Daniel Spicui

Daniel Spicui is the vampyre Darklord of the wretched domain of Lack-Light.

Background

Daniel was once one of the younger scions of the Spicui family. This was a highly traditionalistic brood of vampyres that believed they still did the gods' work by culling humans, and considered the logging town of Lipsade and its environs to be a hunting range assigned to them. In order to improve Daniel's hunting skills, the family's elders forced him to enroll in Lipsade's schools, so he might learn the ways of his human prey and be more effective at culling them.

Rather than learn to understand his prey and become a clean and efficient killer, Daniel proved to be apathetic to the divine duty his elders espoused, and chose to manipulate the school children in whose company he spent his days. One by one, Daniel targeted sensitive and insecure girls, first seducing them before he started gaslighting them, destroying their sense of self-worth until they became wholly dependent on him. Daniel would alternatingly feed on these girls and make them do things for him, ranging from petty crimes like helping him cheat for tests to horrific transgressions such as stealing babies for him to devour.

Eventually, Daniel's elders came to realize how utterly depraved he was, and set him an ultimatum: either cleanse himself of the debauched lifestyle he had created for himself and return to the pure predator's ways of his ancestors, or else leave the Lipsade region entirely and never return. Daniel feigned acquiescence to the will of the elders and asked them to give him time to properly 'retire' his human shell identity. The elders, who did not comprehend the true evil of their scion, granted him a day and a night to do just that.

Instead of doing as he had promised, Daniel rounded up his human thralls and used them to rush Lipsade's police office, killing the town's officers of the peace. After arming his thralls with police riot gear, Daniel brought them to the Spicui family compound. After blocking all the escape routes from the compound he knew of, Daniel sat back, drank beer and ate snacks while his thralls murdered his whole family, root and stem, with the aid of high-powered firearms. He did not even deign to listen to the screams of the dying, and played music on a portable device while he waited for the work to be finished.

The Mists came rolling in while Daniel entertained himself, and the Lipsade region was drawn into the Demiplane of Dread, where it was reborn as Lack-Light.

Current Sketch

Daniel does not understand what has happened, or why he is trapped inside of Lack-Light, but the changes frustrate him.

When the Mists rose, Daniel found himself withered and aged. The touch of the sun burned his skin as though he were a hated vampire, rather than a vampyre, and he had to spend the day hiding in a forest cave like an animal. Eventually he managed to make it to Lipsade, where he managed to catch a citizen who was out late and drank his blood. To Daniel's surprise, the blood not only sated his hunger, but rejuvenated him and gave him back the youthful good looks that he had always relied on. He learned soon enough that the change was not permanent; unless he feeds every day, he starts to age at an accelerated rate until he returns to the withered state in which he originally awoke, and direct sunlight burns his flesh no matter how old or young he looks.

While Daniel is fine with the idea of feeding daily and killing regularly, he hates pain and found it difficult to play his favoured games of manipulation when he could not interact with the children of Lipsade as he had done in the past. Through trial and much error, Daniel cobbled together enough arcane knowledge to affect the weather in his domain, permanently shrouding its skies. He is now able to walk outside on all days except those on which the strongest winds blow, which can scatter the cloud cover and once again expose him to the sun's bite. This has not been the undiluted blessing to his existence he anticipated, however.

The reduced light has cooled the domain down and makes it more difficult for the human inhabitants to grow sufficient crops to sustain them all. Food is rationed during especially lean years, and there is considerable pressure on young people to study and improve themselves so they can join the workforce; Daniel's preferred display of teenaged apathy is not tolerated by either the children or their teachers. While there are vampyres living in the woods, they do not offer Daniel any respite; they refer to him as 'the old one' and hold him in contempt for living among the prey. His tactic of enslaving and gradually depleting thralls strikes these evil, but pure predators as utterly revolting. It has not escaped their attention that the Darklord prefers to prey on vulnerable teenage girls, which is something that only deepens their revulsion for him.

The dissolute lifestyle Daniel prefers - doing as little as possible while his charmed slaves wait on him hand and foot - is not tolerated anywhere in Lack-Light, and he needs must invest a considerable amount of effort in pretending to be productive while hiding the truth of his 'home life'. He must also periodically use magic to alter and erase the memories of all the people of Lipsade, so as to ensure that no one will realize he is other than human. This is made more difficult by the fact that his rejuvenation after feeding does not only affect him physically, but also mentally.

Even as Daniel's physical attributes grow stronger and healthier, his mental attributes grow weaker and diminish. Daniel is strongest, fastest and most healthy when he is physically young, but the scope of his thoughts, memory and willpower are greatest when he is in his withered form. Daniel can't access spells above second level in his young form, which means he must starve himself and tolerate the pains and deficiencies of old age just to access his greatest power.

Closing the Borders

Whenever Daniel wishes to close the borders of Lack-Light, clouds cover the sky to the point that all natural light is extinguished. The resulting darkness actively devours light, even magical illumination, darkening the domain over several hours until everyone except Daniel is wandering around blind, even creatures with natural darkvision. Those trying to escape wander back into the domain, where Daniel can track them down with relative ease - except he prefers to marshall his troops of enslaved girls and have them shoot his enemies.

Recent Events

Daniel has been struggling for centuries to maintain his identity and eke some enjoyment out of his existence, but in 765 BC one of his targets for enslavement was whisked away from him and broken free of his charm by a duo of adventurers. He closed the borders and prepared to track the offenders down and murder them, but the duo had somehow managed to escape. Daniel does not know that Heroes of Chibiloft Comoară and Wick have managed to get away from him with the aid of the succubus Slap, whose reality wrinkle allowed them to pass out of his domain.

Statistics

Neutral Evil male Vampyre Rogue 3 / Transmuter 13 (Forbidden schools: Evocation, Necromancy)