Long Banfa (Guo Long Heike)

Guo Long Heike are the Dragons of the Azure Courts from arcane times in Japan, they've been the keepers of the Wan Kuei Courts, created by the Legendary Sorcerer Heike Yusuke Saburo Gaki, naming the Clan to honor his Sifu in Chinese as the 'Dragon of the Motherland' Guo Long, eventually his own creator's last name was added when he sacrificed to protect japan during the US attack on Tokyo by Colonel Perry in the IX century.

Yusuke was a part of the Kuei Jin, a follower of the Devil Tiger's Dharma and a wise Ancestor until his final ascension as a Bodhisattva in the final battle against the invading forces. His powerful magic's name is Long Moshu, a practice developed for his Kindred minions, obtained after studying the Tremere House of the Hermetic Order ritual that allowed them to transform into Kindred, that he imitated to create his own bloodline.

He captured several gangrel and followers of seth for his experiments as he saw fit their abilities to those he wanted to imbue in his minions, among other lesser participants that finally let them evolved into three disciplines Celerity, Fortitude, and Long Banfa.

While the other two are generally know among kindred, here I will explain the mystical Long Banfa or Method of the Dragon, oftenly translated as Way of the Dragon.

The Way of the Dragon its a metamorphosis path where the disciple learns to transform, physically and spiritually into the seeming of a dragon. Dragons are, in japanese mythology and folklore, a constant source of spiritual power, they're connected to Heaven and represent the Elements of the Middle Kingdom.

There are five Dragon Deities or Dragon Kings, each represented by the color of their scales: the Emperor Yellow Dragon is the representative of the Earth, the Blue Dragon of the Four Seas also named Azure rules over the seas, rivers, wells and springs; then the Black Dragon Emperor of the North Winter has the shape of a black dragon turtle with icy breath; Red Dragon is also called the Farmer God, the Plowing Deity and the Fiery God represents the heat of life, the warming sun that helps the seed to grow, he rules over summer and spring. Finally, the White Dragon, Deity of the Western Pick rules over the underworld, the dusk, Autumn, his scales are made of silver and steel, with claws and fangs of a Tiger.

At the moment of the Embrace an essence is imbued by the Edict of Heaven in the practitioner that is later discovered when is firstly introduced to this Discipline, where that aspect of that Dragon Gods manifests through the metamorphosis of each of the Following powers.

▀ Bing Ningshi (The Eyes of the Serpent)
This power grants the vampire the legendary hypnotic gaze of the serpent. The Kindred’s eyes turn into the seeming of it's God Deity: gold with large black irises for the Yellow Dragon, Sparkling Blue sapphire eyes for the blue and so on. All mortals in the character’s vicinity find themselves strangely attracted to him, looking to meet the vampire’s beguiling gaze, becoming immobilized. Until the character takes his eyes off his victim, the person is frozen in place starlet by the dragon's power within.

System: No roll is required to affect mortals while Vampires and other supernatural creatures can also be affected by this power if the Cainite’s player succeeds on a Willpower roll (difficulty 9). If a supernatural victim is attacked or otherwise harmed, can spend a point of Willpower to break the spell. While mortals can spend a willpower point to avoid being relentlessly attracted to meet the kindred's eyes.

Only one victim on which the kindred may stare on is paralyzed by the Bing Ningshi but all mortals in the vicinity able to see the vampire's eyes are subconsciously captivated in a similar but lesser effect as Presence would do, reducing all social difficulties to interact with the crowd by two. Also the penalty for the vampire to see in the dark is reduced by one.

▀ ▀ Zhao Tongku (Feral Claws/Talons of the Beast)
The vampire’s nails transform into long, dragon like claws. These talons are wickedly sharp, able to rend flesh with ease and even carve stone and metal with little trouble. The Beast is prominent in the claws as well, making them fearsome weapons against other immortals. It’s rumored that some Guo Long have modified this power to change their vampiric fangs into vicious maw of a dragon instead.

System: The claws grow automatically in response to the character’s desire, and can grow from both hands and feet. The transformation requires the expenditure of a blood point, takes a single turn to complete, and lasts for a scene. The character attacks normally in combat, but the claws inflict Strength + 1 aggravated damage. Other supernaturals cannot normally soak this damage, although a power such as Fortitude may be used. Additionally, the difficulties of all climbing and digging rolls are reduced by two.

▀ ▀ ▀ Meili Pifu (Dragon scales)
By calling upon her Blood, the vampire may transform her skin into a mottled, scaly hide. A vampire in this form becomes more supple and flexible in the seeming of it's dragon deity, sprouting gemstones and strange yellowish earthly colors when associated with the Yellow Dragon of Earth or Precious metals such as silver and gold when associated with the White Dragon of the Western Pick, and so on.

System: The vampire spends one blood point and one Willpower point. Her skin becomes scaly and mottled; this, combined with the character’s increased flexibility, reduces soak difficulties to 5 against bludgeoning attacks. The vampire may use her Stamina to soak aggravated damage from claws and fangs, but not from fire, sunlight, or other supernatural energies, also deals easily with stabbing and slashing weapons adding two dice to soak. The vampire’s mouth widens and fangs lengthen, enabling her bite to inflict an extra die of damage. Finally, the vampire may slip through any opening wide enough to fit her head through. The vampire’s Appearance drops to 1, and she is obviously inhuman dragon like with the colors of her dragon deity, though casual passersby might not notice, if the vampire is in darkness or wearing heavy clothing.

▀ ▀ ▀ ▀ Yun Qixi (Dragon's Breath)
The Kindred harnesses the spiritual energy of her Dragon Emperor and manifest it to cleanse her motherland from all transgressions and defilement in the form of celestial fire. The color of the flames as well as its manifesting sensation depends on the seeming of the dragon (red for warmth and black for ice cold breath, ie) and will also dictate the effects of the breath on the surroundings (burn for red or freeze for black breath, iie) but regardless of its type the effects on supernatural creatures it touches is the same.

System: for each blood point spent by the kindred two dice of aggravated damage are dealt to each creature engulfed by the breath. While the usual shape of the manifestation is a cone doesn't require a roll, more complex patterns such as a line of attack or switching targets are also possible with a Dexterity + Firearms roll (difficulty 8) splitting successes obtain as in a full burst or spread attack with an automatic gun, reducing the damage to each target by one die for each additional victim affected by it.

For the victim each success in a Dexterity + Dodge roll reduces the damage dice pool by one. The difficulty and general rules are the same of dodging a full burst from an automatic weapon minus one.

In case of a dramatic failure (botch!) the kindred is unable to control the power of his Patriarchal Deity and the full manifestation is released inside of him causing aggravated damage that can only be absorbed with Fortitude, blood rituals effects and other forms of True Magick.

The Mystical energy of the dragon's breath dissipates at the end of the turn, causing no further damage but leaving behind it's effects, such as burning clothing or frozen exposed blood until they fade naturally.