Castle Dracula (players wanted. Literate)

[Another Damned Vampire]

It is the year 1920. (make note of this for character building purposes.)

In Romanian Transylvania, a legend is told of a castle that can on sunny days be seen on top of "Devil's Mountain", a solitary high mountain peak. Stories speak of ghosts, witches, demons, and forgotten gods dwelling up there.

If a human climbs Devil's Mountain, he or she will not find any castle, or anything suggesting there might ever have been one. Therefore, the more levelheaded of the locals dismiss the idea of "Ghost Castle" as a folk legend.

However, among vampires a different version of the legend is told. The castle is not full of ghosts. In fact, no one lives in the Ghost Castle, as humans call it. It is full of traps and strange occult phenomena, all set there to guard an enormous treasure.

However, this is, well, less than half the truth. Yes, no one lives there...

That is, no one but the Castle himself. For the castle, seemingly a building of stone and iron, is in fact a sentient being, with a mind of its own. And not any mind, but the mind of Dracula himself. The old count refused to die in the hands of Harker & co. in 1893*, and moved his power and spirit into the castle his ancestors had built.

The Castle Dracula can move any part of its walls, doors, floors, and ceiling, EXCEPT for parts made of wood. It can defy gravity and alter temperatures. There are furnishings in some of the room, these are old, dusty and in need of repair. There is dust everywhere, and the Castle can control some of this dust. It can also make itself vanish from sight, fill the halls with smoke or fog, create illusions that affect all but the strongest minds, and make voices heard inside the castle.

The purpose for which Dracula merged himself with the castle was to protect his treasure until a heir of his bloodline would arrive to claim it, as he has chosen not to take a flesh form this century. The treasure contains gold and jewels, but also some very powerful magical objects that can enhance a vampire's power.

Only a vampire can enter the castle, for all others it does not appear to exist. The castle will attempt to shed blood from any vampire, for by tasting the blood it/he could tell whether the newcomer is a descendant of Dracula. Even if the vampire is a suitable heir, the castle will perform attacks and introduce traps to check that the heir is worthy of his/her heritage.

IMPORTANT: The true nature of the castle is not known to anyone. Vampires think Dracula died, and left behind some mean traps to hide his treasure. Dracula had many descendants, both full vampires and half-humans. People turned into vampires by Dracula do not count as descendants; they were his underlings.

For this RP, to begin with, your character must be a vampire (or part vampire, part human). (Later, humans may become an option. We'll see what direction the story goes). The Castle Dracula will be played by me.

* Source: the novel 'Dracula' by Bram Stoker. Having read it is not compulsory, but will improve your RP experience

See, and read, the next post carefully. It contains things you need to know to create a character. All characters need to be approved by me before they can start playing.  

[Another Damned Vampire]

Your character can have up to four of the following powers/abilities. Younger vampires have less, older (more than 1000 years) can have more. The abilities:
- transforming into an animal (one specific animal per character, no furry/half-formed shapes)
- turning invisible
- turning into mist
- levitating
- controlling animals
- being in sunlight without turning to ashes
- controlling the weather
- giving birth to/fathering vampire children
- entering and controlling the dreams of humans and weaker vampires

(NOTE: if you can think of another power to add to this list, suggest one to me and I will consider it)

A half-vampire (one human parent) can have up to two powers. Half-vampires grow old like humans, only it takes them about three times longer. They cannot be turned into vampires, but children they have with vampires live longer - the more vampire genes, the longer the life.

All vampires share these characteristics:
- can be destroyed with a stake through the heart, or by sunlight (unless they have the power to withstand it), or by being in touch with holy items or holy water. A destroyed vampire turns to ashes, but will return if someone spills blood on these ashes.
- vampires are super-strong when they have just fed on human blood, and become weaker as their hunger increases. Blood must be drunk from the living vein, not from bottles etc. A vampire can exist indefinitely without blood, but after a week or more he/she will be an useless weakling, and insane from hunger.
- can make other vampires. This is achieved by drinking the subject dry, then allowing her/him to drink vampire blood. The subject will wake very hungry, and needs a victim handy. The new vampire will be subservient to the vampire whose blood she/he drank, whether they wish so or not.
- vampires can see in the dark, have a keen sense of smell, superb hearing, and always know how long they have until sunrise.

Half (and three-quarters, one-quarter, etc.) vampires do not live on blood, although they may have a liking for raw meat. They can be killed with any method that would kill a human. They do not need to fear sunlight, but cannot enjoy it either, for they burn their skin very easily. They have keener senses than humans - the degree of keenness depends on how much vampire genes they have. They cannot make new vampires.  

[Another Damned Vampire]

The magical objects to be found in the vault of Castle Dracula - your characters will have heard of these:

- the Bloodstone: a small red jewel. When a vampire puts this under his/her tongue, he/she will become as powerful as she would be if she had just fed. This may not sound like much, but think about it! never having to feel hungry and weak again!

- the Sword of Souls: a weapon that doesn't harm flesh, but cuts the soul apart from a human body. A human thus afflicted will become a lethargic zombie, under the control of whoever holds the sword

- The Scroll of the Elder Gods; a mystic text of which little is known. Rumored to contain spells to summon demonic creatures to Earth, and even darker secret lore

- The Love Chain; a thick gold necklace. Put it around the neck of the object of your affections and she/he will fall in love with you. Don't let her take it off or the spell breaks.

- The Fang; a long piece of bone, rumored to be the tooth of a dead wolf-god. Will make any wolf obey the one that holds it.

There may be more, unknown ones. (again, if you have ideas, PM me)  

[Another Damned Vampire]

Rules for this topic:

1. Post in 3rd person, past tense (he did, she walked)

2. when writing dialogue, put it in quotation marks: "I like blood", said Vlad.

3. Every post must contain at least 3 sentences - no one-liners.

4. After you've posted, wait for everyone who has characters in the same location, or otherwise in connection with the situation, to post before posting again. Always wait for the Castle to post before posting again.

5. Stay active, post every day, if you can't, let us know.

6. If you want to use a font color, make sure you pick one that is easy to see. Do not use a font size smaller than 10.

7. Do not put a picture of your character in every post. Do not use post styles that take up a lot of space for repeated images.

8. After you've created a character, wait for me to approve/feedback it before you start roleplaying.

9. Guild Rules and Gaia TOS apply here. No cybering, and no 'let's take it to PM's'. Just take it to your imagination, tuck it under your pillow to dream about, and in the RP, do a simple time-jump. smile

10. I may ban from this topic anyone who does not obey these rules or who disrespects me and other players. Guild authorities will be summoned if necessary.  

[Another Damned Vampire]

AAAAND finally:

The character sheet!

Name:
Gender:
Age:
Percentage of vampire genes: (for full vampires just put 100)
Powers/abilities:
Personal History:
Connection to the Dracula family:
Picture:

PM me if you have any questions.

Send your character profile to me by PM. I will post them all here on the first page.  

[Another Damned Vampire]

The Castle


Name: Vladimir Dracula the 3rd
Gender: male
Age: 1200 years
Percentage of vampire genes: 100
Powers/abilities:

when he was still walking around as a normal vampire, Vlad had these powers:

- turning into mist
- controlling animals
- fathering vampire children
- levitating

Nowadays, as a sentient building,

The Castle Dracula can move any part of its walls, doors, floors, and ceiling, EXCEPT for parts made of wood. It can defy gravity and alter temperatures. There is dust everywhere, and the Castle can control some of this dust. It can also make itself vanish from sight, fill the halls with smoke or fog, create illusions that affect all but the strongest minds, and make voices heard inside the castle.

Personal History: Vlad was born as a vampire, to vampire parents. His father was destroyed and Vlad inherited the title of count. He ruled in terror until some English people turned him to dust. However, he wasn't as dead as it seemed. He chose, instead of returning to flesh, to take on the 'body' of his castle, using an old ritual from the Scroll of the Elder Gods. This gave him strange new abilities, but also limits. Now he waits for a deserving heir to arrive.
Connection to the Dracula family: was the ruler of the family when alive
Picture:

(back when he had a body)
 

[Another Damned Vampire]

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[Another Damned Vampire]

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[Another Damned Vampire]

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