Cortel Giovanni - The Giovanni

Back to The Giovanni Family section of Cortel's Site.

Merits and Flaws

PROXY KISSED (4pt/8pt Supernatural Merit)
Before the embrace, you received the traditional Giovanni Proxy Kiss. This means you have one free dot of Potence, and the other members of your clan tend to be comfortable that you were Embraced in "the proper Giovanni fashion." On the downside, you are partially blood bound to someone - probably someone other than your sire. Given the way the anziani like to balance things out, you may well have been embraced by someone who dislikes or disagrees with your domitor.
You may take this Merit a second time (for a total of 8 points) to gain a free dot in Fortitude, indicating a very long service as a ghoul. If you do this, it means that you're: (a) partially bound to three Kindred, (b) one-third bound to one and two-thirds boudn to another, or (c) fully bound to the Kindred who Embraced you, who will probably be in deep shit with the elders - if she isn't an elder itself.

SANGUINE INCONGRUITY (5pt Physical Merit)
Giovanni with this atavism are few and far between - fewer than a dozen reported instances have occured since the clan rose from the ashes of the clan that preceded them. Kindred possessing it do not bear the Curse of Lamia; their Kiss causes no more damage than the blood loss itself. These vampires acquire a peculiar pallor upon their Embrace, however - they look like corpses, and no amount of blood ingestion can flush their features (as other vampires are able to do). Giovanni with this Merit are afforded wide berth, as the Giovanni tend to be quite superstitious about it.

INBRED (1pt-5pt Flaw)
Inbreeding, a common occurance within the incestuous Giovanni clan, can take many forms, and this Flaw is best discussed with the Storyteller before a player takes it for her character. The Inbred Flaw covers all manner of physical, mental and emotional defects. A one-point Inbreeding is something simple and unobtrusive, such as eyes too close together or an underbite. A three-point Inbreeding is more severe: a congenital health condition (for mortals) or a crippling physical deformity. Five point Inbreedings are grossly disabling or emotionally crippling - everything from uselessly atrophied legs to a permanant Derangement, decided upon mutally by the player and Storyteller. Inbred conditions may or may not be immediately discernible, though their point cost should be relative to their magnitude.

SHADOW WALKER (6pt Supernatural Flaw)
The Giovanni clan is by nature inexorably tied to the realm beyond the sudario. Giovanni suffering from this Flaw are so tied to the Shadowlands that even in the lands of the living they are forced to interact with the world of the dead on a nightly basis. To shadow walkers, objects in the Underworld are as real as anything to be found in the physical world. Such vampires find that the ghosts of walls may impede their flight, ghostly objects may strike them, and wraiths' powers work as if the Kindred were on the far side of the Shroud. This Flaw is similar to the Ash Path power Dead Hand except that Shadow Walker is always on and it in no way allows the character possessing it to perceive beyond the Shroud - see p. 164 of Vampire: The Masquerade for details.
The Storyteller may determine that certain Shadowlands topography interferes with you. Unless you have a Merit or power to do so, you can't see into the Shadowlands, so you have to be careful in feeling your way about - essentially a blind man subject to the Underworld landscape. You may be restricted by immaterial walls or environmental effects at a Storyteller's discretion. More importantly, wraiths can affect you directly - a wraith attacking you inflicts damage without any special means on his part. Conversely, you can affect things in the Shadowlands with your physical body, though chances are that you do so blindly. Your possessions and weapons do not have this special facility, so it's possible for you to swing a sword that passes through a ghostly wall, only to have your hand stopped by the wall, or to have a gun that can't shoot ghosts whereas their relic guns can put holes in you. Obviously, this Flaw is appropriate only for a game in which interaction wtih wraiths is fairly common or a Storyteller wants to pay above-average attention to the Underworld.