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Final-Death-in-Fire

Art by Raquel Cornejo

Final Death is a term used by vampires to refer to permanent death, as opposed to torpor or their first death as part of the Embrace.

Overview[]

Bullets merely bruise Kindred; swords crease their flesh. Even should they contract a disease from infected human blood, they pass it on to the kine they feed upon, while the germs die in their own system. However, a few means yet remain that inflict genuine harm upon a vampire. By nature, vampires are incredibly resilient and tend to recover from wounds that would kill a mortal several times over. However, there is a limit to the punishment that their bodies can take, and specific forms of damage, such as from fire or sunlight, can lead to true destruction. Final Death is not to be confused with diablerie, which not only inflicts Final Death on the vampire's body, but devours the soul and perhaps everything that made the victim who they were.

Decapitation[]

Successfully decapitating a vampire destroys them instantly. Beheading a vampire in close combat requires a called shot with a -2 penalty using an edged beheading weapon (axe, scimitar, broadsword, etc.) that causes 10 or more Health damage of either type (before halving, in the case of Superficial damage).

Extreme Cold[]

Though vampires cannot die from cold, they can suffer the effects of frostbite and even become entirely frozen in severe temperatures. Cold presents a special danger to vampires because they have no bodily warmth—save for a few minutes immediately following a feeding—and thus cannot easily detect dangerous drops in temperature.

After an hour of extreme cold (-20°C or below), vampires must roll Stamina + Resolve (Difficulty 2) to keep moving. They test again each hour, increasing the Difficulty by 1 for each roll. On a failure, they stop moving and can only exercise mental Disciplines. An hour after that, their flesh freezes solid, and they enter torpor.

Water conducts heat more efficiently than air, so vampires in icy water must test every half-hour. A frozen vampire sinks, as they have no air in their lungs to provide buoyancy.

Fire[]

Unless used as a weapon (such as in the case of a burning torch, incendiary rounds, or a flamethrower), fire deals Aggravated Health damage to a vampire based on the amount of their body exposed. Having one's hand shoved into an open flame might deal one point of damage, while being engulfed in a roaring inferno would deal three or more per turn. Although vampires burn no faster than mortals, fire remains a very real and omnipresent threat to the undead.

Stakes[]

To stake a vampire through the heart, a hunter needs to either hammer the stake into the vampire while they lie sleeping or strike them through the heart during combat. For a combat staking, the hunter must make a called shot at a -2 penalty and inflict 5 points or more of damage of either type (before halving). This damage can stem from a ranged weapons test using a grenade launcher or a crossbow firing sharpened wooden bolts (or some similar stake-firing weapon), or it can stem from close combat with a Strength + Melee attack, using the stake as a weapon. A stake always has a damage modifier of +0, regardless of how it is applied.

Being staked through the heart with a wooden stake paralyzes a vampire, though it initially remains conscious. By spending a point of Willpower, the vampire can perform minute movements, such as twitching a finger or opening their eyes, but that is the extent of their mobility. The vampire can still use mental Disciplines, such as Auspex, Presence, and Dominate, but they cannot issue commands unless they can communicate telepathically.

While staked, a vampire still rolls a Rouse Check every sunset to awaken. Sooner or later, their waking Hunger drives them into torpor.

Sunlight[]

Sunlight burns the undead, incinerating their unholy Blood and flesh under the eye of heaven. A vampire exposed to direct sunlight suffers Aggravated Health damage at the rate of their Bane Severity in points per turn.

Obscured sunlight—such as through curtains, on a heavily overcast day, or with protective clothing (heavy coat, gloves, mask, wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses, and boots)—reduces the rate of damage to every other turn or less.

Thin-bloods take only one point of Superficial damage per turn in direct sunlight. They can wear high-SPF sunscreen and swaddle themselves in less clothing (floppy hat, long sleeves) than full Kindred must in order to reduce their rate of damage to every other turn.

Torpor[]

See Torpor

Kindred dwell in a state halfway between life and death. Between vampiric unlife and Final Death lies an undead hibernation known as torpor. While in torpor, the vampire lies completely dead to their surroundings, reduced to the appearance of a shriveled corpse. They cannot use any Disciplines or react in any way to ordinary stimuli.

Other Dangers[]

Though no longer mortal, vampires still face the possibility of Final Death. A vampire who dies once again may not be brought back to unlife and is said to have suffered the Final Death.

In addition to fire, sunlight, and decapitation, acid that completely dissolves a vampire's body kills them, as does explosive overpressure that dismembers it (though equally fatal fire accompanies most explosions) or deep-sea pressure that pulps it. Many also know of certain vampiric diseases that bring Final Death from within.

Many vampires suffer Final Death in combat with werewolves, their own kind, or increasingly against human inquisitors. Even vampire flesh cannot withstand endless traumatic force; enough bullets can drive them into torpor. Once in torpor, the vampire becomes a helpless target for their foes.

The Society of St. Leopold prescribes burning to ashes for torpid vampires. Other Final Deaths revert the vampire to a dead body of the same age. A vampire less than a year old becomes a rotting corpse; older vampires become skeletons or even dust.

Mechanically, when a vampire's entire Health tracker is filled with Aggravated damage, the vampire enters torpor. Any additional Aggravated damage from fire or sunlight sustained in this state causes Final Death, as does decapitation or total destruction of their body.

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