VAMPIRES
VAMPIRES
ST and HT are doubled.
Move is doubled.
Bite does Imp Damage
Powers
1. Vampires can see in pitch darkness.
2. It can transform itself into mist in 1 turn, and can regenerate damage in mist form at a rate of 1 hit point per turn. Any clothing, weapons, armour or magic items which were buried with the Vampire as part of the Create Vampire rite will also turn into mist.
3. Whilst in mist form, a Vampire has a move speed of 10, it cannot cast any spells and is immune to physical damage. Enchanted silver weapons can harm a Vampire in mist form, as can a blessed or enchanted sword, and the spells of Turn Undead, Madness, Fear, Sever Spirit, Disruption, Shatter and other similar spells.
Normal Fire cannot damage a Vampire in mist form.
4. A Vampire can change into a wolf or a bat in its 1 turn. These forms are used for movement and camouflage, not for combat. However, whilst in bat or wolf form, the Vampire has the defensive properties of were-creatures.
5. A Vampire may Enthral a victim. By concentrating and overcoming the victim's Will, the Vampire causes the victim to stand or slouch helplessly, unable to react. Roll a contest of Wills between the Vampire and his victim - if the Vampire wins, the victim will stand still or slouch helplessly, unable to react. The effect wear off after the number of points (in turns), the victim failed his Will roll by.
There is no effect if the vampire loses the Will struggle. The Vampire can only attempt to Enthral one person per round, this counts as an attack and means that it can only parry or dodge on rounds when the Enthral is used.
If the target is engaged in melee, he may attempt a Will Roll to avoid catching the Vampire's eye. Success means that he managed to avoid the dread glance, otherwise the Vampire may attempt to Enthral that round.
Magic Resistance, Countermagic or similar spells offer no protection against Enthral. However, if the victim were able to fight with his eyes closed, he would be unaffected by this attack.
6. A Vampire's touch allows it to drain Fatuge Points from a victim. If a touch hits, match the HT of the Vampire against those of the victim - if the Vampire wins, it drains 1D6 Fatuge Points from the victim, adding them to its own. There is no effect if the vampire loses the struggle. The touch does not need to cause damage, nor even to touch the bare skin - it is an aura effect.
7. If a Vampire's bite penetrates armour and does damage, the Vampire may stay attached and begin to suck the victim's blood. Each round, the vampire drains 1 hit point of blood, once the victim has lost hit points equal to his ST + HT, the victim has been nearly drained dry. If the vampire stops, and allow the person to drink a hit points worth of blood, the victim may raise as a vimpite. The victim must make a Will Roll at -5 to resist the offered vampire blood.
8. Vampires are not susceptible to disease or poison in any form.
9. Vampires are ageless and immortal.
10. Vampires do not lose fatigue through physical exertion.
Disadvantages
1. Vampires have no shadows, cast no reflection, and
has pallid skin, dark shiny hair and prominent incisors.
Vampires are fairly distinctive.
2. Vampires lose 4 hit points during the daylight hours. This can only be recovered by drinking blood. If a vampire takes additional damage from combat, then that damage can be healed, but the Hit Points lost during the day cannot be healed by any means and can only be recovered by drinking fresh blood. For book-keeping purposes, assume that the Vampire loses its hit points at dawn.
3. Vampires have no mana of their own and cannot regenerate Fatugue Points. All Fatugue points have to be drained with its touch or via spells or by using its own hit points to fuel its spells. Each day that a Vampire does not spend in its coffin lined with earth, it loses 3D6 Hit Points (in addition to its normal 4 point loss). Once it has been reduced to 0 MP, it will become comatose, unable to leave its crypt without help. For book-keeping purposes, assume that the Vampire loses all its remain Fatugue at dawn.
4. The Holy Symbol is effective against Vampires. A Vampire may not look directly at a Holy Symbol presented strongly by a holy person or believer, nor may it approach such a Holy Symbol.
Contact with a strongly presented Holy Symbol will cause 2 points of fire damage directly to the Vampire in the location struck, effectively branding him. No spells will protect against this and the damage is not regenerable in mist form.
By strongly presenting a Holy Symbol to a Vampire and concentrating (making a will roll), the character can attack the vampire with the Holy Symbol acting as a weapon, damage is as thrust crus damage (no matter the size of the Holy Symbol, the damage taken is from the Holy Aura of the weilder's faith)but with the additional 2 points of fire damage as above. Someone weilding a Holy Symbol in such a manner cannot cast a spell in the round in which he uses this attack.
Strongly presenting a Holy Symbol in this manner will not defend against rearward attacks (as from another vampire), nor will it affect Vampires who cannot see the Holy Symbol. A Vampire can order its followers to attack the wielder of the Holy Symbol. Once the wielder of the Holy Symbol stops concentrating, the Holy Symbol has no effect.
Any Holy Symbol may be used in this manner, and it should be noted that it is the holy aura of the believer's faith and has nothing to do with the vampires particular belief or religious faith. For exampe a Star of David wielded by a jewish individual would be equally effective against a hindu or christian vampire, or a cross wielded by a christian would be equally effective against a christian, moslem, jewish, pagan, or godless vampire. On the other hand, a Holy Symbol will not help someone who has no religious faith...and using someone else's Holy Symbol is equally useless.
5. If a Vampire is reduced to zero or negitive hit points in the head or chest, it will fall unconscious to the ground and cannot turn into mist. It may attempt to be escape to avoid this fate. If a stake is driven through its heart, its head is cut off and its body is burned, the Vampire is destroyed. If the body is not burned, the head can be restored and the stake removed and the Vampire can be brought back to "life" on the next Holy Night of Vivamort.
6. Vampires do not register on Detect Life spells. They show up on Detect Undead spells and are susceptible to the Turn Undead spell. They are identified under Second Sight or Soul Sight spells.
7. Vampires may only feed on sentients, in other words, creatures will real and not fixed IN. They may not feed from other undead. Feeding from an animal is like eating junk food for a person, it eases the hunger for awhile, but the vampire gains no other benifit from it (i.e., it does not restore hit points).
8. The Sun's Curse
Vampires lose all their special abilities, including their doubled ST and HT when under daylight or Sunbright. Aditionally, the vimpire starts to burn, make a HT roll every turn spent in sunlight or lose 1 hit point. Note that these abilities are not lost in daytime, only in direct sunlight, a Vampire must actually be in the presence of daylight to lose the abilities. If the sun goes behind a cloud, the vampire regains his abilities (but not the lost hit points, which can only be recovered by drinking fresh blood).
9. The Curse of Fire
A Vampire cannot regenerate while in mist form from damaged caused by fire.
10. The Curse of Air
Air elementals can disperse the mist form of a Vampire. The vampire cannot coalesce again for a number of hours equal to the ST of the sylph. Elemental Air does not constrain Vampires as strongly as other elements because Vivamort stole some of Air's powers during the GodTime. the Storm Gods and their worshippers despise Vivamort because of this.
11. The Curse of Earth
Every Vampire carries at least a handful of his burial earth in his coffin, symbolising his victory over the grave.
The Earth Powers are not pleased with this desecration of their element. Should the Vampire lose all his funeral earth (he may have several coffins prepared) he begins to lose his Health point one per day. The loss of this health is permentant and cannot be restore unless the Vimpire gets more of his burial dirt. Vampire may reverse HT loss by gaining more burial earth from its grave, and sleeping in it, each day spent in his coffin with the burial earth will restore one lost Health point.
Several Earth cults have sacred burial tools, usually shovels, used in burial rites. These do unregenerable damage to the vampire, in the same manner as fire.
12. The Curse of Water
A Single drop of Styx water touching a Vampire will annihilate it.
All the waters of the world took up the vow of Styx. Water is a prime enemy of Vivamort, and Vampires travel by water precariously.
No Vampire may cross running water except by bridge, boat, on the back of another etc. Total immersion in running water destroys a vampire. Vampires may cross or live in swamps or marshes with impunity. Waha left the taint of the Devil in the marshes of the Good River, and that taint allows Vampires access to all such areas.
Special Holy Water, blessed by Priests of certain Water Cults, has great effect on Vampires. When this pure and holy water is sprinkled on the grave earth of a Vampire, the earth loses its potency. The Vampire may not cross this holy water, even if it is but a thin film on the ground, the doorway or whatever. A vial of this pure water, applied to the Vampire's person, causes 1D6 unregenerable damage to the Vampires body.
13. The Curse of the Hearth
Hespia cursed the vampires herself. As she is goddess of the Hearth, her curse means that a Vampire may not cross a threshold unless invited across. This means that Vampires cannot attack communities with impunity, although once invited across, the Vampire need never be invited again. Some Vampires have their followers break into houses and invite them in just to negate this curse.
The cult of Vivamort is truly democratic - each Vampire has one vote on the Council. Having said that, some Vampires can wield more power if they have a large following, so the Giant King of Neverdead has taken over that Council because of his personal force.
Occasionally, a Council will plot against another. This is the case in my campaign, where the Council of the tower of Lead has been trying to destroy the Giant King of Neverdead. In this case, they are being helped by the Council of Neverdead. Although Vampires may not directly oppose each other, there is nothing to stop them hiring third party assassins or sending armies of undead to slay other Vampires.
These are usually well-fortified complexes. They often have underground crypts and many escape routes. A long-standing, well-established temple will have many enchantments defending it and will have the benefit of a number of very skilled Vampires and mages for defence.
These are created by non-Vivamorti sorcerers with the Create Vampire spell. They have no allegiance to Vivamort, his councils or his temples. They tend to be rogues, either travelling the countryside, preying on peasants, or solitary horrors in isolated castles.
This city in Dorastor has arguably the greatest concentration of Vampires anywhere in Dorastor. It is ruled by a Great Council, headed by a Vampire Giant of great strength. Here, undead farmers tend the fields and harvest a rich supply of grain for their Vampire masters to store and sell to customers throughout Dorastor. Zombie and Mummy soldiers stand eternal guard over the roads and walls, waiting for the inevitable attacks, while the Vampires stay within their temples, plotting a take-over of Dorastor.
Although many people think of Delecti as a Vampire, this is not so. He is actually a Hero-Mage of Vivamort, although not a Vampire. Because of his esteemed status, he presides over the Vivamort Council of Dragon Pass. Amongst his abilities is the power to create Vampires by expending Magic Points, not POW. Since vampires can only be made on the Holy Days of the cult, he can make 5 per year by this method. These Vampires are normally loyal to him, since he chooses who is to be exalted in this fashion.
On the far borders of Carmania in the West of the Lunar Empire is a small region ruled by Vampires. They worship the cult of the Wounded God and claim that this is Vivamort healed by the Red Goddess.
This is an arm of the Lunar Army. It consists of Yanafal Tarnils cultists, the elite of the Empire, who have volunteered to join this most terrible of corps.
Few realise it, but the Red Emperor is guarded by a Vampire bodyguard. These are made up of the best warriors in the Lunar Army made into Vampires and at least one is known to wield a Moonsword. All are equipped with powerful magic items before they undergoing the sacred rites, and are very well equipped. Most are sorcerers, all have Divine Magic from many Lunar Wargods and all are fanatically loyal to the Red Emperor.
Over time, the Giant Vampire made himself King of Neverdead and ruled with an iron fist. He created the Undead Army to defend the city and established trading links with the rest of Dorastor. He made an alliance with Ralzakark, but wished to rule Dorastor himself. He made enemies of most of the Vampires in Dorastor by ordering that they should bow down to him and, when they refused, appearing in the midst of their conflicts, destroying their allies and friends.
The Mistress of Light, Guardian of the Fires of Heaven
When Arkat invaded Dorastor, Nysalor bid several key followers to flee and to hide,. so they could return later and keep the Empire's Light safe for the future. One of these was the Mistress of Light. She fled to the remote land of Votankiland and slept in a crypt hidden in the hills.
The Vampire of Gork Hills was a thorn in the side of the soldiers and people of Balazar for many years, coming from its mountain stronghold, attacking solitary herders or occasional citadel patrols. It was rumoured to have been destroyed recently, but is probably too good a character for that to have happened.
Vivamort aided Eurmal again when he and Humakt came to carry Death to the surface world, helping them past Death-hound and Bimbaros, Hell's porter. Vivamort knew that all those slain would come to his realm once their souls had met Death.
Grandfather Mortal was the first to die and the first to come to Vivamort. He also was the first to understand Vivamort's soul-greedy treachery, and great hatred stood between the two. When the Sun later came to Hell, Vivamort was burned and had to flee, hurt and disfigured, to the now-darkened surface. (When the Sun learned of Vivamort's role in the release of Death, he sent curses upon hum.)
Reaching the surface, Vivamort sheltered for a while with Mallia, Mother of Disease, trading secrets of Darkness and Death. He stalked the world for Power. As he went, he learned more of Death, and began to fear what he had unleashed, for he recognised Chaos as an extension of Death. The knowledge froze him with terror.
Soon the Devil attacked and wounded him. The wound would not heal, and his Power drained out thru it to the Void. Vivamort faced not just death, but annihilation from this chaos wound. Since he wished above all to preserve himself and his vile deeds, he begged help from his chaos foes and made evil pacts with them.
The Devil allowed him a hollow existence. Vivamort was cut off from the mystic Unity of the world and from the universal flow of Power, and cast apart from both Life and Death. From that agreement onwards, Vivamort would need to drain life from others and embrace Chaos. Faced with complete annihilations or acting as an agent of entropy, he chose the latter out of pride and fear.
Some write that he found this new manner of existence acceptable, because of the determination with which he took up the cause of Chaos, roaring through the Great Darkness. He used his demonic abilities to rip Power from the harried gods, and soon he was able to destroy totally. Vivamort slowly gained allies, and he made others like himself. Once, Vivamort and his Undead allies caught Arroin and broke his spirit, but could not kill him.
News of Vivamort and his transformation reached Hell, there carried by spirits whom he had attacked but not annihilated. Many there cursed him then: the Sun's curse came into effect; Ty Kora Tek, Queen of the Dead, was incensed when Vivamort stole souls who were hers, and she set the Earth against him; the River Styx heard of Vivamort's betrayal and swore he never would cross her waters again, and to this day a drop from the Styx will destroy any vampire it touches. All the waters of the material world followed Styx's vow, and they remain a prime enemy of Vivamort.
Since the Dawning of Time, Vivamort has been hated and feared by most, and embraced by few. Those arrogant few are vain enough and fearful enough to want to maintain their present consciousness forever. It has little history in Time since it infests the outer edges of civilisation and cloaks its activities in utter secrecy. During Time, the Hero-Priest Delecti has grown to great power and fame in the Upland Swamps of Dragon Pass. Additionally, some tenuous connections with a few other cults have been made.
Vivamort's vampire cult offers continued awareness in the same body and warped soul. If the cult member is a vampire and is destroyed, he is annihilated, he does not enter the cycle of rebirth. Since the higher aspects of his spirit, his mystical essence, already has been sacrificed to become a vampire, the vampire has willingly removed himself from the universal cycles. Vivamort offers life eternal for the highest price - the soul.
Runic Associations
Despite the enmity of most of the other gods of
Darkness, Vivamort retains his origin in Darkness. His Runes are
Chaos, Darkness and Undead (Hunger).
Vivamort's Virtues are Pride, Cruel, Arbitrary, Vengeful and Selfish.
The cult exists because the cosmic duality established in the Godtime allows it to exist, and arrogant people exploit that chance to slake their fears of unbeing. A deadly few will always seek out the vampire cult, with its promises of unlimited existence on the material plane, and risk quick death at the fangs of the vampires in return for the chance of undying. Those who live by accident near temples of the cult may aid the cult out of fear, or find that co-operation with it gives some distinct advantages over their fearful neighbours. So long as such weakness exists in the world, the cult will have many applicants.
Vivamort requires many horrors and absolute loyalty of his worshippers. Long Initiate service is required before reaching Vampire status.
The cult holds little openly-acknowledged position or power in Glorantha. There is some acceptance of it in the Lunar Empire (usually along a contested external border), but the cult is detested by most peoples and governments.
For that reason, the cult locates beyond civilised areas, and its small temples may be located anywhere, frequently operating out of chaos nests. In the Upland Marsh, Delecti and his cult rule a wretched kingdom. In the mountains of Carmania, the noble houses worship the Wounded God in their remote Cassirs and the hereditary Lords rule for centuries. In Dorastor, a council of Vampires rule over the necropolis of Neverdead.
The cult operates secretly, preying upon nearby environs and remaining hidden so long as possible.
Vivamort is friendly to certain sub-cults of the Red Moon (the Crimson Bat in particular) and tolerates Mallia. Daka Fal and the associated cult of Grandfather Mortal are specially hated. Eurmal and Humakt are hated intensely due to the dealings they had with Vivamort in the Godtime. Vivamort always dislikes and fights chaos and sees Vivamort as the harbinger of chaos.
The various temples have little contact. A mysterious council, composed of the oldest and most powerful heroes is rumoured, but nothing is known beyond this. A few temples keep ties with parent temples, if the respective vampires are friendly.
A Vivamort temple will have one to five Vampires in most cases. The most powerful Vampire is the High Priest, who runs things as he wills.
Vivamort allows no direct struggles between his Vampires, but Vampires are arrogant by nature and tend to dislike even each other, feeling cramped and confined by too many members in a hierachy. If too many Vampires have been created, the most powerful and ambitious of the lower Vampires will break with his own temple and set out to colonise a new area and found a new Temple of Vivamort. In departing, the priest usually takes a Magus or Adept and a few initiates to aid him.
The Vivamort Centre of Power is the Plateau of Terror, where Vivamort died and was reborn under the terms of his pact with chaos, and where the first Vampires came into being. The Plateau of Terror now may be underground or on another plane of existence - as with the god, now there may always be a Centre of Power "where life has failed, fear prevailed, and chaos is seeping in".
Freeze Night is the Holy Night for Vivamort cultists, especially in Death Week of each Season. The High Holy Night is the night of Wild Day, Death Week, Dark Season.
Almost anyone can be a lay member, because almost anyone can be a scared person accidentally living near an active Vivamort temple, giving Power to Vampires in hope of avoiding becoming a victim. Vivamorti demand secrecy, and betrayal of their existence to civil authorities or chaos-fighting cults is severely and swiftly punished. Only the close-mouthed lay member's family will be safe.
Lay members may never refuse an invitation to feed the Vampires, to do so means death. Offers of sentient sacrifice will gain favour and permanent lay membership. Lay members may have to do work for the temple, though this is rare. Vampires and lay members rarely interact, except perhaps in the obvious way. High Priests of the Vampires vary in their attitudes towards the lay population: some respect the safety of the "pool" as the flock is sometimes known, but others regard the lay members as cattle, and do so as they wish. Any lay member betraying the existence of the temple is punished severely and swiftly.
Lay members have the benefit of providing sustenance for Vampires. Vampires usually do not victimise lay members. They generally will not kill lay members unless in a feeding frenzy.
Skills
None
Spells
None
Vivamort prefers to corrupt those of the lineage of Grandfather Mortal - humans, ogres, trolls, ducks, elves, baboons etc. Such candidates for Initiate status must have brought victims to the temple. If hard-working, loyal, quiet, eager, vicious, being may quickly gain initiate-hood.
Initiates must swear never to betray their Vampire masters. They must renounce family or clan ties, or bring them within the cult. They must bring in at least one family member as a feast for the Vampires. If they have no family, a friend will do. In return, the hierarchy agrees to assist the Initiate into the way of the Vampire should he later achieve the status.
A person will be accepted as an Initiate by passing a test abstracted as follows:
If you use the rules on Virtues, the person must succeed in 3 out of 5 Virtue rolls. Each victim supplied to the temple by the person can add 5% to one Virtue.
If you do not use the Virtue rules, the test is (INT + APP + 1 per victim supplied) divided by 2 and multiplied by 5. Roll equal to or less than the result of the calculation on 1d100. Money contributed will be gratefully accepted, but will not increase a candidate's chances.
Failure to be accepted means that the candidate is a traitor or prospective traitor, and will become the main course in the next Vampire feast. The character may be able to fight his way free, of course, but those who fail the test and fail to escape will be turned into zombie temple guardians.
Since Vivamort is an Undead God, he does not require a POW sacrifice. However, any initiate wishing to learn sorcery must undergo Apprentice Bonding with one of the Temple Adepts, at the cost of 1 POW.
There are two types of Initiates in the Vivamort Cult- Providers and Devotees.
Providers merely find victims for sacrifice and arrange for lay members to be used for feeding. They must provide one sacrificial victim per year.
Devotees are those who wish to advance in the cult. They are expected to provide magical support for the Vampires.
Initiates must attend services each Holy Night, when they must freely donate their Magic Points and Blood. They must give one third of their gross income to the cult, and do any work which the hierachy requires. They must put themselves at the Vampires' disposal when extra MPs are required (as in an attack on a Vampire or on the temple itself by an organised foe).
Providers must find victims when such are needed.
Devotees must give the temple one enchanted magic item every year, no matter how small. Such items normally include Binding Enchantments, sorcery matrices or strengthened weapons.
Although Vampires are not harmed by the Sun, they lose all their special powers so long as the Sun shines on them. Initiates are therefore their invaluable representatives during the day. Providers have much direct control of the lay population, thereby gaining fearful respect from that population. An Initiate has limited cult protection and a ransom. Vampires will treat their Initiates fairly, but always know that any Initiate is ultimately expendable. Devotees may live at a temple.
Initiates are encouraged to learn any other skills from outside sources.
Vivamorti use the Sword Biter as a cult weapon. This is essentially a light mace with a sword catcher arrangement. It is a shaped mace with a blunt fork at its tip and a sturdy protective hilt. The cultist will try to parry the blow of a weapon with the fork, then twist his weapon and so disarm the attacker. They generally use a shortsword in conjunction with the sword-biter, but the capture of non-believers is much more useful to the cult.
Since Vivamort is an Undead God, he does not grant Spirit or Divine Magic. He does, however, allow the use of sorcery. The following spells are allowed for initiates, but are not always available, depending on the size of the temple and the calibre of the Adepts and Magi.
Initiates may also learn Spirit Magic spells from outside the cult, as long as they do not fall within the prohibited list. Divine magic may also be sacrificed for, except enemy spells such as Turn Undead.
Adepts are the equivalent of Acolytes in a Divine Cult. They provide magical support for the Vampires and magical training for Initiates. They generally command the Initiates.
A candidate for Adept status must satisfy the usual Adept criteria in cult spells and have 50% in cult skills. He must have been a Devotee for at least a year (usually for much longer).
He must pass the same test as an initiate. Once again, failure means a horrible death.
An Adept must train Initiates in cult skills and spells. They are required to provide at least one minor magic item per season or one major item per year. This is because Vampires cannot manipulate POW, having none themselves, so they need others to make their enchantments.
An Adept has the usual benefits of the position. He may create a familiar, with bats and wolves being the preferred types. He may gain Initiates as apprentices. He gains command over some of the Initiates. He has control over the local populace, being seen as a mighty sorcerer, favoured by the Vampires.
Vampires will normally not slay their Adepts, they see them as being too useful. However, an Adept who betrays the cult will suffer a long, lingering death and will continue to suffer afterwards as a ghost or zombie.
Adepts learn the skill of Summon, in addition to all Devotee skills.
They may learn combat and stealth skills, with no DEX limits.
If an Adept is the ranking non-Vampire in his temple, he will also learn the Create Vampire spell, which is usually the province of the Magi.
Magi are Adepts who have achieved mastery in magic skills, spells and cult skills. They are masters of melee and magic, rulers of mortals. They are the pinnacle of non-vampire existence.
A prospective Magi must have been an Adept for at least 5 years (usually longer) and must have 90% in all skills and spells available to Adepts. They must pass a test.
If you use the Virtue Rules, the candidate must succeed in rolling all 5 Virtues. He gains a bonus of 5% for each major magic item he has made for the cult. This bonus may be split up between Virtues as needed.
If you do not use the Virtue Rules, the test is (INT + APP +1 for each major magic item created for the cult) multiplied by 2, rolled on 1d100.
Once again, failure means a horrible, lingering death and punishment thereafter as undead.
Magi must create at least one minor magic item per season and at least one major magic item per year. They must provide magical support for the Vampires and must never refuse to create a Vampire if so ordered.
A Mage of Vivamort is considered a Prince amongst the local population. He is seen as being very powerful and is feared almost as much as the Vampires themselves. He is the ruler of mortals and the confidant of Vampires. He liaises with the Vampire masters and has the honour of creating new Vampires. As Vampires cannot manipulate POW, they need mortals to continue the line with the Create Vampire Spell. So, Magi are almost respected by Vampires and almost never killed out of hand, unless they betray the cult.
Magi have the eventual goal of becoming Vampires after some years of service.
Magi are trained in all Adept skills.
Magi may use any spells they can acquire.
Vampires are the mundane incarnation of Vivamort himself. They actively despoil the living, they personify the aggressive, grasping rankness of the grave, which seeks forever to drain life from the living. They consort with any sort of being, if they are particularly pleased with a worshipper or feast victim, they may sponsor them into the cult. They deal with the spiritual levels of Carnal Chaos and their plans are long-range, intricate and pervasive, always looking to the future and increasing the power of the cult.
The cult exists solely to serve an reproduce Vampires, and they know it.
Anyone who is ordered to become a Vampire by the Vampires in a temple has already met the requirements. There is no roll to make, no test to pass. People so ordered may be a Vampire's favourite, long serving Adept or Mage, cult enemy who must be perverted to the cause of Chaos, or whatever.
If you want more mundane acceptance criteria, candidates must have belonged to the cult for 5 years, must have mastered at least one cult skill and must succeed in a test, abstracted as follows:
If you use the Virtue rules, the candidate must succeed in all 5 Virtue rolls.
If you do not use the Virtue rules, the test is (INT + APP) divided by 2 on 1d100.
Failure to be accepted means instant death.
In my opinion, the only people who apply for Vampire Status are those who force the cult to make them into Vampires once made into a Vampire, the cult has to accept them. (One PC dragged a Vampire's coffin into the sunlight, put a silver stake against its chest and threatened to destroy it unless he was turned into a Vampire - fortunately, he was accepted on the spot.)
A Vampire is not restricted by the laws of the cult, except that he may not attack another Vampire. He is not bound by the laws of the cult, because the cult exists to serve him, not vice versa.
A Vampire is limited by the < ahref="vampire1.html">nature of his being.
Vampires rule the cult of Vivamort - Cultists obey them without question or die.
Vampires may learn any skill.
Vampires cannot sacrifice for Divine magic or cast Spirit Magic, having no POW. Any Divine Magic already sacrificed for from a cult compatible with Vivamort will remain. If the spell s were reusable, they remain so, as long as the Vampire regularly attends worship ceremonies and reprays used spells. Spells from incompatible cults become one-use.
Vampires do not have the ability to manipulate POW in any way, so cannot use most enchantment spells. They use Devotees, Adepts and Magi for this purpose.
IX. Cult Special Spells
The Vampires of the cult have access to the following
special sorcery spells.
Ecstatic Communion
Ritual Ceremony
This spell covers an area of radius 10m. It affects a number of people equal to its intensity. For the duration of the spell, those under the influence of the spell experience the most exquisite sensual joy when being drained of blood and magic points by a Vampire. Vampires always feel this joy when they drain others. Non-Vampires under the influence of the spell will be unable to respond to outside events until the spell has ended or until they are taken outside its area of effect.
Victims may attempt a saving throw of POW + INT. Those failing the throw must make another roll at the same chance or they will co-operate fully with the Vampires in addition to feeling ecstasy.
This spell is used at worship ceremonies and feeding times. It can be used outside the temple, but this is rare.
Steal Rune Magic
Ritual Ceremony
This spell must be cast on a single target. Its intensity must exceed the victim's POW or Magic Points, whichever is the higher. The Vampire must drain the victim of Magic Points before the spell ends. Once this is done, the victim will lose permanently the last divine spell he sacrificed for. If the last spell sacrificed for was a stackable spell, he will lose all the points of the spell. Thus, someone who last sacrificed for a point of Shield, taking his Shield to Shield 8 will lose all 8 points of Shield. The Vampire gains the spell as a one-use spell.
Create Henchman (All characteristics except POW)
Ritual Enchant
This spell is used to create a special Henchman. It may only be used on a complete creature and may not be used twice on the same creature. It is similar to the Create Familiar spells in that it transfers characteristics from the Vampire to the Henchman, increasing the characteristics of the Henchman in exactly the same way as Create Familiar.
The spell also makes the Henchman ageless with resistance from disease and poison - the Henchman has twice the normal chance of resisting disease and poison and only takes half damage from them.
A Henchman is in permanent link with the Vampire and must obey the Vampire's commands without hesitation.
If a Henchman's Vampire is destroyed, he will lose the extra characteristics as does a familiar. He will also begin to age normally.
A Henchman can never become a Vampire. He has given up the chance to serve a master now. However, he has POW and is alive, so he has the benefits of immortality without the restrictions of Vampire status.
Those Vampires who do not fit in with temple ways tend to create Henchmen and go their own way. After all, he now has a servant who serves out of love and self interest, not fear- a great advantage.
Spell Changes
The following spells have their properties changed
slightly:
When Vivamort went to the surface world, he met and befriended a man from the Kingdom of Logic whose name was Mazoo. The two travelled together until Vivamort was wounded by chaos. When the Devil healed Vivamort by turning him into a Vampire, Mazoo asked for the same power, in return for his making available the powers of the West to the forces of Chaos.
Thus, Mazoo made sorcery available to those of Chaos and gained the ability to create more Vampires. He taught these skills to others and was eventually made a Vampire himself. He became second only in power to Vivamort himself, but became overly ambitious and challenged Vivamort. Vivamort won the battle and completely destroyed Mazoo. Since then, Vivamort has forbidden Vampires from attacking each other.
Ever since, Vivamort has tried to prevent his sorcery from being taught to outsiders, thus partially breaking Mazoo's bargain with the Devil. He also does not acknowledge that his sorcery came from Mazoo, not himself.
The cult has no spirit of reprisal save Vivamort himself.
If a Vampire attacks another of its kind, Vivamort will remove its ability to drain blood and magic points vampirically. It will also lose its other powers at the rate of one per day as if it had no earth in its coffin.
An initiate or higher who betrays the cult will find that he can no longer regenerate magic points, nor can he naturally recover from damage or regenerate fatigue.
In addition, anyone turning against the cult will be hunted down and slain by the cult.
XI. Associate Cults
Mallia, Mother of Disease
Vivamort maintains a connection with the being who sheltered him and who helped (inadvertently, some say) destroy him. Mallia has never shaken off these ties of old. Vampires are immune to her form of Death, but aid her and her followers on occasion. They are given the sorcery spell of Summon Disease Spirit.
