The bloodline known in modern nights simply as the Salubri is actually descendant of one half of the ancient Clan. In bygone nights, one might have spoken of “healer” and “warrior” Salubri. In the modern nights, the last vestiges of the warrior Salubri are the antitribu of the Clan, and practice their Discipline of Valeren (see p. 474). The rest of the bloodline know the Discipline of Obeah. This Discipline allows the Salubri to judge and even improve a subject’s health. As the vampire grows more powerful, Obeah lets her heal a target’s soul directly. It is this power that forms the basis of the “soulsucker” charge that dogs the bloodline these nights.
This Discipline gives its practitioners a third eye in the center of the vampire’s forehead when the Kindred masters the second level of Obeah. This can either start as a bloody wound and improve as their rating of Obeah grows, or form as a completely functional eye.
Multiple Powers
For levels with multiple powers, the Salubri should select one upon learning that level of Obeah. They can learn any additional powers later on by buying that same dot over again.
• Sense Vitality
With a touch, the Salubri can instantaneously read a target’s injuries. She may learn how much damage a target has incurred, and therefore make a guess at what must be done to save him. This power can also be used for diagnostic purposes — useful for a victim who can no longer speak.
System
The Salubri must touch the target to see how close to death she is. He must then make a Perception + Empathy roll (difficulty 7). One success on this roll identifies a subject as a mortal, vampire, ghoul, or other creature. Two successes reveal how many health levels of damage the subject has suffered. Three successes tell how full the subject’s blood pool is (if a vampire) or how many blood points she has left in her system (if a mortal or other blood-bearing form of life). Four successes reveal any diseases in the subject’s bloodstream.
A player may opt to learn the information yielded by a lesser degree of success — for example, a player who accumulates three successes may learn whether or not a subject is a vampire as well as the contents of his blood pool.
Alternately, each success on this roll allows the player to ask the Storyteller one question about the subject’s health or health levels. “Was he drugged?” or “Are his wounds aggravated?” are valid questions, but “Did the Sabbat do this?” or “What did the Lupine who attacked him look like?” are not. The Salubri may use this power on herself if she has injuries but has somehow lost the memory of how the wounds were received.
Additionally, at the cost of one blood point, the Salubri may use Empathy for a roll instead of Medicine.
•• Anesthetic Touch
The vampire can ease a target’s pain or place him into a deep, soothing sleep with nothing but a touch. This power is intended to heal the pain or succor the mind of willing targets, but the character can, with some effort, employ the power against someone who does not wish it.
System
If the subject is willing to undergo this process, the player spends a blood point and makes a Willpower roll (difficulty 6) to block the subject’s pain. This allows the subject to ignore all wound penalties for one turn per success. A second application of this power may be made once the first one has expired, at the cost of another blood point and another Willpower roll. If the subject is unwilling for some reason, the player must make a contested Willpower roll against the subject (difficulty 8). To put a mortal to sleep, the same system applies. The mortal sleeps for five to 10 hours — whatever his normal sleep cycle is — and regains one temporary Willpower point upon awakening. He sleeps peacefully and does not suffer nightmares or the effects of any derangements while asleep. He may be awakened normally (or violently). Kindred, including the Salubri herself, are unaffected by this power — their corpselike bodies are too tied to death.
•• Auguring the Sickness
This power allows the Salubri to go beyond Obeah or Valeren’s ability to determine wounds and reveal the fine damage caused by illness and disease. While best used by a medically-trained Salubri, even novices find the power useful.
System
The Salubri holds his hands above the patient, and the third eye gently teases out a vision of the afflicted tissues made of pure light (neonate Salubri delightfully describe them as holograms). The player rolls Perception + Medicine (difficulty 7). Each success reveals one fact about the illness, including likely developments and symptoms and potential avenues of treatment. Additionally, once augured, the vampire may use Corpore Sano to cure the disease outright, at a difficulty determined by the commonality and virulence of the disease (difficulty 5 for the common cold, difficulty 7 for most forms of herpes or chicken pox, or difficulty 9 for Ebola or HIV).
••• Corpore Sano
The Salubri can heal wounds with a laying-on of hands. The subject feels a warm, tingling sensation over the affected areas as pain leaves the body and flesh knits. The vampire’s third eye opens during this process.
System
This power works on any living or undead creature, but the character must touch the actual injury (or the closest part of the victim’s body, in the case of internal injuries). Each health level to be healed requires the expenditure of one blood point and one turn of contact. Aggravated wounds may also be healed in this manner, but the vampire must spend two blood points instead of one for each aggravated health level.
•••• Shepherd’s Watch
The Salubri with this level of mastery of Obeah can create an invisible barrier between those under his care and those who would do them harm. The Salubri himself must stand among his charges as he generates this barrier; he cannot defend them from afar. Enemies armed with guns or other ranged weapons can still attack, but none may approach closer than a few paces.
System
The player spends two Willpower points. Erecting this barrier is a standard action, but maintaining it from turn to turn or dropping it is a reflexive action. The invisible barrier extends to about a 3-yard/meter radius from the character, and no one outside that barrier may cross it while she maintains the power. Those within it at its creation may leave and return, however. The barrier moves with the Salubri. It cannot be maintained at a distance.
Those who wish to cross the barrier from the outside, whether friendly or hostile, must best the character in an extended, resisted Willpower roll (difficulty equals the opponent’s current Willpower for the Salubri, and the Salubri’s current Willpower for the opponent).
The opponent may cross the barrier as soon as he accumulates three more net successes than the Salubri.
•••• Ending the Watch
Ancient tales record Enochian Salubri walking the night streets, freeing those mortals ravaged by vampiric excess from pain. The death watch were respected for their knowledge and power, garnered by preserving elements of a dying mortal’s soul within their own.
Ending the Watch can be used only on a dying mortal or one who truly, without coercion, wishes for death. Generally, the mortally wounded or the elderly are targets of this power, but torture victims or those suffering deeply from depression are equally viable. Even in these nights, the Tremere continue to speak of this power with dread, calling the Salubri soulsuckers to all who will listen.
System
The Salubri spends a Willpower point and lays a hand over a valid target’s heart, peacefully and painlessly killing them. The player then rolls the character’s Perception + Empathy (difficulty 7); upon a success, the target’s soul is absorbed, remaining within the Salubri and visible via Auspex as a bright white vein in the aura. With the soul’s vitality residing inside the Salubri, she knows much of what the dying mortal did — interesting secrets, passwords, or personal minutiae. She may recall specific facts of the target’s memory (“What is the bank password?”), requiring an Intelligence + Empathy roll (difficulty 5) for each significant fact. She may also consume the soul; for each success on the original roll, she may heal herself of one level of lethal or bashing damage. A botch on either roll inflicts a level of aggravated damage as the soul bursts free of the Salubri’s. The Salubri may hold a number of souls within her equal to her Generation Background.
••••• Mens Sana
With this power, the Salubri can heal madness, quieting inner demons and bringing a soul to peace. Indeed, ancient stories of the Salubri state that Saulot used this power to bring sweet, if temporary, relief to his “brother” Malkav. Other, more recent stories claim that Saulot caused Malkav’s madness in the first place.
System
The player spends two blood points and rolls Intelligence + Empathy (difficulty 8). The use of Mens Sana takes at least 10 minutes of relatively uninterrupted conversation. Success cures the subject of one derangement of the Salubri player’s choice. This power cannot cure a Malkavian of his core derangement, though it alleviates its effects for the rest of the scene. A botch inflicts the same derangement on the salubri for the rest of the scene. This power may not be used by the Salubri to cure her own derangements.
••••• • Father's Judgement
The Blood is Caine’s gift. The Salubri pronounce judgment on those who misuse it. His third eye glowing as silver as Raphael’s soft halo, the Unicorns renders a portion of the target’s vitae inert, blocking them from powering their Disciplines or healing their undead frame by sheer effort of will. The target feels their blood seize within them, clotting into dead dark chunks. Even powerful elders fear repeated use of this power.
System
The Healer spends a Willpower point and rolls Manipulation + Medicine or Empathy (difficulty 7) against a target of a Cainite within line of sight, contested by the victim’s Willpower roll (difficulty 9). For each success on the roll, a blood point in the target’s pool is rendered unusable for any purpose – healing, Disciplines, ghouling, or anything else. The target may spend one point of Willpower per blood point to unclot their vitae, but otherwise may not spend or discharge the dead bloodin any way.
••••• • Unburdening the Bestial Soul
This power is the leverage that the Tremere have used for years to tarnish the Salubri’s name. The Warlocks claim that the Salubri use this power to remove the souls of their victims, alter them in horrible ways, or simply consume them and then make mindless slaves from the blasted husks. The truth is that the Cyclops use this power to rebuild a target’s tattered soul, at the expense of their own mental fortitude.
The Salubri draws the subject’s soul out of his body, and into the vampire’s third eye. There, the vampire repairs the soul. During this time, the target’s body is vacant, but alive. It obeys the Salubri’s commands (and the vampire must command it to eat and drink, or else it will starve — repairing the soul is not a quick undertaking).
By a similar process, the character can cleanse a person, place, or object of demonic or evil influence. This isn’t a simple banishment, however. It is a battle, pitting the Salubri’s moral and spiritual purity against whatever malign entity is present. If the Salubri loses the contest, she might lose her own soul in the process.
System
This power may be used to draw out the soul of any character except those with Humanity or Path ratings of 1 or 0 or those who follow particularly inhuman Paths of Enlightenment – some souls are beyond redemption. The player rolls Stamina + Empathy (difficulty of 12 minus the subject’s Humanity or Path rating). A botch gives the Salubri the subject’s derangement for the remainder of the scene. The Salubri must make eye contact with the subject and the subject must be willing to be subjected to this power.
A soul drawn out in this manner becomes part of the Salubri’s soul while the healing process takes place. She may return it to its proper body at any time. While the soul is within the Salubri, she may spend a permanent Willpower point to restore a point to the subject’s Humanity or Path rating. The Salubri may restore a maximum number of points equal to her Empathy rating, and may not raise the subject’s Humanity or Path higher than the sum of his relevant Virtues (for example, a character subscribing to Humanity with Conscience 3 and Self-Control 3 could not have his Humanity raised above 6 in this manner).
While a soul is being held by the Salubri, its body is an empty husk, comatose or in torpor, with no motivating force within it. A soul whose body is killed immediately vanishes, its disposition unknown to any (although the Salubri strongly suspect that souls that vanish in this manner are completely and irreversibly destroyed). Killing the body of a drawn-out soul may warrant a Conscience or Conviction roll if the killer knows of the soul’s absence, at the Storyteller’s discretion.
If used to draw out a demon, the player spends a Willpower point if the subject is willing and the corrupting agent does not resist (a rare occurrence). If the subject is possessed by a conscious entity, the demon (or other foreign consciousness) fights the Salubri for dominance. This takes place via an extended, contested roll of the Salubri’s Humanity or Path versus the opponent’s Willpower (each party’s difficulty is equal to the other’s current Willpower). The winner is the first one to achieve three net successes more than the other. If the player fails, the attempt at purification also fails. If the player botches, the demon takes over the Salubri’s body. This purification cannot be used on oneself and has no effect on the Beast or an alternate personality.
Once the initial removal has been successfully performed, the player spends a second Willpower point. The Salubri thrusts the demon into a nearby item, animal, or person, trapping the demon in the selected vessel. This must be accomplished within two turns of the Purification and the target must be within physical reach. If this cannot be accomplished, the demon is likely to go free… or find another suitable vessel (such as the Salubri). If the vampire places the demon in a being who is likely to suffer from its presence, the player must make an immediate Conscience or Conviction roll (difficulty 8) if the Storyteller believes that the character’s morality would object. A botch, in addition to the normal consequences, releases the demon into the world.
••••• •• Blissful Gaze
The mere presence of a Salubri Healer heralds victory. To those within her gaze, wounds knit themselves together, and even a steel kiss tastes sweet.
System
This power enhances Gift of Sleep and Healer’s Touch. The third eye’s light spears out, lancing through the target, and both powers no longer require touch to be used, merely a line of sight. In addition, Gift of Sleep can be used to reverse wound penalties for its duration, instead providing bonus dice as the target is flooded with ecstasy and anticipation of the Salubri’s touch.
••••• •• Renewed Vigor
At this level of power, the Salubri no longer has to repair a target’s body wound by wound. With a touch and a moment’s concentration, she can restore the body to full health.
System
The Salubri touches the target and spends a full turn concentrating. The player spends a point of Willpower. At the end of the turn, the target is healed of all damage, including aggravated damage. If the character attempts any other action but the laying of hands during this turn, the Willpower point is lost and no healing occurs. The Salubri can use this power on herself.