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[HmH]

This is a game about the life of vampires in a DF-like world, in the human city of Windkeep. You will see how the city's vampires survive and thrive in the human society, how they hide from normal people... and how they struggle against the will of gods who cursed them.

Spoiler: Combat (click to show/hide)

Combat will be rolled in mini-turns between bigger plot turns, without a limit on actions per player, with rolls for each attack being [attack] vs. [defense], then [damage] if the attack connects.

If combat includes more than just one attacker and defender, then for each player's turn there will be an amount of enemies' turns equal to a division of total number of enemies by a total number of players. Example:
5 enemies vs. 2 players: 5/2=2,5. For each turn of a player, two enemies will have a turn and one will have a 50% chance to get a turn.
4 enemies vs. 6 players: 4/6=2/3. For each player's turn, the enemy will have one turn with a 2/3 chance.

Spoiler: Hunger (click to show/hide)

High: after draining someone dry when full, a vampire enters euphoria beyond description, and everything they do just goes the right way. However, it doesn't last long and always requires you to kill the human you feed on while Full, so it's considered wasteful to get High too often.
- +1 to all actions.
- Only happens when you drain someone dead while Full.
- You can't eat while High.
- Lasts for 3 turns.

Full: you feel a healthy appetite for blood, but it's almost unnoticeable and doesn't influence you at all.
- Normal state for all vampires. No penalties, no bonuses. You are functionally identical to a human.
- Lasts for 6 turns.

Hungry: you start feeling the Hunger that makes recently-ambushed vampires such cranky and unpleasant people. It's also, however, a strong boost to your body's supernatural strength.
- -1 to all social rolls, +1 to physical rolls.
- Lasts for 6 turns.

Starving: your Hunger starts going out of control.
- Every time you come in contact with other people, you have to roll against feeding on them by reflex. When you feed, you can't stop yourself in time and drain them dry.
- -2 to social rolls, +2 to physical rolls.
- Lasts for 3 turns.

Comatose: your body shuts down and you enter a death-like sleep.
- Lasts until you smell blood.
- Once you smell blood, you return into a Starving state.

Every time you feed on someone, your Hunger decreases by one level.

If you are frightened or taken by surprise, you enter the state of Adrenaline Rush, which gives you a momentary +1 to physical actions but increases your Hunger level by one. It is possible to trigger Adrenaline Rush on purpose.

Spoiler: Characters (click to show/hide)

Ancient - you have been around since the dawn of the world. Out of all the games to play, you found politics the most interesting one... and have perfected your skills in that field.
- +1 to leadership.
- Can dominate people's wills.
- Has a position high in the city's hierarchy.

Spin Doctor - you prefer a more indirect approach to getting rid of witnesses and avoiding justice. Your ability to lie and spin truth is unmatched.
- +1 to persuasion and changing people's opinions.
- Can persuade people even when under attack.
- Is the head of a merchant empire.

Survivalist - you are an amazingly resilient individual. Your wounds mend themselves before your own eyes, and even a blessed stake in the heart isn't enough to kill you.
- Regenerates 2 health per turn. Restores full health in Adrenaline Rush and when feeding.
- Auto-success on rolls against instant death.

Speedster - you have been very agile at the time you were cursed, and thus your speed remains unmatched even among other vampires. However, your metabolism is also faster than normal, and you get hungry in far lesser time.
- +2 to all physical actions that depend on speed.
- High and Starving last for 2 turns instead of 3, Full and Hungry last 4 turns instead of 6.

Necromancer - you have dedicated your life to studying the secrets of life and death, and, aside from you keeping a few prisoners for food, your lifestyle is no different from that of any other necromancer.
- Can raise dead.
- Lives in a tower in the Bogs of Terror, with a small army of corpses.

Assassin - you have been a killer for hire a long time before your conversion into a vampire. In fact, your failed assassination attempt on another vampire - the Spin Doctor himself, no less - was the very reason you were turned.
- +1 to stealth, stealing and picking locks.
- Stealth attacks always hit.

Added in Turn 5.5:
Headhunter - you are an elf who has fought the Old Gods' followers in the days of the Crusades.
- 5 less HP than others.
- Critical attacks cause triple damage.
- Enemy's Roll Against Instant Death is at a -2 penalty.

Spoiler: Combat System Summary, added: 8 March 2012 (click to show/hide)

General Combat Roll Structure: [Hit vs. Defense], [Damage], [Roll Against Instant Death].

If the difference between the hit and defense rolls is 4 or higher, then hit or miss becomes a critical one. The damage from a critical hit/miss is twice that from an original strike.

Dual-wielded weaponry attacks twice a turn at the cost of a Strength-based penalty to hit. Strength-based penalty cannot be resolved by bonuses to Speed, and vice versa.

Weapons:
Unarmed: +0 to hit, 1d4 damage, misses against you damage enemies, hits cause debilitating side effects, critical hits can cause instant death.
Dagger: +1 to hit, 1d6-1 damage, critical hits can cause instant death, can be dual-wielded at a -1 Strength penalty to hit.
Shortsword: +0 to hit, 1d6 damage, can be dual-wielded at a -2 Strength penalty to hit.
Longsword: +0 to hit, 1d6+1 damage.
Mace: +0 to hit, 1d6 damage, negates 2 points of armor.
Quarterstaff: -1 to hit, 1d6+1 damage, negates 1 point of armor, all hits can cause debilitating side effects.
Spear, Axe: -1 to hit, 1d8 damage.
Maul: -2 Strength penalty to hit, 1d6+2 damage, negates 3 points of armor.
Greatsword, Greataxe: -1 Strength penalty to hit, 1d6+2 damage.
Bow: +0 to hit, 1d6 damage.
Crossbow: -1 to hit, 1d8 damage.
Elven Bow: +1 to hit, 1d5+1 damage.
Dwarven Crossbow: +0 to hit, 1d6+2 damage.

Armor:
Shield: +1 to defense, -1 Strength penalty to hit.
Dwarven Shield, Tower Shield: +2 to defense, -2 Strength penalty to hit.
Clothing: -0 to incoming damage.
Leather Armor: -1 to incoming damage.
Reinforced Leather Armor: -2 to incoming damage.
Chainmail: -3 to incoming damage, -1 to defense.
Platemail: -4 to incoming damage, -2 to defense.

Spoiler: Sign-Up Sheet (click to show/hide)

Name:
Character: (choose which character you want to play. Characters are unique and the same character can't be taken by more than one player)
Additional: (if there's anything you want to add about your vampire roleplay-wise, do it here. I'll adjust the character to your specifications)

Player List:
Ancient: Flintus10 as Samuel Bel
Spin Doctor: antlion12 as Augustine Volkar
Survivalist: IronyOwl as Kal
Speedster: agentorangesoda as Xil Valcenti
Necromancer: empfan as Antora Darklance
Assassin: Tiruin as Eldrin Faenir
Headhunter: Caellath as Amala Sungleam

[Xardalas]

I'll sign up. Might wanna to add some more backstory to it though. It's rather empty.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Name: Xil Valcenti
Character: Speedster
Additional: Prefers darker colored clothing. Is a bit of a scholar.

[Flintus10]

Name: Samuel Bel
Character: Ancient
Additional: Prefers to hang back and let others do his work to avoid accountability.

[antlion12]

Name: Augustine Volkar

Character: Spin doctor

Additional: Speaks in a thick Transylvanian accent

(Why yes i do believe i just ripped off Dracula)   

[IronyOwl]

Name: Kal
Character: Survivalist
Additional: Guess not...

[empfan]

Name: Antora Darklance

Character: Necromancer ( I saw nothing against there being more than one type of person, so why not?)

Additional: Antora used to be a very strong leader, but was very scared about his fact of being mortal. This is what caused him to become a necromancer, to control life and death. He built his tower out of microcline, as he liked the soothing color, and it looked less threatening. One day a traveler passed by and stayed at his place, and while he was planning to use him to study life and death, when he slept the traveler gave him his power of Vampirism. He has stayed there ever since, and they work together, teaching each other more and more by the day.

They have captured many prisoners over their course of their life but they were now down to around 4 or so. They are not greedy, and only take the appropriate amount from them.  While they are prisoners, they are given luxuries, such as books and square meals a day. They try to kill them however, they both will tie him or her down and drain them dry, then raise them as an undead servant. Times are changing however, Antora can feel it.

(Overall, he likes the color blue, he has brown hair and eyes, and a goatee. His hair is cut short. He enjoys writing and learning new things as much as possible. He wears black robes with a little bone necklace around his neck.)

[Tiruin]

Name: Eldrin Faenir
Character: Assassin

Additional:

His mission; his last mission, was a horrible twist of fate. Eldrin had to go and monologue before trying to take down his mark.

Luckily, after his conversion, nothing seemed different in him, physically. He holds personal honor and dignity above all else, and will not hesitate to deny himself an opportunity passed.

His hair is dark brown and falls to shoulder-height, his eyes are of the same hue. His skin is of a light shade, he sports a short-cut mustache. Strangely, it is brown.

[HmH]

The backstory will be revealed as the game goes on. In retrospect, it would be a good idea to mention that in the opening post, but what's done is done.

Character: Necromancer ( I saw nothing against there being more than one type of person, so why not?)

Character: (choose which character you want to play. Characters are unique and the same character can't be taken by more than one player)

But Xardalas has agreed to take the place of a Speedster instead, so you get to remain a Necromancer.
Turn 0: Introduction

Ancient: You are the King Ramlan's most trusted advisor, and your day started off... rather poorly.
First, the King was in a bad mood today, and sent you, his most trusted advisor, to deal with everything in his place. That meant signing the papers, holding the court of law, having to listen to the council... in other words, today you had to make the kingdom's decisions by yourself - and would be held accountable for everything you did.
Second, you have a distinct feeling that the palace guards are conspiring against you. They kept giving you a large berth for the last few days, but this morning you overheard many of them whispering behind the corners - whispering something suspicious. It's almost as if they knew you were a vampire! But that couldn't have happened, of course - your net of spies and disinformers is far too wide to let any dangerous rumors slip past.
Third, there's a large crowd of peasants sieging the castle, demanding your head. In fact, you've just walked out on the balcony to negotiate with them. You have prepared yourself to give them a good guilt-tripping lecture on what's right and what's wrong, but before you could put in a single word, the crowd exploded in anger.
"That's the vampire! That's him!"
"Bring that bloodsucker down! Let him burn in the flames of the new order!"
"The gods cursed you to suffer, fiend, not to rule over us! But you'll get what you deserve - just wait till we get to you!"
Wow. Things seem rather... heated. What shall you do with the crowd?

Spin Doctor: You are a prominent ranch-owner and the head of a trading company. It's not exactly a safe job, what with having competitors like the Umbrento Family, but at least you're well suited for it. You have just finished your daily meal in the dungeons and went upstairs to finish a letter to your most recent disciple, Assassin Faenir. The fate had other plans, however...
As you approach your study, you hear muffled breathing from inside. Servants are under orders not to enter the room without his permission, so it's probably another assassin, the third one this month. Do the Umbrentos have no respect for their money and authority, hiring cutthroats like that?
But before the assassin noticed something was off and fled, you had to choose the further course of actions. If you dealt with the assassin yourself, you could get high on his blood without attracting your hirelings' attention. Alternatively, you could call your guards and let them subdue him for proper interrogation. What will it be?

Survivalist: Your performance in the tavern tonight was spectacular, if the tips were any indication. Turns out, many people are amazed to see someone get staked through the heart, quartered, burned alive and chained down in an aquarium and still survive.
The wounds you sustained, despite not being deadly to you, still hurt quite a lot, and pain was not the most pleasant sensation in the world. Feeding on your assistant Shaila, however, was, and you proceeded to do so immediately once the show was over. After your body regenerated back to normal and your assistant recovered from the bite, you both went to your hovel in the city's poor district, ready to get a day's sleep before the next performance night.
Which you would have done if, out of the blue, some scrawny young man didn't snatch your pouch and dart into a dark alley nearby. [4] Unsuccesfully, as your quick running has showed to him, and [3] vs. [2] [Damage: 2] quite painfully, as you have tripped him and pounced, ready to beat the bastard into a pulp. The thief couldn't hold back scared whimpering as he tried to shield himself from your fists.
"Mercy, sir! They said they'd kill me if I didn't bring your pouch to them!"
"'They'? Who was it?"
"I-I don't know! They wore hoods and those cloaks with suns painted on them! Please don't kill me!"
"You have done your job luring the vampire here, thief. Your miserable life will be spared until the Twin Suns bring judgement to this world."
You turn around and see that the passage behind your back - the only way out of this alley - was blocked by three hooded figures. Behind their backs, two more were stuffing Shaila's limp body into a bag. You remember that you didn't see guards patrolling the street - these people must have bribed them beforehand.
"As for you, vampire... Twin Suns demand we relieve the world of your twisted life. Eagle team, get the heretic to the base! Cheetah team, assume the third formation! This one's hard to kill."
The brutes holding Shaila grunt in agreement and depart, while the one who spoke to you draws a bow and the two beside him start pressing you deeper into the alley with their shields.

Necromancer: You stand at the top of your tower, watching a cloud of giant mosquitoes fly by and enjoying the dwarven wine you have traded for your old book, 'Vampires: Myth or Reality?'. The sky is nice and gloomy, like any other day. Your companion is away buying provisions for your prisoners, so today you have the entire tower to yourself. Just as you are about to sit back and decide what to do this peaceful day, four rather noisy individuals hack through the dead bushes and enter the clearing in front of your tower.
You lean forward to get a better look at them... [5] vs. [1] [Damage: 1] And notice that one of them is an archer as an arrow slams into and twangs off your shoulder, leaving a painful bruise. (-1 HP) The leader of the attackers comes forward, draws a greatsword and shouts:
"I am Imigo Ashransom of the Twin Suns and I have come to bring the fire of new order to this place! Prepare to die, fiend!"
[Garrison: 3] Another bunch of bloodthirsty zealots was not good news for you. Your undead horde was still recovering after the last attack. You had only two well-armed skeletons guarding the entrance, and five or six peasant zombies wandering around the tower.
You should probably lend fire support to your undead, as they stand little chance otherwise.

Assassin: After your last mission ended in a spectacular failure, you decided to retire from the assassination business and go for something less human-oriented instead... like burglary. Your first job is in the dungeons of Julius Umbrento, a merchant prince infamous for his doctrine of assassinations - the exact same person who hired you to kill Augustine Volkar, by the way. You have been tasked to steal a sacred gem of Anratha, the Mistress of Night and Shadows, from his vaults, and bring it to Anratha's high priest once you had it. If this job was done well, you would put yourself in Mistress's good graces along with getting the money, and having a deity on your side is a lot more than most vampires can say about themselves.
Your way to the vaults has passed uneventfully: guards were either sleeping or drunk, traps were obvious, and locks looked as if someone weakened them on purpose. In fact, the job seemed so easy that you started wondering if Umbrento has known of your mission and laid out a trap for you, but on your way to the vaults you saw nothing else that would support this theory.
And finally, you break into the vaults. After a bit of searching, you finally find the gem: it's locked in a reinforced glass case and surrounded by a web of tripwires your eyes can barely notice. So it was a trap, after all.
Given the vault's layout, you would have to fight your way out if you triggered the alarms; however, you think that you have a fair chance of disabling the traps and stealing the gem. Will you escape now or attempt to finish the job?

Speedster: [6+2-1] vs. [4], [Damage: 5+2] You knock the werespider down in a flurry of strikes and pin it to the ground with your spear. It - or rather he, Aran Ravenhair the Slick Death - squirms in pain and terror, obviously surprised by your ferocity and speed. Not that he deserves any pity: that murderer preyed on villagers for years, and had already killed twenty-eight in his crime spree.
You stand there for a moment, thinking what to do with the subdued beast: take it alive to the one who gave you the contract? Kill it? Get high on its blood here and now?

Statuses: [work in progress]

Spoiler: Ancient (click to show/hide)

Player: Flintus
Name: Samuel Bel
Location: King's Castle, being screamed at
HP: 20/20
Status: Full
Modifiers: +1 to leadership
Abilities:
Dominate Will
Inventory:
Noble's Dress
Advisor's Wig
Pouch of Bling

Spoiler: Spin Doctor (click to show/hide)

Status: Full

Spoiler: Survivalist (click to show/hide)

Player: IronyOwl
Name: Kal
HP: 20/20 HP
Status: Full
Abilities:
Regenerator: restores 2 HP every turn. Restores full HP in Adrenaline Rush and when feeding.
Inventory:
Performer's Suit
Heavy Shortsword
Pouch

Spoiler: Speedster (click to show/hide)

Player: Xardalas
Name: Xil Valcenti
HP: 20/20
Status: Full
Abilities:
Blinding Speed: gets +2 to attack and all actions relying on speed.
Inventory:
Iron Spear
Adventurer's Leather Armor
Pouch

Spoiler: Necromancer (click to show/hide)

Player: empfan
Name: Antora Darklance
HP: 19/20
Status: Full
Abilities:
Necromancer: Can raise dead.
Inventory:
A Bottle of Dwarven Wine
Crossbow(+0 to hit, +0 to damage)
Secrets of Life and Death: The Book(authored by Antora Darklance)

Spoiler: Assassin (click to show/hide)

Player: Tiruin
Name: Eldrin Faenir
HP: 20/20
Status: Full
Abilities:
Sneaky: +1 to stealth, stealing and lockpicking
Assassin: Stealth attacks always hit.
Inventory:
2 Daggers(two attacks, +0 to hit, -1 to damage)
Dwarven Crossbow(-1 to hit, +2 to damage)
15 Crossbow Bolts
2 Poison Vials(+3 to damage for one attack per vial)

[Tiruin]

Eldrin Faenir - Assassin


Eldrin stopped and observed the place. The Vault was refurbished and adorned with good taste, Umbrento knew his stuff. Though, if he knew one of his contracts failed him it would mean Eldrin's head. He considered appealing to Volkar, but decided against it, musing to himself as he toyed with the tips of his 'stache in thought.

Things were not always as they seemed anyway.

Finish the Job.

[HmH]

Assassin: [6+1] You look at the trap's construction for a second, pondering how to disable it. Then, all of a sudden, you get a glimpse of the room's past - how it was constructed, how it held countless treasures over the last decades, and how that trap was put together...
You get to work as soon as you comprehend what you saw. The trap didn't have any weak spots - the wires were enchanted to scream if they were cut and the pulleys were built into the wall so tightly that nothing less than demolition would move them. However, it also had a backdoor to let the owner come and go as they please: all they had to do was pull the right lever.
You grasp a torch hanging from the wall and enter the deactivation sequence: one turn counter-clockwise, one thrust down, three turns clockwise and finally, pulling the torch out of its slot. You hear a sound of rushing water from behind the wall, and the web, now limp, falls to the floor.
You smash the case, snatch the gem, and leave through the door hastily... only to bump into a sleepy treasuremaster coming downstairs for a nightly check. He didn't expect to see a burglar and is caught unawares, but he'll come to his senses and sound the alarm soon if you don't deal with him.

[IronyOwl]

Kal sighed. The least they could do was introduce themselves.

"So you know of me," he said, running at the shieldbearers. "Did you know about this?"

Wall-jump over the shieldbearers, attempting to nail the archer with a two-handed overhand blow.

[Xardalas]

Xil Valcenti - Speedster

Xil shifts his weight to keep Aran pinned down as he momentarily considers what he should, he truly couldn't see any reason to bother with tying the creature up and then dragging it back to the contract-giver, it wasn't worth the effort it would take to restrain, nor is he so willing to risk bringing injury upon himself. A slight hunger pain washes over him and that settles his decision for him, after all he could always lie and say that he was unable to subdue the beast without killing it.   

Feed on it till it's dead, afterwards ram the spear through it's neck to hide the bitemarks.

[HmH]

Survivalist: [1] You bravely charge into your enemies, run over their shields and... OUCH! You hit your head on someone's especially low-hanging balcony. You are disoriented for a moment, and fall to the ground at your enemies' feet. (-1 to defense for this turn)
[6] vs. [5-1], [Damage: 3]; [5] vs. [4-1], [Damage: 6]; [6] vs. [1-1], [Critical Damage: (5-1)x2=10] The shield-bearers stab you once each, then the archer walks up to you and puts two arrows in your head, tearing up your brain. -17 HP!
You look very, very dead now. You feel very dead, too, but you've lived through worse. [Luck: 6] Luckily, the enemy group decides an arrow in the head is enough to bring anyone down, and let their guard down. Their leader starts writing something on the wall while his companions watch the streets. None of them pay any attention to you.

[IronyOwl]

Well. Was wondering what would happen if I screwed that up, though ironically the crit was the only thing it hurt. Other than not getting an attack in, obviously.

Now, my initial reaction was of course to play dead and hope they leave. Then I started worrying about if they'd maybe do something about the corpse, and if nothing else I don't really want to encourage them to wise up next time.

So, I'll just do this:

ADRENALINE RUSH. Tear a shieldbearer limb from limb.

[HmH]

Speedster: [5] You lean to the werespider's disgusting, fur-covered, abominable neck and drain its blood... ichor... fluid coursing through its body. That action may be disgusting when you'll try to recall it in the future, but right now it tastes like pure euphoria with a hint of blood. The creature struggles at first, but goes limp very soon. Status: Full -> High! (2 turns left)
Less than a minute later, you rise from the drained cadaver and [3+1] ruin its neck and your toothmarks on it, then tear off the creature's head to bring it to your employer.

Back in the city, the mayor accepts the Aran's head and pays you 100 gold for your services. Without you going two steps away, another adventurer pats you on the shoulder to attract your attention; he's a heavily armored human with an axe and a shield.
"Oi, you. You Xil? Some fella in a cloak gives a thousand for your head, says you're a vampire. So I challenge you for a duel, like old times: melee weapons, right there, right now."
"That's a serious accusation, sir," mayor said hastily, "and this man is a law-abiding citizen. Your contractor may have to bear responsibility for that accusation. Who is he?"
"The fella said his name's no business of mine. Kept talking some mumbo-jumbo about Twin Suns and the new order. Didn't listen much, but it was in that old temple outside of town, so I figured he's a priest. Can we fight now? I'm itching to get my thousand."
Gained Item: 100 gold(in Pouch)
Survivalist: [5+1] vs. [2], [Victim's Roll Against Instant Death: 1] The Adrenaline Rush combined with your restorative powers fuses your flesh together and puts blood back in your veins in the course of seconds. You pull out the arrows, jump to your legs and pull the nearest shieldbearer's arms out of their joints! They give surprisingly easy and a shower of blood erupts from the wounds, covering you, the other Shieldbearer and the walls in thick red grime. As you breathe in the cloud of blood, you feel your Hunger once again: a primal urge to kill, to devour, to destroy all that has ever seen the sun.
Status: Full -> Hungry (6 turns left)
Gained Item: Shieldbearer's Severed Arms(x2).
Enemy rolls: [2] vs. [4]; The other shieldbearer steps back in terror, his knees shaking. He'll probably soil himself if you keep that up.
[6] vs. [1+1], [Damage: 2-1]; The archer, however, is unfazed; he leaps at you from behind and jabs an arrow in your back, right where your heart is. Well, that would be a good try if he did that with a bow instead of his own hands; the arrow bends against your ribs and snaps in half, barely scratching your muscles.
-1 HP

The Dark Alley:
Kil(19/20), Hungry(-1 to social actions, +1 to physical actions, 6 turns left), dual-wielding Shieldbearer's Severed Arms and covered in blood.
Shieldbearer 1(0/5), Dead, has a blood-covered Twin Suns cloak, a kite shield(+1 to defense) and a shortsword.
Shieldbearer 2(5/5), Terrified(-1 to next attack), has a blood-covered Twin Suns cloak, a kite shield(+1 to defense) and a shortsword.
Archer(5/5), Normal, has a Twin Suns cloak, a shortbow(+0 to hit, -1 to damage) and a quiver with 7 arrows.