Interest Check: Ancient Vampires in the Byzantine Empire (Old World of Darkness)

Started by Kolbrandr, February 10, 2015, 08:37:35 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Kythia

242037

Kolbrandr

just as a status update, Kythia's background is largely approved, talking with everyone else on fleshing out their backgrounds (in terms of the actual stat, allies and contacts mostly) or in one case a particular flaw mostly.

Orange Marmalade

I'm eager to play!

Kolbrandr, sorry for the delays on some of the background stuff I'm working on. Had a shitload of stuff at work to deal with, plus things got a bit busy in the personal life, PLUS my computer died leaving me my crappy laptop. But I'm unpacking my new computer as I write this.

Kythia

ADRIANA KOURKOUAS NEE VÃDUVA   

Adriana's story starts with stupidity and sadism, neither of them hers.  It starts with a Byzantine noble newly awakened as a mage and, having no contacts within that world, utterly incapable of assessing his own power.  John Kourkouas would have been a Solificati if things had worked out differently, and perhaps even a good one.  His first major action was a massive mistake though and he never recovered from it.  Through good (bad?) luck he realised shortly after his awakening that the western foreigner leaving the city was more than he appeared, a vampire.  Working with the vital essence of such a creature would be a step forwards, without a doubt, to perfecting his own physical form and after discrete enquiries around town he managed to find out that the foreigner hailed from Dacia to the west.  He travelled there to confront the beast in its own lair, completely confident in his abilities.

Nikolae Trepescu, though knew of mages.  Nikolae Trepescu knew most things; a Kolduni sorceror of great power with only Laanto Dormotji between him and the...being known as Tzimisce.  Some upstart barely awakened kine was no threat and could have been dispatched effortlessly.  That wasn't the route he took though, his sadism was far more developed than that.  Instead he feigned bargaining for his life.  No, no, please don't kill me, think of what I can offer you.  And so on.  Eventually a bargain was struck, a very human bargain.  Because John was still new to being a mage and his desire to understand the secrets of the universe took a second place to his desire for an attractive and never aging wife.  A peasant girl was chosen from one of the villages under Nikolae's rule and, after a brief training period, the two of them were dispatched beack to Byzantium.  John happy with his new eternally young wife and confident he would eventually purify his flesh and become unaging alongside her.  Nikolae, the wiser of the two by an immeasurable distance, happy with the certainty that John would regret trying to threaten him for the rest of his days.

He has.  That was five hundred and thirty eight years ago and, for a given value of alive, he's still alive.  And very much regretting it.  Adriana took over the family without noticeable difficulty and used the contacts here sire had given her in Byzantium to parley her way into Cainite life.  Periodically she makes minor changes to her appearance and reinvents herself as her daughter, snaring some stupid young noble who snaps up the chance to gain the Kourkouas riches from their sadly son-less family. Noone ever notices, who keeps track of these things on the centuries long scale that would be needed to spot a pattern.  Besides the Cainites, of course, and they already know.  Adriana has long since forgotten what she originally looked like, having "aged" and then become younger so very many times. She's rarely seen by the Kine anyway, and if her husband seems distracted constantly then, well, he's a busy man running the vineyards of the family.  Noone who didn't know could possibly guess it was often her mind lurking behind his eyes.  Noone who didn't know could ever guess that her centuries old first husband still existed - lived is a strong word - in the cavernous cellars of the house though even those who did know would struggle to recognise the crawling shambling monstrosity as human.

Among the kine that know her, which is few, she's known as an intelligent and witty young girl of seventeen - at the start of he campaign she's back at the start of the cycle - with the long black hair and pale skin of her family (she's no longer sure if those are original looks or something she picked up along the centuries, but its certainly lasted a while now).

Among the Cainites of the city, she's known as a sort of sommelier.  She has, over the centuries, honed and further honed her taste for blood and now serves as a "procurer" of speciality and hard to find refreshments for Toreador salons, Malkavian whims, Setite rituals and Ventrue who are out of choices.  Her easy procurement of anything you might ask spiced with anything you might ask is the source of her status and is supplied by alter egos througout the city and numerous fleshcrafted prisoners tended to by the tentacles of her once-husband.

Stats to follow in a bit
242037

Kythia

I hope you don't mind, Meliai, but I stole your awesome layout




underway

Adriana Kourkouas

Name: Adriana
Player: Kythia
Chronicle: Byzantium
                                                                     
Nature: Architect
Demeanor: Survivor
Clan: Tzimisce
                                                                     
Generation: Sixth
Concept: Sommelier
Haven: Kourkoaus estate just outside the city
                                                                     


Attributes
Physical

Strength

Dexterity

Stamina
                       



   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
                       
                   Social

Charisma

Manipulation

Appearance
                       



   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
                       
                   Mental

Perception

Intelligence

Wits
                       



   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
                       


Abilities
Talents

Alertness

Athletics

Brawl

Dodge

Empathy

Expression

Intimidation

Leadership

Legerdemain

Subterfuge
                       



    ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
 
   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
                     
                   Skills

Animal Ken

Archery

Body Crafts

Commerce

Crafts

Etiquette

Melee

Performance

Ride

Stealth

Survival
                       



   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
   
   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
 
   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
   
   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
                     
                   Knowledges

Academics

Hearth Wisdom

Investigation

Law

Linguistics

Medicine

Occult

Politics

Seneschal

Theology
                       



   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
   
   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
 
   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
                     
                   


Advantages
Disciplines

Animalism

Auspex

Thaumaturgy
Path of Blood

Vicissitude

                       



   ●
   
   ●

   ●
   

   ● ●
                       
                   Backgrounds


Herd

Status
                       




   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
                       
                   Virtues

Conscience

Self-Control

Courage
                       



   ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ● ●

   ● ● ● ●


                       


Miscellaneous

Road of Humanity
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

Willpower
● ● ● ●

Bloodpool
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●

                Health
Bruised
Hurt
Injured
Wounded
Mauled
Crippled
Incapacitated
   
   
-1
-1
-2
-2
-5
   
   






                Weakness
Must sleep in at least two handfuls of soil from the village of her birth.  Failure to do so halves dicepool each successive night to a minimum of 1


Bonus Point Spending

Attribute increases - 50 points
Ability increases
Talents - 54 points
  • Alertness to 6 (+4)
  • Athletics to 2 (+2)
  • Dodge to 5 (+5)
  • Empathy to 7 (+4)
  • Expression to 4 (+4)
  • Leadership to 3 (+3)
  • Subterfuge to 5 (+5)
Skills - 59 points
  • Animal Ken to 6 (+6)
  • Crafts to 7 (+4)
  • Craft field of expertise, Illumination
  • Craft specialty, portraits
  • Etiquette to 5 (+2)
  • Performance to 6 (+4)
  • Performance field of expertise, dance
  • Stealth to 7 (+7)
  • Survival to 5 (+5)
Knowledges - 77 points
  • Academics to 7 (+7)
  • Hearth Wisdom to 7 (+4)
  • Hearth Wisdom Specialty, Botanicals
  • Investigation to 4 (+3)
  • Law to 4 (+3)
  • Linguistics to 7 (+5)
  • Medicine to 7 (+4)
  • Occult to 4 (+3)
  • Politics to 3 (+3)
  • Seneschal to 3 (+2)
  • Theology to 5 (+4)
Disciplines - 252 points
  • Valeren +5 (2x levels 2,3, and 4)
  • Auspex +6
  • Obfuscate +4
  • Potence +3
  • Animalism +4
  • Celerity +7
  • Presence +7
Backgrounds - 29 points
  • Herd to 2 (+1)
  • Allies to 7 (+7)
  • Contacts to 3 (+3)
  • Domain to 4 (+4)
  • Resources to 3 (+3)
  • Retainers to 7 (+7)
  • Status to 4 (+4)
242037

Kythia

Man, spending this many dots takes a lot of time.  I need a break.  Completed sheet to come soon, though.
242037

Kythia

Quote from: Kolbrandr on March 14, 2015, 02:31:44 AM
This just came up when talking char creation. Yes, you can take combo disciplines at starting if you know from what those suckers are and have one in mind and run it by me obviously.

Does 1/3rd of its xp cost in bp sound fair? Question opened to the floor.

Could I get a call on this please?  Original source is the Revised Tzimisce Clanbook.  How many dots in retainers for one of those puppies?  Don't worry,it won't go out and about. 

While you're ruling what about this one.  Original source is Player's Guide to the High Clans.

As a final ruling, whats the word on alternative powers for disciplines above 5?

EDIT:  Also, four posts on the trot.  Go me.  Who needs stupid other people to have a conversation with.
242037

Kolbrandr

If you mean, can you take multiple powers for a discipline rating, sure (like taking, I don't know, both flesh of marble and earth travel for protean 6, or having both potence 6 as potence 6 for the main effect and also a potence 6 power) just remember to buy the discipline dot twice. If you mean, can you come up with your own high level disciplines? Mayyyyybe.

The combo disc is possible. A vozhd is possible, but I need to ponder what I'd rate that at.

Kythia

Quote from: Kolbrandr on April 06, 2015, 02:21:17 PM
If you mean, can you take multiple powers for a discipline rating, sure (like taking, I don't know, both flesh of marble and earth travel for protean 6, or having both potence 6 as potence 6 for the main effect and also a potence 6 power) just remember to buy the discipline dot twice. If you mean, can you come up with your own high level disciplines? Mayyyyybe.

The first one  ;D

Are we assuming that the V:DA book gives the "default" level 6 powers?  That is to say, do I have to take that one and then can buy an alternate level six, or can I just use the alternate level 6.

My gut feeling for the vozhd was 3.  Per the book that's "Three retainers or two above average retainers or one remarkable retainer" (And I'd then spend a few more to get a few more normal ones) But, obviously, what you say goes.
242037

Kolbrandr

You can use the alternate discipline dot instead if you want, instead of having to take the DA:V one. Remember you can also take a disc as high as 7 and that you'd have to plumb other books for options for those anywho.


Kythia

Yeah, I got them lined up.  Want me to run 'em by you before I finalise?  All from official sources, I wouldn't touch homebrew with yours.
242037

Kolbrandr


Meliai

Quote from: Kythia on April 05, 2015, 10:43:32 AM
I hope you don't mind, Meliai, but I stole your awesome layout

Don't mind at all! :-)
Anyone else who feels so inclined is free to use it as well. Hopefully the tables aren't too difficult to figure out.
    {{A/As updated 5/8}}           

Kythia

I'm sorry this is taking me forever, by the way.  Up to 342 points spent, but do feel free to start without me if I'm holding up the carnival
242037

Kolbrandr

I'm still waiting on a few people to flesh out the last of their childer and allies and such things anyway really.

Kolbrandr

Quote from: Orange Marmalade on April 04, 2015, 11:45:45 PM
I'm eager to play!

Kolbrandr, sorry for the delays on some of the background stuff I'm working on. Had a shitload of stuff at work to deal with, plus things got a bit busy in the personal life, PLUS my computer died leaving me my crappy laptop. But I'm unpacking my new computer as I write this.

Any luck yet?

Sahariel

Okay, so I made an Old Flame up from Whole Cloth, but I have been totally swamped with real life, of late. I am really looking forward to this game, is there anyway Gnaeus could drop in maybe one week into things?

Kolbrandr

Sure. I'm waiting on a few more things from a few more people, so if by chance you manage to sort things out before then..

Kolbrandr

Speaking of which: Meliai- anything on finalizing your allies?

Kythia- let's see how the Vohzd does as a level four retainer, if that feels in play as having been too costly, I'll reduce it and we'll do something with the free points. Also, any luck finishing up?

Generally: Can you guys note which particular advanced disciplines you took if you took different ones from those in the core, or additional ones, or etc.

Kythia

242037

Orange Marmalade


Kolbrandr


Kolbrandr

checking in again on how this is going for those still unfinished.


Meliai

    {{A/As updated 5/8}}