Cattiveria

**Prerequisite: Bloodline:** Sangiovanni

**Linked Themes**: Transmutation and Protection

**Motifs**: Morbid, Perverse, Ceremonial

**Cost**: 1 Vitae per ritual level, must have access to a place to prepare dead bodies (Status: Lancea Sanctum 1, Status: Health 1, Safe Place 1 or Haven 1.)

## Motifs

Cattiveria is **Morbid** – The Sangiovanni practice a sort of medieval fascination with death. Death is the great equaliser—laying low kings and beggars alike. Death is not the end; instead death is a great renewal, purifying the soul and liberating the mind. A Sangiovanni is likely to lug around 'memento mori' or pose their dead relatives for family pictures as in Victorian times. Their rituals are similarly-themed, involving skulls and candles to symbolise the passing of time, funeral flowers, caskets, and of course—the star of the show—corpses, in varying stages of decomposition.

Cattiveria is **Perverse** – If Cruac is corrupting, then Cattiveria is perverse. There is just something about the discipline that taints practitioners with the foul stench of death. Cattiveria is about the desecration of life, the violation of taboos. It is the offerings made to dark, nameless gods of death and decay. It is those too-intimate gestures or that loving kiss on a corpse dug out of the grave before bringing it back to life.

Cattiveria is **Ceremonial** – Burial rites are an integral part of the human psyche, and humans—before they knew how to farm, or read, or write—had felt the need to bury their dead with elaborate ceremonies. The power that comes from these rites are reversed by Cattiveria, to drag the deceased out of their graves, trapping their soul in shambling husks instead of laying them to rest. Cattiveria has a ceremonial aspect that mirrors the mortal rites—different methods of preservation and embalming, funeral masks, holy prayers, and/or coins and other occult trinkets laid on the dead.

## Themes

**Creation**

Creation is for the living, so say the Sangiovanni. Creation is unnatural for those who are so bound by death. In truth, Creation-based Cattiveria is like the “special” cousin who lives in the attic—not to be talked about in polite company. Frankenstein creations stitched together from a multitude of corpses is just not the sort of thing the Sangiovanni want others to associate with the clan. Apart from that, Creation is the theme used to summon corpses from the earth, though unless the sorcery prepares the earth, rituals like this fall into the “Improvised” category.

**Destruction**

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Like death, Cattiveria can unmake matter. The Sangiovannis in Venice weathered centuries of persecution; to survive they developed direct, aggressive ways to harm their enemies. Wounds caused by the Sangiovanni become necrotic and putrefied. They decay gradually over days, becoming odourous and infested with flies and maggots.

**Divination**

Divination starts with the Y-incision—two cuts from the shoulders to the base of the sternum, and one cut from the sternum to the pubis. Cut the ribs along the costochondral junction and pry open the chest plate, and observe the heart and lungs, wrapped up in a pale, vascular membrane. With the autopsy, all the secrets of the once-living being is laid bare, plain as day for the ritualist to see. On top of the Mortician's Appraisal, the ritualist may ask the Storyteller as many questions as he has successes. The ritualist may even read their corpses like tea leaves, deciphering strange patterns and seeing symbols in the shape if its entrails.

**Protection**

To the Sangiovanni, preserving a corpse is not all that different from closing a wound for a fellow Kindred. They are all dead bodies, after all. Necromancers tend to have an endless supply of skin grafts and spare organs, knit together by ectoplasm to heal the more grievous wounds. For the zombies, out come the formaldehyde (or natron, for the traditionalists), mixed with Vitae to stave off decomposition for another day.

**Transmutation**

Death is but one part of a cycle—transmutation in flesh and bone—and the necromancer harnesses the power of death to fuel their dark conjurings. The rituals are sombre affairs, steeped in ceremony. The body is exhumed and prepared for the ritual, usually by grooming, bathing it in oils, and wrapping it in white linen. The veins are then drained and filled with a mixture of embalming fluid and vitae.

## Rolls

Extended.

 **Transmutation** | Intelligence + Occult + Transmutation

### **Modifiers**

Downtime can be converted to modifiers for this roll. It represents the ritualist spending time to prepare for the ritual.

 2 Dt
 3 Dt

**Other Modifiers**

 -5
 0
 0
 -1 to -3
 0 to +3

### **Target number of Successes**

Calculated by:

Theme dots + Area of Effect + Duration + Number of Targets + Potency + Range + Size of Target

Click here for the chart. It is not necessary to factor in every component in your roll.

## **Rituals**

### **Level 1**

#### **Cadaver Preservation**

*Homebrewed*

Themes: Protection 1

Activation roll: Resolve + Medicine + Protection

Allows the mortician to preserve the current state of a corpse for as long as the ritual is active. The corpse does not decay, and if applied within a few minutes of death, the corpse can remain warm and pliant, lingering with the echoes of life. Understandably, this is a favourite ritual among the Sangiovannni.

After the Duration of the ritual, the corpse begins to decay at an accelerated rate, catching up to its normal stage of decomposition within a few hours. To preserve a corpse indefinitely, another instance of the ritual can be cast before the first instance ends. When preserved cadavers are used for the ritual “Shuffling Porter”, they are considered altered and after the ritual ends, cannot be affected by another instance of Cadaver Preservation again.

#### **Death Rattle**

*Homebrewed*

Themes: Transmutation 1

Activation roll: Intelligence + Occult + Transmutation

The Sangiovanni can impart a message through a dead body. The body must have a human, and more or less intact jaw—even a skull will do. Vampires are not affected by this ritual.

The ritualist places a coin in the corpse's mouth, etched with the unholy message. The corpse can be animated with “Shuffling Porter” to seek out its intended recipient, or they can be made to respond to a trigger, such as “when the Prince walks into the room”. When activated, the corpse, in between gasps and moans, will choke out a few words intelligible to the recipient and any bystanders. Corpses affected by the ritual have the ability to verbalise four or five words or one simple sentence.

### **Level 2**

#### **Shuffling Porter**

Themes: Transmutation 2

Activation roll: Intelligence + Occult + Transmutation

Cost: Base Vitae, and 1 Vitae per additional corpse

Shuffling Porters have an effective rating of 1 in all Physical Attributes and 0 in all Social and Mental Attributes, and they have no Abilities. Their Defense is 0, and their Speed is 2. Their initial Health rating is equal to Ritual Potency, and they take one level of lethal damage every hour as they rot. When the lethal damage they take equals their Health rating, they collapse into a mass of rotten flesh and cannot be animated again. Until collapsing, the animated corpse suffers no wound penalties.

### **Level 3**

#### **Ectoplasmic Manifestation**

Themes: Protection 3, Creation 1

Activation roll: Resolve + Medicine + Protection

Heal one level of lethal damage (or two levels of bashing damage) in a Kindred body or other animated corpse (such as a Shuffling Porter).

One lethal or two bashing damage is healed per turned. The number of turns that healing can take place is equal to Ritual Potency.

### **Level 4**

#### **The Predator's Bequest**

Themes: Transmutation 4

Activation roll: Intelligence + Occult + Transmutation

Cost: Base Vitae, and 1 Vitae per additional corpse

Before this power can be used, the target corpse must be animated as a Shuffling Porter, above.

The animated corpse is empowered and becomes more capable and more dangerous than a normal Shuffling Porter. The corpse’s Strength and Stamina rise to 4 each (adding 3 to its Maximum Health rating as well), and its Intelligence and Wits rise to 1 each. The corpse gains one dot of the Brawl Ability, with a specialty in Grappling. The corpse can comprehend more complicated commands, and will be imbued with the predatory nature of its master, who it will guard with fierce loyalty. Shuffling Porters gifted with the Predator’s Bequest stop taking damage from accelerated rot, and can only be destroyed by violent means. They do not heal damage naturally, requiring the application of ectoplasm for repair.

### **Level 5**

#### **Ultimo Respiro**

Themes: Destruction 5

Activation roll: Wits + Science + Destruction vs. Resolve + Blood Potency

The target, which must be some form of walking dead, takes one point of lethal damage per success rolled. The plasm that evacuates the body leaves agonizing burns in its path, searing whorls and loops of tissue before vanishing. Characters with Auspex may see the plasm whip out of the victim’s body, curling and dissolving in the air around him.