Thousand Year Old Vampire: Session 2

 

Above: A pot of vegetable stew on Geoffrey Warren's hearth. Image by Midjourney.

I'm playing Thousand Year Old Vampire by Tim Hutchings. Check out the introduction or character creation. I'm not listing the results of every dice roll but I am including the text of the prompts I land on so you can see how I interpreted them. The prompts you experience are determined by deducting a D6 roll from a D10 roll and moving forward or back that many prompts. Raynar the Vampire will die when he runs out of skills and resources.

Events

Prompt 16 (AD 1180)

Some mortals have banded together to hunt you, well-armed and wise to your tricks. How do you defeat or evade them? Create a mortal hunter related to one of your checked Skills. Check a Skill.

"In Canterbury I worked as a night watchman at the Cathedral for a few years. I felt uneasy entering its hallowed grounds but God did not stop me, regardless. The murdered archbishop had become a martyr in the eyes of the people, and many began travelling to the city to pay their respects.

One such pilgrim was a missionary called Geoffrey Warren. I began to notice him watching me from afar while doing my rounds, and after following him home one night I secretly observed a meeting with a small group of diehard pilgrims in which he told them of the “demon” that stalked the Cathedral grounds by moonlight.

Realising I had to act fast but without drawing attention to myself, the following night I gathered some wolfsbane from the woods outside the city and mixed it into the stew he kept bubbling on his hearth. The cathedral was awash the next day with the news that Warren’s heart had given out during the night. One problem quietly solved."

(Herbalism skill checked. Geoffrey Warren killed.)

Prompt 17

You commit a despicable murder, but not for the sake of feeding. Why? Check a Skill. Remove a mortal Character, if you like.

“One night after my nightly feeding in the poorer part of town I happened upon a man I often saw walking the streets, a ratcatcher with a dog he invariably cursed at and beat for no reason. This time I witnessed him delivering a particularly savage beating to the mutt, and the bloodthirsty rage that sometimes filled me came back suddenly. I quickly checked there was no one else around, roared at him like a beast and leapt through the air, landing on him and ripping his throat apart with my hands. I looked around for the dog afterward, but it had fled in terror. (Bloodthirsty skill checked.)

Prompt 20 (AD 1200)

There is a great shift in the way society moves goods. How does this work to your advantage? Check a skill. Create a skill based on a memory.

“I drifted from job to job, boarding house to boarding house for a time. I noticed the noblemen and merchants were making use of men who could read and write, and do arithmetic to keep track of their finances for them as more and more trade goods came by sturdy carriage to Canterbury.

I met an unscrupulous monk who agreed to teach me such things for money, and over many nights he taught me to read and write. I began keeping a diary in a leatherbound book. Crude and nothing like the illuminated manuscripts of the monks themselves, at least it would stop me from forgetting so many things.”

(No appropriate skill to check, removed “bag of gold coins” resource. Literacy skill added. Diary created and memories 1 and 2 moved into it.)

Prompt 29 (AD 1227)

You are exposed as a monster and flee to a far-off land. Lose any stationary Resources. You do not know the language of this new place—how do you overcome this obstacle? What new name do you take?

“After learning to read and write I was able to find work now and then doing bookkeeping for the merchants who were becoming a class of their own in the city. This allowed me to build a modest fortune and buy my own house, complete with servants under strict instructions not to disturb me during daylight hours.

This stable life would not last long though. While feeding on a slumbering merchant one night the man’s servant barged into the room - for what purpose I know not - and screamed when he saw me drinking his master’s blood. He shot like an arrow into the street where a group of night watchmen happened to be walking past. Wanting to avoid a bloody massacre I escaped into the shadows, but it was too late, I had been recognised.

The following evening the watch broke into my home just as I was waking, savagely beat my servants and brandished crucifixes and weapons at me. I ran away from Canterbury only to be recognised again a few days later. It seems I had picked a far too important victim that night. I managed to use the last of my money to buy passage on a ship sailing for Germany. I travelled from Hamburg to Lubeck where I was able to continue my bookkeeping work for an English merchant.

Since forgetting my true name I had been switching between many different ones, but I now settled on Richard Harcourt."

Current Character Sheet

Characters

Gytha Harling (Dead)

My wife. Although I am not popular in Croghyrst, Gytha is known as reliable and trustworthy, often helping the other wives in their doings. Killed in my first bloodlust.

Aelfred Goffin (Dead)

Meek farm labourer from Croghyrst. My only friend in the village. Died of natural causes in 1078.

Laiesse (Immortal)

The Norman vampire who turned me. He stowed away on William the Bastard’s fleet and found me bleeding at Hastings the night after the battle. I know little of him other than that he was in life some kind of artisan on the continent.

Mar (Immortal)

A cruel vampire who was in life a Christian priest, now an offensive mockery of one.

Geoffrey Warren (Dead)

A vampire hunting pilgrim from Canterbury. I poisoned him to quietly be rid of him.

Memories

Memory 1

I am Raynar Harling, an English farm labourer.

Experience 1

My father taught me herbalism and left me a silver necklace passed down through our family since Roman times. I keep it under the bed in the cottage.

Memory 1

When the Vikings invaded in the year of our lord ten thousand and sixty-six I was conscripted as a fyrdsman into the local lord’s army.

Experience 1

I  was in the frontline against the Normans at the battle of Hastings but soon cut down and trampled. That night, bleeding and drifting to the next world, the vampire Laiesse came to me and revived me as a creature of the night.

Experience 2

After fleeing Croghyrst with Aelfred, we lived in a boarding house in Rye.

Memory 2

I spent one hundred years doing nothing but feeding on victims, without thought for anything else.

Experience 1

I found Aelfred’s grave in the churchyard at Rye.

Experience 2

Mar the vampire tracked me down in Rye and blew my cover in front of some fellow storehouse workers. They attacked me and I killed one, and fled.

Experience 3

I preyed on and wiped out a group of pilgrims from Cornwall on the road to Canterbury.

Memory 3

I spent time in Canterbury, working as a night watchman at the Cathedral to begin with.

Experience 1

A pious pilgrim called Geoffrey Warren detected my dark nature. I poisoned him before he could act against me.

Experience 2

I murdered a cruel ratcatcher who I witnessed mistreating his dog.

Experience 3

A Canterbury monk taught me to read and write, and I began my diary.

Memory 4

I fled England for Germany in 1227.

Experience 1

I fled from the Canterbury night watch to Lubeck in Germany and started work as a bookkeeper, taking the name Richard Harcourt.

Diary

Diary Memory 1

I would often make up funny stories in the alehouse and make Aelfred laugh.

Experience 1

Once Aelfred laughed so much he choked on a crust of bread and almost died.

Experience 2

Aelfred discovered me on my second night as a vampire. He took pity on me and we fled Croghyrst for Rye.

Experience 3

In the deep night, a cruel and evil vampire named Mar attacked Aelfred and I on the road. He bent my seax in half and almost overpowered me, but I impaled him on the sword and he fled into the darkness.

Diary Memory 2

Gytha, my wife, was my main reason for living.

Experience 1

Gytha and I spent several nights camping in the meadow beyond the field the year we were married.

Experience 2

I killed Gytha in a bloodlust on my first night as a vampire, leaving me devastated.

Skills

Sword Fighting ✔ Herbalism ✔ Storytelling ✔ Bloodthirsty ✔ Sense Immortal ✔ Ambush Literacy

Resources

Seax (an Anglo-Saxon sword) Cottage in Croghyrst (stationary resource) Roman silver necklace, a family heirloom given by my father

Bag of gold coins

Mark

My eyes are pure white, which often makes mortals think me a blind man.

Summary

Another turbulant few decades for Raynar. He may have forgotten most of his mortal life including his identity, but at least he has his diary now.

It's interesting that Tim Hutchings said in an interview he originally had rules for the passing of time in the game but threw them out when he realised it didn't matter too much. I know what he means - it doesn't matter whether something happens in 1257 or 1258, and time would be quite subjective to a vampire anyway, but it does make it quite hard to know when I should be advancing time significantly.