So the not-men in the high up castle. Pretty much Underwold style and not Chronicles or Apples and Moons style. No sparkle. Pasty though. Pretty but not overdoing it. Big old magyar/slavic style castle. Very dracula castle wise. A drake ambushes me on the way in but single target, I have tons of mana. We all know how that goes by now. Maybe if it had some duration reduction it would be a problem.

In any case I'm sure I've talked about my wit and charm and shit. All character skill based, nothing to do with me as a person. Meridian 60 worked hard to follow a character skills only style. I get to the gate.

With +1 to all reputation as well as +1 for common tongues and bonus dialogue stuff I easily get into the castle and begin to stroll the halls. If I was regarded as hostile I would have had to fight and if I was neutral I would have triggered the intended mission. As a human mage I started at -1 for hostile but I got 1 to 0 for neutral and 1 to +1 for cordial so I didn't get murdered and I didn't get to rule the continent as the dark emperor. Seriously. Would have been fun but I prefer the path I ended up on instead. More magey.

I casually walk down a main hall and see a table full of magic wares. Not a ton of stuff here but a nice INT/MEM item for 4 gold. I've been saving a lot of gold so I sell my junk from the quest and but it. +5+/5. Awesome. It is a special choker type thing. Vampire developers must have raided an old late 90s kids clothing shop or something. Whatever gender equality, I'll say its a torc. I move on.

As I start getting into nicer halls I walk passed a gorgeous female vampire in fancy clothes. I was told after the beta test ended that while the game didn't really support sex or romance at the level of modern game this vampire would have been my wife. What?

Well basically if I had had neutral reputation she would have told me of a brewing fight among vampires and recruited me to her side, turning me, and giving me an Extraordinary Blood/Dark Magic Template. I would have engaged with her faction and helped them defeat the ruler of the castle and then because of bonuses from the Template and to my racial and personal reputation I would have ruled with her over the vampires and theoretically, if I played well, run an evil empire trying to kill players and conquer the world.

As the new Vampire Master I would get a unique, with a lower case U, campire specific Template of class Legendary[Secret Background]. I'd be able to turn players, engage with leadership and administrative capabilities of the class and gotten a new ruler interface. In those days this would have been totally unique but I'm sure you've all heard of games like that now. We would have had a kid, but no on screen fun times, and that would have been my role in the beta.

Instead I took Linguist, a not exactly magey power. Sorry to the devs but the Spellfocus and Concentration Abilities were trash. Instead I walk by the pretty monster and am approached by a different vampire from a different faction. I get told about the factional conflict and how the Master kidnapped, studied, and was planning to sacrifice a powerful mage, and got sent on some various missions. Amusingly I even did a mission involving my intended.

First I did some things like ambushing individual vampires and locating secret doors and rooms, yay for Perception and high INT! Because I had Arcana I was also of use working with teams who suborned or disabled enchantments. Finally I was sent on a mission to kill a powerful vampire caster and his 3 minions.

Shadow Vampire Count LV 16 4000 EXP

Hp 1400 STR 100 DEX 50 CON 100 MOV 40/s

Mana 700 INT 40 WIS 25 MEM 25 CHA 50

Skills: Slash: 70 damage | Bite: 120 damage | Shadow Blast: 100 | Gravitas: -20% disable duration

Shadow Vampire Magus LV 11 500 EXP

Hp 200 STR 50 DEX 25 CON 25 MOV 40/s

Mana 400 INT 25 WIS 20 MEM 20 CHA 50

Skills: Slash: 40 damage | Bite: 70 damage | Shadow Blast: 50 | Gravitas: -20% disable duration

Narrator: Level: 11 Health 365[Rec 1.2/s] Mana 751[Rec 22.5/s]

This was going to be interesting. We had comparable INT and I had slightly higher WIS. So our magic would function in the standard way. This was a major concern for me against thinking enemies. With 4 enemies that were relatively spread out I would have to go with a different mana intensive strategy. Lockdown could force them to use magic but even if it got them all I could still take damage. I had enough range on them to get off 2 spells before they got to me. They were fast and hit hard. However as a top tier mage the minions were weak. I changed tactics.

I had just maxed out Arcane Missile, and I had a lot more mana. If I combined Boost and Arcane Endowment with Arcane Missile I would be able to deal ~209 damage in a single hit. I cast Boost, Arcane Endowment, Arcane Vigor, and Extend. That was 100 base mana. But I also tried something else out and cast Arcane Proficiency. It was multiplicative reduction so it worked the same way as the disable duration reduction. It impacted increases. I would save it for my most mana hungry spells. I cast Haste. 60 mana. Ouch. 14.85 seconds. Too bad I didn't have Tricaster. Would have let me save a few hitpoints. Or Twin. Both would let me frontload casting time.

I launched Arcane Stupefaction first as the enemy came at me. Almost exactly 19 seconds after the reduction. The Count was safely out of the fight for a while. Then they charged. Arcane Missile. One down. They get within range. Arcane Missile. Take 2 hits for 80 damage but only one left. Arcane Missile. Take 40 damage and one down. 3 Arcane Missiles with having spent 60+60+40+40+90=290 is 290+80+80+80=530 mana spent. 10 spells though so I recover 225 mana. Down 305. 3 seconds since I cast Stupefaction so 16 seconds on the stun. I have lost 120 health. I have plenty of mana left and rock the rest of the fight.

At level 11 I get 500*1*3=1500 and 4000*1.5*1=6000 for a total of 7500 EXP. Stacking with my previous jobs puts me around 40000 of the ~100k for level 12. It is going to be glorious. I return from the mission with items and gory organs from the enemy as evidence and for various Vampiric purposes. The vampires reward me with 5000 more EXP for finishing my side quest. The real reward though is the choice I am presented with. Since I finished the quest exceptionally well they offer me a Free Talent or an Uncommon Vampire Template. The latter requires me to agree to Turning. No. Blech. Dishonoring my High Human anscestors.

My choices are both Tier 3 Talents in keeping with the Uncommon Template. It would have had both of these Talents but I'd have to Turn. The major issue here is daylight limitations and people being scared of or hating me. Being a Vampire is a decent racial boost in some ways since it supplements and doesn't subsume your old race.

I would be able to choose between Night Magic or Blood Magic, known by their Talent names of Haemomancy and Eventide(a fancy word for Twilight basicaly. Night Magic was distinct from both black, shadow, and dark magic types. They all tended to deal umbral damage but they were distinct in other ways. I'll list out the spells below so you can understand my decision better.

Haemomancy: The magic of the blood and the body which deals with life and sickness

Abilities:

Blood Bond: +20ft to range of spells on Marked targets

Stigmata: +10% DoT duration on all bleeding enemies

Haemomancy Phase 1 Spell List:

Drain Life: 25 damage/25 healing | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s | 25 mana

Haemophilia: 5 DoT/5s | 2 target Mark | ranged 20ft | Cast 1s | 25 mana

Blood Rush: +10% MOV/STR 5s | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s | 40 mana

Taint: 5 DoT/7s | Mark+ 2 target Mark | ranged 20ft | Cast 1s | 45 mana

Haemomancy seems like an obvious adjunct to Miasma. Indeed it is a good combo. Tier 3 Talents have 4 options like Tier 1. I believe I mentioned that Tier 4 has 3 like Tier 2. However on an individual level Tier 1 and 2 options are superior and Tier 4 is the worst. A 3 option Tier 2 Talent is still better in most cases than a 4 option Tier 3 Talent. Synergy does exist though so Blood Magic is a very strong talent for me. Haemophilia does bleeding for its dot and Taint does poison. Blood Bond has its uses but personally I prefer Stigmata because I don't have good movement abilities to abuse extra range.

Eventide: The magic of dusk night and dawn which handles dabbles in illusion, movement, and debuffs

Abilities:

True Sight: Darkvision and Brightvision and a +10% bonus against Illusion based spells

Night's Cloak: A +10% bonus to concealment and illusion powers

Eventide Phase 1 Spell List:

Twilight: +5 CHA | self | Perk

Shadowstep: Blink(Cover/Dark only) | Self | 40ft | Cast 1s | 25 mana

Duskbolt: 25 damage | single target | ranged 20ft | 20 mana

Obscurity: Concealment 5s | self | Cast 2s | 40 mana

Eventide is a mostly defensive Talent. You get decent movement with some limitations, Tier 3 after all, the lowest tier of hiding, works on dumb monsters mostly, long cast time, well without Haste, high mana, short duration. A basic damage spell but for umbral damage, a rare resistance in most cases, slightly better than a Tier 4 cheap damage spell. And of course a CHA boost. Vampires! True Sight is a good defensive ability and has good environment based impact. Night's Cloak is a very strong ability especially since I have both Illusion and Eventide. If I had some more appropriate synergies I might take Eventide for the movement and hiding and social boosts.

In the end my choice is obvious. Haemomancy. Stigmata for my ability, and Haemophilia and Taint for my spells. I also get 5 stat points, but no skill points sadly, and I spend it all on INT. I'm now at 46 INT and need 4 more to complete my current INT boosting plan. 2 more levels. Of course only 1 level to getting 2 sweet Miasma skills. I actually strongly considered just boosting Haemomancy. It costs 5 as a Tier 3. The Phase boost would make my new DoT spells immediately useful. At the same time I really wanted to level Miasma and Time Magic. Hard choices.

That will be pretty much it for now. I'll get to the second and even more fun, minus the Free Talent, part of my Vampire Quest tomorrow. Good night and good luck.