Vampire

From Discworld MUD Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search

Vampires are extremely aggressive undead npcs hanging out at night in Escrow and on roads around it and waiting for fresh blood all the time inside the Magpyr Castle. They've been known to kill new characters in one hit.

Appearance

The following npcs in or around Escrow and the Magpyr Castle are vampires:

  • beautiful woman
  • handsome man
  • slim woman
  • slinky girl
  • young man
  • vampire of a brawny man
  • vampire of a brawny woman
  • vampire of a muscular hunter
  • vampire of <player>

Regardless of their visible names, you can refer or target any of them with "vampire", for example "shove vampire" will target the first vampire in the room.

Vampires wear stylish and expensive but somewhat dated (some would say carbon dated) clothes.

Fighting

Vampires automatically attack players, fruitbats and probably others when in the same room, using delayed pursuit to follow.

They fight unarmed with attacks like raking with their claws, lots of shoving and tripping and of course the infamous vampire bite. They can kill a new character in one round, see the warning.

Like other npcs that attack players on sight, vampires are evil and killing them shifts your alignment toward good.

Killing a vampire turns it into a pile of white ash, and everything it was wearing or carrying falls to the ground.

Those who die to vampires will have their corpse rise as one.

The bite

The vampire special bite attack inflicts stat-draining venomous damage that can make the victim stumble around, fall unconscious at inopportune times, often when trying to cast spells, and also causing temporary stat loss of -2 dexterity, -2 intelligence, -2 strength and -2 wisdom.

The slinky girl bites you in the right leg but your chalky skin absorbs most of the blow.
The slinky girl sinks her fangs deeply into you.
Pain shoots through your veins, exploding inside your head, making you scream in agony as the effect of the vampire's bite fills your body.

The bite wears off after a while, or if you fall unconscious it is gone when you wake up.

Floaters and bug shield seem to block vampire bites.

That which darkness fears

Vampires are gifted with powerful abilities but are in return afflicted with blood cravings and psychological weaknesses to certain things which produce terror in them. This is more sporting according to the old count Magpyr.

Garlic breath

You can breathe on vampires if you currently have garlic breath, which you can get by eating garlic or things with garlic in it, getting zapped with a yellow wand or sometimes when having spell failures.

breathe on vampire
The beautiful woman chokes violently and runs off in terror.
The beautiful woman leaves east.
You breath on the beautiful woman, exhaling a cloud of caustic odour.

Holy water

It is also possible to use a (holy water) spray bottle to make vampires flee.

hold bottle
You hold a spray bottle in your left hand.

spray bottle at vampire
After encountering the misty substance, the slim woman screams and runs away in terror.
The slim woman leaves east.

Holy symbol

Holy symbols can also be brandished at vampires to make them flee. Charged prayer beads can also be used.

Please note that the brandish command comes from the vampire so it will not work if you are preparing elsewhere, you'll have to test your alias with the actual vampire present.

brandish holy symbol at vampires

After seeing a holy symbol, the young man screams and tries to run in terror.
The young man leaves northeast.
You brandish the golden thimble at the young man.

This can be used to split vampires easily, just use something like brandish holy symbol at vampires except vampire.

If you try to brandish something other than a holy symbol the vampire just laughs at you.

Lemons

You can plant lemons on a vampire, even while in combat with it, though it seems much harder.

This seems to cause vampires some amount of pain.

You can then pick up the lemon and try again!

plant lemon on vampire

The slinky girl screams in pain and hurries to drop the dried small lemon.
You plant one of the dried lemons on the slinky girl.

The Slayer

Bane of all vampires, Tuffy the Vampire Slayer is an heroic young woman that easily slays vampires with unarmed attacks and by throwing and stabbing them with short wooden stakes. The vampire bite has no effect on her.

If you lead vampires to Tuffy she will attack them and probably manage to slay them.

Killing Tuffy will at some later time get you thrown to a werewolf pack that will try very hard to eat your various bodily organs, the same thing that happens when killing villagers in Escrow.

Vampirification

When someone is killed by a vampire, their corpse becomes a vampire a little under a minute after the last item of inventory (including money) is retrieved from it. They are called a vampire of <name>. This applies to both player and npc corpses.

The corpse has an extra line added to it:

It seems to be twitching slightly, almost as if it's still alive.  You probably shouldn't get too close.

It also gives off chats ("The corpse of a brawny man twitches slightly.") and cannot be buried.

These corpses will also become vampires once they reach the point where they would normally decay all the way. (At least, this is true for npc corpses.)

About twenty seconds before a corpse rises as a vampire[1], this happens:

The somewhat decayed remains of a corpse jerks violently, its limbs quivering.

Then...

The somewhat decayed remains of a corpse seems to arch its back, and a faint gasp comes from its mouth.
The corpse's eyes snap open, and a vicious grin spreads across its face.  It rises upwards without bothering to push away from the ground, standing upright, its eyes flashing.  You notice that the fangs of the corpse look considerably longer than they used to.
The vampire of a brawny man glances down at himself and grimaces.  He waves one arm and is instantly clothed in more fitting garments.
The vampire of a brawny man grins viciously.
The vampire of a brawny man moves aggressively towards you!

The clothes they summon onto themselves are the same as the ones the other vampires wear.

Using the godmother's services while in the same room with your corpse (which brings your corpse along with you) appears to de-vampirify your corpse.

Warning

Vampires can kill a new character within one round:

The land is lit up by the eerie light of the full moon.
This is a rather quiet and empty street that weaves its way through Escrow. A dark building that reeks of spilt beer stands to the west, while to the east stands a large home nestled in between several others. The street leads off darkly to the north and the south.
It is a cool secundus summer's night with almost no wind and some puffy clouds.
There are three obvious exits: north, south and west.
A slinky girl is standing here.

The slinky girl moves aggressively towards you!
The slinky girl cuts your right foot into small pieces with her claws.
The slinky girl cuts your right leg into small pieces with her claws.

Someone says: MY, WE'VE BEEN A BIT CARELESS, HAVEN'T WE? SHALL WE POPPADOM TO THE NEXT DIMENSION?

In Escrow, they turn into mist and run away when they notice that the sun has risen high enough. This is actually some time after the room announces the morning. Also, someone might need to enter the room or look into it for the vampires to take notice of the sunlight, so there may still be vampires around after sunrise--and they may get several rounds of hits in before disappearing. Vampires that have followed players indoors might not disappear even during daylight.

Footnotes

  1. If the last item was taken from it--this might not be the same if it reaches the point where it would have decayed.  research If this has been marked on a page, it's because there was something that probably isn't known, that the person who edited the page thinks could be found out. Perhaps you could figure this thing out, and be famous evermore.