Hey y'all ! I've recently gone back to my idea of a era spanning chronicle starting with mortals in Arthurian England and ending in modern day with players as ancients, and for the occasion I thought I'd dust off some bloodlines ideas that prospective players might find interesting, so here's the first one that I made a long time ago
The Cauquemars
The ones who watch you sleep
Most thinks of Kindred as parasite, undead leeches sucking the life out of the living, the Cauquemars would agree that most kindred fits this statement but not them !
They would argue that they're feeding habits are just payment for their services, and so what if the actual costumer never knows that an undead monster lives in his bedroom closet.
Most Nosferatu isolated themselves from humanity rather than suffer the effect of their curse on mortal, the Boogeymen integrated themselves into the very home of the kine and most do consider themselves part of the family they claim to protect.
Why you want to be us
Most Kindred wander through their Requiem without a purpose, not us, we have a sacred duty and the tools to uphold it, we're more than bloodsucking corpse, we offer clarity, power and more importantly we offer a point to your undead existence.
Why you should fear us
We know about the pale being in chains that come every night and try to suck the soul of the Prince mortal descendant, we know because we fend it off, and without us... well let's just say there would be quite a few less humans around come the following morning. Call it protection racket if you want, but we alone handle all the nasty things that come for your precious bloodolls and ghouls while you're too busy playing politics.
Why we should fear ourselves
We deluded ourselves into thinking we're better than the monsters we fight, but we're just a bit smarter than them in our predation, worse, our special power aren't free , if we fails our duty they're gone, and once all the pacts, protection and magic vanished, and then our competitor might want to give us a taste of our own medicine.
Origins
This story is true, when the world was young and kindred where hunted by kine and owls, when the Wild Hunt plagued the forest, when the sons of man hid their souls in vessel of clay.
One night, a group of monsters all wearing human guise, all from different village gathered in a clearing under the full moon.
A frail woman with the soul of a giant spoke first "I know what lurks in the dark at night, I am kin to nightmares and monsters, alas my body is still human and when sleep call I cannot protect my family from the things made of shadows and from those who would have my family killed" .
A tall man with hairs made of fire and eyes made of glass spoke next "I know what lurks past the thorny barrier, i escaped the clutches of the Fair Ones and made a pact with the sun to destroy them, alas while I hunt in the place between dreams, I cannot protect those dear to me"
A Wild shaman with fangs like a wolf spoke next "I am one of the People my duty is to hunt the spirit that break the sacred laws, but the herd hunt those of my blood and the owl comes at night to steal the life of my kin
Finally a shambling corpse rotten with maggots spoke : " Once I was alive and human, now I thirst for blood and safety, let us make a pact, Me and my progeny will slumber in your home, when the night comes, we will rise and defend your kin while you are resting and hunting, let the spirit comes, let the owls shriek, we will fend them off, we will be the monsters that teach your children to fear the dark while protecting them, in return, we ask nothing but for a bit of your blood and shelter from the sun"
This night, a pact was made between them, backed by otherworldly power, the Cauquemares were born.
Clan : Nosferatu
Nicknames : Boogeyman , creeps (derogative)
Bloodline ban : Cauquemares can only gain sustenance from the blood of a sleeping victim, even kindred vitae provide only half the sustenance it would normally gives, of course, a Cauquemares feeding from a vampire in torpor doesn't experience their ban
Disciplines : Vigor, Obfuscate, Nightmare, Protean
Bloodline gift : The pact, due to their ancient bargain, the Boogeymen are more than equipped to defend homes from otherworldly invaders, The pact is a series of merit available to all vampire who gains the first dot upon joining the bloodline, in addition, Cauquemares gains 8 again on rolls to remain quiet and hidden in rooms where at least one person is asleep.
The Pact • To •••
Prerequisite : Cauquemare
The forgiving sun (•) : The most basic of the gift in the arsenal of the Cauquemares allow them to sleep under the effect of any obfuscate level, further more, as long as they are sleeping where people have slept in the last 24 hours, they gain a temporary haven equal to their obfuscate dots as the champions of summer pleaded for Helios to avert his gaze from Boogeymen.
Weapons of the Dead Wolf (••)
Infused with the ancient power of a god of boundaries, the Cauquemare body becomes a weapon against the unseen, the Boogeymen can detect and physically harm with their natural weapons any ephemeral entities who has harmed or used a numina or influence on a Human in last 24 hours, they are considered to have the unnatural affinity merit for any such transgressor.
Nightmare Lock (•••)
The Cauquemare must guard the minds of his charges, by spending a point of vitae and drawing a bloody sigil on the forehead of his sleeping target, the vampire lay a trap in the mind of the target that will remain there for a week, next time someone or something try to use any form supernatural scrying or coercion. the Cauquemare is alerted and can reflexively spend a point of vitae and activate Face of the beast on the assailant, no matter how far they are.
Drawback : To maintain those powers, the Boogeymen must uphold his end of the pact and guard humans against the terrors of the night, if the Cauquemare hasn't repelled an assault or made sure an inhabited home is safe for a number of night equal to her Humanity - Blood potency she loose access to the merit until she spent a whole night defending a home.
Dream travel (Prerequisite Protean 5, obfuscate 2, nightmare 3)
The boogeymen have created a specific devotion to better monitor their charges, any kindred can learn this devotion for 5 experience, but Nosferatu under the tutelage of a Cauquemare can learn it for 3 point of experience.
Cost: 3 vitae
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Occult + Protean - composure
Action: Instant
Duration: Instant
Dramatic Failure: The Vampire stirs an ancient Nightmare creature, Use the rules for Strix creation of Shadow potency 2 but assume the Nightmare is materialized
Failure: The mind of the mortal rebukes the unnatural assault
Success: While the Cauquemare is touching a sleeping victim, he can spend 3 point of vitae and spend one turn focusing on another sleeping human that he fed from, the vampire knows instinctively if the target he's trying to reach is sleeping or not before he has to spend vitae, when both he target are sleeping, the vampire can transform his body into dream-stuff and travel the dreaming minds of his victims to appear right where his target is provided it's within Miles*Blood potency+1
Exceptional success: The Vampire can instead travel to any asleep blood relative of the victim regardless of distance
This devotion takes a toll on the mind and any human subjected to it gains the Lethargic condition for the following day and must make a Integrity roll as the pure essence of fear that is the Nosferatu's beast leave its marks on the soul.
The Cauquemars
The ones who watch you sleep
Most thinks of Kindred as parasite, undead leeches sucking the life out of the living, the Cauquemars would agree that most kindred fits this statement but not them !
They would argue that they're feeding habits are just payment for their services, and so what if the actual costumer never knows that an undead monster lives in his bedroom closet.
Most Nosferatu isolated themselves from humanity rather than suffer the effect of their curse on mortal, the Boogeymen integrated themselves into the very home of the kine and most do consider themselves part of the family they claim to protect.
Why you want to be us
Most Kindred wander through their Requiem without a purpose, not us, we have a sacred duty and the tools to uphold it, we're more than bloodsucking corpse, we offer clarity, power and more importantly we offer a point to your undead existence.
Why you should fear us
We know about the pale being in chains that come every night and try to suck the soul of the Prince mortal descendant, we know because we fend it off, and without us... well let's just say there would be quite a few less humans around come the following morning. Call it protection racket if you want, but we alone handle all the nasty things that come for your precious bloodolls and ghouls while you're too busy playing politics.
Why we should fear ourselves
We deluded ourselves into thinking we're better than the monsters we fight, but we're just a bit smarter than them in our predation, worse, our special power aren't free , if we fails our duty they're gone, and once all the pacts, protection and magic vanished, and then our competitor might want to give us a taste of our own medicine.
Origins
This story is true, when the world was young and kindred where hunted by kine and owls, when the Wild Hunt plagued the forest, when the sons of man hid their souls in vessel of clay.
One night, a group of monsters all wearing human guise, all from different village gathered in a clearing under the full moon.
A frail woman with the soul of a giant spoke first "I know what lurks in the dark at night, I am kin to nightmares and monsters, alas my body is still human and when sleep call I cannot protect my family from the things made of shadows and from those who would have my family killed" .
A tall man with hairs made of fire and eyes made of glass spoke next "I know what lurks past the thorny barrier, i escaped the clutches of the Fair Ones and made a pact with the sun to destroy them, alas while I hunt in the place between dreams, I cannot protect those dear to me"
A Wild shaman with fangs like a wolf spoke next "I am one of the People my duty is to hunt the spirit that break the sacred laws, but the herd hunt those of my blood and the owl comes at night to steal the life of my kin
Finally a shambling corpse rotten with maggots spoke : " Once I was alive and human, now I thirst for blood and safety, let us make a pact, Me and my progeny will slumber in your home, when the night comes, we will rise and defend your kin while you are resting and hunting, let the spirit comes, let the owls shriek, we will fend them off, we will be the monsters that teach your children to fear the dark while protecting them, in return, we ask nothing but for a bit of your blood and shelter from the sun"
This night, a pact was made between them, backed by otherworldly power, the Cauquemares were born.
Clan : Nosferatu
Nicknames : Boogeyman , creeps (derogative)
Bloodline ban : Cauquemares can only gain sustenance from the blood of a sleeping victim, even kindred vitae provide only half the sustenance it would normally gives, of course, a Cauquemares feeding from a vampire in torpor doesn't experience their ban
Disciplines : Vigor, Obfuscate, Nightmare, Protean
Bloodline gift : The pact, due to their ancient bargain, the Boogeymen are more than equipped to defend homes from otherworldly invaders, The pact is a series of merit available to all vampire who gains the first dot upon joining the bloodline, in addition, Cauquemares gains 8 again on rolls to remain quiet and hidden in rooms where at least one person is asleep.
The Pact • To •••
Prerequisite : Cauquemare
The forgiving sun (•) : The most basic of the gift in the arsenal of the Cauquemares allow them to sleep under the effect of any obfuscate level, further more, as long as they are sleeping where people have slept in the last 24 hours, they gain a temporary haven equal to their obfuscate dots as the champions of summer pleaded for Helios to avert his gaze from Boogeymen.
Weapons of the Dead Wolf (••)
Infused with the ancient power of a god of boundaries, the Cauquemare body becomes a weapon against the unseen, the Boogeymen can detect and physically harm with their natural weapons any ephemeral entities who has harmed or used a numina or influence on a Human in last 24 hours, they are considered to have the unnatural affinity merit for any such transgressor.
Nightmare Lock (•••)
The Cauquemare must guard the minds of his charges, by spending a point of vitae and drawing a bloody sigil on the forehead of his sleeping target, the vampire lay a trap in the mind of the target that will remain there for a week, next time someone or something try to use any form supernatural scrying or coercion. the Cauquemare is alerted and can reflexively spend a point of vitae and activate Face of the beast on the assailant, no matter how far they are.
Drawback : To maintain those powers, the Boogeymen must uphold his end of the pact and guard humans against the terrors of the night, if the Cauquemare hasn't repelled an assault or made sure an inhabited home is safe for a number of night equal to her Humanity - Blood potency she loose access to the merit until she spent a whole night defending a home.
Dream travel (Prerequisite Protean 5, obfuscate 2, nightmare 3)
The boogeymen have created a specific devotion to better monitor their charges, any kindred can learn this devotion for 5 experience, but Nosferatu under the tutelage of a Cauquemare can learn it for 3 point of experience.
Cost: 3 vitae
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Occult + Protean - composure
Action: Instant
Duration: Instant
Dramatic Failure: The Vampire stirs an ancient Nightmare creature, Use the rules for Strix creation of Shadow potency 2 but assume the Nightmare is materialized
Failure: The mind of the mortal rebukes the unnatural assault
Success: While the Cauquemare is touching a sleeping victim, he can spend 3 point of vitae and spend one turn focusing on another sleeping human that he fed from, the vampire knows instinctively if the target he's trying to reach is sleeping or not before he has to spend vitae, when both he target are sleeping, the vampire can transform his body into dream-stuff and travel the dreaming minds of his victims to appear right where his target is provided it's within Miles*Blood potency+1
Exceptional success: The Vampire can instead travel to any asleep blood relative of the victim regardless of distance
This devotion takes a toll on the mind and any human subjected to it gains the Lethargic condition for the following day and must make a Integrity roll as the pure essence of fear that is the Nosferatu's beast leave its marks on the soul.
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