Gorgons

**Parent Clan**: Ventrue

**Disciplines**: Animalism, *Dominate*, *Protean*, Resilience

## **Bloodline Weakness**

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.

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.

## **Bloodline Gift: Serpentine Rapport**

* +2 bonus to all Animal Ken rolls involving snakes. This power replaces any pre-existing snake speciality. 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.
* 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 take the skills Auspex • and Auspex ••, and the Merit, Acute Senses (•). if their Regnant can teach it to them, as one of their fields of expertise.

## **Devotions**

### **Serpentine Union**

*Animalism • Protean • 1XP*

**Cost**: 1 Willpower

**Dice Pool**: Presence + Animal Ken + Protean

The Gorgon can absorb a snake into her own body. This power grants the Gorgon temporary use of the Merit: Acute Senses (•). The snake can be transmuted into an amount of Vitae equal to its Size. For mechanical purposes, this power can be used as temporary Herd dots equal to dots in Protean. The resource must be replenished after every draw with a new activation of Serpentine Union.

The Vitae can be transmuted back to snakes, equal in Size to the amount of Vitae expended per turn. As spending Vitae is a reflexive action, the Gorgon can release snakes from her blood as a reﬂexive action as well.

### **Arms of the Amphisbaena**

*Protean •• 1XP*

This power manifests as a version of the Protean •• power, Predatory Aspect. The Gorgon's hands are transformed into snake heads. This grants the Gorgon a bare-handed attack rating of 1L. At the same time, the Gorgon may also feed through her hands. She gains a +2 bonus to initiate the grapple, and if successful, she can draw up to two Vitae from a target in a single turn — one Vitae through her transformed hands and one through her mouth. The bite from the transformed hands does not grant any benefits of the Kiss.

The snake-hands also grant a +2 bonus to Intimidation.

### **Medusa's Venom**

*Protean •••• 2XP*

**Cost**: 1 Vitae

**Dice Pool**: –

**Action**: Reflexive

The Gorgon transmutes her blood into a paralytic or lethal toxin, with a Toxicity rating is equal to her dots in Protean. The venom must be introduced to the subject's bloodstream, such as through fangs or coated on a weapon.

This power can have two effects. Choose either one;

* The Toxicity is applied as penalty to subject's Strength or Dexterity. Successes on the resistance roll (Stamina + Resolve (or Blood Potency) – Toxicity) on the subject's part reduces the penalty by 1 per success.
* The Toxicity is applied as lethal damage once per turn for mortals, and as number of Vitae lost per turn for Vampires.

During combat, mortals take the Poisoned (Grave) Tilt, and thereafter must receive medical attention to end the Tilt, just as if they are suffering from snake venom. The Vampire must spend 3 Vitae to “cleanse” his blood of the venom. The blood spent to heal the poisoning cannot be used for any other purpose. If the Vampire's Vitae is completely depleted, he is also cleansed of the effect.

### **Body of the Gorgon**

*Protean •••• Dominate •••• 4XP*

**Cost**: 1 Vitae

**Dice Pool**: –

**Action**: Instant

The Gorgon transforms into a monstrous snake. 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 (except Intimidation) on subjects other than snakes and other Gorgons suffer a -5 penalty.

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 closecombat range of the target, however, and succeed at a raw Dexterity + Protean roll penalized by the target’s Defense and any other appropriate modiﬁers.

Body of the Gorgon amplifies the powers of Dominate, by making it reflexive for the Gorgon to apply the Mesmerized Condition. 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.

#### **Source**

*Circle of the Crone **p. 176-179** and **p. 186-188.***