Sargent Emmet Wilson
For GURPS Technomancer
by Peter V. Dell'Orto
6', 185 pounds. Brown hair, pale skin. Usually dressed in an old police-style jacket and dark clothes. He wears high-collared shirts and jackets and a bent-brimmed cap or hat to help conceal his pallor.
ST: 20 [20] DX: 13 [30] IQ: 12 [20] HT: 17 [20]
Move: 7 Speed: 7.5
Dodge 8 Parry 11Advantages: Combat Reflexes [15], Reputation (+2, former State High School Wrestling Champ among alumni/locals, small group, 7-)[2], Technomancer Vampire [275].
Disadvantages: Manic-Depression [-20], Enemy (FBI, 6-) [-15], Loner [-15], Wealth: Struggling [-10].
Quirks: If possible, burns the corpses of his victims to obscure the vampire connection; Mutters quietly to himself without realizing he is doing so; Misses his old life and tries to carry pieces of it with him; Always rents a room with a full-sized mirror in it. [-4]
Skills: AK: Local City-14 [2], Brawling-15 [4], Criminology-12 [2], Computer Operation/TL8-12 [1], Driving (Car)-13 [1], Forensics-12 [4], Guns (Pistol)-15 [1], Guns (Shotgun)-14 [1/2], Law Enforcement-14 [6], Shadowing-13 [4], Shortsword-13 [2], Stealth-13 [2], Tournament Law (Wrestling)-12 [1], Wrestling Sport-13 [2], Wrestling-13 [2].
Spells: Create Servant-17 [0], Shape Darkness-17 [0], Teleport-17 [0].
Languages: English-12, Spanish-10 [1/2].
Equipment: 9mm Glock Pistol and/or 12 gauge pump shotgun, stolen or cheaply purchased used van or station wagon; high school yearbook; coffin full of earth of his homeland.
Total Points: 320
Biography
Sgt. Wilson was a small-town cop called in to investigate a strange "disturbance" at the Martin house at the edge of town. When he arrived, he found the Martins under attack from a young male vampire. In the scuffle, Emmet was bitten by the creature. The suspect fled as more police arrived; the Martins had been killed but not yet drained of blood. Emmet shrugged off the injury as minor, fearing the reaction of his fellows if they realized he had contracted vampirism. He successfully concealed his ailment from the town until it began to seriously manifest itself. Once he understood what was really wrong, it was too late to do anything about it.
Emmet desperately tried to control his vampirism, but found the hunger ate away at his ability to resist in mere days. He stalked and killed his first victim less than a week after the Martin incident. He quit his police job immediately thereafter, cashed out his bank account, and left town. Since then he has been a transient, driving from town to town, mostly preying on runaways, hitchhikers, and the homeless. He will stay in one place for as long as he thinks he can safely feed without being detected, then quietly slip away.
Emmet has not attracted the attention of a CDC Stake Squad yet, although the FBI is beginning to investigate a string of interstate murders they suspect to be connected. His old friends and co-workers worry and wonder about him; Emmet had seemed so stable and dependable before his "breakdown." They have heard nothing from him, and have not yet heard from the FBI, who have not connected Emmet and the Martin incident to the murders.
Motivation
Deep down Emmet Wilson despises what he has become and loathes himself. This does not change the fact that Wilson is desperate to live. He fears death, and will do anything he needs to do to survive, including murder. He is cunning and dangerous, and will use all of his knowledge of criminology and forensics to help muddy his back trail. He is also careful to eliminate witnesses, but won't take an extra risk of giving himself away in order to do so. When depressed Emmet will sit in his hideout, often not feeding, until driven out by his bloodthirst. It is at these times he is at his most dangerous, because of the depth of his hunger.
Emmet stalks his victims slowly, often picking multiple potential targets when he first gets to town. He will track them individually (usually on foot, in Shadow Form) and attempt to take them by surprise. He has not found the time to learn more spells, but takes full advantage of the ones he does have. He will use Create Servant and Teleport whenever possible, using the latter to return to his hideout (or motel room).
Encountered
Emmet can be encountered almost anywhere, from the depths of a big city to the lonely back wood of a rural area.
While Emmet is dangerous, he is fairly weak for a Technomancer Vampire. His limited number of spells makes him less powerful than a vampire could become, while his cunning use of his existing powers makes him a hard vampire to find and stake. He can make an ideal enemy for a rookie CDC Stake Squad. Against more normal residents of the Technomancer world, Emmet is very dangerous. His tendency to get depressed and stop feeding gives him a weakness that a clever group of amateur vampire hunters can exploit. But a cornered and weakened vampire is still a dangerous vampire.
Adventurers trying to catch Emmet may try to prey on his desire for his old life by setting out artifacts from his high school days (such as his wrestling trophy) as bait. Emmet would certainly be wary of such attempts -- his interest in his past is only a quirk, not a full-blown obsession -- and it will probably do little except tip him off that his hunters are closing in. In such a case Emmet may flee, or he may turn on his pursuers and chose to feed on them instead.
Other Settings
While the vampire package used here is specific to Technomancer, nothing is stopping a GM from substituting another Vampire package. In a modern GURPS Blood Types game, simply make Emmet a different sort of vampire. On Yrth, change English to Anglish and Spanish to Arabic, change Guns (Pistol) to Crossbow and Guns (Shotgun) to Throw Knife and his enemy to the Michaelites or the Templars.
Vampire Serial Killer
A traveling serial killer can be the focus a campaign either mundane or supernatural in focus. In a mundane campaign, the surprise value of a real vampire can be great but undesirable. In that case, Emmet can be a normal serial killer, with a Delusion that he is a vampire. Remove the Vampire package, but add Bloodlust [-10] and Delusion [-15]. He is much less dangerous, but perhaps even more horrific; after all, he's still drinking his victims dry of blood . . .
The Start of Something Big
As presented here, Emmet is a dangerous loner bent only on survival. He is a carrier for an infectious disease, which means he could spread it. Despite his care to cover his tracks, any victims he leaves alive (especially if he is driven off during the attack) can become vampires. He is a grave potential threat as a disease vector as well as a killer.
As a variation, remove Loner from Emmet's disadvantages and replace it with Chummy [-5] instead. Now, instead of a solo killer, Emmet can become the core of a pack of vampires. Add Leadership, Ally Group, and possibly some spells (learned from mages he infected, of course). The pack of vampires could be the enemy for a multi-session adventure to uncover and destroy them before they can spread further.
Article publication date: January 24, 2003
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