Serpentis

Serpentis is believed to be the legacy of Set himself, a gift to his children. The Followers of Set are very careful to guard this Discipline’s secrets, only teaching the art to those who they deem worthy. Most vampires fear the Setites because of the powers of Serpentis and its connection to snakes and reptiles; this Discipline can evoke a primordial fear in others, particularly those who recall the tale of Eden.

## **Powers**

### **• The Eyes of the Serpent**

This power grants the vampire the legendary hypnotic gaze of the serpent. The Kindred’s eyes become gold with large black irises, and mortals in the character’s vicinity find themselves strangely attracted to him. A mortal who meets the vampire’s beguiling gaze is immobilized. Until the character takes his eyes off his victim, the person is frozen in place.

System: No roll is required, but this power can be avoided if the mortal takes care not to look into the vampire’s eyes. Vampires and other supernatural creatures can also be affected by this power if the Cainite’s player succeeds on a Willpower roll (difficulty 9). If attacked or otherwise harmed, supernatural creatures can spend a point of Willpower to break the spell.

Note: This is different than normal eye contact. The target must be able to see the vampire’s eyes for Eyes of the Serpent to work.

### **•• The Tongue of the Asp**

The vampire may lengthen her tongue at will, splitting it into a fork like that of a serpent. The tongue may reach 18 inches or half a meter, and makes a terrifyingly effective weapon in close combat.

System: The lash of the tongue’s razor fork causes aggravated wounds (difficulty 6, Strength damage). If the Kindred wounds her enemy, she may drink blood from the target on the next turn as though she had sunk her fangs into the victim’s neck. Horrifying though it is, the tongue’s caress is very like the Kiss, and strikes mortal victims helpless with fear and ecstasy. Additionally, the tongue is highly sensitive to vibrations, enabling the vampire to function effectively in the darkness the Clan prefers. By flicking his tongue in and out of his mouth, the vampire can halve any penalties relating to darkness.

### **••• The Skin of the Adder**

By calling upon her Blood, the vampire may transform her skin into a mottled, scaly hide. A vampire in this form becomes more supple and flexible.

System: The vampire spends one blood point and one Willpower point. Her skin becomes scaly and mottled; this, combined with the character’s increased flexibility, reduces soak difficulties to 5. The vampire may use her Stamina to soak aggravated damage from claws and fangs, but not from fire, sunlight, or other supernatural energies. The vampire’s mouth widens and fangs lengthen, enabling her bite to inflict an extra die of damage. Finally, the vampire may slip through any opening wide enough to fit her head through. The vampire’s Appearance drops to 1, and she is obviously inhuman if observed with any degree of care, though casual passersby might not notice, if the vampire is in darkness or wearing heavy clothing.

### **•••• The Form of the Cobra**

The Cainite may change his form into that of a huge black cobra. The serpent weighs as much as the vampire’s human form, stretches over 10 feet or three meters long, and is about 20 inches (50 cm) around. The Form of the Cobra grants several advantages, including a venomous bite, the ability to slither through small spaces, and a greatly enhanced sense of smell. The character may use any Disciplines while in this form save those that require hands (such as Feral Claws).

System: The vampire spends one blood point; the change is automatic, but takes three turns. Clothing and small personal possessions transform with the vampire. The vampire remains in serpent form until the next dawn, unless he desires to change back sooner. The Storyteller may allow the Setite bonus dice on all Perception rolls related to smell, but the difficulties for all hearing rolls are increased by two. The cobra’s bite inflicts damage equal to the vampire’s, but the vampire does not need to grapple his victim; furthermore, the poison delivered is fatal to mortals.

### **•••• Typhonic Avatar**

Now, the Setite can become a Typhonic Beast, a creature of legend. It stands as a tall jackal with a hard, forked and spiked tail, with severe, pointed ears and a long snout. Typhonic Beasts are red, black, or a combination thereof. Alternatively, she can take a hybrid human/serpent form with a long, prehensile tail for legs. Setites use this as a sort of ‘war form’ in addition to religious functions.

System: Spend a blood point. The transformation takes three turns, but additional blood points can be spent to reduce the time by a turn. Four blood points makes the transformation reflexive.

Either form gains two dots to Strength, Dexterity, and Stamina. The animal form moves at twice the vampire’s speed, does two additional dice of bite damage, and reduces difficulties to resist losing balance by two. The hybrid form’s tail can act as an additional attack as part of a multiple action, and the tail gains five dots to Strength instead of two.

Obviously, both forms are unquestioningly supernatural. The vampire inspires terror and awe in mortals. Mortals with fewer Willpower dots than the vampire’s Serpentis score must flee or subjugate themselves. They can act for a single turn by spending a point of Willpower. Mortals with more Willpower can roll Willpower (difficulty the vampire’s Serpentis) to avoid awe and fear.

When learning Typhonic Avatar, choose either the animal form or the hybrid form. You can purchase the other form later at half the normal experience cost.

### **••••• Mother of Monsters**

Echidna was called the Mother of Monsters. This power allows the Setite to birth small typhonic beasts from her flesh. The monsters grow from her skin, starting by opening eyes and mouths from her flesh, then ripping from her body, taking part of her with them. These monsters have childlike intelligence and understand the vampire’s speech. They follow her commands without exception, and cannot be commanded or frightened away from their duty. Some Setites can create other mythological monsters. Rumors persist of some Setites who can create rudimentary humans from their flesh.

System: Spend one or more blood points and mark a health level off your character’s sheet. That health level cannot recover so long as the beast remains apart from the vampire. The first blood point creates the monster, and additional blood points act as a blood pool the beast can use to heal damage (the way a vampire can) or to activate the vampire’s level 1-4 Serpentis powers for himself.

Each monster takes one turn to birth. The vampire may only spend as much blood as she can in a single turn to fuel the monster’s blood pool.

The vampire can reflexively subsume a monster back into her flesh, replenishing its remaining blood pool and recovering the lost health level. She may also subsume a beast’s corpse to recover the lost health level.

The Setite can choose a different mythological form for the beast. However, these monsters must be obviously unnatural.

Typhonic Beast
### **••••• The Heart of Darkness**

A Kindred with mastery of Serpentis may pull her heart from her body. She can even use this ability on other Cainites, although this requires several hours of gruesome surgery. This power can only be invoked during a new moon. If performed under any other moon, the rite fails. Upon removing her heart, the vampire places it in a small clay urn, and then carefully hides or buries the urn. While her heart is hidden, she cannot be staked by any wood that pierces her breast. Moreover, because the heart is the seat of emotion, the difficulties of all her rolls to resist frenzy are two lower while this power is in effect.

Cainites are careful to keep their hearts safe from danger. If someone seizes her heart, the vampire is completely at that person’s mercy. The heart can be destroyed only by casting it into a fire or exposing it to sunlight. If this happens, the Kindred dies where she stands, boiling away into a blistering heap of ash and blackened bone. Plunging a wooden stake into an exposed heart drives the vampire into instant torpor.

A vampire may carry her heart with her, or have several false hearts buried in different places. A smart Kindred often avoids her heart’s hiding place, to deter discovery. Those wise in Setite lore whisper that the corrupt elders of the Clan often hold their underlings’ hearts as yet another method of control.

System: This power requires no roll. Those who witness a vampire pull his heart from his breast (or cut the heart from another vampire) must make Courage rolls. Failure indicates anything from strong uneasiness to complete revulsion, possibly even Rötschreck.

### **••••• • Cobra Fangs**

A character using Form of the Cobra gains a venomous bite along with his serpentine form. Unfortunately, huge black cobras tend to make people run away as fast as they can. This Serpentis power enables a vampire to gain the deadly bite without the full-body transformation, making it more useful for taking victims by surprise. The police do ask questions when someone dies from a cobra bite under unlikely circumstances, so Cobra Fangs still requires some discretion in its use.

System: The Kindred expends one blood point, and in one turn his fangs become hollow, more slender and venomous. The vampire injects venom when he bites. He must still grapple with the victim to deliver a bite attack, and the bite does the usual amount of damage; the venom, however, kills mortals within one minute. Bitten vampires or other supernaturally resilient creatures suffer (10 – victim’s Stamina and Fortitude) levels of aggravated damage over the course of five minutes.

### **••••• •• Divine Image**

Many of the low-Generation Setite elders no longer need the illusions of Obfuscate to appear as a god. Through this Serpentis power, a vampire can physically metamorphose into the form of a god. Male Kindred generally take the form of Set himself: a muscular man with the head of the “Typhonic Beast,” an animal with a long, narrow snout and upstanding, square-topped ears. Less often, they take the form of the crocodileheaded god Sobek, whom the Egyptians often linked to Set, or the wolf-headed war-god Wepwawet, often identified with Set’s son Anubis. Female vampires generally assume the form of the cobra-headed goddess Renenet, wife of Sobek, or the hippopotamus-goddess Taweret, sometimes considered a consort of Set. Both were goddesses of pregnancy and childbirth. Setite doctrine labels all four deities as Set’s eldest childer.

While assuming the Divine Image, the vampire becomes stronger, tougher, and more impressive. More importantly, perhaps, the vampire’s will becomes more powerful as he identifies with a divine forebear.

System: The character expends three blood points and transforms into the Divine Image in one turn. In the Divine Image, the vampire gains two dots each of Strength and Stamina and a dot each of Charisma and Manipulation, but her Appearance drops to 1. These enhancements can push the vampire over his generational limit. The character also gains two full dots of Willpower (to a maximum of 10). The Cainite can stay in the Divine Image for a full scene. A vampire has only one Divine Image form (unless the player buys this power twice). The character does not know what Divine Image he will manifest until he invokes the power the first time, although the player can freely choose the preferred form.

### **••••• •• Form of the Storm**

Set was known as a god of storms. With this power, the vampire becomes the storm temporarily, diffusing her body into a furious cloud of wind, rain, and lightning, battering everything around her relentlessly.

System: The transformation takes one full turn. Spend two blood points per turn while remaining in Form of the Storm. The vampire becomes a storm. This unholy storm takes up three meters per dot of the vampire’s Serpentis, and she can move at half her normal speed. She becomes immune to physical damage in this form. Increase all Perception difficulties by 3. Roll her Serpentis as bashing damage each turn against every character within the storm. By spending one blood point, she can summon forth a bolt of lightning to strike an enemy. The attack requires a Perception + Occult roll and causes aggravated damage equal to the vampire’s dots in Serpentis. It cannot be blocked or parried, only dodged and soaked.

By spending a point of Willpower upon activation, the vampire can stay material at the center of the storm. She becomes immune to the storm’s effects, but can still take physical actions.

### **••••• ••• Cerberus’s Fury**

Echidna and Typhon’s son, Cerberus, guards the gates to the underworld with his three heads. With this power, the Setite grows two additional heads which can be used to assault victims.

System: Spend two blood points. The Setite grows two additional heads from her chest, shoulder, or back. These two heads each receive an additional full action per turn. These are limited to actions a head can take, such as a bite or Dominate power. If she activates Typhon’s Maw, these additional heads benefit from it.

As an additional effect, the vampire adopts Cerberus’s affinity for the underworld. She can see ghosts, and her additional heads can affect them as if they were material.

### **••••• ••• Heart Thief**

The Serpentis power Heart of Darkness normally takes hours to perform upon other vampires, and only works at the dark of the moon. Some elders, however, can pull the heart from another vampire’s chest with a quick snatch. This does not destroy the victim, unless the attacker then destroys the stolen heart. Heart Thief is not an easy power to use despite its speed, but few Discipline effects can place one vampire in another’s power so suddenly and completely.

System: The character must expend one Willpower point. Removing the heart of a reluctant vampire is a difficult feat, comparable to staking: the attacker must garner at least three successes on a Dexterity + Brawl attack (difficulty 9). The victim may use Fortitude to “soak” the attacker’s successes, but mundane Stamina has no effect against this magical attack. A vampire who loses his heart this way takes one unsoakable level of aggravated damage, and receives all the benefits and drawbacks of the Heart of Darkness power. Resisting frenzy becomes easier (-2 difficulty) and he cannot be staked by wood that impales his breast. On the other hand, thrusting a stake through the removed heart will instantly force the vampire into torpor and exposing the heart to fire or sunlight will bum the vampire to ash; even biting into the heart will cause aggravated wounds to the vampire in question.

### **••••• •••• Godhead**

This fearsome ability gives the Setite the mantle of a god. While most Setites manifest this power by adopting the head of a beast similar to the Egyptian gods, every Setite manifests Godhead differently. Some grow a meter in height. Some adopt glistening gold flesh. Regardless the manifestation, it’s always obvious and always awe-inspiring.

System: Spend three blood points and one turn. When purchasing Godhead, determine its specific effects. You may purchase other Godhead forms as additional ninedot powers. Divide the character’s Serpentis dots among her Attributes, with no more than half going to a single Attribute. These can raise a vampire above her normal generational limits. Godhead also allows for an additional game effect, but this must be decided with the Storyteller upon choosing the power. For examples, a Setite with ruby flesh may not suffer damage from physical attacks, or a vampire that glistens like the sun might cause Rötschreck and three aggravated damage per turn to vampires in her vicinity.

### **••••• •••• Shadow of Apep**

Only Set and Set’s own childer can perform this terrifying power. These ancient monsters can take the form of Set’s defeated enemy, Apep. The vampire becomes a giant serpent of fluid, glittering Darkness — not mere shadow, but anti-light, like the black force commanded by Obtenebration. In this form, physical force cannot harm the vampire: not claws or fangs, not bullets, not explosions, nothing but fire, sunlight, or mystical powers. Physical barriers cannot easily stop the vampire, whose shadowy form can seep through even the tiniest crack. The vampire, however, can still exert physical and supernatural force quite freely.

System: Taking the form of Apep costs a Willpower point. The transformation takes three turns to complete; once the vampire has transformed, her body remains changed for one scene. In this form, the vampire takes no damage from any physical attack: fists, weapons, or falling buildings pass through the vampire as if she were a shadow. Fire and sunlight inflict the normal aggravated damage, however, and mystical powers (such as Thaumaturgy) still affect the transformed vampire. The vampire’s new body gains three dots in each Physical Attribute. Ignore generational limits for this purpose. The transformed vampire can use her Strength to make normal close combat attacks and can bite for Strength + 2 dice of damage. The vampire can also employ any Discipline that does not require hands.