You know, you're the first quester the whole thread to actually mention the zombies? I was beginning to think the tags were invisible.
The outer ward against hostile intruders should keep them out. Zombies are hostile to life, and you have living people living in your house. Morgan hasn't made a big study of zombies, though. For obvious reasons, Morgan does not make a habit of warding their home against the undead.
I guess you'll find out if a zombie should happen to show up.
Adhoc vote count started by Wysteria on Apr 26, 2019 at 11:04 AM, finished with 5 posts and 4 votes.
[X]You were going to reactivate the wards as your test ritual tonight. You still could.
[X]Go on your walk as planned. Inching around on your knees drawing on the floor makes it sound like an even better idea, and you can gather fresh ritual ingredients as you go.
[X]Go on your walk as planned. Inching around on your knees drawing on the floor makes it sound like an even better idea, and you can gather fresh ritual ingredients as you go.
Vampiric powers cannot be used under the following circumstances:
In direct sunlight
Over running water or an ocean
Holy ground
Vampiric powers are weakened by:
Indirect sunlight/daytime
Thresholds
Holy symbols
If it disrupts magic, it disrupts vampiric powers. If it represents a religion or holy presence, it disrupts vampiric powers. If common vampiric myth says it disrupts vampiric powers, it will. Specialized vampiric powers can mitigate these weaknesses.
Vampiric powers are powered by the following sources:
Hunger: along the lines of a human mage powering rituals with blood sacrifice or death, a vampire can draw on the deaths they have caused or blood they have drawn. Minor uses of vampiric power are assumed as part of daily hunger (you would be much less hungry if you just lay quietly in bed all night). Major uses of vampiric powers cause more hunger, just as other major expenditures of energy like combat will.
Spirit: vampires also draw power from human belief. At its most indirect, vampires grow powerful as the vampire myth grows. More directly, vampires are empowered by followers, archenemies, lovers, and courts. Awe, terror, love, and hatred. A vampire could, in theory, sustain itself almost entirely on human emotion.
Adhoc vote count started by Wysteria on Apr 26, 2019 at 11:49 AM, finished with 7 posts and 5 votes.
[X]You were going to reactivate the wards as your test ritual tonight. You still could.
[X]Go on your walk as planned. Inching around on your knees drawing on the floor makes it sound like an even better idea, and you can gather fresh ritual ingredients as you go.
A lot of these effects can be mitigated by various specialized powers - Morgan, for instance, barely has any indirect sunlight penalties because they're a daywalker. You can also... hm. Once you're past a certain age, you can power through penalties by spending extra hunger or spiritual power. For instance, a vampire grabbing a holy symbol and throwing it out the window.
It's more of an open question of how the heck a vampire pirate would work with the daylight and hunger problems, to be honest. Catching on fire's not very low key. I never really figured out the details on the options people didn't choose, because people didn't choose them.
Morgan's piratical adventure happened after Morgan picked up daywalking, so Morgan spent the whole time being tetchy, having above-average human strength, and really missing their mindreading abilities.
Adhoc vote count started by Wysteria on Apr 26, 2019 at 12:32 PM, finished with 9 posts and 5 votes.
[X]You were going to reactivate the wards as your test ritual tonight. You still could.
[X]Go on your walk as planned. Inching around on your knees drawing on the floor makes it sound like an even better idea, and you can gather fresh ritual ingredients as you go.
[X]Go on your walk as planned. Inching around on your knees drawing on the floor makes it sound like an even better idea, and you can gather fresh ritual ingredients as you go.
[X]Go on your walk as planned. Inching around on your knees drawing on the floor makes it sound like an even better idea, and you can gather fresh ritual ingredients as you go.
[X]Go on your walk as planned. Inching around on your knees drawing on the floor makes it sound like an even better idea, and you can gather fresh ritual ingredients as you go.
[X] You were going to reactivate the wards as your test ritual tonight. You still could.
Saturday 12 May 2001
2:00 AM
When you were human, you socialized after a long day's work. It was only a few decades, centuries ago, but it's the differences that stand out in your mind. For you today, socializing happens first thing in the evening, in order to spend time with your preferred company, humans. You like the cool, quiet hours after they've gone to bed, though, with a possessive zeal – it's when you get all the really good magic done.
With Henderson asleep, you clean up your ritual space for the second time and re-clean your ritual knife and bowl for the next project. Your wards are the only permanently enchanted objects you own, a collaboration between you, an enchanter, and a mortal architect. Eight keystones buried around the edges of the property form the basis for the outer wards, and eight stones built into the foundations of the house form the inner wards. It always seemed fundamentally unfair that mortals got all the benefits of thresholds and you got none of them. You have a household, too.
What takes the most time is unearthing and cleaning the stones properly. Each chunk of the local red granite needs to be found, brushed clean, and the gold carefully poured by your own hand into the carved designs, also yours, have to be wiped down with water and paper towels. The golden design is of two concentric circles, with a seven-pointed star in the center. There are glyphs carved between each point of the star, and in the band between the two lines.
Each marking receives a chant, a few drops of your blood, and a dab of your magic, and in the end, the magic forms a comfortable buzzing at the edge of your senses. Your home is protected against nearly anything, now.
Except for a vampire hunter standing just outside the property line with a crossbow, to take an example completely at random.
You check the property line. No vampire hunters. The sky is black and full of stars. You settle down to eat.
~~~
It is amazing how much you can eat in one sitting if you are hungry enough. You finish the entire case of blood, and you can feel the blood madness lifting as if it was a physical weight you'd been carrying around. You actually trust yourself to go out in public without murdering anyone. It's a low bar but you have cleared it!
To celebrate, you grab a reusable hemp shopping bag from the front hallway, an old newspaper and your ritual knife, and take that walk.
Your neighborhood is still beautiful big houses in the middle of town, but they almost all have large greek symbols on them. Fraternities and sororities from the various universities in town, and on a Friday night you could have had your pick of drunken college students if you'd gone out a bit earlier.
You're not entirely sure snacking on drunken strangers is something you want to do, but it is apparently an option.
You collect leaves from oak, aspen, and maple trees, among others, and glean a few other random things for your ritual collection – a nice quartz pebble, a scattering of raven feathers from where a cat had been very lucky that you wrap up carefully in newspaper, a sprig of holly, and a few spring flowers surreptitiously harvested from other people's gardens to dry later.
For obvious reasons, you do not collect any branches or twigs.
You head generally southwards, taking your time, and cross what seems to be a main road before heading back into a residential area. At least until you run into a large church, and turn abruptly right. No, thank you.
You find one lone white glove and add it to your bag. You can't think of a possible use for it, but you disapprove of littering anyway.
The street you're on fades into a forested area. You've been exploring for perhaps forty minutes? You should have brought a watch. You should buy a modern watch. Later.
Here, at least, nothing much seems to have changed. The woodlands are filled with the normal nighttime racket of small animals, and larger ones, about their business. You collect some moss and river pebbles from a tiny stream, and take off your shoes to walk in it barefoot for a few minutes. A couple ferns end up wrapped in paper as well, and you probably can't fit anything else in this bag without crushing something. Perhaps time to head home?
Something growls at you from the shade of the trees, keeping well out of your sight.
That is a werewolf. You weren't paying much attention, but you recognize the shape of mind and scent. Your town has werewolves now, apparently.
It snarls again.
Unfriendly ones.
[]"Hi, I'm Morgan. Nice to meet you." Friendly.
[]"I don't mean any harm to you and yours." Diplomatic.
[]"Hiding isn't very polite. Get out here." Arrogant.
[]"Sounds like you want a fight." Aggressive.
[]Run.
[]Subdue him, then continue the conversation. Dominant.
[]Look down. Hunch your shoulders. "I'm very sorry to have intruded." Submissive.
[]Write-in
Werewolves can sense mesmerism or telepathy. The werewolf is young and male and you aren't sure of any other details, since you can only smell him. You do not sense any other werewolves nearby, but they generally run in packs. The moon overhead is near full, but not entirely full.
Adhoc vote count started by Wysteria on Apr 26, 2019 at 8:15 PM, finished with 12 posts and 7 votes.
[X]"I don't mean any harm to you and yours." Diplomatic.
Character sheet updated with your new hunger and willpower totals. Blood madness status effect removed. Morgan's still going to have to figure out what to eat tomorrow, but at least they're not in danger of imminent rampage.
I went ahead and posted this one a little early since we had ourselves a clear bandwagon.
[X]"I don't mean any harm to you and yours." Diplomatic.
Moon's low enough in power that they should have their heads on. Of course, they might still want our face in their jaws but it can't hurt to try right?
Eh, vampire versus werewolf is older than that. (We might be more familiar with the versions where the werewolf becomes a vampire after they die, actually, which'd be an interesting alternate interpretation to run with).
[X]"I don't mean any harm to you and yours." Diplomatic.
Got some ideas for magic rituals, especially minor and cantrip-level ones potentially suitable for use during combat, to supplement our mediocre fighting skills. Later though, I should have better luck describing them after I've slept.
[X]"I don't mean any harm to you and yours." Diplomatic.
Got some ideas for magic rituals, especially minor and cantrip-level ones potentially suitable for use during combat, to supplement our mediocre fighting skills. Later though, I should have better luck describing them after I've slept.
EDIT: Hey, @Wysteria I'm doing a thing, and I need to know how the different magics interact. Like, can a Blood Ritual cause shapeshifting? Stuff like that.
EDIT: Hey, @Wysteria I'm doing a thing, and I need to know how the different magics interact. Like, can a Blood Ritual cause shapeshifting? Stuff like that.
