Soon, I got a feeling there’s gonna be a lot more red in the room, judging by how big and sharp those crystals look. And the wind might just be That Old Elvish Spirit, looking to put the uppity whippersnappers down or otherwise in their place.
Win-win… for who? Probably not for the world at large, I personally think that a vampire comptroller stalking the halls is a pretty terrifying prospect. Imagine IRS (or your national equivalent) vampires — though, to be fair, some say that transformation wouldn’t change their nature much.
Hopefully in time to see the new undead on the block as a threat. I’m not cool enough to know what kind of undead hits the same notes as a hipster vampire did in 2012 though. Maybe lol-so-random VTuber ghost?
I don’t think it’s quite clearly stated in the game rules. Traditionally, vampires deprived of blood don’t die (since they’re undead), but they cannot keep a healthy appearance (and thus look more corpselike) and also tend to lose any sanity and turn into feral beasts dominated by bloodlust.
I bet that having to eat blood is probably one of the vampire weaknesses that Ezra doesn’t have anymore, since she ate a pizza before. But in that case she doesn’t know that she has still doesn’t have that weakness.
Ann Rice (Interview with a Vampire): can happen, voluntarily or involuntariily, as part of a punishment, for example. Vampires fall into torpor, a long coma-like sleep with limited perception of the world around them. They can wake up if they experience strong emotions (and are ravenous then), or they wither and actually die if they stay in torpor too long.
World of Darkness: starved vampires lose all control, whereupon the so-called Beast (Freud would call the Beast ‘id’) takes over. At that point all is irrecoverably lost for the vampire (and those who happen to be standing around them), and they are hunted down post-haste by other vampires who fear being revealed to the public. So… barring a catastrophe even the the worst (or best) vampires won’t risk this.
Underworld: Synthesized blood exists and has widely replaced ‘organic’ blood, with the exception of very rich and/or very evil vampires who prefer the real deal. So there’s no moral need to stop drinking blood, but vampire Elders routinely take turns going into hibernation as a way to share/control power, which turns them into Skyrim-Draugr-look-alikes, to be woken up by getting fed blood by their predecessor in power (which also transmits knowledge of all that happened while they were asleep).
D&D: Not 100% sure on this one, more recent releases may have changed this, but at least ‘in the olden days’, iirc, vampires were created by replacing a victim’s original soul with an evil spirit powered directly by the negative plane (= always evil). As such, no vampire felt the need to curb their blood consumption. Not sure what happened if they were forcibly deprived of it — I imagine they would recover in their coffins as usual, or, if their coffin was destroyed, be utterly destroyed.
Removing a certain weakness does not necessarily mean that the end result is stronger — vampire storytelling is traditionally full of this phenomenon. For example, removing age-induced biological decay and mortality altogether may be considered a strength… at first glance. Yet many vampire universes consider it a rather two-sided deal: mounting ennui, having to watch any and all loved ones die, getting stuck and falling out of time just to name a few initially unforeseen consequences.
As a result, removing current weaknesses may very well have resulted in a lot of new weaknesses previously unexpected and unintended.
If i remember correctly, vampires don’t need their coffin per se, they need the dirt from their grave that it’s lined with, there was a story about one who put that dirt in his boots and travelled anywhere he wanted to without dragging a casket around with him.
Tricking the party into taking care of the problem then denying them their promised reward on a technicality? Bear in mind Rue has been deceitful before, with the Creminions during the Games, and once the ruse was exposed, she tried to pass the blame off on someone else.
Now that I thought about it, if I had a super dangerous enemy under control for an unknown number of very short minutes, would I…
A) Try to interrogate or search them, definitely reducing the time until they kill me
or
B) Bring them to my closest rival, so maybe when the rampage resumes, at least there’s a chance they get killed in the process.
‘Interrogate’ suggests that the investigator holds some kind of position of power. If anything, the power divide here is strongly in Ezra’s favour. Mr. Boxford + Co. could at best ‘ask nicely’… and that would probably be met with a more trendy version of ‘f* off, don’t you see I’m reading this’.
The best the party can hope for, tactically, is keeping Ezra occupied and away from their throats while she’s reading the magazine. I don’t think we can call this ‘lack of forethought’, more ‘lack of options’.
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Gee if only those three had provided Roxy with actual information instead of snide commenraty.
You have to pass in your elf card then.
Yeah, what think these are? Dwarves?
(Not that dwarves are any better really, for different reasons, just stirring ye olde fantasy racial bigotry pot…)
There ARE standards.
Soon, I got a feeling there’s gonna be a lot more red in the room, judging by how big and sharp those crystals look. And the wind might just be That Old Elvish Spirit, looking to put the uppity whippersnappers down or otherwise in their place.
By the clinking of the rocks, something evil this way stalks…didn’t she have a partner…an ancient undead partner ?
Her previous collaborator had an incident involving garlic and/or gluten, and is no longer among the unliving-and-unloving-it.
I don’t remember that, I’m lucky I remembered there were two of them. Time for a reread, thanks for the excuse 🙂
She’s going to reach the end of the magazine soon…
If all goes well, the gang will be gone by then.
As for what’ll happen to the elves… That’s what we call a win/win scenario.
Win-win… for who? Probably not for the world at large, I personally think that a vampire comptroller stalking the halls is a pretty terrifying prospect. Imagine IRS (or your national equivalent) vampires — though, to be fair, some say that transformation wouldn’t change their nature much.
Hopefully in time to see the new undead on the block as a threat. I’m not cool enough to know what kind of undead hits the same notes as a hipster vampire did in 2012 though. Maybe lol-so-random VTuber ghost?
Or maybe this spirit will be something she’s never heard of before and become intrigued.
Undead creatures generally don’t age much, so… yes?
You sure that thing’s not just a wind chime?
Indoors? Witn no advanced HVAC systems?
*sniff*
Their advanced architecture causes the breezes to enter and cool the building. That level of ignorance is what I would expect of a round-ears.
It could be an undead detector/defense. Which makes the theft all the more peculiar.
It’s an undead mimic. Disguised as an unassuming chandelier.
Does Ezra have to eat? What would happen if she stopped?
I don’t think it’s quite clearly stated in the game rules. Traditionally, vampires deprived of blood don’t die (since they’re undead), but they cannot keep a healthy appearance (and thus look more corpselike) and also tend to lose any sanity and turn into feral beasts dominated by bloodlust.
I bet that having to eat blood is probably one of the vampire weaknesses that Ezra doesn’t have anymore, since she ate a pizza before. But in that case she doesn’t know that she has still doesn’t have that weakness.
That one would probably reveal itself real quick.
YT did after all claim that she was uncertain how many she removed, so Ezra doesn’t know what it means.
Depends on the game system/genre conventions.
I’ve run vamps in one game as not requiring blood…. but it’s so damn nice and tasty and they were created addicted to it…
Depends on the setting, really. Off the cuff:
Bram Stoker: Doesn’t happen
Ann Rice (Interview with a Vampire): can happen, voluntarily or involuntariily, as part of a punishment, for example. Vampires fall into torpor, a long coma-like sleep with limited perception of the world around them. They can wake up if they experience strong emotions (and are ravenous then), or they wither and actually die if they stay in torpor too long.
World of Darkness: starved vampires lose all control, whereupon the so-called Beast (Freud would call the Beast ‘id’) takes over. At that point all is irrecoverably lost for the vampire (and those who happen to be standing around them), and they are hunted down post-haste by other vampires who fear being revealed to the public. So… barring a catastrophe even the the worst (or best) vampires won’t risk this.
Underworld: Synthesized blood exists and has widely replaced ‘organic’ blood, with the exception of very rich and/or very evil vampires who prefer the real deal. So there’s no moral need to stop drinking blood, but vampire Elders routinely take turns going into hibernation as a way to share/control power, which turns them into Skyrim-Draugr-look-alikes, to be woken up by getting fed blood by their predecessor in power (which also transmits knowledge of all that happened while they were asleep).
D&D: Not 100% sure on this one, more recent releases may have changed this, but at least ‘in the olden days’, iirc, vampires were created by replacing a victim’s original soul with an evil spirit powered directly by the negative plane (= always evil). As such, no vampire felt the need to curb their blood consumption. Not sure what happened if they were forcibly deprived of it — I imagine they would recover in their coffins as usual, or, if their coffin was destroyed, be utterly destroyed.
Now, factor in that she explicitly used to an artifact to remove vampire weaknesses. . . .
Removing a certain weakness does not necessarily mean that the end result is stronger — vampire storytelling is traditionally full of this phenomenon. For example, removing age-induced biological decay and mortality altogether may be considered a strength… at first glance. Yet many vampire universes consider it a rather two-sided deal: mounting ennui, having to watch any and all loved ones die, getting stuck and falling out of time just to name a few initially unforeseen consequences.
As a result, removing current weaknesses may very well have resulted in a lot of new weaknesses previously unexpected and unintended.
Eh, Ezra doesn’t care about stronger, just about cool.
If i remember correctly, vampires don’t need their coffin per se, they need the dirt from their grave that it’s lined with, there was a story about one who put that dirt in his boots and travelled anywhere he wanted to without dragging a casket around with him.
I believe in Vampire: the Requiem, they enter torpor if deprived of blood for too long.
That wouldn’t happen to be the Varial Stone, would it?
I really doubt it. Snobs, not simpletons.
Unless they intended for the party to fail so they wouldn’t have to give them the stone.
Huh? “We won’t give you that artifact.” What could be easier?
Tricking the party into taking care of the problem then denying them their promised reward on a technicality? Bear in mind Rue has been deceitful before, with the Creminions during the Games, and once the ruse was exposed, she tried to pass the blame off on someone else.
They didn’t think to interrogate her or verify she has the artifact before bringing her in?
That would require unusual levels of forethought on their part.
Not only that, they only have as much time as Ez is distracted by the article. Seems like an extremely fragile and short-lived peace at best.
Now that I thought about it, if I had a super dangerous enemy under control for an unknown number of very short minutes, would I…
A) Try to interrogate or search them, definitely reducing the time until they kill me
or
B) Bring them to my closest rival, so maybe when the rampage resumes, at least there’s a chance they get killed in the process.
‘Interrogate’ suggests that the investigator holds some kind of position of power. If anything, the power divide here is strongly in Ezra’s favour. Mr. Boxford + Co. could at best ‘ask nicely’… and that would probably be met with a more trendy version of ‘f* off, don’t you see I’m reading this’.
The best the party can hope for, tactically, is keeping Ezra occupied and away from their throats while she’s reading the magazine. I don’t think we can call this ‘lack of forethought’, more ‘lack of options’.
Now we just need to find the Fire, Water, and Wind crystals.