Protean
1: Unmarked Grave
With a silent command you allow the earth to put you where you belong, six feet under. You meld into the ground, safe from harm and sun, and remain there until you spend some vitae to be released or someone sufficiently disturbs the ground to end the effect. This is most easily done on softer ground, but even concrete can be melded into at the cost of needing to spend all vitae to be released. You can perceive the ground immediately above and blood or vitae spilled on the ground can be absorbed without coming out.
1: Predatory Aspect
You allow the beast to slip through your very form, making an animalistic change to your shape that makes you better suited to hunt in the night. Typical changes are:
| Source | Effect |
|---|---|
| Senses | Heightened perception |
| Claws/bite/spurs | +2 weapon bonus |
| Hardy skin | +4 HP |
| Quadrupedal limbs | Improved stability and running speed |
| Patagia/wings | Gliding capability, no fall damage |
| Wall climbing | Spider-like adhesion to vertical surfaces |
| Prehensile tail | Improved balance and an additional grappling limb |
The change cannot be reverted, they revert naturally at sunrise or can be cut off and the damage healed to return to normal. A new change cannot be chosen while another is in effect.
2: Predatory Form
By consuming a primarily meat- or blood-eating animal to death you become able to take its form subsequent nights. You can remember one form per 3 Mental Ability, adding a new one beyond these requires discarding one of the old ones. The transformation is a violent process of cracking bones and cramp-like movements that folds you down until you reach the form, it is painful but not excessively and not harmful. While in the form you receive the Predatory Aspect bonuses for all applicable aspects of that animal, and flight is fully functional rather than merely gliding.
2: Horrid Aspect
You allow even more of the beast to slip through your form, be it animal or human, corrupting it with a horrifying supernatural aspect. Horrid Aspect can be active alongside Predatory Aspect, provided they do not affect the same body part.
| Source | Effect |
|---|---|
| Claws, teeth, or bone spurs | +5 weapon bonus |
| Vitae poison (black) | Aggravated damage |
| Vitae poison (red) | Forces vitae imbibition (blood bond) |
| Extra limbs | Additional limbs for weapons or grappling |
| Elongated arms or fingers | Extended melee reach |
| Unhinged jaw | Widened, ferocious bite |
| Tentacles | Grappling and entangling limbs |
| Chitinous armor | +6 HP |
| Thick slime | +4 HP, significantly harder to grip or stake |
| Wings | Flight |
| Void eyes | Enhanced sight, eye contact impossible |
Vitae poison only remains active for around a minute after leaving contact with the one producing it.
3: Primal Miasma
You release the trappings of your mundane form and evaporate into a cloud of hungry mist. You can perceive everything inside your smoke and are immune to all damage except fire and sunlight. You can remain in this form through day-sleep. You can drink blood open to the air (open wounds/containers) which seems to evaporate and disappear into thin air, but you cannot cause any damage.
3: Horrid Form
You allow the beast to fully shape you, taking on a monstrous form unique to you. This form allows you to add your blood potency in additional Predatory or Horrid Aspects on top of the base one already granted (aka. 2 + BP total).
Players are encouraged to write down a description of their chosen combination and its resulting appearance (and should feel free to throw in any number of additional visual aspects). Remember that the form is an amalgam of predation and horror, only the most selective or deranged viewer can see any beauty in it.