• The Missing Voice
A vampire with this power may 'throw' her voice anywhere within her line of sight, even carrying on two conversations simultaneously (one with her Missing Voice and one with her actual, physical one). Treacherous vampires impersonate other individuals' voices in order to mislead listeners, and less devious ones can use their two voices simultaneously to perform hauntingly beautiful 'duets' or eerie one-actress plays.
Cost: One blood point.
Dice Pool: None.
Action: Immediate.
System
This power functions automatically as long as the character wills it. However, performing any action other than speech or singing while using The Missing Voice incurs a +1 difficulty on any roll that might be required, due to the disruption of the character's concentration.
The vampire can only impersonate voices she's heard, although this can include voices from the television, radio, etc.
•• Phantom Speaker
With this power, the vampire may project her voice to any one individual - with the limitations that the target has heard the vampire's voice previously, and the vampire knows the name of her target.
Cost: One blood point.
Dice Pool: Charisma + Expression.
Action: Immediate.
Roll Results
Botch: The vampire is unaware anything is amiss, and can spend up to five minutes per botch level speaking with a target of storyteller discretion. Ie. -1 botch, 5 minutes, -2 botch, 10 minutes, etc. All blood points spent are lost.
Failure: The vampire is unaware of failure, however no words are heard by either the desired target or any other. All blood points spent are lost.
Success: Each success allows one turn of speech.
Exceptional Success (4+): This allows the vampire to maintain speech for an entire scene.
System
The only distance limitation to this level of Melpominee is that it must be night wherever the intended target is. The vampire can talk, sing or make whatever other noises she wants. The sounds are inaudible to anyone but the target, unless an eavesdropper has some supernatural means of doing so (and has reason to be listening for such). The vampire cannot hear the sounds - or the subject's responses - unless she is within earshot.
••• Madrigal
The vampire may inspire in her audience the emotions expressed in her song, rousing them to passion or deluging them with seemingly bottomless despair.
Cost: Two blood points.
Dice Pool: Charisma + Singing.
Action: Immediate.
Roll Results
Botch: The vampire is unable to affect the emotions of her audience as she desires. Instead, the audience become hostile to the vampire, resulting perhaps in being booed from the stage, characters walking out, or in the case of paid presentations demanding their money back. The vampire cannot attempt this discipline again during the remainder of her performance. All blood points spent are lost.
Failure: The vampire fails to inspire any extra emotion in her audience, and must wait until her next song to attempt this discipline again. All blood points spent are lost.
Success: Each success instils the chosen emotion in a fifth of the vampires audience (more than five successes have no additional effect). The storyteller decides precisely which members of the audience are affected.
System
Characters may resist this power for the duration of the scene with the expenditure of a willpower point, but only if they have reason to believe that they are being controlled by outside individuals.
The song the vampire sings must also reflect the emotion she wishes to provoke - no one's going to mob the concert security no matter how well she sings "High Hopes," but they might if she wails "Cop-Killer." Affected individuals should act in accordance with their Natures.
•••• Siren's Beckoning
This level of Melpominee reaches deep into a target to twist his psyche, causing temporary insanity in the vampire's victim. Vampires who choose Dementation as their primary discipline are immune to Siren's Beckoning, as they are too warped to be further affected.
Cost: Two blood points.
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Singing - target's Wits.
Action: Extended.
Roll Results
Botch: The vampire acquires a derangement of her own for one day per botch level (storyteller discretion). Ie. -1 botch, 1 day, -2 botch, 2 days, etc. The vampire is also unable to use this level of Melpominee on the same target for the remainder of the night. All blood points spent are lost.
Failure: The vampire negates all of her successes and must begin afresh on her next turn. All blood points spent are lost.
Success System
The vampire must accumulate a number of successes equal to that of the target's willpower. Doing so gives the target a derangement of storyteller choosing for 24 hours.
Every success over the target's willpower rating extends the duration of the derangement by another 24 hours.
If the vampire reaches double the target's willpower rating in successes, the derangement is considered permanent until somehow cured.
System
The derangement given with the use of this level of Melpominee can only be inflicted through song - the vampire therefore must make certain her target remains within earshot. The target need not be focused on the vampire, but must be able to hear the song to a substantial degree - for instance listening to a performance in a bar, whilst speaking to others, would suffice.
If the target should leave the vicinity of the vampire, all successes gained remain, although only for one night. It's best the vampire track down her victim and continue with her song before the dawn, unless she wishes to start over on another night.
••••• Virtuoso
Whilst many low-level Melpominee powers allow a vampire to affect only one target at a time, those who have mastered this level of the discipline may affect a wider audience.
Cost: One blood point per additional target.
Dice Pool: Stamina + Singing.
Action: Immediate.
System
The vampire may use Phantom Speaker or Siren's Beckoning on a number of targets equal to her Stamina + Singing. The character must spend one blood point for every additional target she wishes to affect. These blood points must be spent on the one turn - evidently the higher one's Blood Potency, the more targets one will be able to include.
Once the vampire has selected her targets and spent the necessary blood, she may put the chosen level of Melpominee into effect on her next turn.