50 Shades of Vampire: Nomak and Damaskinos

Another week of movie vampires, this time from Blade II. There are two interesting monsters in this movie: Nomak, an experimental new version of vampire, and Damaskinos, his blue blooded (literally) creator. Let's look at how to translate them into Vampire: the Requiem 2nd edition terms.

Researching the Reaper

We meet Jared Nomak, a freak of nature, in the opening scene. We see he's not your typical blood sucker. For one he feeds on vampires, for another his jaw breaks open into something resembling the remake version of the Fly.

At the risk of getting ahead of myself, I think this new form of vampire, the Reapers, has a lot of potential. Like the Zombie from last week, it creates a horror that even the Kindred fear. In this case a monster that feeds on monsters and which lacks many of their weaknesses.

As far as abilities, other than his nasty bite Nomak appears to have the same powers as other vampires, though he seems stronger and faster than them. In a follow-up scene we learn that those he feeds on become like him. Awesome.

Several scenes pass without too much more interesting going on until we meet Overlord Eli Damaskinos. If the name didn't give it away, his blue pallor and general grim appearance announces the main villain of the piece. He's been looking to create a more perfect vampire and Nomak is the result. Clearly this is our Ordo Dracul overlord. He even has a vampire hunting squad for anomalies like Blade.

As far as pegging his clan, he could be Nosferatu but I actually favor Mehket. One of his spawn clearly seems normal so perhaps Damaskinos's disfigurements are the product of his experiments or acquired banes.

From Eli, we get to hear more about Nomak and his kind. They are like crack addicts and must feed daily. This strikes me much like Revenants from Requiem 2nd Edition, vampires who can't hold blood night to night. The idea of a stronger nastier monster that can turn you into an even more tormented inhuman monster sounds like a good hook. I'm starting to think of Nomak as the first of a new bloodline, with lots of strengths at a horrible price.

Back to the movie, our 'heroes' move on to the House of Pain (an awesome name by the way) to hunt the Reapers. They find them but it doesn't go well. Clearly the infected are stronger than normal vampires with a form of resilience that makes them immune to most of the vampiric banes (with the exception of sunlight). Bullets, blades, silver, and beheading, none of these slow them down.

We switch back to Damaskinos afterwards as the team returns. He apparently enjoys blood jello and a nice blood bath after a hard day. Yeah, I like this guy.

The rest of the film works out like you'd expect. Nomak gets his revenge on his father after fighting through a small army. Blade gets betrayed, nearly dies, is forced to feed and then defeats Nomak. Not really sure why he feels like killing him. In many ways Nomak would help him finish off the vampire menace way faster.

Working Out Mechanics

In a lot of ways Reapers map well to World of Darkness vampires. Sunlight kills them quickly while silver and garlic do nothing. Staking is something that requires significant effort (like it would in dealing with a real rib cage).

So their main advantages would be their paralytic bite and their infectious condition. They probably have Resilience as a favored Discipline.

Here's a possible write-up.

Reapers

Vampires crafted rather than Embraced, the creator of the Reapers sought to create a bloodline containing the secrets of the coils within its very blood. The result of course was an unqualified failure.

Parent Clan: Mehket

Covenant: Pariahs among the Kindred, they seldom find acceptance within the covenants. A few hide their secret within one or another group but most remain unaligned. In theory they might find the philosophy of the Carthians soothing or hope to find a cure within the Circle or the covenant that birthed them: the Ordo Dracul.

Appearance: Reapers suffer horrible disfigurement upon joining the bloodline becoming hairless jaundiced monsters with deformed ears and black veins.

Haven: given their appearance it is unsurprising that Reapers cling to the underbelly of human society, dwelling in its abandoned buildings, sewers, and underground and associating with its castoffs, the homeless, addicts, and desperately poor.

Background: Given the nature of the bloodline, Reapers are victims of convenience. Rarely do they choose to embrace a mortal, knowing full well what damnation awaits. Instead more of their numbers belong to the infected (see below). These tend to be weaker members of Kindred society (though given the martial focus and swarm tactics of the Reapers, weak is relative).

Bloodline Disciplines: Auspex, Celerity, Obfuscate, Resilience

Weakness: Reapers lose the standard frailty of their clan and gain the clan bane of the Nosferatu. Due to their inhuman appearance, when dealing with humans, treat the Reaper's Humanity as two dots lower for the purpose of Social penalties, and treat any Presence and Manipulation failures as dramatic failures. This bane does not apply to interactions with Touchstones or Kindred.

In addition, the thirst for blood is stronger for Reapers. Treat them as having a Blood Potency 4 higher for the purposes of feeding. Thus all but the weakest Reaper is driven to feed on the blood of other vampires to survive.

The Reaper bloodline is also contagious after a fashion. Any vampire who suffers a feeding from a Reaper and suffers Final Death from that attack instead rises as a Reaper themselves after scene. This new Reaper retains all the originals skills and Disciplines but has a Blood Potency of 1 and is treated as a Revenant for the purposes of how much blood they can store and their ability to hold it.

Bloodline Gift: The main ability of the Reapers are their improved and paralytic bite. Their mandible like jaws are treated as 1 Lethal weapons with the Stun ability.

Nomak

I'll peg Nomak as a low-end 35 XP mover and shaker. He's not super powered but he is a serious threat.

For this build I assumed his mental skills weren't so great. While a canny planner and highly capable combatant, he didn't show many other aptitudes.

I dumped most of his points into physical disciplines to make him a fearsome opponent.

Clan: Mekhet (Reaper)    Faction: Unaligned
Mental Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 3, Resolve 3
Physical Attributes: Strength 3[6], Dexterity 3, Stamina 3[6]
Social Attributes: Presence 2, Manipulation 2, Composure 2
Mental Skills: Investigation 2, Occult 1, Science 1
Physical Skills: Athletics 3, Brawl 4, Stealth (escape) 2, Survival 2, Weapons (improvised) 2
Social Skills: Empathy 1, Intimidation 2, Persuasion (honesty) 2, Streetwise 2, Subterfuge 2
Merits: Atrocious 1, Clan Status (Mehket) 1, Dynasty Membership 1, Improvised Weaponry 2
Humanity: 5
Mask: Monster                Dirge: Monster
Blood Potency: 2
Disciplines: Auspex 1, Celerity 1, Obfuscate 1, Vigor 3, Resilience 2

Damaskinos

Here is our ancient horror. His physical and social skills have atrophied in his pursuit of research. I've raised his blood potency to the point where he is no longer able to feed on mortals, explaining his tired and aged behavior. Basically he's too low on vitae to properly fight back in the end.

Clan: Mekhet             Faction: Ordo Dracul
Mental Attributes: Intelligence 4, Wits 2, Resolve 3
Physical Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 2
Social Attributes: Presence 2, Manipulation 3, Composure 2
Mental Skills: Academics 2, Investigation 2, Medicine (surgery) 4, Occult (vampires) 3, Politics 2, Science (biology) 4
Physical Skills: Brawl 2, Stealth 2
Social Skills: Intimidation 2, Persuasion 2, Socialize 1, Subterfuge 2
Merits: Acute Senses 1, Clan Status (Mehket) 3, Dynasty Membership 3, Haven 2, Herd 5, Resources 4, Safe Place 4, Status (City) 3, Staff (Firearms) 1, Status (Ordo Dracul) 5, Sworn (Dying Light) 1
Humanity: 3
Mask: Scholar            Dirge: Idealist
Blood Potency: 6
Disciplines: Auspex 4, Celerity 1, Coil of the Ascendant 2