Allies
"Damn." The middle-aged man set down his fork and dabbed at his lips with his napkin. "I had no idea that the Nash girl was related to you. And your family wants it kept pretty hushed up?" He stifled a belch, then sipped at his wine. "Well, I dunno if I can get away without printing updates, but..."
His companion, who hadn't touched a bite of her linguine, raised a hand to cut him off. "Please, there's no need to endanger your position. I'm not asking you to deny her disappearance, or even to ignore it - simply run your case updates in a less
conspicuous area of the paper." Her half-smile was a masterpiece of struggling with grief. "Keeping the affair less public... for the family's sake."
Allies are humans who support and help you - family, friends or even a mortal organization that owes you some loyalty.
Though allies aid you willingly, without coaxing or coercion, they are not always available to offer assistance; they have their own concerns and can do only so much in the name of friendship. However, they might have some useful Background Traits of their own, and might provide you with indirect access to their contacts, influence or resources.
Allies are typically persons of influence and power in your home city. They can be of almost any sort, pending your Storyteller's permission; you may have friends in the precinct morgue, or perhaps even the mayor's ear, depending on how many dots you spend on this Trait. Your allies are generally trustworthy (although they probably don't know that you're a
vampire, or even that vampires exist). However, nothing comes for free; if you wind up drawing favors from your friend in the Cosa Nostra, he'll probably ask you to do him a favor in kind in the future. This often leads to the beginning of a story....
1 Dot = One ally of moderate influence and power.
2 Dots = Two allies, both of moderate power.
3 Dots = Three allies, one of whom is quite influential.
4 Dots = Four allies, one of whom is very influential.
5 Dots = Five allies, one of whom is extremely influential.
