Prince Ladislav Mircea

Ladislav Mircea looks more like a gargoyle than a man. He walks with a hunch, else he would be over six feet tall. Ladislav's eyes are bloodshot and constantly dart from side to side. Ladislav's mouth is too wide and full of small sharp teeth, looking less like a mouth than a drooling needle filled maw. His hands are strong and tipped with blunt nails. They are perfect for clubbing victims to the ground so he can feed.

Ladislav cares nothing for the people he rules. As long as he has the chance to feed, Ladislav would be indifferent if all of Sanguinia was an empty tomb.

Background

In life, Ladislav Mircea was an incredibly handsome man. His hair was raven black and his eyes were icy blue. He looked at people with a cold calculating gaze. as if he were evaluating one of his horses or statues. People were useful only as far as they served him, merely tools to be used, cast aside, and forgotten. Ladislav's only cares were his money and power. Prince Ladislav had no friends, rather surrounding himself with dozens of toadies. He didn't care. Ladislav didn't want friends, he was as cold and heartless as the land he ruled.

When plague ravaged his lands, Ladislav moved quickly. He brought his closest advisors and lackeys into his castle and sealed the gates. The prince watched as his people suffered. Those foolish enough to approach the gates, especially with obvious marks of disease, were shot with arrows or doused with boiling oil and left to rot where they fell.

Despite the castle's isolation, plague eventually entered. At first, Ladislav made a game from killing those unfortunate enough to get sick. The victim would be stripped, and Ladislav's cruel guards would drive them with scourges to the top of the walls of Castle Giurgiu, chasing them with vicious hounds. At the top, the guards would seize the unfortunate and fling them into one of the great cauldrons of boiling oil kept above the gate. The victims were poured over the top of the walls.

Ladislav rather enjoyed the time of the plague. He had always had an interest in alchemy, and he began to sneak out of the castle at night to take samples of the boils and buboes that covered the plague victims. Ladislav still believes this is how he caught the plague.

As the signs of the plague became evident on him, Ladislav hid his boils under thick robes and disappeared into his alchemy. He tried everything he could think of to cure his disease, but to no avail. He became increasingly desperate. Spiriting healthy people into the castle to drain their blood, cerebral fluids, and bile, Ladislav began injecting himself with their fluids to try and slow the disease. Nothing worked.

After a time Ladislav was haunting his own castle. The few guards, servants, and lackeys who remained, barricaded themselves inside their chambers, desperate to avoid being dragged into the laboratory. As the castle lost itself in fear, the land beyond became shrouded in mist.

Ladislav had changed. The disease was gone, or had become such a part of him that it didn't hurt him anymore. The only thing that caused him pain was his hunger. A hunger that grew within him. One night, the hunger grew so great he couldn't contain himself. He ran from his lab and leapt upon the first person he saw, an unfortunate servant that had been caught outside after dark. Ladislav devoured the woman, broke her bones for the marrow, drained her blood, and supped on her eyes. Finally his hunger abated, and he knew the only way to quench it.

What followed was an orgy of violence as Ladislav hunted down every living soul in his castle, transforming into a beast as he did. As Ladislav hunted and his victims' screams echoed off the stone walls of Castle Giurgiu, the mist closed in.

Current Sketch

Ladislav spends most of his time in Castle Giurgiu. His once handsome features have become twisted and bestial. He rarely appears in public, but when he does, he is heavily cloaked and hooded. He cares nothing for his people beyond feeding on them and torturing them for his own sadistic pleasure.

Ladislav continues his study of alchemy, hoping to cure his vampirism and regain his good looks. He creates new vrykolakas and experiments on them, hoping to understand how to reverse the process. Inevitably, he fails, and the unfortunate experiment is either slain or thrown over the walls of Castle Giurgiu and forgotten.

Darklord's Tactics

Ladislav takes his time in combat. He knows that he's immortal and far stronger than most opponents. Ladislav stalks his prey from the shadows and summons rats to harass and weaken them. When his prey tries to rest, he will move in for the attack. Once Ladislav has infected all of his opponents with his infected tongue or fever gaze, he will retreat and let his deadly diseases run their course. As the prey suffers, he will stay close to feed on their pain and despair. Any creature that separates from the main group is hunted down and attacked as soon as Ladislav thinks he can slay them before their friends can aid them. When his opponents are too weak to defend themselves, he will move in to feed.

He starts by breaking his victim's bones. This serves two purposes; it keeps the prey helpless, and he can devour their marrow with his long, rasping tongue. Then Ladislav moves on to his prey's bile, before finally drinking their blood and killing them. If the prey is alone, he will talk to them as he feeds, commenting on their taste and asking why their compatriots abandoned them. If his victims are in a small group, Ladislav will vivisect one of them and keep up a running monologue about the fantastic feast before him, all the while cracking bones.