[oWoD - V:TM] First character. Ever.

[Rogue Shadows]

So...yeah, in awhile, we'll be starting out first Vampire: The Masquerade story. This is the first character I've ever made in the system.

So...

...yeah. Thoughts?

The basic idea here is that Adrienne was embraced by a 7th-generation Kindred - but for whatever reason was then abandoned by her sire, who me and the Storyteller have worked out to be some kind of Baron Zaroff/Dr. Moreau type guy. So Adrienne's an 8th generation vampire, but has only been undread for, like, a year, tops. Adrienne's unbondable nature also means that, unlike most neonates, she isn't already one step blood bound to her sire.

Still trying to work out why she'd be Caitiff and not actually part of a clan, even if she didn't know it. Probably the sire wasn't part of a clan as well. As for why he might not have been...eh, I dunno. I've got a few months to work it out before we begin.

http://i53.tinypic.com/50nscl.png

[TheCountAlucard]

Still trying to work out why she'd be Caitiff and not actually part of a clan, even if she didn't know it. Probably the sire wasn't part of a clan as well.If your sire abandoned you without any formal training, that's all the justification you need for being a Caitiff; heck, that's how 90% of 'em are made.

[Rogue Shadows]

If your sire abandoned you without any formal training, that's all the justification you need for being a Caitiff; heck, that's how 90% of 'em are made.

True, but I'm given to understand that clan weaknesses are "hereditary."

[TheCountAlucard]

True, but I'm given to understand that clan weaknesses are "hereditary."Again, your clan-based stuff doesn't "take" if you don't have a sire; a Caitiff descended from a Brujah shows no quantifiable short-temperedness compared to a Malkavian-descended Caitiff, who in turn is no less sane than the Brujah-descended one.

At least, generally. There are exceptions to that rule, as there are exceptions to any rule.

[Rogue Shadows]

Again, your clan-based stuff doesn't "take" if you don't have a sire; a Caitiff descended from a Brujah shows no quantifiable short-temperedness compared to a Malkavian-descended Caitiff, who in turn is no less sane than the Brujah-descended one.

At least, generally. There are exceptions to that rule, as there are exceptions to any rule.

Ah, okay.

So, a Zaroff-Moreau crossbreed for a sire. Sounds Tzimisce to me. Or Tremere...except that I think the Tremere are more likely to exterminate a childe they don't like rather than abandon them.

[TheCountAlucard]

Ah, okay.

So, a Zaroff-Moreau crossbreed for a sire. Sounds Tzimisce to me. Or Tremere...except that I think the Tremere are more likely to exterminate a childe they don't like rather than abandon them.Well, seeing how Tremere are part of the Camarilla, they don't exactly approve of that sort of behavior. Siring a childe is serious business in the Camarilla, and doing it without permission can get both of them killed; even with permission, the sire is responsible for you - abandoning you would be taken very poorly on his part.

Plus, I get the feeling that a city's Tremere would be very uneasy about letting someone get their claws on the blood of a Tremere...

[comicshorse]

Yeah the Tremere are very keen on their being no Caitiff wandering around with their blood and tend to hunt them down and kill them if they find out about them. Tremere creating such Childe tend to get 'recalled to Vienna'.
Gangrel on the other hand tend to create a lot of Caitiff and I notice you have Protean.
Who is the enemy btw ? And be careful with that Flaw, your enemies tend to become your Coterie's enemies and I've seen players get annoyed at being burdened with somebody else's Flaw

[Caliphbubba]

Who is the enemy btw ? And be careful with that Flaw, your enemies tend to become your Coterie's enemies and I've seen players get annoyed at being burdened with somebody else's Flaw

very much this. "Way to take a flaw for everyone, jackass" is not a phrase you want to hear too often. But then again if it's handled well it can be pretty alright, This works especially well if the other players have the same Enemy Flaw you do. not to mention a 5 point Enemy is serious business.

An interesting twist on your origin could be that you were embraced by a Pander (sabbat caitiff), forcibly subject to the Vauldrie, and some how escaped after they realized that crap didn't work on you (Unbondable) or something along those lines.

OR

Maybe your sire was a outcast City-Gangrel (you have 2 of their 3 disciplines) that was forced to abandon his latest experiment (you), because his nominal pack came to reclaim him for whatever reason. A powerful pack of Sabbat of that low of a generation would be a suitable 5 point Enemy.


Otherwise the character is fine, though, if it were me I'd try and get some more willpower asap.

[Sactheminions]

5 point Enemy + 8th Generation probably means the enemy is the sire who abandoned you. 5 point enemies will **** your **** up at some point in the game. This is fine, but be ready for it. You'd expect Torrie or Brujah but for the Protean. Maybe go with Fortitude over Presence (who's going to teach a Caitiff Presence - or give them a chance to use it - while on the other hand you'll have people lining up to help you "use" your Fortitude as a (Cam?) Caitiff with a 5 point enemy.

But points don't matter as much in VtM as in some games. The critical thing is to get a set of reactions - even foibles - down that make your character recognizable, and sticking to them even when they get you in trouble. Your ST won't kill you because you took the wrong discipline at CC. They might kill you for having a character without a discernible personality.

[Sactheminions]

Otherwise the character is fine, though, if it were me I'd try and get some more willpower asap.

Very much this, too. If there is one thing I'd do at CC to this character it's spill the merits for freebies to buy WP. Unless that doesn't fit your concept, of course. But it's nice for people to have to TRY if they want you to do their bidding against your will.

[Rogue Shadows]

Gangrel on the other hand tend to create a lot of Caitiff and I notice you have Protean.

Gangrel's a possibility, and would fit the Zaroff theme me and the Storyteller have come up with for the sire, thought not really the Doctor Moreau part.

I was thinking Tzimisce seems most likely. The ranks in Protean were some metagaming on my part - I wasn't originally planning on having any Resources, so being able to dirtnap seemed like a good idea - but thinking on it now, Protean is a Discipline that could fit in quite nicely with a Tzimisce, even if it isn't one of their usual ones.


Who is the enemy btw ? And be careful with that Flaw, your enemies tend to become your Coterie's enemies and I've seen players get annoyed at being burdened with somebody else's Flaw

Note the other flaw I took - Sire's Resentment.

Honestly, given what I know about my fellow players from D&D, Star Wars, and SpyCraft campaigns, they're going to be a bigger threat to Arienne's continued unlife than my sire ever could be in his wildest dreams.

[comicshorse]

[QUOTE=Rogue Shadows;11338891
I was thinking Tzimisce seems most likely. The ranks in Protean were some metagaming on my part - I wasn't originally planning on having any Resources, so being able to dirtnap seemed like a good idea - but thinking on it now, Protean is a Discipline that could fit in quite nicely with a Tzimisce, even if it isn't one of their usual ones.
[/QUOTE]

Not sure if its still relevent but in OWoD you need Protean 3 for the earth meld power

[Rogue Shadows]

Not sure if its still relevent but in OWoD you need Protean 3 for the earth meld power

Oh, right. Hang on, I adjusted my stats a little bit since posting. Adrienne dropped Celerity for an extra dot in Protean.

The emerging idea is that El Sire is either a Tzimisce or Gangrel who has a tendency to make childer and cut them loose just to hunt them. Which is not cool.

Hmm, wonder if my Storyteller would let me stat out Doctor Baron Moreau Zaroff.

[Rogue Shadows]

Okay, reworked Adrienne a bit. She gained a last name and a hometown - she's French.

http://i52.tinypic.com/2lwvrbk.png

Dropped a level of Presence; used the freebie points that had used to gain them in the first place to instead grab some willpower, Linguistics (since I know the game will be taking place in Chicago) and an extra level in Knowledge (occult). I'm seeing her as having been a Neo-type character on the edge of having breached the upper layers of the Masquerade on her own prior to her Embrace.

Did some thinking on her story. Basically Moreau-Zaroff creates a childe every now and then and hunts them for reasons that can best be described as "****s n' giggles." He finds someone random, asks them if his handerchief smells like chloroform, drags 'em to his private jet, flies them to a random part of the world, Embraces them once there, and then leaves and gives them a year to hide. Then he starts hunting.

Petty? Yes. But we all need a hobby. He's sorely disappointed in the ones that simply go mad or go sunbathing (or both), and only slightly less disappointed in the ones that manage to get themselves killed by other Kindred.

Adrienne is just his latest victim in this petty game of his.

Still not sure on his clan. Sounds Gangrel, I guess. A Tzimisce wouldn't want to waste their time with such long-term distractions, in any event.

[comicshorse]

Just to show that great minds think alike the first 'World of Darkness' book for OWoD includes the details of the Hunt Club, a group of young and dangerous Kindred who hunt their Elders to Daiblerize them and so gain their power. Their most well-known member, Count Zaroff (He's Caitiff by the way)

[Rogue Shadows]

Just to show that great minds think alike the first 'World of Darkness' book for OWoD includes the details of the Hunt Club, a group of young and dangerous Kindred who hunt their Elders to Daiblerize them and so gain their power. Their most well-known member, Count Zaroff (He's Caitiff by the way)

...!
dotdotdot

[Ted_Stryker]

Who is the enemy btw ? And be careful with that Flaw, your enemies tend to become your Coterie's enemies and I've seen players get annoyed at being burdened with somebody else's Flaw
This is a reasonable metagame point, but in this particular case, if such complaints happened at my table I'd just point out that the other characters have either chosen to hang out with a Caitiff or had the situation thrust upon them for reasons that are beyond the characters' ability to control. Either way, they're prime collateral damage sinks for the turd avalanche that is the typical Caitiff's existence.

[Rogue Shadows]

This is a reasonable metagame point, but in this particular case, if such complaints happened at my table I'd just point out that the other characters have either chosen to hang out with a Caitiff or had the situation thrust upon them for reasons that are beyond the characters' ability to control. Either way, they're prime collateral damage sinks for the turd avalanche that is the typical Caitiff's existence.

Especially an 8th generation newly-minted abandoned Caitiff...frankly if the coterie doesn't themselves diablerize me, I'd be surprised.

[EclecticGuru]

I think you should play a more "typical" (for whatever that's worth) vampire for your first character. Someone with a clan, a sire, etc. That way you can participate more in the whole political/social side of the game instead of being a hunted outcast or whatever.

If you do decide to play a caitiff, you might think about playing a weaker blooded character (13th generation, 14th would be even better), as the clan traits *are* usually inherited in those with stronger blood.

[battleburn]

If you are a Caitiff and you have no sire, no one to train you. How are you going to explain your extremely high level of occult.

Both streetwise and survival?
Usually I would go for the one, or the other. Streetwise makes you instinctively know where to go to find the stuff/information you need, even in a city you haven't been before. Survival is kind of the same thing, but in the wilderness. You are either a city dweller with a high streetwise, or , because of your assumed Gangrel origins more likely, survival. If you are a computer nerd. Some characters have neither.

Oh, and I don't know a lot of Storytellers that would allow for three dots in any discipline for a starting character. But hey, if you can explain all your traits well through an extensive background, both human and vampire, he might allow it.

-Battleburn

[Rogue Shadows]

If you are a Caitiff and you have no sire, no one to train you. How are you going to explain your extremely high level of occult.

Occult can be acquired in the moral days (nothing about freebie points makes me think that they're the things you gained post-Embrace).


Both streetwise and survival?
Usually I would go for the one, or the other. Streetwise makes you instinctively know where to go to find the stuff/information you need, even in a city you haven't been before. Survival is kind of the same thing, but in the wilderness. You are either a city dweller with a high streetwise, or , because of your assumed Gangrel origins more likely, survival. If you are a computer nerd. Some characters have neither.

I'm using it to represent her being on the run from El Sire, which would take her through both wilderness and city. Gangrel also tend to have a somewhat higher opinion of Caitiff than other clans, so it's possible she picked up some of it from a Gangrel.


Oh, and I don't know a lot of Storytellers that would allow for three dots in any discipline for a starting character. But hey, if you can explain all your traits well through an extensive background, both human and vampire, he might allow it.

-Battleburn

Storyteller is allowing it. Protean 3 isn't precisely gamebreaking, anyway; it just gives Adrienne a place to sleep at night. There are much more powerful Disciplines I could have gone for.

[comicshorse]

You should always have thought out in advance how your character is going to Hunt.
You don't seem strong enough to mug prey and always have it work and your social skills aren't great. With your stealth and security are you going to go the Sandman route ?

[Rogue Shadows]

You should always have thought out in advance how your character is going to Hunt.
You don't seem strong enough to mug prey and always have it work and your social skills aren't great. With your stealth and security are you going to go the Snadman route ?

Probably. Also the blood of animals.

[Analytica]

There's a degenerate Tzimisce bloodline (Santoza) that get Presence and Vicissitude. Could be related to that.

[Jeebers]

First off, some of this character seems a mite twinkish because of the incredibly potent generation and caitiff status.

Caitiff are a combination of weak blood and lack of training. While there are settings that have potent ones (like Chicago) I would restrict myself to a generation of no better than 10th if playing a caitiff.

Second, this character looks more like a Nosferatu than anything else. Take a look at what rolls you are going to be making for your Disciplines and you will start seeing what I mean. Wits, Stealth, etc.

Third, I actually have encyclopedic knowledge of what oWoD was doing, especially Vampire. I have every book ever made for any Vampire variant, except for the nWoD.

Fourth, I am willing to answer any questions you have for me, and I will reply with canon. Personally though, as GM I never adhered to canon. The game needs a LOT of work, politically, so as to create a functional setting.

[Analytica]

I disagree on necessarily avoiding low-generation Caitiff as a matter of course. Someone with no connection to their sire at the very least would have none of clan culture, social links etc. Though the way it feels to me, a low-generation Caitiff might be more likely to retain clan disciplines and weakness anyway, so mechanically not being Caitiff, having flaws that replicate the sire's clan weakness, or perhaps become the start of a variant bloodline, with one or two disciplines swapped and the weakness tweaked. This is more opinion than canon though.

I actually played a 7th-generation caitiff, who was a sailor embraced in some random port in the 1500s. During the game, in modern times, he found his sire and with that realization, clan weakness and clan discipline affinities. Turned out he was a Laibon. :smallsmile:

[Rogue Shadows]

Fourth, I am willing to answer any questions you have for me, and I will reply with canon. Personally though, as GM I never adhered to canon. The game needs a LOT of work, politically, so as to create a functional setting.

No real concerns there...this won't be a World of Darkness so much as a World of Constantly Running From Fires That Totally Aren't Our Fault (Probably).

Yes, that's a Dresden reference.

The Storyteller in question knows as much about the World of Darkness as me, except that he's also been watching Helloween's Let's Play of Bloodlines.

Oh, and I played Redemption through the Cappadocian part, but damn that was an awful game.

We're really only doing it as a break from the d20 system and because, Hell, I've had the core rulebook for nearly a decade now, I should get some use out of it sometime. (the only reason I know about Caitiff "clan weakness" is because Wikipedia is kind enough to tell us).

So canon is right out the window from the get-go except as a vague launching point for character creation.


First off, some of this character seems a mite twinkish because of the incredibly potent generation and caitiff status.

Assuming I'm guessing the meaning of "twinkish" correctly, this is nothing - I originally wanted to blow all my Discipline dots into Thaumaturgy (probably either Flame or Creation, though the Tremere splatbook made me have dreams of Tesla...)

But at that point I might as well rename my character Mary Sue.


Caitiff are a combination of weak blood and lack of training. While there are settings that have potent ones (like Chicago) I would restrict myself to a generation of no better than 10th if playing a caitiff.

Eh...I admit that it's as much for the shere novelty as much as anything else.

No one in the game has any aforeknowledge of the system or the setting except for as mentioned above.

Again:

It is a World of Darkness. And Running. And Screaming. And Twilight Jokes.

[stainboy]

Presence: You don't have any of the skills you roll with Presence. You need Performance for Awe, Intimidate for Dread Gaze, and next dot you need Empathy for Entrancement. Dread Gaze is the only thing you have to get out of a fight without dying, but it's not great unless you can get 3 successes on your Charisma+Intimidate. Grab Intimidate 3 if nothing else.


Protean/Vicissitude: If you're aiming for Protean 4 buy it at character creation. Buying high discipline dots with XP costs an arm and a leg.

Protean doesn't do much for you though because it doesn't look like you're building for combat. I think you'll have more fun with Vicissitude. It's more open-ended and it gives you the good stuff earlier. (If you do take Vicissitude you'll need to shift some skills to take Body Crafts.)


Hunting: You have Presence 1, you're fine. (Again, some Performance would help in case your GM decides to have them spend Willpower.)

[TheCountAlucard]

Dread Gaze is the only thing you have to get out of a fight without dying, but it's not great unless you can get 3 successes on your Charisma+Intimidate.Well, up until you can get Presence 5, of course, but at that point, things are just ridiculous. :smalltongue:

I'd also like to emphasize that Dread Gaze is generally considered a Masquerade-breaker.

[Rogue Shadows]

Presence: You don't have any of the skills you roll with Presence. You need Performance for Awe, Intimidate for Dread Gaze, and next dot you need Empathy for Entrancement. Dread Gaze is the only thing you have to get out of a fight without dying, but it's not great unless you can get 3 successes on your Charisma+Intimidate. Grab Intimidate 3 if nothing else.

I wasn't really planning on upgraded Presence, I just wanted two dots in it. For safekeeping.


Protean/Vicissitude: If you're aiming for Protean 4 buy it at character creation. Buying high discipline dots with XP costs an arm and a leg.

Again, I took Protean 3 for the dirtnap trick. And as cool as Vicissitude is...I'd really rather not have it.

I don't really have any plans to upgrade my Disciplines beyond what I have now, especially seeing as I'm playing a Caitiff so it costs even more than an arm and a leg to upgrade.

[Jeebers]

I think the confusion here is that being a Caitiff isn't just a game condition (x6 Disciplines, no clan weakness) it's also a negative social condition.

You can technically be a Caitiff even if you have a clan weakness and clan disciplines, if you also fail to acknowledge your clan or (more likely) your clan fails to acknowledge you.

BTW, taking 3 dots of a discipline just for the 3rd level power is a silly waste. If you are going to take Protean 3, at LEAST put some dots in Brawl! Also, some dots in Alertness would help for Protean 1.

[Rogue Shadows]

NECROMANCY TIME.
http://walkerdiary.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/necromancer_with_army2.jpg

Because the Vampire game has begun, just thought I'd toss in a last post to this thread...five months after the previous last post.

I've ended up deciding to run a completely different character, but Adrienne is on standby should anything unspeakable happen to my current character (I ended up going with a Toreador anarch). Quick look:

http://i39.tinypic.com/nlx3c9.png

(Z also has the Blush of Health, Eat Food, and Concentration merits; and the Sire's Resentment, Bad Sight (one dot), and Short Fuse flaws).

Z was also built using the alternate character creation method described in Guide to the Anarchs[I], which goes as follows:
- Attributes: 6/5/3
- Abilities: 12/8/5
- Disciplines: 4
- Backgrounds: 6
- Virtues: 7
- Freebie Points: 18

I also refined Adrienne a little bit more, again just in case I need to take her up should something horrible happen to Zoraida. I've decided to drop Protean and instead go for Fortitude, Obfuscate, and Potence; I also re-woked her so that she has a much better Perception and, thus, is better at hunting (a major flaw from the previous version).

I've acquired access to a few more Vampire books over the past few months, so I also re-worked Adrienne's merits and flaws; she still has Enemy (five dots), but now has Ignorance instead of her previous flaws (Ignorance being from, if I recall correctly, the Outcasts book, the first part of which was literally Clanbook: Caitiff). Ignorance basically means that Adrienne barely knows anything about vampire society or culture, the Traditions, what a Prince is, what the clans are, and so on. Fits her perfectly.

I also changed her merits; she keeps Unbondable, dropped light sleeper and eidetic memory, and instead picked up Lucky - because I think she's going to need that.

A few other changes here and there as well to make her more of a survivor.

http://i39.tinypic.com/2wnmwzb.jpg

Also...a backstory. Preludes are important.

Enjoy!

Adrienne awoke only slowly, a coppery taste on her tongue and her lips closed around something soft and warm, the thick, liquid contents of which she was swallowing in great gulps – which was little surprise, given how thirsty she realized she was. The young woman opened her eyes, and found she had her mouth clamped around a clear plastic packet, drinking down the dark red liquid inside –

Blood, she suddenly realize. In horror, she recoiled from the package, which had been held by a man in a suit, and began gagging and spitting out what remained in her mouth. She tried to lean forward, but whatever chair she was in, she was tied to it quite securely.

“[I]Gah!” The man who had been feeding her blood exclaimed, stepping back from her spit. He tossed aside the package of blood and looked down at his outfit, upon which a few droplets of crimson had appeared. “This was a brand-new suit! Tailored in Italy! It cost more than that entire bookstore you worked at!”

Adrienne was breathing heavily, looking around. She was in, from the looks of things, an airplane cabin, and a small one at that, with only a few large, comfortable beige seats, but the rear of which had a table with drawers. It looked, she guessed, like the interior of a private jet, not that she could really be sure of that, having never been in a private jet before. The sound all around her, of airplane engines, lent credence to that idea.

“What’s going on?” The young woman demanded, trying to keep the fear from her voice and failing miserably. “Where am I? Who are you? What am I doing here?”

The man glanced up at her. He had gone over to the table and was looking through the drawers. “Just a moment,” he said, taking a sheet of paper from the drawer and looking it over. “Hand-wash only…” he mumbled, “blah blah blah…cold water…blah blah blah…ah, here…” He nodded, a little as he read, then looked to Adrienne. “You are very lucky. Blood will wash out of this.”

Adrienne sputtered a little. “What is going on?” She screamed. “What do you want?”

The man – he had dark, long hair tied back in a loose ponytail, and brown eyes, coupled with very pale skin – put the paper on the table. “Yes, I suppose we should begin,” he said, walking forward a few steps and rubbing his hands together as he did. “First thing’s first. I am not going to rape you.”

Adrienne didn’t believe him. She kept struggling against the bonds that held her in place, but they were quite secure.

“I’m not going to kill you again, either,” the man said. “In fact, in just a few minutes this plane will have landed, and you will be free to go.”

Adrienne looked up at the man. “Again?” She demanded.

The man nodded morosely. “Yes, kill you again. Tell me, what’s the last thing you remember?”

“Going to sleep! In my home!” Adrienne shouted. “You broke into my apartment?”

“Dear me, no.” The man said as he sat down in a seat opposite Adrienne, leaning on one hand and gesturing with another. “I had one of my people do it for me. I was busy at the time, you see.” He leaned forward, holding both hands out as though to catch Adrienne. “Now then, my dear. Brace yourself for this one. You were drugged, to keep you asleep. My people brought you to this plane. And about half an hour ago, I bit open your throat, drained every last drop of blood from your body, and then fed you some of my own.” He leaned back. “You’re a vampire now, Adrienne.”

The girl shook her head. “B------t! Tell me what’s going on!”

The man sighed. “I’m afraid it’s quite true. Here, watch.” He stood up and came over to her, placing a finger on the woman’s arm. She recoiled at his touch, or tried to, but her bonds were secure. As she watched, the man’s fingernail seemed to become sharp, and long – and he pushed down into Adrienne’s skin and began drawing a line of cut flesh across her arm.

Adrienne screamed. She screamed even louder when she realized that no blood was flowing out. The man nodded in a conciliatory fashion, putting his finger to his mouth, licking it, and then tracing the cut he had made in Adrienne’s arm. As he did, the wound closed itself behind him, the saliva on his finger disappearing into her flesh. He flashed her a grin – and she saw his fangs, inch-long teeth that grew visibly from his canines as the young woman watched in horror. Adrienne screamed louder still.

The man sat back down, hands pressed together before his face as he waited for Adrienne to stop screaming. Eventually – somehow – she did, her throat having been run ragged from the effort.

“Now pay attention,” he said at last, “because I’m only going to go through all of this once. When Cain slew Abel – ”

“What?” Adrienne demanded.

The man – the vampire – paused. “Cain. And Abel.” At Adrienne’s confused stare, he sighed. “From the Hebrew Bible.”

Nothing.

“Adam and Eve’s sons. You do know who they were?”

Adrienne nodded, slowly. The vampire let out another long sigh, covering his eyes with one hand. “Education these days…” he mumbled in a low voice. “Alright. Adam and Eve. Booted from the Garden of Eden for disobeying God’s command. Eve then had two sons – Cain, a farmer, and Abel, a shepherd. Both of the brothers offered up the fruits of their labors to God. God rejected Cain’s offerings of produce because, I dunno, he’s a prick, but he accepted Abel’s offering of blood and meat. Out of jealousy of Abel, and love for God, Cain killed Abel, becoming the first murderer. Following so far?”

Adrienne nodded, slowly. “What – ”

“Please try and keep interruptions to a minimum, my dear, I’m storytelling here.” The vampire insisted. “Now, then. God was not very pleased with Cain’s actions, for the obvious reasons. So God cursed Cain with a hatred for light, a fear of fire, and a thirst for blood, as well as immortal life. Sound a little familiar?”

The young nodded again, as the plane began to incline – they were coming in for a landing, apparently. “Y…you’re saying Cain was the first vampire.”

“Very good. Yes, that is exactly what I am saying. Oh, by the way, for whatever reason our society – that is, the vampire culture – spells his name with an E on the end. C-A-I-N-E. Anyway, God exiled Caine into the Land of Nod. Eventually, after various contrived circumstances, Caine returned to mortal lands. While in the Land of Nod, he had learned how to use his blood to perform great magical feats, which we call disciplines, and also how to do some other neat things, most particularly, how to create more vampires like himself. We call this the Embrace, and the resultant vampires are the childer – singular childe, with an E again for whatever reason – of their sires.” The vampire held up three fingers. “Caine Embraced three childer: Enoch, Irad, and Zillah. They, in turn, became sires to thirteen more vampires, who Embraced childer of their own, and so on.” He leaned back in his chair. “Still following?”

Adrienne stared at the man. “What do you want?” She demanded.

The man made a clicking sound with his tongue, wagging a finger. “In a moment,” he insisted, standing and walking back to the table. From underneath it, he produced a duffle bag, which he brought back over to Adrienne and tossed into her lap, then unzipped and pulled out two identical, expensive-looking watches, even as the plane finally touched down on the tarmac. The vampire managed to stand steady despite the turbulence, as he – despite Adrienne trying to stop him – put one watch around her left wrist, then stood straight and put the other one on his.

“Alright,” he said. “It is now…nine PM, local time. October twelfth. Now, these two watches? Custom-made. They have a small alarm in them, nothing loud, nothing fancy. Precisely one year from now, that alarm will go off in your watch,” he pointed to his own, “and it will go off in mine. And when that happens, I will wrap up anything I am doing, and I will hunt you. I will find you. And I will kill you.” The vampire sat back down, just as the plane finally began to meaningfully slow down on the tarmac. He leaned over to one of the windows, and pulled open its screen, revealing the night lights of a city outside.

“You said you weren’t going to kill me!” Adrienne shouted.

“Yes, well, I lied, didn’t I?” The vampire asked. “Get used to people doing that. And be happy! I’m giving you a whole year to get ready for me coming! Use the time well! Get stronger. My blood is potent, and my blood now flows through your veins, so your blood is potent as well. With practice, you could develop all sorts of interesting tricks.” He spread his hands. “Find allies. Or hide! Disappear where you think I will never find you! I once spent three years – 1912 to 1915 – combing Boston for my childe’s lair before realizing that he was sleeping offshore, underwater.” He waved off the notion. “Realized he didn’t need to breathe anymore and got creative. Took forever to get all the seawater out of me. Everything tasted like brine for weeks.”

“Why?!” Adrienne shouted.

The vampire paused. “Well…because I was swallowing it, dear, while I was down there.”

“No!” Adrienne cried. “Why are you doing this?!”

“Frankly?” The vampire asked as he looked over the watch he’d put on his wrist. “Boredom. I’ve been alive for, oh, a thousand years now, give or take. And just the sheer ennui of it all. Especially all the political games…so, every twenty years or so, when it just becomes too much, I do this.” He waved a hand at Adrienne. “Much easier, too, since I bought this jet.”

The vampire stood as the plane finally came to a stop. “Now then. That duffle bag is a little…care package, let’s say. A few blood packets for your first few nights as you get used to your new situation. A gun – nothing special, just something I had lying around. Three or four hundred American dollars…” the vampire looked up, and seemed to be weighing something in his hands. “Three…four…three…tell you what.” He reached into his jacket, pulled out a wallet, and stuffed a coupe green notes into the duffle bag, then zipped it back up. “Here’s two hundred more. Don’t spend it all in one place.”

Adrienne stared. “This isn’t real.” She mumbled. “This isn’t real. You’re not real.”

“Oh, you’re not so lucky,” the vampire said, moving the duffle bag aside and untying the young woman. Some part of her mind wanted to, as soon as her hands were free, reach out and start strangling the vampire – but would that even work? No, this situation wasn’t…it couldn’t be…

…the next thing she knew, she hit tarmac. She cried out in pain, and looked behind her. Standing above her, at the plane’s door, was the vampire, with the duffle bag in hand.

“Now, a few final things!” He shouted down – the plane’s engines were still going strong. “Stake in the heart will paralyze you, but not kill you! Fire and sunlight are deadly, and so is decapitation! All that other pop-culture drivel, though? Not true! Also, watch out for werewolves, mages, ghosts, faeries, mummies – probably won’t see any of those, though – Kuei-jin, hunters, demons, and most importantly, other vampires!”

“What?!” Adrienne demanded, as the vampire threw the duffle bag. It landed at her feet, as the plane began turning around and the vampire ducked back in. Within moments, it had started up again, going down the runway and quickly picking up speed and leaving the ground behind.

“B------t!” Adrienne exclaimed, as the plane flew off into the night.

[Fenix_of_Doom]

I like your prelude, why did you switch to a different character and do you have another prelude for that one?

[TheCountAlucard]

I'll admit, I found the prelude amusing. :smalltongue:

[Rogue Shadows]

I like your prelude, why did you switch to a different character and do you have another prelude for that one?

I ended up going with the Zoraida mostly because I gave serious thought to how difficult Adrienne could be to run, and chickened out. Like I said, though, she's still on standby.

Plus, I was paging through Clanbook: Toreador and saw the "liason to the Anarchs" character, the "Reclusive Author" character, and an idea for the latter to be pissed-off childe of the former just sprang out at me fully formed.

I don't have a written prelude for Z yet. I'll get around to it eventually. It ends with Z decking her sire, though (hence the resentment); my Storyteller showed me Z's sire's stats, and I realized that in an out-and-out fight, Z could take him, which I worked into her backstory as a justification for his resentment.


I'll admit, I found the prelude amusing.

Adrienne's Sire is played by Alan Rickman, by the way, in case it wasn't obvious.

"I am...the Metatron."
*beat, Bethany looks confused*
"*sigh* You people. If there isn't a movie about it it isn't worth knowing, is it? I am a Seraphim!"
*beat, nothing*
"The highest choir of angel!"
*beat*
"You do know what an angel is, don't you?"
*Bethany slowly nods*
"Ugh. The Metatron acts as the Voice of God. Any time some Yahoo claims that he's been speaking to God, he's speakin' to me. Or he's talking to himself."