Blood Hunter Character Art

I finally got around to finishing off an illustration of Annette's character from our Blood Hunter solo campaign.

Blood Hunter: Linden Town Arc

Kieara rode north out of Cleften, down out of the mountains into a wooded vale. Conifers gradually gave way to broad-leaved deciduous trees as she descended, and she glimpsed wildlife darting beneath the canopy. By her map, she reckoned to reach Linden Town by evening. In the late afternoon, she rounded a bend and was waylaid by a rough-looking woman with a bandana and a longsword in the middle of the road. She paused, and the woman demanded her money, backed up by the threat of archers in the woods along the road. Kieara refused and spurred her horse, evading or shrugging off the arrow-fire. The bandit readied her longsword, but Kieara kicked her in the head on the way past, knocking her out cold.

Kieara arrived at Linden Town just as the day turned to evening. The village was small and squalid, a collection of wooden hovels on the unpaved mud beside a wide and slow-flowing river. Several small boats and long barges were docked at the rickety wharfs. The inn appeared to be little more than a large long-house with wooden trestle tables, and a makeshift bar at the far end. The patrons were mostly transitory river-traders and fishermen, so there was a warm and welcoming atmosphere and Kieara joined in the conversation and high spirits - until a fearsome bellow from outside sent the room silent. Kieara lerned that it was one of Baron Vork's "beasts," and everyone bade her be quiet and not draw its attention. She peeked out the front door to see a hulking, sewn-together manlike creature smash down the door to the smithy and reach inside, pulling out the brawny blacksmith and carrying him off like a doll. As it did him no immediate harm, she followed at a distance to see where it was taking him.

She tracked the beast for hours through the woods, until it came to a branch of the river and a burnt-out bridge. It leapt from the bank and waded across, disappearing into the forest on the far side. In the distance, she could make out the top of a tower jutting above the treetops. After safely stashing any items from her pack that might become water-damaged, she swam across the stream and continued her pursuit. Standing in the middle of a small clearing, the tower was about four storeys tall. Another huge beast patrolled the perimeter; this one appeared to be part man and part wolf, but with a short muzzle like a bat. Kieara leapt from the forest and fought it, managing to subdue it before its massive fists and claws could connect. Leaving it unconscious on the ground, she entered the tower's unlocked double doors.

The ground floor was mostly empty, so Kieara headed down into the basement. There she found the blacksmith in a small cell set into the hallway wall. Without any tools to open the lock, she pressed on into Baron Vork's workshop to see if she could find something to free the captive. The Baron was a small, bald man with circular tinted glasses. He noticed her sneaking around, and engaged her in conversation, telling her about his quest to construct the perfect creature. He did not seem overly perturbed when she told him she'd defeated one of his creations - instead, he became interested in using her to upgrade his next project, which was partly assembled on the table! He summoned his patchwork man to seize her. Kieara attempted to use her garlic-filled waterskin to disable the Baron, but he was apparently immune to its effects. Instead, while avoiding the beast, she struck the Baron a grievous blow with her silvered longsword. He immediately turned to a green mist, preventing her from finishing him off. She managed to escape the room, grabbing a piece of wire on the way out, and barred the door from the outside. While the beast tried to beat the door down, the green mist seeped out from under the door and disappeared upstairs. Kieara freed the blacksmith and they made good their escape.

They arrived back in town early in the morning, to the incredulous reception of most. However, while Kieara was hailed as a hero, there were those who were not so happy with her actions. The innkeeper warned her against fighting the Baron, as it would only cause trouble for everyone else. She argued with him and left; outside, an undertaker in a mud-stained coat and top hat cautioned her that several townsfolk - the innkeeper included - acted as Vork's eyes and ears in the town. He suggested she seek out the Linden Raiders, a resistance group fighting against the Baron, who hid in the woods around the town.


For various reasons, we took a hiatus of a couple of months at this point...


Kieara headed West into the forest, and began searching for signs of the Linden Raiders. Eventually she found some tracks, and followed them to a campsite deep in the woods. She managed to sneak past their sentries, and introduced herself peacefully from behind cover. Their leader, Mabel, turned out to be the woman she'd kicked in the head on her way into town. Since she had been well dressed and riding the horse of a Knight of the Eagle, they'd assumed she was a lackey of the vampires. Once they established that they were actually on the same side, though, they welcomed her into their group. The Raiders had been struggling against Vork for years, but his beasts were too great a threat for them to face without suffering heavy casualties. They knew of Vork's weaknesses - sunlight, holy symbols, and running water. The bridge had been burned out to prevent him leaving his tower, but he was still sending his beasts on sorties for "spare parts." They also told Kieara about collaborators in the town, including the innkeeper and the undertaker. Since this claim contradicted the undertaker's earlier behaviour, she decided to return to Linden Town to confront him.

The undertaker, Mortimer, explained that his father, the previous undertaker, had once supplied Vork with fresh corpses for his experiments. Once the Baron's experiments yielded success, he had a new means to acquire fresh body parts, and ceased raiding the cemetery. Mortimer found the whole situation distasteful, and had been trying to make amends for his father's failings. As another gesture of good faith, he told Kieara about a tunnel that led from the riverbank to the tower's basement level. Kieara hatched a plan to flood the tunnel and thus have the Baron pass over running water, temporarily robbing him of his power during an attack. She borrowed some excavation tools from the graveyard and rode back to the Raiders' camp.

As dawn rose, Kieara and the dozen or so Raiders arrived at Vork's tower, guarded by both the patchwork man and the bat-faced beast. While Kieara dashed out to engage one of the beasts, the bandits provided covering fire to slow it down. She managed to drop and decapitate the monster just as the second beast turned up. In a fierce battle, she managed to latch onto the creature with her teeth, and discovered that Were-blood flowed through its veins. It was eventually shot, slashed, and drained into submission, and Kieara severed its head. At this point, one of the Raiders who had been digging away the river bank ran up to report that the tunnel under the tower was flooding. Kieara ran inside and headed up, locating the Baron from his distraught cries as the water rushed beneath him. She caught him half in and half out of his coffin, and paralysed him with a stake through the heart. A dishevelled woman, obviously the Baron's blood-slave, tried ineffectually to stop her from killing the Baron. She collapsed in abject misery as Vork turned to ash, and Kieara left the tower to the victorious cheers of the Linden Raiders!

Having destroyed the source of evil, Kieara returned to Linden Town with the Raiders, and left the restructuring of town society up to the inhabitants. She returned once more to her journey, drawing inexorably closer to her vengeance against the Count.

Blood Hunter: Cleften Arc

After defeating the Baroness and leaving Torndrey, Kieara travelled north along the road. She arrived at the ruins of a town once bearing the name Valador. Crossing the bridge into town, she caught a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye and narrowly dodged a thrown knife! She dashed into the cover offered by ruined buildings, and stalked her assailants until she came face to face with a Dark Elf! They engaged in a furious swordfight; although there was a second Elf, the battle was also joined by a mysterious knight who charged in to help. While Kieara fought bravely, the Elf's skill with his light blade was too much for her, and she passed out from her wounds...

*     *     *

Kieara awoke after dark, lying on the bare earth just outside the ruins, disarmed but not bound. The knight was sitting nearby, and introduced himself as Sir Dustin Albrecht of the Order of the Eagle. She noticed his eyes glowed in the moonlight. He was curious as to what sort of creature she was, as he could tell she was not human, and requested to escort her to see his master, Baron Ormand of Cleften. With little choice, Kieara reluctantly accepted. Sir Dustin returned her sword and allowed her to take a suit of leather armour from one of the slain Dark Elves, but did not return her stakes.

On the road, the pair were attacked by Goblins led by a Dark Elf. Kieara slew those that were attacking her, and darted into the woods while the knight finished off his foes. She used the last of her Vampiric blood to fly through the woods at great speed, leaving Sir Dustin behind. Before daybreak, she was standing on a mountainside overlooking the city of Cleften.

The town was deep in the precipitous mountains, built along the edge of a deep chasm. On the far side, accessible only by a single stone bridge, stood a massive fortress forming a sheer and impenetrable barrier. She explored the mountains, but any way around the fortress would require her to negotiate a series of hazardous cliffs. Unfortunately, she lacked the blood to fly again.

Kieara headed into town for some night-time reconnaissance, and found the town completely silent and unoccupied, apart from a flock of bats flying overhead. Most of the buildings had strings of garlic around the windows and doors. She returned to the mountain and observed the town until dawn, at which point people emerged and began their daily business. Many cast nervous glances towards the fortress and crossed themselves. After watching for a bit, Kieara descended to the road and entered town as though she were a traveller just arriving.

*     *     *

She passed by a large church, and the head priest, Father Uriah, advised her to stay at the inn on the town square. He also expressed his hope that she wouldn't be staying long. She stopped for breakfast at a small tavern called The Winged Rat. The proprietor was a short stocky man named Culvert, who looked as though something had chewed on his face pretty severely. He remained fairly tight-lipped to this well-dressed and well-armed stranger, until she'd eaten a fried breakfast with plenty of garlic. After that, Culvert turned into a well-spoken, friendly, and informative man who was only too willing to fill her in on the ills of life in Cleften.

One of the Winged Rat's regulars was a tall, dishevelled drunk named Bert. For a bottle of wine, he told Kieara the tale of how his daughter had stayed too late in the woods. Bert finally found her, just as she was about to be attacked by a shadow beast. Before it could pounce, one of the Knights of the Eagle charged in and slew the beast. Bert's relief was short lived, as the Knight embraced his daughter and drained her of blood. By the time Bert reached her, she was dead and the Knight was gone.

Kieara learned that the Baron and the Knights of the Eagle protect the town from monsters such as Werewolves and Goblins, but they do so to protect their own food supply - the townsfolk. Anyone caught outside after dark, or not sleeping in a private residence, may be drained of blood. Bert offered to let Kieara stay at his house, as the public inn was not safe from Vampiric predation. Bert's place was a bit of a mess, strewn with broken furniture and bottles, and caked with dirt. Once she knew where to find it, Kieara set off into the town.

She went to scout out the bridge leading across to the Fortress, and witnessed a food wagon preparing for the crossing. The farmers and their wagon were both festooned with strings of garlic, and a group of priests arrived to offer blessings. The wagon rattled across the bridge, and the Fortress' heavy portcullis lifted to allow them entry. Once they were inside, the crowd dispersed. Father Uriah once again warned Kieara against staying in town too long. 

After that, she bought some powdered silver for use in banishment rituals, and also invested in a string of garlic. Returning to Bert's, she whittled some new stakes out of broken chair-legs. After nightfall, Bert still hadn't returned home, so she left a bar of soap on his table and headed for the fortress...

*     *     *

As she crossed the bridge in the moonlight, the portcullis rumbled open and two knights rode out to greet her - Sir Dustin and Sir Franz. She claimed to have come to speak with Baron Ormand, and was escorted to the top of the tower. The Baron himself coalesced out of a swarm of bats. Using Baroness Hartford's signet ring, Kieara claimed to be one of the Baroness' agents, sent to ask for the Baron's help in controlling a rebellious population. The Baron's ego thus swollen, he relaxed his guard and sent the knights away. Kieara uncorked her garlic-filled waterskin, using it as a bellows to blow noxious fumes in his face. Weakened by the garlic, the Baron was completely overcome, and she impaled him to his chair with her silvered sword. As his body crumbled to bloody dust, she considered how best to deal with the two knights.

She persuaded the knights that the Baron had flown away, and had given permission for her to stay in the fortress until he returned. Once in her guest quarters, she lured each knight in one at a time and ambushed them with garlic and sword, quickly slaying them. She then conducted a thorough search of the castle, finding no-one else but a selection of gargoyles along the walls and towers. When approached, they animated and moved to attack, but returned to their posts when she retreated from the top of the wall. A few at a time, she prepared banishing circles of silver powder, lured them inside, and cast out the animating demon within, reducing them to lifeless statues. Her search of the fortress revealed some arms and equipment, but most importantly a map of Alhast. Kieara now knew where to find the Count, in Stieglitz Castle.

*     *     *

In the morning she returned to the town and let the bridge-keepers know that the Baron was no more. Bert was not at home, but she was confronted by a mob led by the priests who were worried that her actions would not only allow other creatures to ravage the town, but would attract the ire of Count von Stieglitz. She told them to stand up for themselves, and that she would press on to deal with the Count herself. A freshly shaved and cleaned-up Bert - using his full name, Albert - appeared spoke in her support. Her acts of kindness and bravery had inspired him to reform his ways.

Over the next couple of days, Kieara moved Culvert and Albert into Cleften Fortress, and helped set them up as the leaders of a militia force. They found many recruits among the younger townsfolk, and an air of hope filled the fortress. The older folks back in town muttered their disapproval, but did nothing. Once she was sure the town and fortress were as secure as they could be, Kieara claimed one of the knights' horses and said her farewells, riding north on the road out of the mountains.

>>> Linden Town Arc

Blood Hunter: Torndrey Arc

After first crossing the mountains into Alhast, Kieara helped three farmers fight off a goblin attack on the road. Both of the men fell unconscious, but the goblins were slain or chased off. Kieara also tasted goblin blood, gaining their ability to see in the dark. She befriended Miriam, the only conscious farmer, and escorted her to the village of Torndrey. There they sought medical assistance from Granny Blake, an old witch who lived on the outskirts of town. The old witch seemed to recognise what Kieara was.

The next day Kieara was planning to leave, but she decided to help a woman whose woodcutter husband had been attacked by a wild beast. It became apparent that the couple's young son had tragically become a werewolf during an unexplained absence some weeks ago, and that he had attacked his own father as he returned from the woods one evening. She sought out Granny Blake again for medicine, and learned of a series of werewolf attacks that plagued the village twenty years ago. With Granny's assistance, Kieara used her unique talents to cure the woodcutter by drawing out the Were-blood while resisting the urge to drain his human blood. However, she was unable to bring herself to slay the boy and end the curse once and for all.

While Kieara dealt with the werewolf problem, she also witnessed the black carriage of Baroness Hartford returning to the town from parts unknown, sweeping through the marketplace full of townsfolk who knelt before its passage. The Baroness drove straight to Torndrey Manor, a short distance out of town. The Mayor pressured Kieara to leave town, and she pretended to do so while actually stalking the woods nearby in search of the werewolf who had infected the child.

She came across the dishevelled beast feasting on the corpse of a deer, and saw that it wore an iron collar and the cuffs of manacles on its wrists. She tracked it back to the Baroness' Manor, where it disappeared into the cellar via an open window. As she watched from the woods, she also witnessed the Baroness' carriage returning from a recent visit to the town. The Baroness and her footmen escorted three townsfolk inside - including Miriam!

Once they'd gone inside, Kieara mounted a rescue attempt. She discovered that the horses pulling the carriage were animated corpses. So were the footmen, concealed under wigs, powder, and fine livery. She fought her way past the zombies and rescued two of the captives, but Miriam had already been taken to the dining room - a hall of carved onyx, with foot-thick double doors the only way in or out. Miriam was tied to the table, with the Baroness - a Ghoul - about to dine. In a hard-fought struggle, Kieara managed to defeat the Baroness and decapitate her, bringing an end to her reign of terror. The Baroness' pet werewolf swore fealty to Kieara, but she was unwilling to have such a creature in her employ and bade him remain at the mansion while she returned the captives to town in the Baroness' coach.


It was half-way through the rather drawn-out battle with the Baroness and her zombies that we discovered +Annette couldn't see all of the electronic character sheet I'd made for her on Google Drive. Half of her weapon stats were unknown to her, which explained why the fight was taking so long! We quickly rectified the situation, and the Baroness was summarily dispatched.


Reunited with her now fully-recovered kin, Miriam left town in the early morning to return to the farm. After the sun had risen, Kieara discovered that the undead horses had crumbled to ash now their master was dead. She returned to the Manor, looting it of valuables and information, including the Baroness' signet ring, a sheaf of letters she found in the guest quarters sometimes occupied by the Count, and a book on the dark arts of necromancy.

As her final act in Torndrey, she decapitated the servile werewolf and walked north out of town.

>>> Cleften Arc

Blood Hunter: Prelude

My girlfriend +Annette had been interested in the idea of roleplaying games for some time, but hadn't been able to find a group willing to teach a newbie, so I gladly stepped up to the challenge. I asked some questions about genre and character, and we custom-built a world together for her first gaming experience. Since we live at opposite ends of the state, we started out playing via Facebook Messenger text chat, but have largely switched over to video chat via Google Hangout as of late 2012.

We decided on a world of Gothic horror. Her character, Kieara, is a half-vampire vampire hunter. She was attacked by the vampire lord Count Theodoric von Stieglitz, who attempted to turn her into a vampire. However, she managed to throw something through a window, exposing the Count to the dawning sunlight and forcing him to flee. As he had not managed to complete the transformation by filling her with his vampiric blood, she was stuck half-way - not a fully-fledged vampire, but not entirely human either. Her hatred for the Count and her desire for revenge are her major motivations. She loathes the dormant beast that lies within her, and desperately wishes to be clean of its taint.

Since we were playing remotely by text chat, I decided to use a modified version of my PowerFrame system. Normally that uses opposed rolls of an Ability (-5 to 5) plus an exploding d6. To make it a bit faster, I changed it so the acting character rolls 2d6 + Ability, and tries to beat the defending character's Ability + 6. I also simplified the Ability list, concentrating on a short-list of those used for monster hunting.

PowerFrame characters normally have a pool of 6 Health points. I decided to shift the baseline a little; humans would only have 3 Health, and supernatural creatures such as vampires and werewolves would get 6. This would underscore the helplessness of mortals in the face of horrifying creatures. Also, all but the most skilled humans would only have Abilities between 0 and 2, with 3 and above reserved for the very skilled or supernatural.

I decided that vampires would have a Blood pool of 6 points, which they could spend to use their supernatural powers. They regain points by drinking blood. Because Kieara was not a fully-fledged vampire, she effecively had 2 points from her Blood pool that could only be used for Vampiric powers, and the other four points were blank, and unfulfilled. Effectively, this means that if she drinks the blood of another type of supernatural creature, she can gain and use some of its powers. For example, drinking the blood of a werewolf gives her a point of Were blood, which she can spend to regenerate 1d6 Health. The main blood types are Vampiric (which she also gains by drinking the blood of humans), Were, Faerie, and Demon. The powers she gains access to are random depending on the type of creature bitten.

There is, of course, the possibility that Kieara will eventually become a full vampire. If she drinks any Vampiric blood, it will add to the points of her Blood Pool that can *only* be used for Vampiric powers. Each point gained in this manner will also automatically unlock a new vampire power, and a new drawback. Once she has all six points of her Blood Pool dedicated to Vampiric blood, she'll become a true vampire.

Human blood also fuels her vampiric powers, but doesn't automatically make her closer to becoming a full vampire. If she drinks from a human she needs to make a Willpower roll; if it fails, she'll keep drinking until she's full or they die. If she kills a human in this manner, she will gain another dedicated point of Vampire blood.

Kieara's equipped with a natty outfit, and a silvered longsword which prevents regeneration. With a brace of stakes, she's travelled from her homeland of Worthingare to the realm of Alhast, said to be the domain of Count von Stieglitz. As she clears the ridgeline and gazes down into a valley choked with dark pine forests, her journey is just beginning...

>>> Torndrey Arc