Diva
Grotus
The Nosferatu are the least human in appearance of all the clans. They look something like feral animals. Their smell and appearance are revolting - one could even say monstrous. They have long bulbous ears, coarse-skinned skulls covered with tufts of hair, and elongated faces covered with disgusting warts and lumps. After a mortal has been Embraced by a Nosferatu, the poor individual undergoes an exceptionally painful period of transformation. Over several weeks he slowly shifts from his mortal guise to his Nosferatu visage. In the beginning, the childe may revel in his newfound powers, but the pain and changes soon begin. It’s likely that the psychological trauma is more painful than the physical. Nosferatu only Embrace those mortals who are twisted in one way or another: emotionally, physically, spiritually or intellectually. They consider the Embrace too horrific to bestow on worthwhile human beings. By changing mortals into vampires, the sires hope somehow to redeem the childer. It is surprising how often this works. Underneath their grim exteriors, the Nosferatu are practical and mostly sane. It is said that the Nosferatu revel in being dirty and disgusting and do little to improve their appearance. Indeed they are cheerful in their squalor, especially when others are forced to enter their realm. Though their power of Obfuscate enables the Nosferatu to travel through mortal society, Nosferatu are not able to interact with it. They must therefore live apart. The habits that derive from such an existence extend even to their interactions with other vampires. Nosferatu avoid all contact, preferring their own solitary lives to the chaos of interacting with others. Though they do not interact with other vampires frequently, they do remain cognizant of the pulse of the city. Nosferatu often listen to the conversations of other vampires from hiding. They have even been known to sneak into a prince’s haven to discover the elder’s deepest secrets. If a vampire wants to know any information about the city or its immortal inhabitants, she need only speak with a Nosferatu. The Nosferatu do stay in contact with one another, and have developed a unique subculture among the Kindred. They play host to one another with the most elaborate politeness and gentility. They share their information among themselves, and as a result are probably the best informed of the Kindred.
Disciplines: Animalism, Obfuscate, Potence
Clan Advantage: The Nosferatu are the undisputed masters of the undercity. In any city where the Nosferatu have had a chance to set up shop, they will be able to enjoy several advantage by using the city’s sewer system. First of all, a portion of the city’s sewers are the sole property of the Nosferatu clan; no others can access this area without a Nosferatu guide, the use of powerful Disciplines or as part of the story. Attempting to do so will result in the character either getting lost, alerting the Nosferatu or setting off any number of traps or precautions taken by the sewer’s true masters. Furthermore, a Nosferatu standing near a sewer grate, manhole cover or the like may utilize it for the "Fair Escape" rule.
Clan Disadvantage: Because of their horrifying countenances, a Nosferatu may not initiate Social Challenges with others while her true visage is apparent. The exception to this is a Social Challenge involving intimidation or threatening an opponent.
Organization: Nosferatu tend to look out for each other and mingle little with others. They are united in spirit, with an established network, but seldom have formal clan meetings of any sort.
The Embrace: The Nosferatu Embrace is a brutal thing. In many ways it is more alienating than the Embrace of the Malkavians. One's body is one's most prized possession, and the disfigurement of the flesh inevitably has repercussions within the mind.
A typical transformation takes about a week. During the first night, the victim's body is wracked as the organs shrivel and veins harden in preparation for carrying the bilious Nosferatu vitae. The victim still looks essentially human, but the constant pain twists the victim's face into a perpetual grimace. The lust for blood surfaces during this time. During the second to fourth days, dead skin begins to coarsen and stretch, and bruises reminiscent of those caused by rigor mortis appear on the flesh (the blood-storing sacs are still developing). The childe's hair begins to fall out in patches, and the cartilage of the ears and nose collapses and distends.
The pain becomes truly excruciating by the end of the week. At this point, the childe's very bones gnarl and warp, and all semblance of humanity is lost. The agony reaches its peak at the climax of the transformation, when the skull suffers its changes - elongating, partially caving in, or flattening as the case may be. It is at this point that the Nosferatu realizes the extent of his transformation. Many Nosferatu do not survive the Change with their sanity intact. The pain and the shock of sudden deformity prove too much to bear. Such Kindred often become mindless brutes, and in Camarilla society, it is the sire's responsibility to hunt down her mad offspring and destroy it.
Merits and Flaws
The following Merits and Flaws may only be taken by Nosferatu characters, unless permitted by the Storyteller. At your option, certain vampires who have been subjected to the Tzimisce Discipline of Vicissitude might also display these physical anomalies.
Lizard Limbs (1pt Merit)
When your limbs are restrained or grappled, you may spend a Blood Point and make a Willpower roll (difficulty 8). If you succeed, you may "shed" a limb, leaving it in your opponent's grasp while you escape. The limbs may be regrown normally. If you shed enough limbs, you can escape nearly any bonds, though it is difficult to flee the scene of captivity when one has no legs.... Nosferatu with this Merit often use it for practical jokes (Let's shake on it...).
Long Fingers (1pt Merit)
Your fingers are unnaturally long and spidery. You gain one extra die to Dice Pools involving digital coordination or grappling.
Oversized Fangs (1pt Merit)
When you grew your fangs, you really grew 'em. Your fangs are enormous, snaggly things resembling cobra fangs or possibly even tusks. Your bite does one additional die of damage, and you may add one to your Intimidation Dice Pool.
Oversized Mouth (1pt Merit)
Your mouth is huge and you are able to open it to prodigious width. You may drink an additional two Blood Points from your victim each turn.
Disgusting (2pt Merit)
You have the ability to contort your body and face in all sorts of shocking and grotesque ways. You can drool blood, pop your eyes out to double their width, spontaneously grow and burst boils on your flesh, extend your tongue three feet out of your mouth, etc. In addition, you are an accomplished practitioner of the fine art of disgusting others, and take considerable pride in your ability to gross out anyone or anything. By concentrating for a turn and spending a Blood Point, you may will your body to do something vile, making a Wits and Intimidation roll (Difficulty of the opponent's Wits + Self Control). Each success on this roll subtracts one from the opponent's Dice Pool for any action taken next turn. (The opponent is so repulsed and horrified by your antics that concentration is broken.)
Slimy (2pt Merit)
Your skin secretes slime like that of a worm or mollusk. Opponents must score two more successes than normal to grapple you, and your difficulty to soak fire damage is reduced by one.
Swarm Attractor (2pt Merit)
You must have at least one dot in Animalism to take this Merit. Your skin exudes a grease that attracts flies, gnats, bees, and other flying insects. While these insects normally buzz passively about you in a thick cloud, you may command them in a limited fashion. The bugs may travel up to 20 feet from you to sting and distract your foes. The swarm does no actual damage, but any being caught in the swarm must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 7). If the roll fails, the victim loses two dice from her Dice Pool that turn; if it botches, she may take no action whatsoever.
Tough Hide (2pt Merit)
Your skin is thick and leathery, resembling that of a pachyderm. You gain one extra die on your soak Dice Pool (though not to soak fire and sunlight).
Foul Blood (3pt Merit)
Your blood tastes truly awful. Opponents who bite you in combat must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 6) or spend the next turn retching and gagging; the idiot who actually tries to commit diablerie upon you must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 9) and score three successes to complete the process.
Patagia (4pt Merit)
You have grown large flaps of skin under your arms, like those of a pterodactyl or flying squirrel. You may use these patagia to glide for short distances, provided there is an updraft or strong wind.
Blunt Teeth (1pt Flaw)
Your teeth are huge and square, not sharp like those of most other Vampires. You must score one extra success to do damage with a bite, and once you have locked your teeth into your prey, you automatically cause the victim one additional Health Level of damage for every two Blood Points taken (you have to chew and chew and chew...).
Club Foot (1pt Flaw)
One of your feet is gnarled and deformed. You move at only half normal speed.
Nosferatu Caitiff (1pt Flaw)
You were Embraced by a Nosferatu, but failed to meet the standards of even that clan, and were subsequently rejected by your sire. As you did not complete the Becoming process, you were not fully transformed, but you still look rather odd. You begin the game with an appearance rating of 1, and raising your Appearance costs double the number of experience points. In addition, you present a tempting target for just about any bully - other Caitiff may not have much to kick around, but a "Nosferatu reject" certainly offers possibilities for abuse. Not all Caitiff sired by Nosferatu have this flaw; nobody knows why some do and some don't.
Stench (1pt Flaw)
Few Nosferatu smell good, but you reach a new nadir of odiferousness. Even other Nosferatu are repulsed by your stink, and your Stealth Dice Pools are reduced by two against any creature that can smell, unless you are upwind.
Parasitic Infestation (2pt Flaw)
In many ways this Flaw is the negative counterpart to Swarm Attractor (above). Several species of hemovores - ticks, lice, mosquitoes, gnats, chiggers, leeches and the like - find your blood particularly tasty. These creatures crawl and hide among the creases and folds of your skin despite your best efforts to remove them. Particularly persistent are those vermin that drink from you three times and thus become enormous, bloated, Blood Bound ghouls. You may not command the vermin in any fashion; they are too intoxicated on your vitae to be of any use (though they do love you, for what it's worth). The parasites also drink from one to four of your Blood Points each night (roll a die, and divide by three, rounding up.) This forces you to hunt more often. Finally, the constant itching and irritation increase by one the difficulties of all your rolls to avoid frenzy.
Putrescent (3pt Flaw)
The mystic processes that inhibit the natural decay of the vampiric form were less effective on you. As a result, you constantly rot, though a day's rest checks and to some degree heals the effects. Your soak Dice Pool roll is reduced by one, and if you are jarred or hit violently (more than three successes after soak) you must make a Stamina roll (difficulty 6). If you fail, one of your facial features or fingers falls off; if you botch, one of the levels is aggravated and one of your limbs falls off. This will regrow when the aggravated wound is healed.
Aditional: Caine's childer are called "The Damned," and no vampires embody this more than do the wretches of Clan Nosferatu. While other vampires still look human and may travel in mortal society, Nosferatu are twisted and deformed by the curse of vampirism. To put it bluntly, the Embrace transforms them into hideous monsters. Unable to walk among humans, Nosferatu must dwell in subterranean sewers and catacombs. Other vampires revile Nosferatu, considering them disgusting and interacting with them only when they must.Because of this stigma, however, Nosferatu are survivors par excellence. Few creatures, mortal or vampire, know the city's back alleys and dark corners like the Nosferatu do. Additionally, Nosferatu have refined the crafts of sneaking and eavesdropping to fine arts; if anyone or anything has the latest dirt on mortal or vampiric society, it is the Nosferatu. Finally, millennia of shared deformity and abuse have fostered strong bonds among the monsters. Nosferatu forego the squabbling and feuds ubiquitous to the other clans, preferring to work in unison. You mess with one, you mess with'em all - and that can get messy indeed.
Links to Nosferatu clan: Nosferatu Clan
To contact Diva , leader of the Nosferatu, please e-mail to:
Get your own Free Home Page