Cleave the Demon
Description
The vampire learns how to separate her dual souls, thus clearly demarcating the Hun from the P'o. By doing so, she allows one soul to animate and control her body, while the other hovers nearby. Both souls can act in tandem, allowing the vampire to exercise a variety of useful options. However, the P'o remains its malevolent self and does everything it its power to cause harm and despair.
System
To Cleave the Demon, the vampire must spend a Chi point and two turns in concentration, then roll Willpower ( difficulty 8 ). Success enables the separation to begin. The player must then roll a contest of Hun (difficulty 6) versus P’o (difficulty 6). For each success scored on the Willpower roll, the player may add one die to either the Hun or the P’o Dice Pool.
If the Hun wins or ties, the dual souls separate and the Hun Archetype is in control of the body. If the P’o wins, the souls separate, but the P’o Archetype is in control of the body.
In any event, the remaining soul is pushed out of the Cathayan’s body and hovers nearby in the Mirror Lands. A displaced soul may travel up to 500 feet from its body. While separated, the soul is treated as either a Yin- or Yang-spirit, depending on which type of Chi was used to power the Discipline. If attacked by a spirit entity, the separated soul has Chi and Willpower scores equal to the character’s own. If the soul is Hun, it may use its Hun score as Gnosis; if the soul is P’o, it may use its P’o score as Rage. If reduced to zero Chi, the soul temporarily returns to the Yomi World and the vampire immediately enters torpor.
If threatened, the displaced soul may take refuge in the Cathayan’s body. This maneuver protests it from spirit attacks, but the displaced soul may be pushed out at any time by the dominant soul. Naturally, this situation can be dangerous if the P’o is in control of the body, and can lead to some rather interesting internal negotiations….
While the souls are separated, the vampire may effectively act with both the body and the displaced soul. Each half of the soul can take actions during the turn. So, for example, a vampire who split her P’o from her body could use the Hun-dominated body to perform physical actions or employ Soul Disciplines, while simulatneously sending the P’o to attack spirits (with its Rage) or to scout ahead for trouble.
The two souls retain a telepathic link, and each soul is aware of the other at all times. Both souls have access to the vampire’s basic Chi powers (Lifesight, Ghostsight) and Willpower, though only one soul can use them per turn. The soul in the spirit worlds may automatically see its surroundings, so Cleave the Demon is a good (if dangerous) way to view the nearby spirit world and the begins therein. A soul may be commanded simply to whirl around the body, in a sort of “holding pattern”; while this activity takes place, difficulties of all rolls to sneak up or surprise the vampire increase by two.
The power’s effects last for a single scene.
