Here we go. Feel free to contact me if you feel that there are details that need changing or elaboration upon.
- Name: Unknown
- Aliases: Vritra, Asura-901
- Race: Vetala (a rather specific form of undead, in other words)
- Class/Role: Infiltrator/Assassin
- In-class abilities: The being known only as Vritra is an expert at sneaking into government facilities and other places with secrets to hide. He does this not with a complex array of gadgets or dazzling displays of acrobatics, but with the careful and meticulous study of those who work at and have business with whatever organization he happens to be infiltrating at the moment; he will observe a place and its employees for up to several months at a time, waiting and watching in an effort to discern who would best suit his needs. Once he has a target picked out, he will shadow that person for days or weeks, memorizing how they eat, walk, think, act and interact with their coworkers, friends and loved ones and how they operate in the workplace; once Vritra feels that he has a firm enough grasp of his target’s character and mannerisms, he then kills them and assumes their identity. Furthermore, Vritra is well-versed in a number of highly-lethal close-quarters-combat techniques, allowing him both kill his targets swiftly and without leaving any sort of mess, and he has a good deal of skill in forcing his way into protected databases once he has begun his infiltration.
- Subclass, alternate classes, or unrelated abilities: As a Vetala, Vritra has the ability to possess and inhabit the bodies and remains of the deceased; his presence arrests the spread of decay, but does not reverse it, and as such any corpse he inhabits remains just as rotten as it was when he first found it without decomposing any further until such time as he chooses or is forced to abandon it. As an incorporeal undead, Vritra is difficult to harm or destroy in his natural form when between hosts; conversely, however, the lack of a host renders him all but powerless to interact with his environment, and as such while he can float and pass through walls without difficulty, he cannot do anything more than speak with people or inspire vague sensations of unease. As such, without a corpse to possess, Vritra is essentially powerless.
- Physical Description: in his natural form, Vritra resembles little more than an amorphous, vaguely-anthropomorphic purple gas or miasma; while he can form arms and a face from his gaseous matter, this is only to facilitate expression or communication with the living—without a dead body to possess, he cannot interact with physical objects in any meaningful sense. His hosts look however they did immediately prior to his possession of them, although he makes an effort to conceal any obvious signs of death and decay—i.e., necrotic flesh on the hands and face or the residual stench of arrested decomposition—with bandages, make-up, perfume and other beauty products. At the start of the game, his present host is a balding, middle-aged Caucasian male who had apparently come to Venificus on an ill-advised vacation; the body is somewhat overweight, and what little hair it has left is greying significantly.
- Clothing: Due to his intangible and ethereal nature as a Vetala, Vritra cannot wear clothing in his natural state. When inhabiting a corpse, he typically does not bother to change their clothes from what they were wearing when they died or he found them unless absolutely necessary (i.e., to get rid of bloodstains, mould and the like); his current host wears what could be considered stereotypical tourist clothes—namely, a loud Hawaiian shirt, cargo shorts, a fishing hat and a pair of sunglasses.
- Noteworthy things like scars, etc. Whatever stands out: Apart from his gaseous, spectral nature, which is only notable when out of a host and not invisible, there is little noteworthy about Vritra; as mentioned before, he isn’t stupid enough to leave obvious signs of his hosts’ deceased natures on display, and goes to whatever lengths he feels are necessary in order to cover up such things as rotted flesh, exposed bone and gristle or horrific wounds. That said, there are certain subtle clues which will betray his nature as one of the undead if an observer looks hard enough—firstly, as the body’s decomposition comes to an immediate stop upon possessing it, the hair of Vritra’s hosts does not grow. Second, while his presence does cause the body to generate a certain degree of heat to fool thermal scans, a quick examination will reveal that his host has no pulse.
- Personality: Vritra’s personality can best be described as cold, patient and predatory. He is willing to spend exorbitant amounts of time studying every single facet of his target’s behaviours and personality, all so that his eventual assumption of their identities will go off flawlessly. He is quite adept at imitating the behaviours and character tics of his victims, and does not feel any real guilt for killing these people simply to further his own goals; in his opinion, the living are interesting, but the dead are…well, dead. He is not particularly patriotic and indeed cares relatively little for the well-being of the United States on an international level, but his handlers do—and as long as they continue to have need of his skills and keep the payments coming, Vritra is content to continue working for them.
- History: the full details of Vritra’s life are not entirely clear, and most details of his activities over the last twenty-five years have been classified by the United States government. What is known for certain is that he was first discovered two days after the initial onset of the Event, haunting a graveyard somewhere in Massachusetts. No one knows whether he was always this way or if he had been an ordinary man at one point before the world was turned on its head, and if Vritra knows, he certainly isn’t telling. He claims to have no memory of his past prior to the Event, and if true he seems remarkably unconcerned by this loss of self and identity; he is content to work for his employers amongst the intelligence committee in his role as one of the first members of the so-called ‘Asura Protocol’, an initiative to recruit beings who originated with or were empowered by the Event with the goal of acquiring intelligence, solidifying American interests at home or abroad, and removing organizations, elements or persons who can or could potentially pose a threat to American solidarity.
- Recent History: After the twin tragedies of the death of its king and the bombing of its capital by an unknown party, Vritra has been sent in to Venificus to find out precisely what occurred to cause this incident, discern who was responsible, eliminate them if possible, and prevent other powers from gaining a foothold in the territory.
- Other Important Notes: As a Vetala, there are certain limitations to Vritra’s powers besides those already mentioned which cannot be ignored—first of all, he is limited to possessing a single body at a time, and if it takes enough damage to be rendered non-functional (i.e., severed spinal column, loss of all limbs, etc.) then he will be forced to abandon it and search for a more intact body; also, the chanting of certain mantras in his presence will weaken his hold on a host, and performing funerary rights will exorcise him immediately.
- Furthermore, while capable of low-altitude flight in his gaseous state he cannot travel over open water; doing so weakens him severely, and in fact it is one of the few things which can potentially destroy him. As such, the Vetala makes a point of possessing a host and then travelling either by boat or plane whenever his work takes him overseas.
edited 29th Apr '11 6:29:44 PM by SullenFrog
The Danse Macabre CodexI like the idea a lot, and you have put a good amount of work into it. We can overlook the obvious course of action for an espionage spirit (to simply have no host, phase into a building, and observe) by assuming important installations will have wards in place against specifically this action.
I accept, on to Grey Star.
Mere curiosity on my part: You say funeral rites will excise him, but what about a specified exorcist and their associated rituals? I know several real-world religions have rituals or can at least investigate possessions or haunting, we can assume they would adapt much faster than other clergy after The Event, as it would be immediately relevant to their profession.
edited 29th Apr '11 6:40:06 PM by SOCR
How can you be in two places at once when you're not anywhere at all?![]()
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Indeed, there is that rather obvious limitation—but also, it's a matter of lacking evidence to support his claims. As has been pointed out several times, Vritra cannot interact with the physical world while in his natural state, which means that he can't carry his findings with him and cannot record what he sees; as such, his handlers would only have his word that something is going down at a particular time and that they need to mobilize a task force like right now. As such, one thing he makes arrangements before hand to secrete whatever information or intelligence he has acquired on the person of his host, and then drop it off inconspicuously at prearranged drop-off points where it will be retrieved either by other agents or by himself in a host that can leave the country. But yes, wards work as well.
And yes, dedicated exorcists would also be able to exorcise him from a host.
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Well, then he's in trouble. He'd be fine as long as the host could remain intact—and drowning would not incapacitate his host in that respect—and could perhaps feign death, then wait for his captors to leave, but if the host's feet were encased in concrete and he was tossed into the ocean, well...
Huh. Didn't expect to get accepted that fast, if at all. Cool; I'll see about working on an introductory post tomorrow.
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Sure two are yours, but you have three. I only have one X3
I'm actually rather satisfied this didn't turn into a massive spy vs spy deal, maybe half the PCs are agents, the other half not. Should work out well later on.
How can you be in two places at once when you're not anywhere at all?I'm also glad we have orcs/ogres/etc other than my NP Cs. I'm interested to see what happens wit hLuke's character.
Pretend there's something clever written here.- Name: Flamespawn
- Aliases:
- Race: Dragon
- Class: Dragon?
- Abilities: Fire-breathing, flight, sharp teeth and claws, above-human strength. Flamespawn is also apparently really good at checkers. He is capable of human speech, and speaks in heavily accented English.
- Appearance: Flamespawn is roughly the size of a horse. He has three horns-one stubby nose-horn and two parallel horns at the back of his head. A row of spines run on his back.
- Personality: Flamespawn is irritable and easily provoked. While not dumb, he is very gullible. Flamespawn also has a fondness for checkers and poorly writen romance novels, citing them as examples of human ingenuity. He doesn't like being called a "lizard", and will probably respond by setting the offender on fire. As mentioned below, he doesn't want to be involved in human politics.
- History: Flamespawn was one of the monsters that came along with the event. Unlike the other beasts, however, Flamespawn was content with relative obscurity and decided not to interfere with human politics. He lives on one of the mountains in Scotland, feeding mostly on small wild animals.
- Other Important Notes:
Sorry if this is a little bare-bones.
edited 29th Apr '11 9:27:13 PM by Altimeter
So...I appologize if this seems like nagging to anyone, but now that Vritra's been accepted, should he go on the list?
The Danse Macabre CodexBare-bones is right
If you could, expand on it a bit, especially the personality. What, exactly, sets off his short fuse? What are the few things he may like? Level of intelligence, or any areas of expertise? What are his motivations?
Being the size of a horse is fine, but just remember you may be excluded from interior areas.
Speaking of dragons, maybe I should bring in Vareth, since I already control one animal...
edited 29th Apr '11 9:09:30 PM by SOCR
How can you be in two places at once when you're not anywhere at all?
Okay that's pretty good. I'll accept you, it's Screw's turn after me.
edited 29th Apr '11 10:24:05 PM by SOCR
How can you be in two places at once when you're not anywhere at all?Also, could I ask that Vritra be added to the list in your opening post as both you and GS have accepted him?
The Danse Macabre CodexI'm going to assume he looks younger because of Elf heritage.
When you mention consistent attacks, Veneficus itself wouldn't really have suffered them, the border between Veneficus and the rest of Earth would have. That would be either the Atlantic Ocean or what's left of Portugal. Your backstory would probably work best if yuor family was one of the ones who remained in that area after The Event, maybe amongst a small community of survivors. If you go this route don't expect to have complete tolerance of his hybrid nature. If he lived closer to the Spanish border he'd be able to receive opportunities allowed to a more peaceful tract of civilization like you mention.
You could then have him move to Veneficus later, to re-align him with the immediate setting.
Sure, though really the list is meaningless, it was more for me to keep track of whether characters were accepted or not.
edited 30th Apr '11 1:44:28 PM by SOCR
How can you be in two places at once when you're not anywhere at all?Right, I'm going to belatedly post my sign-up!
Name: Stanislav Vladimirovich Nikitin
Age: 33
Race: Human
Class: Technomancer/Cosmonaut
- Abilities: Nikitin is adept at handling and manufacturing techno-magical devices, several of which are built into his suit. His suit contains a psycho-disruptive wave emitter which makes it nigh-on impossible for people to notice (or pay attention to) the abnormality of him wearing a spacesuit at all times. His suit also contains built-in weaponry: a ray-gun fitted into the suit's right hand. It also contains a communicator that can send and recieve telepathic messages (it mostly functions as a translator for his russian), a primitive shielding device, and life support systems that keep him in prime physical conditions in most circumstances.
Appearance: Wears a bulky white spacesuit with orange markings in various places. When he keeps the reflective visor up, one can see that he has short-cut black hair, grey eyes, and a constant expression of nervousness and weariness. He is physically sealed into the suit
Personality: Being isolated for such a lengthy timespan means Stanislav hasn't got the greatest mental balance in the world. He tries to be friendly, but often comes off as rude and uncaring. He will also misunderstand others intentions and exaggerate trivial matters. He wants to be social, but has trouble trusting others (thanks to being backstabbed by his own government). Finally, he is filled with an undying hatred for all things related to the Soviet government.
History: Stansilav Nikitin was originally an extremely promising individual: originally a pilot, he ended up in the Soviet space program. When the event occurred, the Soviets were keen to uncover all of the potential uses of magic, including spaceflight. Stanislav's ability to quickly pick up Technomancy made him the perfect candidate for an attempted spaceflight involving techno-magical spacecraft. Unfortunately, shortly after entering the atmosphere, the magical engine malfunctioned and catapulted his vessel across the universe. He remained marooned in space for over a year, the life-support systems in his suit keeping him alive. During this time, he tried repeatedly to fix the engines. The work finally succeeded and he managed to lock on to earth, but the engine once again malfunctioned, causing the craft to fragment and pieces of it to end up all over the planet, while Stanislav himself landed in the ocean off of Veneficus. The Soviet military retrieved most of the craft but overlooked the telepathic connection between the spacesuit communicator and the onboard communication array long enough for Nikitin to accidentally discover what had happened in his absence: the Soviets had erased all mentions of their existence and the failure of their flight, up to 'erasing' Nikitin's fiancée since she could reveal the existence of the flight. Nikitin now waits in Veneficus, trying to think of some way of repaying what the USSR did to him.
"One thing, though- apparently the eldest goat is the bastard child of Muhammad Ali and the Hulk." ~ Exelixi, on The Three Billy Goats Gruff.

I see.
Very well, then; I'll see if I can't have that thing up at some point within the next hour or two.
The Danse Macabre Codex