Sandmen
Now for a very different form of vampire. The Sandmen were one of the primary antagonists of my Hunter: the Vigil Chronicle. Based on the Mnemovores from Night Horrors: Wicked Dead, these creatures mix an odd variant of vampire with some concepts from Promethean. The result could be called Vampire: The Created.The base creatures, Mnemovores, are creatures that subsist on memories. Feeding on mortals and vampires alike, they are presented as a possible reason for the Fog of Ages that keeps elders from recalling events after a long torpor. One neat ability they have is that people who encounter them are very likely to forget them once they are out of sight.
The Promethean additions were conceived for a hypothetical vampire that I have yet to use. Basically I find the vampires in Vampire: the Requiem too easily destroyed. Fire and Sunlight will finish one off much faster than a mortal. Add in their other disadvantages (clan weaknesses, bloodline weaknesses, vulnerability to stakes, frenzy, and general ease of identification) and they can come off as easy pickings for a Mage or Werewolf.
So one thing I considered adding to a vampire was a resurrection ability like the Azothic flare of a Promethean. Thus one might kill a vampire but he or she would rise again reforming from what ever bones and dust remains, sort of like Dracula in Castlevania.
Moving further with this idea, I thought what if only master vampires had this ability. Normal vampires would remains weak and easily destroyed while the master would present a surprise when the PCs managed to kill it the first time. Making these vampire more distinct, most vampires would have only Blood Potency 0, like the Larva or feral vampires also discussed in Wicked Dead. Only when fed blood from a true vampire would they possess a human level intelligence. This would make vampire society a network of hives with a central king or queen and an assortment of blood addled servant vampires about them dependent on their liege for their very minds. Only once they reached Blood Potency 1 would they be able to maintain their intellect away from the master.
When I came to the Sandmen, as the Mnemovores were called in my game, I decided the default Sandmen would be as presented in Wicked Dead: stupid and solitary. However advanced Sandman, like my main villain, the Silent One, had evolved something like Blood Potency. Following the pattern from my Vampire: the Created idea, the Silent One could maintain its intelligence without constantly feeding. It had learned to live off of just memories and did not need to devour Skill or Intelligence dots to survive. Moreover if it let a normal Sandman feed from it, that creature would also regain some intelligence.
In the game, it was unclear if the Silent One was a unique aberration or if other Sandmen could also eventually attain a similar state.
Here are the descriptions and attributes I used in my game:
Sandmen
Description: Strange emaciated humanoids dressed in rags and with deathly pale skin, the Sandmen possess pitch black eyes, spider-like fingers and move in eerie silence. Those meeting them tend to forget they ever saw them as their intrinsic ability to devour memories steal the very glimpse of them from minds and machines. Photographic equipment only reveals blurry images of them while most audio equipment refuses to record their dry voices.More dead than alive, their bodies are filled with a strange dust whose scent brings to mind foreign memories. Bullets and impact weapons simply slice into dead flesh leaving only minor wounds that bleed dust. But they can die. Water and fire seem to be capable of destroying their desiccated bodies.
Attributes: Mental: 3, Physical: 7, Social: 3, Defense: 2
Vice: Envy
Virtue: Prudence (careful and patient)
Disciplines: Dominate 2, Obfuscate 3
Notes:
- Brawl pool 5 (Grappling specialty)
- Sneak pool 6
- Willpower 8
Powers:
- Out of Sight, Out of Mind: those seeing a Sandman must make a Wits + Resolve to remember seeing it.
- Regeneration: A Sandman uses its store of memories to heal as if it had 5 Vitae.
- Steal Memory: if grappling a victim roll 7 dice – target’s Resolve. Each success deals Bashing damage and every 3 successes steals a Skill dot. Treat a stolen Skill dot as if the Sandman possessed it or as a point of Vitae.
The Silent One
Background: The Silent One has existed in Seattle for decades. Even it doesn't know its true origins. Its memories were fleeting, swiftly vanishing as it consumed them for sustenance. It suspects it was human once. There was an old man who might have been its father. He protected and fed it. There was also the strange boy who seemed to be immune to its powers. The boy grew to be a man. It believe it helped him somehow. To build the dream machine.After the machine was built everything became clear. There amid a debris of thousand thousand dreams lay a memory of the world as it was. The Silent One devoured that memory and that memory sustained it. Now it can subsist on passing thoughts, forgotten childhoods, and hours of lost time. Moreover, it can remember the events of day-to-day and plan and plot its next move.
It seeks to find more true memories, memories of vast machines that drive the universe, of impossible feats of magic, and of things that never were. Already it has learned to control more of its kind and to make Tulpas, thought form agents formed out of imaginings and memory. It knows many secrets: secrets of the spider that lives in dreams, of men who could become serial killers with the right push, and most importantly a key to the God-Machine.
Description: A tiny emaciated figure cloaked in darkness and wearing a long white silk robe. Almost feminine, it glides in absolute silence. On the rare times it speaks its child-like voice is filled with a strange innocence.
Attributes: Mental: 9, Physical: 7, Social: 7, Defense: 4
Vice: Greed (it wants to more memories, more power)
Virtue: Prudence (it is careful and cautious)
Disciplines: Auspex 1, Dominate 3, Obfuscate 4
Powers:
- Dream Combat: the Silent One can enter the dreams of those it has met. There combat involves a loss of Willpower. Those who lose all willpower are violently forced awake.
- Forge Tulpas: at the cost a large amount of stolen memories, the Silent One can create fake people. These figures can be built from existing memories to resemble existing people or be made up whole cloth. Tulpas use Willpower for health and are highly vulnerable to alteration from the thoughts of psychically active individuals.
- Out of Sight, Out of Mind: those seeing the Silent One must make a Wits + Resolve to remember seeing it. It can also use its powers to become invisible or disguise itself.
- Rebirth: if destroyed, the Silent One reforms after a period of time, as if it had been forced into torpor. During that time it exists only as a bad dream. It is possible that there is away to attack it during that period and truly destroy it.
- Regeneration: the Silent One can use its store of memories to heal as if it had 20 Vitae.
- Steal Memory: if grappling a victim roll 7 dice – target’s Resolve. Each success deals Bashing damage and every 3 successes steals a Skill dot. Treat a stolen Skill dot as if the Sandman possessed it or as a point of Vitae.
No comments:
Post a Comment