Escape death is the ability to spontaneously regenerate your
body completely at the brink of death, giving you the ability
to flee a situation, surprise an enemy, and avoid a quick and
dirty death.  

Escape death, however, can often turn quick deaths into long,
slow, painful ones.  Escape death is reactive to the weaker
beings (who need to escape death more).  The higher level you
are, the less likely it is to work. In addition, escape death
can work repeatedly -- it is not unheard of for vampires to
regenerate from death several times in a row.  Beings who
escape death do not pass on to the afterlife, and are fully
active unless they die again, in which case escape death may
not save them that time...