The Discipline of silent death, Quietus is practiced
by those of Clan Assamite. Based on elements of
blood, poison, vitae control, and pestilence, Quietus
focuses on the destruction of a target through a variety
of means. This Discipline doesn’t always cause a quick
death, but the Assamites rely on its lethality to hide
their involvement with their victims.

• Silence of Death
Many Assamites claim never to have heard their
targets’ death screams. Silence of Death imbues the
vampire with a mystical silence that radiates from her
body, muting all noise within a certain vicinity. No
sound occurs inside this zone, though sounds originating
outside the area of effect may be heard by anyone
in it. Rumors abound of certain skilled Assamite viziers
who have the ability to silence a location rather than a
circumference that follows them, but no proof of this
has been forthcoming.
System: This power (which costs one blood point to
activate) maintains a 20-foot (6-meter) radius of utter
stillness around the Kindred for one hour.

•• Scorpion’s Touch
By changing the properties of her blood, a vampire
may create powerful venom that strips her prey of his resilience.
This power is greatly feared by other Kindred,
and all manner of hideous tales concerning methods of
delivery circulate among trembling coteries. Kindred
with Quietus are known to deliver the poison by coating
their weapons with it, blighting their opponents
with a touch, or spitting it like a cobra. An apocryphal
account speaks of a proud Prince who discovered an
Assamite plotting her exsanguination and began to
diablerize her would-be assassin. Halfway through the
act, she learned that she had ingested a dire quantity of
tainted blood and was then unable to resist the weakened
hashashiyyin’s renewed attack.
System: To convert a bit of her blood to poison, the
Kindred’s player spends at least one blood point and
rolls Willpower (difficulty 6). If this roll is successful,
and the vampire successfully hits (but not necessarily
damages) her opponent, the target loses a number of
Stamina points equal to the number of blood points
converted into poison — vampires attempting to drink
the blood of the Kindred with Scorpion’s Touch are
automatically considered to be “successfully hit.”
The victim may resist the poison with a Stamina +
Fortitude roll (difficulty 6); successes achieved on the
resistance roll subtract from the vampire’s successes.
The maximum number of blood points a Kindred may
convert at any one time is equal to her Stamina. The
number of successes scored indicates the duration of
the Stamina loss.
Successes - Result
1 success - One turn
2 successes - One hour
3 successes - One day
4 successes - One month
5 successes - Permanently (though Stamina may
be bought back up with experience)
If a mortal’s Stamina falls to zero through use of Scorpion’s
Touch, she becomes terminally ill and loses any
immunity to diseases, her body succumbing to sickness
within the year unless she somehow manages to increase
her Stamina again. If a Kindred’s Stamina falls
to zero, the vampire enters torpor and remains that way
until one of her Stamina points returns. If a Kindred is
permanently reduced to zero Stamina, she may recover
from torpor only through mystical means.
To afflict someone with the poison, the Cainite must
touch her target’s flesh or hit him with something that
carries the venom. Many Assamites lubricate their
weapons with the excretion, while others pool the toxin
in their hands (or fleck their lips with the poison,
for a “kiss of death”) and press it to their opponents.
Weapons so envenomed must be of the melee variety
— arrows, sling stones, bullets, thrown weapons, and
the like cannot carry enough of the stuff to do damage,
or it drips off in flight. Players whose vampires wish to
spit at their targets must make a Stamina + Athletics
roll (difficulty 6). No more than two blood points’
worth of poison may be expectorated, and a Kindred
may spit a distance of 10 feet (3 meters) for each point
of Strength (and Potence) the character possesses.
Vampires with Quietus are immune to their own poison,
but not the blood-venom of other Kindred with
this power.

••• Dagon’s Call
This terrible power allows a vampire to drown her
target in his own blood. By concentrating, the Kindred
bursts her target’s blood vessels and fills his lungs with
vitae that strangles him from within. The blood actually
constricts the target’s body from the inside as it
floods through his system; thus, it works even on unbreathing
Kindred. Until the target collapses in agony
or death throes, this power has no visible effect, and
many Kindred like it because it leaves no trace of their
presence.
System: The vampire must touch her target prior
to using Dagon’s Call. Within an hour thereafter, the
vampire may issue the call, though she need not be in
the presence or even in the line of sight of her target.
Invoking the power costs one Willpower point.
The Kindred’s player makes a contested Stamina roll
against the target’s Stamina; the difficulty of each roll
is equal to the opponent’s permanent Willpower rating.
The number of successes the vampire using Dagon’s
Call achieves is the amount of lethal damage, in
health levels, the victim suffers. For an additional point
of Willpower spent in the next turn, the vampire may
continue using Dagon’s Call by engaging in another
contested Stamina roll. So long as the Kindred’s player
continues to spend Willpower, the character may continue
rending her opponent from within.

•••• Baal’s Caress
The penultimate use of blood as a weapon (short of
diablerie itself), Baal’s Caress allows the Kindred to
transmute her blood into a virulent ichor that destroys
any living or undead flesh it touches. In nights of yore,
when Assamites led the charges of Saracen legions, the
Assassins were often seen licking their blades, slicing
open their tongues and lubricating their weapons with
this foul secretion.
Baal’s Caress may be used to augment any bladed
weapon; everything from poisoned knives and swords
to tainted fingernails and claws has been reported.
System: Baal’s Caress does not increase the damage
done by a given weapon, but that weapon inflicts aggravated
damage rather than normal. No roll is necessary
to activate this power, but one blood point is
consumed per hit. For example, if a Cainite poisons his
knife and strikes his opponent (even if he inflicts no
damage), one blood point’s worth of lubrication disappears.
For this reason, many vampires choose to coat
their weapons with a significant quantity of blood. If
the vampire misses, no tainted blood is consumed.

••••• Taste of Death
A refinement of Baal’s Caress, Taste of Death allows
the Cainite to spit caustic blood at her target. The
blood coughed forth with this power burns flesh and
corrodes bone; some vampires have been reported to
vomit voluminous streams of vitae that reduce their
targets to heaps of sludge.
System: The vampire may spit up to 10 feet (3 meters)
for each dot of Strength and Potence he possesses.
Hitting the target requires a Stamina + Athletics roll
(difficulty 6). Each blood point spewed at the target
inflicts two dice of aggravated damage, and there is no
limit (other than the vampire’s capacity and per-turn
expenditure maximum) to the quantity of blood with
which a target may be deluged.

••••• • Blood Sweat
Although vampires do not have functioning sebaceous
glands, they are still capable of sweating at
times of extreme stress. This “sweat” is actually a thin
sheen of blood on the Cainite’s forehead and palms.
Most Kindred see blood sweat as an admission of fear
or guilt. The vampire who has mastered Blood Sweat is
capable of inducing these feelings in a subject to a preternatural
degree. The victim experiences a torrential
outpouring of vitae if he harbors the tiniest shred of
remorse for any action he has ever undertaken.
System: The character must be within line of sight
of the subject and spend three turns concentrating.
The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Manipulation
+ Intimidation (difficulty equal to the target’s
current Willpower points). The target loses one blood
point per success. Mortals sustain injury as if they had
lost blood from being fed upon. The target actually
“sweats out” the lost blood in a sudden rush of sanguinary
perspiration that soaks his clothes. Large amounts
may even form puddles at his feet. Blood lost through
this process is considered dead, inert mortal blood, and
provides minimal nutrition (half normal) for Cainites
desperate enough to lick it up from the floor or wring
it out of towels. It provides no sustenance for the individual
from whom it emerged.
In addition to the blood loss, the victim is overcome
by a sense of remorse and guilt for his past transgressions
(if he has a strong conscience) or an overwhelming
compulsion to brag (if he is of sufficiently coarse
moral character). The severity of this impulse depends
on the number of successes rolled: One success could
cause a slight twinge of conscience, while five successes
may result in the subject breaking down and pouring
out a full confession of his crimes. This effect is more
story-oriented than mechanical, and the Storyteller is
the final authority on what the victim feels compelled
to confess or boast.
Note that this power’s existence is not widely known.
Vampires and mortals alike tend to shrink away from
someone who begins spontaneously sweating blood,
and experiencing such an affliction may panic even the
staunchest individual.

••••• • Selective Silence
Although Silence of Death is an effective tool for
the battlefield and the court alike, it is indiscriminate
in its effects. The assassin who uses it in preparation
for firing a shotgun also silences the radio over which
her comrades might warn her of an oncoming guard.
The courtier who suppresses a room full of dissenting
voices is likewise unable to speak her own mind. Selective
Silence allows the skilled Cainite to overcome
these limitations by silencing only those individuals or
objects that she wants to silence.
When using this power, most individuals exhale a
thin mist of blood that clings to the selected subjects,
gradually evaporating as Selective Silence’s effects
fade. Some vampires also use a similar technique when
invoking Silence of Death, in which case the mist surrounds
them and moves with them.
System: The player spends two blood points and
rolls Stamina + Stealth (difficulty 7). Each success allows
for one individual or object that the character can
silence with this use of the power. Each subject must
be within 20 yards or meters of the character. Objects
larger than a man count as more than one subject: a
heavy machine gun counts as two, a car as three, and
a small aircraft as five. Objects larger than a private jet
or creatures larger than an elephant cannot be silenced
through the use of this power.
Each subject is completely silenced for a number of
minutes equal to the character’s permanent Willpower.
Nothing it does generates sound, though the secondary
effects of its actions will do so normally. For example, a
gun silenced with this power will not produce an audible
explosion when fired, but its bullets still make noise
as they break the sound barrier. A silenced victim can
scream all he likes and not make a sound, but may be
able to summon help by smashing a window.

••••• • Ripples of the Heart
According to Assamite lore, this technique originated
with a Byzantine scholar who wanted to protect
his herd from the thirst of other Cainites. Ripples of
the Heart allows a Cainite to leave emotions within
the bloodstream of any mortal from whom he feeds.
Any other vampire who subsequently drinks from that
mortal experiences those emotions as if they were his
own.
System: The character drinks at least one blood
point from the subject mortal then spends a minute in
physical contact with the subject while concentrating
on the emotion he wishes to leave in her blood. The
player spends a point of Willpower and rolls Charisma
+ Empathy (difficulty 7 under normal circumstances,
5 if the subject is currently experiencing the intended
emotion, 9 if he is currently experiencing a strong opposite
emotion). The subject’s blood carries the weight
of the intended emotion for one lunar month per success
rolled. A mortal’s blood can only carry one emotion
at a time. Subsequent attempts to use Ripples of
the Heart on the same individual have no effect until
the previous application has worn off.
Any vampire who drinks from a vessel under the effects
of Ripples of the Heart must succeed in a Self-
Control/Instinct roll (difficulty of the mortal’s current
Willpower points) as soon as she swallows the first
blood point. If she fails this roll, the vitae-borne emotion
immediately overtakes her. The strength of the
emotion depends on how many blood points she drinks.
One blood point results in a momentary mood swing,
two causes a significant shift in demeanor, and three
or more generates a complete change in emotional
state. Depending on the circumstances and the precise
emotion, the effects of this may be spectacular or catastrophic.
A vampire overtaken by romantic passion
may temporarily believe she is in love with the mortal
(or any other convenient bystander). One who drinks
from a hate-infused vessel may rend her prey to shreds,
and one who takes a draught of a mortal touched with
fear may run away screaming. The vampire remains
subject to the emotion for a number of hours equal to
the mortal’s permanent Willpower, though she is still
subject to other feelings after the initial rush of sensation.
The mortal who is under the effects of Ripples of the
Heart is unaware of the power’s effects on him, though
he is slightly predisposed toward the emotion in question
while the power is in effect. The vampire who
used Ripples of the Heart on a mortal is immune to any
effects from that use.

••••• • Purification
Although most mortal cultures affix negative connotations
to the spilling of blood, most Assamites
— indeed, most vampires — have quite the opposite
reaction to it. For them, blood is an unlife-affirming
and reinvigorating substance. Purification works on
this principle, using the power of vitae to cleanse and
restore. Rather than purging foreign taints from the
body, Purification allows its wielder to cleanse other
individuals’ minds and souls of stains, including those
left by the mind control of other Kindred. The vampire
using this power expels his own blood through his skin
and allows it to soak through his subject, slowly dissipating.
As it does so, it carries away spiritual impurities
and outside influences.
System: The character touches the forehead of her
intended subject, and both parties spend a minimum of
five minutes in deep concentration. The player spends
a number of blood points equal to the subject’s permanent
Willpower. The subject rolls Willpower once for
every external supernatural influence (a vampiric Discipline,
usually) to which his mind has been subjected.
The difficulty equals the level of the power in question
+4 (or a difficulty of 7 if the power level is unknown,
such as one used by a different kind of supernatural
creature). A success nullifies that effect.
Purification has its limits. It can remove directly intrusive
influences such as Dominate-implanted commands,
Dementation-generated derangements, or the
imperatives caused by elder vampires’ Presence. It cannot
dispel influences that are transmitted by blood, including
a blood bond or the dispositions imparted by
one’s Clan or bloodline, nor can it erase those caused
by purely mundane techniques such as persuasion,
hypnosis, or brainwashing, or genuine emotional states
such as love and hate. It can remove mind-altering
blood magic effects, but either the character wielding
Purification or the power’s beneficiary must have
a level of Thaumaturgy equal to or greater than that
with which the effect was placed. A character cannot
use Purification on herself.

••••• •• Baal’s Bloody Talons
The toxin generated by Baal’s Caress is not enough to
significantly harm some truly fearsome foes. This progressive
development of that lesser technique allows its
user to envenom his weapon with a blood-based poison
so potent that it corrodes the very weapon that bears
it, eating away at the strongest metal in a minute or
less. However, its effects on its victims are spectacular
enough to make the loss of even the most treasured
blades worthwhile. This power’s effects are of very limited
duration, as the substance it creates will quickly
evaporate away.
System: The character coats an edged weapon with
her own blood, as per Baal’s Caress. The player spends
one or more blood points and rolls Willpower (difficulty
7). The weapon now does aggravated damage. It also
gains a number of additional damage dice equal to the
number of successes rolled plus the number of blood
points spent. These extra dice fade at a rate of one per
turn as the poison dissipates, drips off, and reacts with
the weapon’s material. Once the extra damage dice
are all gone, the weapon’s base damage dice begin to
fade at the same rate. The weapon breaks if used when
its base damage is reduced to the wielder’s Strength or
less. The only weapons that can resist this corrosion
are those created with a supernatural power of a level
equal to or greater than the character’s Quietus rating,
though even this is subject to the Storyteller’s discretion.
Baal’s Bloody Talons is subject to the same limitations
as Baal’s Caress, except the limit on the number
of successful strikes that do aggravated damage. A
weapon affected by Baal’s Bloody Talons does aggravated
damage with every successful attack until it is
destroyed.
At the Storyteller’s discretion, the character may use
the venom this power produces for other purposes, such
as burning through a padlock or destroying an incriminating
tape. He may not, however, store this poison for
later use — even if a container proves resistant to it,
the substance becomes inert within a few minutes of
leaving its creator’s body.

••••• •• Poison the Well of Life
Beyond leaving emotional traces in a subject’s blood,
the master of this Quietus power can now taint that
same vitae, making it into a deadly poison for any other
Cainite who drinks from that mortal. Some vampires
use Poison the Well of Life to guard their own herds
against “poachers” or to ward specific vessels against
indiscriminate feeding. Others have been known to
employ it as a subtle trap for other vampires, turning
herds against their owners.
System: The character touches the mortal he wishes
to taint and smears a streak of his own vitae on the
victim’s skin. The player spends three blood points
and rolls Stamina + Occult (difficulty 7). For a number
of months equal to the number of successes, any
other vampire who drinks that mortal’s blood sustains
two health levels of aggravated damage for every blood
point imbibed. This damage manifests as a combination
of acid burns and something akin to toxic shock.
While a mortal is poisonous to vampires, his body’s
alchemical balance is slightly altered toward toxicity.
He gains two extra points of Stamina for the purposes
of resisting the effects and damage of poisons and acids.
However, his bodily excretions, especially his sweat,
are slightly more noxious than normal. He suffers a
one-die penalty to all Social dice pools if whomever
he chooses to interact with has a particularly sensitive
nose and is close enough to smell him.

••••• ••• Songs of Distant Vitae
Blood magic practitioners and individuals skilled at
Auspex have long known that vitae can carry residual
impressions of emotion and personality. This power
invokes those impressions to overwhelm its victim
with “remembered” images and sensations drawn from
the vessels who held that blood before the vampire
fed from them. Particularly strong-willed or hardened
subjects may shrug off these visions as daydreams, but
those who are less self-possessed can be permanently
changed by the experience. A side effect of the use of
this power is the partial destruction of the vitae from
which the images are drawn. Some viziers theorize that
this is the result of motes of the vessels’ consciousness
making an effort to escape their usurper.
System: The character touches his target and spends
a turn in concentration. The player spends four blood
points and rolls Wits + Intimidation in a contested
roll against the victim’s permanent Willpower (difficulty
7). If the target has committed diablerie within a
number of nights equal to the character’s Perception,
the attacker gains one automatic success. The result
depends on the number of net successes the attacker
rolls. Note that in all invocations of this power, the
sensations that the subject relives are expressly negative
and terrifying — for example, he experiences none
of the pleasure that would normally accompany the
Kiss when he flashes back to such an event.
In addition to the effects listed below, the subject of
a successful attack loses a number of blood points equal
to the number of successes rolled. This vitae oozes from
his body in warm red trickles that do no damage but are
certain to terrify onlookers.
Successes Result
Botch - The attacker enters a flashback
sequence in which he relives his last
feeding from the vessel’s point of
view. If the player rolled three or
more “1”s, the character acquires a
permanent derangement related to
feeding.
Failure - The target is unharmed and immune
to this power for a number of nights
equal to his Willpower.
1 success - The target experiences a brief (10-
second/3-turn) flashback sequence in
which he relives his last feeding from
the vessel’s point of view. During this
time, he is at +2 difficulty to all rolls.
2 successes - The target experiences a brief
montage (15 seconds/5 turns) of
flashbacks during which his viewpoint
flashes between various feedings from
the vessels’ points of view. During
this time, he is at +3 difficulty to all
rolls. Once the initial rush of
sensation passes, he is unsettled and
at +1 difficulty to all rolls until he
succeeds on a Self-Control/Instinct
roll (difficulty 8), which he may
attempt once per scene.
3 successes - The target experiences a composite
memory, assembled by his own
subconscious, of the terror that
various vessels felt while being
stalked and fed upon. He must
succeed in a Courage roll (difficulty
8) or instantly enter Rötschreck. If
he succeeds in this roll, he is still at
+3 difficulty on all actions for the
rest of the scene due to the
distraction that his visions impose.
4 successes - The target is stunned and completely
unable to act for a number of
turns equal to 8 - his Self-Control/
Instinct as he is bombarded by a
sequence of the most terrifying
memories of his various vessels. Once
this initial onslaught subsides, he
must roll Courage (difficulty 9) or
enter Rötschreck. If he fails this roll,
he must roll Self-Control/Instinct (difficulty 8) or gain the
Sanguinary Animism derangement.
5 successes - The target is thrown into a
nightmarish reenactment of the
greatest fears of every individual
upon whom he has ever fed. He must
make a successful Self-Control/
Instinct roll (difficulty 9) or fall into
torpor for (10 - the target’s Stamina)
nights, at the end of which he loses
half his permanent Willpower and
gains the derangement Sanguinary
Animism. If he succeeds on the
Self-Control/Instinct roll, he enters
Rötschreck for the rest of the night,
during which time his greatest fear is
of his own image. At the end of the
night, he must succeed at a
Willpower roll (difficulty 9) or lose a
permanent Willpower point and gain
the derangement Sanguinary
Animism.

••••• •••• Condemn the Sins of the Father
Although the Second City’s judges recognized that
heritage does not equal guilt, they also encountered
many situations in which a vampire’s entire brood had
committed the same crime. In such cases, the judges
often decreed the same punishment for all transgressors.
This technique, which modern viziers believe to
have originated at that time, allows its wielder to administer
such judgments. Through Condemn the Sins
of the Father, a Cainite can apply lesser Quietus powers
to an entire lineage.
System: After successfully using any lesser Quietus
power on another vampire, the player spends a permanent
Willpower point and 10 blood points and rolls
Stamina + Occult. The difficulty of this roll is equal
to four plus the number of Generations of the original
target’s descendants that the player wants to affect, up
to a maximum difficulty of 10. If the roll succeeds, every
descendant of the original target within the specified
range of Generations suffers the same effects that
the original target experienced, resisting with his own
relevant Traits. The player may exempt a number of
potential subjects from this effect equal to twice the
character’s Wits, but the character must know their
faces or have tasted their vitae.