Skip to content

Gargoyle

Made, not born. Free, not forgiven.

What Are You?

You were built. Whether you were assembled from the stolen blood of Gangrel, Nosferatu, and Tzimisce through a terrible Tremere ritual, or Embraced by a Gargoyle who gained that ability through sheer evolutionary defiance, you woke up 7–9 feet tall with stone for skin, wings on your back, and no memory of who you were before. In the 12th century, the Tremere warlock Goratrix created the first of your kind as expendable shock troops; weapons to hurl at the enemies lining up to destroy the Tremere for what they'd done to the Salubri. Another Tremere, Virstania, took over your bloodline's development and called herself your "mother." Her affection was real but deeply toxic. For three centuries, Gargoyles served as slaves: guards, soldiers, and disposable flying muscle for a Clan that considered them property.

Then you woke up. Gradually, across generations, Gargoyles developed minds of their own; personalities, preferences, grudges, and eventually the ability to create more of your kind without Tremere assistance. Your creators hadn't planned for that. They hadn't planned for the revolt, either. One night, the weapons turned on their wielders, and the Gargoyles won their freedom through blood and fire. The Tremere were formally forbidden from making any more of you. They agreed, then quietly kept doing it anyway, because what else were they going to do with all that leftover Vitae? These nights, Gargoyles are rare, scattered, and fiercely independent. You organize into Flocks — tight-knit found families led communally or by the eldest member (not necessarily all Gargoyles). You're loyal to your Flock above all else and deeply suspicious of everyone outside it, especially anyone who smells like a library full of pennies and talks about "the greater good."

The cost is everything they left inside you. Your body is a monument to someone else's ambition. Stone and wing and fang, magnificent and monstrous and impossible to hide. Your mind carries the programming your creators installed: a susceptibility to commands and coercion that even centuries of freedom haven't fully erased. And the gap between you and mortal humanity is one you can narrow but never close. You weren't human before this, not really; you were either made from parts or Embraced into something that was never meant to be a person. Whatever you are, you're building it from scratch, one night at a time, surrounded by and protecting the only people who seem to understand: your Flock.

Disciplines

You start with exclusive access to Visceratika. Choose 1 additional: Potence | Protean

Bane: Built to Serve

Your body is permanently monstrous, stone-skinned, winged, and clearly inhuman. You cannot pass as mortal by any mundane means. You have an Ongoing penalty equal to your Blood Potency (minimum 1) to all social rolls with characters who can see your true form and are unfamiliar with you or hostile toward you. However, if you remain perfectly still in an architectural context — perched on a building, crouched on a ledge, squatting on a rooftop — observers who don't already know you're alive assume you're a statue. This is, in fact, a perfectly viable surveillance method.

Additionally, your mind carries the fingerprints of your creators. You have an Ongoing penalty equal to your Blood Potency (minimum 1) to Stay Chill rolls made to resist Dominate, Presence, or any other form of supernatural mental coercion. Against commands from Tremere specifically, this penalty is doubled.

Lastly, your Humanity can never exceed 6. You can claw toward it, but the gap between what you are and what humans are can never fully close.

Compulsion: The Vigil

When you perceive a direct threat to your Haven, your Flock, or anyone you've sworn to protect, you feel compelled to interpose yourself between the danger and your charge, regardless of tactical wisdom or personal safety.

Until you have physically positioned yourself between the threat and what you're protecting, neutralized the danger, or the scene ends, take an Ongoing penalty equal to your Blood Potency (minimum 1) to all rolls not dedicated to defending your charge. You cannot voluntarily retreat, disengage, or leave the threatened person or place unguarded while the Compulsion is active.

Gargoyle Perks

You get 2 unique abilities:

Stone Hide: Your skin is rock. You have always-active Armor equal to your Blood Potency (minimum 1). Unlike all other forms of Armor, Stone Hide also reduces incoming Aggravated Harm. You were very literally built to take hits, and your stone gets stronger with every blow it absorbs.

Living Rampart: When you Protect the Coterie, treat a roll of 6- as a 7–9. You ignore the once-per-scene usage limit; you can throw yourself in front of danger as many times as the fiction demands. Additionally, on a 7–9, you protect both yourself and one ally within Close Range rather than only yourself, usually by extending a stony wing.

Gargoyle Experience

Once each per session, gain +1 XP when you...

  • Shield your Coterie from Harm by physically interposing yourself or absorbing an attack meant for someone else
  • Resist or defy an attempt to control you (supernatural or mundane) when compliance would have been easier
  • Build or strengthen a bond with someone who initially feared or distrusted you because of what you are

Archetypes

  • Sentinel: You guard what matters. Everything else can burn.
    • Blood +1 | Shadow +0 | Resolve +2 | Demeanor −1 | Wits +1
  • Scout: Every rooftop is your turf. Every ledge is a listening post. Every– wait, what was that?
    • Blood +0 | Shadow +2 | Resolve +1 | Demeanor −1 | Wits +1
  • Warrior: There is a very short list of things you cannot break. It gets shorter every night.
    • Blood +2 | Shadow +0 | Resolve +1 | Demeanor +1 | Wits −1
  • Custom Archetype: Create your own by distributing these stats: +2 | +1 | +1 | +0 | −1