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Thousand Year Old Vampire: Guillaume d'Orléans
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<blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 8848307" data-attributes="member: 11760"><p><strong>Vienna, 1600</strong></p><p></p><p>A package arrived at the offices of my Vienesse barrister. Inside, was a note listing a series of names, most of them former or current aliases of mine, and asking if the package had reached these persons, to please respond to an address in Prague, so that the writer and I could arrange to meet, to discuss how Il Chiarissimo had wronged us both.</p><p></p><p>I suppose I should have been alarmed, but I was not. The additional names the letter was addressed to showed that whomever this writer was, they were fallible and had not completely tracked my moves around the continent.</p><p></p><p>And if their goal had been to harm me, there were better ways to do so, having found my barrister, than arranging at meeting at a later date.</p><p></p><p>Intrigued, I agreed to meet.</p><p></p><p>Vienna was a charming city even then, in the years between Turkish sieges, and before it became the Baroque city it would in the coming years. But I drifted through it, not making real connections with my barrister, Herr Gibitz, despite having employed his father before him. The same went for the modest staff at my house and similar employees at my homes and businesses in Mirandola, Barcelona and Tirana. </p><p></p><p>The Itzigs of Cologne had all been killed after my disappearance, as had my staff in Florence. I craved getting close to others again -- I now knew the loneliness that Carnutes and Meresankh had spoken of -- but the price for such selfishness for them was a violent death.</p><p></p><p>Whomever I had expected to meet at that cafe in Prague, I was not prepared for an elderly Italian man with a sad face.</p><p></p><p>"Good evening," he said, slowly lowering himself into a chair. "I believe we have something in common."</p><p></p><p>Alessandro's family had been Florentines. More than that, they had been Piagnoni -- the followers of Girolamo Savonarola. After he was executed, his family then followed the teachings of Pietro Bernardino, and his secret band of Piagnoni, carrying out the work of Savonarola, which both included a struggle against what they saw as the teachings of a failed church as well as opposing the vampires of Florence. When they were exposed by the Medicis and driven out of Florence, they ended up in my beloved Mirandola, before agents of the Medici vampires set upon them there, leading to most of them being burned as heretics.</p><p></p><p>But Alessandro's grandparents had been among those whose identity had not been known to the Medicis, and they remained there in hiding, raising their family and passing on the teachings of the Piagnoni, which included the identities of the Florentine vampires -- including me.</p><p></p><p>When Alessandro came of age, he intended to avenge his family by destroying the Florentine vampires, and set about studying them to determine their weaknesses. He soon learned that the Medici vampires lorded over all others, just as their human descendants did with the mortal population of the city. And he learned that Il Chiarissimo had orchestrated the ambush against me on the Rhein, ordered the execution of the Itzigs and, later, had arranged to leave my fencing school in rubble while I slept, trapped, beneath it, while he killed off my human servants so they could not aid me.</p><p></p><p>I had suspected all of this, of course, but hearing it laid out and reading the letters and diaries Alessandro had collected over the years as proof, was like a blow to the chest.</p><p></p><p>My fury grew in a way it hadn't in centuries. Blood thundered in my ears and all I could think about was my claws and fangs ripping into everyone around me. It took all my self-control to prevent myself from slaughtering the dozen innocents in the cafe. Finally, I pulled myself back under control.</p><p></p><p>"And what is it you want from me, Alessandro, as I am one that I know you detest?"</p><p></p><p>"Anything you can offer me to help destroy Il Chiarissimo. Ways of killing vampires. Secrets of his court or his hiding places. Anything you can give me and my followers to help us gain my revenge before I die."</p><p></p><p>"Nothing would make me happier."</p><p>[spoiler="Character sheet"]Prompt 56 + 4 - 3 = Prompt 57</p><p></p><p></p><p><em>Your knowledge of old things becomes a strength. Based on a checked Skill, what knowledge do you share with contemporary mortals? Check a Skill. Create a Resource.</em></p><p></p><p><strong>Guglielmo Nero</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Skills</strong>: </p><p>Bloodthirsty (checked); </p><p>Knows the secrets of killing vampires (checked);</p><p>I control the beast (checked); </p><p>Skilled merchant (checked); </p><p>Cook Portuguese seafood dishes;</p><p>Knowledgeable of medieval medicine; </p><p>Knowledge of vampire anatomy; </p><p>I can draw the shadows in around myself, creating supernatural hiding spaces (checked);</p><p>Visionary; </p><p></p><p><strong>Resources</strong>:</p><p>Diary: A leather-bound German-made ledger book</p><p>An ever-beating heart, which magically will not die</p><p>Allied with the Piagnoni, a 17th century group of Italian vampire hunters</p><p></p><p><strong>Characters</strong>:</p><p>Juião/Julian Black: a Portuguese orphan turned my servant turned vampire (Immortal); </p><p>Meresankh, an ancient Egyptian queen who has lived 3,000 years as of 1472, and whose still-living heart I have in my possession (immortal); </p><p></p><p><strong>Marks</strong>: My eyes cannot stand bright light and I have to remain in shadows at all times; my touch is fatal to plants; </p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>Memories (five, up to three Experiences each)</strong>:</p><p>1: I am Guilliame d'Orléans: I rescue a dark-haired girl from attack and Constansia pledges herself to me, believing me to be a servant of Satan, and we soon wed; Constansia conducts her Satanic rituals and summons a demon, Raum, to serve me in the form of a raven;</p><p>2: I am Wilhelm Black: Brought into the society of the Nachtvolk of Cologne, I watched their leader slowly dismember a vampire, leaving him alive for hours, just in agony; with the help of the mortal Itzig family, I become a rich merchant, with investments across Europe.</p><p>3. I am Wilhelm Black: Julian, now a violent enforcer of the Nachtvolk, gifts me an ever-beating heart; Meresankh, the immortal woman whose heart that is, confronts me in Florence, but allows me to keep it in my safe-keeping for now; </p><p>4. I am Guglielmo Nero: After Florentine banks collapse during the 100 Years War, I move my banking operations from Cologne to Florence; poisoned by Averardo de' Medici, I wake up in Florence 100 years later, the Itzigs dead, my banking empire dismantled in my absence; setting myself up in Florence, I come to own and operate out of a fencing school.</p><p>5. I am Guglielmo Nero: I awake in the rubble of my Florentine fencing school, war having destroyed the building; I traveled the Ottoman Empire, searching for the origins of vampires before being sent to Cyprus on a mysterious errand, and there I erected a magical structure atop Mt. Olympus; I ally with an Italian vampire hunter to kill Averardo de' Medici, the vampire ruler of Florence.</p><p></p><p><strong>Diary (four memories, up to three Experiences each)</strong></p><p>1: I am Guilliame d'Orléans: The night the other (DAMAGED) were burned alive, Carnutes fed upon me as I screamed in pitch black darkness; I confront Carnutes about him making me a vampire and he confesses he did it out of loneliness and tells me I will suffer in the same way some day; Carnutes possessed Raum and led the Archbishop of Tours' men to try and killed me -- but I used the Spear of Aeolius and killed Raum and Carnutes instead.</p><p>2: I am le Passeur or "the Frenchman": The Portuguese (DAMAGED) Juião helps me after I am burned by sunlight, unafraid of my supernatural nature, and I take him in as my servant; Juião teaches me to cook with the seafood I catch underwater; at his urging, I prey on (DAMAGED) as I tend to them.</p><p>[/spoiler]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Whizbang Dustyboots, post: 8848307, member: 11760"] [B]Vienna, 1600[/B] A package arrived at the offices of my Vienesse barrister. Inside, was a note listing a series of names, most of them former or current aliases of mine, and asking if the package had reached these persons, to please respond to an address in Prague, so that the writer and I could arrange to meet, to discuss how Il Chiarissimo had wronged us both. I suppose I should have been alarmed, but I was not. The additional names the letter was addressed to showed that whomever this writer was, they were fallible and had not completely tracked my moves around the continent. And if their goal had been to harm me, there were better ways to do so, having found my barrister, than arranging at meeting at a later date. Intrigued, I agreed to meet. Vienna was a charming city even then, in the years between Turkish sieges, and before it became the Baroque city it would in the coming years. But I drifted through it, not making real connections with my barrister, Herr Gibitz, despite having employed his father before him. The same went for the modest staff at my house and similar employees at my homes and businesses in Mirandola, Barcelona and Tirana. The Itzigs of Cologne had all been killed after my disappearance, as had my staff in Florence. I craved getting close to others again -- I now knew the loneliness that Carnutes and Meresankh had spoken of -- but the price for such selfishness for them was a violent death. Whomever I had expected to meet at that cafe in Prague, I was not prepared for an elderly Italian man with a sad face. "Good evening," he said, slowly lowering himself into a chair. "I believe we have something in common." Alessandro's family had been Florentines. More than that, they had been Piagnoni -- the followers of Girolamo Savonarola. After he was executed, his family then followed the teachings of Pietro Bernardino, and his secret band of Piagnoni, carrying out the work of Savonarola, which both included a struggle against what they saw as the teachings of a failed church as well as opposing the vampires of Florence. When they were exposed by the Medicis and driven out of Florence, they ended up in my beloved Mirandola, before agents of the Medici vampires set upon them there, leading to most of them being burned as heretics. But Alessandro's grandparents had been among those whose identity had not been known to the Medicis, and they remained there in hiding, raising their family and passing on the teachings of the Piagnoni, which included the identities of the Florentine vampires -- including me. When Alessandro came of age, he intended to avenge his family by destroying the Florentine vampires, and set about studying them to determine their weaknesses. He soon learned that the Medici vampires lorded over all others, just as their human descendants did with the mortal population of the city. And he learned that Il Chiarissimo had orchestrated the ambush against me on the Rhein, ordered the execution of the Itzigs and, later, had arranged to leave my fencing school in rubble while I slept, trapped, beneath it, while he killed off my human servants so they could not aid me. I had suspected all of this, of course, but hearing it laid out and reading the letters and diaries Alessandro had collected over the years as proof, was like a blow to the chest. My fury grew in a way it hadn't in centuries. Blood thundered in my ears and all I could think about was my claws and fangs ripping into everyone around me. It took all my self-control to prevent myself from slaughtering the dozen innocents in the cafe. Finally, I pulled myself back under control. "And what is it you want from me, Alessandro, as I am one that I know you detest?" "Anything you can offer me to help destroy Il Chiarissimo. Ways of killing vampires. Secrets of his court or his hiding places. Anything you can give me and my followers to help us gain my revenge before I die." "Nothing would make me happier." [spoiler="Character sheet"]Prompt 56 + 4 - 3 = Prompt 57 [I]Your knowledge of old things becomes a strength. Based on a checked Skill, what knowledge do you share with contemporary mortals? Check a Skill. Create a Resource.[/I] [B]Guglielmo Nero Skills[/B]: Bloodthirsty (checked); Knows the secrets of killing vampires (checked); I control the beast (checked); Skilled merchant (checked); Cook Portuguese seafood dishes; Knowledgeable of medieval medicine; Knowledge of vampire anatomy; I can draw the shadows in around myself, creating supernatural hiding spaces (checked); Visionary; [B]Resources[/B]: Diary: A leather-bound German-made ledger book An ever-beating heart, which magically will not die Allied with the Piagnoni, a 17th century group of Italian vampire hunters [B]Characters[/B]: Juião/Julian Black: a Portuguese orphan turned my servant turned vampire (Immortal); Meresankh, an ancient Egyptian queen who has lived 3,000 years as of 1472, and whose still-living heart I have in my possession (immortal); [B]Marks[/B]: My eyes cannot stand bright light and I have to remain in shadows at all times; my touch is fatal to plants; [B]Memories (five, up to three Experiences each)[/B]: 1: I am Guilliame d'Orléans: I rescue a dark-haired girl from attack and Constansia pledges herself to me, believing me to be a servant of Satan, and we soon wed; Constansia conducts her Satanic rituals and summons a demon, Raum, to serve me in the form of a raven; 2: I am Wilhelm Black: Brought into the society of the Nachtvolk of Cologne, I watched their leader slowly dismember a vampire, leaving him alive for hours, just in agony; with the help of the mortal Itzig family, I become a rich merchant, with investments across Europe. 3. I am Wilhelm Black: Julian, now a violent enforcer of the Nachtvolk, gifts me an ever-beating heart; Meresankh, the immortal woman whose heart that is, confronts me in Florence, but allows me to keep it in my safe-keeping for now; 4. I am Guglielmo Nero: After Florentine banks collapse during the 100 Years War, I move my banking operations from Cologne to Florence; poisoned by Averardo de' Medici, I wake up in Florence 100 years later, the Itzigs dead, my banking empire dismantled in my absence; setting myself up in Florence, I come to own and operate out of a fencing school. 5. I am Guglielmo Nero: I awake in the rubble of my Florentine fencing school, war having destroyed the building; I traveled the Ottoman Empire, searching for the origins of vampires before being sent to Cyprus on a mysterious errand, and there I erected a magical structure atop Mt. Olympus; I ally with an Italian vampire hunter to kill Averardo de' Medici, the vampire ruler of Florence. [B]Diary (four memories, up to three Experiences each)[/B] 1: I am Guilliame d'Orléans: The night the other (DAMAGED) were burned alive, Carnutes fed upon me as I screamed in pitch black darkness; I confront Carnutes about him making me a vampire and he confesses he did it out of loneliness and tells me I will suffer in the same way some day; Carnutes possessed Raum and led the Archbishop of Tours' men to try and killed me -- but I used the Spear of Aeolius and killed Raum and Carnutes instead. 2: I am le Passeur or "the Frenchman": The Portuguese (DAMAGED) Juião helps me after I am burned by sunlight, unafraid of my supernatural nature, and I take him in as my servant; Juião teaches me to cook with the seafood I catch underwater; at his urging, I prey on (DAMAGED) as I tend to them. [/spoiler] [/QUOTE]
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