h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

If you are not playing the role of Seaman John Volkert, then DO NOT READ ANY MORE OF THIS THREAD!!!!

"You gotta have friends ..."

SEAMAN JOHN VOLKERT

Vampire, former Viking

YOUR STORY - In 996 you were the only survivor of a Viking raid into Eastern Europe (Transylvania to be exact). Actually, there were no survivors. You died. You also rose again as a vampire.

You decided that since you did not go to Valhalla you would have to create a Valhalla of your own here on Earth. You became a mercenary. You went anywhere and everywhere that you could find fighting. You sailed with Lief the Lucky, and Cortez, and Francis Drake. You were very good at it.

You met Goodschad in 1776. You killed him. It was at the battle of Trenton, he was a Hessian mercenary and you had just crossed the Delaware with Washington. You didn't give it any more thought, her was just one more solider you had killed.

That changed when Goodschad turned up the next night and said he had come to haunt you.

Apparently a ghost has some flexibility as far as haunting goes. Goodschad, who does not have a vindictive bone in his body (so to speak) that just means he hangs around with you. He doesn't have to do anything else, but he does have to stay near you (do not ask why, that's just the way it is). So Goodschad just hangs around with you, haunting you. You are the best of friends.

You have tried several times to apologise for killing him, but Goodschad insists that there is nothing to apologise for. It doesn't get in the way of your friendship.

During Napoleon's retreat from Moscow Goodschad asked you, "Are we having a good time as mercenaries?" You had never thought about that. "No," you said. "Then why don't we do something else?" Goodschad is not the brightest ghost, but sometimes he makes a lot of sense. You really should listen to him more often.

You left your musket in a snowbank and went off to look for a good time, Goodschad tagging along behind you.

The road to good times has not always been a smooth one. Like that time in Amazonia when that tribe of naked savages captured Goodschad. If they had only tried to hurt him it would have been no trouble, but their witch doctor tried to exorcise him! Close, very close. It is like that a lot. You spend all your time getting Goodschad out of the trouble that you... er... ah, that Goodschad gets himself into.

No matter what happens you and Goodschad never argue. Well, not unless you run into Dorothy Enemoratta. Dorothy is an Italian witch (that is, witch as in lady wizard) with who you and Goodschad are in love. She loves you, of course, but won't admit it. This is what you and Goodschad argue about (he thinks Dorothy loves him). When you have run into Dorothy (Rio, Mandalay, Zanzibar - Zanzibar was the worst...), you and Goodschad would argue. Dorothy would leave, and you and Goodschad would make up until the next time you run into Dorothy. Other than this you and Goodschad never argue.

The last seven years as merchant seamen has almost been a vacation. It has been uneventful, except for that crooked card game in San Francisco (it's not your fault that when you excused yourself to go to the bathroom Goodschad thought you were coming back. Of course you weren't coming back, neither of you had any money. Good thing Goodschad is dead, or they would have beaten him to death). The sleepy times are almost over.

The first sign came when something went wrong with your pyramid. It's a little magic bauble you picked up when you were with Napoleon in Egypt, a tiny gold pyramid. Yours lets you stay out in the sun, and keeps the Hunger off. Goodschad has one that lets him become solid when he wants. Anyway, something is wrong with yours. Normally you are good and sated before a voyage and you don't have to worry about blood until you reach shore. But someone has tampered with your pyramid, it's as if a little of the magic has leaked off. Not good. You are getting Hungry. Very Hungry!

This could be a disaster. You made a vow over the corpse of the vampire who created you. You will not feed on innocents, at least not enough to harm them. This is not easy to do without being noticed, the Mary Celeste is not that big. But you have to feed soon or you will lose your mind to the blood lust. You do not know how much time you have, not long after moon rise you suspect (one hour). You would ask Goodschad for help but he would only get into trouble.

Goodschad's all depressed anyway. When he first came aboard the Mary Celeste Goodschad was very happy, he said there was "one of my people" aboard. Now he says he feels lonely. What, the ghost left? You wish you understood what Goodschad is talking about. Maybe if you listened to him...

This morning you saw something that makes it all much worse. You saw a Valkyrie. You do not know why the Valkyries appear to you, but they do. Only on a day someone dies before your eyes.

Not good, not good at all.

GOALS AT A GLANCE - Do your duty and serve your ship well. Keep your head and find some way to sate the Hunger before it becomes out of control. Find out who has been tampering with your pyramid.

ROLE-PLAYING HINT - You may be a creature of the night, and a thousand-year old warrior, but you still play Crosby to Goodschad's Hope. However, there is a dark side to your role. The Hunger is making you increasingly frantic.

STATISTICALLY - As a vampire you heal almost a swiftly as anyone can do you damage. This is only after sunset. In daylight you take damage just like a live human. That does not matter very much. You have been a warrior for over thousand years, you are unmatched with a sword and, since you try to stay current, not a bad shot. You are also very tough. Very tough. You can take anyone in a fight. Very tough.

THE OTHER CHARACTERS

JOHAN GOODSCHAD - The best friend you have ever had. Neither of you know exactly why he haunts you, but neither of you mind. A simpleton, but he has a good heart. Not a bad scrapper either.

CAPTAIN BRIGGS - A fine man. You sail with him in peace, but you would gladly serve him in war. Whatever he needs, you are his man (and Goodschad better come along, too).

SARAH ELIZABETH BRIGGS -The Captain's wife. Finest lady you have ever met, and you've met Joan of Arc. You would stand by her as you would the Captain.

LIZZIE BRIGGS - The Captain's child. Eerie little lady, stares at everything without saying a word. Goodschad is devoted to her, but then he never did grow out of his own childhood.

COOK HEAD - The Captain ordered him to stop serving fish all the time. Well that's the Captain's prerogative, though you think it's a shame. You get more red meat than you wish to think about, and Cookie's fish is the finest in the world.

FIRST MATE RICHARDSON - A good man, he has the Captain's respect so has yours.

SECOND MATE GILLING - A competent ship's officer. But you saw him hide a bottle in his sea chest. The Captain, dedicated teetotaller that he is, would have a fit. You haven't reported him (Gillings being an officer and you being just a swabbie) but if your catch him drunk on watch you will help the Captain throw him overboard.

JOHAN MARTENS - A swab, just like you. He sees things; fairies, sea monsters, angels. Nonsense. What next, vampires and ghosts?

JOHAN LORENZEN - The Marie Celeste's other swab. As grouchy and unpleasant a man as you have ever known. Goodschad says Lorenzen isn't so bad, but then Goodschad could find something nice to say about George the Third. Goodschad said something about Lorenzen and little Lizzie, but you weren't listening.

THE CASTAWAY - An Eskimo, sure as Hell. You saw some while sealing in the Pacific. How'd she get out here? Better hope she isn't some kind of witch doctor.

THE STOWAWAY - A woman hid from all of you for 23 days?! Shameful, it makes you fearful for the security of anyone and everyone aboard.

THE CAT - Miserable animal. You swear it's spying on everyone, sits and stares all the time. Sometimes draining a beast will sate you. Hmm...

ITEMS

SMALL GOLD PYRAMID - Your talisman. Allows you to you to go out in the sun.

KEY -Opens your sea chest, stored in the forecastle.

ITEMS NOT ON YOUR PERSON

SWORD - It was yours when you were alive. The quality of steel has improved a great deal since the Viking raids, but you still like your own sword. It has never failed you. It is stored in your sea chest.

SPECIAL ABILITIES

DRAIN BLOOD - Get your teeth into someone and they must stand paralysed while you drink from their neck. You can kill, create a vampire (something you never have never done and never intend to do) or just have a light snack. If you feed but do not kill your victim will pass out and remember the event as a nightmare, but they will remember your face from this nightmare.

HEAL - Contrary to popular belief vampires can be hurt, they just heal as fast as you hurt them and they don't feel the pain. Hit them hard enough and you can destroy vampires permanently, but it takes a cannon. A big cannon. Magic does damage that is permanent, luckily almost no one alive can do magic.

NB: The talisman that allows you out in the sunlight suppresses this ability. You take damage normally during daylight.

You should also read fact sheet 2 only, but NOT 1 or 3. The fact sheets are located here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A598412

[ooc] you set this up very well, very well, if everyone respects the places they can and can't go then this will be quite awsome! Now about magic, do I have any defence against it. If I beat the caster sensless then their magic can't hurt me right? And they can't cast magic when they are dead right? I hope.... I read the thing about magic, the fact sheet 2.

Can I tell other vampires from normal people like in blade? The silver and garlic stuff, along with holy water? Useless or Useful in fighting me.

what about the teeth marks, they close up in time so that they don't notice them when they wake or what?

Glad you're on board, Yo! I agree - it should be a lot of fun. I can't take too much credit for this, though, since I didn't write the scenario or the characters - I downloaded them (with permission). All I did, was adapt a live game to h2g2, and spent a lot of time setting it up.

About magic. I'm not sure why you were supposed to read that, but you were. I guess since you have been alive for so long, you know a little about everything. Your character description mentions that magic can do you permanent damage, but that almost no one alive can do magic. Since regular magic requires some sort of ritual, it shouldn't be a problem for you to see it coming. If there is any sort of battle, the outcome will be determined by me. For instance, if someone performs a ritual to invoke a spell to kill you or something, they will post thier ritual, then I will intervene and say what effect it has. I have some charts, etc (and some dice) to help. Anyway, there is no defence against the magic, but your idea of knocking them senseless might work.

About vampires. I think that all of that vampire stuff you mentioned hold true. You would recognise vampires if any were aboard, and you are susceptible to silver bullets, holy water, stakes through the heart, etc. The effects of your feeding are described under your special abilities, drain blood section. If you just have a light snack, then the victim will remember the event as a nightmare only, although they will remember your face from the nightmare. The teeth marks would also still be evident, although they are pretty small and would fade pretty quickly.

Hope that helps.

ok so a good bruise would cover that up, excellent. As for the garlic, where do you stand on that? In Blade, garlic actually helps the vampire not need to suck the blood out of humans, wereas in the olden tales, vapires are supposidly repelled by garlic. Are there any sorces of silver on the ship? (table ware, ornamental things, rings?) And is there a preist on board that I know of? Also, the silver bullet thing is kinda weird too, is it through the heart or just a plain old hit anywhere?

*another* question, just full of them today How should I role play the sucking blood out of the victim, should I do this:

Seaman and climb to the crow's nest. Once there and looking around John slams into the mast, knocking him out, then John proceeds to bight the 's neck and suck a light snack's worth of blood out of

or this:

Once in the crows nest stumbles into the mast and nocks themself out (then you describe the nighmare)

(then in the next post)
"how's you manage to do that ? You up and knocked yourself out. I thought I was gonna have to carry you down!"

How it would work is like this: You lure the victim to some place where you won't be seen. You then post something like:
--------------
Special Ability: Suck Blood
John bites your neck and you fall unconscious. You have a terrible nightmare where someone sucks blood from your neck. In the nightmare the blood-sucker looks like John.

You wake up and John is bent over you looking concerned. He says:

Are you okay? You passed out there.
--------------

Or something like that. In the live version of this thing, the special abilities are printed on cards and you would just present the card to the victim. I think there is something about them on the rules page.

Um, garlic. I tend to go with the old legends, so lets say it repels you. The silver bullet thing. I'm not sure, but I think that they would operate just like real bullets on a real person. Normal bullet wounds would heal instantly on you. Silver bullet wounds would be real wounds. Sound reasonable? Sources of silver. Well, I think there may be some silverware, or rings, but they probably wouldn't be of much help. Even if there is a silver knive, someone would have to stab you with it, and you are very very tough.

This is going to work out good, I've narrowed my vicim down to 2 persons, and I think I know exactly where it's gonna go down! This is almost better than AD&D

I am leaving tomarrow (sunday) for a week, if I don't manage to lure affy into the gun deck where there is no one else awake tonight then there is a problem, the hour before moon rise will certainly pass before I get back.....my character is at your mercy, somehow I'll try to get back on but I doubt that that will happen what do you wish to do? Since I won't be even able to read your response, do you think you could let Volkert to be able to hold off the rage for alittle longer then he would otherwise?

Okay. We'll have to see how quickly the action moves. It's possible that time might not have moved on for a week. I'll post here again before you come back to let you know.

I just realized that I made a typo in the title of this thread - it should be Johan, not John. You should change it in your name, too, Yo.

Sorry.

yeah, I guess that is possible

that's ok, I'll do that now

we're only 3 hours behind schedual for leaving! I didn't think I'd make it on today

Yo - I have asked D'Elaphant to stand-in for you during your absence. Hope that is okay with you. Let us know here when you get back and you can take over the role again.

You're here!

I haven't heard back from D'E yet, so you can play until he shows up.

ok that's cool with me

My parents are about ready to take my head off for being on the comp so I don't think I'll be able to do much

OK if I leave Zeppo here while I'm on board the ship?

*Pets the *

Sure, I'll look after him well, and he'll see you whenever you drop in.

GL, obviously Volkert knows that Goodschad is ghost, but does Goodshcad know that Volkert is a vampire? I think he would - I can't imagine that he hangs around haunting him and doesn't notice.

Just want to make sure.

/* leaves fresh food for /___\ */