The Curse of Appetite

This page represents an unimplemented system. It is a declaration of intent and not reflective of any current, future, or final implementation.

In death; the spirit fades, the body corrupts, and the soul preserves.

What, then, should the soul corrupt and the body preserve?

In the hands of the magician: Something both great and terrible …​

— Unknown
Observations of an Immortal

Hunger, both spiritual and carnal, bound in flesh

Appetite is a curse targeting humanoid entities, corrupting their souls and trapping their spirits, transforming them into insatiable, obsessive-compulsive incarnations of craving called vampyres.

Those who become a vampyre find that food cannot restore them, and they must instead sustain themselves by other means.

Spoilers inside!
Positive:

  • Vampyres are functionally immortal

  • They can no longer drown nor suffocate

  • When injured, their health passively recovers up to their current hunger level

Neutral:

  • They are now considered undead and at times infernal

  • They can be targeted by additional rites, rituals, and spells; and might be affected by others differently

Negative:

  • They must feed on the living to restore hunger

  • They become Vulnerable when exposed to sunlight or garlic; when submerged in water; or when set on fire

  • They can’t lines of salt or bodies of water

  • They are immune to Fire Resistance

Vulnerable entities receive more physical damage. When applied alongside an equivalent level of Resistance, their effects cancel out.

Immortality is not invulnerability; and thus vampyres can still be slain using magic, by powerful Infernals and bosses, and are mortal while Vulnerable.

Meeting the vampyre

Vampyres can be found roaming any biome where villages might be settled, but have only been sighted under new moons where they are furthest from sunlight. Their curse demands that they sate themselves on the living, and thus are always hostile on sight.

Despite their immortality, the life expectancy of a vampyre is fleeting. While they’re certainly more dangerous than the average monster, few survive long enough to adapt to their new state of being.

Legends amidst some villages, however, speak of terrible dark magicians who have drank from the sleeping and stolen away children for generations …​

Becoming cursed

This section is a stub, and each method listed deserves a section with a full-bodied description and steps.

  • Embrace the gifts of a dark sire

  • Survive lethal damage from a vampyre with the Bad Omen effect

  • Make compact with an Infernal

  • Enter the servitude of a higher power

  • Be subjected to an especially powerful bewitchment

Breaking the curse

To-do