The Gulikan would be little more than a family of Bloodhounds were it not for their development of Ortam. Instead of providing the bloodline with essentially a new collection of supernatural powers that they can directly wield, Ortam is really an alternate method of employing certain Disciplines that the Perfumer already knows and certain powers of the Perfumer’s own Vitae. Ortam permits a skilled Gulikan to create all manner of fragrant products that not only produce supernaturally irresistible scents, but also transmit the effects of the Perfumer’s power to those who smell these products. Kindred and kine are accustomed to being cautious of things they see, hear and feel, but few Kindred and kine maintain vigilance against a light, pleasant scent that is carried on the night air. This assumption of harmlessness makes Ortam so effective.
Ortam can be used two different ways mo matter how many dots a character possesses, as follows.
BUT VAMPIRES DON’T BREATHE
While vampires don’t actually breathe in the sense that mortals do, Kindred obviously have to inhale air in order to speak. Many other situations also require vampires to “breathe,” such as tracking a rival by scent, inhaling a bouquet of flowers at Elysium or savoring the tang of blood and fear in one’s prey. As mentioned above, many Gulikan do, in fact, test the scents around them very frequently.
The upshot of all this is that vampires aren’t inherently immune to Gulikan powers simply by dint of being vampires. If a character specifically states that he’s not breathing, then fair enough — but hold him to that. The Kindred are creatures who exult in sensory stimuli, and more than a few even thrill to the risk that certain environments impose on them. No, a Kindred’s not going to drown — but he may catch a tantalizing scent from the Kindred standing next to him.
Essence Vitale Absolue
The first and simplest way the Gulikan use Ortam is as a stand-alone Discipline that allows the Perfumer to produce what is called the Essence Vitale Absolue, nothing less than the essential, supernatural scent of the Kindred’s own Vitae. The Perfumers then use this essence to infuse nearly any appropriate item — soap, oil, lotion, wax, powder, resin, tobacco, incense, cloth, paper, alcohol, salve, etc. — so as to turn that item into something not only fragrant, but also capable of subjecting those who smell it with the power of the Perfumer’s Blood.
Individuals who smell cologne produced in this fashion, for example, would be affected as if they had actually tasted a quantity of the vampire’s Vitae and are subject to some of the same effects they would suffer had they actually imbibed the blood. They may become addicted to the smell of the Gulikan’s Vitae, craving the scent as strongly as those who drink Kindred blood. In fact, their craving will make them much more likely to taste Vitae if presented with it, for they will clearly detect that the two are ultimately one and the same. A Perfumer who wears a perfume of Essence Vitale Absolue can literally have mortals following her like lapdogs, desperate to smell her scent and willing to do anything so as to have access to the fragrance.
Cost: 1 Vitae per dose created
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Crafts + Ortam
Action: Extended (five successes; each roll represents one full night of laboratory work).
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The attempt to craft the essence fails spectacularly. The Storyteller chooses an effect: either the Gulikan loses her sense of smell for a week (due to overstimulation in the laboratory) or she suffers three points of lethal damage in a painful lab accident.
Failure: The Gulikan is unable to create a fragrant essence.
Success: The Perfumer creates a potent Essence Vitale Absolue from her Vitae. She may apply this essence to any reasonable object or render it in any suitable form (an oil, a cologne, a pastille, etc.).
Exceptional Success: The character creates an uncommonly strong Essence Vitale Absolue from her Vitae. The character has a choice: she may choose to increase the duration of the essence’s functionality or she may increase its strength. If she chooses to increase the duration, the Essence Vitale Absolue remains effective for a week instead of a single night. If she increases its strength, those individuals who resist its effects suffer an additional –2 penalty on their resistance dice pools, but the essence functions only for a single scene instead of a full night.
An individual subjected to the scent of the Essence Vitale Absolue is treated as if he had consumed a point of the Gulikan’s Vitae (except that he gains no sustenance from it). That is, the target experiences the heady rush of drinking Vitae, and may well become addicted to the scent and taste of Vitae. Additionally, one who smells the scent is considered to move one step toward a Vinculum with the individual Gulikan who crafted the essence. (Note that the third and final step confirming the Vinculum may not come from Essence Vitale Absolue — the last step must take the form of the standard draught of the vampire’s Vitae.)
One who inhales the scent and wishes to resist is entitled to a resistance roll. The player rolls Resolve + Stamina + Blood Potency – the Gulikan’s level of Ortam.
Additional Resistance Roll Modifiers
Modifier — Situation
+2 — Target has an existing Vinculum to another Kindred.
+1 — Target has tasted the Gulikan’s blood within the past month.
+1 — Target has succeeded on a resistance roll against this Gulikan’s Essence Vitale Absolue already (cumulative to a maximum of +3).
–1 — Target is one or two steps toward a Vinculum (toward the Gulikan or any other Kindred).
–1 — Target has failed a resistance roll against this Gulikan’s Essence Vitale Absolue already (cumulative to a maximum of –3).
–2 — The target has a blood tie (see Vampire: The Requiem, p. 162) to the Kindred who created the essence.
Fragrant Devotions
(Ortam •, varies)
Ortam may also augment another Discipline, effectively enabling the Perfumer to create a multitude of Fragrant Devotions. Ortam becomes the vector by which a Gulikan may deliver a Discipline’s effects. By investing a Discipline with a conjunctional knowledge of Ortam, the Gulikan may activate Disciplines based on the subject’s inhaling of the Gulikan’s scent, rather than seeing her or otherwise imposing a physical presence.
Not all Disciplines can be matched with Ortam effectively. Only those Disciplines that amplify or otherwise augment the Gulikan’s own innate ability to influence the thoughts and feelings of others can be used in this way. Any character who smells the Gulikan’s scent becomes susceptible to the effect.
Majesty is perfectly suited for this marriage of supernatural Disciplines. A victim may walk into a chamber smoky with incense, only to find herself Entranced by the absent Gulikan. Celerity, for example, could be used with Ortam to any effect — the resulting fragrance would have no effect on those who smell it. Dominate, likewise, doesn’t work, because it requires eye contact (though Gulikan who have Conditioned their thralls suitably might make use of a Fragrant Dominate Devotion; see p. 127 of Vampire: The Requiem).
The Disciplines that make the basis of a given Fragrant Devotion must also be ones that the Perfumer using Ortam knows. Making a scented lotion that conveys the full power of Dread, for example, is possible only if the Perfumer has already mastered the second level of Nightmare.
Learning a Fragrant Devotion costs a flat three experience points. This grants access only to that single Discipline power in the form of the scent-based vector, however. Additional Discipline powers and effects will cost an additional three experience points per Fragrant Devotion. Existing Devotions may be made into Fragrant Devotions as well, at the standard three-experience-point cost after purchasing the base Devotion.
Making a Discipline power or Devotion into a Fragrant Devotion adds one Vitae to the cost of that power. This does not change the action type of the Discipline or Devotion or have the effects of the Essence Vitale Absolue. All Fragrant Devotions do is change the method by which the Discipline power takes effect.