The world burgeons with energy, a ripe crop for the False to harvest. Power’s everywhere, if one only bothers to look — in the breath of an innocent, in the blood that spatters onto dark soil, in the thrumming invisible chords that run through the sky and the earth. Reality is layer upon layer of interactions between forces that even the Sworn scarcely understand a fraction of, but the False know that it’s so easy to just reach out and take.
This acquisition is neither gentle nor kind. The harvester cuts his crop with a scythe, after all. Understanding how the Contagion flenses away reality’s flesh gives the False insight to do the same, reaping the energies that are unlocked rather than corrupting them. It is still a destructive process. Tearing power out of the world leaves it lessened, although few False care about such consequences.
A vampire sucks in the breath from the crowd around him, drinking down life energy as hearts flutter and skip. A mage scours verdant fields for mana, the plants wilting, insects going belly up, and earth turning to dust. A changeling pulls on unseen threads until they snap, leaving the air still and dead.
System: The False drains the scene of power, gluttonously tearing energy out of her immediate surroundings and leaving them lifeless and dead. Any living thing present in the scene that does not possess any dots in the vector suffers two points of bashing damage, while objects lose a single point of Structure without regard for Durability. Characters whose Composure is less than the successes on the activation roll also lose two points from whatever pool of supernatural energy they use, or one point of Willpower if they possess no such pool; if a mortal human, the victim also gains the persistent Madness Condition as their psyche is scoured.
The effects of Drain Energy scar the location permanently. After the scene ends, the location is permanently affected by the Drained Environmental Tilt (see p. 284).
Cost: 1 Willpower
Requirement: This vector can only be used as long as no character has yet performed Drain Energy on the location. Once used, there is no longer enough power lingering for further performances of the vector to harvest for the next year.
Dice Pool: Presence + Intimidation Action: Instant
Duration: Instant
Edges
Beasts: A Beast gains three dice to imposing their Lair traits on the world.
Changelings: A changeling using Drain Energy refills her Glamour pool fully.
Demons: A demon using Drain Energy refills her Aether pool fully.
Deviants: A Deviant using Drain Energy heals all minor and medium Instabilities.
Hunters: A hunter using Drain Energy regains all expended Willpower and gains the Inspired and Steadfast Conditions.
Mages: A mage using Drain Energy refills her Mana pool fully.
Mummies: An Arisen using Drain Energy refills all Pillar pools fully.
Prometheans: A Promethean using Drain Energy refills her Pyros pool fully.
Sin-Eaters: A Sin-Eater using Drain Energy refills her Plasm pool fully.
Werewolves: A werewolf using Drain Energy refills her Essence pool fully.
Vampires: A vampire using Drain Energy refills her Vitae pool fully.
Specializations:
The Crucible Initiative: Better to cauterize the wound than let the Contagion take root. Whenever a creature tainted by Contagion enters the Drained Environmental Tilt created by a Fire-Bearer, the scene is also subject to either the Extreme Heat or Cold Environmental Tilt, or applies the Poisoned Tilt to everyone present.
The Machiavelli Gambit: Winning the game isn’t just about pulling oneself up, it’s about tearing competitors down too. When a member of the Gambit uses Drain Energy, every character in the scene with a supernatural energy pool loses two points from it, or four if the False rolls more successes than their Composure. Only members of the False’s faction are unaffected by this.
Naglfar’s Army: Breaking the world doesn’t matter as long as you’re the one still standing when the dust settles. When an Antediluvian uses Drain Energy, she also heals bashing or lethal damage up to the number of successes she rolled on the activation pool.