What follows is the play log from an entire solitaire game of Thousand Year Old Vampire. Sort of a weird fragmented non-linear short story of the unlife of a vampire.
I have played three games of TYOV before this one. This time, I began the game in pagan Scandinavia, with a young man named Torgny Hjalmerson who dreams of being a successful viking raider like his father was before him. He descends quickly into madness and villainy, and makes especially horrible relationship choices.
There's no default setting for TYOV, so I'm blending Norse Myth, a few standard vampiric themes from elsewhere in folklore and mythology, a bit of the trappings of sensationalized hollywood-style satanism, and some weird new stuff unique to this tale. (Not to mention anachronism and historical inaccuracy.)
This was a ton of fun, and definitely a game I'd be happy to play again. It also works well as character-building exercise for Vampiric NPCs in other RPGs. (That's actually what I did with 2 of my 3 previous plays of the game.)
Trigger Warning: This is a log from a horror game. There's a good deal of violence in what follows, including mutilation, body-horror, blasphemous devilry, and violence against women. While I don't get overly lurid with the details and everything is kept kind of brief, there's some seriously awful stuff in what follows. If you've got a queasy stomach or are easily offended, you may want to skip this post entirely.
Full log follows below the fold:
Vampire #4: Torgny
Other Names: Torgny
Hjalmerson, Torgny Hardingfele, Tor
Hnefatafl, Torgny Troll-Fiddle, Midgard-Slidr, The Shoreside House-Wrecker
Prompts: 1,1,1,9,17,23,28,32,33,40,39,44,42,40,44,48,54,55,54,54,62,69,75 (These are the event cues that I rolled up, in the order I encountered them in.)
Skills: √= burned/used in a critical juncture by events, "checked" in game terminology
[√] Eager to prove myself in battle
[_] Lively storyteller with a decent singing voice
[_] Learned a bit of Seithr rune-magic in Engehild's house
[√] Bloodthirsty housewrecker
[√] Ashamed
[_] Humans are Cattle
[_] Beguiling musical crossroads
[√] I see the hidden truths of man and war and politics as mapped out on the hnefatafl board
[√] House-binding and prison-warding
[_] Planar travel by way of swimming from to Giol, the river of Hel
[_] Rage like a river of knives and claws
[_] Unbreakable faith in Hel and Ragnarok. I believe am on the winning side!
[√] Hel's propaganda poetry
Resources:
Lost: Hnefatafl set, carved by my father from stones and wood gathered on his first viking voyage
Lost: The arms of a viking raider: an axe, a seax, a shield, a helmet and a shirt of mail
Lost: Our family farm, including livestock such as the black goat Godamund.
Retained: A troll-tuned Hardingfele (hardanger fiddle) crafted by Godamund
Shared: the secret location of the sea-cave, and the knowledge of it and the black goat, which Reidun seeks
Retained, but relocated frequently: a diary, in the form of a series of runestones
Shared: a small cave-riddled island shared with Sandraudiga
Characters:
- (Im)Mortal: Reidun, my sweetheart, my enemy, my lover again, a shield-maiden, embraced by mistake, eventually slain by Svana while I lay paralyzed.
-
Mortal:
Engehild, my mother, a widow, and a seithr-kona
prophetess. Slain by accident while I was still learning my powers.
- Mortal: Jarl Thorarinn, to whom our family loyalty is pledged. Died of old age.
- Immortal: Sandraudiga, “she who dyes the sand red”, she haunts the shore caves. Slain by Svana.
- Immortal: Godamund, a dark schemer who wears the form of a goat. Banished after I beat him at chess.
- Mortal: Jarl Jörundur is manipulated by his secret lover Reidun. Died of old age.
-
(Im)Mortal:
Princess
Svana is
imprisoned at my farm, and enchanted by my music.
She killed Reidun and took her place at my side. She killed
Sandraudiga, and then she killed me. Svana survived the campaign.
-
Mortal:
Kolgrimir
Torgnyson is my boy with Svana. He is a malformed cyclops. Died of
old age, or possibly murdered by Sandraudiga, or maybe even by Svana.
-
Mortal:
Hertig Magnus is a Christian Duke. Survived the campaign.
Five Existing Memories:
In Thousand-Year-Old Vampire, your player character may maintain up to 5 Memories, each housing up to 3 related Experiences. They are numbered in chronological order, but as will become obvious, many events and details have been lost to the ages, and others have been transferred to his Diary (see below). That patchwork mess of memories is a major component of the game, with characters often making poor decisions because they are misinformed, or struggling to remember or forget things that cause them pain.
Memory #2: (This Memory has been edited twice by later events)
Experience 2:
Hjalmer,
my father,
died on a viking raid when I was quite young. He had died saving the
Jarl's life, and so his arms were brought to us, though his body was
left on foreign
shores. My oldest
memories of him are us playing Hnefatafl on the set he carved for me.
(EDITED: Time and trauma has caused Torgny to longer remember
exactly who this man was, or what was special about his death. He remembers only the boardgame, and a associated sense of sadness.)
Experience
8: I return to my parent's farm, and collapse crying salt water
on the floor. The bleat of a goat wakes me from my despair. I see him
now as a cyclopean man-goat, setting up the Hnefetafl board. He will
not let me leave until I have won my freedom on the board. Until
then, I must do the bidding of the soot-black goat-fiend Godamund
Lucifer. He teaches me how to lure victims for him, to fool and
hypnotize them by playing the troll-tuned hardingfele (hardanger
fiddle), and to kill them while they are entranced. I am his
accomplice for a century and a day. (EDITED: Many turns/years later, Torgny has begun to conflate the Christian
Devil with what was merely a familiar, troll, or shapechanger
before.)
Experience
10: Eventually I win my freedom by besting
the goat The
Devil at his own game. Thereafter, I banish
Godamund
Lucifer from my family farm, and I act out in symbolic vengeance.
Within a turning of the moon, I slaughter every single goat in the
jarldom. Their eyes I remove but cast aside uneaten, and I castrate
the billies as well. Thus
through my actions was the Christian Devil made subservient to my
lady Hel. (EDITED: That entire last sentence,
and the change from goat-troll to The Devil Himself, is an addition
over time.)
Memory #7:
Experience 18: Svana and Reidun grow jealous of each other, and tension befalls our household. In a straight-up fight, Reidun's supernatural speed would destroy Svana, but my day-bride is cunning. She carves the sigil known as the Sventhorn on a board, and hides it under our bed. When we retire, the sigil binds us. I lie paralyzed as she plucks Reidun's single eye, and burns it in the hearth. My night bride turns to ash beside me. I assume that I am next, but instead Svana rests her own face against my mouth. “You will make me what you are, and I will live forever with you. If you refuse, I will offer myself to Sandraudiga.” Day-bride becomes night.
Experience 21: After many years of killing together as a team, Svana again tricks me with Sventhorn under the bed. She says she'll be right back with a big surprise for me, and she leaves with our son Kolgrimir in tow. They never return. The house rots as I lay paralyzed and starving for years. Animals chew on me from time to time, repeatedly as I always grow back. Eventually, a wolf decides to drag his snack outside, freeing me from the Sventhorn sigil. His reward is to break my bloody fast with his eyes.
Experience 26: As I drag a family of five to the sea, I realize Sandraudiga is watching me from beneath the waves. We talk, warily at first, then bond over our mutual love of predation. She wrecks ships as I do homes. She has been feeding the cause, but unknowingly. She sends their bodies to the deeps, but is not being rewarded for it by Hel. I am lonely, and eager for a hunting partner, so I share my knowledge with her. Together, we find a cave-riddled island we can call home.
Memory #8:
Experience 19: Svana and I meet Hel at the crossroads. A beautiful raven-haired woman on one side, and a fleshless skeleton on the other, split and bloody down the middle. She is progenitor of our kind, great grandmother to Sandraudiga. She shows us her grey kingdom, and the army of disquiet dead. She wants us to recruit victims to her ranks for the coming war, and will reward us with greater magic. We must murder more often and from stealthy ambush that denies our victims glory, then leave the eyeless corpses weighted down beneath the water. Without hesitation, we agree, and learn the secret of how to travel underwater to the underworld to deliver our recruits.
Experience 20: Swearing a vow to the forces of Ragnarok hardens my heart, and the frequent trips to the River Giol erodes my memory. Ideals and goals of my youth fade away. Even some of my diary stones fade and crumble. I can no longer remember who I served in mortal life. More troubling I can't seem to recall exactly where or how I first met my night-bride Svana. It doesn't matter: for we are inseparable, and perfect at killing together. We become the Midgard embodiment of Slidr, the fearful river of knives.
Experience 22: I arrive at Magnus's court, but customs, fashions, and words have changed such that I am clearly an outsider. He is not a Jarl but calls himself Hertig, he and his court are Christians, and they trade more than they raid. This abandonment of the gods means that Hel's ranks will continue to grow as I kill, but Valhalla's will stagnate. I am on the winning side. I leave the court of men to the doom of its own making. I prey upon the crossroads again, and bury my runestones beneath them to harden and protect my identity.
Memory #9:
Experience 23: I range ever further afield. Sometimes I sleep in caves, but often I charm my way into houses. As a one-eyed wanderer who tells gripping tales of the old ways, people's reactions at the fireside tell me which religions lives in their deepest hearts. I dissemble to those who wish to know more of their grandfather's gods, but lack the first-hand experience to call me on my lies. The tales I tell them are designed to mislead them away from Valhalla.
Experience 24: Why do I keep all this old kit I haven't needed in decades? The arms of the viking raider I never was: an axe, a seax, a shield, a helmet and a shirt of mail. They are old and corroded, and only serve to remind people of a greatness they allowed to fade when they abandoned the gods. I carry these things into the sea, swim to the river Slidr in Niflheim, and add them to current of knives. (OOC note: These were my father's belongings, but I no longer remember that man as my father anyway.)
Experience 25: I grow ever bolder as my confidence mounts that the age of men is dwindling and doomed. I go from parasite to predator, from slayer at the crossroads to bloodthirsty housewrecker. I worm my way into a home, seduce and destroy the entire family, carry their bodies to Hel, and then move up the coastline to do it all again.
Memory #10:
Experience 27: I awake in my bed in the island cave, but am paralyzed again. Sandraudiga lay beside me, likewise bound by magic. Svana stands above me. Svana, who has always been at my side, as far back as I can remember. “You did not wait for me to return. Instead, you betray me to make a home with this one. She stole everything you had. She murdered our son, and still you choose her.” I try to plead, but the Sventhorn holds me trapped and silent. Our son, I think, Kolgrimir, I remember. He's in my diary, but I had all but forgotten him. Svana plucks Sandraudiga's eye, and burns it like she did Reidun's. Ash and salt beside me. Now that she has the stronger position, and has proven her point, I am confident Svana will resume our partnership. I am eager to hear the tale of how Sandraudiga murdered our Kolgrimir. It imagine must be a thing I knew, but somehow forgot. Svana leans in close, socket to socket, mouth to mouth. “One final kiss, and then I am alone,” she sighs. Then she takes my eye, through which I can still see even as it is thrown into the fire, even through the blistering pain. I am wrong. To ash and salt I return.
Torgny's Diary
Torgny's diary ended up being carved into runestones. Initially, he kept them on his family farm. Later, he buried them beneath crossroads that he frequented. Eventually, he dug them up and moved them to a small island he shared with Sandraudiga, and that's probably where they would remain after his final death.
A vampire may keep up to 1 Diary, which can hold up to 4 Memories. The numbering system continues in sequence with the above, but these represent things he no longer remembered first-hand by the end of the tale. He would have to reference that collection of runestones to refresh himself on the details.
Diary
Entry #1:
This was Memory #1, before that was erased. (See below.)
Diary Entry #2: holds Memory #3:
Experience 3: Engehild, my mother, teaches me a bit of seithr-magic. Men aren't really supposed to learn such things. I have a interest for it, she's a good teacher, and there's no father figure to steer me against it. Tales of magic and secret truths capture my imagination.
Experience 6: I return with Godamund, but without my eye. My flesh is cold, and my socket weeps saltwater. I ask Engehild to heal me, for I know that I must be cursed. We travel to a sacred well that she thinks might hold the cure, but when I see my reflection in the water, I let loose a terrible scream. Her motherly instinct is to cradle and comfort her only child, but in my state I cannot help but destroy the first person that I touch. I devour both her eyes, and her lifeblood is lost in the well.
Experience 9: The method of my hunting becomes a ritual. I arrive at sunset at a crossroads, often one near to the shorecaves, or the well, or the farmhouse. I play my hardingfele, until the sound entices some traveler or curious fool to approach. My magic dulls their reactions. If I take both of their eyes (one for my master, and one for me), the bodies I leave behind quickly rot and crumble.
Diary Entry #3: holds Memory #4:
Experience 4: Reidun's parents bring her to Engehild to predict her fate. The runes suggest that Reidun will win glory in battle with a Jarl or King, and they begin her training as a shield-maiden toward that end. We meet and I am instantly smitten: my first teenage crush. A few years later, she becomes my first lover.
Experience 7: Filled with guilt, I seek out Reidun, intending to ask her help in ending my life. She too tries to comfort me instead, and as we embrace, again I lose control. I consume one of her eyes, before her warrior willpower breaks my spell. She fights me off, and flees into the night. I am alone in the dark, and know that I am truly a monster.
Experience 12: Jarl Jörundur has a secret lover who pulls his strings and pushes him towards war. I navigate his court and uncover his secret mistress. She is Reidun, and I remember her despite a century apart! We spar, we struggle, we duel, and I prove myself a worthy adversary. For a time we share the Jarl's court, frenemies with (bloody) benefits.
Experience 5: Godamund has escaped the pen again, and his path leads down to the tide caves where no one goes. Sandraudiga is waiting for me, a naked beauty with open arms. The tide comes in suddenly, and I am washed into to her embrace. She drags me beneath the water and her kiss consumes my left eye.
Experience 14: Reidun wants to learn more of our kind, our origins, and how I have powers she lacks. As I am useful to her now, she forgives old transgressions. We hunt the crossroads together, and we are lovers again. I mentor her, but I am careful not to reveal the secrets of the sea-cave or anything that I think she can steal from me.
Experience 15: My house is my magical castle, and my arcane power grows. Svana is my day-bride, Reidun my night-bride. Both are shield-maidens of great skill and valor, but enchanted now and under my control. Svana gives birth to my boy, Kolgrimir Torgnyson, who is a malformed cyclops, but does not seem to have inherited any of my powers.
Experience 16: Reidun asks me more questions about magic and my origins, and I realize that I cannot remember the identity of the man I remember teaching me Hnefatafl, only that he made me sad. Worried that I might lose more of my memories, I commit many of them to runestones, and place them about the farmhouse. I am careful not to include anything I don't want Reidun, Svana, or Kolgrimir to learn.
Experience 17: Sandraudiga washes into my house one day, naked and glistening. My efforts to keep her existence secret are ruined: she is clearly a creature of great power. She walks over to my hnefatafel set, and claims it is hers. I argue that its not, that it was made for me, but I find that I cannot name the man who carved it. Rather than look weak in front of my brides and son, I make a gift of it to her.
Lost Memories
Within the game, it's possible for memories to become lost entirely. Sometimes this happens because of an event that destroys them, and sometimes you have to let things go because you've run out of space in your Memories and/or Diary to hold them all. In this particular game session, this Memory was moved to my Diary to make room for new Experiences, and then a few turns later an unfortunate event prompt caused me to lose it entirely, as one of my runestones cracked and crumbled.
Diary Entry #1: was Memory #1, before it was erased
Experience 1: As a young man, I fill my head with sagas of the gods and the heroic exploits of great warriors. I yearn to go a viking on one of Jarl Thorarinn's expeditions, and prove myself worthy like my father did.
Experience 11: The new Jarl is gearing up for war. A century of study with the troll-demon-goat Godamund has taught me to anticipate the moves of Jarls and Armies. I charm my way into his court.
Experience 13: Jarl Jörundur has a visitor. Another Jarl, on his eastern border, wishes to make peace by offering his daughter Svana to be Jörundur's wife, and bind their houses in marriage. Instead, I capture her in the night and take her to my old farmhouse. I bind her there with goat-magic, she is prisoner unless and until she defeats me at Hnefatafl. I do not take her eyes.
Final Analysis:
10/10, would die again happily. The game is quite enjoyable, a fun diversion and a good writing tool for character building.
This particular playthrough was on the shorter end of the spectrum. Not abnormally short, but notably several turns shorter than two of my three previous games. The death of the main character came without much warning, as my last three rolls took big forward leaps towards the end of the prompt list.
I really love how the random prompts take the story in unexpected and exciting directions. The big betrayals and romantic triangles were all triggered by the mechanics and prompts, none of that was pre-planned or particularly influenced by me. If I were just writing fiction, this tale likely would have ended at Ragnarok in some way. Instead, it ends with an unhinged ex murdering me in my sleep, and we never learn the fate of the gods or the world.
The game does always end with some sense of finality, and usually with the main character's final demise, so if you are planning to use it to generate the backstory of a PC or NPC for another game or story, you'll have to decide at what point in the tale you want to pause.
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