Caligines

The Darkened and creatures of the Darkness can choose to twist themselves even farther, drawing on the Darkness for supernatural powers, the Caligines. Each Caligo is rated in dots from 1 to 5; to learn a Caligo a character must have Shadows dots equal to its rating, and spend 2 Experiences per dot. While a Darkened character still has Integrity, learning any Caligo is a breaking point with a -5 penalty, and using many of them is also a breaking point - the descriptions note which. (Naturally this is an issue only for Darkened characters.)

Several Caligines are so simple to learn that a Darkened person can acquire them spontaneously when the Darkness cracks his soul. In what follows these Caligines are tagged with the keyword Umbra. Characters may take a Caligo with this keyword as an Umbra; this lowers its cost by 1 dot, and makes it into a permanent, costless feature of the character, accompanied by a drawback.

If a Caligo opposes another supernatural power, the character's dice pool for the Clash of Wills equals his Shadows + the Caligo's rating. =Variable-dot Caligines=

Dark Dreams (•-•••, Umbra)

 * Action: Full turn
 * Dice pool: Wits + Shadows
 * Cost: Forgo Willpower gain from sleep
 * Duration: One night's sleep

The Darkness is everywhere there is sin or vice or absence, and some of this knowledge is fed into the character's brain. When they go to sleep, the character may forgo regaining Willpower to receive an oracular dream. The results of the Caligo are identical to those of the White Rabbits Merit at an equal number of dots, though the dream has nothing to do with the Dreamlands.

Umbra: The dreams come unwillingly, and every night. As a result, the character never regains Willpower from sleeping again.

Diminutive Size (•, ••• or •••••, Umbra)

 * Action: Instant
 * Dice pool: Unrolled
 * Cost: 1 Willpower
 * Duration: 1 scene

The character twists and shrinks, often becoming animalistic or insectoid. At 1 dot, the character becomes Size 4; at 3 dots, he becomes Size 3; at 5 dots he becomes Size 2. See the table in Royal Stature for the modifiers the character's new Size applies to his traits.

Umbra: The character's Size is permanently reduced, and the modifiers from this always apply. People will often treat the character as a child or (at 5 dots) a talking doll, and many tools built for adult humans are unusable. A Darkspawn with this Caligo often shows more animal cunning than the simple brutality of its peers by virtue of Darwinian necessity. Many seek powerful protectors like Cataphractoi or Mnemosynes and earn their keep as spies or scouts.

Encacogen (••-••••)

 * Action: Instant and resisted
 * Dice pool: Shadows + Occult - local Gauntlet Strength or target's Resolve
 * Cost: 1 Willpower, breaking point at -2
 * Duration: 1 scene

The Darkness within a Tainted area doesn't just eat away at the material world; it reaches into the world's spiritual shadow as well, giving birth to spirits of special malevolence. The character has learned to open a road into that twisted image of a Tainted place and bring forth ephemeral allies to the cause of spreading hatred, misery and despair.

At two dots, the character may enact a ritual (taking at least 10 minutes) that makes a passage between a Tainted area and its reflection in the Shadow, creating the Shadow Gate Condition [CofD 136] at the site of the ritual. The ritual will work only in a Tainted area, for it blends the Dark World with both realms to weaken the Gauntlet.

At three dots, the character learns a variation of the previous ritual that exposes a person or object to the influence of the spirits that attend a Tainted area. Like its predecessor the ritual works only in a Tainted area. A successful use inflicts the Open Condition [CofD 134] on its target, attuned to any spirits that have a natural Resonance with the area it was performed in. The Condition fades when the scene ends, unless the spirit applies a Manifestation that locks it in place.

At four dots, the character knows how to consign his target to an evil spirit, and fuse the two into a single supernatural creature. The ritual to expose a person or object may now inflict the Controlled Condition [CofD 133] on top of Open, allowing a spirit to Claim the target immediately.

Grotesque Bulk (•, ••• or •••••, Umbra)

 * Action: Instant
 * Dice pool: Unrolled
 * Cost: 1 Willpower
 * Duration: 1 scene

The character swells and bloats, becoming gigantic. This Caligo increases the Size of those who use it; the 1-dot version adds 1 to Size, the 3-dot version adds 2, and the 5-dot version adds 3. See the table in Royal Stature for the modifiers the character's new Size applies to his traits.

Grotesque Bulk and Diminutive Size are not compatible - a character cannot use both at once.

Umbra: The character's Size is permanently increased, and the modifiers from this always apply. The character has problems getting through doors and standing up in normal rooms; clothing has to be custom tailored.

Loathsome Weapon (•-••••, Umbra)

 * Action: Instant
 * Dice pool: Unrolled
 * Cost: 1 Willpower
 * Duration: 1 scene

The character can transform a part of his body into a lethal weapon - his mouth grows into a muzzle full of fangs, or his fingers stiffen into knife-like claws. At 1 dot the altered body part is a lethal weapon with 0 Damage; each dot after the first enlarges the body part further, and adds 1 to its Damage. The altered part is razor-sharp, and has the Armor Piercing quality at a level equal to the Caligo dots. The character need not grapple to attack with the altered part, even if that would be necessary before the alteration (as bites often are.) A character may take multiple Loathsome Weapons, with each one affecting a different part of his body. The body part cannot be used for anything but attacking foes while it is changed: a character with a changed mouth cannot speak intelligibly, one with changed hands cannot grasp or manipulate objects. The body part reverts to its normal shape at the end of the scene.

Umbra: The body part is permanently altered and never changes back.

Night Air (•-•••••)

 * Requires Corruption of Blood
 * Action: Full turn and contested
 * Dice pool: Presence + Shadows vs. Stamina + Resolve
 * Cost: 1-5 Willpower, breaking point at -3
 * Duration: Indefinite

In the past people feared the dark itself just as they feared what it may hide. They believed it the source of illnesses, the pathogens striving in the absence of light. With the advances of modern science, they were proven wrong... or perhaps their fears held some merit after all, for some Darkspawn bring plague wherever they go, and where they have gone, no shade or evening is safe.

The character releases the necrosis in his blood and sweat into infectious vapors that spread throughout a darkened area. Everyone who breathes the vapors must contest the Caligo. The character affects an area with a Sanctuary rating up to the number of Willpower points he spends to activate Night Air, and may spend points up to the dots he has gained in the Caligo.


 * Dramatic Failure: The character is infected by his own necrosis. He immediately takes the grave Sick Tilt, and must roll to resist the disease just as anyone whom he infects must.
 * Failure: The vapors produce nothing more than an upset stomach or runny nose in the infected.
 * Success: Anyone failing the contest is infected by the character's necrosis, as if he had touched them.
 * Exceptional Success: Those whom the vapors infect suffer as if the character had attacked them.

The vapors remain infectious just as long as the area where the character released them is unlit; in any well-lit place they denature and dissipate instantly. (Thus, if the character is illuminated, Night Air does nothing whatsoever.) Also, the vapors cannot pass through an airtight seal or an illuminated area. Each person exposed to the vapors rolls only once to resist them, whether infected or not.

Shadowblade (•-•••••)

 * Action: Instant and resisted
 * Dice pool: Crafts + dots in Shadowblade - levels of Shadow-Worked
 * Cost: 0 or 2 Willpower, breaking point at -1
 * Duration: indefinite

If he can feel the Dark World, the character may imbue Darkness into an object to make it an instrument of pain, or bend shadows around his will into a weapon. The character must be able to Enter Darkness where he currently is to use this Caligo. The character can work on any object up to Size 5 that he can easily carry; or, if he has nothing he wants to remake, he may spend 2 Willpower to conjure a dagger out of shadows and the local Taint.

The Caligo uses the rules for the Build Equipment action [CofD 101-103] except that the equipment bonus is a number of levels of the Shadow-Worked Condition applied to the object. Also, each level of that Condition weakens a material object, removing 1 point of Structure. If an object is down to its last point of Structure the Caligo cannot be used on it. A knife made of shadow and Taint has Structure equal to its levels of Shadow-Worked, but 0 Durability.

Vile Gobbets (•, ••, ••• or •••••)

 * Action: Instant
 * Dice pool: Unrolled
 * Cost: 1 Willpower
 * Duration: Indefinite

The character grows a new organ within his body that, with some effort, produces missiles to hurl at his foes. The form the missiles take varies; acidic spittle, tumorous growths that tear off, and hardened feces have all been reported. By spending 1 Willpower and concentrating for a turn, the character creates 3 missiles for each dot of his Shadows, stored inside the organ that makes them; this is its maximum capacity. Each missile is an aerodynamic thrown weapon of Size 1 that breaks into powder or goo when it hits.

At 1 dot, the missiles are blunt objects and have a Damage of 0. At 2 or 3 dots, the missiles have edges, are made of acid, or have some other dangerous quality; at 2 dots they have Damage 1, at 3 dots they have Damage 2. At 5 dots the missiles become small explosives; their Blast Area equals the character's Speed, their Damage equals his Strength and their Force equals his Shadows.

Voidblast (••• or •••••)

 * Action: Instant
 * Dice pool: Unrolled
 * Cost: 1 Willpower
 * Duration: Indefinite

The character draws forth the Taint within him to create blasts of cold emptiness that drain Light from those they hit. By spending 1 Willpower and concentrating for a turn, the character creates 1 blast for each dot of his Shadows, held within his body; this is his maximum capacity. Each missile can be fired as a ranged attack, using Dexterity + Firearms, with a range of 20/40/80 yards.

At 3 dots, the blast strikes a single target. Each success on the attack roll inflicts 1 bashing damage and 1 level of the Listless on the target. At 5 dots the blast is an explosive; its Blast Area equals the character's Speed, its Damage equals his Resolve and its Force equals his Shadows. However, it does only lethal damage at ground zero, bashing damage in the primary blast, and no damage in the secondary blast. Characters caught in the explosion, even the secondary blast, take the Listless Tilt at a level equal to the final damage. A character who already has the Listless Tilt takes the worse Tilt if it's inflicted on him again.

Zombie's Flesh (•-•••••, Umbra)

 * Action: Instant
 * Dice pool: Unrolled
 * Cost: 1 Willpower
 * Duration: 1 scene

The character pulls his blood away from the outer layers of his flesh, and calls upon Taint to harden them; his skin takes on the waxy pallor of a corpse embalmed for burial. This hardening preserves the character from nearly all forms of injury. At 1 dot, the character downgrades damage from mundane sources; he takes only bashing damage from things that do lethal damage to a normal human, and lethal damage from sources that do aggravated damage to humans. Each dot after the first gives the character +1/+1 Armor for the whole body on top of downgrading damage when he activates the Caligo. Both effects stack with mundane armor. However, the Caligo also inspires revulsion in normal people who can see his skin - the character suffers a -2 penalty on all Empathy, Persuasion and Socialize rolls for interacting with anyone but creatures of the Darkness.

Zombie's Flesh gives no protection against the effects of jade on the character - quite the reverse, in fact: he cannot roll Integrity to avoid damage from jade while the Caligo is active, and if jade is used as a weapon against him, it always does lethal damage. Zombie's Flesh also doesn't downgrade damage from a supernatural source. Armor from the Caligo does subtract damage from all sources, including jade and magic. The character's flesh returns to normal at the end of the scene.

Umbra: The character's flesh is permanently corpselike, and the social penalties apply at all times.

=One-dot Caligines=

Avoid All Eyes (•)

 * Action: Instant
 * Dice pool: Wits + Shadows
 * Cost: none
 * Duration: 1 scene
 * The character blurs in the sight of all witnesses; no one who sees him can tell exactly where he is. He adds his activation successes to his Defense for the rest of the scene. If an attack bypasses his Defense (as firearms usually do) the attacker still takes a penalty equal to the activation successes; this penalty stacks with other forms of concealment. Avoid All Eyes may be used only once in a scene.

Darkness Enfolds (•, Umbra)

 * Action: Permanent
 * The first and most simple rule of the Darkness is that it must consume all Light. And how better than from the very souls of the Light's servants? The character reflexively senses the presence of all Light-touched characters and objects - Blessed Places, Nobles, Shikigami, Sworn, Beacons and Bequests - in his immediate proximity. Moreover, by concentrating (an instant, unrolled action) he can locate and identify any such beings that are present. Powers that conceal a Light-touched being’s nature defeat his passive sense automatically, but concentrating starts a Clash of Wills with such powers.
 * Umbra: Recognizing the Light at work inspires the character with deep hatred which he cannot conceal. If the character does find a Light-touched being with this power, he must take the Obsession Condition [CofD 290]; he is obsessed with destroying the person, place or object that the Light has touched, by whatever means come to hand. This power is responsible for many of the Darkness's most cruel attacks.

Defiling Touch (•, Umbra)

 * Action: Permanent

The character has bound himself to the Darkness, and it reaches through his evil acts with special virulence. When he commits an act that generates Taint, the amount it creates is read from the row on the chart one step lower than its true level.


 * Umbra: The character needs the Darkness around him, as an alcoholic needs his drink. If he leaves Tainted areas for more than one scene, he takes the Deprived Condition [CofD 288], which resolves when he returns to a Tainted area or successfully generates some Taint where he is.

Enervation (•)

 * Action: Instant
 * Dice pool: Unrolled
 * Cost: none
 * Duration: instant

The character steals will and energy from others, leaving them listless. While touching a target's skin with his bare flesh, the character may steal 1 point of Willpower from the target, adding it to his own pool. If the target tries to avoid him, the character must roll Dexterity + Brawl to touch him, avoiding any part of the target's body covered by armor - this imposes a penalty for specified targets [CofD 92] Any Willpower points stolen when the character's pool is full are wasted. A target with no Willpower points is immune.

Gathering Shadows (•)

 * Action: Instant
 * Dice pool: Animal Ken + Shadows
 * Cost: 1 Willpower, breaking point at -1
 * Duration: Shadows turns

When the character calls, other Darkspawn gather to him.
 * Dramatic Failure: For the rest of the scene, any bestial Darkspawn the character meets either attacks him or runs from him.
 * Failure: No Darkspawn respond to the summons.
 * Success: Every bestial Darkspawn within (activation successes * 100) yards, and in the same world, goes where the character is if it can move at all, and remains within walking distance of him for turns equal to his Shadows.
 * Exceptional Success: The character can claim one of the Darkspawn he summoned as a servant. He gains the Bonded Condition [CofD 288] to one bestial Darkspawn.

Intelligent Dark creatures within the affected area automatically know who used Gathering Shadows and where he was when he activated it, but are not compelled to respond to the summons.

Hear Darkness Slither (•, Umbra)

 * Action: Permanent

The bitter irony of light is, most everything casts a shadow in it. And, as darkness is a gate to the World beyond, due training or the Dark World's corruption may allow creatures connected to its vileness to notice when it moves.

The character's uncanny sense allows him to hear when shadows cast by creatures or objects change position. When rolling to avoid being surprised [CofD 88] or to find an opponent while blinded [CofD 288] the character adds his Shadows dots to his dice pool, unless the person he's listening for does not cast a shadow.

Umbra: Any moving shadow, including the character's own, seems to him to be an incipient threat. Every so often his control slips, and he jumps away from (or attacks) a soft slithering that none but he can hear. The character suffers the effects of the Madness Condition [CofD 289] whenever he is not in complete darkness, far away from anything that casts a shadow.

Open Hellmouth (*)

 * Action: Reflexive
 * Dice pool: Unrolled
 * Cost: 1 Willpower
 * Duration: Shadows turns

When the character enters a Tainted area from its image in Darkness, he opens a wide breach through which his servants can follow him. If the character spends a Willpower point as he uses Entering Darkness in the Dark World, then for a number of turns equal to his Shadows any other entity that leaves the Dark World from the same place he did gets a bonus on its roll equal to the character's successes on his roll. The character does not get the bonus himself if he Enters Darkness again, and if Open Hellmouth is used again before the last activation expires, the second activation supersedes the first.

Shadow Cloak (*)

 * Action: Permanent

The character fades into shadows, unnoticed by anyone unless he steps into the light. When no part of him is directly illuminated, the character adds his Shadows to mundane Stealth dice pools, and Perception rolls to find him automatically fail.

Taste of Sin (•)

 * Action: Instant
 * Dice pool: Empathy + Shadows
 * Cost: none
 * Duration: Instant

The character may assess another character's psyche. Each success on the roll reveals the target's Vice, one of the target's breaking points, or the presence of a Condition such as Guilty, Embarrassing Secret, Obsession or Addiction and a general description of its cause. The character may assess each target once a day. If a person has the Vice-Ridden Merit [CofD 46] or has a second Vice for any other reason, the character knows it on first seeing him, without a roll.

A psyche that hasn't bent under the horrors of the World of Darkness, or one that did bend but has sprung back, gives real pain to the character if he tastes it. Using the Caligo on a target with Integrity of 7 or more is a breaking point for the character, at a penalty of -1 for each point of Integrity above 6. If a person has the Virtuous Merit [CofD 46] or a second Virtue for any other reason, the character cannot come within five feet of the person unless he succeeds on a Resolve + Composure roll at a penalty equal to his Shadows, or spends a Willpower point.

Voice-Eating Hunger (•)

 * Action: Permanent

The Darkness is eternally silent. Within the depths of the Dark World, there is no noise but what outsiders bring with them, and what little the creatures of the Darkness retain from their old lives. The Darkness takes that too, in time. This Caligo enhances a character's natural attacks. Whenever he injures a target or damage an object, the target also gains the Silenced Tilt for a number of turns equal to the successes rolled on the attack.

As a passive benefit from knowing this Caligo, the character only makes sound when he wants to, giving him a Stealth specialty in “Moving Silently”.

Void Magic (•)

 * Action: Permanent

The Dark World is always hungry, especially for magical power, and it readily feeds on power directed at those it touches. The character has Supernatural Tolerance equal to his Shadows.

=Two-dot Caligines=

Bogeyman (••)

 * Action: Instant and contested
 * Dice pool: Presence + Intimidation + Shadows vs. Composure + Supernatural Tolerance
 * Cost: 1 Willpower, breaking point at -1
 * Duration: concentration

The character wraps himself in the deepest fears of those around him. As long as he concentrates, others see him as whatever they dread most.
 * Dramatic Failure: The character only appears ridiculous, like a man dressed in a Halloween costume. He cannot use Bogeyman for the rest of the scene.
 * Failure: Nobody is frightened by the character's appearance.
 * Success: Everyone who sees or hears the character, and who gets fewer successes on the contested roll, gains the Fearful Condition, centered on him. His appearance is continuously frightening; newcomers catching sight of the character reflexively contest the Caligo, and gain the Condition if they lose the contest.
 * Exceptional Success: Onlookers who lose the contested roll gain the Terrified Condition, centered on the character.

Bogeyman lasts as long as the Darkened concentrates on keeping it going, or until the end of the scene; if the Darkened does anything that uses his action for a turn, the witnesses' unnatural fear of him fades away.

Burying the Crime (••)

 * Action: Extended, 10 minutes/roll, threshold = Tainted area's Size + Severity
 * Dice pool: Intelligence + Occult + Shadows
 * Cost: 1 Willpower
 * Duration: Shadows in days

Sometimes a Tainted place has to be hidden for a little while, lest agents of the Light find and purify it. At other times a creature of the Darkness may wish to remove its fellows from a Tainted area. Using this Caligo within the area serves both those ends. When the character reaches the threshold, the curses of the Tainted area he stands in go dormant, and its image in the Dark World does not provide shelter. The targeted area is not a valid target for any power that affects Taint until a moment chosen by the character, though this moment must come within a number of days equal to the character's Shadows. At that moment the area's curses and image return.

The Caligo may be used in either a Tainted area or its Dark World image. If the Consecrated Condition is applied to a Tainted area while its curses are suppressed, the return of the curses will destroy or erode the Condition. Taint Awareness does not react to the Caligo's expiration; the Taint is not removed, only suppressed.

Dark Thoughts Consume (••)

 * Action: Instant and contested
 * Dice pool: Intelligence + Expression vs. Composure + Supernatural Tolerance
 * Cost: 1 Willpower, breaking point at -1
 * Duration: 1 turn or 1 scene

People are, on occasion, mistaken to hold a bad personality, weakness, outdated tradition or flawed ideal dear. They are fond of them, take solace in them. But sometimes, the attacks come from the inside. Dark magic prompts the target's own vileness to disturb their imagination, and the traits they went far to protect to stab them in the back. The creature of the Dark gives them clues, encouragement, ideas, to pain the unfortunate soul to place their trust in what never warranted any. The Darkness within them betrays them, for absolute evil knows no friend nor loyalty.
 * Dramatic Failure: The thoughts intended to scare awaken happiness and joyful memories, or they are so unscary while obviously intended to frighten, the target finds them funny. The target regains a point of Willpower.
 * Failure: The target is mildly perturbed, but not distracted.
 * Success: The target is rattled by dark thoughts spawned of their own worries and anxieties. At the Storyteller's choice, the target either has a psychotic fit (the Insane Tilt [CofD 285]), is bemused to the point of ignoring his surroundings (the Stunned Tilt [CofD 286]) or loses interest in what he was doing (the Listless Tilt, at a level of half the character's Shadows, rounded up.)
 * Exceptional Success: The target freezes in place or collapses from sheer dread and despair. They gain the Insensate Tilt [CofD 285].

All Tilts created by Dark Thoughts Consume resolve normally, once imposed.

Modifiers: For the character: Integrity 8-10(-2), Integrity 6-7(-1), Integrity 2-3(+1), Integrity 0-1(+2), the character knows the target(+Sympathy). For the target: Integrity or equivalent is 4 or lower(+5-Integrity), the target has a form of Sensitivity(-2), the target already has one or more of the Tilts listed(-1/Tilt), the target has the Shaken Condition(-2), the target has Shadows(-1/Shadow dot)

Enervating Hex (••)

 * Action: Instant and resisted
 * Dice pool: Crafts + Shadows - object’s capacity for Willpower
 * Cost: 1 Willpower, breaking point at -1
 * Duration: indefinite

The character converts an object to a sink for others' will and energy, applying the Enervating Hex Condition to it. The Caligo uses the rules for the Build Equipment action [CofD 101-103]; a normal failure always applies the Fragile Condition, triggered only by attempts to remove Willpower from the object. If the object has other uses, Fragile will not spoil it for those - it removes only the Enervating Hex.

Evil Influence (••)

 * Action: Instant
 * Dice pool: Persuasion + Shadows
 * Cost: 1 Willpower, breaking point at -1
 * Duration: 1 scene

The sight of the character rouses the Darkness in one's heart, and inspires impulses to crime.
 * Dramatic Failure: The character is totally unpersuasive. He takes a -1 penalty to all Social dice pools for the rest of the scene.
 * Failure: The character is about as convincing as usual.
 * Success: For the rest of the scene, all the character's actions to induce other people to perform acts that cause suffering (anything that would trigger a Princess' Sensitivity) get bonus dice equal to the character's activation successes. If a suggested action accords with a target's Vice the character gets a further +1 bonus die.
 * Exceptional Success: The character is amazingly good at persuading people into sin.

Grasping at Shadows (••)

 * Action: Instant and resisted
 * Dice pool: Dexterity + Brawl - target's Defense
 * Cost: none
 * Duration: concentration or 1 scene

With a sweep of a hand or foot, the character catches hold of an opponent's shadow. If the target is not casting a shadow (for instance, he isn't illuminated) the Caligo has no effect.
 * Dramatic Failure: The character cannot use Grasping at Shadows for the rest of the scene.
 * Failure: The target feels a momentary weakness, but is not otherwise affected.
 * Success: The target gains the Insensate Tilt [CofD 285]. He remains in this state as long as the character keeps hold of his shadow. The character must remain close enough to touch him, and have one hand free - any action that requires both hands or requires leaving the target removes the Tilt. The Tilt also ends if the target takes damage, as normal.
 * Exceptional Success: The target gains the Insensate Tilt for the rest of the scene, even if the character releases his shadow. Taking damage still ends the Tilt.

I Have You Now, My Pretty (••)

 * Action: Reflexive
 * Dice pool: Unrolled
 * Cost: 1 Willpower
 * Duration: 1 scene

The character develops some grotesque power that allows him to capture his foes: arachnid like web spinners, fast growing tentacles or a dark sorcery that conjures rusty bloodsoaked chains out of shadows and fears. Whenever he grabs an opponent [CofD 89] the character may activate this Caligo; his roll to grab and all rolls he makes while grappling that opponent get a bonus equal to his Shadows from the webs, tentacles, chains etc. that materialize in his hands. Moreover, the character can use these bonds for a Restrain maneuver - they will remain solid until the end of the following scene, and have a Durability equal to the character's Strength.

Nowhere Untouched (••)

 * Action: Permanent

The Dark World exists everywhere, gnawing at all that is real. With Nowhere Untouched, the character may use Entering Darkness outside of Tainted areas; all he requires is a place large enough to stand or sit in, and which is not currently lit - a deep shadow will do. Anywhere there's enough light to read by, the character still needs Taint to cross over. He cannot cross reliably from the Dark World outside a Tainted area, only to it. When crossing in untainted areas, the character treats the local Taint as 0, using Willpower alone as the base of his dice pool; Integrity and Shadows modify the roll as usual.

Scapegoat (••)

 * Action: Instant and resisted
 * Dice pool: Manipulation + Shadows - target's Composure
 * Cost: 1 Willpower
 * Duration: indefinite

Throw mud enough and some will stick... and servants of the Darkness know just where to throw it, and how to make it stick. To use this Caligo, the character publicly accuses another person of something heinous or humiliates and mocks him.
 * Dramatic Failure:: The audience sees the character's words only as proof of his bigotry and barbarity. He gains the Notoriety Condition.
 * Failure: The character's scorn falls flat; no one joins him in condemning the target.
 * Success: The audience believes the character's denigration and regards the target with mistrust. The target gains the Notoriety Condition [CofD 290].
 * Exceptional Success: Even the target half-believes that he has somehow transgressed. He also gains the Guilty Condition [CofD 289] related to what the character said about him.

So Many of Me (••)

 * Action: Instant and contested
 * Dice pool: Subterfuge + Shadows vs. Wits + Supernatural Tolerance
 * Cost: 1 Willpower
 * Duration: 1 scene or 1 day

The character throws his own appearance onto anyone who resembles him. To use this Caligo the character chooses some feature of his physical appearance that others might use to describe him. This feature may be permanent (e.g. black hair) or temporary (e.g. wearing a baseball cap) and can be as specific or general as the character wants.
 * Dramatic Failure:: The character is incredibly obvious. For the rest of the scene all his attempts to hide or disguise himself, even supernaturally, fail automatically.
 * Failure: The Caligo does nothing.
 * Success: Anyone who loses the contested roll perceives everyone else present in the scene who shares the feature that the character chose as the character. In addition, if the character successfully conceals his chosen feature, anyone affected by the Caligo cannot recognize him as himself. The illusion extends to all senses, including supernatural senses, but affects only those who can see the character. Also, it does not affect reasoning; the victims can be persuaded of the character’s identity.
 * Exceptional Success: The character can (but need not) sustain the illusion until the next sunrise.

=Three-dot Caligines=

Blood Diamonds (•••)

 * Action: Extended, 1 hour/roll, threshold = Sanctuary
 * Dice pool: Intelligence + Shadows
 * Cost: (Rating of Sanctuary) Willpower, breaking point at -2
 * Duration: indefinite

When the character sees a place that uplifts the heart, a beautiful landscape or a grand monument, the Darkness whispers to him of ways to claim its virtue for himself, and turn it into cash. This Caligo exploits an area; before activating it the character must establish a legal claim to the area, a right to make use of it, or a strong influence over its owners. The time to activate is spent carefully surveying the area and listening to suggestions from the Darkness. The activation dice pool is modified if the target area is Tainted or Blessed: each dot of a Tainted area's Severity gives a -1 penalty, each dot of a Blessed area's Beauty gives a +1 bonus.

On reaching the threshold, the character learns a way to profit from the area by desecrating and ruining it; he imposes the Strip-Mined Condition there.

Call the Black Dog (•••)

 * Action: Instant and resisted
 * Dice pool: Manipulation + Shadows - target's Resolve
 * Cost: 1 Willpower, breaking point at -2
 * Duration: indefinite

The character deprives his target of the comforts of nightly rest, by sending a shadowy hunter to pursue him in his dreams. He has to touch the target to use the Caligo.
 * Dramatic Failure: The target's dreams withstand all assault; the character can never use Call the Black Dog on this target again.
 * Failure: The target has a nightmare when he next sleeps, but it does not affect him further.
 * Success: The target gains the Dream-Hounded Condition.
 * Exceptional Success: The hunter is persistent; the target's roll to escape the dreams takes a -2 penalty.

Suggested Modifiers: The target has had the Caligo used on him within the past month (-1 for each use)

Flesh of my Flesh (•••)

 * Action: Instant
 * Dice pool: Stamina + Shadows
 * Cost: 1 Willpower, breaking point at -3
 * Duration: instant

When all is reduced to an empty bleakness such trifling things as property will hardly matter a bit. In a Dark world you have far more important things to worry about than someone trying to steal your money, your goods, or your flesh.

With this Caligo the character can heal himself of physical injury, replacing damaged flesh with stolen flesh. Every success heals 1 bashing or lethal damage, provided the character has some spare human flesh; bashing damage is healed first. Some stitch new flesh to old, but most simply eat and push the stolen flesh through their veins to where it's needed. The flesh must be consumed or acquired in the current scene and fresh enough to safely eat (which can be very old if the character has the Roteater Umbra). If the character takes flesh from a living person they must eat one point of lethal damage's worth of flesh to heal one lethal damage or three bashing damage. With some sort of bite attack the character may reflexively swallow after a successful attack to stock up.

Handful of Dust (•••)

 * Action: Instant and contested
 * Dice pool: Presence + Persuasion + Shadows vs. Composure + Supernatural Tolerance
 * Cost: 1 Willpower, breaking point at -2
 * Duration: (activation successes) weeks

The character utters a sentence that blights the confidence of one to whom he speaks.
 * Dramatic Failure: The character cannot use Handful of Dust for the rest of the scene.
 * Failure: If the character does not win the contest, the sentence means nothing to the target; there is no effect.
 * Success: If the character wins the contest, the words haunt the target, condemning him as incapable and worthless. The target gains the Stumbling Condition for a number of weeks equal to the character's net successes; the character chooses the Skill affected by the Condition.
 * Exceptional Success: The target's will breaks. In addition to the Condition, if currently in combat with the character, the target gains the Beaten Down Tilt [CofD 280].

Sin Whisperer (•••)

 * Action: Instant and resisted
 * Dice pool: Manipulation + Subterfuge + Shadows - target's Resolve
 * Cost: 1 Willpower, breaking point at -2
 * Duration: until Condition ends

The character infects a victim's psyche, inflaming and spying on his target's worst impulses. He must speak to the target without interruption for a minute or so to use the Caligo.
 * Dramatic Failure: The target resists the psychic infection - the character can never use Sin-Whisperer on this target again.
 * Failure: The target is not affected.
 * Success: The target gains the Addicted Condition [CofD 288] with respect to actions that accord with his Vice. The target may resolve the Condition normally, or try to purge himself by accepting the Deprived Condition for a number of days equal to the character's successes without resolving it. Each time the target follows his Vice, the character makes a Perception roll reflexively to learn what the target did; he learns as much as he might have gleaned from a Perception roll if he had been present.
 * Exceptional Success: The infection is both deep and persistent; there are no further effects.

The character can infect only one person at a time with Sin-Whisperer; until the current infectee recovers, the Caligo fails automatically when used on anyone else.

Skinmask (•••, Umbra)

 * Action: Instant
 * Dice pool: Stamina + Subterfuge + Shadows
 * Cost: 1 Willpower
 * Duration: 1 scene

The character can physically reshape his body to create a perfect disguise.
 * Dramatic Failure: The character's body escapes his control, fluxing constantly into obviously unnatural features. He is Immobilized [CofD 284] and must use the Caligo again to remove the Tilt before the scene ends.
 * Failure: The character's body does not change.
 * Success: The character can change his ethnicity, sex, height, weight and appearance; given a reference to work from he could mimic a real person. However, he cannot change his Size or overall body plan; a human cannot shift to look other than human, and a Darkspawn that naturally resembles some sort of canine will always resemble a four-footed animal. Further, if the character has any Caligines or Umbrae with a drawback that affects his physical form, he cannot mask that drawback: a character with Hunger Means Nothing will always look thin and starved. The best he can do is adopt a disguise where looking starved makes sense or wear a thick padded coat to hide the thinness of his body.:

No mundane effort can see through the change to the character's true appearance (though if he's mimicking a real person the impersonation can be detected normally); a supernatural power that pierces disguises will start a Clash of Wills.
 * Exceptional Success: The disguise is unnaturally convincing; any attempt to recognize it as a disguise, whether mundane or supernatural, takes a -2 penalty.


 * Umbra: The character no longer has a fixed appearance. He must activate the Caligo at the start of every scene, or suffer the effects of a dramatic failure. Also, if the character is asleep or unconscious he suffers the effects of dramatic failure until he wakes. The first activation in a scene is reflexive, and later ones are instant; none cost Willpower.

Such Pretty Eyes, I Think I'll Keep Them (•••)

 * Action: Instant and contested
 * Dice pool: Presence + Intimidation + Shadows vs. Resolve + Supernatural Tolerance
 * Cost: 1 bashing damage, 1 Willpower
 * Duration: until Condition ends

The Darkness knows that a touch of evil lies in every heart, and a hint of envy blinds every eye. This Caligo makes use of that truth, allowing the character to see through another's eyes. Some creatures of Darkness use this to spy through their enemies' eyes, others use it on their own minions to help lead and org anise their assets. To use this Caligo the character smears a drop of blood on the eyes of his target.
 * Dramatic Failure: The character sees through the target's eyes, just for a second, but he sees not images but the target's viewpoint. If the target's Integrity is higher than the character's Integrity - Shadows he sees himself for what he truly is and gains the Guilty Condition [CofD 289].
 * Failure: Nothing happens.
 * Success: The character gains the Stolen Sight Condition, focused on the target.
 * Exceptional Success: The target forgets that the character put blood in her eyes, and does not know the character can spy through her.

The character may have up to Intelligence + Shadows people tagged with the Stolen Sight Condition at any one time.

Walk in Darkness (•••)

 * Action: Instant
 * Dice pool: Athletics + Shadows
 * Cost: none
 * Duration: 1 hour

Beyond the images of Tainted places, the form of the Dark World distorts away from that of the land it came from. Those who dare to travel in the Dark World, if they have learned this power, find paths that lead from one Tainted place to another, far more swiftly than any road in the world of light.

The character must use Walk in Darkness in the Dark World. If he succeeds, the landscape of the Dark World has shifted, opening a path from his current location to the place he wants to go that is significantly shorter than the smallest distance between the places they are images of. Each activation success cumulatively doubles his effective Speed in the real world for the next hour, or until he next leaves the Dark World, whichever comes first.

World-Corroding Entropic Touch (•••)

 * Action: Instant
 * Dice pool: Unrolled
 * Cost: 1 lethal damage, 1 Willpower
 * Duration: 1 scene

Within the Darkness, all things shatter and break. Taking the Darkness into her flesh, the character imbues himself with that alien property. For the remainder of the scene, the character inflicts 1 point of damage per turn to any object he touches, ignoring any Durability it has. The ground under his feet melts in his black, stinking footsteps, his clothes turn to dust on his back, all his hair flakes away and dies, and trails of dark ooze streak down his face as his tears hiss and boil on his skin. In a grapple, he does 1 point of aggravated damage per turn to the other grappler. When attacking with a natural attack, one level of damage is upgraded to aggravated damage, no matter what the original kind of damage done was.

This Caligo can be converted into a permanent condition, in which the effects are permanently on, and cannot be deactivated. There are deep pits in the Dark World which form where Darkspawn who know this Caligo are trapped, for even when trapped in dormancy they still corrode the ground below them, until they fall at last into utter Darkness and are seen no more.

=Four-dot Caligines=

Dance, Puppet, Dance (••••)

 * Requires Non-bestial
 * Action: Extended, 10 minutes/roll, threshold = target's Durability
 * Dice pool: Crafts + Shadows
 * Cost: 2 Willpower, breaking point at -3
 * Duration: until target disintegrates

The character instills a part of his will and the corruption of the Dark World into an object, urging it to an unnatural life. When he reaches the threshold, the target object animates; it will obey any order the character gives to the letter. The animated object follows the rules of the Claimed Condition [CofD 133] as if an ephemeral being had melded with it. The Power, Finesse and Resistance of the “being” begin at 1 apiece. The character may apply successes past the threshold to improve the object's traits. One success gives one of the following: The Caligo ends when the object disintegrates from decay of its Physical Attributes.
 * Add 1 to the object's Power, Finesse or Resistance.
 * Add +1 to the object's Speed and Initiative.
 * Give the object 1 dot in either Grotesque Bulk, Loathsome Weapon or Vile Gobbets.

Drink Pain Like Wine (••••)

 * Action: Instant and contested
 * Dice pool: Presence + Persuasion + Shadows vs. Composure + Supernatural Tolerance
 * Cost: 1 Willpower, breaking point at -3
 * Duration: indefinite

The character preaches a creed of suffering and cruelty, and instills his words with a dreadful power to convince one who listens to them. He must spend five minutes in conversation with the target to activate the Caligo. If he wins the contest, the target gains the Vice-Ridden Condition; the character chooses the second Vice that the target will gain from the Condition.

Everyone Dies Alone (••••)

 * Action: Instant and resisted
 * Dice pool: Manipulation + Persuasion + Shadows - target's Composure
 * Cost: 1 Willpower, breaking point at -3
 * Duration: indefinite

The character offers to show the target a vision of the hatred and despair that lies under everything she loves. He can activate this Caligo without any knowledge of the target, but the more he knows of her and the people she loves, the easier it is for him. This Caligo creates a false vision, it does not require an actual betrayal to function.
 * Dramatic Failure: The target sees a vision that reminds her of how much her friends need her, renewing her will to fight. She regains one Willpower. If the target is a Princess, if she prefers she may instead reflexively roll her (Belief - Shadows), gaining one Wisp per success.
 * Failure: No vision appears.
 * Success: The target sees a vision of a friend or loved one betraying her. Depending on the character's successes this may be as simple as insulting her behind her back or a deadly betrayal that puts her life in jeopardy. Etched into her mind by dark magics the target can't help but believe it's true; she gains the False Memory Condition at a level of the character's successes. While the Condition lasts she has a -2 penalty on all Social dice pools related to the friend (if the target is a Princess this may include regaining Wisps from her Circle) and teamwork actions with him.
 * Exceptional Success: The penalty from the target's False Memory Condition rises to -3.

Modifiers: The character does not know the target's name (-3), the character chooses a specific person to show, who is the target's friend (+3)

Hope's Eclipse (••••)

 * Action: Instant
 * Dice pool: Strength + Survival + Shadows
 * Cost: 1 Willpower, breaking point at -3
 * Duration: 1 scene

The character may summon the deadly chill of the Dark World to swallow up the light and hope around him.
 * Dramatic Failure: The area is covered in total darkness for a single turn; when it lifts, the character is gone, fallen into the Dark World.
 * Failure: People in the area feel a momentary chill, and the light flickers.
 * Success: The character may impose any one of the Extreme Taint, Ice [CofD 285] or Poor Light Tilts throughout the current scene. If he imposes Extreme Taint, each activation success past the first subjects characters to an hour's exposure to its effects, penalizing their actions.
 * Exceptional Success: The character may impose two Tilts from the list.

Oblivion's Sign (••••)

 * Action: Extended and resisted, 1 turn/roll, threshold = target's Willpower
 * Dice pool: Manipulation + Persuasion + Shadows - target's Resolve
 * Cost: 1 Willpower, breaking point at -3
 * Duration: indefinite

The character invests an image or a verbal phrase with the will-destroying quality of the void, and forces another person to see or hear it. When his victim sees or hears the trigger again, he follows orders without question. When the character reaches the threshold, the target gains the Tranced Condition, with a trigger of the character's choice and at a level of his Shadows; this overrides any Tranced Condition the target had before. If the character fails, any Tranced Condition already existing on the target ceases to influence him, and the character cannot use Oblivion's Sign for a full day.

One of Us (••••)

 * Action: Instant and resisted
 * Dice pool: Manipulation + Shadows - target's Presence
 * Cost: 3 Willpower, breaking point at -2
 * Duration: indefinite

The Darkness embodies and shelters all those things that have no place and deserve no place. With a little effort, things outside its benevolent hands, in or out of the Light, can be drawn in and welcomed to the fold. If their former “friends” turn on them, well... that just proves they weren't real friends in the first place. This Caligo is used on a being with supernatural abilities within sight of the character; mundane characters and creatures of the Darkness are immune to it.
 * Dramatic Failure: The character only exposes his inner night to the otherworldliness of his target. He loses two dots of Shadows if targeting one of the Radiant or other beings of the Light, or one if targeting any other type of supernatural creature.
 * Failure: The Caligo brushes up against the target's supernatural nature, but runs off like rainwater.
 * Success: Motes of Darkness infest the target's powers, laying in wait. The next time the target uses a supernatural power of any kind, they gain the Walking Stain Condition.
 * Exceptional Success: Being treated like a creature of Darkness inspires some sympathy for the devil in the target. All creatures of Darkness capable of making social maneuvers improve their impression level with the target by one step until the Condition ends.

Out of the Depths (••••)

 * Action: Permanent

The character extends his senses into a Tainted area from its image in the Dark World, allowing him to watch and listen without being perceived. The ability is automatic - the character sees and hears whatever happens in the Tainted area above his location as if he were there. His senses also extend into the Dark World from a Tainted place, letting him see and hear its image.

If the character also has Nowhere Untouched, his senses extend into any area where he could enter the Dark World, and he can use Entering Darkness to cross to those areas as well as from them.

Twisting the Bane (••••)

 * Action: Extended, 10 minutes/roll, threshold = 2x Severity of focus
 * Dice pool: Presence + Occult + Shadows - Severity of focus
 * Cost: 2 Willpower, breaking point at -4
 * Duration: until next sunrise

Taint, the Mnemosyne say, only anticipates the final state of the world under Darkness. With this Caligo, the character calls up a different aspect of that final state in a Tainted area; while touching the Taint's focus, he prays to the powers of Darkness. On reaching the threshold, the character may change 1 curse emanating from that focus. The area's Taint remains altered until the next sunrise, and then returns to its original curses. The character may use Twisting the Bane for a number of times per week equal to his Shadows.

=Five-dot Caligines=

Crafted with Love and Care (•••••)

 * Requires Non-bestial
 * Action: Extended and resisted, 1 minute/roll, threshold = target's Integrity + Resolve
 * Dice pool: Presence + Crafts + Shadows - target's Composure
 * Cost: 2 Willpower, breaking point at -4
 * Duration: indefinite

Ingredients: One helpless captive held fast, Darkness fresh from the Dark World, tears and raw material. Plastic or burlap will do. With this profane Caligo the character physically creates some kind of doll around the victim, trapping their body and their mind. On reaching the threshold the wrapping sinks beneath the victim's flesh. Only supernatural senses, and curiously a canine or feline's sense of smell, can detect anything wrong. If the character fails the wrapping remains nothing more than inert material which can be easily removed.

Dolls created by this power have the target's original Physical Attributes, the Darkened Condition and the Umbra Tainted Allure of Vice. They are also entirely mindless and act as the people around them expect them to act. They even use the Mental Attributes, Social Attributes and Skills of those around them - if a gourmet chef expects a Doll to cook his steak at exactly 550 degrees, it will. Being entirely mindless Dolls do not have Integrity and so cannot reach breaking points.

Killing a doll kills the person trapped within; this counts as killing an innocent, which constitutes a breaking point for anyone but the truly depraved.

Barring an external influence there is no transition from a Doll to other types of Dark Creature. So long as the Doll exists there is a possibility to break the curse with magic. Of course, this is only a drawback from the Darkness' perspective.

The Demon Within (•••••)

 * Requires Non-bestial
 * Action: Extended and resisted, 5 minutes/roll, threshold = target's Resolve + Composure
 * Dice pool: Manipulation + Empathy + Shadows - target's Composure
 * Cost: 2 Willpower, breaking point at -5
 * Duration: until target wakes

The character removes the Vice from his target, gives it a separate body, and turns it loose. The target must have the Immobilized Tilt [CofD 284] or the Caligo fails. When he reaches the threshold, the target falls unconscious and a dense black smoke boils off of him, gathering into a human figure that somewhat resembles him. By default the unleashed Vice has the same traits as its owner, except Integrity and Virtue, which it lacks altogether. The character can apply successes past the threshold to increase the Vice's Physical Attributes, or to give it Grotesque Bulk, Loathsome Weapon or Zombie's Flesh, at the rate of 1 success per Attribute dot or Caligo dot. The Vice draws Willpower from its owner, and regains Willpower by indulging itself; as it lacks Virtue and does not sleep, no other way of gaining Willpower is open to it.

The Vice is likely to carry out any requests the character makes; on any Social rolls regarding it, the character adds his Shadows to the dice pool. (This stacks with Evil Influence). If the character asks for nothing, the Vice does what its owner would do if he lacked a conscience. The Vice remains embodied until its Health track fills with damage (of any type) or its owner wakes up, at which point it dissolves into the black smoke that formed it and dissipates. The target cannot be wakened before the end of the current scene, and will wake after a full night's sleep (though without recovering Willpower); within those limits, the time the target stays asleep is at the Storyteller's discretion. If the Vice does anything while free that is a breaking point for its owner, he rolls once when he wakes, using the penalty for the worst sin the Vice committed.

I am Your Master (•••••)

 * Action: Extended and resisted, 1 day at sunset/roll, threshold = highest Resolve among the targets + the number of targets
 * Dice pool: Presence + Intimidation + Shadows - targets' highest Resolve
 * Cost: 1 lethal damage per target, 1 Willpower per roll, breaking point at -5
 * Duration: indefinite

A taste of the true Darkness in the heart is enough to break a beast to the will of someone stronger for life. To begin using this Caligo, the character feeds a measure of his own flesh or blood to the Darkspawn he wants to influence, enough to do 1 lethal damage per Darkspawn. He need not remain within sight of his targets after the first night; the process works from within. Once this is done, the character spends 1 Willpower at sunfall each night and rolls reflexively.

While the Caligo is in progress, the Darkspawn will obey verbal orders the character gives them during the hours of darkness, to the best of their abilities, but they won't risk their lives, and they return to their normal activities when the sun rises. Giving an order follows the same rules as the Umbra Subsumed by Another Shadow.

After reaching the threshold, though, the Darkspawn become fanatically loyal; they will continue to carry out an assigned task until it's complete without regard for day or night, and will fight to the death if so ordered. They will attack anyone who tries to break their master's control, doing as much damage as they can (making all-out attacks, spending Willpower, etc.) until either they or the other is dead. In addition, the character can give his servants orders mentally, without speaking aloud, and adds his Shadows to the roll.

If the character fails or abandons the Caligo, his control over his servants breaks. The Darkspawn now desire nothing more than to feast upon his flesh again, and seek him out to kill and eat him. They know exactly where their former master is for a number of nights equal to their Wits; if the character evades them longer than that, they lose the trail.

If the character gains an exceptional success, the bond between master and servant becomes a source of power. One of the Darkspawn affected adds 1 dot in a Physical Attribute; the master chooses the Darkspawn and the Attribute. The new dots remain as long as the character's control persists.

Profanation (•••••)

 * Action: Extended, 10 minutes/roll
 * Dice pool: Shadows + Severity of focus
 * Cost: 2 Willpower, breaking point at -5
 * Duration: indefinite

The Dark wants to Taint everything, and its servants can channel it towards the best places to infect with a well-timed murder. At a Tainted area's focus, the character prepares a weapon or tool for murder. Each success transfers 1 dot of the Taint's Severity from the focus into the weapon, with an associated curse; the character chooses which curse to take. While stored in the weapon, the Taint is inert - it doesn't register to Sensitivity, and doesn't affect anyone's dice pools. However, if the weapon is used to take the life of a non-Darkened, intelligent being, the place the murder was done immediately becomes Tainted with all the curses stored in the weapon, plus the points of Taint added by a murder in cold blood. The extra points expand the new Tainted area's Size as far as possible.

Each time the weapon does damage to anyone or anything without taking a person's life, 1 dot of the stored Taint escapes from it and returns to the Tainted place from which it came. If the weapon is destroyed before it takes a person's life, the stored Taint disappears entirely.

Shadow Step (•••••)

 * Action: Instant
 * Dice pool: Dexterity + Shadows
 * Cost: 2 Willpower, breaking point at -3
 * Duration: 1 scene

In the dark, all places are alike. The character can move from one unlit place to another without crossing the intervening space.
 * Dramatic Failure: The character cannot escape the light. For the rest of the scene he cannot use Entering Darkness, and all his Stealth rolls are reduced to a chance die.
 * Failure: The character can only move normally.
 * Success: For the rest of the scene, if the character is standing in an unlit location, he may move to any other unlit location within (1 + activation successes) times his Speed in yards. This replaces his normal movement for the turn. No obstacle can block his motion; the character seems to dissolve where he stands and reforms at his destination in less than a second. However, light enough to read by will block the Caligo - if any part of the character is illuminated he must move normally, and if an unlit area is not big enough to contain him he cannot move to it.
 * Exceptional Success: The character may treat a Tainted area as if it were unlit throughout; light within a Tainted area does not block the Caligo.

Undying Heart (•••••)

 * Action: Permanent

The character cuts the heart out of his body and hides it far away. As long as the heart remains safe, the character cannot be killed by anything less than complete destruction of his body.

If the character's health track is filled with lethal damage he will not begin to bleed out, and does not require medical care to begin healing, though he still falls into coma. Undying Heart does not increase the character's ability to heal; it only provides infinite time for the healing process to take hold. If the character's health track is filled with aggravated damage, he's still dead.

If the heart is destroyed, the character dies instantly. If the character retrieves his missing heart he may sacrifice the Undying Heart Caligo, and all the Experiences invested in it, to instantly heal to perfect health. However, if any other creature of Darkness finds the heart, they may eat it for a free dot of Shadows (which destroys it, and kills the character).

Venom of the Soul (•••••)

 * Action: Instant and resisted
 * Dice pool: Presence + Shadows - target's Stamina
 * Cost: 1 Willpower, breaking point at -4
 * Duration: lasting

Those whom the character has killed by his own hand are marked: with the taint in himself, he desecrates their bodies and consigns them to the Darkness. When a foe has taken lethal damage from the character's natural weapons or one of his Umbrae or Caligines, and that foe is bleeding out or dead, he becomes a valid target for this Caligo. The character must use the Caligo within an hour of the target's death, but need not be anywhere near the target when he does so.
 * Dramatic Failure: The character's flesh corrodes as the taint on his soul manifests. He takes 1 point of aggravated damage.
 * Failure: The target is not corrupted.
 * Success: The character pushes one dot of his Shadows into the target; he loses that dot, the target dies (if alive) and the corpse corrupts into a new Darkspawn. The Darkspawn has the same traits as the target did when it was alive, the innate abilities of Darkspawn, 1 dot of Shadows, and all the Umbrae that the character had when he activated the Caligo. It also gains Loathsome Weapon 1 (as a bite) and Zombie's Flesh 1 as Umbrae, and Venom of the Soul, but no other Caligines.
 * A character who currently has no Shadows dots can still raise a Darkspawn by sacrificing willpower; he loses 1 Willpower dot when Venom of the Soul activates, and the Darkspawn rises with 0 Shadows.
 * Exceptional Success: The Darkspawn rises as a terrifying fighter; it gains Loathsome Weapon 2 and Zombie's Flesh 2.