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Capacity for Chaos

  • Physiology

    The Basics: Like all Cainites, Lillian's undead metabolism relies on a steady intake of blood to continue functioning, and not all of the blood imbibed is successfully converted into usable energy. Although she can theoretically subsist on a cup of blood each night, this is hardly ideal and ignores many of her body's particular needs. Complicating the issue further are the extensive modifications she has made to herself and certain unusual characteristics (some would say afflictions) that she retains from her mortal lifespan.

    The Power of Blood: Put in the simplest possible terms, Lillian's blood can be considered a living entity using her body as a vessel. It is the conduit for her soul, and constitutes a potent substance that consumes the blood of other creatures for sustenance while potentially spreading its character to them. Her blood maintains and regenerates the physical remnants of her mortal shell and binds her spirit to the physical world. It also serves as a source of power for the legendary abilities of her kind, be they physical, mental, or supernatural in nature. By directing blood to a certain region of the body, a Cainite can enhance their inherent capabilities or regenerate injuries.

    Creatures both living and otherwise crave the power of vampiric blood, or vitae, for its inherent mystical properties. When imbibed, it can instill a small portion of its donor's power upon those that consume it, as well as a state of physical and psychological dependency in the recipient which becomes almost inescapable after the third drink. Creatures thus enthralled by a Cainite become devoted servants known as ghouls, but Cainites themselves are not immune to these effects. The blood bond, as it is known, may be forged between any two Cainites provided that one possesses more potent vitae than the other. The strength of a Cainite's blood is ultimately determined by their distance in generations from the progenitor of their bloodline (with the biblical Cain theoretically serving as the first vampire).

    While few toxins or diseases are lethal to a Cainite, some have deleterious physical or mental effects, and the blood of a vampire is just as capable of carrying these as a mortal's vital fluids. Lillian's resistances and immunities are also significantly lower than those of most of her kind, due to a series of poor decisions on her part (see below, "disease and rot").

    Vital Organs: Lillian's brain and heart remain the seats of her intelligence and soul, respectively, and injury to either is debilitating or fatal depending on the measures taken against her. For instance, a stake through the heart or a bullet through the skull will completely incapacitate her, but only total destruction of either will truly kill her. Injury to her heart in particular will force her into a vulnerable inert state until the source of the injury can be removed. The heart and brain are the only organs she absolutely cannot function without, but unlike many of her kind she can be seriously injured by other, more specific means (see below, "fertility most foul").

    Increased Durability: While Lillian's body can be damaged in the same way as a mortal's, she can remain functional regardless of the amount of punishment her muscles or skeletal structure have received, up to and including the loss of limbs. Furthermore she is fully capable of regenerating most damage she receives given time and an appropriate amount of vitae to expend on the process. Certainly she cannot die of blood loss under normal circumstances, although injuries inflicted by specific supernaturally potent sources are harder for her to regenerate (see vulnerabilities).

    The Strange and Bizarre: Lillian's sorcerous practices and extensive modification of her own body have given her capabilities unusual among even her kind. A moment's glance reveals the most superficial of these, the arachnid traits she has added to her humanoid appearance, but the often horrifying specifics only become visible upon closer examination.

    Broadened Perception: Lillian's six eyes, taken from a species of demonic spider, give her a roughly 270 degree field of vision and allow her to perceive ultraviolet light. Her visual acuity comes with a price, however: increased photo-sensitivity and warped depth perception, neither of which are improved by her lack of eyelids. Her nervous system has also been expanded both to accommodate her new visual inputs and to better distribute control over her organs across her body. The clusters of ganglia in her thorax and abdomen lighten the processing load of her brain, and even allow certain functions to continue uninterrupted if her brain is damaged (but will fail eventually in the event of total destruction). Her sense of touch and smell are also enhanced, though these are mostly concerned with picking up specific chemical signals or helping her move easily despite her bulk.

    Exoskeleton: Lillian's cells have been reinforced with chitin. While her vanity does not permit her to entirely eliminate her human facial features or torso, these portions of her body still contain large amounts of chitin to increase durability while retaining flexibility (and softness). Her limbs have been entirely encased in plating, and taper into gripping claws and clinging pads that permit her to move up sheer surfaces. Additionally her internal skeleton has been reduced in density but expanded in surface area to better support new segmented joints and a highly modified musculature that further supports her internal organs. The net result is a shape she considers both appropriately reinforced and highly attractive. Certain portions of her exoskeleton expand or retract based on which form she takes, most notably her legs and abdomen.

    As a side note, the alterations to her skeletal system extend to her jaws. Lillian's bite hurts. Her human teeth are retained for aesthetic purposes, but the molars are modified with inward facing hooks to maintain a sturdy grip on her prey. The actual work of piercing the flesh is accomplished by a second pair of retractable, hinged fangs behind her canines and a a trio of curved rasping teeth sheathed in her tongue. Her jawbones are divided into five parts resembling the mandibles and labrum of an entognathous insect, meaning they remain recessed in her skull and concealed by her apparently human features. The actual mechanics of her jaw only become apparent when she feeds, as her face elongates to attach firmly to her prey before her fangs hook behind the largest veins to direct blood flow towards surface tissues through capillaries, which are torn open by the teeth on her tongue. In this way she can feed efficiently without causing severe damage to major blood vessels, although the resulting wound is a far cry from the two pinpricks of legend.

    Additionally there are a number of small pores in her joints that serve as bleeding points. By forcing her vitae through the pores she can make it available for use in her spells without actually having to pierce her skin. Furthermore, this induced bleeding coats her chitin in whatever toxins her blood is currently carrying (see below, "disease and rot") and serves as a strong deterrent to predation.

    Spinnerets: Another set of grafted organs, which retain their functions by drawing protein from the blood Lillian consumes. They are implanted in both her throat and below her hips, within easy reach of the appropriate set of claws. The compounds in her webbing can be imbued with sorcery that coats them in ectoplasm, allowing her to poison the living or bind the dead with equal efficiency. These "psy webs" glow under ultraviolet light and can be easily spotted by those with aura perception.

    Spiracles: Breathing is not requisite for the undead, and Lillian is no exception. However, certain atypical metabolic processes of hers require gas exchange, facilitated by small apertures in the sides of her upper torso called spiracles. Connected to an extensive system of trachea in her abdomen and the reduced remains of her lungs, these external openings permit diffusion of gases between herself and her the environment. The most important of these are chemical pheromones produced by engineered symbiotic bacteria that feed on her blood, used to signal her ghouls and various undead servants.

    Disease and Rot: Lillian's body retains the illnesses she contracted in life and a few she acquired post mortem, now strengthened by dark sorcery and her own vitae. The syphilis that plagued her has steadily grown and blossomed into swollen masses of tumors and cysts, the price of infernal bargains for knowledge. Her internal tissues are bloated with rot and riddled with bacteria, fungi, parasites, and assorted arthropods that have become as much a part of her as her arachnid grafts. They taint her flesh, making her decidedly unappetizing to those who can smell the dreaded curse, and place ever increasing demands on her reserves of vitae. Lillian now actively caters to their needs, both through intentional gluttony and the addition of spiracles to support her aerobic passengers. Some of her sorceries actively make use of the menagerie.

    As a result of her tainted flesh and blood, Lillian becomes a carrier for every disease she encounters, although some of them eventually work their way out of her system through a combination of deliberate purging and predation by other pathogens. Her bite carries her taint to her victims, and her vitae carries it to her ghouls, adding a new and terrible layer to the bonds of her blood that she is happy to exploit through sorcerous means.

    Fertility Most Foul: When life hands you a debilitating disease, cultivate it. That was the bit of dark inspiration that drove Lillian to commit the sin that has ensured her a special place among the damned: using the power of her vitae to animate her stillborn twin's corpse as the nerve center for a rotting womb. In the depths of her infernal cunning she has learned to cultivate the rot and the tumors within her body into grotesque parodies of life, a brood of monsters born dead. Her abdomen houses expansive ovaries taken from great demonic termites, clusters of abscesses containing genetic material she harvests from carefully chosen partners, and a digestive tract expanded and rerouted for efficient digestion and distribution of vitae. Wide subdermal plates inspired by turtle shells and striated muscles protect and strengthen her womb. Using sorcery and fleshcrafting, she coaxes the seeds of her flesh into new and terrible forms, birthing terrors as Tiamat did of old, either whole or as larvae or eggs. She expends large amounts of vitae on this most insane of endeavors, and the signs are impossible to miss, though most sane people refuse to acknowledge them.

    In arachnid form, her body expands to accommodate greater sins yet, earning it the affectionate nickname "brood mother."

    Ovipositor: Lillian's genitalia have been modified to facilitate the efficient and rapid "birth" of her monstrous young. Taking cues from termites, tsetse flies, and cockroaches, Lillian is just as capable of laying single eggs, encasing clusters of eggs inside a sturdy capsule or ootheca, or producing "live" young. The mechanism varies based on the size and developmental cycle of the tumor based "embryos" she produces, which are germinated either asexually or sexually depending on the availability of genetic material to her (which she can store internally for a prolonged period of time). Using vitae and internalized fleshcrafting she can produce the shells for her eggs as well as the cases to contain them, the adhesives to fix them upon whatever surface she deems appropriate, and the silk to spin protective cocoons for them (assisted by her lower set of spinnerets.) The organs involved resemble a cluster of short, dagger shaped limbs, and generally remain concealed until needed.

    Vulnerabilities: Despite, and indeed because of, her strange qualities, Lillian has a number of serious weaknesses. The most obvious of these is her abdomen, a fragile and tempting target containing a large portion of her vitae. While she can survive even the most traumatic injuries to this portion of her body, the resulting damage is nearly as debilitating as a blow to either of her truly vital organs.

    Additionally, the unique aspects of her physiology give her a number of specific weaknesses. Her eyes and expanded nervous system are vulnerable to sensory overload, particularly from ultraviolet light or tactile sensations she finds particularly pleasing or painful. Her spiracles leave her body open to chemical attack, particularly insecticides and antibiotics, which wreak havoc on organs or symbiotic organisms of nonhuman origin. Finally, magic designed to cure diseases can seriously injure her by damaging the portions of her body compromised by the rot, and release a number of toxins from cell death into her body cavities in the process. It is almost impossible to conceal the scent of her pheromones.

    Her clan's specific weakness is a psychological dependency on their native soil, due to their ancient ties to ancestral homelands. Lillian must sleep in at least two handfuls of soil from her grave, which she naturally guards jealously.

    Finally, she suffers the typical weaknesses associated with her kind: fire, sunlight, true faith, strong acids, powerful magic, and the proverbial stake to the heart followed by decapitation. Her association with infernal and abyssal entities has amplified her weakness to holy power, to the point where even consecrated ground is problematic. Sunlight and fire are particularly feared, and may drive her into a vicious frenzy. Perhaps her greatest weakness is simple hunger, the greatest necessity for her kind, and a special concern for one as gluttonous as she.

  • Arsenal

    Skills: As a scholar first and foremost, Lillian's principal skills are academic, though her deviant and criminal lifestyle have given her ample opportunity to develop applied skills as well.

    Occultism: Lillian has made an extensive study of occult traditions and history, even developing a thorough understanding of hedge magic and becoming an accomplished mystical duelist. Her studies have focused predominantly on spirit lore, the undead, demonology, and planar cosmology (though she remains largely ignorant of the finer points of planes and cultures not revolving around the infernal or abyssal realms). She can read and understand a number of mystical languages and speaks Draconic and the common tongues of the lower planes fluently. She is also familiar with True Magic, but would never claim any deep understanding of it (to her peers, at least. She'll happily fake it in front of the ignorant).

    Biology and Medicine: A biochemist by training, Lillian expanded her repertoire into microbiology, xenobiology, and entomology before breaking into medical practice as a battlefield surgeon. Though not a licensed medical practitioner (indeed, her idea of medical practice would never be permitted in a hospital) Lillian eagerly follows advancements in genetics, bionics, biomimetic engineering, and the information technology that supports all three, and she capitalizes on her supernatural abilities to merge old practices with new techniques. She also uses this knowledge to prepare blood and flesh into bizarre cuisines (or exotic pharmacological substances).

    Strategy and Logistics: Lillian would not have survived to apply most of her studies if she could not manage resources, and over the years her exposure to a wide variety of command styles, criminal enterprises, and hare-brained schemes has given her the opportunity to develop her administrative skills and strategic doctrines. While far from the canny manipulator and strategic genius she would dearly love to be, she interprets her continued survival and consistent success as a sign that she must be doing something correctly, even if many of her worst decisions continue to haunt her financially, reputably, and spiritually.

    Explosives: A mediocre marksman and a worse swordsman, Lillian focuses on the one type of weapons technology she feels fully comfortable with: applied chemistry. She is capable of manufacturing and maintaining a wide variety of explosives, propellants, accelerants, detonators, and delivery systems. In keeping with her interests, both practical and aesthetic, she prefers to synthesize materials exclusively with organic byproducts or as part of a larger biological system (which unfortunately does nothing to curtail her habit of leaving poorly labeled jars of nitroglycerin around her kitchen).

    Terrible Driving: Anyone who has been party to one of Lillian's many automotive escapades, willing or otherwise, will testify that she absolutely should never be permitted to operate any motor vehicle under any circumstances. Her enthusiasm for driving anything from a compact car to an eighteen-wheeler is eclipsed only by the number of wrecks she inevitably leaves in her wake. It should also be pointed out that any automotive repair work she does will always involve some mystical or biological component that transforms the innocent machine into a quasi-daemonic being bent on inflicting as much pain as possible, with predictable results.

    Armaments: Lillian's kit consists primarily of mystical talismans and foci, though she has access to a number of exotic biomechanical devices of her own design. Although she adores explosives, she is less than sanguine about carrying them on her person after an ugly encounter with a pyromancer, preferring instead to prepare a position with booby traps using materials she synthesizes at home or acquires as needed.

    Jaws and Claws: Lillian is not a particularly skilled physical combatant, but in a pinch her teeth and claws can be used to inflict considerable damage to lightly armored targets. The pads on her palms and toes can be employed in conjunction with her claws to grapple effectively, often causing more damage upon removal than they ever could going in (imagine trying to peel both velcro and duct tape off your skin at the same time, while it's moving).

    Chrysalid Arms: Named for the manner in which they are produced (or more accurately "grown") these organic devices follow the pattern of more conventional weapons such as firearms or drones. Lillian favors small, easily concealable pistols capable of discharging noxious fluids, teeth, poison darts, or more esoteric munitions, but her marksmanship leaves much to be desired. Far more useful to her are her insectoid ghouls, engineered semi-autonomous creatures disguised as baubles or bits of clothing and deployed to crawl, fly, or burrow their way into positions from which they can scout potential adversaries or attack with a variety of biological weapons.

    Catalysts: One of the unfortunate realities of sorcery is that it often takes an inconvenient amount of time to employ in comparison to conventional weaponry. Students of the occult, therefore, have found ways to prepare their workings ahead of time, and Lillian is no exception. Much like modern explosives, her catalysts are volatile pre-packaged mystical effects contained in bones engraved with special inks and imbued with her own vitae. Preparing these catalysts is time consuming and often expensive, requiring the dilution of pure and powerful sorceries into weaker and portable forms, but once prepared these objects allow her to quickly summon or animate skeletal and spiritual bodyguards or to give her current workings a quick and often messy boost.

    Revok: Her personal talisman, the famed "wizard's staff." This carefully enchanted device enhances her thaumaturgical workings and provides her with a slight boost to her mental faculties when held. Consequently, it can be used to cause her serious injury through sympathetic magic if captured or broken. Revok is a flexible shaft of shaped and hardened vertebrae, five feet in length, topped by a large ruby colored orb in a bony webbed claw. The orb swirls with wrinkled, glowing inclusions in the shape of a brain, and the shaft may be collapsed and drawn up into the collar beneath the head, allowing the talisman to be cradled in hand or stood on a table.

    Field Surgeon's Kit: An antiquated set of finely crafted, ivory handled medical implements from the days before sterile technique became standard, augmented with a number of more esoteric instruments specific to their owner's craft. This set is so well-used that a small part of Lillian's supernatural influence has entered it, allowing the tools to cut more finely, sharply, and gently (or painfully, if she chooses) than any other set she could purchase. The leather and velvet bag she carries her tools in also contains her research notes and various ritual components and can be folded down to a compact size for easy transport slung at Lillian's hip.

    Resonance Gems: Not one to ignore the power of crystals or an opportunity to wear as much jewelry as possible, Lillian has stolen, collected, and occasionally purchased garnets, spinels, and one ruby over the years and treated them with her own vitae to attune them to her personal aura and mystical signature. Stringing them together on thin chains and threads of silk, she wears the minor gems as a circlet, choker, bracelets, and rings as focusing points for her chakras and occult workings (whether this actually works or not depends on who you ask). The only gem of real value she owns, however, is the ruby worn in her navel. Taken from a crown passed between three different claimants to the office of "King of the Vampires" this particular gem is an independently verified amplifier of occult power. Though it has gone by many names, Lillian calls it "The Deathbound Gem" for the use she puts it to: as a focus for manipulating the blood bonds she forges between herself and assorted ghouls, spirits, and other entities. Wearing it over her stomach places it in the closest possible proximity to her haunted womb, allowing the gem to properly resonate both with what she considers the seat of her power and with the minor gems in orbit around it (or so she claims). Many have questioned the wisdom of wearing it somewhere it can be easily grabbed, which she has chosen to address by strengthening the pierced flesh and the gem's setting.

  • Fiendish Faculties

    All of Lillian's abilities are fueled by vitae, the power of Kindred blood, and consequently their use fuels her hunger in turn and can exhaust her reserves of vitae over time. The vampiric disciplines below are the most immediate means by which this power is expressed, and form the basis of even her apparently natural abilities.

    Auspex: This discipline deals with, in two words, supernatural perception. While not quite Lillian's forte, she has developed the ability sufficiently to read auras and project her own thoughts with effort (reading those of others generally proves more difficult). Her auspex is further strengthened by her extensive use of blood bonds, blood sorcery, and blood based pheromones that allow her to more easily commune with her minions and extend her senses further.

    Blood Bond: Not so much a discipline as an extension of her unnatural physiology, this refers to the Cainite ability to induce a state of psychological and even physical dependence in any person who partakes in their vitae three times. The addiction is maintained by continued consumption of vitae and is the basis for creating loyal living or undead servants known as ghouls.

    Regeneration: While the incredible recuperative powers of vampires are well-documented, they are neither instantaneous nor inexhaustible. Lillian's ability to repair damage is slowed by the requirements of her physiology and by the corrupting effects of sorcery, but her body's plasticity (see Vicissitude) increases her overall survivability. She has a much more difficult time recovering from damage caused by fire, holy effects, silvered weapons, most insecticides, antibiotics, strong acids, magic that reproduces any of the above effects, and anything involving sunlight.

    Thaumaturgy: Blood sorcery, through which Cainites focus the inherent mystical power of vitae to effect their will upon the world. These rites of the blood are performed following two distinct methodologies: the paths, rigidly structured formulae that produce specific and sometimes instantaneous effects; and the rituals, long term undertakings that produce a wider variety of stronger results. Lillian has given this discipline maximum priority over the course of her life and is consequently highly skilled, though she would never claim mastery and would indeed scoff at the very notion. The thrust of her studies has followed the Path of Blood (manipulating vitae directly) Biothaumaturgy (a "dark science" concerned with manipulating life) the Path of Pestilence (manipulating disease) the Path of Warding (security and surveillance) Perdo Magica (countermagic) Rego Manes and Calatio (summoning and controlling spirits and demons) and adapting the Necromantic Paths of the Sepulchre (working with ghosts) the Bones (reanimating corpses) and the Ash (interacting with the underworld) from their Greco-Roman roots into slightly more accessible structures. The breadth and depth of her knowledge is owed in part to extensive theft of research materials, "interrogating" ghosts and other practitioners, and bargaining with demons, which has tainted her work to no small extent and made her life far more complicated than she would prefer.

    Vicissitude: The widely feared and loathed hallmark of the Tzimisce bloodline, practitioners of this discipline can sculpt flesh and bone as if it were clay. Lillian has mastered it to the best of her ability, using it to twist her form and those of her minions to suit her needs (or more often whims). Her arachnid form, the terrible brood mother, is her manifestation of the zulo shape, a mark of distinction among her clan for those who have taken the first step to becoming something beyond a vampire, the zhupans. Although most of these horrid forms are geared towards physical combat, her immersion in dark sorcery and relative physical weakness have given her one geared towards the undead equivalent of monstrous fertility. Indeed, many of her peers would argue this form increases her vulnerability given its size and unwieldy shape (a claim which she vehemently denies, sometimes by impaling bystanders with her legs).

    Plasmodial Form: On rare occasions Lillian just dispenses with pleasantries in the name of pure utility. In times like these she uses vicissitude to creep up on people as a plasmoid, a thick, roiling carpet of sentient blood. Not content to simply flow along the ground, the plasmoid shapes itself into thousands of scarlet spiders that scuttle over each other in a nightmarish swarm. With concentration, this form can create a sound roughly approximating speech through synchronized vocalizations across many tiny mandibles. Lillian cannot manipulate objects or use any of her other disciplines as a plasmoid, but she retains her total body mass and the ability to feed from open wounds. This form's plasticity allows her to fit through tight spaces or spread herself over a wide surface. While difficult to damage physically, it remains highly susceptible to chemical attack (or to being washed down the drain).