The King is Dead: Captain Trench, Rebel Hunter

Samuel Roukin on TURN: Washington's Spies

The villain of "Moroi," the first of four The King is Dead sessions I'll be running at GaMExpo!

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Captain Alberick Trench

Villain

 

It is not as if the people of Malleus cannot feel the lingering wrongness of their situation. It is not natural for any beast to submit to the slaughter; fowl, oxen, and even swine squeal and writhe when the knife is against their necks. Even accounting for the propaganda drummed into Mallean minds by the Holy Panoptic church, the main thing that keeps the population in line is fear of mass slaughter – of the vampires swooping down in the middle of the night and murdering whole villages in their beds. That some humans not only accept vampiric rule, but seek to become blood-drinkers themselves is proof of how unnatural the nation of Malleus has become.

Captain Alberick Trench is a moroi – a human servant to the vampires who has become a lesser blood-drinker in his own right. Though he looks to be in his late twenties or early thirties, his age is closer to fifty; decades of imbibing vampire blood has slowed his aging as well as increased his strength and vigor. His preternatural abilities allow the captain to serve as a hunter of hunters, a counterinsurgent against the secret societies that would free Malleus from tyranny.

The captain’s masters in military intelligence transfer Trench from mark to mark, county to county, assigning him to train the local garrisons in increasingly effective anti-espionage techniques. Captain Trench has himself invented many of these methods, and keeps their secrets to himself. He may be a traitor to mankind, but he knows he is only useful to the vampires as long as he proves himself. Maintaining proprietary knowledge of his counterinsurgency methods is his trump card.

After taking residence in Thornmark, Captain Trench made obeisance to the little-seen marquis of the county, Lothar Eligos von Stenzgard, and to the heads of the other vampire families resident in the mark. The captain has drunk from all of them, giving him a mix of abilities dominated by the bloodline of wolfish Prince Rickard but also enhanced by the fiendish beauty of Bloody Prince Wilhelm. Combined with decades of sword and pistol practice, Captain Alberick Trench is a greater challenge than his effete, martinet-like appearance might suggest.

Attitude: Self-assured and cruel, Captain Trench is brusquely Uncooperative to any except his superior officers and vampires. He easily turns Hostile given the slightest provocation.

Attributes: Agility d12, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d12, Vigor d12

Skills: Fighting d10, Intimidation d8, Investigation d10, Notice d10, Riding d10, Shooting d8, Stealth d8, Streetwise d8, Throwing d6

Charisma: +2; Pace: 8; Parry: 8; Toughness: 8

Hindrances: Arrogant, Habit [Major; blood addict], Vow [Major; to military intelligence], Vow [Minor; to the vampire lords of whatever mark he is serving in at the moment]

Edges: Alertness, Charismatic, Combat Reflexes, Counterattack, Danger Sense (a literal nose for trouble; his wolfish sense of smell alerts him to the presence of gunpowder and poison), First Strike, Improved Level Headed, Martial Artist, Parry, Steady Hands

Gear: brace of flintlock pistols (Range 5/10/20, Damage 2d6+1, RoF 1), cavalry saber (Str+d6), riding horse, 6d6 reichsmarks in coin.

Special Abilities:

• Bite: When the moroi has a victim grappled, it may bite for Str+d4 damage.
• Slow Regeneration
• Weakness [Sunlight]: The moroi is a -2 on all physical actions taken in direct sunlight.