Vampire of a Different Humor

We all know about the vampires who suck blood.

But what about vampires who suck the other three humors? (They might even be beneficial. I mean, who wants excess melancholy?)

I'm thinking about this breakdown...

Sucks blood = drains Constitution
Sucks yellow bile = drains Charisma
Sucks black bile = drains Wisdom
Sucks phlegm = drains Intelligence

"Vampire" is well established. Any thoughts on names for the other three?

- - -

In terms of RP personality, the Sanguine = Sensualist thing works nicely for Anne Ricequé vamped-out pleasure moguls, which is an adequate Vampire archtype.

How about the other three? Any ideas?

- - -

They don't all have to have fangs, either. That could be blood-vampire-specific. Blood and phlegm are both fairly easy to extract; how would the bile guys work?

Perhaps the phlegm-pire has a long tongue that goes up your nose (or forces its way through the roof of your mouth during a passionate kiss). It could eat phlegm, or brains. Int is drained either way; they're anatomically convenient.

Black bile and yellow bile aren't quite as accessible. I'm thinking that long, hollow finger nails could pierce the abdomen, leaving a tell-tale sign similar to the classic pair of neck puncture wounds. That would work for one of them; thoughts on the other? The marks should be distinct so experienced hunters knew from just a glance which one they were tracking. Maybe one of them uses his thumb-spike (single puncture) while the other kind uses his finger-spikes (four punctures)? One goes through the side, one through the back?

Any thoughts appreciated.

Cheers, -- N

Thats a cool idea

sanguine - amorous/courageous/impulsive - Vampire
choleric - energetic, charismatic, bad-tempered - Furor a shapechanger that during the day appears as an important person in the community (often a military leader) but at night becomes an hulking monster that drains the charisma from its victims. It is feared for its fiery temper and often provokes wars
melancholic - irritable, depression - Night Hag(Variant) In dreams it comes to bring images of doom and gloom. Later it comes and inserts its cruel fingers to drink the victims sorrow
phlegmatic - calm/unemotional - Skilosh it has a long appendage that it injects into the base of the victims skull to drain emotion, it also reproduces by implanting its larva into the brain (NB Skilosh is adapted from an episode of Angel)

Nice names!

Furor sounds like it could be a stand-in for lycanthropes. The lycanthropy disease could inflict Charisma drain if you fail your Fort save each day; when you run out of Charisma, you become an animal with a bite attack that drains Charisma.

The Night Hag entering into dreams to keep you from getting sleep sounds like it would inflict fatigue, which is an excellent mechanic for depression. No ability damage necessary for that one, perhaps.

Never heard of the Skilosh, but if it's a living critter which injects things into your brain with a long appendage, it sounds a bit like a mind flayer. Hmm, actually, we could us the mind flayer mechanics here too -- mind flayers eat Int, and they also put larvae into human skulls to reproduce. Hmm.

Thanks! -- N

Nifft said:

Furor sounds like it could be a stand-in for lycanthropes. The lycanthropy disease could inflict Charisma drain if you fail your Fort save each day; when you run out of Charisma, you become an animal with a bite attack that drains Charisma.

Click to expand...

This totally reminds me of Jack Nicholson in Wolf.

Nifft said:

Sucks blood = drains Constitution
Sucks yellow bile = drains Charisma
Sucks black bile = drains Wisdom
Sucks phlegm = drains Intelligence

Click to expand...

Interesting idea. But I must confess I can't see the relationship between bile and Charisma or Wisdom. Or phelgm and Intelligence.

For the latter you might try some sort of nuero-fluid or spinal fluid. Or maybe you could relate spinal fluid and dexterity (ie, no spinal fluid and the victim becomes paralyzed).

Grifton

Grifton said:

Interesting idea. But I must confess I can't see the relationship between bile and Charisma or Wisdom. Or phelgm and Intelligence.

Click to expand...

Humors. Get it?

If not, read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humors

Cheers, -- N

Nifft said:

Nice names!

Furor sounds like it could be a stand-in for lycanthropes. The lycanthropy disease could inflict Charisma drain if you fail your Fort save each day; when you run out of Charisma, you become an animal with a bite attack that drains Charisma.

Click to expand...

I like this a lot. Played right (and targeting an important personage say a General during a war, or a Presidential Candidate during the Election Race (thanks Heroes)) it would appear to those around them that the person is highly stressed and becoming more and more prone to outburst of anger and violence, going through a slow decline until aaaaagh they publically explode transforming into a monster and attack everyone in sight...

I'd love to see the stats this thing might have...

Never heard of the Skilosh, but if it's a living critter which injects things into your brain with a long appendage, it sounds a bit like a mind flayer. Hmm, actually, we could us the mind flayer mechanics here too -- mind flayers eat Int, and they also put larvae into human skulls to reproduce. Hmm.
Thanks! -- N

Click to expand...

I must admit that my first thought for this ceature was "it sounds like a variant mindflayer" but I thought I might try something slightly different to stick with the vampire theme

Tonguez said:

I must admit that my first thought for this ceature was "it sounds like a variant mindflayer" but I thought I might try something slightly different to stick with the vampire theme

Click to expand...

I guess the big difference is that it would stick its tentacle up your nose and ... er ... clean your sinuses.

I feel dumber already, -- N

The bile suckers could have barbs on their wrist, like dew claws or a platypus barb. Or you could just leave it as a bite attack. It may illicit some interesting reactions to describe the undead horror leaping at a PCs stomach...

There's a Native American (I forget which tribe - Cherokee?) boogey-creature called Spearfinger. She appears as a crone, but she can mesmerize you with her voice, and when she gets close enough she has a finger that extends to great length, which she uses to remove and devour some internal organ - I can't recall whether it's the spleen or liver, though.