#spctr vtm

Here we have, from left to right:

Henkel, Tzimisce elder, who started as starry-eyed kid protecting humanity and turned into cynical Sabbat bastard, who sees people as mere source of food and fun, over the course of centuries

And Dunya, Tzimisce neonate, who has lived for about 20 years counting her unlife, who still follows path of Humanity, sees people as someone worthy of dignity and protection and has a (mutual) crush on Imbued hunter

And I suddenly understood they can be in the same city due to their backstories 🤡

Henkel would've obliterated Dunya in seconds, if only he hadn't seen a bit of past him in her and didn't decide to show this poor naïve girl the truth™. She can become a great asset if Henkel takes her under his wing, afterall! And a proof that Henkel did make right choice centuries ago, when he betrayed his sire...

...And thus Henkel created a situation with a non-zero chance of Dunya, following anime-protagonist logic, powering up and idealogically obliterating him with her adamant belief in the inherit power and grace of kindness 🤩

You see, it all started when I decided to play Tzimisce. A kind Tzimisce. No, really. There are no catches, my PC, Werner, really is quite a chill guy. Son of an executioner, after his Embrace Werner became a part of (homebrew) Inquisition squad dedicated solely to protecting mortals from supernatural (and consisting of vampires).

And Werner had three ghouls. Each one of them was okay with their new life – Werner had ghouled them while saving their lives, and truly cared for them. In fact, I spent whole game terrified for them. I kid you not, I was more ready for Werner's demise than for any of theirs. You cannot begin to imagine my relief when they had survived the game, even without major injuries, despite everything that went down.

One of ghouls, guy called Henkel, bright and starry-eyed kid, started developing Vicissitude. I truly felt like a proud father. We haven't played it out, but Storyteller and I decided Werner would embrace Henkel sometime after the events of oneshot, with Henkel's agreement to it. An oddly wholesome father-child (not by blood, but by blood) situation between two oddly wholesome Tzimisce. Well, WoD has seen weirder stuff, honestly.

And then my Storyteller, a cruel genius that he is, suggested that in modern nights Henkel would probably align with Sabbat. You know. Childe of a guy who spent most of his unlife protecting mortals from supernatural. Aligning with Sabbat. Throwing everything his sire, his father held dear out of the window. Yay.

It would have broken Werner's heart. Crushed him in ways nothing else could.

Naturally, I ran with that.

So, the sketches depict Henkel in modern nights. Sabbat Henkel thinks lowly of humanity, after centuries of observing their failures and shortcomings. Fan fact, "good old times" remark refers to the fact that Werner is an executioner's son and was taught to carry executions out before his Embrace. I thought it'd be delightful if Werner had to execute his own (once very loved) childe. It's not canon, but I love the angst. Yay.

Here is Werner, btw.

Tzimisce x Malkavian. Cody and Eloise, if we go by names.

Some context and close-ups will be under the cut.

Here are NPCs with some lore™, as usual. Players were Anarchs (as were most NPCs), tasked with figuring out the culprit behind clearly supernatural murder of a human.

Lucas, Tzimisce

Very polite and friendly guy. Also a terrible monster, as Tzimisce do. Murder took place in his domain, so he was the one to ask players to figure it out. He was embraced into Sabbat, but he really hated his sire, so he ran away and chose to live on Anarch territory. One of PCs was his childe.

Agnessa, Lucas' Ghoul

Technically she's a revenant, was gifted to Lucas by his sire. Her life during her time at Sabbat sucked, as it usually does, but Lucas took her with him when he ran away, and just for that Agnessa is forever grateful. They have pretty good relationships with Lucas, which, of course, doesn't make them healthy at all. But everyone is okay with that, at least.

Fern, Imbued

Kid of Redeemer Creed who, unfortunately, didn't understand true danger of Kindred, since he became Imbued by befriending one of them in hospital, when said Kindred was trying to get to donor blood and Fern offered his blood instead (since, y'know, donor blood should be there when it's needed, and Fern could share and regenerate a bit of his own).

He was caught sneaking near Lucas' house, thrown into basement and offered to players as a food source. Which led to his very fucked up and unfortunate demise (one of PCs was a Tzimisce, I remind you...). I am still sad about Fern's fate, even if I knew what'd happen to him the moment I wrote him to be tied up in basement :')

Diana and Hunter, regular Hunters

(Their father, another hunter, didn't care about names that much).

They were quickly obliterated by the player coterie, with Diana being turned into grill by Tzimisce and Hunter being blown up and turning into Wraith. A very vengeful one, demanding coterie to finish his sister off properly for the rest of the game. After refusal and mockery from Tzimisce PC he tried to burn everyone down several times, was stopped by Giovanny PC and then finally burned down local car scrapyard.

Simon, Wraith

Poor guy whose murder started this whole mess. He was a ghoul of Giselle (see below), finally managed to get free from her (she wasn't around for a while) only to be murdered the very same night for stupidest reason: local vampire was in a terrible mental state and single irritated phrase from Simon sent their Beast off.

Heather, Gangrel

My former PC, she wasn't that important, but she's a friend with murderer and final encounter happened in her domain. Dog-ghouls belonging to the murderer are now in her care. Also she has a lot of owl-ghouls. She's a professional forester, so don't worry about them.

Arabella, Nosferatu

Another former PC of mine. Childe of local Baron, hates him, so lives in car scrapyard in the outskirts of the city. Guess whose place got burned down after players tried to ask her for directions with Hunter still being enraged about his sister...

Giselle, Toreador Lasombra

Everyone thought she was a Toreador. Everyone was surprised badly when lights started to turn off... Giselle was Simon's domitor, so players first thought she was his murderer – they did have a messy break-up the night Simon got killed, afterall. It didn't help that Lucas said he suspects Giselle outright – he doesn't like Giselle very much out of fear that after she committed diablerie on his sire she is no longer quite herself. Giselle wasn't a murderer, though, and after a fight during which players made a mess out of local ballet school, she let them go, since Toreador PC agreed to become blood-bonded to her.

Blake, Brujah

The murderer. His older sister, Elba, is an agent of Technocracy (how do you like sudden MtAs in my VtM game?) and recently got socially processed for her crimes, so she doesn't remember her brother. Which naturally brings him a lot of grief and turmoil. Which led to him punching Simon after the latter was slightly rude... accidentally killing him. Blake was terrified of what he had done and went to Lucas in desperation, ready to get whatever awaited him for this mess, but Lucas suddenly proposed cover-up with blaming everything on Giselle.

Players figured the crime out either way. Brujah PC had a very sweet heart-to-heart with Blake during which her rage and determination to finish the murderer off changed into desperate desire to find a way for him to live. I, for my part, was sure Blake is done for, since Tzimisce PC really hated how Blake (rightfully) accused Lucas of lying to PCs, but suddenly Tzimisce PC decided to be only slightly cruel about it and simply sealed Blake's mouth shut with words "come back after a few nights and I'll fix you". In the end, Blake got away with pretty good ending for himself, considering the circumstances.

And that's where this messy ramble ends. Thanks for everyone who managed to get here.

Bonus art of one of PCs:

Cody, Tzimisce

My sillies. I posted a bit of info and another art here. But in short, this is my crack-but-also-serious OTP of Imbued from Hunter: the Reckoning and Tzimisce from Vampire: the Masquerade... Yeah... Some yapping about lore™ under the cut

Kiasyd and Dauntain from my last post but with a bit more effort

Kiasyd and Dauntain, two NPCs for my now cancelled Changing oneshot, who are sticking together, because Kiasyd has Dauntain's phylactery (I'm using C20 lore). Their duo has pretty unhealthy dynamic, Dauntain heavily dislikes Kiasyd but he can't do anything about it, and Kiasyd simply uses him for her own protection. Also as a hunter, so Dauntain catches humans for her to eat and other changelings for her to study – a role Dauntain also heavily dislikes.

Despite all that, I like to think that over centuries, Dauntain will reincarnate and after some lives will be able to restore his Kithain self (that's where I don't use C20 lore, I hate the idea of irredeemable Dauntain) and will become an Unseelie Piskie once again. And Kiasyd, living through all those centuries, will learn to protect herself. And so, in modern nights these two will be able to hold a conversation without hostility.