Deterioration
Deterioration -- Vampiric Starvation
The hunger for blood is more than a fiendish desire among vampires, it is a necessity of unlife. Without access to blood, a vampire cannot animate his unliving form, and he deteriorates physically as the Beast screams for sustenance within. Deterioration occurs when a vampire is staked -- still spending blood to awaken every night but being unable to feed -- but it can happen whenever a vampire is cut off from a food supply. Long journeys without access to hunting stock are not to be undertaken lightly.
While a vampire retains blood in her system, her body remains unchanged. However, once her blood pool is exhausted, the body deteriorates as it consumes what little blood is left. Capillaries drain dry, and moisture is the body vanishes. This first stage of deterioration brings great discomfort to the vampire whose body slowly consumes itself. With each night of this cannibalistic utilization, the vampire's mien degenerates. At first, it appears dry and desiccated, and it grows increasingly emaciated as organs and muscles wither.
The pain of this process increases steadily (which the vampire must suffer in silence if staked). Every night the character cannot burn blood to rise, she suffers one level of lethal (and unsoakable) damage and loses a dot of Appearance, until she reaches Incapacitated. By this point, the vampire resembles little more than a desiccated corpse and is in constant, excruciating agony. If she is further denied blood, she slips into torpor. Once in torpor, the character is freed from the pain of deterioration but is also much harder to return to health. Until her body is healed to the Injured level, she remains insensate and, upon awakening, she immediately succumbs to the Beast and frenzies, attacking and drinking from the nearest source.
If the vampire gains access to blood, she can heal these levels of damage as usual, and her Appearance returns with them. Some sadistic vampires feed their staked victims just enough blood to prevent them from entering torpor. This keeps the vampire conscious and fully cognizant of the pain wracking her body. By this method, the staked vampire can be kept alive for weeks, months or even years, he torture prolonged indefinitely. Those few vampires who survive this process often suffer permanent mental damage, such as catatonia or hysteria.
An unstaked vampire denied a source of new blood (for example, trapped in a crumbling building or in a collapsing mine) also suffer the effects of deterioration. Vampires in this position will seek out any source of new blood, and they are likely to frenzy.
