A Stake Through the Heart
Discussion: As any knowledgeable occultist can tell you, staking a vampire doesn't actually kill the vampire, rather it completely immobilizes the undead parasite. While staked, the vampire is completely paralyzed, it is incapable of using its stolen life-force or to use its mystical abilities; in short, its completely helpless. The undead fear this state almost as much as they do final death and while staked, they are completely aware of their surroundings. This complete helplessness is the ultimate degradation for the undead and when finally freed from it, they commonly retreat into a bestial state of consciousness. Staked vampires continue to use up their stolen life-force without being able to replenish it and once all the blood is gone, these animate corpses begin to decay. The process of decay usually takes a week or so, at the end of which, the vampire has become a dessicated husk. All during the process of decay, the vampire is aware and starving for blood, the pain of hunger is a foretaste of hell that comes after final death. After a week of starvation and decay, the undead enters a permanent state of hibernation, but they may be revived with blood to walk the earth once more, such is the power of the damned.
System: To stake a vampire, the attacker must score a total of five or more successes on an attack roll (difficulty 9) above and beyond the victim's dodge. Once the victim is hit, the attacker must score three or more damage on the victim, above and beyond their soak roll. If these criteria are met, the vampire is staked.
The staked vampire cannot spend blood for any purpose, but loses one blood point per day until its blood pool is empty. After the staked vampire runs out of blood, he begins a process called 'deterioration'. While staked, the vampire cannot use any discipline that requires activation and is utterly vulnerable.
Should the staked vampire be freed before 'deterioration' begins, then that individual must roll Courage versus a variable difficulty or frenzy uncontrollably. The standard difficulty is five (5), but depending on the length of paralysis while staked, the victim may have to roll at a higher difficulty at the storyteller's discretion.
