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Created page with "{{Clan |type=Bloodline |clanlogo=C:\Users\j\Documents\D&D\LogoBloodlineGrotesques |clanheader=C:\Users\j\Documents\D&D\Capture.png |image=C:\Users\j\Documents\D&D\CharArt\paul..."
{{Clan
|type=Bloodline
|clanlogo=C:\Users\j\Documents\D&D\LogoBloodlineGrotesques
|clanheader=C:\Users\j\Documents\D&D\Capture.png
|image=C:\Users\j\Documents\D&D\CharArt\paul-tobin-paul-tobin-frankensteinmonster.jpeg
|nicknames=Remade
Gargoyles
Marred
|description=The Grotesques, also known as the Remade or Gargoyles, are the product of ancient sorceries in new hands. The practice of creating gargoyles, twisting the flesh of one or more vampires into one hideous creature, has long been outlawed by the Camarilla, and most Anarchs concerned with maintaining face. However, with the scattered Tremere houses once again on the back foot, and desperate for safety, many have begun to look into long-buried rituals anew.
|parent=Tremere
|who=Grotesques are exclusively created from the Gangrel, Nosferatu and Brujah clans, as the nature of their blood and curses makes them amenable to such rites. Though the Remade vary as much as any clan, if not moreso, many are created around physical strength and endurance. They are also nigh-universally, well, grotesque, and their uses of the blood even more so. Almost all are either still bound to their cruel remakers or eternally pursuing vengeance against them.
'''The Gargoyle’s Visage'''
Due to a mix of imperfectly reconstructed rituals, and the heightened importance of the Masquerade in these nights of the Second Inquisition, stony, dragon-faced Grotesques are rare, perhaps nonexistent. That is not to say that these recent creations are unmarred. The Remade appear more like the creations of Dr. Moreau than those of any stoneworker. Most have the Repulsive flaw; those who are not even Ugly were clearly handled with atypical care by their remakers, and may have even been “show-pieces”.
Unlike the Nosferatu, whose deformities often take the shape of disease or aberrant biology, the Grotesques’ disfigurements appear as scars and wracked flesh. Whether they still feel the pain or not, their bodies are often agonizingly warped. Jagged suture-marks are common, shins are cracked and reshaped into messy digitigrade joints, grafted clumps of sinew strain against the skin. Anyone who looks on a Grotesque can wincingly trace at least some of the tortures inflicted upon them.
'''Creation'''
The stock for such experiments are gathered in a variety of ways. Many are undesirables the Camarilla would like to see vanished or punished, and don’t particularly scruple as to how. Some were Embraced just to be traded away by their sires in exchange for boons from the Warlocks. A few were just unlucky licks who disappeared off the streets. The reasons for their ordeals are similarly varied. Most are kept as watchdogs or other coerced muscle, but more than a few are marred as sadistic punishments, research exercises, or simply out of a diseased vision of art. The rituals of creating Grotesques are as chimeric and diverse as the Remade themselves. The one common thread is that the rituals are all designed to utterly break the victim’s body and mind, until both submit to the vision of their remaker.
'''Loyalty'''
Through rituals, Dominate, and old-fashioned psychological conditioning, loyalty has been branded into the Remade. Even those who have rebelled against and slain their tyrannical masters often find themselves seeking some greater allegiance. Sometimes, this takes the form of a mortal Touchstone, whom they will do anything to protect, sometimes a vampiric leader, whom they admire to a sometimes fanatical degree. Sometimes, it is just an idea or grand vision, to which they zealously devote themselves. Rare is the Gargoyle who does not have some such attachment.
'''
Nostalgia'''
Though the memories of Grotesques are usually piecemeal, and sometimes completely void, almost all yearn for the lives they lost to their Remaking. They cling to what tatters of recollection they can find all the more for their scarcity, drawn to, or comforted by, old routines and former friends. Many have Convictions such as “Remember who you were” attached to Touchstones from their former world; whatever relationship they once had, it is only marked by the Gargoyle as a pang of reminiscence and a sense of deja vu.
'''Society'''
Grotesques are extremely rare creatures, and so seldom meet others of their own, even after decades of searching. A lucky few find their old Coteries, an even smaller and luckier minority are accepted back. Many find companionship in Gangrel packs and Nosferatu warrens, who welcome their wracked faces, and outsider views. Those that do meet their fellow Grotesques tend to form tight-knit, vigilante bands, under the leadership of the most experienced.
|archetype1name=Amnesiac
|archetype1text=This Remade finds purpose in trying to reconstruct their biography, in the process frequently uncovering other secrets in their area. They may even be a Harpy, or private investigator, trading their other findings for clues that might lead them back, all the more respected for their distaste for backbiting. Each bit of information the Gargoyle finds sparks another half-lit memory, only deepening their hunger for the next.
|archetype2name=Avenger
|archetype2text=Many escaped Grotesques set out to wreak bloody justice on their former masters, and anyone connected with them. The skills and powers that allowed them to escape and survive often make them ideal guerrillas. The avenger is as embittered and violent as they have reason to be. Those who see beyond personal retribution dedicate themselves to finding and freeing other Remade, after first given their masters a taste of the horrors they experienced.
|archetype3name=Fugitive
|archetype3text=Still recently escaped, the Fugitive is always on the run, seeing their masters and remakers around every corner. If they survive the first few nights of newfound freedom, they have become adept at blending into the shadows of their city, and silently poaching their meals. The vampiric leadership of their city probably doesn’t even know they exist. They are quick to ally with anyone providing shelter or protection, though they struggle to find trust.
|archetype4name=Sentinel
|archetype4text=The Sentinel remains loyal to their master, and keeps watch over their holdings. Perhaps they haven’t found their chance to escape, perhaps they simply know nothing else. Nonetheless, the Sentinel can find meaning and even moments of fulfillment in their vigil. Few are foolish enough to threaten that which a Gargoyle protects.
|archetype5name=Thug
|archetype5text=Whether working for their remaker, or someone they’ve chosen, the Thug deals pain at another’s command. They may be a criminal enforcer or a political blackshirt, but they find purpose in following some charismatic leader. This also allows them to indulge their violent tendencies while mollifying their conscience, after all, they were just following orders, right?
|disciplines=The Grotesques of modern nights are not one bloodline, but a grouping of related horrors, all twisted at the hands of the Tremere. At the Storyteller’s discretion, Gangrel Grotesques may replace Animalism with Potence, Nosferatu Grotesques may replace Animalism with Protean, and Brujah Grotesques may replace Celerity with Protean. This is never the character’s choice, and many Gangrel in particular mourn their lost connection with the natural world.
'''New Powers'''
'''Protean
Level 3
Terrible Wings
Amalgam:''' Potence 1
Perhaps the most iconic trait among the Gargoyles of old, aside from their monstrous faces, were their massive, batlike wings. Many warlocks take replicating this in their own “creations” as a matter of pride, though some have gotten more creative with their designs. Whether by accident or ingenuity, birdlike and even insectile wings have been spotten among the Remade. Through the power of their blood and the surgeries of their remaker, the Grotesque can rapidly sprout these wings and take flight.
'''Cost:'''1 Rouse Check
'''Dice Pools:'''Protean+Stamina
'''System:'''The Remade spends a turn forcing the ligaments, bone and skin of their back to twist into one or more pairs of massive wings, and rolling Protean+Stamina (Difficulty 3, which may be increased by tight quarters or physical restraints). They may immediately take flight on their next turn, and can travel at up to 50 kilometers an hour in the air. Carrying other people, or heavy objects, requires the vampire to roll Strength+Athletics+their initial successes on the Terrible Wings roll at Difficulty 4 (or more at the Storyteller’s discretion). If the Grotesque or the person they are carrying is using Weight of a Feather, they may carry them without rolling. A critical win allows the vampire to take flight immediately. A total failure either causes the wings to malform horribly, causing the vampire 3 points of unhalved superficial, or initially causes no issue, only for the wings to give out unexpectedly midflight.
|author=Dσul
|othercred=Art by Paul Tobin on Artstation
}}
__NOTOC__
__NOEDITSECTION__
|type=Bloodline
|clanlogo=C:\Users\j\Documents\D&D\LogoBloodlineGrotesques
|clanheader=C:\Users\j\Documents\D&D\Capture.png
|image=C:\Users\j\Documents\D&D\CharArt\paul-tobin-paul-tobin-frankensteinmonster.jpeg
|nicknames=Remade
Gargoyles
Marred
|description=The Grotesques, also known as the Remade or Gargoyles, are the product of ancient sorceries in new hands. The practice of creating gargoyles, twisting the flesh of one or more vampires into one hideous creature, has long been outlawed by the Camarilla, and most Anarchs concerned with maintaining face. However, with the scattered Tremere houses once again on the back foot, and desperate for safety, many have begun to look into long-buried rituals anew.
|parent=Tremere
|who=Grotesques are exclusively created from the Gangrel, Nosferatu and Brujah clans, as the nature of their blood and curses makes them amenable to such rites. Though the Remade vary as much as any clan, if not moreso, many are created around physical strength and endurance. They are also nigh-universally, well, grotesque, and their uses of the blood even more so. Almost all are either still bound to their cruel remakers or eternally pursuing vengeance against them.
'''The Gargoyle’s Visage'''
Due to a mix of imperfectly reconstructed rituals, and the heightened importance of the Masquerade in these nights of the Second Inquisition, stony, dragon-faced Grotesques are rare, perhaps nonexistent. That is not to say that these recent creations are unmarred. The Remade appear more like the creations of Dr. Moreau than those of any stoneworker. Most have the Repulsive flaw; those who are not even Ugly were clearly handled with atypical care by their remakers, and may have even been “show-pieces”.
Unlike the Nosferatu, whose deformities often take the shape of disease or aberrant biology, the Grotesques’ disfigurements appear as scars and wracked flesh. Whether they still feel the pain or not, their bodies are often agonizingly warped. Jagged suture-marks are common, shins are cracked and reshaped into messy digitigrade joints, grafted clumps of sinew strain against the skin. Anyone who looks on a Grotesque can wincingly trace at least some of the tortures inflicted upon them.
'''Creation'''
The stock for such experiments are gathered in a variety of ways. Many are undesirables the Camarilla would like to see vanished or punished, and don’t particularly scruple as to how. Some were Embraced just to be traded away by their sires in exchange for boons from the Warlocks. A few were just unlucky licks who disappeared off the streets. The reasons for their ordeals are similarly varied. Most are kept as watchdogs or other coerced muscle, but more than a few are marred as sadistic punishments, research exercises, or simply out of a diseased vision of art. The rituals of creating Grotesques are as chimeric and diverse as the Remade themselves. The one common thread is that the rituals are all designed to utterly break the victim’s body and mind, until both submit to the vision of their remaker.
'''Loyalty'''
Through rituals, Dominate, and old-fashioned psychological conditioning, loyalty has been branded into the Remade. Even those who have rebelled against and slain their tyrannical masters often find themselves seeking some greater allegiance. Sometimes, this takes the form of a mortal Touchstone, whom they will do anything to protect, sometimes a vampiric leader, whom they admire to a sometimes fanatical degree. Sometimes, it is just an idea or grand vision, to which they zealously devote themselves. Rare is the Gargoyle who does not have some such attachment.
'''
Nostalgia'''
Though the memories of Grotesques are usually piecemeal, and sometimes completely void, almost all yearn for the lives they lost to their Remaking. They cling to what tatters of recollection they can find all the more for their scarcity, drawn to, or comforted by, old routines and former friends. Many have Convictions such as “Remember who you were” attached to Touchstones from their former world; whatever relationship they once had, it is only marked by the Gargoyle as a pang of reminiscence and a sense of deja vu.
'''Society'''
Grotesques are extremely rare creatures, and so seldom meet others of their own, even after decades of searching. A lucky few find their old Coteries, an even smaller and luckier minority are accepted back. Many find companionship in Gangrel packs and Nosferatu warrens, who welcome their wracked faces, and outsider views. Those that do meet their fellow Grotesques tend to form tight-knit, vigilante bands, under the leadership of the most experienced.
|archetype1name=Amnesiac
|archetype1text=This Remade finds purpose in trying to reconstruct their biography, in the process frequently uncovering other secrets in their area. They may even be a Harpy, or private investigator, trading their other findings for clues that might lead them back, all the more respected for their distaste for backbiting. Each bit of information the Gargoyle finds sparks another half-lit memory, only deepening their hunger for the next.
|archetype2name=Avenger
|archetype2text=Many escaped Grotesques set out to wreak bloody justice on their former masters, and anyone connected with them. The skills and powers that allowed them to escape and survive often make them ideal guerrillas. The avenger is as embittered and violent as they have reason to be. Those who see beyond personal retribution dedicate themselves to finding and freeing other Remade, after first given their masters a taste of the horrors they experienced.
|archetype3name=Fugitive
|archetype3text=Still recently escaped, the Fugitive is always on the run, seeing their masters and remakers around every corner. If they survive the first few nights of newfound freedom, they have become adept at blending into the shadows of their city, and silently poaching their meals. The vampiric leadership of their city probably doesn’t even know they exist. They are quick to ally with anyone providing shelter or protection, though they struggle to find trust.
|archetype4name=Sentinel
|archetype4text=The Sentinel remains loyal to their master, and keeps watch over their holdings. Perhaps they haven’t found their chance to escape, perhaps they simply know nothing else. Nonetheless, the Sentinel can find meaning and even moments of fulfillment in their vigil. Few are foolish enough to threaten that which a Gargoyle protects.
|archetype5name=Thug
|archetype5text=Whether working for their remaker, or someone they’ve chosen, the Thug deals pain at another’s command. They may be a criminal enforcer or a political blackshirt, but they find purpose in following some charismatic leader. This also allows them to indulge their violent tendencies while mollifying their conscience, after all, they were just following orders, right?
|disciplines=The Grotesques of modern nights are not one bloodline, but a grouping of related horrors, all twisted at the hands of the Tremere. At the Storyteller’s discretion, Gangrel Grotesques may replace Animalism with Potence, Nosferatu Grotesques may replace Animalism with Protean, and Brujah Grotesques may replace Celerity with Protean. This is never the character’s choice, and many Gangrel in particular mourn their lost connection with the natural world.
'''New Powers'''
'''Protean
Level 3
Terrible Wings
Amalgam:''' Potence 1
Perhaps the most iconic trait among the Gargoyles of old, aside from their monstrous faces, were their massive, batlike wings. Many warlocks take replicating this in their own “creations” as a matter of pride, though some have gotten more creative with their designs. Whether by accident or ingenuity, birdlike and even insectile wings have been spotten among the Remade. Through the power of their blood and the surgeries of their remaker, the Grotesque can rapidly sprout these wings and take flight.
'''Cost:'''1 Rouse Check
'''Dice Pools:'''Protean+Stamina
'''System:'''The Remade spends a turn forcing the ligaments, bone and skin of their back to twist into one or more pairs of massive wings, and rolling Protean+Stamina (Difficulty 3, which may be increased by tight quarters or physical restraints). They may immediately take flight on their next turn, and can travel at up to 50 kilometers an hour in the air. Carrying other people, or heavy objects, requires the vampire to roll Strength+Athletics+their initial successes on the Terrible Wings roll at Difficulty 4 (or more at the Storyteller’s discretion). If the Grotesque or the person they are carrying is using Weight of a Feather, they may carry them without rolling. A critical win allows the vampire to take flight immediately. A total failure either causes the wings to malform horribly, causing the vampire 3 points of unhalved superficial, or initially causes no issue, only for the wings to give out unexpectedly midflight.
|author=Dσul
|othercred=Art by Paul Tobin on Artstation
}}
__NOTOC__
__NOEDITSECTION__
