The Freaks know their bodies, frightening though they may be to others. In fact, these Kindred have become so familiar with their deformities that they have literally become addicted to that which makes them different. Just as a woman who gets her first piercing on a lark and a year later has two dozen all over her flesh, the Freaks are obsessed with making themselves even more grotesque, exploring the limits of their forms and delighting in the extremes they can discover. While this certainly proves personally satisfying to the Freaks, even more importantly, they can put on an ever-more spectacular Show. By displaying themselves in the most shocking fashion, they are able to captivate an audience, whether a small crowd or a single onlooker. The more fascinating their performance, the less viewers find themselves able to tear themselves away from the Show — and the more helpless they are. Once captivated, they are easy targets for the Freak, no matter what she may have in mind.
The classic sideshow geek’s spectacle involves doing something painful, disgusting or otherwise personally discomfiting — driving a nail into one’s face, swallowing billiard balls and vomiting them back up, chewing glass. Freaks who master this basic level of The Show have no problem subjecting themselves to the indignities or pain such Geek Tricks can involve.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Stamina + Intimidation + The Show
Action: Instant
For each success on the invocation roll, the character can spend a single turn ignoring any pain that affects him (effectively negating wound penalties or penalties associated with damage, such as those that might affect Crúac or Theban Sorcery rituals). This Discipline doesn’t affect the actual occurrence of the injury at all — wounds still open or the nail remains embedded in the Freak’s face. Naturally, Geek Trick doesn’t actually heal wounds or affect dice-pool penalties after its duration, though the Freak may choose to invoke the power again.
Many Freaks suffer from physical deformities involving misplaced, strangely oriented or unnaturally flexible limbs, backs and digits. Contortion allows a Freak to either further enhance these deformities where they already exist or create them where they do not.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Strength + Athletics + the Show
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The Freak actually succeeds in contorting her physique, but the resulting configuration of limbs, bones and so on is not what she anticipated. Instead, her body is contorted in a way that is excruciatingly painful, so much so that she suffers two points of bashing damage that cannot be healed until the following evening, when the effects of this disastrous transformation have vanished. In addition to the actual damage, Storytellers should feel free to afflict the Freak with other appropriate penalties that might reflect the nature of the horrid physical warping.
Failure: The Freak fails to effectively contort herself, for better or worse.
Success: The Freak is able to make a significant alteration to one part of her body that involves the bones and muscles, so as to allow the body to be flexed in a way that was previously impossible. The Freak experiences no discomfort, and the alteration remains until the Freak desires it to end or the sun rises, whichever comes first. Examples include a Freak who can bend her knees in any direction (the better to achieve a certain stance for a better view), one who can touch her elbows behind her back (the better to fit into a narrow gap) and one who can flip her legs over her head (the better to hide somewhere small).
Exceptional Success: The Contortion is so complete that the Freak is able to repeat this specific contortion at will (no roll or Vitae expenditure required) for a number of nights equal to the number of successes.
In no case can Contortion be used in a corrective way or in a way that provides the Freak remedy of the burden of her unique weakness.
Suggested Modifiers
Modifier Situation
+2 The Contortion involves range of motion already capable by the body (bending forward at the waist, touching elbows behind back).
–2 The Contortion involves range of motion to which the body isn’t adapted (backward-bending knees) or that actively requires break ing bones, tearing ligaments and so on (fold ing one’s ribcage in half, tremendously distending one’s jaw).
At this level of showmanship, the Freak learns to change her body in ways that are truly no longer in the realm of humanity. Spider Crawl allows her to grow countless, almost invisible hook-like hairs on the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet that can be used in the same fashion as a spider’s in order to permit the scaling of most surfaces with ease.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Dexterity + Athletics + the Show
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The hook-like barbs that are necessary for climbing form only partially, causing pain and discomfort for the Freak. For the remainder of the scene, the Freak suffers a –3 penalty to any dice pools that involve use of the hands or feet (though a successful use of Geek Trick, above, will abate this for a time).
Failure: No effect.
Success: The Freak is able to climb surfaces as easily as a spider. The surface being climbed must possess some irregularity in order to be climbable — glass and some other artificial materials are too smooth for Spider Crawl to work effectively. The Freak can climb just as easily on ceilings as on vertical surfaces, and similarly on poles or other objects. Movement occurs at half her normal rate.
Exceptional Success: The Freak is able to move with unprecedented ease, permitting her to move just as quickly when climbing as when moving on the ground. In all cases, the Freak must have bare hands and feet to use this power.
Freaks who have mastered The Show to this degree are able to not only contort their bodies in unusual ways, but can actually compress and stretch their bodies into shapes that are downright grotesque. Rubber Skin permits the Freak to literally squeeze through a narrow pipe, reach across a 10-foot space to grab a set of keys and even pass through the narrow space under a closed door. During the transformation, the Freak’s body defies its normal spatial limitations and can be forced to adjust to the wishes of its owner.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Dexterity + Athletics + the Show
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The effort to alter her body is so great that the Freak is overcome by exhaustion, which makes any further physical activity severely difficult. For the remainder of the scene, the Freak suffers a –3 penalty to all dice pools that involve a physical Attribute (though a successful use of Geek Trick, above, will abate this for a time).
Failure: No effect.
Success and Exceptional Success: The Freak is able to coax her body into changing as desired, allowing her to compress or stretch as needed. The change lasts only a single scene or until the Freak chooses to return to her normal form, whichever comes first. She may alter her body to such a degree that she is able to do the following things, depending on her success.
Limits of Body Change
Feat — Success — Exceptional Success
Squeeze into cylindrical shape — 8” diameter — 2” diameter
Squeeze under obstacle — 4” space — 1” space
Stretch body — 100% increase in length — 300%increase in length
Note that none of these applications of Rubber Skin change the Freak’s weight, though the Freak may choose to alter her density. A 350-pound behemoth who invokes Rubber Skin to shrink herself down to a two-inch-by-one-foot cylinder still weighs 350 pounds.
Named for the famous 19th century twins Chang and Eng, this power enables a Freak to fuse the flesh and bone on one area of his body with the flesh and bone on another part, or on another Kindred! The Freak could join his legs into one large, mermaid-like “tail,” he could cause his arms to seem to melt into his torso, and he could even temporarily connect his body to another vampire’s, even if that Kindred were an unwilling participant. Obviously, this latter usage can lead to some very horrific, not to mention dangerous, situations. However, when used with another willing Freak, the Carnival is able to put on a Show that cannot be matched.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Dexterity + Medicine + The Show
Action: Instant. If the target is an unwilling Kindred, the action is contested, with a Dexterity + Stamina roll made for the target to avoid being made a “Siamese Twin.”
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The Freak’s attempt at fusion goes horribly awry. He accidentally slips up and succeeds in fusing himself in a way that was not only unintentional, but is also extremely crippling and possibly quite painful. The Storyteller should determine whether the nature of the erroneous fusion is painful (–3 to all physical dice pools and –2 to all other dice pools except degeneration rolls, though a successful use of Geek Trick, above, will abate this for a time) or crippling (reduce the character’s Speed to 0) and apply penalties as befits the result. The consequences of this failure last the duration of the scene.
Failure: No effect.
Success: The Freak achieves his goal. If the intent was to fuse one part of his own body to another part of his own body, the fusion succeeds without further complication. This alteration remains for the duration of the scene or until the Freak chooses to end it, whichever comes first.
If the Freak had aimed to fuse part of his body to another vampire, the fusion succeeds as desired, but lasts only so long as the target desires: should the twin wish to break the connection, that character’s player must succeed at a Stamina + Composure roll that results in more successes than the Freak achieved in making her Siamese Twin roll. No matter what the case, the connection automatically breaks at the end of the scene.
Exceptional Success: The fusion now lasts until the Freak wishes to end it. In the case of an unwilling twin, that character suffers a –2 penalty to the Stamina + Composure to break the connection between the two.
Siamese Twin has benefits that go far beyond a mere physical connection. When connected to the other vampire, both twins are able to communicate by thought alone. In addition to this sharing of the minds, both twins have access to the 10 common Disciplines (see pp. 115–141 of Vampire: The Requiem) of the other for the duration of their union. By spending one Vitae per Discipline they wish to access (plus any costs associated with the Discipline itself), a twin may use that Discipline as if it were his own for the remainder of the scene or until the vampires are no longer Siamese Twins, whichever comes first.
While joined, the Freak who initiated the connection may also steal one Vitae from his twin each turn as an instant action by succeeding at a Stamina + Composure roll. This does not count toward the creation or enhancement of a Vinculum. The other twin is unable to tap into the Freak’s own supply of Vitae. Should either vampire suffer enough damage to be destroyed while joined, the surviving twin will suffer a number of points of aggravated damage equal to the dead vampire’s Blood Potency, and the connection is immediately broken.
Obviously, two vampires frenzying while joined has dire circumstances for both. In fact, at any time while joined, if either twin enters a frenzy, he will direct his bloodlust at his twin before turning it on anyone else.