The title has to do with the ease that these vampires spread, and the ease with which they are whacked, and notthing, Nothing I say with a bad pun on Josh Wheedon's name.
Newbie Vampire
He's been operating for a decade perhaps. Once he was a normal person, and then a vampire bit him. He died. One night later, the daemon that possessed his body animated his corpse, and altered his physiology slightly. The Vampire still calls 'himself' by his old name because the being that took him was so debased as to not have a personality.
The Fingerlings as they are sometimes called are some of the most despised of the Darkness. They were entities that stood near the Throne, but they Fell so far, so fast that they lost any semblance of true reason. In some worlds, these are Moaning Spirits (cousins to the degraded things sometimes called Willowisps in evil lands, and Skullfire in other worlds. They all are ghastly light, and pain, and yearning for what they don't know.) They serve whatever stronger will can compel them for they lack much of true sentience although they desire it desperately.
However, they are still able to copy the brain patterns of a dead human, and gain back some of what they had. And in certain worlds, the 'vampire' ritual magic is used frequently so they shuffle back and forth between the Wastelands (a tortured and barren stretch of a Border Supernatural of Anarch origin) and whatever reality summoned them as they are summoned, and then frequently killed by vampire-slayers, and then re-summoned again with no memory of the previous time.
The apparent result to a normal person in normal reality to a vampire biting another human is "My good friend" went completely stone pschyo after looking like they died.
Persuasion 1@5
Animal Magnetism 1@7 (The willfulness and dominance makes an ordinary person a little something more.)
Charisma 1@7 (They don't sweat, and they typically have time to learn how to dress. If not, there are plenty of older vampires ready to rip their spine out for fashion faux pas.)
Strength 2@1 (Now they begin to shine.)
Stamina 2@1 (Being dead means you don't have to pant for breath.)
Resistance 1@3 (Yes, they are worse than ordinary humans.)
Density 1@2 (A bit of rigor mortis seems to be permanent.)
Flexibility 1@8 (Again, they can make the body do what it ordinarily would complain about doing.)
Agility 1@7 (A little practise at killing over the last decade helps.)
Hand/Eye 1@6 (As above.)
Intellect 1@4 (They are typically just a touch slow. The rigidity of death makes them mentally not so flexible, or quick on the uptake.)
Intuition 1@4 (As above.)
Education Level 1@8 (A lot of them are in high school, or recently graduated and gone clubbing.)
Willpower 1@8 (Well, planning to live for centuries, and killing people right and left does take some moxie.)
TV 1@3
DV 1@6
RSV 1@5
MSV 1@7
Note: This is supposed to be someone relatively quick to be dispatched. He's supposed to be able to be lethal, but at the same time....quickly killed.
Older vampires have greater attributes, and more general skills.
I'll deal with the skills later...
Eric
Weed of the Century
===================
This vampire was 'turned' in the very earliest part of the 19th, or the last half of the 18th century. He usually dresses a bit more formally than the Weeds, in a classic, but normal style. He has no real interest in changing his clothing style every five years to keep up, but he is aware that he needs to blend in.
He is usually an independent power center with a small circle of dependent followers, or if he is not so bright, he is the right hand man of such a being. On occasion, a truly great evil will recruit him as one of its inner ring of followers.
These vampires tend to be very self-willed. If they are influenced by another, its usually because they chose to be.
Strength 2@4
Persuasion 2@1
Animal Magnetism 1@10
Charisma 1@9
Flexibility 1@9
Agility 1@8
Hand/Eye 2@1
Density 1@3
Stamina 2@5
Resistance 1@5
Intellect 1@6
Intuition 1@7
Willpower 2@1
Education Level 2@1
TV
DV
RSV
MSV
MORE Later....
Weed of the Millenium
======================
There are not many of these. They do not come along every day, or every month. They vary in age from five hundred to two thousand years active. They may be so much older with some having origins in pre-history, but such will have spent most of the intervening millenia in vampiric hibernation.
These are great captains of Evil, and they have vast plans that will change the world. Frequently, the change they seek is total annihilation of the human race, or subjugation into blood farms. Other goals include spells which must be cast on a particular night of nights out of a century which will yield invulnerability to the Sun, or enough regenerative power that they can pull themselves back together after being burnt to ash.
Some goals are directly bad (11 on a scale of ten for badness), and others enable the vampire to act without restraint which would soon be very bad.
Mistress Sangre' is one such. She was born in Russia or the Golden Hind, and turned by a Mongol vampire who abused her. After she killed him, she began to work to see that the Mongols were driven out of her homeland.
It worked.
But instead of a birth of sanity, and glory, she saw her own people acting like idiots. It was not just the Mongols, but all of Humanity that was irredeemably stupid. Fearful, she fled overseas, and looked for smart people.
The only true intelligences she found were the outcasts. Marx, Engels, Lenin, Mussolini...these were men of genius. But in the end they were simply men. When she visited Mao, and saw him slaughter fifty million of his own people, she felt like she trembled on the brink of an insight.
It was only when she met the ....more later
It was only when she met the Dancers of the Demise, a pair of young, and very stylish vamps who run the Die-off, a voluntary human extinction movement that she realized her quest, her raison d' etre.
She was here to usher in the end of humanity, and to replace their vulgar stupidity with a few beautiful corpses walking about. It will require some doing. Not only must she destroy humanity, but provide an alternate feeding source.
And then she can have her dream. Dance the night away with pretty young things for centuries, and never have to be bothered by trash.
Since that epiphany, she has become active in the extreme end of the enviromental movement, and found many sympathetic souls. The good-looking ones that can dance well she is turning.
Strength 3@1
Persuasion 2@3
Animal Magnetism 2@5
Charisma 2@2
Flexibility 1@9
Agility 1@8
Hand/Eye 2@1
Density 1@5
Stamina 2@10
Resistance 1@5
Intellect 1@8
Intuition 1@7
Willpower 2@4
Education Level 2@6
TV
DV
RSV
MSV
Weeds all have the same array of powers and weaknesses. Its just the older vampires have their powers in greater measure, and may be able to resist their weaknesses a bit more.
Now, the greatest of them will have an additional power.
So....
Attack with Fangs: Bod Skill B 7@1 Attack with Fangs as Part of Body.
Cursed by Creator: Take damage from UV light (sunlight and special UV light generators both work), from garlic, from holy water.
Curse: BRA 3@10, SAL 3@10, World Bias 15@10.
"All who receive the Summon of the Fingerlings shall be vulnerable to garlic, and the cutting rays of the Sun, and to contact with holy things as a sign of my anger at their wickedness."
Instantly killed and disintegrated if staked. This is a factor in the Fingerling Summoning Ritual. "This spell is undone and nullified if a wooden stake is run through the 'heart'."
Control Dead Body.
Turn other to vampire--The Fingerling Summoning Ritual.
Absorb Brain Knowledge.
Self-heal by drinking blood.
Dress well
Mistress Sangre' Special Abilities
================================
Dance M 0@? with 3@1 SAL.
Fly M with 1@8 SAL.
I need to add to this Pharaoh's point....these vamp types would be easy to become versers. They simply drink of a verser, and get infected.
Does it work that easily, really? Drink a Verser's blood and you become a Verser yourself?
Is it that easy for non-vampires, too?
I could totally see Versers abusing that, handing out Verser-ness one vial at a time. Especially if he planned to remain in a given Verse for a while. Immortality and a thousand lifetimes of adventure. Or simply never having to worry about going hungry again. What would YOU pay...?
Might also be a way to save a dying world - Verser the entire population in one of those one-becomes-two,two-becomes-four exponential progressions, so when the planet dies the whole world just wanders off. (Gods help the world they Verse to if they all go to the same one...)
Edit: That gives me an idea for a world... muahahaha
Any aspect of scriff that a verser can abuse is also subject to the "at the referee's whim" clause; that is, it only works that way when the referee feels like it.
Weeds all have the same array of powers and weaknesses. Its just the older vampires have their powers in greater measure, and may be able to resist their weaknesses a bit more.
Now, the greatest of them will have an additional power.
So....
Attack with Fangs: Bod Skill B 7@1 Attack with Fangs as Part of Body.
Cursed by Creator: Take damage from UV light (sunlight and special UV light generators both work), from garlic, from holy water.
Curse: BRA 3@10, SAL 3@10, World Bias 15@10. RS/10.
"All who receive the Summon of the Fingerlings shall be vulnerable to garlic, and the cutting rays of the Sun, and to contact with holy things as a sign of my anger at their wickedness."
Control Prepared Dead Body is a M 13@8 Animate Dead. All Weeds have this at 2@8. It requires two cups of blood which are used up +14, full body involvement +15, and night +5. Time is at least six hours so that is +25. The spell lasts from sunset to dawn.
Turn other to vampire--The Fingerling Summoning Ritual is a M 13@10 Independent Permanent Animation which is held as 1@5 for Weeds, and 2@1 for Centurians, and 2@8 for Millenians.
Instantly killed and disintegrated if staked. This is a factor in the Fingerling Summoning Ritual. "This spell is undone and nullified if a wooden stake is run through the 'heart'." +8, and appropriate +5.
Sacrifice of a human +14. Murmured words of a Ancient Sumer which translate to "come, come inhabit this host I have prepared for you." +5. This requires draining the blood, and then offering some of your own blood to the 'host body'. +10. Strongly Alliance held people cannot have their body used as such. +5. Waiting time to rise, twenty-four hours. +45. Full Body involvement for part of the time included +5.
As part of the Fingerling spell, the summoned creature Absorb Brain Knowledge.
Self-heal by drinking blood is a M 2@7 skill of Unlimited Damage Repair. It requires one cup of blood for each point healed. It also requires Concentration, and Full Body Involvement. Centurians can skip Concentration or Full Body when they are designed. Millenians have neither limit. All have this skill at 2@5.
Dress well is a M 0@0 skill which Newbies have at 1@8, Centurians have at 2@2, and Millenians have at 2@7.
Mistress Sangre' Special Abilities
================================
Dance M 0@2 with 3@1 SAL.
Fly M 12@7 with 1@8 SAL. Full Body (Spreads Arms wide, and stands up as if to lift off with eyes to the sky), Speaks in Latin "Let my will rule the Earth and the Sky. Let me soar." This is shouted and is appropriate +13. She may not fly toward a presented holy symbol, nor may she rise at more than a thirty degree angle. Thus it is possible to trap her inside a ring of believers. +5.
Scott's right. Eric tried to use that idea of infecting indigs with scriff through blood transfusion in one of his stories. He already had recognized that it was an iffy thing, but the other point I had to raise was that you can't actually know if it's been successful--the scriff in someone else is not detectable until they die.
In essence, yes, if you ingest the blood or body parts of a verser and he does not immediately verse out (because if he does, he takes his blood or body part with him, depriving you of your repast), then you have scriff in your system--however, for it to do you any good that first time, you must die before the scriff passes out of you back into the space between universes. Further, you don't know how long that will take--it could take a fraction of a second, or it could remain in you for decades--and there is no way to test whether you are still infected other than to die and see whether you're still alive somewhere else.
So really what it comes to is the referee can rule that just about anyone was infected by scriff through casual contact (sweat, tears, a sneeze), or that all efforts to infect a targeted individual have failed.
The only certain way for someone to enter the verse, really, is for the verser to want them to come along and they not choose to refuse the invitation. Thus we are relatively certain that Adam's indig wife Geneice will go with him when he is killed, not so much because she's constantly exposed to his scriff (although that might make her a verser in her own right) as because he wants her to come and she won't object. If she dies, though, it's uncertain what happens to her.
--M. J. Young