Gorgons

== Gorgons ==
I am a queen, heir to the great blood of Medusa. Look upon me and bask.
They are ancient and new again. They are the old and the young. They are regal and they are filthy. Gorgons claim descent directly from the immortal gorgons, Stheno, Euryale and the infamous Medusa, the mythological monster herself. As the Gorgons tell it, Medusa an ancient vampire Embraced by the gods, such that her blood was a mix of the earthly and godly. When she perished at the hands of Perseus, her body was fed upon by her ladies-in-waiting, who were lowly, terrestrial vampires but nonetheless queens among their kind. These were the first of the Gorgon bloodline of the Kindred.
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In the ancient nights, before the Camarilla rose or fell, the Gorgons were monarchs among the Damned. They ruled the nighttime palaces of numerous Mediterranean cities, spreading this brilliance and authority as far as Turkey, Egypt and Iberia. For centuries they were loved, celebrated and feared among their kind.
What caused their glory to wane is unclear. Some blame the waning power of the Olympian gods. Others point to the gradual collapse the human civilizations on which Kindred society was built. Whatever the true cause, a near-extinction of the Gorgons took place as rival Roman bloodlines swept in and conquered the Gorgons’ cities. Those Gorgons who survived slipped into the earth to wait out the ages.
After the fall of the Camarilla and the Roman Empire, the Gorgons emerged again, crawling through the cracked floors of the Byzantine cities that had sprawled over their heads. For decades the Gorgons flitted about among the illustrious pillars of human and Kindred society in Constantinople and throughout the Mediterranean. In time, they spread to the west, seeking out palaces and hidden havens in the empty vaults beneath the earth of what would one night be Italy, France and Spain.
It was during these nights that the Gorgons first allied themselves with the Circle of the Crone, they say. These serpentine queens seemed to be a natural fit, as the undead descendents of demigods, and soon Gorgons were figureheads in a handful of Acolyte domains.
But it didn’t last. Within a few decades, most of the Gorgons disappeared again. By the time of the Renaissance they had vanished from Europe. Accounts of Gorgons still haunting Kindred courts in the Near East were thought to be legend. Where had the Gorgons gone? What had driven them off — or lured them away? In the 19th century, Gorgons emerged once again into the glittering lights of Kindred society. But were these the same Gorgons, from the same bloodline, as those who had been ambassadors for the Acolytes hundreds of years ago? Were these the same that had ruled Kindred cities in ages past?
Modern Gorgons claim that they are, in fact, the same bloodline, suspended in places, it’s true, but unbroken yet from the day of Medusa’s death to this night. Who can say if this is true? Whether modern Gorgons are a new Medusa-idolizing family of the undead or an ancient lineage of demigod daughters, they are here now.
In the past hundred years or so, the Gorgons have taken their association with the Circle of the Crone for granted. Though many Gorgons came onto the scene in the 1800s expecting to find that the Acolytes had saved their seats for them, the truth is that the modern nights have much more appeal for these Damned debutantes than the appeal of dead goddesses and hungry gods. For the Gorgons, ancient gods are old hat, after all — just a part of the family tree. As Lords by blood, Gorgons are more interested in reclaiming stature and authority, in bringing cities back under their rule.
The modern approach of these Gorgons casts a great deal of doubt on the legends of the ancient Gorgons, however. Tonight’s Gorgons seem to have little interest in genuine power and authority. Instead, many seem content to be puppets for real politicos just so long as they can keep their posh suites and sit on the thrones that they feel are rightly theirs.
Sister Bloodlines and Houses
Two other Kindred lineages associate themselves with the Gorgon bloodline’s interpretation of their familial myth. These are not mystic bloodlines — they incur no additional weakness and unlock no unique Disciplines — but are simply Ventrue families that exalt the mythological gorgons. These two families draw their names from the immortal sisters of Medusa, Stheno and Euryale. The defining quality of each family is their dedication to mastering mystical physical powers of the Damned from other clans. The Stheno family learns Vigor as a matter of custom, while the Euryale line studies Celerity. Historically, Stheno is known as “the strong” and Euryale as “the wide-ranging.”
Kindred of other familial lines and clans who serve Gorgon masters (be they Princes, Regents or something else) may associate themselves with the Stheno or the Euryale “houses,” provided they can demonstrate proficiency with vampiric strength or speed, and thereby be of some use to their Gorgon leaders. In game terms, the Stheno and Euryale families may grant some characters access to City or Clan Status through their mastery of Vigor or Celerity. In this case, such characters can gain Status dots equal to their dots in Vigor or Celerity minus one, provided they promise to serve their patron family in time of need. Such service might include:
• Three nights of protection (or battle) to an elder per month.
• Two tastes of Vitae for an elder.
• 300 miles of travel per year for deliveries, errands, escorts and scouting.
• 300 hours of manual labor without pay each year.
Parent Clan: Ventrue
Nickname: Medusas, though locally more often known as Coatls
===Covenant ===
Though the Gorgon bloodline is supposedly much older than the Circle of the Crone, it owes its modern incarnation to the covenant and its members do not forget it. Gorgons, in the few cities where they do reside, are nobility among the Acolytes. Their infamous, even legendary, blood grants them a great deal of celebrity within the covenant. Often, thanks to the Gorgons’ propensity for posturing and attention getting, this celebrity extends well outside the covenant, too.
Celebrity isn’t the same as respect. Gorgons may achieve great Status within the Circle of the Crone, but they are not truly more likely to do so than any other Ventrue. What a Gorgon’s celebrity does afford her is a valuable visibility, which can be useful to any covenant. Though, typically, most Gorgons with ties to other covenants operate more as Acolyte lobbyists than actual members of other covenants, Gorgons have avoided sparking a backlash against the disloyality of individual Medusas. Noteworthy Gorgons exist in every covenant — especially the Invictus and the Ordo Dracul — from Moscow to London and Amsterdam to Cairo. Though she is the only Gorgon most of her kin can cite, one noteworthy Medusa even became a Bishop of the Lancea Sanctum in Constantinople in the 18th century. (This Medusa, if she ever truly existed, has been in torpor since at least 1780, however.)
In the Americas, the Gorgon bloodline is not only rarer but more strict in its loyalty. Common speculation is that the distance of the Gorgon heyday in both years and miles has given American Gorgons ab monumental prestige among New-World Acolytes that is too fervent to risk betraying. In North America, especially, Gorgons are seen as too emblematic of the Circle of the Crone to be allowed into the service of other covenants. Naturally, a few Gorgons still manage to mix among the glitterati of the American Invictus, either by hiding their loyalty or their lineage.
===Appearance ===
Gorgons draw their members from throughout the world. Despite what many Acolytes think, it seems that most of the world’s Gorgons come from North Africa and Persian lands, with the rest of the Mediterranean trailing behind. Gorgons throughout history have been male and female, but tonight the echoes of academic feminism keep male membership low; few try to join the lineage, fewer still are accepted.
Many Gorgons present themselves with an odd mixture of peasantry and pageantry, wealth and filth. A clean white dress gets thrown on over skin caked with mud. Precious jewelry decorates dirty hair. Though some Gorgons consider themselves masterful enchantresses and benders of mortal will, few position themselves outside the reach of “earthly souls” or common folk. They hunt where there’s dirt and relax where there’s not.
No one thinks of the Gorgon line without thinking of snakes. In practice, however, Gorgons don’t dress themselves in cobras. Instead, a single viper coils around one arm, appearing almost like jewelry, or an asp bites its own tail around a Medusa’s neck. All this supposes the Gorgon is able to find a snake worth showing off to other Kindred, and risking mortal attention for.
Wearing a snake in the hair is a privilege for elder Gorgons or Medusas with some status in the Circle of the Crone. A young or unimportant Gorgon with a snake in her hair is liable to be labeled ignorant, an upstart or a poseur. This isn’t some familial policy, it’s custom. A Gorgon can get away with wearing a so-called serpentine crown when her peers and her betters let her do it without hassle or shame.
===Haven ===
Most Gorgons nest less like their monstrous namesake snake-women and more like the Ventrue they are. Secure marble rooms in cold but richly appointed penthouses are more common than caves. Still, one common thread seems to run through the spaces beloved by many Gorgons: stone. Gorgons seem to prefer the security of solid rock, whether it’s marble, cement, flagstone or brick. The seams of polished concrete condos may hide the secret doors leading to sunless crypts. The light-proof insides of renovated chimneys hide coffin-sized nests. Marble columns contain secret spiral staircases leading down to gloomy grottos.
Rumor has it that Gorgons let poisons snakes wander freely in their havens, and at least a few well-known account give credence to those tales. Whether the rumors are true because its an old Gorgon tradition or whether modern Gorgons have taken up the practice since hearing the rumors seems impossible to verify.
What’s known is that Gorgon havens in dank but elegant forgotten subway stations are likely to be prowled by asps, while the constrictor snakes coiled around the cold, raw metal girders in that Gorgon’s posh loft space are probably real. Thus, for Gorgons, Haven Security often amounts to the raw strength of stone materials — though it might also represent the peril of encountering hidden vipers.
Haven Size is important to Gorgons, who want the freedom to move about (and also hide) in their lairs. Haven Location may be important to some, but more for the prestige of residing within striking distance of coveted real estate (by Kindred reckoning). One well-known Gorgon, at least, met her Final Death by taking too much pride in the haven she kept in a choice feeding ground in Paris — it burned with her inside in 1956.
===Background ===
The majority of modern Gorgons are of Mediterranean descent, regardless of which continent they call home personally. The vast majority of Gorgons are women. These two characteristics are mistakenly thought by many to be inescapable facets of the bloodline, either because the Medusas are sexist elitists or because the mystic qualities of their blood simply won’t take effect among males or those not distantly descended from the Olympian gods. Both notions are rubbish. Gorgons may be of any race and either gender. Reports from a series of Kindred nomads in the 1990s suggested that a mix of male and female Gorgons are largely in control of the Primogen in Accra, Ghana, for example. Gorgons also share an insatiable desire for both attention and privacy. On the one hand, when they’re out in the night playing their part in the Danse Macabre, Gorgons starve for affection and attention. Some Gorgons are disgusting fame whores whose sole qualification for celebrity is wealth or shameless posturing. Others are elegant, dignified diplomats whose poise and measured behavior could make a bowling alley seem classy.
On the other hand, Gorgons are fiercely protective of their private spaces, where they lure their most precious vessels for fatal visits. Many Gorgons are, in fact, degenerate recluses, dwelling like asps in a pit rather than towering proudly like king cobras.
To want to join this bloodline, a person must have the desire to be a social ambassador or queen among orgiastic nobles, and yet the hidden capacity to be a filthy, monstrous hermit. Thus most modern Gorgons are indulgent, hedonistic and shallow party monsters who secretly despise those less beautiful or hip, just as they secretly despise themselves, who are so often hideous within.
===Character Creation ===
Social traits are almost always primary for a Medusa, with Mental traits a close second. Social Merits are especially valuable here. Barfly and Contacts can be excellent descriptors of a Gorgon’s widespread but shallow social relationships, while Herd describes the entourage of empty designer shirts that flit after a Gorgon’s cheap celebrity. Resources are essential to the Gorgons as well, though some Medusas weren’t born heiresses or royalty. Once accepted into the bloodline by a Gorgon Avus, however, every Medusa becomes wealthy to some extent, even if only by staying within the aura of thoughtless excess that radiates from the older Gorgons. As all Gorgons are the heiresses of Medusa, all expect to be truly wealthy one night.
===Bloodline Disciplines===
Amphivena , Animalism , Dominate , Resilience
Weakness: Gorgons suffer the weakness of their parent clan, the Ventrue: a –2 penalty to Humanity rolls to avoid acquiring derangements after failing a degeneration roll. In addition, all Gorgons are unable to escape the monstrous nature of their immortal ancestor, Medusa. Unlike their Ventrue cousins, Gorgons also experience a dependence on — and an unbreakable link to — the legendry from which they claim their power. All Gorgons suffer a unique form of the Power Fetish Obsession derangement (see p. 191 of Vampire: The Requiem). The Gorgon variant on this derangement is special in that it is mystically genuine — without a serpent in contact with her person, a Medusa suffers a –3 penalty on all Discipline dice pools and may not spend Vitae to augment Physical dice pools. This is a supernatural fact of the Gorgon Requiem and cannot be cured or bought off.
In addition, as the Vitae of a Gorgon grows closer to its ancestral state and further from its mortal origins, her physical body changes subtly. A Gorgon’s body adopts some oddly serpentine feature, usually no more than a stretch of scaly flesh, at Blood Potency 3. At this stage, the feature might be mistaken for scarification or masterful tattoo work. When her Blood Potency reaches 7, her whole body becomes dry and rough, like a snake’s, in a matter of nights. Her eyes catch the light like a cat’s, shining in the dark. Few Gorgons can bear to be seen after this transformation and retreat into hidden lairs or flee into torpor. Those who choose to remain active feel compelled to spend time in the alternate form afforded to them by their unique Discipline (Amphivena •••••, Body of the Gorgon). When a Medusa is in her haven or otherwise safely removed from the eyes of strangers, her player must succeed on a Resolve + Composure roll or the Medusa must activate the Body of the Gorgon power for the scene. At the Storyteller’s discretion, a Willpower point may be spent to forego the Resolve + Composure roll.
===Organization ===
Gorgons have little organization among themselves other than a generally elitist cliquishness. Most Gorgons have a sense of entitlement stemming from their lineage that drives them to associate themselves with only the most prominent, influential or coveted Kindred. Being brought into the Gorgon bloodline is something like being welcomed into a flock of popular girls — as a Gorgon you “don’t talk to people like them” and “don’t feed from their kind.” The Gorgons are, then, like the bitchy sorority matriarchs of some domains. Elder Gorgons and richer Gorgons have a de facto power over their kin, who may be regarded as little sisters or token ugly friends.
In other domains, however, the prestige and exclusivity of the Gorgons is both genuine (in that other Kindred truly do fawn over them) and deserved. These Gorgons are at the center of high-status coteries or in positions of authority because they are extremely capable and, in turn, attract other capable monsters into their orbit. These are the real heiresses of the bloodline, the ones for home nobility is matter of action, not of association. Elder Gorgons in these groups not only have power, but are bestowed more of it through the deference of their younger sisters, who may be regarded as students or ladies in waiting.
It has not been lost on many modern Acolytes that the essence of the Gorgon’s identity is no longer based primarily on faith, but ancestry and appearances.
===Concepts ===
Care-free heiress, crazy old wise-woman, exotic foreign firebrand, fearless corporate maven, high-priced elite assassin, Lady MacBeth with snakes, legendary monster behind the Prince, Mean Girl, seductive evil queen, self-important demagogue, skanky hard-drinking fashionista
==Amphivena==
The mystic power of the Gorgons takes its name from the Amphisbaena, the serpent with a head at each end of its body, which is said by some to have been spawned from blood that dripped from Medusa’s severed head. Some modern Gorgons claim to have encountered offspring of the Amphisbaena, whose young have spread as far as Delhi and London, if the legends are to be believed. The song of an amphisbaena (as any spawn of the Amphisbaena is called) is supposedly enchanting or maddening, depending on the harmony or disharmony of the two heads.
The Gorgons’ unique Discipline of Amphivena grants its user power over serpents and her own body. Some of these powers, when seen by other Kindred, have lead some to mistake Gorgons for an offshoot of the Gangrel clan. But while this Discipline grant a Medusa bestial, shape-shifting abilities, it’s ultimate aim is to empower her use of the other Disciplines inherited from the Ventrue clan.
===• Serpentine Rapport===
The fundamental power of the Gorgons opens the vampire’s intuition to the manners and mindset of serpents. Modern Kindred sometimes call this “unlocking the lizard brain.” This base, animal sensibility grants the vampire insight and affinities that improve her abilities with other Disciplines and Skills, all stemming from her rapport with and reverence for the serpentine mind.
Cost: None
Dice Pool: This power requires no roll to activate and is considered always “on.” The basic effect of this power simply augments the dice pools of other actions. In a way, this power might be considered a kind of universal Specialty in snakes of all sorts. This grants the vampire several general benefits:
• First, the Gorgon gains a +2 bonus on all Animal Ken dice pools involving snakes (except those used to activate other powers of Amphivena). If the Gorgon already has an Animal Ken Specialty in snakes, this power’s +2 bonus replaces it. This bonus applies to Animalism dice pools involving Animal Ken as well.
• The Gorgon is considered to have a “Snakes” Specialty in any suitable Skill in which she has dots of her own. For many Skills, this Specialty grants no real benefit (for example, a “Snakes” specialty in Politics is nonsense and “Snakes” are not a suitable Specialty for combat Skills). A “Snakes” Specialty in Survival, for example, can help a Gorgon locate snakes in the wild. The Storyteller is the final judge of when this “universal Specialty” applies.
• The Gorgon gains a +2 bonus on dice pools when using the Leashing the Beast Power (Animalism •••••) while she or her subject is in contact with a snake subject to (or created with) Serpentine Union (Amphivena ••).
• The Gorgon’s snake ghouls gain a heightened, intuitive awareness of their supernatural state. They may use Vitae to heal themselves and augment Physical dice pools. Plus, the Gorgon’s snake ghouls may learn and use Heightened Senses (Auspex •) and Aura Perception (Auspex ••) if their regnant can teach it to them; these are useful for Gorgons who use Subsume the Lesser Spirit (Animalism ••••) on their ghouls.
Action: N/A
===•• Serpentine Union===
After a Gorgon has attained her supernatural intuition for the serpentine mind she learns to develop a mystic bond with the serpentine form. To gain powers from a snake, she must first enhance its own mystic potency by projecting hers onto it. Through the use of this power, a Gorgon can then absorb the snake into her body, thereby gaining several potential benefits from it.
Cost: 1 Willpower point
Dice Pool: Presence + Animal Ken + Amphivena vs. Composure + Blood Potency (Blood Potency, in this case, is a stand-in for whatever supernatural trait a subject snake might possess as a result of strange magic or other effects)
Action: Instant, contested; resistance is reflexive. If the subject snake is the Gorgon’s thrall, resistance may be waived.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The Gorgon somehow mis-channels her mystic power. The target snake immediately turns on her, attacking with all its might until it is dead or out of her presence. The snake enjoys a +3 bonus to its initial attack roll from the Gorgon’s spent Willpower point.
Failure: The Gorgon fails to channel her power into the target snake. Her Willpower point is wasted.
Success: The Gorgon infuses some of her supernatural might into the body of the subject snake, thereby preparing it for a mystical union with her undead body. The Gorgon gains the benefits described below.
Exceptional Success: The character gains no special additional benefits above those described below.
Once a snake is prepared with a successful activation roll, the Gorgon swallows it to complete the union. As long as the snake stays within her, she gains a +2 bonus on all perception-related dice pools involving smell or touch; her tongue becomes visibly forked and her skin becomes dry and coarse. The Gorgon may also gain a +2 bonus to vision-based perception dice pools, but her eyes are visibly transformed into those of a snake during such actions. Finally, the Gorgon gains a +1 bonus to either her Dexterity or Strength, as decided when she activates the power.
An absorbed snake can also be transmuted into an amount of Vitae equal to its Size, without any of the usual potency loss associated with animal Vitae (see Vampire: The Requiem, p. 165), regardless of the Gorgon’s Blood Potency. This is an instant action. Once a snake has been consumed for Vitae, it can be transmuted back into a snake (or snakes) equal in Size to the amount of Vitae expended per turn. These conjured snakes are wholly mundane and not under the effects of Serpentine Union, though they may be subjected to any of the Gorgon’s Disciplines on subsequent turns. Transmuted snakes must leave the Gorgon’s body somehow, whether through the mouth or through cuts and slashes on her body.
Because spending Vitae is a reflexive action, the Gorgon can release snakes from her blood as a reflexive action as well. Thus she may loose tiny vipers from her body through a gash made in her gut by a fearsome witch-hunter, the snakes slipping out of her flesh where a mortal woman might bleed.
A Gorgon may only subject one snake to this power at a time. Once a snake has been digested into Vitae, the Gorgon looses any perception or Attribute bonuses derived from it. A Gorgon may only absorb (that is, swollow) snakes of a Size equal to or less than her own minus one.
If this power is used on a snake too large for the Gorgon to absorb, she may instead feed from the snake to gain Vitae on a one-for-one ratio to its Size, without any of the usual potency loss associated with animal Vitae, provided all such feeding is done within the same scene.
===••• Arms of the Amphisbaena===
Upon activation of this power, the Gorgon’s hands are transformed into grotesque lethal monstrosities like the heads of snakes. The precise effect varies from Gorgon to Gorgon; some grow curved, yellow fangs from the pads of their fingers while others open gaping pink mouths on their palms. Whatever the precise effect, the details are always serpentine. These bizarre transmogrifications evoke the image of the Amphisbaena itself — the two-headed serpent — and enable the vampire to menace foes, feed rapidly through terrible violence and, eventually, deliver perilous venom.
Cost: 1 Vitae per scene
Dice Pool: This power requires no dice pool to activate. The Gorgon’s hands transform through a silent act of will. Once transformed, however, her hands may hiss or spit (harmlessly) as if they were angry snakes. A Gorgon that has absorbed a snake using Serpentine Union may even taste the air with flickering tongues from her palms. At the Storyteller’s discretion, this power may grant as much as a +2 bonus to Intimidation dice pools; it should make normal dealings with mortals and unprepared vampires more difficult by a like amount. These transformed hands can be used to make bite attacks (using the Brawl Skill) that deal lethal damage. Each hand is considered to have a Damage rating of 1. A Gorgon doesn’t have to grab an opponent to bite with her hands if her goal is simply to deal damage. Each hand may be used for separate attacks, though this power doesn’t grant the vampire any special ambidextrous ability or associated fighting styles. If the Gorgon uses both hands in an attack, she gains the benefit of both hands’ Damage.
Should the Gorgon want to feed through her hands, she must achieve a grapple hold on her target first, using both hands. She gains the +2 bonus Damage bonus from her altered hands only to the attack roll, but not to rolls to contest the grapple. A Gorgon with Arms of the Amphisbaena active may draw two Vitae from a target in a single turn — one Vitae through her transformed hands and one through her mouth. (See Vampire: The Requiem, p. 165 for information on biting for damage or Vitae.)
A Gorgon’s transformed hands do not gain any of the benefits of the Kiss. Their bite is ferocious, tearing and terrible; the Amphisbaena’s teeth are not seductive. The wounds caused by transformed hands cannot be closed with the lick of a vampiric tongue.
The effects of this power last for one scene unless the Gorgon transforms her hands back prematurely. Reactivating this power requires the expenditure of another Vitae.
This power cannot be used simultaneously with Claws of the Wild (Protean •••) unless the vampire possesses the Claws of Amphisbaena Devotion, as well.
Action: Reflexive.
===•••• Medusa’s Venom===
After she learns to alter her flesh, a Gorgon learns to alter her blood. With this power, the vampire transmutes her Vitae into a mystic toxin, potentially capable of incapacitating or killing kine and Kindred alike. Aged Gorgons are rumored to have no Vitae in their bodies at all — only a vicious mixture of poisons.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Strength + Animal Ken + Amphivena
Action: Reflexive; resistance is reflexive.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The Gorgon fails so utterly to poison her Vitae that she in unable to use this power again for the duration of the scene.
Failure: The Gorgon fails to transmute her Vitae into poison, but may try again next turn.
Success: The Gorgon transmutes her blood into a paralytic or lethal toxin, as described below.
Extraordinary Success: The Gorgon transmutes her blood into toxin without any special benefit.
With a successful roll, this power reflexively transforms one of the Gorgon’s Vitae into poison. The power grants the character no special means to deliver the poison, however. It may be applied to a melee weapon with an instant action or delivered reflexively through a bite attack, however. Any toxin created through the use of this power must come into contact with a target’s blood, however, to be of any use.
When a Gorgon first learns this power, she is capableof afflicting targets only with a paralytic toxin. This toxin has a Toxicity equal to the Gorgon’s dots in Amphivena. This poison is resisted like any mundane toxin, except that it effects Kindred and kine alike. Damage suffered from this toxin is lost from the subject’s Strength, rather than his Health, and heals at a rate of 1 dot every 15 minutes. With the expenditure of three experience points, the Gorgon gains the ability to create a second toxin, which effects Dexterity rather than Strength.
By spending another three experience points, a Gorgon can also learn how to create a necrotizing toxin that deals lethal damage to living targets equal to its Toxicity. Against other vampires, this toxin destroys Vitae in place of causing lethal damage.
No matter how many Vitae a Gorgon can spend per turn, only one application of one type of toxin can be created each turn. A Gorgon can store a number of doses of toxin in her body equal to her Stamina. These toxins decay rapidly, however; each dose reverts to harmless water come dawn, when the Gorgon must vomit it out of her system. There is no way to store Gorgon venom to avoid this disenchantment.
Kindred victims of this power may substitute their Blood Potency for Resolve when resisting the effects of Gorgon venom. See the World of Darkness Rulebook for more information on poisons (p. 180-181) and Attribute damage (p. 43 and p. 167).
Suggested Modifiers
Modifier Situation
–1 Each previous attempt to use this power in the same night (successful or not). This penalty is cumulative.
Character is not in contact with a venomous snake when this power is used.
===••••• Body of the Gorgon===
At the height of her supernatural power, a Gorgon becomes a perilous, inhuman monster. With a bit of blood, her whole form changes, infused with the timeless, dreaded enchantment of the mythic gorgons. Her body is transformed into soft and scaly serpentine coils, her mouth becomes a fanged pit and her eyes cast a profane yellow glow. She becomes dangerous even to behold.
Cost: 1 Vitae per scene (plus 1 Vitae per turn for additional abilities)
Dice Pool: This power requires no roll to invoke. The transformation from a human shape to a monstrous one (or back again) takes one turn to complete. The Gorgon cannot take any action or even move during this time. While in her monstrous form, a Gorgon’s Size increases to 6, including her new tail. Her species factor for Speed becomes 8 (instead of the normal human factor of 5). The Body of the Gorgon spoils the vampire’s ability to interact with anything but snakes and other Gorgons, however. Attempts to use Animalism or Social Skills on subjects other than snakes and other Gorgons suffer a penalty equal to the Gorgon’s dots in Amphivena.
A vampire effected by Body of the Gorgon can attempt to spray Medusa’s Venom at a target with open wounds (meaning, in game terms, a target with one or more points of lethal or aggravated damage currently marked on his Health track.) The Gorgon must be within close combat range of the target, however, and succeed at a raw Dexterity + Amphivena roll penalized by the target’s Defense and any other appropriate modifiers.
The most profound aspect of the Body of the Gorgon, however, is doubtless its ability to amplify the powers of Dominate through a great and terrible mystic radiance. On her turn, a vampire transmogrified by the Body of the Gorgon can reflexively spend one Vitae to activate the Command or Mesmerize powers of Dominate against all onlookers. This reflexive use of Dominate puts the onus on subjects to look away from the Gorgon, rather than tasking her with achieving eye contact. The Gorgon must issue a single instruction to all onlookers, though each contests the action on his own as usual.
Onlookers must be able to see the Gorgon directly. Reflections and broadcasts do not carry her power, but simple filters like sunglasses offer no protection. At the Storyteller’s discretion, substantial visual interference between the onlooker and the Gorgon such as smoke or a waterfall can grant as much as a +5 bonus to the onlooker’s contested roll to resist these powers. The Body of the Gorgon persists for the remainder of the scene unless the vampire chooses to transform back to her normal form earlier.
Action: Instant