Custom Inceptor Discipline

When the Inceptor who birthed this Discipline hung on the border of life and unlife, the intangible, unknowable darkness that is the Abyss seeped through the cracks in the Schrodinger’s Box that was their existence. While the Void caller, themselves, may not recognize the source of their newfound power as the same that is drawn upon by the mystics of clan Lasombra, that lack of recognition means little to the Darkness. It is referred to by practitioners of this Discipline as the Void. Unlike Obtenebration, which Void shares similarities with, it is impossible for those who evoke Void to deny the eldritch, alien nature of whatever lies just beyond the darkness.

• Void Sight

The first thing a Void caller discovers is that they have an uncanny ability to recognize the aptitude for the Void in others. By concentrating on the resonance of the Void around them, the vampire can identify others who have been touched by it.

System: Spend one Blood Trait and make a Static Mental Challenge (retest Occult), against a difficulty of an individual's Mental Traits. If successful, you can sense whether or not that individual possesses Abyss Mysticism or the Void discipline. Beyond actual sight, this sense comes in a form unique to each Void caller, but sibilant whispers, darkening vision that leaves only the subject illuminated, and an intense attraction akin to gravity are among the most commonly reported.

•• Void Thread

The eldritch connection between a shadow and that which casts it is something that few ever truly come to understand. The Void caller can draw from their own shadow a handful of inky darkness, then infuse it with their own vitae to form a skein of shadowy thread which can be used to link two things as surely as a shadow and its origin. While only other Void callers can see this thread, it allows them to track nearly any person or object they have marked regardless of where they go.

System: Spend a Blood Trait and mix it with the essence of the Void to spin it into a skein of thin, infinite thread. You must establish physical contact with your subject (which may require a physical challenge) after which the thread is secured. Thereafter, no matter where the target goes you will be able to track them down by following the thread connecting them to you. The shadow thread persists until sunrise or until touched by sunlight, at which time the thread will burn away. While even a single thread exists connecting the Void caller to a subject, the chill of the Abyss surrounds them as per the flaw Cold Breeze.

••• Void Pocket

As the Void caller becomes more comfortable manipulating the semi-tangible matter of the Void, they learn that all shadows can serve as breaches into the Void itself. With enough practice, the Void caller can access the depths of their own shadow and hollow out an extradimensional space within to use as a vault of sorts.

System: Spend a Blood Trait in order to access your shadow (defined as any shadow cast by you or something you are carrying). You may reach into your shadow and place non-living, non-undead objects within. The area within your shadow is 100 cubic feet in size, and may hold objects stored there indefinitely. To deposit an object into your shadow, you may either physically place it inside or simply drop or otherwise toss it in. In order to retrieve such an object, you must place your hand within your shadow and call the item to your hand.

•••• The Void’s Maw

By this stage in a Void caller’s development, the Abyss has begun looking for a return on its investment. The vampire can subtly turn the interior of their mouth into a miniature portal to the Void, through which anything consumed by the Void caller is forever lost.

System: Spend a Blood Trait in order to reflexively activate the Void’s Maw. Anything you can fit into your mouth disappears, eradicating the item (or creature, or part of a creature) utterly by absorbing it into the Abyss. Your bites continue to deal aggravated damage as normal, but they also remove a single point of temporary Willpower. Traits of Willpower lost this way may not be regained in any way for the remainder of the night. The effects of the Void’s Maw last for up to a scene or hour. Though it can be ended whenever the character wishes, to reactivate it later requires another Blood Trait. While the Void’s Maw is active, the character cannot speak or otherwise use her vocal cords, mouth, tongue, or fangs.

••••• Void Run

In its ultimate attempt to lure the Void caller into the depths of the maddening, alien landscape that is the Abyss, the vampire is now capable of stepping bodily through the shadow of night itself and into the realm of the Void. The opportunities this presents to the Void caller are myriad, but they are belied by the hundred and one dangers that await the unsuspecting and unprepared.

System: Spend three Blood Traits and make a Static Mental Challenge (difficulty equal to your Willpower score), retested with Occult. If successful, you have physically crossed into the Abyss, the source of what you have referred to as the Void. While present you may travel at 1000 miles per hour, and you can peer out of the Abyss into the physical world in any environment that is in total or near- total darkness. You may step back across into the physical world at any time (if in combat, you must announce your intent to step back across and it occurs at the end of the round). Every minute you spend in the Abyss, you must succeed in a Static Mental Challenge, retested with Awareness, in order to avoid the various denizens which call the Abyss their home (see p.33 of V20: Dark Ages, Tome of Secrets). The starting difficulty is set by the Storyteller’s discretion (usually 4), and increases with each subsequent challenge. If you fail, you encounter one of these creatures (or things even more alien and unfriendly), and must do what you can to survive the encounter. If you lose all of your health levels to combat while in the Abyss, you gain a permanent derangement (Storytellers are encouraged to have this represent a new and uninvited passenger from the Abyss) and are dumped unceremoniously back into the physical world in the nearest dark place, and in torpor.