NPCs · Minor · Criminal/Espionage
Ianna the Were-Mosquito
By night this young woman takes the shape of a huge mosquito the size of a dog, and flies around looking for people to feed on. She has the ability to split apart into a cloud of small mosquitoes to fly under doors and through any small cracks and holes in a house, and then reforms and is able to puncture mosquito nets to feed on her victims. If she gets into a fight and starts losing, she will split apart again and fly away to make her escape, and as long as even one of those mosquitoes gets away unharmed, she will turn into her human form at dawn and regain all her strength and vampiric powers by dusk. Those that she bites are likely to come down with disease afterwards.
The young Ianna had a great liking for dogs and most other creatures, even those who most people were disgusted with. One evening she risked her own life to rescue a large mosquito from the web of a Silverspider, and the mosquito bit her for her pains and flew away. Scratching the bite on her cheek, she went home wondering why she bothered to rescue it in the first place. That night, she swiftly became ill as she lay on her bed, too ill even to cry out for help. She thought she was dying, too weak even to swat away the mosquito that buzzed around her head.
Settling by her ear, instead of biting her it began to speak to her in words that she heard within her head. It told her that it was one of the component parts of a Gichigumi, a were-mosquito, and that out of gratitude for her saving it from a sticky death at the spider's mandibles, it had decided to turn her into a Gichigumi too. In a while, it said, she would grow stronger again and by concentrating when it was night, she could turn herself into either a swarm of small mosquitos or a large, dog-sized one. Then it flew away, and within hours she found it had indeed been telling her the truth.
Disgusted at first, she decided not to use her powers ever, but when her sister was brutally raped by a couple of noblemen, who were too highly placed to proceed against in the court system, she visited their houses in the night, turned into a swarm to get inside, then turned into a dog-sized mosquito, pierced their mosquito nets that they had over their beds, and then pierced their flesh without waking them. She knew if she drunk them dry then there would be a witch hunt for whoever or whatever had done it, so she only drunk a small amount of their blood but infected them with disease before flying away back home.
Within a few days they had died painfully, and with them being nobles, the City Guards carried out a proper investigation. First they brought in a mage to check for traces of magic that could be traced back to the caster, but found nothing. Then they checked the bodies for wounds, but all they found was a large bug bite that had been clearly been scratched open. Finally a check for poison found only that they had died of disease.
Over the next few years, a small number of people that have threatened Ianna or her family have died in the same way, seemingly of disease caused by a bug bite. There was a loanshark who tried to extort money from her father, one of her sister's husbands who was brutal towards her sister, and a noble who made the mistake of threatening her family with eviction.
She was recently left a large sum of money by somebody who she tended in his last days after he came down with disease, again from a bug bite.
On the surface, she seems like a perfectly pleasent young woman, and does not need to feed in her vampire form, provided that she has got enough food in her human form.
Possible Plot hooks:
:One of the friends of the PCs has been killed in such a way, the PCs are investigating the death.
:After a famine in the region has broken out, people are turning up drained dry of blood.
:The PCs come under attack from her. Can they fight her off, and then discover what has happened?
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This is very nice, Cheka. Of all the were-creatures, the Mosquito would seem unlikely, but the ties to bloodsucking and disease make it work all the better. I like that at first she used it to exact vengeance against those who wronged her or her loved ones, then gradually slipped into using it for her own personal gain. It could get a tiny bit more fleshed out, and the plot hooks could be a little more thorough, but all in all a solid sub.
Bold choice of Were, Cheka :) I pretty much agree with sverigesson's take.
What sverigesso and Muro said. This is a unique sub and as far as were-villains go, Ianna is bound to be one of the more interesting characters that the PCs will meet. I'm sure that with her begining to abuse her gifts for her own selfish purposes, it would only be a matter of time before she becomes a bona fide villian. Oh and just for the heck of it, I'd love to pit her against one of Muro's were toads. The PCs might find it interesting to see a man sized toad attempt to swallow a dog sized mosquito. :)
It's alright, and certainly a novel idea - the mosquito is not the first were-creature one would think of, even not the 27th, to be honest.
There are some things to be improved - the writing is straightforward, and could use some spice, more elaboration, a little mystery!
Her change could be more original too.
All in all, I like.
I agree with Echo, a were-mosquito really novel and i think the straightforward writing makes the tone almost flippant and inspired more by the joy of the idea than the potential horrors of it. The playfulness is obvious in the descriptions of her transformation 'why she rescued it anyway' and 'sticky death at the spider's mandibles'. But then you have her sister be brutually raped. I agree that a sudden turn from playful or absurd to tragic can be powerful (see movies such as 'To be 20' , 'Bonnie and Clyde' and 'Once Were Warriors' or books such as 'In Cold Blood' or 'Lord of the Flies').
*TANGENT*
But how many imaginary women have we had raped so that we could provide a dramatic turn. Rape is a terrible crime that often goes unpunished, but it seems a lazy and tasteless plot device. Next time we are writing a story line and we need a motivation for somebody to take justice into their own hands let us try not to have that motivation be the sexual violation of a woman. It isn't necessary and can seem belittling to the crime particularly when the crime is mentioned off-hand in one sentence to describe the psychology of a were-mosquito.
That didn't affect my vote, but I thought tossing a rape in there was unnecessary.
A good were-beast, but I agree with axle on this one.