Undying Familiar
Animalism ••••, Protean ••
Animals do not weather the Embrace. Sometimes, the spark simply fails to take: the vampire wastes his precious Vitae by pouring it down the throat of a dead beast. Other times, the animal’s body seems to reject it: as the potent blood stirs the creature to a second life, the body contorts, bones snap, and the skin tightens to the point that it ruptures. Any semblance of false life is temporary and gone in moments.
But with this Devotion, some Savages have learned to mimic the vampiric condition in animals. The Gangrel kills the creature and drains its blood (though he needn’t swallow said blood if his body cannot absorb such base material). Then, as the animal’s life goes winking out, the Gangrel feeds it his own Vitae and performs the roll below. The creature gives into a reasonable facsimile of life; this is no Requiem, not really, but for all appearances it’s easy to assume that somehow the beast was given the Embrace and dragged into immortality.
But with this Devotion, some Savages have learned to mimic the vampiric condition in animals. The Gangrel kills the creature and drains its blood (though he needn’t swallow said blood if his body cannot absorb such base material). Then, as the animal’s life goes winking out, the Gangrel feeds it his own Vitae and performs the roll below. The creature gives into a reasonable facsimile of life; this is no Requiem, not really, but for all appearances it’s easy to assume that somehow the beast was given the Embrace and dragged into immortality.
Effect
Whatever creature is granted counterfeit life awakens, but not hungry like those humans who receive the Embrace. The beast awakens mostly dead of any personality it had before (this is less concerning with a creature such as a falcon, but perhaps more disturbing when performed upon a once-loyal and favored hound), and even its appearance seems to be muted and dulled: the sheen goes off the coat, any colors in the feathers seem gray or worn, its eyes fail to twinkle with that spark of life. The animal isn’t a mindless automaton, not exactly. But it changes. It lessens, somehow. Almost as if hollow of mind and soul.
The creature retains the normal set of stats attributed to it (some animal stats can be found on pp. 202-203, World of Darkness Rulebook), with one exception: successes gained on the roll to enliven the dead beast can be added to its Attributes at a rate of one for one. If the Gangrel’s player achieves four successes, he can add four new dots to the creature’s Attributes (though Attributes cannot be taken above 5 normally). Other traits may change as a result: Defense, Speed, Health, Initiative, Willpower, and so forth.
The Savage is tied to this creature in ways he may not expect, hence why the devotion often refers to the beast as a “familiar.” The Savage has an easier time when using any of the effects of Animalism upon the creature, gaining a +2 bonus to any such roll. During the day while slumbering, the Savage also automatically rides along in the beast’s senses with no roll necessary, as if having performed Subsume the Lesser Spirit. (The creature is not subject to harm by the sun, so it may wander in the daytime – though it may prefer instead to sleep next to its master, as well. The vampire, however, does not need to check Humanity to “stay awake” during daylight as opposed to the systems present in Subsume the Lesser Spirit.)
The animal may ignore bashing damage. Lethal and aggravated, however, cannot be healed. The beast cannot be destroyed via lethal damage, but its body can be made such that the wound penalties (up to -3) carry through as it accumulates aggravated damage: it drags a broken limb, its head hangs low with the skin stripped off, or its ribs show through tattered fur or feathers. Once the beast has suffered all accumulated aggravated damage, it finally perishes, turning to a pile of leathery skin and bone dust.
The familiar needn’t feed on blood like a vampire, but the Savage creator must nourish the animal with a point of his own Vitae once per night. Failure to do so causes the creature to start to decay, suffering one point of lethal damage per night that passes without consuming its master’s precious fluids.
The creature retains the normal set of stats attributed to it (some animal stats can be found on pp. 202-203, World of Darkness Rulebook), with one exception: successes gained on the roll to enliven the dead beast can be added to its Attributes at a rate of one for one. If the Gangrel’s player achieves four successes, he can add four new dots to the creature’s Attributes (though Attributes cannot be taken above 5 normally). Other traits may change as a result: Defense, Speed, Health, Initiative, Willpower, and so forth.
The Savage is tied to this creature in ways he may not expect, hence why the devotion often refers to the beast as a “familiar.” The Savage has an easier time when using any of the effects of Animalism upon the creature, gaining a +2 bonus to any such roll. During the day while slumbering, the Savage also automatically rides along in the beast’s senses with no roll necessary, as if having performed Subsume the Lesser Spirit. (The creature is not subject to harm by the sun, so it may wander in the daytime – though it may prefer instead to sleep next to its master, as well. The vampire, however, does not need to check Humanity to “stay awake” during daylight as opposed to the systems present in Subsume the Lesser Spirit.)
The animal may ignore bashing damage. Lethal and aggravated, however, cannot be healed. The beast cannot be destroyed via lethal damage, but its body can be made such that the wound penalties (up to -3) carry through as it accumulates aggravated damage: it drags a broken limb, its head hangs low with the skin stripped off, or its ribs show through tattered fur or feathers. Once the beast has suffered all accumulated aggravated damage, it finally perishes, turning to a pile of leathery skin and bone dust.
The familiar needn’t feed on blood like a vampire, but the Savage creator must nourish the animal with a point of his own Vitae once per night. Failure to do so causes the creature to start to decay, suffering one point of lethal damage per night that passes without consuming its master’s precious fluids.