Paradise City: Vampire Lines

[Memona]

One of the most popular villains in my Paradise City campaign has been my version of the vampire. I thought I would share it with the board and maybe someone can use it in their campaign or maybe help me with a few Plot Hooks.

 

In Paradise City, the Birthplace of Superpowers, there seems to be very little space for creatures of the night. But this is not true. Four powerful vampire lords seek power under the cloak of the moon. Each of vampire lord does not have a single successor, but instead are created by a process that is very similiar to each other; the life force of man can be used to fuel immortality. All vampires require blood but some require a second set of life force to fuel their never dieing ways.

 

The four vampire lords all live under four general rules. They may not go out in sunlight and they can create new spawns. These spawns are different for each individual vampire, but usually it involves sucking the blood of the vassal and starting the voluntary process of placing a piece of his soul into a new host. When he goes through this process, he must divide his soul into four parts. These second generation vampires are of called the Houses. Each house themselves can spawn four other vampires, and are called different titles amongst the different Clans. These third generation vampires can also spawn, but they are much more limited in scope.

 

The strange consequence of dividing the souls is that each generation are represented of the generation before it. This in effect may dilute the power of each vampire generation, forcing them to live with less and less power. For example, Clan Impaler might have a House who has the power of transformation. He can transform into mist, bats, a wolf and farm implements. if the House would spawn, his spawn would only gain the ability to transform into mist, bats, a wolf or farm implements. He would not have the choice.

 

The last of the vampires are bit more complicated. Fourth generation vampires are usually very weak compared to the later generation. They usually have a few traits of the original founder, such as above average strength or certain abilities that are foundations for the line.

 

The number of vampire spawns if limited. A Vampire Lord can only divide his soul so many times and the never is very finite for each lord. The lord can divide his soul four times, giving it must smaller pieces of 166 souls. These 166 souls are weaker but allowing different powers. A vampire lord can also divide his soul one more time, placing his soul into an object or non-living substance. This means to kill a vampire, a person must kill the vampires body and the object of his soul.

 

When an vassal is slain, the soul is freed and returned to the Vampire Lord. This can harm a Vampire Lord, but most can simply create a new spawn. It does make time to teach a vampire how to use his new skills so this can be a very dangerous time for the Vampire Lord.

 

In an odd age in an odd time, Superheroes are immune the soul splitting paracitism of the vampire. Many believe it's the singularities inside of all superheroes souls that are keeping them immune to the effects. Woe the day when a superhero becomes a vampire.

 

Now for those who are good at math may have have noticed that there is a pattern to the number of times the vampire lord can split his soul. He can split his soul once and place it into an object. He may also split his soul again to create four House spawns of 166 each. If you add them together, 166 + 166 + 166 + 166 + 2. Do the simple math. Well, you can see how many souls how many souls each vampire lord can have at once.

 

The Four Clans of Vampires are pretty simple. You know know some of them already.

 

Clan Set

 

Clan Set claims to house the oldest Vampire Lord. The lord is an old Egyptian Tyrant-King, a man who was so cruel his named was washed from it's history. What the people of Egypt did not know is that he made a deal with the god of death chaos for immorality. All he had to do was escape the pyramid labyrinth he himself built for his greatest of adversaries. The Tyrant-King eventually escaped from the labyrinth, which was monstrously huge, but at the price of his sanity. When he escaped many thousands of years later, he began to wreck havoc on the world of man.

 

Clan Set's founder, the Tyrant-King, has the power that matches the god who gave him his power: deserts, storms and chaos. He also has a fourth set of powers, those with the control of desert animals, such as crocodiles and jackals.

 

All of Clan Set's spawns require a process that involves the drying, wrapping in ceremonial bandages and preservation of corpse of the dead. The process takes less than a weak and provides the new spawn with the powers of his kind as well as a weakness to fire.

 

Clan Impaler

 

Clan Impaler is most well known Clan in the world. It was the Clan of the great Dracula, who is claimed to rule the house to this day. Clan Impaler has his hands in every major power in the world, and has influenced a many wars in the world.

 

Clan Impaler's powers are archetypical: the powers of presence, shape shifting, animal control and superhuman speed and strength. It's the standard Hollywood vampire everyone has grown up to love and hate.

 

Clan Cayce

 

Clan Cayce is an odd Clan in that they need more than just blood to survive. They need the will of man, eventually turning them into vegetables if given enough time to feed. Clan Cayce's Vampire lord is the most enigmatic of the leaders. He hides away allowing his Houses to do his work for him. This may have something to do with him being the youngest of the Vampire Lords and yet to truly get a foothold in the door.

 

Oh, I didn't mention that Clan Cayce is the youngest of the Clans? Well, I might as well tell you now. In fact, he has began his spawning only a few decades ago. Many believe that he is a super that's singularity has gone haywire. Clan Cayce isn't talking.

 

Clan Cayce is leader some of strongest psychics in the world. Many powers have been displayed but many vampire hunting experts have divided the types into four categories: those who can read minds, those can destroy minds, those who make new minds and those who can't make up their mind. Those who plan to fight Clan Cayce are asked to bring along a parapsychic as well to protect against mental assaults.

 

Clan Vodyanoy

 

Vodyanoy unlike the rest of the vampires in this list, was never a human to begin with. He was a powerful Russian spirit that wanted to feel what it felt like to be a man. He learned quickly that men had more freedom that spirits but had to pay a powerful price: they had to upkeep their bodies! How trivial. Vodyanoy himself is the only Vampire Lord who can walk in the sunlight, but his spawn have to live by the same old time cherished rules of 'sunlight weakness'.

 

Vodyanoy uses his vampires to continue to his old goals as a spirit, to cause problems with those who anger him. He forces his men to break dams and drown people who do not respect the water. This often includes businessmen who polluate his waterways with filthy chemicals.

 

His spawn and his powers come from the spirit. They usually involve destruction, water manipulation, control of underwater creatures and the ability to withstand punishment even unusual for a vampire. All Vodyanoy vampires can begin drown a man simply by touching his chest.

 

Vodyanoy didn't look into the long term when he created his spawns. In return, they must use organs to upkeep their bodies. Every sixty years or so they must replace every major organ in their body. These organs will effect the powers of the vampire, so he must be very careful of the original hosts compatibility. The Houses have been beginning to start to learn to enjoy the feeling of Super organs in their power and they may begin to expand in search of bigger and greater organs.

[CoreBrute]

Re: Paradise City: Vampire Lines

 

Cool stuff. Here are some plot seeds for each of the clans:

 

Clan Set

Anubis, under orders from the God Set, arrives at the Clan's door to offer an allegiance. With the power of these incredible mystic villains, what does Set have planned for the world?

 

Clan Impaler

Using their great prestige and influence, the clan manages to make a member a senator for the local state. Now with these powers, new laws and legislations are being made, limiting super human influence while also allowing the clan more benefits. Suddenly the PCs are public enemies number one. How will the PCs stop this evil influence, without getting arrested?

 

Clan Cayce

In 1965, Sebastian Poe, the founder of the criminal orginisation PSI had an older brother who was kidnapped by a man in a dark cloak. Before he had been taken, he had displayed some 'unusual abilities'.

 

Now, more then 40 years later, PSI realises the leader of these psychic vampire looks alot like Sebastian. Realising he would be a powerful addition to the orginisation, with his alternate way of making mentalists.

 

Is Clan Clyce's leader the brother of PSI's founder? If so he will not view the people who sent his younger brother to prison fondly. A war could break out between the vampires and PSI.

If not, would the clan be interrested in joining forces with the orginisation, to improve their power in the face of the other clans? And which would be worse?

 

Clan Vodyanoy

 

The vampire appears in spirit form to one of the Mysticly inclined PCs. He says he was the last Archmage Bohdan Stanislavski and tells them to meet him at a certain place at a certain time. But when they go there, they are attacked by a group of Morbanes. What is going on? Is this genuine or all a trick by the vampire?

[bubba smith]

Re: Paradise City: Vampire Lines

 

nice