Ghouls

A vampire’s blood has great power — power that can be passed on. Long ago, the Kindred discovered that mortals who drank vampiric blood would become possessed of supernatural abilities and dark appetites. Soon it became common practice for vampires to keep certain favored servants, fattening them on vitae, and blood bonding them in the process. In doing so, they created undying, hellishly loyal servitors — ghouls.

Most ghouls exist at the whim of their domitors (masters), serving loyally in exchange for vitae. As they are as susceptible to the blood bond as anyone, ghouls are almost without exception unfailingly devoted to their masters — and if the domitor has more than one ghoul servant, the result may be a jealous struggle between them for the domitor’s favor. A ghoul’s emotions run to extremes with the heady drug of vitae in his veins — such a creature often falls prey to great rages and disturbing cravings. The name “ghouls” was not chosen at random.

## **Types of Ghouls**

### **Vassals**

*“No, you listen to me. I don’t care who you are or who you’re with; the lady asked not to be disturbed. And she isn’t going to be. Capisce?”*

When most vampires think of ghouls, they picture the vassal. Many Cainites find it inconceivable to create ghouls for any other purpose; indeed, to most Kindred, any ghouls other than vassals are blasphemies. By and large, vassals are the “normal people” among ghouls. Most of them didn’t ask for their new power or immortality, although few complain too much once the blood bond takes effect. Scant few of them know even a quarter what a neonate does about Kindred society. Somewhere along the line, they were just singled out by something old and powerful, something that wanted another pair of hands. Although a vassal’s supply of vitae is pretty much assured, that’s really all she has to look forward to. In fact, she’d better be on her very best behavior if she wants to keep her liquid strength coming regularly. She also has to come to terms with the fact that she’s in love — truly, passionately, in a way she didn’t think she’d ever feel again after her first love left — with a person who treats her with passing kindness at best and draconian cruelty at worst.

The sad thing is that the great majority of vassals really have no idea what’s going on. They don’t know why they feel the way they do; they don’t know what’s in that miracle drink their new friend gives them. But they’re loyal, if for no other reason than they don’t want the magic to stop. They don’t want to go back to the monochromatic, tasteless lives they knew before. And you know what? Those are the lucky ones. Because once a ghoul’s been dragged to the other side of that mystery, once the Masquerade’s been broken, she exists entirely at the sufferance of her domitor.

### **Independents**

*“You know just us well as I do that you can’t do everything yourself, or have you forgotten that you’re exclusively nocturnal? Trust me, I’m reliable help, and my price isn’t hard to pay at all.”*

You think being a junkie is rough? Try doing it when the dealers want to shoot you on sight. An independent‘s road is a hard one. Kindred view these masterless ghouls as dangerous and uncontrollable, and a vampire very much mistrusts what he doesn’t control. Usually, the only recourse is to kidnap and kill vampires in order to gain their blood. Others serve vampires as freelance “help,” taking care of particularly nasty daylight problems.

Independent ghouls come from all places, but they put a bit of distance between themselves and ordinary people. They aren’t pawns; they do what they do deliberately. Usually, they’re orphans: A domitor dies, and his enemies are careless enough to let a servant or two get away. Sometimes the orphan’s been a ghoul for so long that he knows he’ll wither away to old age in a month if he doesn’t get some vitae. Desperation gets a lot of independents started down this road.

Of course, some independents have more complicated stories. Some may have stumbled across Cainite society accidentally, and eventually discovered the power that vitae contains. Others may have been cultists who discovered that there was a variety of blood that worked much better in rituals. Some few might even have been cannibalistic killers who picked an unusually strong victim, and learned the source of that strength. But even without the blood bond, the addiction remains, and only a handful of those who’ve tasted vitae never try to taste it again.

### **Revenants**

*“What? What’s wrong? You look… disconcerted. Please, don’t be. Come inside. I want you to meet the family. I think they’ll like you.”*

Revenants are ghouls for whom the condition has become hereditary, and who are capable of generating vitae within their own veins. These long-lived, decadent ghouls are almost always found in service to the Sabbat, but there are exceptions. All the perverse urges and dark drives that boil up in the average ghoul are magnified in the revenant. Revenants hold curious family revels, typically of the sort that involve debauchery, drugs, or victims (or all three). They see themselves as superior to humanity, and therefore exempt from society’s mores. Some worship vampires as virtual gods, while others aspire to vampirism themselves. Humanity, on the other hand, receives nothing but contempt from loyal revenant scions.

Revenants are a clannish, insular lot, and different families are unlikely to trust one another very much. In particular, the Grimaldis and Zantosas have feuded too often to consider each other friends. Although revenants work with ghouls from rival families when necessary, they rarely like it.

 When a ghoul character is Embraced, give them any Attribute and Ability points necessary to raise them to the starting values for vampires.
Backgrounds and Virtues are unchanged. Embraced ghouls also receive the same Discipline points as a starting vampire. They retain any Disciplines learned as a ghoul when they are Embraced, including Potence. They are now also able to teach those Disciplines, to the same extent as any other vampire.

## **Rules**

### **Revenants**

Revenants manufacture their own vitae, though they may drink vampire vitae as well. Revenants may spend their vitae normally and replenish their vitae supplies at the rate of one blood point per day. This renewal presupposes that the revenant in question is healthy and properly nourished.

### **Blood Bond**

Ghouls are still living beings, and so the mechanics of blood bonding them differ from those used to govern vampires. For a ghoul, a blood bond is not a sudden plunge into love, but a gradual slide into an emotional abyss.

After the first drink, a ghoul displays strong feelings toward the donor. There are no mechanical effects, but the feelings or the battle to suppress them should be roleplayed. Most independent ghouls, especially those dealing with charismatic or attractive Kindred, prefer to take one drink and move on.

After the second drink, things aren’t so simple; the ghoul is considered to be under an effect equivalent to a Vinculum score of 5 (see p. 289).

Ghouls with Willpower scores of 5 and below may have to make Self-Control rolls to avoid taking a third drink, and even ghouls with high Willpower scores may have to roll if (in the Storyteller’s opinion) the temptation to drink is strong. Unlike vampires, ghouls may actually “wean” themselves off a blood bond by refusing to accept blood from the domitor.

Kindred folklore claims that a year is required to become fully “emancipated.” In reality, the time required depends on the ghoul. After a “dry” period of 12 months minus one month per Willpower dot, a ghoul drops one level on the blood bond chart — for example, a ghoul who was fully bound is considered to be two steps toward being bound. Each such interval of withdrawal reduces the bond by one level, until the ghoul is “clean.”

However, it is by no means easy to abstain. At the Storyteller’s option, a ghoul may have to spend Willpower points to avoid the enticement of an ex-domitor’s vitae until she is completely free of the bond. If the ghoul has an addiction-prone personality, such as a Conformist or Child Nature, she may never completely shake the craving.

### **Disciplines**

Ghouls have much more difficulty learning Disciplines than Kindred do. The powers passed down from Caine reach their full potency only in his childer; they are alien to mere mortals. Generally, a ghoul may learn only those Disciplines known by her most recent “donor.” An independent wishing to learn Obtenebration must spend some time feasting on Lasombra vitae; similarly, a Malkavian’s vassal is unlikely to pick up Necromancy. However, once she’s learned a Discipline, any form of vitae will allow her to use it; revenants may even use their own vitae to fuel foreign arts such as Serpentis. The exceptions are the physical arts of Celerity, Fortitude, and Potence, which are instinctive enough to be accessible to any ghoul.

Once a ghoul has learned a Discipline, the knowledge will likely stay with her even if she doesn’t practice it for a while (if her vitae supply is cut off, for instance). Once her diet is restored, she may use her Disciplines as usual. Of course, any unused talent will eventually atrophy — after six months without drinking vitae, a ghoul loses a dot in a Discipline. Each month after that, she loses another dot in a Discipline until all are gone.

Most ghouls and revenants don’t understand the Kindred well enough to teach Disciplines to them.

### **Aging**

A ghoul’s immunity to aging is contingent on her supply of vitae. If she misses her monthly feeding, she could be in real trouble. As long as she is still within her natural life span, she resumes normal aging. But if she’s lived from 100 to 250 years, then she begins aging at 10 times the normal rate — a year becomes a decade, and so on. Ghouls who have lived more than 250 years crumble instantly to dust if their supply of vitae falters. On the other hand, elder ghouls gain some benefits — in many ways, such prolonged exposure to vitae transforms them into something not quite human.

Elder revenants gain additional “storage capacity” beyond their starting limit of two points. For each century of life, he gains one extra point in his blood pool capacity. Elder ghouls who are not revenants may also gain additional blood points, but at the rate of one per two centuries of life (so an 800-year-old ghoul has a Blood Pool of 6). Additionally, the difficulty to effect regeneration decreases by one per century (see below).

### **Healing**

Ghouls may heal using their blood pool, just as Kindred do. They can also regenerate limbs, though not automatically. To make a regeneration attempt, a ghoul must spend a Willpower point, spend an appropriate number of blood points (one for a finger or eye, two for a foot or forearm, three for an entire limb) and make a Stamina roll (difficulty 8). If the roll fails or is botched, the ghoul may never regrow the limb. Elder ghouls find regeneration easier: for each century of age, the difficulty of the roll decreases by one.

### **Frenzy**

It is the Storyteller’s duty to decide what situations might provoke frenzy in a ghoul character. While any individual stimulus is relatively unlikely to send a ghoul into frenzy, ghouls experience provocation much more commonly than vampires do. Ghouls’ human natures battle constantly with their Beasts, and most are not given instruction in how to prevent their pseudovampiric natures from taking over. However, since the Beast is weaker in ghouls, they typically face lower difficulties (usually, a ghoul’s frenzy difficulties are three lower than a vampire’s).

In order for a ghoul character to resist frenzy, the ghoul’s player must make a Self-Control roll, the difficulty of which varies. The player must score five successes before frenzy is overcome completely. With each success rolled, frenzy is staved off for one turn.

### **Clan Weakness**

A few Clans’ vitae possesses contagious properties. Ghouls imbibing or injecting five or more blood points over time from certain Clans must make a Stamina roll (difficulty 5) or “inherit” a lesser form of the domitor’s weakness; this lasts until the ghoul starts taking in blood from a different Clan, diluting the influence.

The Clans for which this rule most commonly applies are:

• Brujah: A ghoul “pumped” on Brujah blood frenzies at difficulties equal to those of a non-Brujah vampire.

• Follower of Set: Ghoul develops painful (-1 to dice pools) rashes when in direct sunlight.

• Malkavian: The ghoul gains a mild derangement.

• Nosferatu: Appearance drops by one or two points, but no lower than 1.

• Ventrue: Ghoul gains a marked preference for Ventrue blood, possibly endangering the domitor.

• Any Sabbat: No mandatory effect, but remember the possibility of contracting disease via the Vaulderie.

At the Storyteller’s discretion, vitae from other Clans or bloodlines may cause similar effects.

### **Overdosing**

Ghouls can take in more vitae than their mortal bodies can comfortably handle, but this often causes dangerous side effects. For each point of Stamina a ghoul has, she can “cram” an extra blood point into her body. If a ghoul imbibes more vitae than she can contain, she must make a Stamina check (difficulty 8). If she succeeds, she may use the excess blood normally.

If she fails, she suffers one point of lethal damage per blood point above her maximum. Moreover, the excess blood can’t be used. It takes a full scene of vomiting to burn off such “useless” blood points; until this takes place, the ghoul cannot use any blood points whatsoever.

While a ghoul is overdosed, her chance to frenzy becomes equal to that of a vampire’s, though certainly the ghoul will not hunger at this point. Reaction time increases (the ghoul temporarily gains a dot in Dexterity), but the overdosed ghoul must make a Perception + Self-Control roll each scene or suffer from violent hallucinations (effects are up to the Storyteller’s discretion).

### **Withdrawal**

Withdrawn ghouls suffer symptoms for a period of weeks equal to six minus the ghoul’s Stamina. Whenever the opportunity to gain vitae arises, the ghoul must make a Self-Control roll (difficulty 7) or attempt to “score” however possible.

Additionally, each week of withdrawal requires the ghoul to make an Intelligence + Self-Control roll (difficulty 6); if this roll fails, the ghoul begins to sublimate her cravings for vitae into a desire for human blood, flesh, or sex. A Willpower point may be spent to resist these cravings. If the roll is botched, no Willpower may be spent, and the victim must act on her urges.

## **War Ghouls**

The Tzimisce once crafted ghouls into shock troops and guardians. Some of these monstrous creations still exist tonight, waiting to be unleashed upon the enemies of the Fiends.

### **Szlachta**

These horrible creatures are the fleshcrafted minions of the Tzimisce. Many szlachta are lobotomized as part of the process, making them bestial creatures who understand only how to obey. Szlachta are typically twisted into nightmarish caricatures of living creatures.

The appalling alterations they undergo serve two purposes: First, they become more frightening, often a crucial edge in battle. Second, no szlachta may ever enter human society again. Without the temptation of flight, szlachta are among the most brutally loyal ghouls an unfortunate intruder may encounter.

 Social
 Mental
 **Flaws** | Monstrous

### **Vodhz**

Run.

These nightmarish leviathans are hybrids created from 15+ ghouls who have been grafted together through Vicissitude, Thaumaturgy, and Sabbat sadism. A lobotomized Vozhd is immune to Animalism, Dominate, and Presence; a sentient one (if the rumors are true) would be even worse.
Vozhd are rarely used in this age of media and Masquerade. When they are deployed, they are treated as walking bombs: Sabbat point them at their targets, then run for cover. Vozhd are omnivorous, eating anything in their path. Other ghouls are as tasty as mortals or vampires.