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[Neonivek]

*is reminded of a silly mental image he had once, of a swarm of flying vampires getting zapped by a gigantic fluorescent light cross 4 stories high being turned on. The image was reminiscent of having a bug zapper turned on, with vampires getting similarly zapped to death.  The thought was inspired by a combination of Vampire Hunter D, and seeing the enormous cross at a local baptist church.

Given there are entire rivers whose water is considered holy... I seriously wonder if there are just entire pools of water that kill Vampires.

Also to be honest the Vampire lore is... a bit... muddled as to whether or not a cross has to be sanctified or not.

[wierd]

I dunno.. But just look at this giant thing.

Now, imagine it filled with high power arc-light or similarly "Super zappy!!" fluorescent lights, and turned on as an anti-vampire countermeasure.

"M'lord! The blood sucking undead have blackened out the skies again!"
"Jeezus Manfried, just turn on the perimiter crucifix and be done with it."
"Yes M'lord! At once!"

Throw in the baroque style architecture and "Ruined world" atmosphere of Vampire hunter D on top of it too, and give it a monty python-esque flair.

Such mental images come completely without warning for me, and it sometimes makes people I might be spending time with look at me strangely when I will just start laughing like a madman at seeing something like that ridiculously oversized crucifix attached to that church awning.

[Neonivek]

I am pretty sure it is the sanctity (or psychological aversion) that affects vampires. Not the showiness.

[wierd]

Make the damn thing prayer powered then, using some absurd number of little sound focusing vestibules that convert the sonic power of whispered prayer into electrical energy then.  Hell, that makes it even funnier.

[Rolan7]

To over-analyze since it came back up, going by Vampire the Requiem (what my group is still playing), a leech or mosquito would become a thrall upon drinking a certain vampires blood three times.  The rules are, as usual, somewhat intentionally vague.  That's how the books are written, not to mention that every bit of crunch is sandwiched in paragraphs of fluff.

I'm not complaining, it's actually nice.  Mechanics questions are generally a conversation about what makes sense and isn't OP, which actually reduces the amount of (even reflexive) powergaming.  Nobody can point at a RAW broken combo and- I'm rambling.

After three "drinks" (whatever that means for a leech, straightforward for a mosquito) the animal would be a thrall.  They would gain nothing, but defend the vampire to their death in their simple way. 

If the vampire noticed, they could expend a bit of willpower (a gradually recharging resource) to extend the vampiric curse to the animal... sorta.  The leech/mosquito would become a ghoul, gaining supernatural powers... again, sorta.  Almost nothing really.  Immortality, for what that's worth, and the ability to boost either speed, strength, or toughness for a little while.  Notably they lack the ability to regenerate, one of the best things about being a human ghoul (besides the immortality).

So, bringing it back, yeah- a vampire in a swamp might get a swarm of bloodthirsty hanger-ons.  But they'd be too stupid to actually help out at all, even if "blessed" with ghouldom.
Even a vampire skilled in Animalism can only command a single creature at a time - Animals are frustratingly simple, vermin more so.  Animalism can summon all creatures of a type within several hundred feet, but the swarm has no purpose or allegiance.  Still, could be useful in a swamp.

Spoiler: Um vampires are already creepy but maybe this part is extra creepy (click to show/hide)

...
There's an advanced technique.  Dark, even for vampires.  Instead of simply addicting an animal to one's vitae, a heavily specialized vampire can use Animalism to conduct a bastardized version of the Embrace.  Except the result isn't a vampiric animal at all.  The opposite, really.  The animal is dead, leaving a soulless meat golem.  It can never be healed, even by the vitae, but it won't stop either.  It'll gruesomely continue fighting until it collapses in a pile of skin and crushed bone.

...But it, uh, also ignores bashing damage...  which is why I thought of it...  Kinda useful for a mosquito, huh?  Aheh.

Yeesh, I really need to resume chronicling our ongoing game.  Writing about it is apparently an outlet for that edgy stuff

[5 new replies]
From purely a VtR perspective...  I recognize and appreciate your knowledge of the general lore:

Here are the traditional ways to kill a Vampire
1) Stake through the heart
Permanently stuns.
2) Decapitation
Probably works.  Mekhets, whose heads are [REDACTED], maaaay survive??
3) Immolation (sometimes Decapitation and THEN immolation)
100% ded and dust
4) Garlic and Crosses (Put into one because these are often just repellants. It is uncommon, but has happened, that they have been used as Vampire slay)[/glow]
Garlic does nothing.  Crosses...  Basically no, but see 7.
5) Silver
Not werewolves.
Though our first coterie watched Blade as a tutorial, so thought silver would hurt, but neonates are really stupid.
6) Sunlight
Burns like fire.  Even the craftiest, most self-deluding vampires can't bear true light for long.  Except the [REDACTED], but they're ridiculous memes
7) Holy Water
Any weapon created AND wielded with true faith can cause dire wounds on a vampire.  I'm not sure why, exactly, VtR is unclear on what vampires even are.  My interpretation?  They know what they did, see 6.
8: Grave Bodily Harm
Beat someone unconscious.  Then keep going until they're dead, no pulse, blood pooling over the ground.  Then keep going again for just as long, smashing them apart.
dust.
the "blood" evaporates.
Nobody will ever believe you.
9) Holyness (VERY uncommon in fiction)
See 7.  Specifically, one brave hunter struck us with a knife which shone like the dawn.  It was beautiful and painfully true.
He had a hidden explosive which destroyed half the hotel we fought in.  True faith is... mm.
10) Starvation
Technically no...
A vampire in the throes of hunger loses their cunning.  Though it retains a surprising amount of their powers.  The powers are of their beast, now unleashed, and it doesn't care for its shell.
But after that desperate final burst, torpor.  Probably for years.  Depends on the shell.  Those who maintain their identity can wake up within a week or so.  Those puppet-ed by the beast take years...  Decades...  The truly lost take exactly one thousand years.
11) Running Water / Water
hehe
I did like this in DND
12) Vampire Bites
Our "blood party" was a notably... unfortunate decision.  Even for groups that don't have vampire-aids (Malkavia), it's strongly discouraged. 
In my defense, one of us was puppet-ed by their beast, and probably would have killed me dead.  The other was Malkavian.

Let me add 13:  Fucken Werewolves. Furry bastids.

Hm, I'm not finding the "blood party" in my posts...  No wait here it is:

My character is now insane, via shenanigans I might detail later.  He has contracted Malkavianism and is now growing two new personalities.

I never did, and yeah that's probably for the best

[Neonivek]

Any weapon created AND wielded with true faith can cause dire wounds on a vampire.  I'm not sure why, exactly, VtR is unclear on what vampires even are.

There are two major reasons
1) True Faith exists to protect those against the supernatural and the Vampires sort of register as "EVIL!!!"
2) Vampire's curse is in many ways to have the grace of God turn its back on you. The sacraments hurting you (just like Light does), is part of this.

I should have probably put magic as #13... But magic is a catch all and Vampires aren't particularly vulnerable to it in any sort of special way.

[Rolan7]

Yeah...  Exactly.  I don't know why precisely it works in the NWoD universe, which is...  heh, generally godless if you're lucky...  But that's a simplification, and I've only read the Vampire and Demon books.  And killed a lot of angels.  The God Machine is up to much interpretation, and even I'd hesitate to label it evil.  Simply terrifying.  Cold.

8-Bit Theater's take: 

[wierd]

thick swarm of leeches does not need a motivation or target. It is hungry, that is all that it knows, and that is really all that matters. 

In a swamp, a significantly large squiggling mass of leeches could cover a hapless mortal from head to foot, completely incapacitating them-- or at the very least, greatly reducing their ability to resist outside attacks (being covered from head to foot in a heavy mass of voracious invertebrates.)

They would do this of their own accord, as they would naturally anyway. Just that the summon has concentrated them all into one tiny spot.  That's how I would (ab)use it in that circumstance anyway.  Likewise with something like midge flies, or mosquitoes.

[Mech#4]

Aren't ghouls addicted to vampire blood? Wouldn't that mean the ghoul mosquitos would just swarm their master? I mean, insects probably lacking willpower and all that.

[wierd]

If the target is another vampire though.  Good way to deplete their vitae in a hurry.

[Akura]

8: Grave Bodily Harm
Beat someone unconscious.  Then keep going until they're dead, no pulse, blood pooling over the ground.  Then keep going again for just as long, smashing them apart.
dust.
the "blood" evaporates.
Nobody will ever believe you.

I think by "grave" bodily harm, he meant you have to desecrate or destroy the vampire's tomb/coffin where they sleep. Some vampire mythos require a vampire to have a coffin lined with dirt from their native land.


True Faith is a bit weird, as it's technically possible for a vampire to acquire it.

[Silverthrone]

There was an article in the paper, about some of the dangers of renting out your flat over long summer holidays. One of those risks is that it might be used by prostitution rings. The head-line, however, claims thus:

"Police notice: your home may become a bordello this summer."

It is quite strangely worded. It is as if some households have simply been chosen for the task at random. Now, I imagine that one day, the door-bell will ring, and the Madame and her girls will be in the stair-well, before barging in and setting up business. Next scene, my front room has been draped in silk and red cloth, someone is playing the piano, the girls are ambling around with their clients and I am in the middle of it, trying to read the paper.

[Yoink]

Sounds like it would make for a great short fllm or comedy sketch.   

[wierd]

Kinda already done... One of the original old Pink Panther movies had it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbPb6PrC2Ro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Jdq56mLnKs

Cluso goes home after being declared legally dead (due to being missing after being robbed by a transvestite carjacker, who steals his clothes, then gets into a fatal car wreck. Cluso has to wear the women's attire that the car jacker had on originally, and gets picked up by the police who think he is a sexual deviant (this is the 70s), and keep him in lockup overnight.) only to find that his associate, Caito, has transformed his home into a "chinese nookie factory." Literally overnight.

[Mech#4]

Sounds like it would make for a great short fllm or comedy sketch.   

"Rob Schneider is your average summer holiday enthusiast. Until one day, he wakes up to find he's become a "lady" of the night. Prepare to have your pants charmed off as Rob Schneider finds that life as a prostitute has its ups... and downs! Coming this summer holidays, Rob Schneider is 'The Bordello'! Rated PG-13."