Level 3:
Profane hieros gamos
To the Alchemist, rebirth and renewal are not locked behind the ritual of sacred union between two opposites. Through the power of their mercurial vitae the Alchemist
can help shape a human body to match the mental self-image or desired shape held by the consciousness within it.
With the help of rare reagents, the Alchemist can even defy one of the fundamental curses of the vampiric condition by altering the unchanging state to which the undead revert to in their daysleep. This specific formula can be imbibed by mortals or vampires other than the Alchemist, after their ritual purification and deep meditation on their own idealized, or desired, form.
This knowledge makes the expertise of the Alchemist a valuable and desired commodity even to those Kindred who loathe their very existence. Duskborn openly offering services like these are more likely to be coerced to work or kidnapped than paid handsomely.
■ Ingredients: The alchemist’s Blood, melancholic and phlegmatic human blood, entheogenic substances
■ Activation Cost: One Rouse Check or One point of Aggravated Health damage for mortals
■ Dice Pools: Stamina + Resolve
■ System: Whoever imbibes the formula mixed with a Rouse Check worth of their own blood instantly falls into a catatonic fever dream until the following night, the depths of their psyche plumbed for their personal idealized form, or a form strongly desired. The effects of Profane Hieros Gamos are limited to the external morphology of the human form, the body refusing transformations too outlandish and fantastical to be without the wondrous spectrum of human anatomy.
The imbiber makes a Stamina + Resolve roll against a difficulty of 8 minus the successes on the distillation roll. If the imbiber is a vampire, they add their Bane Severity to the difficulty of the check.
On a win, the transformation process is successful and their physical body molds to
the desired shape. A critical win can grant and remove Merits and Flaws of the Looks category, though like all Advantages they need to be paid for with Experience points (p. 180). A messy critical or a bestial failure might cause a new Flaw to manifest, ranging from Repulsive, Obvious Predator, Stigmata or even Organovore as the Beast interferes with the transformation.
Not even the blood of the Duskborn can spare the Nosferatu from their Bane, the process incorporating the clan's hideous affliction despite the user's mental image..
■ Duration: Permanent until performed again.