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Description
Vampires are a special category
of empathic talent. Vampirism is caused by a genetically-engineered
virus created by the
Vulcanians during their final war 300 million
years ago, in a desperate attempt at creating a "super" warrior.
A vampire using his empathic
abilities results in a special kind of "feed" situation. Each stage
of success in an empathic task requires the afflicted to consume 1/2
liter of blood from a sentient being within 24 hours or suffer 1D of
damage to the chest. Each 24 hours without feeding results in an
additional 1D of damage.
Victims of a vampire bite may
become vampires (Easy: CON to avoid, failure results in neuropaths
that will undergo an awakening — and the possible resulting madness
— as the virus takes control of their systems) with an empathic link
to the vampires that infected them. The virus also makes the vampire
"allergic" to light. For every round a vampire is exposed to
sunlight (or UV light) he takes 1D of damage to the chest). It also
makes the vampire allergic to silver. Attacks with silver weapons
against a vampire do double damage. On the plus side, the virus acts
as a natural anagathic (see TNE), and allows the vampire to heal
more rapidly than normal (healing takes place at ten times the
standard rate).
Vampires are hated even more than
your average Empath because of their "habits." For this reason they
avoid attention. Vampires are basically solitary predators (too many
in an area will begin to attract attention), so they take efforts to
keep their numbers low. It may take several bites to infect a
victim, so a vampire might simply attack a victim only once,
rendering the victim unconscious before feeding, or kill the victim
and hide the body after feeding. The latter can get dangerous if too
many people start disappearing in an area, whereas the former can be
chalked up to the occasional mugging. A more imaginative vampire
might start a cult in which new initiates have to drain some of
their blood into a chalice from which "the Master" drinks. This
keeps the risk of infection down considerably. More thoughtful
vampires may make arrangements to get human blood from volunteers
using similar methods.
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