By Lee Garvin (LeeGarv@aol.com)
My friends have all begun to dread whenever I say the word "gargoyles" now, and they believe I am something of a nut. It is perhaps a sad fact that I have put more thought into this work than I have put into some of my professional projects. Anyone who's read my stuff will likely agree.
These rules are mostly unchanged from the previous edition, but there are some additions. I have attempted to clear up the many questions I've received about Legendary Potential, I have expanded upon the Monstrosity Endowment, and I have also included character sheets of some of the major characters from the series.
I hope you enjoy playing this as much as I enjoyed creating it.
Finally, I would like to extend my thanks to Disney for convincing us that maturely written animation does not only come from across the Pacific, White Wolf for creating an evocative world in which to play, Hank and John for showing us what "amateurs" can do, Jessica Fure for editing this manuscript, and to Paul Bensel for helping me with various World of Darkness politics.
Thank you,
Lee Garvin
"They should have been back by now, Ceasar." The huge Irish Wolfhound raised its head at the sound of its name, then lay it back down on the couch where it sprawled.
Flavius knew there was no point in talking to the dog; ghouled it might be, but it was still a dog. It was therapeutic for him to speak his thoughts aloud occasionally.
The team that was late in reporting had been sent on a "recovery" mission. Certain documents in a safe in the Higen Building could link Flavius to three different insider-trading scams, and he didn't feel like bribing the SEC investigators again.
He was about to reach for his intercom when the Wolfhound leapt to its feet and began barking.
Herbert, his chief aide, burst into the room, with several figures rushing in behind him, most of them dripping blood onto the carpet.
"I'm sorry, sir. They came in like this. I tried to stop them, but the cleaning staff was coming, so I thought it would be best just to bring them in here.
Flavius' eyes threatened to bulge from his head. "What the hell do you think you're doing! Coming into my public offices looking like the last reel of a horror movie! Do you realize I have mortal employees too? You have twenty seconds to explain yourselves, or you'll be ashes by morning."
Turloe, the team's leader, plopped down on the couch where Ceasar had been. His shoulder had a nasty wound that travelled from collarbone to hip. "Shut up, Flavius; I'm in no mood for your posturing. I took this job because Diane owed you a favor, not out of fear of you. If you'd like to turn this into a bloodbath, be my guest. Be warned, however, that I will burn you down while you're still wondering how that table leg got into your chest." Turloe took a breath. "Now, if you are prepared to be reasonable, I will tell you what happened."
Flavius relaxed for a second and looked at the rest of the team. There had been seven, but only five, including Turloe, were here now. They all had their guns out and were ready at a moment's notice to enforce Turloe's threat. "Talk."
"Something hit us. We were at the building, the guards had been taken out, the cameras disabled; all set up to look like a standard robbery, like you said. We were going up the side when something flew out of the streetlights and nailed Scabs. He fell eight stories to the alley. I looked down and whatever it was was tearing him limb from limb. I was about to try to help, but that's when it hit the fan.
"Tommy Blade started firing his Mac-10 into the air, and Fidget was stabbing at something that was wrapped around him like a wet coat. I looked up and saw these two things just hanging on the wall. One of them flashed these knife-sized claws and slashed Tommy's rope. The other one was looking right at me, and man was it ugly. Its eyes were glowing white, and it started this low, rumbling growl that suddenly exploded into a full-blown scream. I'm hanging there getting the thing's breath full in my face, then the clamps on my harness all snap! I fell all the way back to the street. I was only able to get up again because I had drained that guard earlier.
"Then about five of these things just dropped out of the sky and started ripping into us. First they swooped out of nowhere and grabbed all the guns from everyone's hands. Tommy and I were the only ones who kept ours. Tommy because he was fast enough, me because I still had it holstered. They were on us before we could recover, claws everywhere. Madge bit one of them," Turloe pointed to the short, angry, woman, "and she says they taste like sand."
"All of a sudden, we hear sirens. One of the things jumps up and perches on a lamp post and says, 'Come my brothers, lets leave these parasites to the humans.' And they all jumped and started climbing the building with their claws. They get up maybe thirty feet, then they all turn, drop, and open the wings on their backs and glide away. We couldn't keep an eye on them 'cause we had to do something about Scabs' and Fidget's bodies. We dumped them at an old tenement nearby and came right here.
Flavius straightened up in his chair. "These wings, were they kind of bat-like?"
Turloe looked at him suspiciously, "Yeah..."
"Horns, talons, the whole works?"
"Yeah, what gives, Flavius? You knew about this?"
"Oh, certainly not. But I do recognize it."
Turloe stood, "Then what the hell were they?"
Flavius leaned back. "I haven't heard anything about them in almost a thousand years; I had thought they were extinct. But yes, I may have an idea who -- or what -- hit you; and if it's what I think it was, you got off easy."
Gargoyles are monsters. That is the simple truth. They are inhuman, fearsome, and often hideous. The concept of a "typical" Gargoyle is completely useless. No two Gargoyles look alike, and the variations in size, color, shape, and features are too wide to record. Some, those most familiar to Western European legends, appear mammalian, bipedal, and winged, with a uniform skin color. At night, they are nearly unstoppable; strong, tough, and able to glide in and out of danger; but in the daylight, they are as helpless as newborn babes, unable to even perceive if they are in peril.
Some features seem more common than others: the wings, generally bat-like (although there are variations); the stature, upwards of nine feet tall; the limbs, well muscled and lean; the horns, the teeth; and finally, the claws, capable of rending even a Werewolf to pieces. Chances are, if you've seen five Gargoyles, you've seen five completely different beings, almost as if they were separate species.
They often refer to themselves as "The First Race," with humanity being the second, and the Faerie, or "Children of Oberon," as the third. They do not count vampires as a separate race at all, merely a disease among men. (Werewolves are believed by most Gargoyles to be victims of a curse, just like the legends some humans believe.)
While usually mammalian in appearance and mating habits, Gargoyles hatch from eggs. Female Gargoyles usually lay one egg at a time, in 20 year cycles. The eggs will then harden dependent on the care and heat received. The eggs hatch after ten years. Eggs that were not hardened properly will most often yield non-sentient Gargoyles.
Hatchlings grow and age at a rate roughly half that of humans; thus, a Gargoyle can be thirty years old, and still in adolescence. Non-sentient Gargoyles grow at an analogous rate: roughly half that of whichever animal they most resemble. The average lifespan of a healthy sentient Gargoyle is 140 years.
The rising of the sun turns Gargoyles into solid stone for the day. At sunset, this transformation is reversed, with the outer layer of stone skin being shed as it cracks with movement. Avoiding the sun's rays does not appear to prevent the transformation.
Some theories suppose that while stone a Gargoyle stores up solar energy in special organs that convert it into the phenomenal amounts of energy required to carry itself aloft when gliding at night.
One other feature of Gargoyles is that their eyes glow when they are angered. With a few exceptions, males' eyes glow white, while females' glow red. No one is certain of either the cause nor the significance of this fact.
Gargoyle culture is unusual by human standards. Being almost completely community-oriented, individual Gargoyles have no names unless they have been in contact with humans or others and encouraged to take names. Separate identity, while not a foreign concept, is more determined by what one has done than by who your parents were.
The most important things to any Gargoyle, in order of importance, are the Clan, the Castle, and the Rookery.
The Clan is the extended family of Gargoyles, banded together for security and fellowship. Sometimes, a non-Gargoyle will be welcomed into the Clan. This is very rare, and denotes a tremendous respect, trust, and friendship. Regardless of their origin or species, all Clan members are afforded equal status, and any of them will defend any other of them to the death. Sometimes, a Clan member may be guilty of some transgression against the laws of another group or society. If the Clan feels the laws violated are honorable, it will desire to see the guilty punished. However, they will still defend their companion: Gargoyles must only answer to Gargoyle justice, which can be just as compassionate as that of any other society's, or just as brutal.
The Castle is the Gargoyles' home, the place they roost in the sunlight, live at night, and defend with their lives at all times. The Castle may be an actual castle, a tower, a church, a mansion, a mountain, or even an entire city. The only qualifications are that it must be their home and that it must be defensible.
The Rookery is where the Clan's eggs are stored, protected, and cared for. The entire Clan looks after the eggs in turns. After they hatch, the Clan likewise divides the parenting duties among the adult members; a Gargoyle may never know which female was her mother, or which was male her father.
The non-sentient members of a Clan are no less members, despite their lack of speech and apparent intelligence. They are given duties and affection just as the sentient Clanmembers.
When Gargoyles first encountered Humanity, they were feared and hated as demons. This was not helped by the fact that many Gargoyle clans had set their roosts in the very cliffs and hills that war-like humans found so defensible. Eventually, however, they reached something of a compromise. The humans would build their castles, monasteries, citadels, and keeps, while the Gargoyles were allowed to stay, providing an extra layer of defense at night, and intriguing statuary in the day.
This partnership was a doomed one, however, and Mankind all over the world eventually destroyed or drove out all the Gargoyles.
No one is sure of where, when, or why the betrayals started. Sometimes, it was manipulation from behind the scenes that turned humans against the Clans. Humans began hunting Gargoyles, guided by undead hands, frustrated at the level of protection the monsters afforded the mortals on whom the Kindred wished to prey. The pawns of the vampires led nations, armies, and even the church into a pogrom against the Gargoyles.
The Technocracy, even in those ancient days, had their dupes placed throughout society. Some of these, believing themselves to be the true hands behind events, styled themselves as the Illuminati, a secret society of mortals and Hedge Wizards. The Illuminati ran afoul of several Clans of Gargoyles over the centuries, and also turned their machinations toward eradicating this threat to their power base.
The Garou and other shapechangers often aided the Gargoyles against their foes out of a similar sense of honor. This was always a short-lived alliance, because the werewolves' stated goals offended the sensibilities of the Gargoyles.
Saddest of all was the devastation visited upon them by their own kind. No one knows why (though some believe it was the result of foul magic), but at the same time that the Clans were facing this besiegement >from without, some Gargoyles, a few in each Clan, betrayed them from within, exposing them to the hammers of fearful humans in daylight.
Handfuls were all that survived, many by retreating to the highest mountains, and many others by making a timely alliance with the Fey, who allowed some of them refuge in their homelands under the hills.
The last bastion of Gargoyle civilization toppled in 1057 in Scotland, when betrayal on both sides played the end of an age.
Most humans have forgotten these days, and the forces of the Inquisition and the Technocracy have done their best to stamp out the beliefs and knowledge of anything that could threaten their power structures. The Masquerade of the vampires has also had a part in the disbelief of Gargoyles, because some overzealous Kindred, upon discovering mention of them, thought they referred to the Tremere creations, and destroyed, altered, or secreted it away.
Now, a thousand years after their heyday, Gargoyles are attempting a comeback. Some after an enforced period of hibernation, brought on by Mages or Faerie. A few are coming out of hiding after centuries of isolation. And some are just now returning to Earth from the Faerie realms after being granted sanctuary there. The world has changed greatly in their absence, and their numbers have been sorely depleted. Now, most Gargoyles seek to reforge the partnership they once shared with mankind, without reawakening the ancient fears and prejudices that plagued them so long ago.
Choose Physical Traits: Strength, Stamina, Dexterity
Choose Social Traits: Charisma, Manipulation, Appearance
Choose Mental Traits: Perception, Intelligence, Wits
Record Legendary Potential (begin with 3 dots)
Spend "Freebie Points" (15)
| Gargomancy: | A very rare and bizarre form of hedge magic practiced only by Gargoyles. |
| Might of Stone: | The power that allows a Gargoyle to perform even greater feats of Strength than their own natural might would allow. |
| Monstrosity: | Features that turn a Gargoyle into even more of a nightmare than usual. |
| Rock Hide: | The Gargoyle's ability to call upon that part of themselves that is stone by day, and draw an extra layer of defense from it. |
| Spouting: | The Ability to spew harmful substances over your enemies. |
| Allies: | Your friends, whether they are human, vampire, mage, werewolf, wraith or changeling. |
| Animal Companion: | An animal that accompanies you wherever you go. May be a non-sentient Gargoyle. |
| Clan: | Your clan is nearby and you can call on them for help. |
| Contacts: | Describes the contacts you have among human society. |
| Castle: | Describes your home and sanctuary, be it a castle, a skyscraper or even just a secluded cliff-side. |
| Rites: | Various rituals that Gargoyles have developed over millennia. |
| Status: | Your position and rank within your Clan. |
| Trait | Cost |
| Attributes | 5 per dot |
| Abilities | 2 per dot |
| Backgrounds | 1 per dot |
| Endowment | 7 per dot |
| Numina | 7 for first dot (see Hunters' Hunted) |
| Willpower | 1 per dot |
| Legendary Potential | 2 per dot |
| Trait | Cost |
| Attribute | current rating x 4 |
| Manipulation to 4 or 5 | current rating x 6 |
| Ability | current rating x 2 |
| New Ability | 3 |
| Endowment | current rating x 5 |
| Willpower | current rating |
| Legendary Potential | current rating x 2 |