Verve
- Paris -P- Joao Henrique -P- Malkavian
Verve
○○○○○Un-enlightened You hear nothing... That is nothing more that the normal voices...
●○○○○ Sometimes, you hear a voice guiding you.
●●○○○In rare occasions, you find the right answer to a question whose solution was unknown to you
●●●○○Inspired You can sometimes discover information from unkown sources
●●●●○Your insight is seemingly miraculous
●●●●●You can know most of the things known by the other Malkavians
●●●●● ●Enlightened Henrique speaks through your voice, and you are followed by the others
Verve is a new Background Trait that, for all pratical purposes, replaces Malkavian Prestige for the Parisian Kindred. As the Prestige is the status among the Clan, the Verve is the status in the eyes of Henrique. Parisian Malkavian with Verve with aknowledge each others with the Verve Rating, no matter the real Prestige the two Kindred have.
The Verve is limited to 5, 6 only appearing when Henrique's attentions falls on a particular Kindred. The other Malkavians will tend to follow the wishes of this enlightened Malkavian, and she will be able to organize the Clan beyond the petty intrigues that can divide a Clan. When this happens, the Clan Malkavian of Paris can become seriously single-minded. Since the arriving of Henrique, there was no real accident as a consequence of Henrique's enlightement.
When a Malkavian wants an information for something, the Storyteller must decide for the difficulty, from 6 for widely known among the Followers of Henrique to 9 for known only to one Malkavian, or even Henrique himself, to 10 for unknown to all, unless accident (divine inspiration?). This can go from the Wall Street's results to the knowledge of this Ventrue's secret tastes about Blood to the position of Villon in Paris.
It must be understood that unless for the 10's difficulty, the information must be known by the at least one of the Followers of Henrique (or even Henrique himself). Note that information that a Malkavian want to remain secret can see the Difficulty raised by 2, for a maximum of 10. The 10's difficulty should be attached to the infamous Madness Network effects.
Should the roll be botched, the character lose one Verve point, and will be given apparently true, but in reality highly inaccurate information that could be its final death, at Storyteller's discretion.
It should be noted, too, that this Verve was not created to serve as an intelligence service-like information network. The Malkavians are inpredictable, and this network is, too. PCs (or NPCs) abusing from it will find the difficulty raised for unkown reasons (Gregory would name it mystic synaptic disfunction due to overstressing of the mental ley lines).
The other bonus of the Verve is the possibility to learn Dementation with no need from a teacher: The character spends 2 Xps, and makes a Verve roll, difficulty 10 minus the Verve score. Should the roll be failed, the Xps are lost. If the roll is botched, the character does not lose a Verve point, but will still lose the XPs. Futhermore, the cost is doubled, and she will have to wait for her Verve to increase before trying again. If the roll is successful, then the character is considered as having a teacher, and can now buy the Dementation Discipline at the cost of a Clan Discipline. Of course, Dominate becomes a non-Clan Discipline.
There is no way to recognize a Childer of Malkav from a Follower of Henrique. Only the Followers of Henrique can determine if this or this Kindred is also a Follower of Henrique.
Note that the Clan hold no prejudice against Anarchs and Camarilla members. A Malkavian can succeed in increasing in Malkavian Prestige (Verve) and Anarch Prestige in the same time. Remember that nothing such as Clans exists... Or is it the opposite?...