Table of Contents

This Discipline is an exclusive development of the Samedi bloodline, and it is tied intrinsically to the Stiffs’ identity and history. Although Thanatosis appears to deal closely with death and the energies of decay, no Giovanni have ever claimed mastery of this power. Outsiders assume the Giovanni must be interested in learning this Discipline. However, the Giovanni view the Samedi with distrust and loathing, while the Samedi take on the Giovanni is usually expressed by muttering a curse on the Clan and spitting blood. Thus, the possibility of an exchange of information approaches nil.

Due to their perpetual rotting, the Samedi’s intrinsic connection to death is greater than even the Clan of Death. Through this particular attunement, they’re able to instinctively sense the presence of death in an area. An Elysium with heavy traffic, the weight of the veil between worlds, and the echoes of a Necromancer’s ritual are revealed to them as instinctually as sight or scent. With the expenditure of a blood point, the Samedi will automatically learn the local Shroud rating, and can determine if death has touched the area, person, or object. On its own, the information is vague at best, and doesn’t differentiate between the origin of the impression; the site of a mass grave might be indistinct from an Anarch gang’s watering hole, or a knife used in a murder reading the exact same as a wraith’s fetter. At the Storyteller’s discretion, a Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty 7) may be made to get more detailed information, such as the age of the deathly aura, precise location, and what might have left it behind.

The presentation of this information varies from Stiff to Stiff. Some report it as a heavy mist that roils exclusively before their sight, clinging incessantly to the most death-saturated objects. Others claim it’s a rotten scent or mournful wailing, increasing in potency and shifting in notes as they discern the origin and source.

Samedi who diligently attune themselves to saturations of entropy eventually discover their ability to benefit from it. A little focus is all that’s required to become as deft with a knife as the murderer who wielded it, or as elegant with words as the Cainites that stalk the porcelain halls of Elysium. Some enterprising Stiffs have taken to committing gruesome deeds themselves, determined to claw whatever blessings they can from death’s cold grip. After identifying the saturation and source of the energy with Second Sight, the player can spend a point of Willpower, and roll Wits + Awareness (difficulty the local Shroud rating); each success offers an additional die to a particular Ability for the rest of the scene.

The specifics of the bonus are up to the Storyteller, but they should be related to the Samedi’s focus in some way. A Wraith’s cherished locket might grant a bonus to Empathy, while a Ventrue’s boardroom could offer improvement to their Subterfuge. Repeated use of this power on the same source will always grant a bonus to that Ability.

The Samedi are no strangers to decomposition and the grisly reality perpetual rot comes with. Experienced Stiffs are able to use this aspect of their unlives to their advantage, sloughing off their fingers, a hand, or even their head, to operate independently of their putrescent bodies. The player spends a point of blood and makes a Stamina + Occult (difficulty 5 for the size of a finger, 6 for a hand or foot, 7 for a full limb, and 9 for their head) roll to detach the desired body part; each success indicates how long the limb remains usable for (see the table below).

Success	Result
Botch	The body part detaches and immediately crumbles to ash, leaving them without it for a number of nights equal to botch severity.
Failure	The body part doesn’t detach, and spent blood is wasted.
1 success	One turn
2 successes	One hour
3 successes	One night
4 successes	Three nights
5 successes	One week

Sloughed parts take with them a number of health levels equal to the amount lost. An eye, finger, hand, or foot take one, while an arm or leg would take two, and an entire head would take three. These health levels are removed from the topmost boxes of the Samedi’s health track while this power is active, which may levy wound penalties depending on the limb severed. Health is tracked for the part and the Samedi independently, and the part is capable of soaking damage normally. Should the part be destroyed while detached, the Samedi regains the health levels, but immediately fills the boxes with aggravated damage. If their head is destroyed, damage is dealt, and their body falls torpid until their head regenerates. Limbs regenerate once all damage is healed.

While the parts are physically detached, the Samedi remains mentally connected to it, maintaining full control and actively receiving sensory information. Sloughed parts function normally as they did when attached (including the use of Disciplines; a sloughed ear could still make use of Heightened Senses, or would retain the Hard of Hearing Flaw penalty), but otherwise remain limited to their normal ranges of sense and motion. Fingers can twitch, hands can crawl and feel, and heads can speak and sense, but a hand won’t be seeing anything, nor will a head move on its own accord. For small parts, the Samedi’s body won’t suffer any additional penalties, but major detachments will incur lost dice or increased difficulties at Storyteller discretion.

If a body part is collected and reattached before the power’s duration expires, it adheres to the Samedi’s body as lethal damage that can be healed normally. Should they not be able to collect it in time, the part crumbles to ash, and is treated as if it has been destroyed.

Multiple parts can be sloughed off at the same time, so as long as their body retains at least one health level. Each part requires a separate activation of this power.

At this stage of Thanatosis, the decay of the Stiff has grown so potent, even their vitae is stained by it. Their blood becomes a putrid shade of rusty brown as the scent turns from intoxicatingly sweet to gut-churning horrid, with a taste that turns all but the most iron stomachs. While this ability makes ghouls hard to keep, it’s an effective deterrent for those who’d attempt to steal it for themselves.

Additionally, the Samedi can curse others with equally as putrid vitae. As it clots and rots in their veins, mortals become sick, and Kindred find it impossible to call upon.

Upon learning this power, the Samedi’s vitae becomes so disgusting, that a Stamina roll (difficulty 8) is required to keep it down. Each success on the roll allows a single point of vitae to be consumed, with the rest vomited up. Someone attempting to diablerize the Samedi will need to succeed on this roll each turn before their Strength roll as rotten flesh sloughs off beneath their fangs and into their mouth.

To infect another, the Stiff must touch the bare skin of their target (potentially requiring another roll, at Storyteller discretion). Once contact is made, the player can spend a point of Willpower, and roll Stamina + Occult (difficulty the target’s Stamina + 3). The target has a number of blood points putrefied equal to half the number of successes rolled (rounded up). Kindred with putrefied blood points find their arteries uncomfortably blocked by the rotten clots; they’re unable to spend blood points in any capacity until the putrefied blood points are vomited up or bled out. A vampire can only rid themselves of this blood as fast as they can spend blood points per turn. Should their entire remaining blood pool be putrefied, they will need to consume a fresh point of blood before dawn, or risk falling into a torpor they will be unable to rise from without assistance.

Should a mortal have their blood putrefied, they become wracked with illness, and suffer a dice penalty to all rolls equal to the number of blood points infected. Should this number be greater than their Stamina rating, they will need to seek medical attention to fend off the illness. Otherwise, it will naturally heal at the same rate as lethal damage.

It’s believed that those who wish to raise the dead must barter with the Baron, offering something for his release of a corpse from the grave. The eldest of his childer seem to already curry enough favor to go without such frivolities, however, imbuing these still-rotting corpses with a powerful semblance of life with nothing more than their vitae. The Samedi must physically touch the corpse she wishes to raise, and rolls Manipulation + Intimidation, or Animal Ken in the case of creatures (difficulty 2 + Shroud rating). A single success is all that is required to raise a human or animal corpse with the same stat block it held in life, with the additional benefits of being a ghoul, and an Appearance rating of 0. Further successes can be spent on improving the zonbi as if it were a single dot Retainer or Critter, which could bolster its strength beyond what it possessed in life, infused by the primordial, spiritual memory of the Shadowlands. The rating achieved by the Retainer or Critter cannot push the Samedi beyond their Generation Maximum for the corresponding Background, and if it would, all additional successes are lost.

At the time of raising the zonbi, and each night thereafter, the zonbi must be fed a number of blood points equal to half their rating (rounded up) to perpetuate their undeath. Additional blood points may be spent to heal the zonbi of damage for the same costs as a vampire, although they may not possess their own blood pools. Any stored vitae merely leaks out of their rotten bodies.

Unlike the shambling hordes employed by the Giovanni, these zonbi are not mindless servitors; they possess the same intellect and memories of their previous life, and as such, may not appreciate having been turned into a rotting servant. They are immune to the Blood Bond, but can be made more pliable with the use of Disciplines, to which they remain just as susceptible.

Zonbi who are “killed”, or who are not fed their required vitae, resume their natural state as corpses. As long as there is something to raise, the Samedi can use this power on them again, but must adhere to the new number of successes rolled. Indeed, rumors circulate of monstrous Samedi relentlessly raising their favored servants, forcing them to find alternative methods to escape an eternity of enslavement.

The Samedi has honed their decomposition to a rotten edge, enhancing their ability to slough limbs with disturbing ease. Some might even say they acquire a mind of their own. Autonomy negates the blood point cost for Slough, permanently reduces the difficulty to shed limbs by two, and grants a limited range of motion to parts that wouldn’t otherwise possess it. Heads can roll and ears can wiggle at the slow pace expected of disembodied limbs. Additionally, sloughed parts now gain their own health levels as opposed to taking those of the Samedi’s body. Should the parts be destroyed, the Samedi will still lose the limb for a time, but will not take the corresponding aggravated damage. The Samedi embody rot; their elders can also harness what comes after. With such finely tuned control over themselves, the vampire is capable of collapsing into a cremated pile of white ash and fragments of teeth and bone. While in this state, they are far more resilient, resisting even the dreaded fury of sun and fire. The transformation to ashes requires one turn and the expenditure of two blood points. While a pile of ash, the Samedi remains fully conscious and may use any Discipline powers that being a pile of dust would permit (for instance, Majesty will make the pile of dust very impressive, and no maid in her right mind would dare sweep it up). The character may move voluntarily at a speed no higher than that at which a pile of normal dust would be blown by the wind, even if he is indoors. He does not have to move in the direction of the prevailing air currents, and may “flatten” himself by spreading his ashes thinly so as to slip under doors and through cracks. Damage to a character in ash form is handled as if in Mist Form, save for that the Samedi is also completely immune to both fire and sunlight (though not Rötschreck or daysleep).

The character cannot be blown apart by high winds, and any deliberate attempt to separate the pile of ash may be resisted with a dice pool equaling the character’s combined Strength, Stamina, Potence, and Fortitude. If a Samedi is still somehow scattered while in this form, one health level and one blood point are lost for each tenth (roughly) of the character that has been dissipated. Five blood points are required to heal each health level lost in this manner. At the Storyteller’s discretion, the Samedi may be missing limbs or vital organs (though never the head or the heart) until the missing health levels are healed.

Reforming from the heap of ashes takes one turn. If the character is in a confined space (such as an urn), she explodes from it in a suitably dramatic manner as she brings herself back to full size.

Baron Samedi digs the graves for the dead, welcoming the newly deceased into the afterlife once they’ve been interred. Should he refuse to dig, the lucky (or wretched) soul won’t pass on. Legend tells of Stiffs who’ve been able to give such blessings themselves, allowing even the terminally ill or grievously wounded to cling to the land of the living, provided nobody mistakes them for the truly deceased. The Samedi must firmly grasp the recipient’s skull, after which the player crosses off a dot of Willpower, and rolls Manipulation + Survival (difficulty 7, increased to 8 if the target is not a normal mortal). The duration of the blessing is determined by the number of successes rolled, according to the table below.

Success	Result
1 success	One hour
2 successes	One night
3 successes	One week
4 successes	One month
5+ successes	One year

For the duration of the blessing, the recipient can’t be killed. As long as their body remains mostly intact, their health cannot fall below Incapacitated. Although the blessing doesn’t allow them to regenerate their damage in any way, humans can be kept stable through otherwise lethal injury and illness, biding time for mortal—or immortal—medicine. The rare Kindred blessed with this power can even be caught out at dawn, and while rendered little more than a smoldering husk, will not crumble to ash. The only way to truly kill someone blessed in such a manner would be to completely obliterate their body—or to bury their incapacitated corpse in the Baron’s reluctant stead.

If the blessing expires naturally, the Willpower dot is regained without consequence. Should the recipient die while blessed, however, the dot of Willpower is permanently lost as the Samedi feels their soul wrenched beyond the Shroud.

The Samedi is incapable of using this blessing on themselves; some Stiffs claim the Baron himself comes to dig the graves of those who try.