Embedded Files
• The Missing Voice
A vampire with this power may "throw" her voice anywhere within her line of sight, even carrying on two conversations simultaneously (one with her Missing Voice and one with her actual, physical one). Treacherous Daughters of Cacophony impersonate other individuals' voices in order to mislead listeners, and less devious members of the bloodline can use their two voices simultaneously to perform hauntingly beautiful "duets" or eerie one-actress plays.
This power functions automatically as long as the character wills it. However, using The Missing Voice while performing any action other than speech or singing incurs a penalty of two dice on that action due to the disruption of the character's concentration.
Cost: None
Dice Pool: Expression + Wits + Melpominee
Action: Instant
Duration: Scene, can persist up to a night.
Dramatic Failure: The voice thrown is in a random location rather than where you'd desire it.
Failure: The voice is thrown towards the destination you wish it to be, but doesn't reach where you want it to be.
Success: The vampire successfully throws her voice to the desired location.
Exceptional Success: A reward in it's own
•• Phantom Speaker
With this power, the vampire may project her voice to any one individual with whom she has more than passing familiarity. The only distance limitation is that it must be night wherever the intended listener is. The vampire can talk, sing or make whatever other noises she wants. The sounds are inaudible to anyone but the intended subject, unless an eavesdropper has Auspex 3 or higher (and has reason to be listening for such). The Kindred cannot hear the sounds or the subject's responses unless she is within earshot. The use of Phantom Speaker has been responsible for several cases of "paranoid schizophrenia."
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Expression + Wits + Melpominee
Action: Instant
Duration: Scene, can persist up to a night
Dramatic Failure: The voice never reaches it's intended ear.
Failure: The voice is thrown towards the ear intended for but can't be made out.
Success: The vampire successfully throws her voice to the desired ear.
Exceptional Success: A reward in it's own.
Possible Modifiers:
The person is not in the same country -1
The person is very familiar to you. Such as a sibling or parent. +1
The person is your ghoul +2
The person is your childer +2
The person is your sire +2
••• Madrigal
The Kindred may imbue her audience with the emotions expressed in her voice, rousing them to passion or deluging them with seemingly bottomless despair. Princes on good terms with Daughters of Cacophony sometimes have the songstresses croon before they make an appearance, bolstering their fellow Kindled with a sense of loyally. Characters may resist this power for the duration of the scene with the expenditure of a Willpower point, but only it they have reason to believe that they are being controlled by outside individuals. The song the vampire sings must also reflect the emotion she wishes to engender. No one's going to mob the concert security no matter how well she sings "High Hopes," but they might if she wails "Cop-killer."
Cost: 1 Vitae and 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Expression + Manipulation + Melpominee - Composure + Supernatural Tolerance
Action: Instant
Duration: Scene
Dramatic Failure: Influence a different random emotion.
Failure: The influence sent out takes no affect on anyone.
Success: The character succeeds in dazzling her intended audience with her overwhelming charisma.
Exceptional Success: Affect lasts the night.
Possible Modifiers:
The Kindred has a dot in enchanting voice +1
•••• Siren's Beckoning
This power reaches deep into its victims' souls to twist their psyches. Siren's Beckoning causes temporary insanity in its victims. Malkavians are immune to Siren's Beckoning; the former are too warped to be further affected, and the latter are too centered. Siren's Beckoning can affect only one victim at a time. If the singer accumulates five more successes than the victim at any point, the hapless soul acquires a new Derangement of the Storyteller's choice. This derangement normally lasts for one night per success over five. With a total of 20 net successes, the Daughter can make it permanent.
Cost: 1 Vitae
Dice Pool: Expression + Manipulation + Melpominee - Resolve + Supernatural Tolerance
Action: Extended & Contested; resistance is reflexive
Duration: Night/Nights
Dramatic Failure: The victim is unaffected and cannot be beckoned again for the rest of the story.
Failure: The victim is unaffected and cannot be beckoned again for the rest of the night.
Success: The character succeeds beckoning crazy in the mind of the victim.
Exceptional Success: For every success over five, lasts one more night.
••••• Virtuosa
Although many low-level Melpominee powers allow a vampire to affect only one target at a time, those who have mastered the Discipline may entertain a wider audience, as it were.
The Daughter may use Phantom Speaker or Siren's Beckoning on a number or targets equal to her Stamina + Performance. The player must spend one vitae for every five targets beyond the first to be affected in such a manner.
Cost: 1 Vitae, unless desiring to influence more than five.
Dice Pool: Respected dice pool for Phantom Speaker or Siren's Beckoning.
Action: Respected action for Phantom Speaker or Siren's Beckoning.
Duration: Respected duration for Phantom Speaker or Siren's Beckoning.
The powers of Melpominnee explores the various uses of the voice for both benefit and harm. As is the case with mortal art, it is not always clear which of those directions these powers take. No character may have a rating in Melpominee higher than her Performance rating. Melpominee affects the subject's soul as well as the ears; thus, it works perfectly well on deaf subjects, and has caused at least one known breach of the Masquerade due to this effect.
With this Discipline, the very voice of a Cainite is a powerful tool. Inspiring emotion or projecting sound through speech and song, the Melpominee Discipline reflects the incredible mastery possessed by the Daughters of Cacophony. The Greek Muse of tragedy surely reflects in this power, as it can be used both to soothe the mind and to inspire insanity. Some Cainites attribute these sirenlike gifts to a hint of fey madness in the Daughters’ bloodline. The powers of Melpominee function on the very soul, not merely on the flesh. Deaf subjects, or individuals otherwise unable to hear the vampire, can still be affected as long as the singer’s voice reaches to the area of the target. These effects extend from the will of the siren, so they only affect those who are in the hearing range of the singer’s natural voice or Melpominee projected effects.
Engineered recordings, microphones, bullhorns, and electronic or mechanical copies cannot. The Daughters of Cacophony consider Melpominee to be their highest art and calling, a reflection of the inward music that moves them. As a result, they do not teach its secrets to outsiders, and indeed other Cainites, who do not hear the cosmic music of the spheres, find development of this Discipline difficult in the extreme.
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