Character and Traits

Concepts 

Nightclub Owner
You haven’t retired; you just stepped out of the limelight.  Some say you are past your prime, but you always prove them wrong on the few nights you have time to take the stage yourself. Your regulars wait for those nights like no other. Those who hear you sing wonder why you do it so rarely. But you prefer to make those few nights special, and leave the stage for others to claim in between.  As a manager, you are constantly on the look out for new talent, and perhaps one might be trained in more ways than just how to use her voice. You have also made contacts among the Ventrue as a businesswoman, and within the Toreador, who occasionally come to visit in the hopes of hearing you once more.

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Confidence Trickster
You have an amazing voice, but singing isn’t really your thing. You have a different melody and use it to sway those around you with honeyed words. There is always music when you speak, sweet and strong, enough to make people do you favors. You are always looking to play the angle, always have some action going on. With a voice like yours, people just seem to trust you, and that’s all you need. Disciplines aren’t as much your thing as people skills and quick thinking. The other Daughters look down on you for using your skills like this, but screw those stuck up bitches. You’ve made plenty of friends among the Ravnos, and even taught them a trick or two. 

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Speechmaker
You might not sing but you love to perform. Even before you realized you were a woman, your voice carried, be it in a debate chamber or on the streets in front of a union meeting. Now that you’ve been accepted as a true Daughter of Cacophony, you love to gather a crowd, and when you have one, they belong to you. There are very few causes you really care about yourself. The cause doesn’t matter as much as the fact you can make a crowd do anything. They are the sheep and you are the shepherd.

 

Your services are for hire. It doesn’t matter what you convince the crowd to do, just that they are yours to command. You’ve made a lot of friends among the Brujah, who like to use you to bring their labor force back in line once more. Who knows, maybe the Prince will ask you to help bring some of the other Kindred back in line too one day. 

 

Merits and Flaws 

Chorus Trained (3 or 5pt. Merit)
The character has learned how to use the Fugue to tune in to her sisters and work together with far more efficiency. For 3 points, this Merit grants the character 2 extra dice to any Melpominee dice pool when using the power with another character with this Merit. For 5 points, the bonus 2 dice can be added for any action being performed by a partner with this Merit, such as making art or even fighting together. 

 

Fugue Instinct (3pt. Merit)
You can hear warnings and gain insight by listening to the Fugue more deeply. You must forego one of your actions to listen properly to the Fugue within. During this time, you may defend yourself but take no active actions. If you do, then you gain an insight for your next action that grants you +2 dice to whatever dice pool you use.

 

Banshee-in-Waiting (5pt. Flaw)
The Fugue is gradually driving you towards madness. If your temporary Willpower ever reaches 0, you automatically gain a derangement which can never be removed. You may remove other derangements you gain in other ways as usual. You may gain a maximum of three of these permanent derangements from losing your Willpower before being consumed by it. Should it happen a fourth time, you immediately lose yourself to the Fugue and become a character under the control of the Storyteller, walking in whatever direction the music takes you and killing anything you come across. 

 

Combination Powers 

Celebrity (Obfuscate ••• and Presence ••)
A lower-powered version of Majesty, this power allows the Kindred to claim some celebrity glamour. Those around her come to believe she is some sort of famous media personality. While they can’t quite place her, they become sure they have seen her on television or on an advertising billboard. It allows the Kindred to get preferential treatment, media attention, and access to VIP areas and exclusive places.

System: To activate this power the Kindred makes an Appearance + Presence roll, difficulty 8. For each success, she can add an extra die to her pool for any social interactions where fame is an advantage. This might be for convincing a doorman to let her into a club, or inspiring a group of people to ask for her autograph. Essentially, it allows the Kindred to gain all the benefits of the Fame background, with the ability to turn it off. The effects of this power last for a scene. This power costs 15 experience points to learn.

 

Silent Voice (Melpominee ••• and Obfuscate •••)
By pitching her voice impossibly high, the Daughter of Cacophony can use her powers inaudibly. This means that powers that rely on the voice to cause harm can be done in silence. 
System: In most cases this power works whenever the user wants it to with no roll. However, as it involves sound outside even most supernatural ranges, those with Auspex are allowed a test to try and detect it (Perception + Awareness + Auspex, difficulty 8). Unfortunately, those who do so risk hurting their ears, and take 1 non-lethal wound level for every 2 successes they get on their roll. This power costs 18 experience points to learn. 

 

Tune Out (Auspex •• and Melpominee ••)
With this power the Kindred can dull their senses enough to avoid the effects of any sonic attacks or distractions. She simply picks what she wants to hear, such as conversation, and ignores loud alarms or white noise. 
System: This power works at the will of the power user. She can tune out background noise to hear conversations without any penalties, or eliminate painfully loud alarms. However, when the power is activated the user cannot hear anything except for the sounds she has decided to hear. This might mean she can only hear the conversation she is having in a loud club, but not the music or background voices. Unfortunately, as she has to specify what she can hear, she will be unable to adjust the power to hear any new sounds unless she knows they are there. So she can easily add a new voice to a conversation when she sees someone join, but not hear someone talking behind her or hear a new alarm going off. This power costs 12 experience points to learn.

 

Elder Disciplines

Mosh Pit (Melpominee •••••)
This rather dangerous power can be used to inspire frenzy in any supernatural creature prone to such a thing (such as vampires and werewolves). The Daughter sings of her primal anger, and her target finds it hard not to lose themselves to their most violent urges. 
System: The Daughter spends a blood point and makes a Manipulation + Performance roll at a difficulty of her choosing. If she is successful, her target must make a roll to resist frenzy at the same difficulty. If a frenzy is inspired, it plays out as normal. The Daughter has no control over the target beyond triggering the frenzy. Other Melpominee powers might allow the Daughter to effect multiple targets.

 

Primal Scream (Melpominee •••••)
This time the Daughter’s song is one of terror, not rage. It is awe inspiring and makes her appear frightening in the extreme. Her target becomes terrified beyond belief. 
System: This power works in exactly the same ways as Mosh Pit (Melpominee •••••), except that instead of frenzy, it inspires Rötschreck.

 

Haunting Melody (Melpominee ••••• ••)
The Daughter can use this power to leave a tune hanging in the air in a certain place. Anyone visiting this area can perceive the tune quietly on the breeze, or just on the edge of their hearing. Unfortunately, the tune carries madness, and those who hear it can lose their minds if they are not careful.
System: The Daughter picks a derangement and makes a Manipulation + Performance roll at a difficulty of her choosing. For each success she gets, the song she sings will remain quietly hanging in the area for one day. Anyone entering the area must make a Willpower roll at a difficulty equal to the one the Daughter picked to use the power. If they fail, they suffer the effects of the derangement the Daughter picked for the rest of the night. If they botch the roll, the derangement does not fade and must be removed as if it was permanent.

 

Calling Song (Melpominee ••••• •••)
This ability allows the Daughter to place a tune in the mind of several different targets. They begin to hear her Fugue all around them, quietly at first, and then growing more difficult to ignore. They will hear the tune in myriad places, even in the walls of buildings, and it will seem to come from somewhere in particular. Eventually they will find themselves drawn towards the source of the music.
System: The Daughter can implant the song in as many people as she likes. She must sing for each person individually, making a Charisma + Performance roll at a difficulty equal to their current Willpower. When she has implanted the song, she can choose to activate it at any time. When she does, she must sing the calling song once more at the place she wants the others to come to. From that moment on, each person with the song in their head must do their best to reach the place they are being called to as if they were under the effects of Summon (Presence ••••). Supernatural creatures may make a Willpower roll (difficulty 8) to resist this effect, but ordinary humans may not. What they find there depends on the Daughter’s plan, but she need not be there at all. Once each targeted person arrives, the call of the song fades and they know they have reached its source. If the target manages to make a successful Willpower roll, they continue to hear the song and are still drawn towards it, but they may choose not to go. At the next sunset, they must make the Willpower roll again, and if they fail the song takes control of them once more. If they manage to succeed the Willpower roll three times in a row, the song loses its power and fades away.