WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

[Michael Hopcroft]

Your character (who hopefully has some small clue about the occult) is approached by a 300-year-old vampire with a strange request. Like most vampires she did not choose her unlifetyle, having been made a vampire against her will. Ever since then she has been stalking the night feeding on humans, soometimes siezed by the "blood lust" which causes her to feed to the death of the victim. She lost count of the number of people she'd killed about two hundred and fifty years ago.

 

Now she's sick of it. Throughtout her unlife she has been troubled by the moral implications of what she's done and all the suffering she has caused. Recently she has attempted more "reasonable" approaches to feeding, but the blood lust is still there and all too often she loses her self-control and her "donor" dies in her arms. Now she has turned to your character for help.

 

In her mind, there are only two possible solutions. One is simply to have herself destroyed. Since unlife brings with it a supernaturally keen sense of self-preservation that, however depressed or morally troubled the vampire might be, makes outright suicide impossible, that would mean someone would actually have to hunt her down and kill her -- and because that isntinct would kick in she'd be fighting every inch of the way. The other solution would be for some way to be found for her to not be a vampire anymore -- to restore her to mortality where she can live out a normal. lifespan (since she was about 17 when she became a vampire, she figured she would have about about sixty years left if she became a mortal again).

 

WWCYD?

[Teflon Billy]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

Stake her and leave her out to see the sunrise.

 

True death to the undead, they are a mockery of life and the living should not suffer a leach to be amongst them.

 

TB

[dbsousa]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

Golden Eagle doesn't believe in the occult, although he will believe she is a "vampire" if he is provided with direct evidence. Reluctantly, he will call in "arcane" experts to consult on a cure, fully expecting them to fail. If there is evidence of her crimes, he would suggest that hand herself over to the Vault, and he would vouch for her abilities and observed weaknesses, so that they could lock her in a sunless, vapor-roof room, while she looked for a cure. Assuming she came to him in his capacity as a lawyer, he would find scientists who would vouch for her abilities, and ask a psychiatrist to determine if her belief that she was a vampire was a psychosis induced by the nature of her powers, or if she has a physical addiction to human blood...

Bouncer will try to bounce her through an outside wall, if it is daytime. At night, he will try to wrestle her to the ground, relying on his bounce field to keep her from biting him.

Revenant, being undead himself, notes that she has no soul to rend (His Modus Operandi involves a death stare that removes an evildoer's soul , turning the body to dust.) As he has no blood for her to drain, the fight would probably end in a stand still. He can follow anywhere she goes in his ghostly form, and trade blow for blow without taking much damage at all...

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

Blackcat would take the being to Byzantium, an interdimensional city, that if there is a cure for vamparism, would be the place to find it.

 

Ballistic would use his magic pool to immobalize the sucker and fly him into space, and thence into the sun itself (well he'd stop well short). He's a supermage, and has a problem with Undead.

Terminal Velocity would call for one of his teammates to help him make a decision.. "Jepeordy help!"

Meeb would ask if thisbeing wanted to be cured or killed, and if the second do it. He's defensive enough (and with an alien physiology that is immune to most vampiric attacks) that he could do it. If the former, he'd go look for a cure.

 

Angelfire would turn her 75 pt Hellpowers/Angelic powers into a "Transform Undead to human, heals when character dies (or some other kind of thing)" and fix it on the spot.

 

Sift doesn't have the magical knowledge to do it, but would know where to look, and try and find a cure.

 

In every case, if the Vamp killed anyone, it is removed from it's cursed state right then.

[Chuckg]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

OK, now, if the vampire cure doesn't exist, the only answer for all three is "light her up", with whatever degree of harshness or gentleness is in their nature. So, I'll answer the question as if a cure *could* be found, with one exception.

 

These answers presuppose that the 'vampire cure' does not itself require any dark actions (such as, oh, "the Ritual Of Restoration will require five human sacrifices...")

 

Starguard -- help her with it and see if she can't throw in some archangel mojo of her own to help make the cure global. (Even Starguard most likely can't cure vampirism on her own, though, but she could probably arrange for a chance for the vampire's soul to face Atonement as it undergoes Final Death, and thus escape going downstairs to the hot place.)

 

Dr. Pain -- does what he always does when he faces magic foes... calls Witchcraft. (I have *got* to buy up that Contact.)

 

Baron von Darien -- he *is* a vampire, and thus, the situation gets a bit complex here.

 

One, he'd find it *extremely* suspicious that he didn't know about this 'cure' already, seeing as how he's about 800 years older than the vampiress in question and has been very well-up on the secret doings of the Mystic World for a great big chunk of that time.

 

Two, his origin story is pretty much predicated on the basis that no such cure exists.

 

So in his particular game world, the most likely thing going on here is that she has been misled, as many desperate vampires have been misled before her, by some manipulative occultist holding out a quack cure. The Baron has several ways to deal with such scenarios, most of them involving unpleasant methods of departing the mortal coil for said occultist.

 

OTOH, if the cure is genuine, then he faces a dilemna. Does he take it himself, or not?

 

... what, the dilemna of whether to forgive her and help her regain her humanity, or else stake her? To the Baron, this isn't a dilemna at all. He *didn't* feed on the innocent, even when he was first Embraced... he had the power of will to do otherwise, and would have destroyed himself (or at the very least, /tried/ to destroy himself) had he been a scourge upon humanity. He would *not* have gone the path of first rampaging, then getting remorseful about it *after* a couple centuries of massacre, and then expect to get away scott-free without penance. In addition to being too stubborn for that, he's too stinkin' proud. A man of honor faces the consequences of his actions, he doesn't try to skate.

 

Basically, the vampiress in this instance has committed things he wouldn't ever have forgiven *himself* for, so he's damn sure not gonna forgive any *other* vampire.

 

Of course, the Baron's presence in this scenario is problematic for yet a third reason -- not even the insane vampires of his game world, let alone any remotely sane vampire, will willingly go within a hundred miles of him.

 

His Reputation as a scourge upon his own kind, the elder vampire who destroys other vampires, the ancient betrayer who brought down and destroyed his game world's equivalent of the Camarilla in blood and fire, is carved across the entire Mystic World in seventeen-meter high flaming neon letters. (No, seriously -- his Reputation modifier is bloody extreme, and I paid every point for it too.) Any vampire who has ever shed innocent blood knows what the Baron will do to them if he ever gets within arms' reach of them -- he's not quite as inevitable a path to Final Death as sunbathing at noon, but he's damn close.

 

So, most likely, this particular WWYCD doesn't apply to the Baron von Darien, because there is no way she can have survived 300 years as a vampire without hearing at least /something/ about him, and if she had... she'd have gone somewhere else.

[Zeropoint]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

Special Agent Trent would listen to her story with his arms folded and a stern expression on his face. When she was finished, he sigh softly, and remove his sunglasses.

 

"I understand your situation better than you could guess--or did you come to me because you knew that? Never mind. The point is, I know what it's like to have power, and a curse, forced upon you. I know what it's like to have urges that aren't part you driving you to do things that horrify you. Only by the grace of God are my hands free of blood.

 

"I can't condone what you've done, or the lives you've taken. However, your death would be an appropriate payment for your crimes. If you want release, I can give it to you."

[Powerhouse]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

Lady Silver: as a powerful mystic with a heart of gold, she'd immediately chose to help anyway she could. She'd start going through her own library and contact everyone mystic she knows to find a cure. If it's there, she'll find it no matter who she needs to ask or place she needs to go: that's how driven she is to the right thing.

 

If no cure was avaliable, she'd be in a tight spot. She's sworn to protect humanity from magic threats and vampires are included in that. Yet, this person seems to have repented and is driven by impulses she can't control. One thing she'd look into is whether her own company (a pharmaceuticals giant ala Merck, has any blood products that could substitute adequately. If possible, Lady Silver would also try to put the vamp into suspended animation or offer to send her to a dimension that has animals she can feed on but no sentients.

[ghost-angel]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

Jessica - would look up (she looks up to everyone) at the vampire, show her own pointed teeth, "If you can find a cure let me know. I'm all for it. Otherwise, I can hunt and kill at your request. I will win." Jessica will be more willing to try and find a cure as she hates her own vampiric state, assuming the vampire coming to her has any leads at all.

 

Silence - The undead do not trigger her CvK (the undead should be dead already by all rights) so would oblige and kill (or attempt to kill) her, and make sure her soul were guided on to the afterlife, given the vampires intent on doing "good" she may (if it turns out to be true, and she can ALWAYS tell once the soul has entered Between Places) do a bit of shifting and send her to a 'happier' afterlife if required.

[Black Rose]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

-looks around- Wow. A lot of hard-core White Lighters here, ladies and gentlemen.

 

Penumbra would sigh, grumble about someone handing out "Got a freaky metaphysical problem? Go to Penumbra!" business cards all over the frickin' Underworld, and say he'd try to help, but no promises. If she needed a place to run to ground, he'd offer one of his boltholes, but not his primary one. He'd go on a research jag, trying to see if he could do anything at all for her. In the course of this, no doubt, he'd be approached by his mentor/nemesis the Prince of Darkness (no, not the Devil, the Prince of a dimension called Darkness), who would dangle some much needed info in front of Pen and offer to assist him in this task if Pen will only acknowledge that he is the PoD's heir. Somehow or other Pen would manage to either make the girl mortal (though she'd probably be left with some weaker versions of her vampiric powers) or be forced to hunt her down and kill her. If the first, Pen would help her settle into life if she needed it; if the second, he'd feel like crap for a long while* and probably make developing a vampirism cure one of his many goals.

 

 

Penumbra has a CvK at the 10 pt level, but I count it as a 20 pt CvK for people he knows and has any consideration for.

[sinanju]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

Hell's Angel, who recently learned that the supernatural is all too real, wouldn't doubt that she's really a vampire. She also wouldn't doubt that simply turning the woman back into a mortal is not justice, given the body count she's racked up over the years. That leaves death--and a vampire coming to someone named Hell's Angel is just asking for a quick, fiery end. Just a thought is all that's required for a furiously burning wall of flame to surround the vampire--and then for it to collapse inward, incinerating the undead monster.

 

The Black Knight would grin, reach into his jacket and pull out his big-*** sword, and growl, "Tonight you sleep in Hell!" and attack.

[Funksaw]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

Caleb: "Join the club!"

 

Barnstormer: Would probably try to sleep with her first, but keep her under locked quarantine until such a cure can be found.

[DataPacRat]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

Bunny would inquire whether the vampire would be willing to be placed in confinement long enough to prevent any other innocents from being killed while she looked for a cure; and, if not, she'd do whatever was necessary to keep any further innocents from being harmed - most likely calling in some other local supers, since she doesn't really have any heavy firepower.

 

 

(My first reply to a WWYCD; if anybody's curious, Bunny arrived on Earth through an alien wormhole project, and looks something like a cross between Alice in Wonderland's White Rabbit, and a Playboy Bunny, with something of a stealth/gadgeteer role. She's a quadriplegic (due to a previous wormhole accident shearing off her limbs), but has a collection of cybernetic prosthetics to walk around with.)

[shadow_walker]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

Dark Avenger is the only character who has any experience with the supernatural would agree to help her, but first she must prove that she is a 100% honest about returning to human life. If she fails and attempts to attack him he'll use his 60 point cosmic magic pool to give her a "everlasting" release, or if she has a corrupt and evil soul he'll let his sword feast on her flesh, blood and black soul.

[GoldenAge]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

Bastion: Find the cure, of course.

 

Then taint it with a dependency that will force the bat*itch to inform on all of her kind in Epic City. Should she comply and, with her help, every single vampire in Epic City is vanquished, a pure vaccine will be administered, curing her.

 

If after being cured Bastion finds that her actions as a vampire were similar to madness he'll remand her over to professionals for psychiatric help. Should she show no remorse for her crimes as a vampire or symptoms that would lead Dr. Sebastian Castle (Bastion) to believe that said crimes were not caused by madness he will have her incarcerated to the full extent of the law.

 

Either way, Bastion would take special care to keep tabs on this person until she dies.

[McCoy]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

Millennium has regen back from the dead/resurrection useable on others. Has never tried it on the undead before. Will push it like it has never been pushed before. Fine if it works, if it doesn't, arrange to keep her safely confined while he consults with experts.

 

Cheeta "Um, I'm the one who runs fast. Am I the one you're looking for? If you have a plan that involves me, could you buy me a vowel because I'm drawing a blank."

 

Iron Will Makes a telekinetic wave. "Hi Bunny! Nice to see a fellow quadroplegic in the business. Let's show these bipeds that the differently able can pull their own weight!" He then assembles a de-vampire-izer, "This might sting a bit."

 

Snow Leopard Her Mom was almost a vampire once, did go vamp in an alternate reality. Will do what is necessary to find a cure, may be willing to be a "blood doaner" until a cure is found (will definitely try it once, will see how it goes after that, how her life support and healing factor handel it).

 

Dolphin Would be willing to be a blood doaner, but doubt his power would allow it. Will discuss with experts if she has a soul, and will reincarnate if killed. If the answer is no, he will advise against that path. She's immortal, he's immortal, he'll keep her safe and not a danger to others for as long as it takes to find a cure.

[Badger]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

Badger does hate demons, and really doesnt like vampires, either. But, I could see him finding some compassion for a vampire at least. He has turned away from doing evil. (albeit the "normal-type" of supervillany). Someone who would want to repent and save their soul would probably get through to him. And he would try to find a cure. Though one problem he would have is the nagging question of "If it bothered her so much, why didnt she go after animal blood?"

[SatinKitty]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

The only one of my characters who might be able to help is WICCA.

She would transport the Vampire back before the time she was transformed, and then just aid the girl so it never happens in the first place, in as many realities as possible.

[Lamrok]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

Jimmy Hebert would pick up the phone and call his uncle. That would take care of it. Hebert's uncle is the man whose group "cured" Jimmy of vampirism, leaving him still a bit averse to sunlight, but by and large, no longer a vampire. He'll tell her that the vampire hunters will keep coming till she's dead. That's just the way it goes.

[Arkham]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

The Paladine would nod solemnly, lay hands upon her and channel all the divine energy he has been gifted with.

Either this will cleanse her soul of taint, or leave her a seared mass of undead flesh. Either way is as she wished.

 

Dr. Damascus would agree to help, get assistance from his mentor, Dr. Djinn, the Grand-Master of Mages, Keeper of the Chakra Stones, Teacher of the Sages, and Wearer of the Turban of the Air Lords. They would find a cure, even if it involves traveling to the Dark Dimensions and rescuing her soul from the black place where it is kept, and bargaining with the Lord of Light to allow her a second chance at salvation. ( And you can be sure it would require such lengths. )

[Brandi]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

Irving-- "Well, um, I'm not really a scientist by training-- so we'll need to talk to [campaign's superscientist] and my knowledge of the supernatural and metaphysics isn't bad, but we'll need to talk to [campaign's sorcerous type]...

but there's another issue."

 

"I HAVE been studying law-- though I haven't taken the bar exam yet-- and I suspect, based on what I've been reading, that even if we CAN cure you you will have to face trial for a LOT of murders. True, not all of them were first-degree, but there is no statute of limitations on murder... you see the problem? Mind you, death by lethal injection may be less painful than the methods traditionally used to dispatch vampires, and you would be legally entitled to appeals, but... your choice."

[Black Rose]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

But Irving, couldn't we try for some kind of Insanity Plea? I mean, she only killed her meals when she lost control; it's not like she deliberately sought to kill. There's got to be something there. And really, she's dead. Don't we stop the litigation after the defendant is dead?

[Guest daeudi_454]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

Firedrake: Incinerate the demon spawn. Dragon's breath ought to be just as effective as a stake or sunlight. Any remorse it feels now is between it and the Creator. The undead must still be punished for their earthly transgressions.

ION: Positive: Search for a cure by researching biology as well as magic. Would call on mystics for help. Negative: Would do experiments on her while "looking for a cure". Does her blood have properties that can empower the still living? What about organ or bone marrow transplants? Does she still have eggs in her ovaries? Could they be fertilized?

Gawd Bless the phrase "Tissue Samples"

The PC: Would try to listen in on his player to determine what I think would work. This is obviously a plot hook, and will probably lead to an adventure ot two. Failing to find a cure, he would try to annoy the GM by finding a way to increase her EGO, so that she can actually beat the EGO roll to control her blood lust. Then he would try to recruit her into the team.

Quantum Cat: He won't allow himself to be publicly connected with a vampire, but he couldn't bring himself to destroy someone who feels remorse. Would refer her to team mates who deal with the occult. Would wonder about cloning her a new 'clean' body, and finding a way to do a mind transfer into it. (Everybody has a mind switch technique these days, after all.)

[Chuckg]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

But Irving' date=' couldn't we try for some kind of Insanity Plea? I mean, she only killed her meals when she lost control; it's not like she deliberately sought to kill. There's got to be something there. And really, she's dead. Don't we stop the litigation after the defendant is dead?[/quote']

 

Errr, if you take the legal position that the defendant is dead, then they forfeit *all* their legal rights -- including that due process of law thing.

 

AAMOF, if I remember correctly (edit -- which I apparently didn't -- see my post below for the corrected version)

 

*SNIP*

[Guest daeudi_454]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

Champions Universe has the 'default' CU's legal position on the undead being that (unlike clones' date=' aliens, AIs, and etc.), they are *not* 'persons' under the law, have no legal rights, and can be lit on fire by anybody who feels like it without any repercusion whatsoever.[/quote']

hehehe.... could ya tell us where that's published? I got a teammate who is just asking for it. hmm... wonder how that would apply to ghosts...

[Chuckg]

Re: WWYCD: The Vampire Who Doesn't Want to be a Vampire Anymore

 

hehehe.... could ya tell us where that's published? I got a teammate who is just asking for it. hmm... wonder how that would apply to ghosts...

 

*looks it up*

 

It's on page 48 of CHAMPIONS UNIVERSE, under the 'Constitutional Law' subheading of the "Superhumans and the Law" section.

 

Problem is, I remembered it wrong:

 

A number of Supreme Court rulings have stated that the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantees of due process and equal protection do not apply to sentient aliens, extradimensional entities, artificial intelligences, and the undead, because they are not “persons” under the law. On the other hand, they do apply to mutants, mutates, clones, and genetic constructs based on human stock.

 

Congress has, however, passed laws granting at least limited rights to all “independent, free-willed, sentient entities” in American territory.