By Peloquin (ka.vanadis@karlskrona.mail.telia.com)
"Are you ready?" Von Hauber touched the arm of his apprentice.
"Yes, m'lord." The young neonate vampire drew his twohanded sword, adjusted his suit of armor, kissed his crucifix and descended into the dark tunnel.
An hour passed. Then, a raspy chuckle, and the head of the apprentice rolled out from the darkness, followed by the twisted, broken remains of his sword. "He should have stayed at home..."
Von Hauber flinched unvoluntarily. "What are you? Nosferatu?"
The chuckle was heard again, farther away this time. "Noooo, I am the darkness in your soul, little leech. I am the bringer of your doom and you should have learned by now what happens to any unwanted visitors to our domains..."
Von Hauber felt the hairs on his back rise. "B-but...what-what do you call yourselves?"
Even further away now. "Yavelins, remember the Yavelins..."
Once upon a time there was not much that could scare the undead into silence. But in the dark, ancient cities of the Far East, and the dusty ruins of the Middle East, there was a name that would frighten the strongest of the Kindred.
The Yavelins.
None of them knew truly what they were, or even what they looked like, as those who went to investigate them were either never found again, or found -- in pieces. The mere mention of them could ruin the highest of spirits. Even the tunnel-dwelling Nosferatu looked over their shoulders when they spoke of them. But soon they were forgotten, and as the Kindred and kine alike were "educated," the Yavelins soon became myths.
But not for long.
Soon the vampires learned that the Yavelins had followed them into the New World, in fact, followed them everywhere they went, if not to kill them, for some other strange reason. And the Yavelins were again established as the things who could scare the bogeymen. But time passed, and again, the Yavelins became myths, and today no one even thinks they ever existed.
They're wrong.
The red haired secretary popped her head inside the office door and smiled.
"Sure, Mr. Hauber."
Ahhh, unlife was good. Not only was he the C.E.O of a large, multinational corporation, he was the Prince of his city, the latest Anarch rebellion had been easily subdued, and it seemed as if those rumors of new, unauthorized Nosferatu were just blarney, nothing could spoil his mood now...
"Mr Hauber? Your coffee."
He nodded graciously at the young woman. He wouldn't actually drink the coffee, but one had to put up appearances for the kine. "Thank you. Any messages?"
She frowned for a second, (after all, he had hired her for her photographic memory) and then started to tick them off on her fingers. "Well, the governor called and said that he and his wife accepts your invitation for Sunday. Mr. Vandevar called to say that the deal worked out, and the Brazilian Board of Mining called to say that you've been approved."
He grinned. "Thank you again, for the good news..."
She stopped, halfway through the door. "Oh, there was one more call, a strange one..."
He looked up. "Oh?"
"Yes. Someone called, and said absolutely nothing for the first seconds. Well I thought it was just a prank caller, but then he said something."
"What?" He could feel a chill down his spine; somehow, this would not be good news. "Well, all he said was 'Tell your boss to remember the Yavelins.' and then he hung up. Are you okay, sir?"
He looked down. Funny, he didn't remember dropping the coffee cup on the floor. They'd have to send the carpet to the dry-cleaners. "What...what did you say?"
"Are you okay? Is it this Yavelin thi.."
"Don't say that word ever again, do you hear me? Ever!"
"Yes sir!" She backed out of the room, whitefaced with fear. Mr. Hauber had never acted like this before... The intercom buzzed; Mr. Hauber sounded nervous, almost terrified. "Uh, cancel all my appointments for today. Call the governor back to cancel, in fact, cancel all my appointments indefinitely, I..." There was a faint gurgle.
"Mr. Hauber? Sir?"
She walked over to the office and knocked at the door. "Mr. Hauber?" She opened the door.
And screamed.
Because mr Hauber was at his desk. And on the window. And in the ceiling. And on the floor. And on the walls.
He had always been attached to his work.
She ran screaming down the hall, failing to notice how her "boss" crumbled into the four thousand years old piece of dry-rotted flesh he truly was.
And failing to notice the two creatures sitting on the ledge outside the window.
"So, you think we scared them enough?" The one who had spoken hefted the stake they had used to immobilize the vampire before dismembering him.
"Nah. I wrote 'Remember the Yavelins' all over his house, though. That oughta scare them leeches."
"Yep."
Unlike what the poor vampire in the above story believed, the Yavelins are not immortal. They just have a good memory.
A racial memory, to be exact.
They do not remember any knowledges or such things, but they remember experiences of long dead so called GreatFathers, sort of like we would remember characters in a movie or book. So if one Yavelin is insulted, all future Yavelins will know who did it, and most probably avenge it. -- in the most brutal and intimidating way possible.
The Yavelins are not evil. They are merely very alien in their mentality, and have a sense of humor to cause the most sadistic Tzimisce to gag. They are also not human.
It depends on whom you ask, where they come from. The most plausible explanation on their origins was made by one inquisitive Arcanum member, who when researching legends found that the legends of the Yavelins were very similar to the ones about the Night Breed. He made the conclusion that the Yavelins were most probably some sort of distant, less powerful cousin to the other race, as they never showed themselves in any form. Two weeks later he was found nailed to his ceiling with his arms rammed down his throat, and on the wall someone had drawn a "smiley"-face. In his blood. Needless to say, The Arcanum have since avoided these beings.
The Yavelins are distant relatives of the NightBreed, with different powers. The Breed have stories on the First Tribes of the moon, (no, they don't mean the Garou, or any other Bete for that matter) of which the Breed was only one. There were four others. The Gargoyles were the First, the Breed were the Second, the Yavelins were the Third, and the Fae were the Fourth. Noone knows who the Fifth tribe was, but there are rumors that they had a lot in common with what are now known as demons...
The Yavelins are mainly tunneldwellers, due to their instinctive dislike of the sun. They are not harmed by it; they just hate it, and they have extensive systems of catacombs below every major city in the world, far older than any of the vampire's or even the minions of the Wyrm. In these tunnels they live and thrive, and occasionally venture to the Top, as they call it, to harass vampires and breed. They do breed with ordinary humans (not with force, they are killers, not barbarians) but any children of such a union is immediately kidnapped and brought Below, where they are brought up in the traditions of the Yavelins.
The basic philosophy of the Yavelins is, simply put, "Is it bloody? Do it. Is it cruel? Do it. Is it funny? Do it." And the most basic tradition of the Yavelins is: "None but Yavelins are allowed Below. Those who trespass are fair game."
Abilities: 13/9/5, since most tutoring of the Yavelins is in oral tradition, it is highly unlikely that any of them would have any modern Knowledges, like Computer, or Medicine, or the like. The Medicine they would know would probably be highly antiquated by now, and quite useless, as they don't have the same physique as humans anyway. (Two stomachs, anyone?)
Backgrounds: 5, no Allies (unless they're other Yavelins) no Contacts (ditto) and no Fame. Resources are quite out.
Base WP: 5
Base Heal: 2 (How they soak Aggravated and other damage.)
Base Swiftness: 1 (One extra action per point)
Change: 1 (How they change their shape...don't worry, they're not as powerful as the NightBreed, they only have three forms...)
First off is Heal, the power of their rapid Healing (hey, did ya think they were gonna be mere mortal men?) This is quite easy to understand, for each turn spent resting the Yavelins heal one Normal Health level. Note that they don't heal if not resting, so they will not heal in the middle of combat. With Heal they soak all damage inflicted, diff: 6, this includes Aggravated, and the damage they do not soak, Aggravated that is, heals as on a normal human. You only get one soak roll for each amount of damage inflicted.
The second is Swiftness. This one is easy. For each point the Yavelin gets an extra turn per action round, when he has spent all his Swiftness he may roll his Willpower diff:8, a botch means nothing, a failure means that only one point of Swiftness is regained, and when this point is spent the player may roll again, same difficulty; if a success, the player regains full Swiftness and is back in action.
The third is Change. Another easy one, this is what you roll to change into one of the three shapes of the Yavelins: Human, Kharem or Szardo. The difficulty is 5.
Kharem: The Seducer, in this form the Yavelin gains a +4 Appearance (whoa!) +4 dexterity and +2 Wits. They may also sprout claws from their fingers, which do Str+1 Aggravated damage. The eyes of the Yavelin turns pitch black, with no whites or pupils, just all black and their ears grow slightly pointed.
Szardo: The Man-o-War. In this form the Yavelin grows about four feet, has an Appearance of 0, (eww, ugly!) Dexterity of +3, Strength of +4 and Stamina of +3. They look a lot like big hairy people, a bit like apes, and now their claws do Str+2 Aggravated damage.
| Attributes | 5 |
| Abilities | 2 |
| Backgrounds | 2 |
| Willpower | 1 |
| Heal | 1 |
| Swiftness | 1 |
| Change | 2 |
| Attributes | Current Rating x 4 |
| Ability | Current Rating x 2 |
| New Ability | 3 |
| Willpower | Current Rating x 2 |
| Heal | Current Rating x 3 |
| Swiftness | Current Rating x 2 |
| Change | Current Rating x 2 |
Kindred: Ahhh, the joys of a screaming vampire as his limbs are torn from his body...
"Where!?! Where!?!!"
Garou: They dare not acknowledge the beasts within...sissy-boys...
"What? Never heard of them."
Magi: Powerful humans. So what?
"Never, never, ever try allying with them, do you hear?"
Changelings: Ah, the Fourth Tribe...it's sad what the human imagination has done to them since, is it not?
"Stay away from the tunnels below the Sluagh."
Wraiths: Ghosts? Never met one, but that does not mean they don't exist...
"We avoid them..."
Gargoyles: Our Big Brothers. They're so lost in their honor they have strayed from their true nature...
"They have no honor. Despicable."
NightBreed: Ah, they have grown too weak with their contact with the Top. They should have stayed Below...
"Barbarians, a lot like we once were...once..."
Windrunners: Oh so fast, heal so fast, die so fast...
"Cripes, where? Hey, don't even joke about'em!"
Adephi: No sense of humor...
"They should have been destroyed when the Creator first saw them."
Cenobites: Wimps.
"The pain...ah yeeesss...I remember them....we played for a while, until they got overexcited and tore me to pieces...I only let those I like do that..."
Mortis: Oh, poor little human, has to watch people die...where is the problem? I like watching people die...
"Cruel, evil bastards who should be put to sleep, the lot of them!!!"