The Restless Dead Want YOU To Fight Necromancy

There was only the darkness, woven through with threads of shadow, and you were at peace.

You should have known that wouldn't last.

A whisper, from far away.

Rise, it said.

You ignored it.

Rise, it said again, and as it was the only thing that existed in the blackness and black-on-black embroidery of stasis, you paid attention to it, but it still did not compel you. Very few things compelled you.

RISE, it screamed, in the whiny tone of a twenty-something manchild who couldn't get a girlfriend, and you opened your eyes to a stone coffin.

Some stupid feckin' bastard who needed a punch in the face was raising the dead again. You pushed the coffin lid aside, heavy stone moving lightly under your hands. You are in a stone crypt, sunbeams full of scattered dust streaking orange over your head. It is near sunset, you sense, and that means you have a little bit of time to take stock of your restored consciousness (and deep, ravening hunger).

You are a vampire. That is unlikely to have changed during your long rest. You were in New York State last you remember.

You have had many names. Last time you walked the earth, you were:
[]An officer serving in the American Revolutionary Army (bonuses to leadership and martial)
[]Ruler of a hidden vampiric court (bonuses to leadership and style)
[]An investor, you seldom stirred yourself to battle, but you conquered the stock market handily (bonus to logistics; start with resources)
[]A pirate's life for me: you weren't a captain, just an ordinary sailor, enjoying the wind and waves and violence (bonuses to martial and style)
[]Write-in (note two bonuses used above)

You are:
[]Male
[]Female
[]A vampire

You are in desperate need of:
[]A drink: both bloody and alcoholic, by preference
[]Information: what year is it? Are these still the United States? Who's been raising the dead?
[]Clothes

Honestly, you are in desperate need of all of those things, but you have to prioritize.

Name: Morgan Williams
Gender: None of your d*** business
Age: 600+
Race: Vampire

Appearance: Of Eastern European stock, Morgan has dark hair with a little bit of a wave, reaching past their shoulders. At first glance a feminine man, at second a masculine woman, at third glance the only thing you're sure of is that they have a nice butt. Not that pale, for a vampire. They like suits.

Personality: They like money, having a social life, owning nice things, and music. They dislike sailing, vampire hunters, psychics, and necromancers. They try to avoid killing people.

History: Morgan is an Eastern European vampiric spirit, risen from the grave out of anger at improper burial practices. After terrorizing their native village, Morgan was driven off by a small child and learned a valuable life lesson about terrorizing people.

Several lifetimes later, Morgan was doing well, having made sensible investments over time, and had built a house in upstate New York in 1892. Somewhere before 1900, Morgan attracted the attention of a family of psychic-resistant vampire hunters. Morgan proceeded to hide in their basement until they succumbed to starvation-induced slumber, which seemed like a much better idea at the time.

Willpower: 3/4 (cheerful)
Hunger: -10/-30 (hungry)
Spirit: 1.6

Status Effects
RISE: A necromancer calls you from the grave. Duration: ???
Recently fed: Fresh blood eases the effects of your hunger. +1 to willpower rolls. Duration: 24 hours (from 13 Mar 2001, 5 AM).

Aspects
An investor: you seldom stirred yourself to battle, but you conquered the stock market handily (bonus to logistics; start with resources).
That modern lingo: you have at least a vague sense of modern life and history, as filtered through a young woman working at a New York tech start-up.

Skills
Mesmerism: the ability to influence and cloud the mind, affecting memories and perception.
Telepathy: the ability to speak mind-to-mind over distances and read thoughts and memories.
Daywalker: you can stay awake during the day. Walking in direct sunlight causes hunger, and afflicts you with weakness. No other powers may be used in direct sunlight.
Ritual sorcery: magic, the ability to bend the rules of the world like a cheap fork.

• Morgan's Rituals
• Current cantrips: Danger sense, hemokinesis, barrier, telekinesis

Resources

Goals and Plans

1. Ensure that necromancer is made deeply sorry and then deeply dead.
2. Ensure a food supply in the coming days.
3. Rescue enough people that the apocalypse doesn't completely destroy your social life.
4. Survive.
5. You have people you're responsible for. You're going to find them, protect them, and keep them safe.
6. You slept through the entirety of the technological revolution of the 20th century and now you're supposed to go back to candles? No, thank you. You're going to make sure none of that knowledge is lost.

Today's plan:

[]Plan I'm the Boss
-[][Martial]Fight some zombies. Those ones on your front lawn must have come from a nearby hotspot. Clear it out. 1 hour.
-[][Stewardship]Job assignments. You have a lot of people here, and the only way to manage a lot of people is to assign them to manage each other. Hand out work. Make someone else deal with the large pile of zombie corpses. 1 hour.
(Then we can make assessing the results of the shopping trip someone else's job)
-[][Personal]Spend time with your new household. You're going to be relying on them, and you barely know any of them. Work on fixing that. ½ hour
-[][Personal]Remember to eat.
--[]Ask a member of your household to oblige you. 15 minutes.
-[][Stewardship]Call your accountant. This is not a good time to be trusting the human stock market with your resources. Also, you want that book on technomancy. ½ hour.
--[]Write-in: is anyone we're assigning tasks to really good with long-term money planning?
-[][Magic]Research a spell. Today, you've promised you'll figure out a ritual to cleanse necromantic taint from the victims at the hospital. 2 hours, 2 hunger/spirit. Must be included in today's plan or Morgan will be sad.
-[][Magic]Research zombies. A broader survey through your books might give you more ideas about strategies to try. You have a ward against the undead you've never bothered using (for obvious reasons). Maybe you could make it apply only to zombies, if you use the zombie head? You could avoid people needing to camp on your front lawn. 1:45.
--[] [Write-in] Assign one member of your household to do a rough first-search of your books to save you time. We probably don't need books that focus soley on horticulture right now, f'rinstance. (part of assigning tasks, above; probably the college kid.)
-[][Personal]Relaxation time. Listen to music, read a book, go walk in the woods and look at the creek. 1 hour, regenerates willpower.
-[][Diplomacy]Try to get in touch with the local werewolves. You'd rate them highly in a fight against zombies, and you want to be sure they know you're on the same side. 1 hour.

You push yourself upright, running a hand down your face. Your hair is a mess, you are covered in dust, your throat aches. You doubt you could speak, now. You don't want to try it. You want to go home.

Taking stock for a moment, you are lanky, gawky, dirty, and hungry, but on the plus side, no one has cut your hair in your sleep. It is long, black, and the one redeeming thing about this evening.

Old and stiff though you may feel, it is still a matter of a thought and a moment to be outside in the shade of the tasteful crypt built into a grassy hillside. How pleasant this place is, you are charmed. You also, happily, recognize it as the cemetery just north of your home and south of the local Agricultural College.

You are not completely at odds with decency, so a groundkeeper's cloth of odd, slick green fabric becomes a sort of toga. You survey the cemetery and find that, unfortunately, you are not alone there. Strolling students in blue trousers, a handsome woman in a blue skirt walking hand in hand with what is surely her tall husband. You withdraw further against the shade of the worked stone at your back, which is still warm from the day.

[Willpower -1: you are very hungry, but you have declined to feed immediately. You are aware this is a dangerous choice, but you have your reasons.]

How will you get home? Your home is only perhaps fifteen minutes walk south across a small river, but that is fifteen more minutes than you trust yourself to set aside your hunger.

It's really lucky you have supernatural powers. What are they?

[X] Daywalker: you can stay awake during the day. Walking in direct sunlight causes hunger, and afflicts you with weakness. No other powers may be used at the same time as daywalker.

In addition, choose three (write-ins accepted but subject to veto):
[]Shapeshifting (bats): you turn into a cloud of bats. Congratulations…?
[]Shapeshifting (wolf): you turn into a wolf.
[]Shapeshifting (fog): no door is barred against you.
[]Flight: it honestly looks rather silly, but it's quite efficient.
[]Resistance to hunger: the only way to earn this is to have been very, very hungry. Not a pleasant power.
[]Mesmerism: the ability to influence and cloud the mind, affecting memories and perception.
[]Telepathy: the ability to speak mind-to-mind over distances and read thoughts and memories.
[]Ritual sorcery: magic, the ability to bend the rules of the world like a cheap fork.
[]Animal control: small animals are cheap to control, large animals are expensive.
[]Weather control: from a light fog to a tremendous storm, nature bends to your will.

Once you get home, you'll have to get inside. You should start thinking about a new name now. You'll need to keep the surname Williams, in order to secure your 'inheritance,' but the name can be anything you like. You prefer androgyny.
[]Name: