Happily, I'm maybe 85%, and my cough is sorta under control without having to mainline Vicks 44D benzocaine throat drops. I didn't laugh when they said 'only once every two hours', and 'don't exceed dose', but that might have been because laughing would have brought on a coughing fit of several minutes.
Anyways, in my current RPOL game, one of the villains is Devlin Smith, the Verser Vampire. Obviously, to long-term Outposters, he's inspired by Gavin from Philly 2011 as I didn't want to do a straight rip on Gavin.
Devlin Smith aka Maurice Lancaster as he was christened in 1805 in Yorkshire was an unremarkable lad known for pub-drinking and petty clerical work until one night he met a beautiful woman who seemed interested in him. Not questioning his luck, he followed her outside the pub.
"I do so love a good drink of beer." She murmured, and he turned perplexed in his drunken state back to the pub from whence beer came. She ambushed him from behind, bit him, and began to have her supper with a beer.
He might have been just another victim of the cold winter, a poor drunk who lost his way in the alleys, and froze to death, but a cry of a bugle was heard. The Wild Hunt was in the air, and seeking those alone, and no one is more alone than a vampire. Vengefully, she ripped out his throat, and then she took a crossbow quarrel to the chest.
He fell dying. She fled, but not before a fatal drop of blood from her chest hit his open throat.
A question swam in that blood as it penetrated to his dying brain.
*Do you want to live?*
He gasped assent.
*Forever?*
He agreed.
*Then swear eternal fealty to the Six Beasts Who Sit in Shadow and Gnaw at the Roots of Heaven. Swear that they alone are your master, and none other shall stand before your imperial will.*
He paused, dimly realizing that Sunday School did not equate with this. But he had found the notions of sin to be silly, anyways.
"I swear." He spoke from his newly healed throat, and then he rose as his new patrons cloaked him from the Wild Hunt which clattered by.
A new clarity of purpose filled him. He could do as he wished without constraint. He would give the freedom of mind and soul that he now felt to everyone who labored under the dark superstitions of the Protestants, the Catholics, and the Baptists. And to the chosen few, he might give the gift of true power. And for himself, he would make himself unassailable. And somewhere in a twisted and barren section of the oververse, maniac giggling greeted his grand plans, but he could not hear it.
And so he ruled in the north of England for well over a century until one time he met a man who sought for him, laughed at his threats, evaded his traps, and finally met him atop a manor with a sword that was impossible. The redheaded, almost child, with the crystal cold blue eyes evaded his strikes, and swung a sword made of light.
"I am immortal." Devlin cried (for he had changed his name on that snowy night of doom).
"So am I, and I didn't have to sell my soul and the sun for it."
The blade chopped his wrists off, and Devlin stared in horror as the blade came at his heart. He lunged forward in insane fury, and bit the man, Captain Chris. And he died.
And woke in another world. Under the sun.
He died again, and again. He thought he was in Hell.
He woke in night, and was safe. He lived, but it was the year 2290. And no vampires walked the night. His powers were faded. But he could feed, and he found in his extensive researches in the 'Internet' a reference to the 'Verse Project'. And then he began to understand what had happened to him.
Unfortunately, the trail of bodies of the most infamous serial killer of the 22nd century was being followed by advanced science. And when he refused to surrender, they fired their UV laser blasters at him.
It was over very quickly.
Three more worlds (or eleven if you count the ones where he arrived, and was shortly burnt by the sun, or in one case by a giant, four-footed Magical Sentinel Beast made of square-dressed stone that breathed sunlight and guarded the passageways between worlds), and he has started to get the hang of things.
Unfortunately, in his last world he met a Hawaaian shaman who figured out his true nature, and could not figure out a way to permanently kill him. But the shaman did curse him before summoning a volcano's fire to burn him. The curse was that he only could wear a tanktop and Hawaian shorts.
This bothers Devlin as he really is a suit and tie kind of guy.
And now he's ready to arrive in your world, and make a complacent verser unhappy.
Persuasion 2@1
Charisma 1@8
Animal Magnetism 1@7
Strength 2@6
Stamina 2@5
Resistance 2@1
Density 1@3
Flexibility 1@6
Agility 1@10
Hand/Eye 1@8
Intellect 1@8
Intuition 1@7
Education Level 2@1
Willpower 1@9
Target Value 1@7
Damage Value 1@10
Ranged Strike Value 1@8
Martial Strike Value 2@1
Damage Rider: If a Fire or Sunlight attack hurts him, it automatically adds a non-blocked Lethal damage rider as the fire burns unnaturally in his corrupt flesh. I'm not quite sure how to do this in Multiverser. In Champions, it would be a Vulnerability probably. Always on, Does 2d6 Killing Damage or something like that. I'm also not sure if this works in a low magic world...could he walk in the sun in a flatlined magic world?
Cursed: Must wear Hawaian shorts and tanktop at all times. May not cover them. Failure causes Difficult Stamina checks. Failure to pass stamina checks causes painful convulsions that increase in severity until the clothes are put on, or the Vampire breaks something vital in his convulsions. This curse may not hold in a low-magic world, but the shaman who cast it (anyone got a good Hawaaian name?) was very powerful, clever, and quite angry at Devlin. The curse retakes effect once he passes into a magical world. However, Devlin is not aware that he would be safe in a non-magic world from the curse.
Skills:
1. Heal Self with Excess Blood: Body
2. Move Superfast by Expending Blood:1@7. Body
3. Drink Up: 2@1. Body. Bite does Annoying Damage. Each turn he does Dangerous Damage until victim is dead. Victim is held, and physical escape is at a -10 DR due to difficult position.
4. Paralyze Victim with Sedative in Fangs:2@1. Body. Victim must make Difficult Willpower check to resist. This skill may be used as a rider for #3. Occasionally Devlin doesn't as he likes to hear them scream.
5. Immunity to own Sedative.: 2@5. Body. His body is immune to his own sedative.
6. Dominate Will by Eye Contact: 1@9. Magic
7. Animate Corpse: 2@7. Magic. This applies to his own self, or to raising other vampires. It requires the near complete draining of the new vampire, their mental assent to the Six's plans, and a drop of his blood. For himself, it requires that he hunt daily, and sacrifice one to the Six, and that he renew his pledge daily.
8. Shoot .38 Revolver: 2@7. Tech. He is an extraordinary shot who trained in one world with Capone's gangs as a gunman.
9. Use Gold Knobbed Cain as Club: 1@8. Tech.
Items:
1. Tank top.
2. Hawaiian Shorts.
3. A metal flask with liquid nitrogen cooling that contains an emergency supply of concentrated essence of blood that is enough to refill him. However, he cannot make more.
4. A leather bag of 8 gold marks, 4 silver dinarii, and a few -3- diamonds of one carrot size.
5. A .38 revolver, and thrirty rounds of hardball ammunition (six are in the gun, and the others are tied into the waistband of his shorts. Damaging: Repeat Factor 3: 3'/10'/20'/40'/60'.
6. No shoes.
7. A walking stick with a gold knob on the end. Damaging: No range: RF 2 (Annoying if the knob end is not used.)
Its not entirely done, but close...
I like it, though I would appreciate a lack of his appearance in my current world :-)
Well, you gave some of the ideas for this character. We both long ago discussed with MJ the idea of a verser vampire. So in some sense, he's your child. And shouldn't every child be reunited with papa?
Eric
Under Gabby's Gate there are three issues. The Gate is the concept that a person has to transform in certain ways in order to arrive in a universe.
In some universes, its that you must be of some physical type. In "Only the Insects Survive" you become a Bacteria Man.
In 'Video Game World' new apparencies are not allowed. You arive in the mind and body of a hero. His mind has left his body.
And I've just toyed with the idea of a Sentinel Creature waiting at the Edge of a new Reality as a Customs Officer.
Thanks Tad, you reminded me. I wanted to see if the blacksmith in my game can teach me how to make a crossbow.
As I recall, the argument against a verser vampire is that a vampire is dead, and therefore cannot become a verser any more than a T-bone steak can become a verser. I suppose it could be equipment, but once it was abandoned by its "owner" it would cease to travel through the scriff and remain in its present universe until destroyed or claimed as equipment by another verser. Regardless of whether owned or not, upon destruction the undead thing would lose all material existence and the spirit locked into the corpse would move on to its final resting place.
All that means, of course, is that your Verser Vampire is actually very much alive. In fact, he is not a vampire in the traditional sense - he is not "undead," he is not damned (not yet, anyway), and in fact he never died in the first place. He does crave blood, burn up in the sun, fear running water, despise the smell of garlic, and live for decades or centuries without any sign of aging. He doesn't balk at symbols of the faith, refuse to set foot on holy ground, wait for permission before entering a home, hypnotize people with his stare, or turn into a bat or a wolf or a cloud of mist. That's because he's not an unholy thing returned from the dead to feast on the living; he's just sick, is all.
Hear me out.
While the vamp (ha ha) was drinking his blood, something else passed in the other direction: microscopic parasites which found their way through his bloodstream to his brain. Perhaps while he laid there, delirious and near death from blood loss, he hallucinated something, perhaps having to do with six beasts and fealty to the nether realms. Perhaps not. What is certain is that the parasites in his blood and brain changed him somehow - altered his body chemistry, saved his life. When he awoke, he was not the man he was.
You see what I did there? This is awesome because it's incredible how much of the vampire thing you can preserve with a simple symbiotic relationship with a very powerful species of brain-dwelling microbe. Thus -
Benefits:
- Significantly increased strength, stamina, and reaction time (Str, Sta, H/E, Agl)
- Improved immune response (Res)
- Dramatically improved social confidence and facility, increased pheromone production (An-Mag)
- Need for many essential vitamins and minerals reduced or eliminated (all nutritional needs may be satisfied with red meat)
- Sharpened senses and mental acuity (Intuition; improved SALs in B0@ senses; B0@3 Awareness; P3@0 Sensitivity; P3@0 Perception)
- Accelerated healing and tissue/organ repair (B10@5 automatic healing)
- All symptoms of physical aging arrested
.
Side Effects:
- Intense craving for blood, human preferred (necessary for many of the symbionts' chemical processes)
- Reduced melanin production
- Slightly lower core body temperature
- Hydrophobia (especially large bodies, especially running water)
- Intense aversion to garlic (poisonous to the symbionts)
- Extreme photosensitivity - severe allergic reaction followed by combustion of exposed tissue (the symbionts have chemical systems in place that control this reaction to some extent, similar to the way a chemical buffer regulates pH; thus, low levels of light produce no effect, but once a certain threshold is exceeded, things happen very quickly indeed - again, very much like a pH buffer)
Note that it's completely possible for a living vampire like the one I outlined above to be fully convinced that he is an undead stalker of the night, and thus that he might avoid churchyards, shy from crosses, and ask permission before entering homes all of his own accord. Also, remembering that this individual is a verser, he may very well have learned to perform mind control simply by virtue of believing that his gaze could ensnare men's minds (P1@4 Suggestion). Since believing oneself to be a vampire tends to open one's mind to the possibility of the existence of the supernatural, it's also likely that he may have mastered much of the magic of which vampires are often believed to be capable.
Note also that he has no fangs, his reflection does appear in a mirror, he's perfectly capable of consuming human food (though anything besides red meat might give him indigestion), and a wooden stake through his heart will not cause him to disintegrate - except insofar as it will cause him to verse out, because it is a stake through his heart.
Eric:
Well, you gave some of the ideas for this character. We both long ago discussed with MJ the idea of a verser vampire. So in some sense, he's your child. And shouldn't every child be reunited with papa?
Well, I used Gavin. My conception for him, much later on, was that he had been a Communist subversive in the US in the 1930s, feeding intelligence to Stalin. Stalin struck up a deal with some Russian vampires, supplying them anonymity and protection for their international network, unique resources, and the opportunity to gain "super soldiers" and spies by having them turned. (that's what I made up before and what follows I'm making up now as I write this) Gavin was the only American chosen, as he was already a bartender at the largest nightclub in a town with a large Army base, passing information gleaned off-duty soldiers and civilian employees, even bringing a couple into an ad hoc spy ring he set up to impress his Soviet bosses.
Once turned, though, he was with the vampires, not the Soviets, which they knew all along, and happened to every spy they turned, extending their own network and infiltrating the Soviet government, allowing them to pull the strings and protect themselves even further.
Gavin continued to feed information and began using his abilities to infiltrate the base directly, feeding them more valuable information and position himself to demand a "pay raise." They agreed, and quite gladly, as what he was supplying them they weren't getting anywhere else. Flush with cash and vampiric abilities, he bought the nightclub and offered as a secure meeting place to local crime bosses (who did a healthy business in gun-running, being near an Army base), along with further protection for their operations. He was true to his word, though he was careful to gather sensitive information from them to protect himself and put them over a barrel, so he could take a slice of their business. With in a matter of months, he was now the head crime boss of the region.
For several years he kept supplying valuable intel to the Soviets and using the money to expand his criminal empire, building up a private army of ghouls and a network of spies and informants. About this time, he began challenging his Russian masters openly. They tipped off a couple of vampire hunters in his area to send a warning to him. When he didn't back down, then sent their best ghoul assassin, "The Cossack." He had been turned during the Napoleonic wars, while serving in a Cossack calvary unit. From that point, he served as a mercenary in every major European conflict through the end of the 1940s, taking the opportunity to recruit other soldiers into his masters ranks, either as vamps or ghouls.
By this time, Gavin had partnered with an American vampire hoodoo mage who brought his own ghouls with him, in particular, the head of his personal guard, who was an Indian scout turned back in the late 1860s. After his master was killed shortly after his turning, he also plied his trade as a mercenary, serving in dozens of bush wars before coming into the mage's employ. The Cossack came over with a group of handpicked men, very nearly succeeded, but was intercepted and dispatched by the by the Indian ghoul.
This sparked a full scale war between Gavin and the Russians, which he quickly gained victories in, but there was ebb and flow in the conflict over the decades, and subsequent battles cost him dearly. After his organization had reached a zenith in the 1970s, having killed several members of the Russian vampire inner circle, they struck back hard, changing from their careful and secretive tactics to messy attritional warfare. Each victory was simply followed by more attacks and the outer edges of his organization began to fray. By the end of the 1980s, and the fall of the Soviet Union, he had lost nine/tenths of his organization, but the Russian vamps had lost the political patronage that they come to rely on, along with a severe disruption of their financial resources. Being both exhausted from the forty-year war, they came to a truce.
(Here's the part from our game) Our characters come in in '07, nearly twenty years after that, and his organization was still significantly smaller than what it had been. Of course, we ended up destroying the last of it.
WilliamTWodium:
As I recall, the argument against a verser vampire is that a vampire is dead, and therefore cannot become a verser any more than a T-bone steak can become a verser. I suppose it could be equipment, but once it was abandoned by its "owner" it would cease to travel through the scriff and remain in its present universe until destroyed or claimed as equipment by another verser. Regardless of whether owned or not, upon destruction the undead thing would lose all material existence and the spirit locked into the corpse would move on to its final resting place.
Ah, but it doesn't loose material existence. It looses its current form as it's atomized and travels through the scriff, but scriff-entanglement preserves the body in a way that isn't yet understood. Further, since a person verses out before the point of full death--the soul leaving the body--it may be that a vampire verses out before "undeath" is undone. Though, I do quite like your explanation of a living vampire.
Though, I do quite like your explanation of a living vampire.
Thank you!
Ah, but it doesn't lose material existence. It looses its current form as it's atomized and travels through the scriff, but scriff-entanglement preserves the body in a way that isn't yet understood. Further, since a person verses out before the point of full death--the soul leaving the body--it may be that a vampire verses out before "undeath" is undone.
I wasn't trying to argue that the vampire could not verse out because its body would be destroyed and the soul gone before it had the chance; rather, I was asserting that the vampire is incapable of versing out in the first place, and that the departure of its soul upon the de-animation of its body is what would happen instead.
The argument is that a vampire, as a dead thing, interacts with scriff in the same way as an inanimate object or a corpse. If a verser's equipment is destroyed but the verser survives, the equipment does not verse out; it is simply broken. I would expect an undead vampire to behave the same way.
I thought scriff interacted at the biological level, but maybe not. Me, I'd just use both of yours with your separate arguements, and let teh GM sort it out as he wished.
Which is probably what I'll do with the Language Magic Limits...Put it in as Optional, and why and why not to some degree, and go forward.
Back to vampires...I had thought it would be cool to have lots of different types of vampires. So a pc arrives in a universe and sees vamps....are they Philly 2011 vamps or the easier Buffy vamps or Forever Knight vamps or pity them are tehy clones of L'estat and practically invulnerable? Are they Wodium Wampyres born of a bacteria, or are they psionic vampires who clung to life by force of will, and drained those nearest them in consequence? So many varieties...not all dead...some dead but with souls....
I very much liked both your vamps.
Eric
Skills for Devlin:
Heal Self with Excess Blood: 1@7: Repair Physical Injury Body 10@3. This applies to Kinetic Damage. He cannot heal energy attacks except by normal healing. It requires that he have more blood than two liters in his system. The excess blood is tranformed into new uninjured flesh. He loses a pint every time he does this. It does a Lethal level of healing which may be repeated. +10 Sit-mod due to the blood limitation.
Move Superfast with Excess Blood: The blood rules are as above. 1@5: Run at Traffic Speeds Bod 3@8. This does not permit extra attacks.
Dominate Will by Eye Contact: 1@9: Mag 10@9 Obediences and Enslavements. The time required is Six Seconds (+30 Sit-mod penalty). The other requirement is eye contact in enough light to see each other's pupil (+5 bonus). No other activity is permitted by the caster except standing still +13 bonus (its not as good as bowing or dancing). Verbalization is required (along the lines of 'look into my eyes..." in a spooky tone. Expectation +5 bonus) for a total +7 Sit-mod penalty on using this skill.
Although I could certainly add more skills to him, more magic, and also I could rewrite some of the skills to make them more understandable, I think I've got everything I need to make a full character here. I'll skip writing up the Cane and Revolver skills as most GM's would know how that works.
Eric
Gavin was not my creation, actually--E. R. Jones built him. He was a novelist writing pulp fiction, mostly noir-type mysteries, in the 1950's. Of course, you can use the name, if you like. I don't remember what his human name was, but Eric got right the part about him changing his name--except that he took the name of one of the detectives in his books.
Scott is right that undead, not being alive, cannot verse in the usual sense; but also that there are a lot of ways to create vampires that have nothing to do with them being undead. Here's another: the vampire bite separates the spirit from the body, and then the body is possessed by a non-corporeal being which "owns" the body as equipment, animates the body as its means of interacting with the world around it, accesses the memories remaining in the brain, and which suffers damage from certain forms of attack which are entirely incidental to damage done to the body. It has the ability to repair physical damage to the body very rapidly, which is distinct from damage done to itself. When the non-corporeal being is killed, its ability to contain the ongoing decay ceases and the body collapses; however, if the body is scriff-infected, it verses out and takes the owner with it. (It might be possible to imagine the non-corporeal body of the possessor becomes scriff-infected (since scriff is not matter or energy) from its prolonged association with a scriff-infected piece of equipment, and thus the much more natural process that the owner verses out and takes his equipment with him.)
As to your question of whether the sun hurts him in a low-mag world, you've indicated that UV blasters will. That in turn means that this particular form of vampirism is a physical manifestation of a condition (much more like what Scott describes). A truly magical vampire cannot stand the sun because it was given to the sun to rule the day, and he is a creature of the night, and thus by the authority given it in its creation the sun has the power to condemn and destroy creatures of the night which intrude upon its domain--an entirely magical arrangement that would still work if the sun put out no light in any frequency whatsoever, because the sun rules the day. A vampire of that sort would be completely unaffected by ultraviolet blasters, because it is not about the light but about the sun.
Similarly, I would treat the power of the sun as an attack by the sun on the vampire--any time sunlight might hit the vampire, we use some method for determining whether it will hit the vampire, and roll for damage.
--M. J. Young
This offers some new ways to make up some vampires. Thanks.
eric
Of course, there is the Josh Whedon approach to vampires which is workable. Once the human host dies, a deamon takes up residence in the human corpse. The demons are not dead, the are other plane creaatures, very much alive, but with all the powers and liabilities of classical vampires. The Corpse and demon share a smbiotic relationship, merging into one new form.
Therefore, if a verser was bitten by one of these vampires, the verser would not become a vampire as his body would disappear before the demon could take up residence. However, the vampire who bit a verser could possible become infected with scriff from the verser's blood.
Absolutely, Pharaoh.
Now myself, I want a Whedonesque Vampire Verser.
I want a Dammed Soul in an Undead Body Vampire Verser that is purely magical as MJ was outlining.
All of these can be used for their own worlds. And that way, you're never sure...Are you dealing with Spike from Buffy or with Nick from Forever Knight?
I want a Wodium Wampyr Werser (that is a really evil Verser, a Werser) that is a biological entity that is not magical.
I want a Vampire Verser that has had its body transformed magically so that its vulnerable to sunlight or UV blasters, and is undead with its ghost animating the body.
I want a not neccesarily Dammed but Corrupted and Driven by Dark Desires Vampire Verser.
I want a Psionic Vampire Verser which is a human with psi powers who has become addicted to psionic draining of life energy.
I want a Cursed Being--that is someone who did something so awful that a prophet cursed them with vampirism. "You shall not die. Nor shall you ever stop thirsting. You have swam in the blood of innocents, and for this you will pay every day of your unnatural life. Now, I cast you out." At which point, the new vampire is tossed through a dimensional gate to arrive in a thorougly dead world. He thirsts, he hates, he has nothing to drink. Its horrible. A thousand years pass. A verser arrives which offers the vamp a key out of his cage. He drinks, and he finds that he can die if he really puts his mind to it.
Question: If a purely magical vampire is in a world that is low enough in magic that he can walk in the Sun, is the magic bias too low to support his existence in that world? Or does he fall into a sort of loophole where he's allowed to exist because he's from elsewhere?
Eric
Devlin Smith aka Maurice Lancaster as he was christened in 1805 in Yorkshire was an unremarkable lad known for pub-drinking and petty clerical work until one night he met a beautiful woman who seemed interested in him. Not questioning his luck, he followed her outside the pub.
"I do so love a good drink of beer." She murmured, and he turned perplexed in his drunken state back to the pub from whence beer came. She ambushed him from behind, bit him, and began to have her supper with a beer.
He might have been just another victim of the cold winter, a poor drunk who lost his way in the alleys, and froze to death, but a cry of a bugle was heard. The Wild Hunt was in the air, and seeking those alone, and no one is more alone than a vampire. Vengefully, she ripped out his throat, and then she took a crossbow quarrel to the chest.
He fell dying. She fled, but not before a fatal drop of blood from her chest hit his open throat.
A question swam in that blood as it penetrated to his dying brain.
*Do you want to live?*
He gasped assent.
*Forever?*
He agreed.
*Then swear eternal fealty to the Six Beasts Who Sit in Shadow and Gnaw at the Roots of Heaven. Swear that they alone are your master, and none other shall stand before your imperial will.*
He paused, dimly realizing that Sunday School did not equate with this. But he had found the notions of sin to be silly, anyways.
"I swear." He spoke from his newly healed throat, and then he rose as his new patrons cloaked him from the Wild Hunt which clattered by.
A new clarity of purpose filled him. He could do as he wished without constraint. He would give the freedom of mind and soul that he now felt to everyone who labored under the dark superstitions of the Protestants, the Catholics, and the Baptists. And to the chosen few, he might give the gift of true power. And for himself, he would make himself unassailable. And somewhere in a twisted and barren section of the oververse, maniac giggling greeted his grand plans, but he could not hear it.
And so he ruled in the north of England for well over a century until one time he met a man who sought for him, laughed at his threats, evaded his traps, and finally met him atop a manor with a sword that was impossible. The redheaded, almost child, with the crystal cold blue eyes evaded his strikes, and swung a sword made of light.
"I am immortal." Devlin cried (for he had changed his name on that snowy night of doom).
"So am I, and I didn't have to sell my soul and the sun for it."
The blade chopped his wrists off, and Devlin stared in horror as the blade came at his heart. He lunged forward in insane fury, and bit the man, Captain Chris. And he died.
However, the scriff was entangled with his body which was the possession of the animating spirit. And his body was entangled with his spirit. He is not free to simply will himself dead. Some vampires may simply cease to fight death, and finally face True Death, but Devlin is not one of their number.
And woke in another world. Under the sun.
He died again, and again. He thought he was in Hell.
He woke in night, and was safe. He lived, but it was the year 2290. And no vampires walked the night. His powers were faded. But he could feed, and he found in his extensive researches in the 'Internet' a reference to the 'Verse Project'. And then he began to understand what had happened to him.
Unfortunately, the trail of bodies of the most infamous serial killer of the 22nd century was being followed by advanced science. And when he refused to surrender, they fired their UV laser blasters at him.
It was over very quickly.
Three more worlds (or eleven if you count the ones where he arrived, and was shortly burnt by the sun, or in one case by a giant, four-footed Magical Sentinel Beast made of square-dressed stone that breathed sunlight and guarded the passageways between worlds), and he has started to get the hang of things.
Unfortunately, in his last world he met a Hawaaian shaman who figured out his true nature, and could not figure out a way to permanently kill him. But the shaman did curse him before summoning a volcano's fire to burn him. The curse was that he only could wear a tanktop and Hawaian shorts.
This bothers Devlin as he really is a suit and tie kind of guy.
And now he's ready to arrive in your world, and make a complacent verser unhappy.
Persuasion 2@1
Charisma 1@8
Animal Magnetism 1@7
Strength 2@6
Stamina 2@5
Resistance 2@1
Density 1@3
Flexibility 1@6
Agility 1@10
Hand/Eye 1@8
Intellect 1@8
Intuition 1@7
Education Level 2@1
Willpower 1@9
Target Value 1@7
Damage Value 1@10
Ranged Strike Value 1@8
Martial Strike Value 2@1
Devlin takes damage from all light sources that have strong Ultraviolet radiation. He could walk normally in the Sun (although he's not likely to believe it) if he wore extreme amounts of sunblock.
Devlin gets a Resistance Check against UV-based attacks, with the kind of check determined by the RS on the attack roll (RS=simple/difficult/none), and failure awards a damage category bonus to the attack. Against the sun, a failed resistance check indicate automatic damage - roll a d% for Lethal damage. If he succeeds versus the Sun, he still takes Damaging damage.
Damage Rider: If a Fire attack hurts him it automatically adds a non-blocked Lethal damage rider as the fire burns unnaturally in his corrupt flesh.
Cursed: Must wear Hawaian shorts and tanktop at all times. May not cover them. Failure causes Difficult Stamina checks. Failure to pass stamina checks causes painful convulsions that increase in severity until the clothes are put on, or the Vampire breaks something vital in his convulsions. This curse may not hold in a low-magic world, but the shaman who cast it was very powerful, clever, and quite angry at Devlin. The curse retakes effect once he passes into a magical world. However, Devlin is not aware that he would be safe in a non-magic world from the curse.
Skills for Devlin:
1. Heal Self with Excess Blood: 1@7: Repair Physical Injury Body 10@3. This applies to Kinetic Damage. He cannot heal energy attacks except by normal healing. It requires that he have more blood than two liters in his system. The excess blood is tranformed into new uninjured flesh. He loses a pint every time he does this. It does a Lethal level of healing which may be repeated. +10 Sit-mod due to the blood limitation.
2. Move Superfast with Excess Blood: The blood rules are as above. 1@5: Run at Traffic Speeds Bod 3@8. This does not permit extra attacks.
3. Dominate Will by Eye Contact: 1@9: Mag 10@9 Obediences and Enslavements. The time required is Six Seconds (+30 Sit-mod penalty). The other requirement is eye contact in enough light to see each other's pupil (+5 bonus). No other activity is permitted by the caster except standing still +13 bonus (its not as good as bowing or dancing). Verbalization is required (along the lines of 'look into my eyes..." in a spooky tone. Expectation +5 bonus) for a total +7 Sit-mod penalty on using this skill.
4. Drink Up: 2@1. Body. Bite does Annoying Damage. Each turn he does Dangerous Damage until victim is dead. Victim is held, and physical escape is at a -10 DR due to difficult position.
5. Paralyze Victim with Sedative in Fangs:2@1. Body. Victim must make Difficult Willpower check to resist. This skill may be used as a rider for #3. Occasionally Devlin doesn't as he likes to hear them scream.
6. Immunity to own Sedative.: 2@5. Body. His body is immune to his own sedative.
7. Animate Corpse: 2@7. Magic. This applies to his own self, or to raising other vampires. It requires the near complete draining of the new vampire, their mental assent to the Six's plans, and a drop of his blood. For himself, it requires that he hunt daily, and sacrifice one to the Six, and that he renew his pledge daily.
8. Shoot .38 Revolver: 2@7. Tech. He is an extraordinary shot who trained in one world with Capone's gangs as a gunman.
9. Use Gold Knobbed Cain as Club: 1@8. Tech.
Items:
1. Tank top.
2. Hawaiian Shorts.
3. A metal flask with liquid nitrogen cooling that contains an emergency supply of concentrated essence of blood that is enough to refill him. However, he cannot make more.
4. A leather bag of 8 gold marks, 4 silver dinarii, and a few -3- diamonds of one carrot size.
5. A .38 revolver, and thrirty rounds of hardball ammunition (six are in the gun, and the others are tied into the waistband of his shorts. Damaging: Repeat Factor 3: 3'/10'/20'/40'/60'.
6. No shoes.
7. A walking stick with a gold knob on the end. Damaging: No range: RF 2 (Annoying if the knob end is not used.)
Contributions by William T. Wodium, John "A1Nut" Cross, and M.J. Young. Creation of Eric R. Ashley.
Wow, the big vampire popularity that we have been seeing in literature lately seems to have hit even this board....
Actually, vampires became popular in the gaming world in the early 1980s when White Wolf's World of Darkness series took hold, the premier game being Vampire: The Masquerade. We did some vampire stuff in playtest for Multiverser in the late 80's, and that world got modified into Vampire Philadelphia for inclusion in the Multiverser novel Verse Three, Chapter One and becomes something of a theme in the Lauren Hastings stories over the first three novels of the series, including the Vampire Camelot world in which Adam is currently adventuring. So it's not new, it's just part of the ongoing gamer world.
--M. J. Young
I see. I actually have Mage: the Awakening in the same World of Darkness, and I am aware of Werewolf and Vampire, but I have no real idea how popular WoD is elsewhere in the gaming community. You ever notice that what is popular in the gaming world tends to leak through some time later into mainstream culture after being 'nerdy' for awhile?