Nosferatu
For the Nosferatu the Embrace is a journey through abjection, as the Blood of the horror gradually deforms the struggling tissues of the human body into grotesque abominations. Weeks of pain result in deformities similar to terrible birth defects, cancer growths, crippling injuries, and leper-like sores. Those who endure it find themselves as monstrous echoes of Murnau’s silver-screen vision. But perhaps pain and humiliation teaches compassion. The Nosferatu, as they jokingly call themselves, are the most humane of the Kindred, wearing their curse on the outside rather than the inside. To blend in, some call on the Blood to wear the borrowed faces of their victims or disappear from sight, while others rely on prosthetics and heavy make-up.
Nosferatu Archetypes
Information hub
When the Second Inquisition found SchreckNET, many of the Toreador secretly proposed a toast to the collapse of Clan Nosferatu. The clan lost credibility and many members, but those who endured and flourished had mastered the arts of secure archiving, physically and online. They bolstered their existing bonds with contacts and clients, and steadily regained the trust of Kindred who value a central information hub for research and the exchange of secret messages. In an era when contact and movement between domains grow more precarious by each night, Nosferatu like these have become invaluable. If they can guarantee privacy, they can name their price.
Domain gumshoe
Nosferatu make superb investigators as long as they stick to the shadows and wear plenty of layers. The gumshoe is comfortable stalking the streets, darting from doorway to doorway in the rain, and shows no qualms about breaking into homes, havens, or vaults for that precious last piece of the puzzle. Sometimes recruited as domain sheriffs, this Nosferatu emphasizes research and investigation, preferring to take the thinker’s route to most answers over violent means. The domain gumshoe likely comes from law enforcement, was an amateur sleuth, or has an academic background.
More animal than man
This Nosferatu identifies more closely with the creatures scurrying beneath the city or flying through the suburbs at night than with the kine wandering the streets. Maybe a former pest controller, vet, or simply an antisocial individual this Kindred speaks to animals, controls them, and likely acts like one. Some Nosferatu do not limit their animalistic urges to behavior but become literal hives for bugs and nests for rats. They reason that their stomach and lower abdominal cavities were being used for little before, and at least the infestation benefits from the vitae.
Hunter of monsters
Having for so long been associated with animals and isolation, many forget that the Nosferatu can smash through a wall, break a spine, or rip a door off its hinges with minimal effort. With many of the Brujah and Gangrel gone from the Camarilla, Nosferatu now exercise their capacity for brutality at much higher rates. Often Embraced from criminal or survivalist stock, such Nosferatu suffer little conscience over beating an enemy to ash.
Rat
The comparison of Nosferatu to rats goes further than sewerdwelling and extended incisors. History reveals repeated instances when horrors turned on their masters for their own preservation, betrayed their own for a little extra, or attempted to play both sides of a conflict. The rat may be involved in corporate espionage or claim to be Anarch but scurry to their Camarilla prince at the first sign of trouble. Some rats do what they do just to stay alive and are not beyond sympathy.
Disciplines
Bane
Hideous and vile, all Nosferatu count as having the Repulsive Flaw (-2) and can never increase their rating in the Looks Merit. In addition, any attempt to disguise themselves as human incur a penalty to your dice pool equal to your character’s Bane Severity (this includes the Obfuscate powers Mask of a Thousand Faces and Impostor’s Guise)
Compulsion
The need to know permeates the vampire. They become consumed with a hunger for secrets, to know that which few or no one knows, almost as strong as that for blood. They also refuse to share secrets with others, except in strict trade for greater ones.
All actions not spent working toward learning a secret, no matter how big or small, receive a two-dice penalty. The Compulsion ends when the vampire learns a secret big enough to be considered useful. Sharing this secret is optional.