Merits are special capabilities or knacks that add individuality to your character. They’re purchased during character creation or with experience points over the course of your chronicle.
The Merits in this chapter are organized alphabetically into three broad categories: Physical, Mental and Social. Some apply to your character’s basic traits to enhance them in particular situations. Some have prerequisites that must be met before they can be purchased. For example, a character with the Gunslinger Merit must have a Dexterity of 3 and Firearms of 3 or higher to be able to accurately fire two weapons at the same time. By the same token, some Merits apply drawbacks that balance out their inherent advantages. A character with the Fame Merit, for example, is treated like a star wherever he goes — but has a hard time blending into the crowd when he wants to.
Each Merit has a number of dots (•) associated with it. These dots represent the number of points that must be spent to purchase the Merit. Some Merits allow for a range of dots (say, • to •••). These allow you to purchase a low rating if it’s appropriate to your character concept, or you can start with a low level and increase it over time with experience points.
A character is born with some Merits or develops them early in life, while others can be acquired through trail and error, training and effort later in life.
The first kind can be acquired at character creation only and are labeled as such. The second kind can be acquired during play with experience points.
Merit dots must be purchased sequentially with experience points. You have to buy • and then •• before your character can have ••• or more.
When a ghost endeavors to communicate with the Nosferatu or manifest near the character, the ghost gains a number of dice equal to the dots purchased in this Merit. The Nosferatu gains no control over the ghost, but the ghost finds it has a much easier time communicating with the Nosferatu than with others, whether manifesting or communicating without Numina, or attempting to use Numina such as Clairvoyance, Ghost Sign or Ghost Speech. The ghost gains nothing to rolls made in attempt to harm the Nosferatu (though insulting or threatening communications still gain the bonus).
Whenever the Nosferatu makes a roll against a ghost (be it a roll to communicate with it, abjure it, exorcise it, or use a blessed item against it), the Nosferatu gains a number of dice equal to the dots purchased in this Merit. This bonus doesn’t apply when attempting to affect a ghost’s anchor.
Certainly not every Nosferatu lurks and lingers beneath the ground, and even those that do rarely make it a permanent home. They still have apartments, or live in gutted water-towers or in some teetering Victorian at the edge of the city.
However, some do live and lurk in the subterranean darkness for weeks on end, and over time they become accustomed to this place of forever night, an underground strata where sunlight never comes.
Those so accustomed needn’t actually slumber when the sun rises. The Nosferatu can still feel when the sun rises, however: his muscles tighten, his skin grows a bit waxy, a bit tough. This only applies when the Nosferatu is at least 30 feet below the surface of the world above and runs no chance of seeing the sun. Sewer tunnels that open up to the street still could have faint shafts of sunlight poking through: but the tunnels beneath the tunnels likely have never seen that kind of light. If the character is in an area where the sun touches or has touched even in a tiny way, the pull is too deep, and he must find a place to slumber or go deeper to remain conscious.
At sunrise, the Nosferatu still expends a single Vitae as if waking for the first time that night: his muscles unclench, his skin eases.
Drawback: While active during the day, the Nosferatu is at half his normal Speed (round up). In addition, a Haunt character possessing this Merit is especially harmed by sunlight. The Nosferatu suffers +1 Health point per turn when exposed to any of the sun’s rays (see “Sunlight,” pp. 170-171, Vampire: The Requiem).
The Nosferatu is ghost-touched, literally acting as a specter’s anchor in this world. Why is this? It’s most likely because the ghost is tied somehow to the Nosferatu. If the Nosferatu claimed the person as a victim accidentally, that person may continue in this world, fettered to the Haunt. The ghost may have once been a member of the Nosferatu’s own family, perhaps even a wife or a child that “lives on” as a specter, bound to the immortal vampire. It is possible, though, that the ghost has no actual connection to the character. Perhaps the character somehow convinces the ghost that he is someone other than he truly is, or perhaps the specter is grief-struck and lonely and gloms onto the Haunt because it senses a kind of “kinship in death.”
This Merit works similarly to the Retainer Merit (p. 116, World of Darkness Rulebook). Each acquisition of this Merit grants the character one spectral follower that claims him as anchor. Dots spent in the trait indicate the strength and ability of the ghost at hand. One or two dots suggests something akin to the power level of an apparition. Three dots are likely equiva- lent to the dice pools (though not necessarily the demeanor) of a poltergeist. Four dots suggests something on par with a deceiver, while five dots is closer to the level of a skinrider. (All such spectral types can be found on pp. 214-216, World of Darkness Rulebook.) The ghost, however, has a number of Numina equal to the dots purchased in this Merit: no more, no less, regardless of the suggested trait levels.
For the most part, the ghosts do as the Nosferatu bids, though certainly they cannot affect the world as a human retainer would. In addition, the Nosferatu gains no bonuses to communicate with the spirit, and may have to work to get his messages or commands heard (or felt).
Drawback: Ghosts are persistent and somewhat invasive. The ghost will perform tasks as the Nosferatu bids, but keep in mind this is a two-way street. From time to time, the ghost will demand that the Nosferatu do its bidding. It may have an ancient enemy it seeks to dispatch or may want something far simpler, like to have the character visit its grave and put a certain type of flower upon it. A good rough guideline for Storytellers is that for every three commands the Nosferatu gives the ghost, the ghost will give one in return. If the Nosferatu fails to perform such a task, assume that the Merit loses a dot. This loss of a dot might represent the ghost literally losing power, or it might instead indicate that the ghost is unwilling to devote the breadth of its abilities for the Nosferatu’s needs. Dots can be regained through story and the appropriate experience points. If all the dots disappear, assume that the ghost is either gone forever, or is now hostile toward the character.
Many Nosferatu wear masks—literally. Porcelain masks. Plague masks. Gas masks. One Haunt might wear a sacred animal mask (bearing the vicious countenance of a bat or enraged dog), while another might wear something that evokes eerie beauty (perhaps feminine beauty, even on the face of a male Nosferatu). Leather bondage mask? Sure. A plaster death mask of an American president? Could be. A Mexican luchadore mask topped with a knot of real hair, stolen from some victim somewhere? Absolutely.
Why would they wear such masks? Different reasons for different Damned. The Haunts recognize that they’re... bizarre if not necessarily in appearance then in the vampire’s aura, and a mask may help to conceal more overt deformities (though it can also heighten the sense of strangeness, which is fine for many Nosferatu). Others use masks to frighten enemies, given that a freakish ceramic countenance can do a lot to accentuate the terror such a creature causes. Some are shrinking violets and try to hide from the world behind masks. Some... well, they just like the anonymity. A mask allows the Haunt to be someone different. Something new. Perhaps even inhuman.
A normal mask worn by a Nosferatu might offer a minor (+1) equipment bonus: the frozen screeching rictus of a monkey mask might offer +1 to Intimidation, for instance, while a beautiful and delicate dramaturgical mask might grant a +1 to Expression in the right circumstances. That’s all well and good. But it doesn’t require Merit dots.
What does require the purchase of a Merit is what’s called an “Unyielding Mask.” In this case, it’s a mask that’s literally affixed to the face. For the most part, permanently. Perhaps it’s bolted to the face. Or the skin has been peeled back and stitched or stapled to the fabric. Or the Nosferatu used his own Vitae as a coagulant glue, bonding it to his pallid flesh.
It’s important to note that the mask gains its power not simply from being a frightening or beautiful mask, but because it literally bonds with the Nosferatu’s eerie aura and his disturbed flesh.
At three dots, Unyielding Mask protects against any Discipline that attempts to mentally or socially coerce the Nosferatu (Dominate, Majesty, Nightmare), earning the Nosferatu a +2 to the rolls to resist or a -2 to the foe if no such resistance roll is expected. At four dots, the Unyielding Mask allows the Nosferatu to gain a persistent +1 to a Social Skill of the player’s choice. As above, Intimidation and Expression are viable, but so is any Skill. Subterfuge might gain a bonus from a snake-like mask (serpent’s tongue and all that), while Animal Ken might gain its bonus from being soothing or frightening in some primal, wild way.
Drawback: The Unyielding Mask can be targeted and destroyed. Assume that any mask has a Durability of 3 and has a number of Health equal to the Nosferatu’s own, halved (round down). Bashing damage does not affect the Unyielding Mask, but lethal and aggravated do. The Nosferatu cannot heal the mask directly, but the mask does heal one point of damage when the Haunt awakens for the first time in the evening (and expends the single Vitae to do so). If the Mask is destroyed, it confers a single aggravated level of damage to the Nosferatu.