The Strix are artisans of corruption, their gifts carved from blood and the shadows of Carcosa. Unlike the primal instincts of the Kindred, their powers are deliberate acts of cruelty and artistry — sculpting flesh, commanding the pulse of life, and remaking the body into tools of horror. Where the Kindred embody the predator, the Strix embody the surgeon and the sorcerer, bending blood and bone with a precision that is as terrifying as it is unholy.
A chilling signature of the Strix, this skill manipulates the blood within others, or ambient blood, to weaken, control, or weaponize the life force itself.
This skill takes concentration, and if the welder is interrupted with an attack or some other concentration distrubance the Skill will automatically fail.
Simple Task - RESTRAIN: Temporarily impede or distort normal blood flow in a target to impair their coordination, perception, or reaction speed.
Novice level success: Target suffers slow movement or reactions to their next physical or mental action
Intermediate level success: Target is disoriented for two posts.
Expert level success: Target is stunned for three posts
Difficult Task - CONTROL: Assert direct control over blood within a target’s body to alter their function or behavior more forcefully.
Novice level success: The target suffers from strong dizziness or very slow reactions to their next physical or mental action
Intermediate level success: The target can’t use their limbs for two posts.
Expert level success: Take control of the target’s body, forcing non-lethal movements for three posts.
Challenging Task - DOMINATE: Unleash violent or spectral control over blood, inside a body, or spilled on the ground, weaponizing it or causing temporary bodily failure.
Novice level success: Inflict small wounds and bleeding that lasts one post.
Intermediate level success: Inflict hemorrhaging and stop blood flood to an area of the body, incapacitating the target for two posts.
Expert level success: Take control of the target’s body, forcing non-lethal movements for three posts.
An eerie art of blood and bone, Fleshcrafting allows the Strix to reshape their flesh, or that of others, by fusing Carcosan will with ancient blood rites. This skill is physical, visceral, and deeply personal. It can heal, disguise, or twist the body into monstrous utility.
It takes preparation and time to perform and isn't something that is done in an actio/combat situation at the difficult and challenging level.
This skill takes concentration and focus, and if interrupted, will fail.
Simple Task - MEND: Emphasizing restoration and functionality. Minor healing and surface manipulation of another's body. The Strix must be able to lay hands on the intended target for this to work
Novice level success: Heals 1 Physical Health.
Intermediate level success: Heals 2 Physical Health.
Expert level success: Heals 3 Physical Health.
Difficult Task - SHAPE: Shift physical form for deception, mobility, or combat advantage. The Strix must be able to lay hands on the intended target for this to work, and does not require anything more than a touch and the utterance of some magic words. This is temporary and would only last for one roleplay scene. This can be performed on themselves.
Novice level success: Alter body and facial features to change the appearance.
Intermediate level success: enhance the muscle or nervous system.
Expert level success: monstrous enhancements (claws, fangs, or tail).
Challenging Task - REMAKE: Advanced body reconstruction, regrow limbs, mutate a part of the subject's body.
This is a ritualistic surgery and can only be done on another player, not the Strix themself.
The process is extremely painful during and for 3-4 hours after it is done.
This procedure takes time to prepare in both a ritualistic and functional sense.
If successful, the condition lasts equal in days to the level of the Strix who performed the enhancement
Level 1 = 1 RL day
Level 2 = 2 RL days
Level 3 = 3 RL days
Once the time has expired, the body will revert back to its normal form, this process is excruciatingly painful and will render the receiver exhausted and would need to recover for 1 RL day.
The procedure will leave permanent scars in the parts where it took place when it reverts.
Because this is a restructuring of the body, these modifications aren't seamless or easy to disguise in public and would call attention to the individual. They must be careful not to arouse attention.
Novice level success: Regrowing a small part of the body (e.g., finger, nose, ear) or rebuilding damaged nerves.
Intermediate level success: Full limb regrowth, or grotesque enhancement like an extra arm or tail.
Expert level success: Re-animate the dead. They would be able to do small, simple tasks and/or communicate things they know.
A feared and revered Strix discipline, Blood Alchemy fuses ritual precision with biochemistry and forbidden magic. Practitioners distill vitality, decay, and madness into liquid form, toxins, salves, or sentient blood constructs.
Side Effects & Addiction Mechanics
First Use or intermitted use (1-2 times a week):
No side effects. The rush is exhilarating.
Repeated Use
3-4 times a week
Minor Withdrawal Symptoms:
Shaking hands
Cold sweats
Sudden migraines
Nosebleeds
Overuse / Dependency Threshold
After 3+ doses in short succession or repeated daily use:
Psychological Dependence: Must roleplay needing/trying to resist to use it daily.
Physiological Crashes
Temporary physical weakness after effects wear off. This could last several days
At this point the potion stops having any positive effect like it was meant to and becomes a drug that the addicted player must take to just maintain their basic abilities.
After extended addiction, users may develop eerie traits: mercury-colored eyes, twitchy unnatural movement, or alchemical scarring.
These effects are stacked on the psychological and physiological issues above
These effects may lower a person's will and attract unwanted attention from entities beyond the Veil or are more easily swayed by Banes or agents of Carcosa
Some Strix believe overuse connects them to deeper knowledge or the voices behind the Red Labyrinth
Simple Task - DISTILL: Craft elixirs or salves that subtly affect the body. Theme: Subtle biological influence through potions, salves, or contact-based agents. Uses: Performance boosters, weakening agents, enhancers, or sappers. These concoctions heighten or dull the mind, temporarily changing perception and reaction. These potions must be prepared ahead of time through a process that combines chemistry, alchemy and magic. Part ritual and part science, the level of the practitioner determines how long it will take to complete the task; nothing will take longer than 3 days with at least one roleplay scene playing out the process of creation.
Novice level success: +1 or -1 Will OR Presence
Intermediate level success: +2 or -2 Will OR Presence
Expert level success: +3 or -3 Will OR Presence
Difficult Task - INFECT: Weave disease or cure through refined blood marks or ingestion. Theme: Ritual blood magic that either heals or infects, balancing purification and pestilence. Often administered through sigils, ingestion, or blood offerings.
Novice level success: +1 or -1 Vigor OR Cunning
Intermediate level success: +2 or -2 Vigor OR Cunning
Expert level success: +3 or -3 Vigor OR Cunning
Challenging Task - TRANSMUTE/ANIMATE: Turn blood into beings, disasters, or miracles. This is the high art of vitae manipulation.
Novice level success: Create a fragile blood homunculus (1HP)
Intermediate level success: Create a functional blood puppet (2 HP)
Expert level success: Create a semi-sentient Blood Servant (3 HP)
Veil Bending is the Strix art of weaving illusion through blood, memory, and suggestion. Using their vitae as ink and the Veil as canvas, Strix practitioners can distort perception, rewrite memories, and temporarily fracture reality. The most skilled are not illusionists; they are editors of the senses.
This skill has an impact/effect on a persons Mental Health. Each task no matter the level will inflect 1 damage to Mental health for the duration of the scene.
Simple Task - WARP: Create minor illusions or hide inconsistencies in your surroundings. Subtle but effective.
Novice level success: Obscure a small object, or mask bloodstains for one post.
Intermediate level success: Blur features, dampen sound, become undetectable to casual perception for two posts.
Expert level success: Render self invisible for three posts.
Difficult Task - SHAPE: Create multi-sensory illusions or misdirect awareness.
Novice level success: Cause someone to forget a phrase or feel misplaced deja vu for one post.
Intermediate level success: Alter a small memory of an event or conversation, identity, or intention for two posts.
Expert level success: Fool the target with a convincing mirage for three posts.
Challenging Task - SHATTER: Bend reality to create delusions, false environments, or temporal anomalies. This is sorcery masquerading as illusion
Novice level success: Twist a hallway, displace a shadow, stretch time for a post
Intermediate level success: Trap someone in a repeating moment or induce severe identity confusion for one post
Expert level success: Shatter full perception, disguise an entire building, rewrite personal history, or mask time (OOC approval required)