Studio Agate

Sangiovanni:
It’s 5 am and -10 degrees in Boston. The streets clear, except for one woman. She’s bundled up head to toe with a duffle bag over her shoulder. She goes around the back and a door opens to the local Catholic church. The man who opened the door gently cups her face with his hand. “Holy shit, you look like fucking Hell. What are they doing to you C.” the priest responds, letting out a laugh. “You know Grandma. She likes keeping it… lively with her various appetites.” the young woman informs. The man grabs an end of the duffle bag and the two make their way to the basement where a small plot of soil is exposed. The two grab shovels from the corner and begin to dig. It shouldn’t be too bad. The blood and flesh have already been removed.

History:
Stories say that the family has always been rather… close. The turning of the mortal family into a line of ghouls was shockingly fluid. The naturally incestuous and long history with the perverse that the family cultivated simply added a few new tricks to the traditions of love bombing and abuse. The first issue they faced was tuning their traditions to the blood. Maria and Lodovico spent years trying to be able to formulate and codify the rights and manipulating the blood. The Lancea et Sanctum successfully courted the family and were able to make use of their ties in relation to Venetian commerce and clergy that the family developed a grip on. The Invictus had long disliked the Sangiovanni, even before the Embrace they recognized the danger of necromancers in their domains. In their earlier attempts to subdue the family, they were met by relatively weak, but plentiful corpses and were unprepared to deal with the strength the blood offers to those who possess its boon. Carving their way into power was done on top of the corpses of scores of would be exterminators of the line. Their grip was solidified through a combination of religious and economic power achieved through legal and illegal means. Since time immemorial they have been spiritual corruptors of the flock. Multiple cardinals, bishops, and even a Pope are counted in the family’s ranks. To this day they still have members who give themselves to the Church to extended the family’s will. The merchants of the family have their hands in the pies of countless corporations across their homeland of Italy and internationally. The slavers are rumored to still secretly be involved with human trafficking in Northern Africa, Europe, and North America. Older members of the line joke that their ancestors probably sold the biblical Joseph. Some relatives became deeply entrenched into organized crime beginning in the 1800s. Rumor has it they’ve been in control of the criminal underbelly of every major North American city since the mid-1970s. The Sangiovanni keep it in the family. Period. They don’t lend their ghouls and if anyone else attempts to Embrace or abuse a relative, they can expect to definitely be found in pieces. What happens after that is determined by how horrible the offense was; hopefully they don’t charge you to serve in death.

Original Domitor:
Lodovico was a cruel and domineering man in life. His transition into undeath merely cemented that. He wished for control above anything else and used magic and money to gain it. The turning of the family was a happy accident of sorts that the fledgling Lodovico didn’t question for a second.

Progenitor:
Maria was always a rather humble and skilled woman. In her youth, she was an adept in the medical field of their time. Lodovico recognized his kid sister as a definite force to be reckoned with and she was one of the first he revealed his new unliving state too. Legend holds that her ghouling was a mistake; that it occurred while in some act of research on the state of her brother. In those early nights, she was key in keeping the Invictus of the city from being successful in their blood hunts against the family. On more than a few occasions a Kindred who was sent after the family found Final Death at the hands her crafty traps. During one of Lodovico’s orgiastic rituals involving acts even other relatives consider disgusting; she became pregnant by his oldest son, Gabriele. Though Lodovico had long ghouled much of his line, they were the first to bear children in that state. The two were hidden from the Venetian All Night Society for the duration of the pregnancy out of fear of the vengeful fangs of the Invictus of the city possibly harming the family’s investment. The first generation of born ghouls: Giulia, Angelo, and Valentina exceeded family standards. Maria was a surprisingly doting and affectionate mother; constantly showering her prodigals with affection. Upon becoming adults they were given accolades by the family and their mother was gifted the Embrace, Giulia married a cousin and the two brutally expanded what would become the family’s trade empire, Angelo worked himself into the position of Cardinal at a shockingly young age, and Valentina gave herself to the academic and occult studies of her mother. After the Embrace, Maria became known for being able to apply Cattiveria in ways that even Lodovico lacked the knowledge to formulate. She also is responsible for forming the Hecata; a secretive death cult of necromancers who worship the old gods of Italy and Greece

Benefit:
All of those born of this line have an uncanny resonance with the deceased who refuse to stay in the grave. They gain the Undead as a skill specialty in Occult free of charge.

Drawback:
Members of this line have always had a deep, disturbing tradition of keeping with taboos. The addition of the blood merely forced it to be more concrete. Keeping it “in the family” has always been long-held family ethics. All ghouls of this line start with a Stage One Vinculum towards Sangiovanni vampires. Also, due to the perverse nature of the family when one suffers a degeneration they’re very likely to receive necrophilia as a Persistent Obsessive Condition. The family has long believed that societal taboos mean nothing amongst family and commonly practice some of their most depraved acts of passion on the dead. If not one another.

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PIJAVICA
The ones you take with you.

Something dead approaches. It almost looks like a man, almost. You can’t put your finger on it, not exactly, but you know that whatever it is, it’s going to eat you. It knows you know what it is and doesn’t care because you’re already dead. You shoot it, but the bullets pass through it, you claw and kick and slam your fists against it, but it doesn’t seem to notice and with every blow you feel your strength wane. His touch slithers through your skin, like hungry worms and then he’s gone. The next day no one believes your story, not even you.

The Pijavica are the night’s best kept secret. They’ve hidden from the Living and Dead alike for over a century, perfecting a masquerade the likes of which the Invictus could never hope to match. If they can, they’ll make sure no one finds them ever again.

As far as the world is concerned, the last of the Parasites died when a pack of wolves devoured them and before that, they were nothing more than an aberration. Of course, none of that is true.

The Pijavica long ago mastered the art of hiding in plain sight, of hunting amongst the herd and feeding without anyone knowing. Not even their host. They’re not even feared, very few legends remain of their activities and for good reason, for they hunt the most dangerous game of all.

The Pijavica prey on monsters.
Due to their particular brand of the Curse, the Pijavica’s tastes are ever growing more and more rarified until only the dead can sate them which has led to their existence, when it’s noted at all, being conflated with VII or Hunters or stranger things. And it’s not just the dead either. The Parasites are known, after a fashion, by the wolves and warlocks and good folk too, they cause strife and foment paranoia wherever they go, but as with when they pray on the dead, their target never suspects them.

See the street performer, the big eyed clown with the hand-me-down suit. The parents clap and cheer along with their kids as she pinwheels through the park, they don’t seem to see the way her hungry eyes dart from child to child. Or the way those same kids grow paler with each tousling of their hair. If they’re lucky their parents will move on before they collapse, and if they’re very lucky, she won’t follow them home.

See the old panhandler, with his jaundiced eyes and haggard skin, he smiles a toothless smile and doffs his hat for a coin and you can’t resist. He shakes your hand in thanks and for just a second it feels like someone stepped over your grave. Tomorrow you make sure to give him a fiver.

See the cocktail waitress with her awkward smile and shy laugh, you took pity on her in a moment of weakness and had the time of your life. So why are you acting like such a spaz stumbling over your words and tripping over your own feet? And when did the wallflower turn into such a head turner? Maybe you’ll get lucky and she’ll give you another night like last night, if you could only catch her attention.
The Kindred can live their “All Night Society” and their Covenants, but the Pijavica will survive.


Why you want to be us
We are the apex predator, we hunt the hunters and we do it with no one ever expecting a thing. When we move among the Kindred we do so as hidden predators, just as they do the living. We are the secret police that take your loved ones without a word, and leave you only questions.

Why you should fear us
The Ventrue are so proud of their status as alphas but it matters little to the carrion that strips the meat from their bones. The Nosferatu keep you up at night, afraid of the dark, but Pijavica are waiting when you’re finally convinced you’re safe and you’ll never even know it.

Why we should fear ourselves
What is a lamprey to the shark? What is a vulture to the lion if it only strikes after the big cat’s already dead? What’s the point of hunting the most dangerous game in the world if there’s no one you can show your trophies to? If no one remembers you, did you ever exist at all?

Clan Origins
• The parasite existed for a very long time, it constantly sought new hosts, the higher on the food chain the better. When it found men in the forest it found the apex and it was happy but then the dead thing came and drank from it and it knew fear. It wasn’t long before the dead thing caught wind to the fact that the parasite’s host was different and made him a favorite source of blood. The parasite changed its host, making it more attractive to the dead thing until one night the dead thing killed it and made the parasite like itself. Now, finally the Parasite was truly at the top of the food chain.
• The Alchemist had worked tirelessly to create the perfect panacea and discovered it in the form of bezoar stone. The creation of the stone was quite accidental; a strange mix of snake lung, peat, fetid water and blood, but the effect upon his subject was near miraculous. Not only had he been cured of his minor ails and afflictions but wounds would be healed more quickly, and he even began to lose the scars that he’d amassed over the years. The Alchemist’s patient was killed; it seemed that there were limits to what the bezoar could do. When the Alchemist moved to examine the bezoar, however, he found the heavily distended abdomen of his patient and upon cutting it open he discovered the very first of the Pijavica, the Alchemist was happy to sacrifice his own life so that his creation could live.
• The star fell from the sky on a starless night, when not even the moon dared showed its face. Where it landed the ground was blighted and the animals soon died, wasting away until they collapsed, their meat already rotten when they fell. The crops withered and soon the farmers were left sickly and hungry and more than a little mad. One of the farmers lost his wife to the blight but couldn’t bring himself to burn her body no matter how black or bulbous it became and when her body burst and the bloody black thing crawled out of her he was the first to fall to its hunger.

How to Make a Monster
There are many ways to feed, to hide, to survive. Unlike the rest of the Kindred the Pijavica are not beholden to the bodies they died in. What they walk around in is a simulacrum crafted from their own fetid blood. Not all Parasites look exactly as they did in life, making it hard to pin down just what Pijavica have in common. They favor Dexterity, both as an innate attribute and in the use of their signature discipline, which also makes use of Strength at the higher levels.

They also make use of Wits with Obfuscate and have an affinity for Resolve, making for a particularly dangerous and canny monster. They only
truly lack in social rolls, but never fully exclude them. One can survive by hiding among the herd just as easily as a hovel, after all.
Even the most predatory Parasites are more likely to be cunning and graceful hunters rather than powerful monstrosities, rarely relying on their strength to overwhelm their prey.

Due to their ever shrinking pool of viable prey, merits such as Feeding Ground, Herd and Unnatural Affinity are key to their survival and most if not all truly old Pijavica (if there is such a thing) gravitate toward a favored prey.
While Pijavica come from numerous backgrounds, the majority can be traced to so-called undesirables or particular exotic locales abroad.

Nickname: Parasites

Stereotypes:
• Daeva: You can get in their skin while their trying to get in your pants.
• Gangrel: Careful there, they don’t just shake hands wand walk away friends.
• Mekhet: They’re good with secrets, less so with fire. Just saying.
• Nosferatu: Their vitae squirms like worms in our gullet and that’s if you can stomach getting close enough to touch one of them.
• Ventrue: It’s true that Ventrue always win, it’s the main reason I refuse to play their game.

Clan Bane (The Withering Curse):
A Pijavica's body is only a simulacrum of the mortal used to create it and requires vitae to maintain its stability. Whenever the Parasite becomes hungry (possessing four vitae or fewer), all of their dice-pools become penalized by 8 - their humanity, while reverting to their original shape, causing their size to be capped by their humanity. In addition, the Pijavica crave ever more potent blood, determining the types of vessels they can draw sustenance from as if their Blood Potency were two higher.

Favored Attributes: Dexterity or Resolve

Disciplines: Animalism, Ishrana, Obfuscate

In the Covenants
• The Carthian Movement: The Firebrands don’t care who you are or where you come from, that makes it a perfect fit for a clan of Caitiff and the Parasites natural aptitude for secrecy and tenacity makes them excellent secret police when the Revolution finally takes its rightful place.
• The Circle of the Crone: It’s hard not to be drawn to the ancient truths of the Mother’s Army when your own history is so often filled with unanswered questions. The Parasites are also drawn to the Occult power of Vitae inherent in the Covenant’s sorcerous heritage which promises them further power over their hosts.
• The Invictus: Many Pijavica are drawn to the First Estate for the same reasons they’re drawn to the Carthians, and they oft find themselves performing the same services. The difference often comes down to how they prove their worth. While the Parasites lack of a past often makes it harder to join the Invictus, its meritocratic nature allows them to prove themselves to the establishment.
• The Lancea et Sanctum: The Church is a tried and true choice for the old world Pijavica who see the Church Eternal as an extension of their tainted existence as well as an excuse for them to spread their corrupting influence across their community. That being said, the Sanctified themselves have never been particularly fond of the Parasites, seeing them as a blasphemous parody of their own divine nature.
• The Ordo Dracul: While their mutual history might be seen by outsiders as a point of contention the truth is that it was members of the Order who helped the Clan survive the Sanctified Purges and Lupine Scourges as well as helping them curb their more arcane cravings.


ISHRANA
The Beast demands blood, it demands to hunt and feed and kill, whether it’s by force, seduction or cunning the vampire must succeed. Ishrana insures that the Beast is able to take what it wants when it wants. It begins by allowing the vampire to indulge its wants even amidst the herd without drawing attention to it, the Beast than grows more insidious, spreading the vampire’s tainted blood to it host by touch. From there it takes little effort to weaken the host, to make it do what the beast wants and even causing their victim to spread their taint further, creating more Hosts on which the beast may feed or Embrace as is their wont.
Thus the worm turns.

Worm Touch •
Though the Pijavica regain a semblance of their humanity after their larval state ends, it is still just a semblance, their flesh is not the same as that they wore in life, its more supple and porous and its capable of some pretty gross changes when its needed. Upon making skin to skin contact with a viable source of vitae the Parasite’s skin flushes and puckers to reveal barbed tines that allow the vampire to draw sustenance from the victim without them ever becoming the wiser.
Cost: none
Roll: none
Action: Reflexive
The Parasite may choose to feed at any time so long as he makes skin to skin contact. Normally this requires no roll, but if their intended target is aware of the threat they may add their Ishrana to the roll to make contact.
This altered form of feeding imparts only a small part of the Kiss upon the target, causing the feeding to go unnoticed so long as the wound only lasts for a single turn, though if it were to last longer the normal effects of the Kiss take effect. Feeding in this fashion leaves no mark upon the victim.

Tainted Transmission ••
The Pijavica’s flesh becomes flush with tainted vitae that passes through the vampire’s hungry skin when he feeds, allowing him to contaminate his vessel and making them more pliable host for future consumption.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Roll: none, modifies Worm Touch
Action: Reflexive
Their victim now plays host to the parasitic blood of the Pijavica and because of it, is more prone to doing as the vampire wishes. They want to be near him, they hang on his word and when he’s hungry they bleed for him.
Tainted Transmission causes the new Host to be under the first stage of the Blood Bond (Blood & Smoke pg 100) and become blood addicted. Any subsequent uses of Tainted Transmission cause the Blood Bond to progress normally.
If used on a target that is three steps bonded to the vampire they may choose to spend a Vitae to transform the Host into a Ghoul.
Finally, any host tainted by the blood of a vampire who has been put under the effect of Tainted Transmission is easier for the Parasite to feed on, allowing the vampire to draw a number of Vitae per turn equal to their dots in Ishrana.

Antipathetic Symbiosis •••
Who to say that the only use for a vessel is food, just as parasites modify their hosts to suit their purposes so too do the Pijavica. Because their flesh is not as “set” as a mortal’s, it is capable of mimicking what it is that makes the mortal who they are.
Cost: 1 or more Vitae
Roll: none
Action: Instant
Duration: One Night
When Using Worm Touch on a mortal on whom they’ve used Tainted Transmission in the past, they may take more than just blood, Transmuting the Host’s Vitae into Attributes. They may take as many dots as they want up to their own dots of Ishrana, becoming stronger, smarter or more socially capable.
The host, meanwhile, finds those same traits harder to make use of, gaining a penalty equal to the vampire’s dots in Ishrana when making any rolls that use the traits “borrowed”.
While under the effects of Antipathetic Symbiosis a Host may only ignore this penalty when in the presence of the vampire who put them under the power’s effects.

Neural Breach ••••
So long as a mortal plays Host to the tainted blood of the Pijavica they find themselves under his sway, acting erratically and without thinking and prone to moments of somnambulism and fugue.
Cost: 2 Vitae
Roll: Strength + Persuasion + Ishrana vs. Stamina + Blood Potency.
Action: Instant
Duration: One Night
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The victim not only shakes off the effects of the Neural Breach, but the Tainted Vitae within their blood loses its potency, removing all effects the vampire’s vitae had over him.
Failure: The vampire’s victim proves more resilient than expected.
Success: The Host becomes prone to acting in the favor of the Vampire; success allows the vampire’s player to dictate one of the Target’s actions per dot of Ishrana, even if the character himself is actually unaware of the victim’s current location or action over the course of the night.
Exceptional Success: The vampire’s tainted vitae overwhelms the victims will entirely, increasing duration to an additional night, and allowing him to take control of twice as many actions as they have dots of Ishrana.

Corrupting Seed •••••
The vampire is able to concentrate his tainted Vitae into syrupy black substance that oozes from the palm of his hand and absorbs completely into his victims skin, corrupting them on a cellular and even spiritual level, transforming them into a vessel for the Parasite’s infectious nature.
Cost: 3 Vitae and 1 Willpower
Roll: none;
Action: Instant
The Pijavica can infect a host as with Tainted Transmission but instead causes the following effects
First the Target becomes a Ghoul for all purposes, gaining the Three Vitae and point of Willpower that were spent to activate the power, though they gain an additional dot of Resilience on top of the basic Ghoul Template.
The Corrupted character also finds himself cleared of any Blood Bond or Blood Addictions and gain the Vampire’s dots in Ishrana to any roll to resist those effects. This bonus even protects them from the addictive effects of the Infecting vampire himself.
This Ghoul-like state lasts indefinitely and does not require the vampire to expend a point of vitae to retain it each month.
The Vampire may infect as many mortals with Corrupted Seed as he has dots in Ishrana or Blood Potency, whichever is fewer.
Upon infecting a target with Corrupting Seed he may at any time of his choosing sacrifice a point of Humanity to set off one of the following effects.
• The host dies immediately and becomes a new Pijavica over the course of a number of nights equal to the 10 – the Sire’s Blood Potency.
• The vampire bursts into a font of brackish dead blood, only to wake up in the body of his host, the only vitae they possess upon rising is equal to the new body’s health levels. The Pijavic also loses a dot of Blood Potency.
• The Host instinctively finds the closest group of people and then dies, spraying tainted vitae over everyone around them, effectively activating the Transmit power upon a number of people equal to 10 – Humanity or their dots in Ishrana, whichever is more.

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