last the turn (see the chart below). Each additional action causes the character a level of unsoakable lethal damage.

 3
 6
 10
 15

### **••••• •• Two-Gun Quickdraw**

The Cainite becomes a blur, using two weapons simultaneously to clear the field of enemies as if each hand had a mind of its own.

System: Spend 4 Blood Points. For the remainder of the scene, drawing your weapons is a reflexive action. In addition, each action used to make an attack can target two enemies without imposing further penalties. Make one roll for each attack and resolve it against each respective enemy. The vampire cannot move between attacks. This Discipline may be used with Brawl or Melee attacks, or one of each action, but cannot be used with weapons that require two hands.

### **••••• ••• Physical Defiance**

Your character’s speed has reached a point so unnatural that for brief moments, the fundamental laws of nature cease to affect her. She can move in any direction, in spite of obstructions, in spite of gravity, and in spite of logic. She can run upwards for brief bursts. She can walk through (or on) water. She can walk up walls.

System: Spend five blood points per turn in Physical Defiance. Your character can move through space in any direction up to her full speed (which can be enhanced as normal with Celerity through additional blood expenditure). Wood, stone, water, flesh, or metal will simply give way as she passes through, exploding into splinters and chunks. She suffers no harm from the things she moves through.

If she moves through another character, roll to attack with Dexterity + Athletics, adding Celerity as normal. The other character may attempt to dodge if eligible, but not block or parry. If successful, she fills the opponent’s health levels with lethal damage. Vampires must reflexively heal to avoid torpor. Mortals die instantly.

### **••••• ••• Time Out of Time**

At this level, the vampire thinks a moment before everyone around her, and her reflexes carry her vast distances before others can blink. She can bolt out of the way even as a blade grazes her flesh. This makes her nigh-untouchable when she wishes to be.

System: Spend three blood points reflexively to activate this power. It may be activated even after an attack roll is made, but before damage is rolled. Once the power is activated, all action stops and your character can move her full movement speed before the other action resolves. This takes the place of a normal defensive maneuver. This almost certainly prevents the action from taking place, as the vampire appears to teleport out of the way.

### **••••• ••• Zephyr**

Zephyr produces an effect vaguely similar to one of the legendary comic book-style uses of enhanced speed, allowing its practitioner to run so fast he can run across water. Particularly successful applications of Zephyr allow a vampire to go so far as to run up walls and, in at least one recorded instance, across a ceiling.

System: Zephyr requires the expenditure of one point of blood and one point of Willpower. Unfortunately, Zephyr requires such extremes of concentration that it cannot be combined with any form of attack, or indeed, with most any sort of action at all. If a character using Zephyr feels the need to do something else while moving at such tremendous speeds, a Willpower roll (difficulty 8) is required. Needless to say, botches at Zephyr speed can be spectacular in all the wrong ways.

Most times, a vampire moving at such a rate of speed is barely visible, appearing more as a vampire-shaped blur than anything else. Observers must succeed on a Perception + Alertness roll (difficulty 7) to get a decent look at a Kindred zooming past in this fashion.