Blood Suit
Description
The Blood Suit is what Absinthe Van Gothen has dubbed the strange ichors she finds herself wrapped within. Her ancestor along with a few other heroes, managed to defeat one of the most powerful vampire lords to ever walk the Earth- Vlad Țepeș. Vlad’s origins are yet unknown, but he became almost an unliving god and managed to route the armies of the Turks among many other achievements. Ivor once served as his underling along with countless other aristocrats that Vlad felt deserved to live forever- as his minions.
Vlad grew overconfident, and when Calis Van Gothen beat upon his castle gates with a handful of others, the vampire scoffed. He allowed them passage into his castle as entertainment for the night. However, it became very clear that these people were not to be taken lightly. Eventually, they managed to reach the throne room itself, and faced the dark one head on. Again, Vlad found himself shocked at the resolute conviction of these heroes and demanded that his disciple, Ivor, aid him. However, Ivor had been one of the first vampires that Vlad had sired, and over time, as his own powers grew, the influence that Vlad once held on his mind began to waver and break. Thus, even as his lord demanded with the shrieks of one terrified that death has come, Ivor stood but in the shadows and watched his master defeated.
It became evident among those assembled that though his body became ash, the liquid blood in his veins could not be destroyed. Johann Conrad Dippel repeatedly attempted numerous scientific experiments in an attempt to finally rid the world of this devil, but all his attempts were in vain. On more than one occasion, Vlad, in this liquid form, had almost managed to escape or consume the living, and finally, seeing no other viable option, Calis had Dippel create an intricate puzzle box. It was enchanted and imbued with several charms, and the finished hybrid of machine and magic managed to hold the vile Vlad within its confines. This box was given to Theodore Ravenhurst to place into a huge magically-sealed vault under his manor near Big Moose Lake in New York state. There it remained for some time, but, for reasons unknown, the very essence of Vlad seemed capable of manipulating other cursed or enchanted objects within the vault. Ravenhurst had no choice but to move it to a hidden safe behind a bookcase in his library.
After his death, his son, Anaximanes, was hanged by an angry mob on the property, but before his untimely death, he had granted Brone Lorcan the key to open the puzzlebox, but he had never found it himself. Brone, by fate or chance, had come upon the puzzle box before, and procured it the night he fled Ravenhurst Manor. He took it with him on his living, human journeys which saw their end in Portland when, at the behest of Eleanora Blackwood, Ivor turned Brone into a vampire. Still, he managed to hide the box, waiting for the right time to finally present itself, and with the arrival of Absinthe Van Gothen- it did.
The nosferatu saved the eventual vampire hunter from a rusalka, and took her to the box. Her own bloodline allowed her past the magic charms and enchantments meant to befuddle others, a safeguard in case one of the original adventurers needed into the box for any reason. Once open, Vlad was finally free and smeared himself onto the descendant of his own murderer, only to find her Van Gothen blood protected her from his influence. However, he had already bonded with the women, and now he plots and schemes on how he might manipulate Absinthe into becoming at least his pawn or at most- his mindless vessel so that his revenge might be complete and he might again rule over the cursed dead!
