Caporetti
The 12 Battles of the Isonzo saw not only the horrors of the trenches, but the “white death” — avalanches brought down by the constant impact of shells against the sides of the mountains. Thousands upon thousands of men met their ends under the rolling slides of stone and snow. The lucky ones were crushed instantly. But others, trapped in their trenches, suffocated or slowly froze under the ice, with no hope of rescue. And some of those trapped under the collapsed mountainside faced the creatures who burrowed under the snow and dragged their victims away into the dark, one by one, storing them away in subterranean larders, keeping them alive for months or years if necessary as vessels for their thirsts.
When the Battle of Caporetto ended, the armies withdrew from the Isonzo, and gradually the monsters of Caporetto exhausted their hellish pantries and moved on.
Over the years, they found other burrows, other places to hide far away from that blood-soaked mountain range. But the frozen death of the Isonzo became part of that strange cold vampire tribe, and it travels with them wherever they go.
When the Battle of Caporetto ended, the armies withdrew from the Isonzo, and gradually the monsters of Caporetto exhausted their hellish pantries and moved on.
Over the years, they found other burrows, other places to hide far away from that blood-soaked mountain range. But the frozen death of the Isonzo became part of that strange cold vampire tribe, and it travels with them wherever they go.
Culture
Culture and cultural heritage
History and Culture: None of the Caporetti know for sure who founded their bloodline. All that has been established is that the Nosferatu of the Isonzo developed an aptitude for burrowing and an affinity with the cold. Of the three likely candidates for the founder of the bloodline, one had been a resident in the region of Caporetto for several hundred years, and had apparently always been that way; one was a neonate with a talent for killing; and one, allegedly, wasn’t even really a vampire. If these monsters ever existed, they were gone by the end of the Great War, leaving their childer able to make their own way.
These original Caporetti were loners who kept frozen larders made of the hapless soldiers of the Isonzo. Most of them kept to themselves, and, if they had the urge to create childer, cut them loose soon after the Embrace. The result was that beyond their supernatural affinity with the cold and the urge to Burrow, the Caporetti have little in common other than the name, a certain moleish look in the eyes and a way they hold their hands… which are almost invariably large and spadelike, and usually filthy.
They traveled. They Embraced. By the end of the 1920s, Caporetti had turned up in places as far afield as the Rockies and the Himalayas. In the Second World War, coteries of Caporetti thrived in the snows of the Eastern front, and fed well on the bleeding wounded of Stalingrad, dragging them under the snow and earth as they stumbled on the killing fields of the Great Patriotic war. During the Vietnam war, a Caporetto somehow wound up in the tunnels under Saigon.
Mostly, however, their hunting tactics don’t define them so much as the role they take in the night society of the Kindred. Some style themselves as enforcers, or hunters, or hounds. Some keep out of the way of living humans altogether, except when they have to feed. Some set themselves up with a fake mythology as the ghosts who haunt deserted mountainsides and well-worn suicide spots.
These original Caporetti were loners who kept frozen larders made of the hapless soldiers of the Isonzo. Most of them kept to themselves, and, if they had the urge to create childer, cut them loose soon after the Embrace. The result was that beyond their supernatural affinity with the cold and the urge to Burrow, the Caporetti have little in common other than the name, a certain moleish look in the eyes and a way they hold their hands… which are almost invariably large and spadelike, and usually filthy.
They traveled. They Embraced. By the end of the 1920s, Caporetti had turned up in places as far afield as the Rockies and the Himalayas. In the Second World War, coteries of Caporetti thrived in the snows of the Eastern front, and fed well on the bleeding wounded of Stalingrad, dragging them under the snow and earth as they stumbled on the killing fields of the Great Patriotic war. During the Vietnam war, a Caporetto somehow wound up in the tunnels under Saigon.
Mostly, however, their hunting tactics don’t define them so much as the role they take in the night society of the Kindred. Some style themselves as enforcers, or hunters, or hounds. Some keep out of the way of living humans altogether, except when they have to feed. Some set themselves up with a fake mythology as the ghosts who haunt deserted mountainsides and well-worn suicide spots.
Major organizations
Reputation: Other Kindred are ambivalent about the Caporetti. On the one hand, a Caporetto is hugely valuable as an assassin — the first thing a victim knows about the presence of a Caporetto is a chill in the air, followed by the hand that erupts from the mud or the snow and drags the target underground.
Some princes, on the other hand, see the presence of a monster who makes the air cold just by being there as a breach of the Masquerade that cannot be tolerated. In the end, though, it depends on the Caporetto. A vampire who attempts to make his lair under the middle of a busy park or common will attract far more attention — from vampires and humans alike — than one who keeps himself to himself and dwells up a mountain.
Some princes, on the other hand, see the presence of a monster who makes the air cold just by being there as a breach of the Masquerade that cannot be tolerated. In the end, though, it depends on the Caporetto. A vampire who attempts to make his lair under the middle of a busy park or common will attract far more attention — from vampires and humans alike — than one who keeps himself to himself and dwells up a mountain.
Nickname: Shivers
Bloodline Disciplines: Celerity, Nightmare, Obfuscate, Vigor
Weakness: The Caporetti have the usual Nosferatu weakness, expressed above all else as one specific, unusual effect — the room quite simply goes cold when a Caporetto walks in. People shiver and develop goosebumps around the Caporetti (see p.111 of Vampire: The Requiem).
In addition, the Caporetti’s aura of supernatural cold causes the actual temperature in about a ten-foot radius of the vampire to drop by five to ten degrees Celsius.
And on top of that, no matter how he might try, a Caporetto cannot counterfeit life by spending Vitae — the cold wells up from inside the vampire’s dead flesh, as if it were some active force rather than a simple absence of heat. The aura of cold extends even beyond the vampire’s other supernatural powers: a Caporetto suffers a -2 penalty to dice pools when attempting to use Obfuscate, specifically the second, third and fourth-dot powers, to hide his true nature (or just hide) from humans or vampires (this penalty only applies to Mask of Tranquility when the mask is challenged by another vampire using Auspex; see p. 136 of Vampire: The Requiem). The Caporetti prefer to go literally underground, rather than attempt to hide in plain sight like many other vampires who are expert in the use of Obfuscate.
Concepts: Tunnel rat, morgue worker, meat packer, sewer maintenance man, professional spelunker, missing mountaineer, escaped prison inmate, mole-man, obsessive snowboarder, urban explorer
Parent ethnicities
Weakness: The Caporetti have the usual Nosferatu weakness, expressed above all else as one specific, unusual effect — the room quite simply goes cold when a Caporetto walks in. People shiver and develop goosebumps around the Caporetti (see p.111 of Vampire: The Requiem).
In addition, the Caporetti’s aura of supernatural cold causes the actual temperature in about a ten-foot radius of the vampire to drop by five to ten degrees Celsius.
And on top of that, no matter how he might try, a Caporetto cannot counterfeit life by spending Vitae — the cold wells up from inside the vampire’s dead flesh, as if it were some active force rather than a simple absence of heat. The aura of cold extends even beyond the vampire’s other supernatural powers: a Caporetto suffers a -2 penalty to dice pools when attempting to use Obfuscate, specifically the second, third and fourth-dot powers, to hide his true nature (or just hide) from humans or vampires (this penalty only applies to Mask of Tranquility when the mask is challenged by another vampire using Auspex; see p. 136 of Vampire: The Requiem). The Caporetti prefer to go literally underground, rather than attempt to hide in plain sight like many other vampires who are expert in the use of Obfuscate.
Concepts: Tunnel rat, morgue worker, meat packer, sewer maintenance man, professional spelunker, missing mountaineer, escaped prison inmate, mole-man, obsessive snowboarder, urban explorer