Mind's Eye Theatre - Vampire The Requiem.pdf - RoseRed

on the part of the Kindred to create ghouls, but once they do, those creatures can become
as independent or reliant as their masters wish.
Creating a ghoul is an endeavor laden with risk. Ghouls are, by their nature, threats to the
Masquerade, as they are mortals who have knowledge of the existence of vampires. Kindred
who use ghouls argue that this knowledge also protects the secret, since a ghoul depends on
vampiric Vitae to sustain that very state. Ghouls (and other mortals) suffer the same potential
for blood addiction that the Kindred do, and since a single ghoul is rarely a match for any
given vampire, most willingly suffer whatever eccentricities or cruelties their masters infl ict
on them as long as the promise of that precious Vitae is delivered.
Of those Kindred who create ghouls, most use them as agents for their agendas during the
daytime, or as extra aides, muscle or specialists during their own active hours. Ghouls can and
do come from all walks of life, from menservants of high-class Kindred to gangsters under
a vampiric crime lord’s sway to crooked cops or valued informants. In most cases, ghouls
are utterly dependent on their Kindred masters. Many of them are codependent, addicted
to blood or their masters’ attention, or otherwise trapped in abusive, horrible relationships
with their lords. And yet, stories travel through Kindred networks now and again concerning
ghouls who go rogue, beholden to no particular master. They creep into sleeping Kindred
havens to steal valuable Vitae.
Not every mortal who is a vampire’s thrall is a ghoul. At the same time, not every ghoul
labors under a Vinculum to a single vampiric regnant. It takes an act of will to create a ghoul,
but a ghoul must drink from the same vampire three times to be subject to the Vinculum,
just like everyone else.
GHOUL CREATION AND SUPPORT
A vampire who wishes to create a ghoul must feed a mortal at least a single Vitae. In
addition, the vampire’s player must spend a point of Willpower to invest the ghoul with
some degree of the mystic state with which she is cursed. If a vampire simply gives a mortal
Vitae but no Willpower point is expended, the mortal does not become a ghoul (though he
is potentially subject to the Vinculum and blood addiction). This Willpower expenditure
represents the creation of an artifi cial state, infl icting some of the benefi ts and detriments
of undeath on the ghoul.
Upon becoming a ghoul, a mortal stops aging. Although time still passes normally, the
ghoul’s body doesn’t become any more decrepit with age, nor does a ghoul child continue
to grow. (Pregnant ghouls almost universally miscarry after the change, and if any have ever
carried children to term, it is unheard of among the Kindred.) As long as the ghoul obtains
regular feedings of Vitae, this state of static age continues.
A ghoul requires at least one Vitae per month to sustain the state of ghouldom. When
receiving this monthly “upkeep,” either the vampire or the ghoul player must spend a point
of Willpower. The Vitae need not come from the Kindred who initially created the ghoul.
For the Kindred, this is a gamble. If the vampire player spends the Willpower point and/or
Vitae herself, and the vampire never lets the ghoul know he can spend his own Willpower,
the ghoul acquires a sense of expense associated with using that Willpower and Vitae. On the
other hand, if the Kindred lets her ghoul know that he can spend the Willpower himself, she
sets herself up for possible betrayal. If a vampiric master relies upon other Kindred to supply
her ghouls’ Vitae, those ghouls may eventually become subject to a Vinculum to another
Kindred, which isn’t always in the fi rst Kindred’s best interests.
A ghoul who does not receive his monthly infusion of blood slowly returns to his previous
mortal state. The erstwhile ghoul ages one year per day that he is overdue for his monthly
draught. If the ghoul does manage to procure more Vitae, he does not revert to his original
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mind’s chapter eye three: theatre: special requiem rules and systems