Pack Blooded

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Effect: For most Damned, being a part of a coterie is without true bond. The vampires within a given coterie might work against each other as much as they work for one another. A handshake and a kind word in the front, a sharpened stake and a whispered insult from the back. Moreover, at least when compared against the entire backdrop of a vampire’s eternal Requiem, coteries form and fade all the time. They are ultimately fleeting.

Not so with some Gangrel coteries, known as “packs.” A pack formed between Gangrel is something that goes beyond a social relationship. It gets in the Blood. This doesn’t mean they share Vitae, swapping the red stuff in some sort of circular Vinculum. No, it’s as if the Blood within one Savage shifts subtly to be like the Blood of another in his pack. Silly as it seems, it’s how mortal females living together for long periods of time often develop the same menstrual periods: the Blood is given over to a certain animal rhythm for those who care to give into it. Some Gangrel certainly do.

Only those who possess this Merit within a given coterie gain the benefits, and these benefits only apply to those who possess the dots of this Merit in that coterie. (In other words, if a pack has four Savages and only two of them possess the Pack Blooded Merit, only those two gain the benefits for one another. The others are outside the harmony of this feral resonance.) To reiterate, this only works with vampires in the same coterie or “pack.” How a pack is formed is different from place to place. Some Gangrel institute elaborate rituals of scarification or ceremonial hunts to “bond” the Damned together. Others need no such ritualized behavior, recognizing other kin and giving into the unspoken bonds immediately.

• Those with this Merit gain +1 Initiative, +1 Defense and +1 Speed when working together in combat (they must be within 50 yards of one another).
• Outside combat, those with the Pack Blooded Merit gain +3 to all Empathy Skill rolls made on one another.

Drawback: Being Pack Blooded is a disavowal – whether conscious or not – of one’s own human compass. Degeneration rolls made whilst in the company of other Pack Blooded members of the coterie are made at -1 dice.

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