New Chapter: Trails of Blood

JadedOpinions

The intention of the chapter is meant to do something new with the Killer/Survivor relationship and "flip the script" so to speak, with the Killer being a monster hunter and the Survivor being the monster. Vampire, more specifically. It was a fun concept to play with, especially on the Survivor side, I hope you find it interesting.

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NEW KILLER: The Slayer

DIFFICULTY: Moderate

A monster slayer adept at locating, chasing, and killing creatures of the night. Wielding his crossbow, The Nightingale, he has a multitude of ways to find and catch survivors.

His personal perks, Fiendish Pursuit, Spiteful Reproach, and Paranoia, allow him to chase efficiently, punish teamwork, and locate groups of Survivors in dire situations.

SPEED: 4.4 meters

TERROR RADIUS: 24 meters

SIZE: Medium

ABILITY: Nightingale Crossbow

A single-shot crossbow loading with whistling Silver Bolts that have multiple uses based on what is shot. Press and hold the Power Button to quickly aim the crossbow and press the Attack Button to fire. Pressing the Active Ability Button will reload the crossbow.

• Start the trial with 5 Bolts.
• You can carry a maximum of 5 Bolts.
• Shooting a generator will produce a resounding echo, gaining a notification for each survivor within 5 meters of the generator.
• Shooting a pallet will lock the pallet in place for a few seconds, increasing interaction time from a survivor in order to drop it.
• Shooting a healthy survivor will cause that survivor to become Hindered for 3 seconds.
• Shooting an injured survivor will cause them to be indicated by Killer Instinct for 5 seconds.
• Refill Bolts at lockers.

The Nightingale Crossbow ability is meant to give The Slayer a variety of tools and options without overcomplicating his power. The initial idea was to allow him to quickly swap between different tools that all have different uses for different situations, kind of like a Simon Belmont character, but it ultimately felt very unnecessary when you can have the same effect with a single power. In order to make him different from Huntress, Deathslinger, and Trickster, I wanted his ranged power to give him information and debuffs rather than deal direct damage so Killers have to be a little more creative with the timing and placement of their shots.

Shooting a generator is intended to be a quick check he can make at range to not waste too much time patrolling. The bolt hitting the generator will make a loud and unique noise so Survivors know the Slayer is looking their way, and if they're anticipating the shot can maybe even get out of range before the impact occurs, as the range is limited.

The increased interaction time from dropping a pallet is meant to be about .5 to 1 second. Not a ridiculous amount, but enough that a quick shot could lead to a hit if the survivor does not have enough distance. The survivor will have a progress meter as if they are rescuing someone from a hook before the pallet dropping animation engages.

Like I said before, I didn't want the bolts to inflict direct damage, and acknowledging that the Hindered effect is not only unique to the Clown and the Trapper at the moment (sans certain add-ons) but also somewhat unfun to play against, I didn't want to make it too easily exploitable for the Slayer, so the status only applies for about 3 seconds on a healthy survivor and is replaced on an injured one, making inflicting wounds much easier for the Slayer, but still needing to work for that lethal second hit.

Refilling at lockers works the same as with the Trickster and the Huntress (3 locker Killers, oh boy!) and the individual bolt reload to the crossbow is pretty quick, maybe 1 to 1.5 seconds of charge time. He needs to take a moment but it won't immediately throw away the chase. The slowdown he receives while aiming and reloading should be about 80% as well to reward quick, accurate shots as he aims much like the Deathslinger.

PERK 1: Fiendish Pursuit

Your focus and determination fuels your desire for bloodshed.

While in a chase with your Obsession, you gain Bloodlust 40/50/60% faster. Hooking your Obsession will cause a random survivor who is not currently on a hook to become the Obsession.

• You can no longer exceed Bloodlust Tier 1.
• After landing a successful hit on a Survivor, you cannot gain Bloodlust for 20 seconds.
• Creates an obsession.
• The Killer can only be Obsessed with one survivor

"I know what you are, and you can't run from me forever." - Mason Vaughn

Bloodlust ultimately feels like a failure to end chases effectively right now, with getting Tier 1 in order to brute force the hit and Tiers 2 and 3 pretty much never achieved. Works like the opposite of Meyers's "Play With Your Food" instead encouraging the Killer to finish the chase and move on, but also moves the obsession to encourage chasing multiple survivors, causing survivors who become the obsession to perhaps play more carefully. The biggest concern is its interaction with Pyramid Head's ability to send survivors to a Cage of Torment instead of a hook, which could hurt him in the long run as he won't get as much value out of it and be a pretty weak choice.

PERK 2: Spiteful Reproach

Your rage deepens when others get in the way of your target.

Whenever a survivor performs a protection hit against one of your Basic Attacks, you recover from your successful hit 30/40/50% faster.

Spiteful Reproach can only trigger once every 60 seconds.

"Get in my way and it will be the last mistake you ever make." - Mason Vaughn

Maybe not the most impactful ability, but can help against cheeky and/or altruistic survivors that get in your way. Also fits into the Killer's personality quite well. The idea of protection hits, to me, is to buy the previous survivor time to get away as you sacrifice your own health state, which can be annoying for killers to deal with, and this can cause that plan to suddenly backfire.

PERK 3: Hex: Bloodbath

A hex that draws power from the blood of your enemies

Hex: Bloodbath builds power for every second an individual Survivor spends in the injured, dying, or hooked states. After Survivors have spent a cumulative 240/210/180 seconds in the injured, dying, or hooked states, Hex: Bloodbath activates on a random dull totem remaining on the map.

• A random remaining generator becomes blocked every 20 seconds.
• Generators are blocked by Hex: Bloodbath for 40 seconds.
• Any Survivor within 5 meters of a generator when it becomes blocked screams, revealing their position.

The Hex effects persist as long as the related Hex totem is standing.

"If my enemy bleeds, I will kill it." - Mason Vaughn

A powerful Hex which is not immediately helpful, but is intended to be a mid to late game changer, mush like the Hag's "Hex: Devour Hope", but instead of drastically increasing the lethality of the Killer, it prevents the Survivors from completing their objectives. Intended more powerful the closer Survivors come to completing their objectives. It may seem like it requires a lot of time to activate, but it gains power for EACH survivor, so if all 4 Survivors are injured at once it will build power 4 times as fast, and will likely activate when it becomes most powerful. Also punishes Survivors who don't heal and choose to rush gens as well as Killers who rack up damage very quickly, so it can help slow down the game a lot. If there are no available dull totems for it to activate to, it simply will immediately deactivate without blocking a generator. The timing on the generators being blocked will lead to 2 generators being blocked at one time by the perk but be constantly switching one at a time. I chose 4-3 minutes to be the threshold, not wanting to make it activate too quickly or too late. Will prob need playtesting to find a good time limit for the average survivor.

The Slayer's Basic Attack is done with a silver dagger.

The crossbow bolts whistle through the air when fired.

The Slayer's voice is accented by a hint of suggested psychosis, such as irregular breathing, muttering, and growls.

The Slayer wears a dark hooded cloak with several items strapped with bandoliers, such as wooden stakes, daggers, flasks of acid/holy water. He has a short black beard and longer hair. His clothing consists of classic vampire hunting attire from the 1800s.

Basic add-ons can affect things like adding maximum bolts, increasing reload speed, increasing speed while aiming down sights, increasing time pallets are held in place, increasing detection range around generators, etc.

Some more powerful add-ons could passively regenerate 1 bolt every 20 seconds, shooting a survivor now injures but cannot down Survivors, shooting walls with bolts reveal the auras of survivors in close proximity, and gaining a speed boost after being stunned by a pallet that has been affected by a bolt.

MORI:

The Slayer flips the Survivor on their back and gets down on his knees, straddling the Survivor's torso. He pulls one of his four wooden stakes and stabs it into the center of the Survivor's chest as they scream, leaning in very close to look them in the eyes. He then leans back, pulls out his crossbow, and fires a silver bolt into their face, killing them, before standing back up.

BACKSTORY:

The Slayer's story can relate to being from a quiet town in the 1800s and always being overly curious and obsessive about people. He began realizing strange occurrences following the arrival of some new folk who he believed to be a group of vampires. He tried to convince people and gather evidence of their true nature but no one would believe him so he eventually started stalking the family, cataloguing their schedules, and researching creatures of the night to one day confront them. After being caught on several instances and having his hard work thrown away, he began to suspect that everyone in the town was either a vampire or under their spell, and began to slip into maddening paranoia, the only sense of calm or focus he would receive would be from plotting the deaths of members of the vampire order. Over the course of several months, he watched the entire town, carefully and methodically killing them one-by-one, posing each incident as a perceived accident or unknown circumstance which led to their deaths in order to find the creatures of the night, becoming more efficient with every kill.

Eventually, Mason would leave the town after he felt it had been properly cleansed to find other vampires, convinced there were more out there lurking, waiting. As he grew older, his arsenal grew, and he created and became proficient with his patented Nightingale Crossbow, and become known in hushed whispers as the Dread Slayer. People inexplicably would start going missing after he would arrive in town, and it became best to not act out of the ordinary or get in his way.

Mason's hatred and desire to slay vampire folk was the sole focus of his life. Morning, day, and night he would be watching, searching, waiting for them to make a mistake and expose themselves, and when they did, vampire or not, they did not live to see the sunrise. Until one family unmistakably proved to him they were true vampires of the night.

Mason stalked and hunted the family for months across several miles and through several towns, leaving a trail of corpses accused of aiding and protecting a family of monsters behind him, but every time the family was just one step ahead. It drove Mason mad. To have his purpose so close yet just out of reach. Until he finally cornered the family in a large manor and set the building ablaze, trapping everyone, including himself, inside. As he finally drove a stake through the final vampire's heart, he should have felt peace, pride, accomplishment of some kind. Instead he only felt the desire to continue. To continue hunting and killing a threat most sinister. It was in that house fire that Mason disappeared. Many believed him to be dead, others believed he stalked the shadows waiting for the next peculiar stranger to arrive to town. In truth, that night Mason came face to face with the Entity and embrace the Fog on the promise of once again slaying that which he desires.

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NEW SURVIVOR: Gwenyvere Valentine

DIFFICULTY: Hard

A spirited vampiress with some self-destructive tendencies. Her personal perks, Blood Rush, Sanguine Remedy, and Masochism, allow her to aid and draw strength from injured allies

PERK 1: Blood Rush

Near-death experiences fill you with infectious excitement.

When you rescue a survivor from a hook, you both break into a sprint at 150% of your base running speed for a maximum of 3 seconds.

Causes the Exhausted status effect on you for 60/50/40 seconds.

Blood Rush cannot be used while Exhausted.

You do not recover from the Exhausted status effect while running.

"See? It's not all bad. The pain reminds you you're still alive, after all!" - Gwenyvere Valentine

New Exhaustion perk that can be used for risky rescues or to quickly relocate and heal before the Killer can find the rescued Survivor. Does not apply Exhausted to the rescued Survivor.

PERK 2: Sanguine Remedy

The sight and smell of blood fills you with vigor and steels your resolve.

After healing a cumulative total of 2 health states on other survivors, Sanguine Remedy activates. While in the injured state, you can press the Active Ability Button to receive the Broken status effect for 80/70/60 seconds or until you are put into the dying state.

• While Broken, grunts of pain are increased by 20% and your repair speed is reduced by 5%.
• When you recover from the Broken status while Sanguine Remedy is active, you immediately recover from the injured state to the healthy state.
• Sanguine Remedy deactivates after recovering from the Broken status effect while injured.

"Hold still, love. I want to savor this." - Gwenyvere Valentine

Intended to be a tricky perk to use, considering you have to help your allies and are hindered and vulnerable while healing, but can also be used in combination with other survivor perks that inflict Broken or to counter Killer perks and abilities that do the same. The additional debuffs from the Broken status effect are always present, regardless of Sanguine Remedy being active or not. Part of the risk/reward. Does not heal you if you are knocked down while broken.

PERK 3: Masochist

Your pain has become your pleasure.

Every time you earn a Protection Hit scoring event, you gain 1 token, to a maximum of 5 tokens.

• Each token increases the speed you recover in the dying state and the speed your allies heal you for 8/10/12% per token.
• At 3 tokens, grants the ability to fully recover from the dying state.
• At 3 tokens, you suffer from the Hemorrhaging status effect while injured.
• The Killer gets a notification every time you recover from the dying state.
• Increases your chances of becoming the Obsession.
• The Killer can only be Obsessed with one survivor.

"When you've been around as long as I have, sometimes a little pain is the only way to keep things exciting." - Gwenyvere Valentine

Kinda like Ash's "Mettle of Man" but offers a different risk/reward. Take note that Masochism also increases the rate allies heal you from the injured state. Allows the survivor to play a little closer to the killer to either gain attention or save allies more often, but can quickly result in the survivor being self-destructive if used improperly. Not sure how this perk will fit in usual games, but can offer an entertaining way of playing for some and open up a lot of endgame plays for survivors who manage to get full stacks and work with their team. Considered also losing 1 token when picking yourself up from the dying state, but I'm personally unsure how easy or often Protection Hits occur.

The sounds Gwen makes while injured or upon taking damage/being thrown on the hook are meant to be moderate in volume and have just a slight hint of enjoyment in them.

Her skins all have the goth girl/monster aesthetic. Her base skin would be long black hair and lipstick, red eyes, several piercings, sylishly-ripped black clothing and fishnets, long boots, those armbands that have spikes for some reason, and very pale skin. Her common skins could go with white, red, and green color schemes befitting goth girls, and long white fangs poking out of her mouth. Her Rarest skins could change her into different kinds of monsters, like a red-skinned devil/succubus, a green-skinned wife of frankenstein/zombie, or even a light blue-green skinned alien complete with antennae and a space morph suit.

BACKSTORY:

Gwen's involves becoming an orphan at a young age and being adopted by a group of vampires who, for the most part, were peaceful. When she become a young teenager, she was given the choice to join their coven, which she accepted due to her love of the family, and became a vampire herself. As she became a young adult, she became more adventurous in her personal life and on more than one occasion let out hints and evidence of her true nature. As a vampire, she experienced unusual longevity in life and yet most things that once gave her feelings of excitement and passion slowly began to fade over the years. What used to bring her fear was no void, what once gave her vigor was now a numbing cold. The only thing that satiated her desire was the taste of another's blood. Of which she indulged on numerous occasions. Too often she was found stained with blood by her family, and time and time again received lectures about how to keep their way of life secret. One too many times and Gwen decided to strike out on her own to live in the city where her nightly activities might go more unnoticed. It wasn't until a few years later Gwen discovered her family had been killed by the dreaded Night Slayer, and their murderer having disappeared into legend.

Time began to become meaningless as Gwen lived her life constantly moving from city to city, eventually becoming bored with the droll it had to offer. Once she had too many night waking up covered in another person's blood, people would begin to whisper about her and she would disappear into the night once again. Over the next couple centuries, Gwen's nightly rituals would involve more...adventurous endeavors, discovering the delight of mixing her bloodied cocktails of both her escort and herself. Feeling the sweet sting of their nails against her back. Eventually, however, the consequences of her actions caught up with her.

In the middle of the night, after she had indulge of the flesh, in her hazy and satisfied stupor, she felt something hard hit the back of the skull.

Gwen woke up bumping in the trunk of a moving car with a bag over her head, her hands tied. After an hour or so the trunk opened and a group of people pulled her out and removed the bag from her head. They were standing under an old bridge in the city far from any prying eyes, a bank of fog closing in. Her kidnappers intended to drown her, fancying themselves as vampire slayers of a new era. They intended to tie cinderblocks to her legs and through her into the water, never to be seen again. Death, it seemed, was now looking her in the face. Gwen's heart beat faster and faster as they closed, naming off every person she had lured into her home to drink from. They had been observing her for weeks. They knew her entire schedule, everywhere she went, where she slept, right down to what she would buy for groceries. Gwen, for the first time in decades, felt fear. As well as excitement, panic, and lust. Adrenaline began to course back into her veins. She didn't know why, but this feeling of helplessness, of being hunted, felt so wrong, so intrusive, but finally feeling an emotion again gave her so much twisted joy in ways she couldn't explain. She once again felt her thirst rise up and begin to take over. One of her captors, confident now that their plan had finally come to fruition, proud that they were finally going to kill a vampire, walked right up to Gwen's fear-stricken face to whisper one last retort into her ear. Gwen took the opportunity. She clamped down onto his neck as violently as she could and grabbed the knife from his pocket. As he screamed into the night, Gwen quickly cut her restraints and raised her hands to block the incoming advance of one of the other's blades. The steel pierced her flesh, sending a flash of pain through her hand but it felt so good. Gwen knew she had no choice but to run.

Invigorated by the encounter, Gwen ran down alley after alley to escape her pursuers, turning left and right, shouting and hollering echoing behind her. She was lost, cornered, no where to go and running out of places to hide. It was a horrible distress on her mind and body but she loved it. She found herself standing in the middle of a street as the first rays of dawn struggled to pierce the now encroaching fog. She could almost swear she saw a dark figure on the road. She didn't know what, but that figure had been watching. Waiting for her to arrive. A vague implication of a voice crept into her mind, offering this feeling she now experienced forever. Gwen was afraid, and that's how she liked it.