Thousand Year Old Vampire- a play through

[GuyBoy]

As Eadric gets older, Sweyn Godwinson and, later, Robert of Belleme, might be interesting friends/rivals.
The opportunity go on the First Crusade might also appeal to a vampire!

 

[hawkeyefan]

Prompt 5

You murder someone you love or respect rather than let them expose you. Kill a Character. Check a Skill. If you have no living Characters, kill no one and create a beloved mortal Character who you have betrayed.

Long have I known that trust is fleeting. My brothers, desperate for our father’s affection, taught me that lesson early and often. But for Sigefirth to betray me… a man I had raised from nothing to a prominent position in my house… it is unbearable.

As our schemes went on, and the scope of our actions grew, I started to notice small signs of mistrust in Sigefirth. He would at times question my decisions. He would assume responsibilities that should not have been his. Always under the guise of easing the burden upon me! Clever of him to turn my doubts against me!

I knew, though, I knew after he came in upon me as I questioned the Bishop of Wells. He saw me feeding! He’d seen glimpses before, and certainly the aftermath of some of my more… indulgent meals. But in this case, I had not noticed his presence, and he watched for a time. Perhaps it was the length of the viewing which disturbed him, or perhaps that it was a man of the cloth on whom I fed, though I’d never known Sigefirth to be particularly devout. Whatever the reason, though, when I did notice him, I saw revulsion in his face.

I knew it would not be long before he would reveal the truth of my condition, the truth of our mission, the truth of Eadgyth’s death.

Satiated, I dismissed the Bishop. It took him a few moments to come to his senses, then he dreamily thanked me and departed. Vigorous from my feeding, I called Sigefirth over to me. I bade him lean in, as if I had a secret I must unburden. He hesitated only a moment before obeying. I whispered to him an apology… and then I snapped his neck.

The enormity of this decision immediately registered as I realized I would need to dispose of his body, and I would need to craft some illusion for the members of His Majesty’s Court with whom we worked about what had happened to him. Could this subterfuge even continue without him?

**********************
Results: Sigefirth is dead
checked the Skill Slake Subtly (marked by an X on the character record)

Experience added to Memory 2:

• I kill Sigefirth, my closest confidante, before he can betray me and reveal my true nature.

 

[Fenris-77]

Playing around with some parchment backgrounds and fonts. The font below is Saucy Jack.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Prompt 8

You are recognized for what you are by another creature like yourself. Create an immortal Character, lose a Resource, and gain a Skill. What did you lose to them?

Without Sigefirth, my schemes slowly started to unravel. His Majesty was unimpressed with the progress made toward finding his niece’s abductor. Aethelred was growing more and more nervous about his hold on the throne. The Danish prince Cnut had taken several towns, and it was believed he had support from within. While enacting my ruse of uncovering the King’s enemies, I actually had found some. Indeed, support for His Majesty was waning among the lords.

My own feelings did nothing to help the matter. I was growing withdrawn. The politics and machinations had begun to bore me. I had always wanted power and influence, and I now had them… but I also had been given a taste of power of another sort entirely. Courtly intrigue seemed an almost archaic path, and one that was unnecessarily indirect. Given my newfound abilities, could I not simply seize power? Would there be any who could oppose me?

It turned out there could be.

Hemminge was one of Prince Edmund’s men. Many said that Edmund was the only thing keeping his father on the throne, and having seen what I had, I’d not have said they were entirely wrong. He was called Ironside because of his bravery in battle. He’d fended off several of Cnut’s advances. He’d also helped marshal the lords in support of his father, however tentative that support may have been; without Edmund, it would have been nonexistent.

Hemminge was Edmund’s spymaster. Further, he was a creature like me.

Edmund and his retinue returned to Lundenburh from their most recent campaign. Hemminge immediately reached out to me to check on the progress of my work. It was a breach of proper etiquette for him to demand answers from me, but he was backed by the Crown Prince. I reluctantly agreed to meet with him.

He entered my chamber and I immediately knew he was like me. It was as if I could smell it on him. His smile told me he was also aware of our shared… condition. His eyes occasionally flashed with a reddish light, just as Aija’s had. Was he a creature of hers? Was that her task for Cnut? To convert enemies to allies through this unholy means? Was he here on her bidding? It seemed too unlikely a coincidence, otherwise.

Hemminge explained to me that due to the unfortunate loss of Sigefirth, and per Prince Edmund’s request, he would be assisting me in my duties going forward. I politely thanked him for his offer of aid, and explained that it was sorely needed, that the enemies of the Crown were many. He smiled and nodded throughout the meeting before finally, mercifully taking his leave.

I immediately gathered several of my men, as well as some of the coin I had secreted away, and then in the dark of the night, like a common criminal, I fled Lundenburh. I had been at this far too long to not know the truth of the meeting, and what would follow. I would be questioned by Hemminge, and then after wringing whatever knowledge he could from me, he would assume my role and my title, and I would be quietly removed.

At least, that was how things would normally have gone. I'd overseen such actions myself, after all. My nature, and that of Hemminge, however, cast the situation in a new and unknown light. Had Hemminge not been like me, I would have allowed things to play out merely out of curiosity, as a temporary salve to the malaise that had come upon me. But his true nature… his possible connection to Aija… these mysteries left me quite unsure how to proceed. He seemed to be a threat to me in a way no other could be.

So I fled, unsure of my next steps.

******************
Added Immortal Hemminge
Added mortal Edmund
Lost Resource: Title, Earl of Mercia
Added Skill: Vampiric Sense
Experience added to Memory 3: I am forced to flee Lundenburh, forfeiting my title and authority, due to the arrival of the vampire Hemminge

 

[Fenris-77]

More faffing about. The font this time is Medelicia

 

[Fenris-77]

OK, enough reading and mucking about, time to get stuck in. I decided on the following as my character sheet. I'm going to change fonts as time passes both as an immersive tool and also to help contextualize the item in question (as in I will immediately see how 'old' that bit is). Quintus is a Roman, so the Latin quotes seemed like a solid affectation.

 

[Fenris-77]

@hawkeyefan - I'm loving the paythrough

So I have my vampire written, but I'll spare you another screen shot and all the fonts. In plain text, here he is (with translations from the Latin):

Thousand Year Old Vampire

In absentia lucus, tenebrae vicunt (in the absence of light, darkness prevails)​

Being an incomplete and at times unreliable account of the long life and eventual death of one Quintus Aquilor.

Memories – Verba volunt, scripta manent (spoken words fly away, written words remain)

Primus

• I am Quintus, fifth son of Honorius Aquilor and I can trace my name back to the Senate of Rome. I was born in in the Year of our Lord Eight Hundred and Seventy-Three in Ravenna. My destiny was always to enter the priesthood and build my family’s fortunes through the glory of God.

Secundus

• My father has arranged for me to accompany my uncle on a delegation to the court of Boris I, Emperor of Bulgaria. My uncle is furious that my father entrusted me with the gift of manuscripts for the new library in Preslav.

Tertius

• We docked at Tomi on the Black Sea, from there to make our way overland to Preslav. The night of our first camp Cato caught a servant of Galthus rifling through my belongings – he had my ring in his pocket. Crato garroted him and we buried the body under an oak tree. Galthus will have to be more subtle.

Quartus

• I have liberally spent some of my father’s gold buying mercantile contacts in an effort to supplant the Byzantine hold over the trade in furs from the lands of the Rus. I bought Durndal a fine new woolen cloak that he blushed over. Tomorrow we will be presented to the court of the Emperor Boris I.

Quintus

• I was unexpectedly invited to dine with Elena Stoyanov, of the Rus, to discuss furs and our shared love of manuscripts. I was received at her manse with great honour and we drank and talked late into the night. When I was drunk she moved in close, and I thought he would kiss me, but she ripped out my throat with her long fangs. Her eyes glowed green in the firelight.

Skills – Faber est suae quisque fortunae (every man is the artisan of his own fortune)

• Oratory in service to the Church of Rome
• Swordsmanship and Riding, as befits a noble scion
• Calligraphy, as books are a passion I need not hide

Resources – An dives sit omnes quaerunt, nemo ad bonus (Everyone inquires if he is rich, no one inquires if he is good)

• A chest of gold destined to buy influence and contacts in the far Kingdom of Bulgaria
• A gold ring inscribed with a simple cross, a gift from my eldest brother, long dead
• fine collection of ancient manuscripts, intended as a gift to the library at Preslav

Characters – Vox et praetera nihil (a voice and nothing more)

• My uncle Dominus is a Papal Legate and a pompous blowhard whom I suffer poorly
• Crato, an unassuming manservant granted me by my father, he is gifted in the arts of murder and intrigue
• Galthus, a northern Lombard and castellan to my uncle. He is a devious snake and we loath each other
• Durndal, an armsman in service of my uncle with whom I share the occasional tryst
• Elena Stoyanov, an immortal posing as a noble from the lands of the Rus. She is dark and beautiful.

Marks – Etiam sanato vulnere cicatrix manet (thought the wound is healed, a scar remains)

• My eyes now glow in dim light like those of a wolf

 

[hawkeyefan]

Prompt 15

While traveling you come into conflict with another immortal. Gain a Mark. Who are they? What trick did you play upon them? Create a new immortal character.

The timing of my exile could not have been more fortuitous. Within weeks, Cnut had defeated Edmund at Assandun, and Aethelred was forced to give Cnut half his kingdom.

In the weeks that followed my exile, I roamed the land. I had been branded a traitor. My funds were dwindling. The loyalty of my men was in question; I had lied to them about our departure, telling them that we were on a mission of grave importance to remove another enemy of his majesty's from within the kingdom, but that our mission was secret. They began to hear rumors, though, and it would only be a matter of time before one or more of them suspected the truth. Unsure of what to do, I began to feed on them. Just small amounts to keep my strength up, and to keep them acquiescent.

I needed a target of some sort to occupy my men. I settled on Leofwine, a lord in northern Mercia, on the outskirts of what was once my earldom. He had strong blood ties to the Danes, and the town where he held sway, Twywell, was remote enough that I had little fear of discovery. With the loss at Assandun, the king's men were far too occupied to worry about me.

I began to become more withdrawn during this time. These mortal entanglements seemed beneath me in some way; at times I wondered why I would fear being discovered at all, yet at other times I would quake at the idea. I was pondering this all one evening as I strolled the streets of Twywell. I came across a church, a simple building not like those found in Lundenburh. From within, there was the sound of a hymnall from those gathered for evening mass.

The mere sight of the building filled me with dread. The hymnal was like a dirge. I felt the need to flee, but at the same time my legs felt too heavy to move. I felt I would collapse, but someone came to me and helped me move away from that dreaded place. once we were a good distance away, and I was able to recover my senses, I realized that my savior was an immortal like me. He introduced himself as Wulfstan. He seemed intrigued at finding another like him. He gave a name to what we are, a word I'd heard before but had never quite understood: vampire.

Some vampires are repelled by the symbols or trappings of faith. It is not an affliction he shared, but he realized what was happening to me when he came across me outside the church.

We spent the next several nights discussing things. I was happy to find a fellow who did not seem entangled with Aija or Hemming, or my prior life in any way. Wulfstan seemed happy to have someone to share his knowledge with. He told me much of what it means to be a vampire, how each of us is marked in unique ways, with great strengths, but also startling vulnerabilities. He explained that with time, the vulnerabilities could possibly be overcome. Wulfstan no longer feared to walk in the day as he once had. His shadow had never betrayed him as mine has me, but for years, the light of the sun had left his skin corpse white. For decades, in fact. He lived here peacefully enough in Twywell, feeding as needed on strangers and travelers, and leaving the townsfolk be. I asked him how long he had been this way, and he had no satisfactory answer. "Years beyond counting," was all that he said. The thought both thrilled and terrified me.

Over the course of a month, I learned much from him. But before long, my respite came to an end. One of Cnut's thegns arrived in Twywell. Their presence made me think of Aija, which made me uncomfortable.

It was more out of curiosity than fear, I think, that made me betray my newfound companion. I drank of one of the thegn's men and left him outside of Wulfstan's home. When the body was discovered, the thegn gathered his men and moved on Wulfstan's homestead. I chose that time to gather my men and flee. Wulfstan had told me that they were my "thralls", that my bite would keep them loyal to me. We left Twywell in haste.

Before long, I expected the story of what happened here would spread, and I would learn of how things played out, and exactly how vulnerable a vampire may be.

*****************
Mark Gained: Aversion to religious symbols and ceremony
New Immortal Character: Wulfstan
Experience added to Memory 5:

• In the town of Twywell, I learn from Wulfstan the name for what I am: vampire. He shares much of what it means to be a vampire.

 

[Fenris-77]

Medieval England is my academic métier, and I approve of the Vampire described above. I'm glad you did it actually, @hawkeyefan , as it forced me to do some actual research into areas I knew less about.

 

[hawkeyefan]

Previous post updated.