Mercy Brown, Unique Wraith
Mercy Brown is remembered in urban legend as America’s last vampire. Mercy is no vampire, however; she is a vengeful spirit, angered over the desecration of her grave and corpse.
Mercy died in 1892, at the age of 19, her body succoming to the ravages of tuberculosis. She was the third member of her family to die of the disease, also known as consumption, after her mother and elder sister. When her brother took ill with TB, her father was desperate to find an answer as to why the disease seemed to be attacking his family, and desperate to find a cure for his ailing son. Superstition at the time told that consumption was spread by vampires, and those who died of the sickness may become the undead themselves. Friends convinced him that perhaps a vampire was preying upon his family, and perhaps his late wife or daughters may be the creatures themselves.
When Mercy’s father and his friends exhumed the bodies of Mercy, her sister and mother, they were in for a shock. While the corpses of Mercy’s mother and sister had decomposed, Mercy’s was still perfectly preserved. They had found their vampire. They chopped up her body, tore out the heart, and burned it to ashes, hoping to stop the vampire and save Mercy’s brother. It was for not; the tuberculosis killed him a short while later.
Mercy was no vampire, however. She had died only two months before her body was exhumed, and the cold Rhode Island winter had serve to delay decomposition. Her spirit had been at rest until they disturbed her grave, desecrated her remains, and shamed her good name by convicting her of being a vampire in the court of public opinion and folklore. She has returned to the world, though she is no ordinary phantom. Vengeful over the fate she suffered posthumously, she curses people to die as she did, their bodies ravaged by consumption. No one can predict where or who Mercy will attack next; she be dormant for years, then sicken a dozen people over a span of just days.
When manifesting, Mercy appears as a sickly young lady, her withered body appearing quite frail. Pale skin is stretched tight over her a fragile skeleton. She shambles rather than walks, her form constantly wracked by violent coughing fits. A beautiful white dress is stained with blood and tissue expelled from her lungs.
Special Attacks:
Disease: Mercy attacks as a normal wraith, but targets the victim’s POW. With a successful attack, Mercy adds the victim’s drained POW to her own.(Mercy lose per hour until reduced to her base amount)The target must match their CON against Mercy’s strengthened POW, or contract a powerful, aggressive form of tuberculosis.
Additionally, Mercy can make a physical attack against a target. By spending one POW, she can rake her victim with ephermal claws. The attack is made at POW x 5, and does 1d4 damage.
Mercy Brown, The Rhode Island Vampire
STR N/A – CON N/A – SIZ N/A
INT 11 – POW 13 – DEX N/A
Mov 7 – HP N/A
Damage Bonus: N/A
Weapons: See above for Mercy’s special attacks.
Spells: None
Sanity Loss: 1/1d8 to see Mercy Brown’s ghost.
Bruce is a sociology student and co-host of The Crypt Keepers podcast
