Combat Card Flavor Text:


Adaptability
A permanent state of transition
is man's most noble condition.
-Juan Ramon Jiminez


Amaranth
Thou shalt not slay thy sire
and drink his heart's blood.
-The Book of Nod


Amria
Be wary then; best safety lies in fear.
Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act I, Scene 3


Anesthetic Touch
Just relax, this won't hurt, much.
Blanche Hill, Salubri


Apparition
Girls would come out of inadequate graves
and stand near...
-Rilke, "Duino Elegy #7"


Apportation
"The gun flew from my hands like
God himself chose to intervene."
-Jacob Bragg, Brujah antitribu


Arms of the Abyss
And when you gave long into the abyss,
the abyss also gazes into you.
-Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra


Ashes to Ashes
Yeah, I got'er.  S'funny, though -- she looked ta
crumble just a'fore the flames hit'er.
Moonlight's tricks, huh?
Tom, Blood Brother of the Chicago Circle


Blessing of Durga Syn
And blessedness goes where the wind goes...
-Yeats, "The Blessed"


Blood Agony
Resign not your body to fate and put up with pain,
Because what the Pen has written for you it will not unwrite.
-The Ruba'iyat of Omar Khayyam


Blood Sweat
It seems to me as if my blood
Flowed like a rhythmic fountain's sobbing flood.
I hear it run with a long murmuring sound,
But vainly do I try to find the wound.
-Baudelaire, "The Fountain of Blood"


Blur (VTES)
When my energies first surged through me,
I discovered how to move like lightning...
-The Book of Nod


Blur (Sabbat)
In skating over thin ice,
our safety is in our speed.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Prudence"


Body Arsenal
"The most important weapons
are not those you carry."
-Anton, Clan Tzimisce


Body Flare
"The Star of Bethlehem itself
couldn't have burned brighter."
-Lambach, Sabbat Cardinal


Bond with the Mountain
Hasten back to the chantry, Lord.
The stones will hew me a
shelter until the morrow.
Ublo-Satha, slave Gargoyle


Bone Spur
"It may not be decorative,
but it's very functional."
-Horatio, Clan Tzimisce


Boxed In (VTES)
Shadowy and veiled in darkness,
You plot against me.
-13th c. song, Carmina Burana


Boxes In (Sabbat)
"Nay, he is even more prisoner
than the slave of the galley,
than the madman in his cell."
-Bram Stoker, Dracula


Breath of the Dragon
"I bring flame and death to my enemies."
-Dragos, Clan Tzimisce


Burning Wrath
Wrath killed the foolish man...
-Job 5:2


Canine Horde (VTES)
...four lean hounds
crouched low and smiling
my heart fell dead before
-e.e. cummings, "all in green my love went riding"


Canine Horde (Sabbat)
Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war.
-Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, act 3, scene 1


Catatonic Fear
His fear did not seek to become a god.
-Jean Cocteau


Cauldron of Blood
I like the look of agony
Because I know it's true.
-Emily Dickinson, "Untitled"


Chameleon's Colors
Yes, yes.  Rush on by, you hot-headed cur.  Just us
trees here; nothing to interest you.
The Siamese, Ahrimane


Channeling the Beast
Conquer yourself rather than the world.
-Rene Descartes


Circle
Goratrix's gargoyles circled for
another attack lest any of the
would-be assassins escape back to
their Tzimisce mistress.


Claws of the Dead
...the jaws that bite,
the claws that catch!
-Lewis Carroll, "Jabberwocky"


Coma
To sleep, perchance to dream. Ay, there's the rub,
for in that sleep of death what dreams may come...
-Shakespeare, Hamlet, act III, scene 1


Compress
He was screaming, and his face just
shrunk in until it was nothing more than
a skull mask.
Max Lowell, Gangrel Antitribu


Conflagration
It is our inexorable might -- the fist that
lashes forth to breach the barriers
between profane and celestial, and rises
again and again to smite all unbelievers.
High Priest Angra Mainyu, Baali


Dagon's Call
Power is not revealed by striking hard or
striking often, but by striking true.
Honore de Balzac


Darkness Within
"Elsinore" -- the darkness inside the human soul.
-Heisenberg (in Frayn's "Copenhagen")


Disease
Life itself becomes punishment for those
who are not free from pains and diseases.
-Pliny the Elder


Dissolution
Imperious, choleric, irascible,
extreme in everything, with a dissolute
imagination the like of which has 
never been seen...
-Marquis de Sade, Last Will and Testament


Drain Essence
Thou would'st wish thy own heart dry of blood
So in my veins red life might stream again,
-John Keats, "This Living Hand"


Dust to Dust
The sewere lid Augustus's triggerman
hurled at the baron passed right through
his powdery form.  The baron allowed the
wind to carry him away, leaving the 
Giovanni alone except for the foul 
odor the wind would not dispatch.


Earth Meld
Down into the denseness of soil and rock,
Down into the dust you have left behind.
-Baudelaire, "The Unforeseen"


Earth Swords
If they had a proper haven, like a
basement or a crypt, we could use it
against them.  But these thin bloods
haven in dumpsters and trailer parks,
so they miss out on a poetic end.
Beatrice L'Angou, Kiasyd


Entombment
The womb shall forget him;
the worm shall feed sweetly on him;
he shall be no more remembered.
-Job 24:20


Exuding Blood
In the name of the Eldest, I reclaim that
which is rightfully his.
Ur-Shulgi


Fade from View
Fade far away, dissolve, and quite forget
What thou amongst the leaves
hast never known...
-John Keats, "Ode to a Nightingale"


Form of Mist
...and yet I am, and live, like vapours tossed.
-John Claire, "I Am"


Form of the Ghost
Nobody knows where I was,
and now I am no longer there.
-Gwendolyn Brooks, "Boy Breaking Glass"


Gleam of Red Eyes (VTES)
The glance of a serpent could not have
produced a greater effect.
-James Malcolm Rhymer, Varney the Vampyre


Gleam of Red Eyes (Sabbat)
Delightful eyes, you burn with mystic rays
Like candles in broad day;
red suns may blaze,
But cannot quench theirstill, fantastic light.
-Baudelaire, "The Living Torch"


Horrid Form
Whence and what art thou,
execrable shape?
-Milton, Paradise Lost


Infernal Pursuit
Hunt. Hunt again.
If you do not find it, you will die.
-Robert Penn Warren, "Treasure Hunt"


Lightning Reflexes
Celerity is never more admired
Than by the negligent.
-Shakespeare, Antony & Cleopatra, act 3, scene 7


Majesty
All these will I give you
if you fall down and worship me.
-Matthew 4:9


Martyr's Resilience
It was just some nobody ghoul.  But he wouldn't fall
-- like I was just shooting blanks the whole time.
The ammo gave out before he did.
Carter, Toreador antitribu


Nosferatu Putrescence
There is no more infection, simply the mark.
-Jewelle Gomez, "Louisiana: 1850"


Pursuit
What mad pursuit?
What struggle to escape?
-Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn"


Pushing the Limit
These are out realms, no limit to their sway...
-Lord Byron, "The Corsair"


Quick Meld
So let us melt, and make no noise...
-John Donne, "A Valediction Forbiding Mourning"


Quickness
There is no secrecy comparable to celerity.
-Francis Bacon, "Of Delay"


Rapid Thought
To know and to act are one in the same.
-Samurai maxim


Read Intentions
I may gain more knowledge out of
the folly of this madman than I shall from
the teaching of the most wise.
-Bram Stoker, Dracula


Reform Body
O! that this too, too solid flesh would melt...
-Shakespeare, Hamlet, act 1, scene 2


Sacrament of Carnage
The spiritual value of a sacrament is
like light -- although it passes among
the impure, it is not polluted.
-Saint Augustine, Works, vol 3


Save Face
Better that we should die fighting than be outraged
and dishonored.  Better to die than to live in slavery.
Emmeline Pankhurst


Shadow Body
The awful shadow of some unseen Power
Floats, tho' unseen, amongst us.
-Shelley, "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty"


Skin of Night
I ask of Thee, beloved Night --
Swift be thine approaching flight.
-Percy Bysshe Shelley, "To Night"


Skin of Rock
Crushers of helpless misery,
Crushing down Justice, honoring Wrong:
If that be feeble, this be strong.
-Emily Bronte, "Last Lines"


Skin of Steel
...no sword on earth,
not the truest steel, could touch their assailant;
for by a spell he had dispossessed all
blades of their bite on him.
-8th c. epic poem, Beowulf


Song in the Dark
"I heard the most bewitchingly beautiful
voice from the shadows that night."
-Lolita, Toreador antitribu


Staredown
Courage is resistance to fear,
mastery of fear -- not absence of fear.
-Mark Twain


Stone Quills
A porcupine would die of envy upon wit-
nessing the carnage that erupted from
the stone beast's hands.
Javier Montoya, Tremere


Strength of the Bear
Where I come from, the law of the land is
survival of the strongest.
Nettie Hale, Ahrimane


Stutter-Step
It is better to have less thunder in the
mouth and more lighting in the hand.
General Ben Chidlaw


Swiftness of the Stag
She hissed and fled.  She scarcely
seemed to touch the ground as
she bounded away.  I tried to track
her but could find no print or
broken twig to follow.
Luther, Gangrel antitribu


Swoop
As the Nosferatu howled in fury, Ferox
swooped down again and crushed his
ribcage.  He stepped over the gurgling
Sewer Rat and silently finished the job.


Theft of Vitae (VTES)
Body galvanized for sufferings yet to come,
You drink once more
the bitter draught that saves!
-Rimbaud, "Parisian Orgy"


Theft of Vitae (Sabbat)
"The blood is the life!
The blood is the life!"
-Bram Stoker, Dracula


Thrown Gate
"Just be glad we aren't back in the days
when most gates were made out of wood."
-Angela Decker, Pander


Tongue of the Serpent
No matter what the hope or plan,
There is no moment left when man
Is not subject to the constant
Warnings of this odious Serpent.
-Baudelaire, "The Serpent's Tooth"


Torment the Soul
Suppose the yesterdays ate up
our grand tomorrows?
If the old madness came this way?
-Paul Verlaine, Sagesse, Book One


Tortured Confession
To chase one's victim, to prepare one's plan
minutely, to slake an implacable vengeance,
and then to go to bed... There is nothing
sweeter in the world.
Josef Stalin


Undead Persistence
The cry is still, "They come!"
-Shakespeare, Macbeth, act 5, scene 5


Undead Strength (VTES)
When my energies first surged through me
I discovered... how to borrow the strength
of the earth...
-The Book of Nod


Undead Strength (Sabbat)
"Dead flesh isn't always subject to the
mortal laws of physics."
-Dodd, Brujah antitribu


Up Yours!
"Don't worry, I got my flamethrower back...
eventually."
-Jimmy Dunn, Pander


Vanish from the Mind's Eye
Night, voluptous and vast,
Arises, making hunger tame,
Hiding all things, even shame.
-Baudelaire, "The End of the Day"


Vengeance of Samiel
Tonight, there would be a small measure of
vengeance, one grain of sand to add to a 
desert that would in time strech across the
face of the Earth.
Parmenides, Assamite


Walk of Flame
Now ye are flames, I'll tell you how to burn
And purge the ether of our enemies.
-John Keats, "Hyperion"


Well-Aimed Car
"We shall discuss your breach of the
Masquerade later..."
-Tusk, The Talebearer of Clan Nosferatu


Wolf Claws (VTES)
And death is on the air
like the smell of ashes!
-D.H. Lawrence, "The Ship of Death"


Wolf Claws (Sabbat)
How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spread his claws...
-Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland