••••• • Blood Sweat

Although vampires do not have functioning sebaceous glands, they are still capable of sweating at times of extreme stress. This “sweat” is actually a thin sheen of blood on the Cainite’s forehead and palms. Most Kindred see blood sweat as an admission of fear or guilt. The vampire who has mastered Blood Sweat is capable of inducing these feelings in a subject to a preternatural degree. The victim experiences a torrential outpouring of vitae if he harbors the tiniest shred of remorse for any action he has ever undertaken.

System

The character must be within line of sight of the subject and spend three turns concentrating. The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Manipulation + Intimidation (difficulty equal to the target’s current Willpower points). The target loses one blood point per success. Mortals sustain injury as if they had lost blood from being fed upon. The target actually “sweats out” the lost blood in a sudden rush of sanguinary perspiration that soaks his clothes. Large amounts may even form puddles at his feet. Blood lost through this process is considered dead, inert mortal blood, and provides minimal nutrition (half normal) for Cainites desperate enough to lick it up from the floor or wring it out of towels. It provides no sustenance for the individual from whom it emerged. In addition to the blood loss, the victim is overcome by a sense of remorse and guilt for his past transgressions (if he has a strong conscience) or an overwhelming compulsion to brag (if he is of sufficiently coarse moral character). The severity of this impulse depends on the number of successes rolled: One success could cause a slight twinge of conscience, while five successes may result in the subject breaking down and pouring out a full confession of his crimes. This effect is more story-oriented than mechanical, and the Storyteller is the final authority on what the victim feels compelled to confess or boast.

Note that this power’s existence is not widely known. Vampires and mortals alike tend to shrink away from someone who begins spontaneously sweating blood, and experiencing such an affliction may panic even the staunchest individual.