The Beast speaks of a feral world, a world red in tooth and claw. It croons a story of terror and hunger, of violence and lust. At least, most do. The Beasts of the Machinists tell a tale of a very different world, one of rust and rot and inhuman machines. They have taken on the stylings of depraved machine-spirits instead of predatory beasts, and the Machinists reflect this fact.
The Machinist "Bloodline" is in actuality several bloodlines, running through the Gangrel and Mekhet; there are some among the Ordo Dracul that believe that the Machinists are an adaptation to the new wilderness Mortals have created since the Industrial revolution and proliferation of the computer, and that similar adaptations will soon arise throughout the other clans. After all, they seem almost... easy to develop, as can be attested by how they've been independently "developed" several times in the last 50 years. Some mutter darkly that someone (or something) must be ensuring that the Bloodline is discovered, but that's just paranoia.
Isn't it?
Bloodline Name: The Machinists
Alternate Names: Sons/Daughters of Steel, Tamers of Iron (Both), Machines (Gangrel), Everyone's Watchers (Mekhet), Gearheads, Camera Eyes (Both; Insulting), Tin Men (Gangrel; Insulting), The NSA (Mekhet; Insulting)
Parent Clan: Gangrel or Mekhet
Bloodline Disciplines: Animalism, Obfuscate, Protean, Resistance (Gangrel), Animalism, Auspex, Celerity, Obfuscate (Mekhet)
Bloodline Bane:
Machine-Bound
Machinists can't hide from their blood, or from machines; in addition to retaining their original Clan Bane, a Machinist loses the Lost Visage altogether. In addition, the Tamer of Iron gains the Delusional condition, reflecting their all-consuming conviction that machinery is alive and hungry and hateful.
Bloodline Gift:
Oil In The Blood
The Tamers of Iron live up to their name in more ways than one; firstly, their Kindred Senses extend to machinery in additional to living creatures, hearing motors and gears like heartbeats, seeing oil drops like bloodstains, and smelling grease as if it were blood. Secondly, they may consume liquid fuel without harm or regurgitating it, treating it as if it were dead animal blood for the purposes of regaining Vitae.
Finally, a Machinist's Disciplines all follow a more machine-like aesthetic than the normal "bestial" look. Most notably, a Tin Man's use of Predatory Aspect or Unnatural Aspect look more like jagged pieces of machinery imbedded in his flesh than a bestial transformation; however, this shift is present in all of their Disciplines, from the crackle of static commingled in their Auspex visions to the robotic way animals following their orders from Animalism behave.
Bloodline Devotions:
Blood of Repair (Resilience •)
Action: Instant
Cost: 1+ Vitae
Dice Pool: None
XP Cost: 2
Effect: The Machine hiding in their Blood allows the Children of Steel to somewhat extend their regenerative capabilities beyond their bodies. They may repair a machine with a bloody touch; each Vitae they spend repairs a single dot of Structure. If the Gearhead somehow increases how much Lethal damage they may heal per Vitae spent, they similarly increase the amount of Structure this Devotion repairs per Vitae.
Machines repaired by this Devotion have the requisite parts warped to reflect the vampiric nature of their repair; shiny steel is replaced by apparently rusty iron, and sterile white plastic becomes dingy and warped; this change does not impair the machine's functioning in any way.
Command The Iron Beast (Animalism •)
Cost: +1 Vitae
Dice Pool: None (Modifies Feral Whispers, Raise The Familiar, and Lord of the Land)
XP Cost: 4
A Machinist knows that machines have a certain... monstrosity to them. As such, they sometimes develop this Devotion so they can reach out and touch that metal and plastic monster.
This Devotion has a different effect depending on which Animalism power they are combined with:
Feral Whispers: When used in conjunction with this Devotion, Feral Whispers can target machines as if they were animals. A machine can only "perceive" sensory inputs for which they have sensors; a Gearhead could ask a security camera if it saw someone, or their car why it won't start. Turning itself off and refusing to turn on are always within a machine's capabilities; otherwise, it can perform any action it could take without an operator.
Raise The Familiar: When used in conjunction with this Devotion, Raise The Familiar can be used on a broken machine to turn it into a machine-familiar. A machine-familiar lasts as long as a "natural" familiar does, and forgoes any need for liquid fuel or maintenance for that duration. Otherwise, the benefits of Raise The Familiar are replaced with the following:
• The operator of a machine-familiar does not take any penalties to their rolls involving it due to lost Structure. A car familiar runs and handles just fine despite the lack of gas or back wheels.Lord of the Land: When used in conjunction with this Devotion, Lord of the Land produces a territory full of feral machinery. Machines unaffected by another Animalism power brought over the boundary stall or otherwise cease to function until they are taken out of the territory. Moreover, technology within the boundaries becomes intensely hateful; rolls involving machinery made within the territory that result in a Failure are automatically Dramatic Failures, with an emphasis towards physically harming the user. The Gearhead is immune to this effect.
• The machine gains a sort of pseudo-animus; the actions it can be requested to perform expand to include flipping switches, turning dials or wheels, pressing pedals, and using keyboards.
• The Gearhead who created the machine-familiar may target the machine with Feral Whispers without paying the Vitae surcharge; in addition, they may use Feral Whispers on the machine-familiar at any time, regardless of distance.
• The Machinist may use Feral Whispers to speak through any speakers the machine might have; if they do so, this speech uses their own voice.
Iron Evolution (Protean ••, Gangrel Variant)
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: None
Action: Reflexive
XP Cost: 3
The Sons of Steel know that their metal and plastic mutations are beautiful, heralds of a better tomorrow. As such, they have learned a way to make their "upgrades" more permanent.
This Devotion may only be used while Predatory Aspect is active; the Machinist bleeds a dab of blood and anoints one of his manifested adaptations with a dot of Vitae.
Any adaptation anointed in this way becomes a permanent part of the Machinist's body; it is not removed when Predatory Aspect ends, instead lasting until the Machine enters Daysleep, his undead physiology rejecting it the same way it rejects piercings and new scars. The Son of Steel may prevent this regeneration as normal, and may even render the adaptation a truly "natural" part of his body the same way he could a scar.
As long as this anointed adaptation remains on his body, the Machinist cannot change it out for a different adaptation; for better or worse, it is now a part of him.
Machine Invisibility (Obfuscate •)
Cost: None
Dice Pool: None
XP Cost: 4
These days, so much other than people are watching people; security cameras stand at every street-corner, and metal detectors stand at the entrances of schools and embassies. However, the Machinists are adept at telling technology not to look.
This Devotion modifies the entire Discipline of Obfuscate; whenever the Gearhead activates any Obfuscate power, they may choose to have it apply to just people or machines, or they can apply it to both. They could use Touch of Shadow to carry a gun through a metal detector, or Cloak of Night to allow an accomplice to walk through laser tripwires with no fear of setting them off. As a peculiar side effect, The Familiar Stranger, when modified by this Devotion, may be used to bypass biometric security systems, due to the system "recognizing" the character as someone with proper clearance.
Machine Rhythms (Celerity ••)
Action: Reflexive
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: None
XP Cost: 1
Effect: Everything has rhythms, from the beat of a heart to the thrum of a motor; it only makes sense to try to match the latter.
Once per turn, the Machinist may spend 1 Vitae to perform an Instant action to operate or repair machinery as a Reflexive action instead.
Querying Machine Memory (Auspex •, Mekhet Variant)
Cost: +1 Vitae
Dice Pool: None (Modifies Beast's Hackles, Uncanny Perception, and The Spirit's Touch)
XP Cost: 4
In this world of teleconferences and phone calls, one's "presence" extends far beyond their physical shell. The Duaghters of Steel are especially aware of this fact; after all, the machine senses of their Beast dwell heavily on this little... morsel of information. For the purposes of this Devotion, a recording is defined as any record of a past or present event that includes some sort of pictorial or aural component; a video, photograph, or phone call would count, a photograph or book would not.
This Devotion has a different effect depending on which Auspex power they are combined with:
Beast's Hackles or Uncanny Perception: When used in conjunction with this Devotion, both Beast's Hackles and Uncanny Perception may be used through a recording, with their effects dictated as if the Daughter of Steel was actually present in that scene; however, any answers she gets would be whatever the answers would be in that scene. She could notice an actor's drug addiction by watching a tape of their film debut, or spot the Ghoul sitting behind the mayor in a photograph of his inauguration.
The Spirit's Touch: When used in conjunction with this Devotion, The Spirit's Touch may be used to target a recording instead of the object that it is "encased" in, or to target files stored on a computer's hard drive instead of the computer itself. The latter use allows the Machinist to read, watch, or listen to any multimedia file on the computer in lieu of asking a question; this information is "viewed" in real time, so she should be prepared to wait.
Upon learning this Devotion, the Machinist adds 2 questions to the set they can ask with The Spirit's Touch; the latter may only be asked in conjunction with this Devotion.
• How has this been tampered with? The fresh coat of paint peels away. Cuts in recordings are heralded with screams.Unmarked Slab (Protean •) (Credit: Holy)
• Does this recording contain any references to [subject]? Mentions of sedition against the Prince are whispered by the device.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: None
Action: Reflexive
XP Cost: 2
Most Gangrel find the encroachment of construction and technology into the wilderness a detriment to their natural havens of soil. The Sons of Steel welcome these new urban wastelands as just another evolution. Rather than the embrace of deep earth and natural sands, the Machine gleans comfort from industrial warehouses and long stretches of highway. Especially popular are medical locations - morgues and hospitals where blood might be likely to spill. And then of course the machine-shops where Oil in the Blood is likely to function.
Effect: When using Unmarked Grave against artificial materials, the Machinist needs to only spend 1 Vitae to overcome all the durability of the the target ground, rather than 1 Vitae per Durability point. Cement roadways and metal slabs, plastic and artificial flooring - these all fall under the purview of the Tamer. Worked lumber and natural (even if carved) stone don't usually qualify without heavy modification that has significantly altered the original form.
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