Vials of Blood

I’ve never heard of this personally, but I think it needs to be a consensual thing if it involves another PC. Sure there’s lots of blood after a fight, but knowing “that drop of blood came from this PC” isn’t possible. Therefore, if a Sarishan expects to have a drop (or vial) of blood from a PC, it needs to be signed off on in my opinion.

John

Most Sarishan’s I’ve played with are not going to press the issue if another PC says no (not always, though, especially if they play their guy as more ‘evil’), but for NPC’s I’ve seen noticeable hoarder behaviour from at least a half dozen val’Mehan

Interesting…My experience has been that any NPC who bleeds enough to get a vial of blood is probably dead at the end of the module

John

While it is true blood can be dried, it doesn’t mean it wont suffer from all the other natural decay processes of time. You are not storing this in a dry mausoleum, but on yourself as you travel through the Blessed Lands, Kraldjurr Morass, or even under water! Simply put, short of magical intervention there is no way that a Hero could preserve blood in any kind of useable state over a long term in this world. Also, if you are going to have the blood of hundreds on you at all time, that starts to add up in bulk/encumbrance, so I do hope you are keeping track of that as well. Eventually it will start impairing your ability to move (pace) and dodge (avoidance) as per Bulk rules.

Players can live their own choices. Tukufu does NOT volunteer his blood thank you very much. And as a psion he heals himself. Other PCs are welcome to make other choices…and maybe someday deal with the consequences.

NPCs are a somewhat different matter. Unless its on a relic or CP signed off by a judge (and/or I think it seems reasonable) I don’t particularly feel bound by any given Sarishian’s alleged collection. Though careful “account keeping” might help I’m going to make a ruling on what I think is reasonable and roll from there. If for example Arch Prelate Leona goes missing and a PC says AHA I met in module X and she gave me a drop a blood … well, I’ve probably played, read and judged X. If she’s not injured in the mod AND I don’t see how or why you’d ever get a drop of blood from her…then I don’t feel that as a judge I have to honor that claim even if some other judged signed off something like … “yeah she volunteered a drop.”

That said I generally don’t care to nerf PC powers. Especially the ones that don’t turn up much. So if it made sense I *might* try to throw a blood tracker a bone even if the module didn’t really take that possibility into account. I would note that I’ve never seen a module “broken” as a result of this so I am not that worried…

Last thought. IMO important NPCs don’t make themselves available to PCs “convenience.” They use PCs when its convenient to them. If a PC asks for a drop of blood I’d politely decline but offer to hold a drop of the PCs blood instead.

I have had val’Mehans at tables ask for blood from all the PCs at the table. As a general rule we decline. In character I find val’Mehan’s to be slightly shady (blame it on my Milandisian upbringing). As a Beltinian I find the practice…distasteful… Out of character I understand why they do it, and nobody’s gotten really bent out of shape over it. Still it does feel kinda wierd when they ask…

To be fair the val’Mehan in question was asking for blood so he could track us in case we got kidnapped by the bad guys. Out of character I don’t think he has any ulterior motives. In character, well… Since the val’Mehan character doesn’t push the idea on us we are generally cool with that player. While my Beltininan find his pair of Infernal “bodyguards” to be off-putting there is no denying they are helpful in combat.

Guess my issue with this dates back to my time as a Shadowrun player, where you NEVER EVER leave DNA evidence behind…

I think Cody has a point in his original post. One can argue about the fine points (e.g., solid vs liquid blood, catching diseases, whether the PC carries the blood on his person or on a mount or cart, etc.), but the primary point stands that the val’Mehan blood-tracing abilities lead to impractical results. That we players have found this problem shows that the Arcanis stories and adventures have taught us players to think creatively as well as intelligently.

I say this as one of those val’Mehans who collects blood (but I’m wearing my GM hat to think this through now). I had the idea on my own to preemptively collect blood (both from friends in case they ever are lost or captured and from enemies in case I want to find my enemies) even before I gain the Blood Calls to Blood Talent since I knew I’d get it one day. If I thought of it on my own, other players must have done the same, and that means many val’Mehans (as individuals and as a family) would have thought of it. (BTW, I don’t know whether anyone collected blood in the Living Arcanis campaign.) If we extrapolate logically, some odd societal results will occur. Even though vals are not as common in the general populace as they are amongst Hero PCs, there are enough val’Mehans that their abilities probably would impact society and their family. The two key abilities here are the Bloodline Talent Blood Calls to Blood (ARPG, p.223) and Sense Blood cast as a Heritage Spell (CoH, p.158), neither of which has any limits as to how long ago the blood was collected or tasted. Taken alone, they are neat flavor and nice abilities, but taken to extreme by the val’Mehan family, the results are bigger and scarier. If there were only a few hundred val’Mehans in the world, there would not be these results–but I presume there are many thousands and thousands of val’Mehans.

Imagine a large, powerful val family that has these abilities and what they could do.