Vampires of Sikkara: the Bastah
The sands of Sikkara are home to a thousand and one wonders, many terrifying and others awe-inspiring. Fortunately and not, vampires are included among this number.
In Sikkara, there are two strains of vampirism: the Sekrah and the Bastah. Each are created by, and dedicated to, the gods in whose light they hunt. For these vampires, however, the term “strain” is in fact a misnomer as no Siqqari vampire can create another alone.
For the cat-like Bastah, their existence is owed to the God of the Moon, Apophos. High-level clerics of his temple, these vampires performed ancient rites to sever their souls from the Land of Dreams and dedicate themselves to an eternity of service in the Waking World.
Highly disciplined, the Bastah exclusively hunt the sick and dying to aid them in their passage to the Land of Dreams. Aided with a strong nose that can smell lurking death, such prey is seldom hard to find. Once located, the Bastah use needle-thin fangs to inject their prey with a powerful anesthetic. No prey of the Bastah feels pain as their lifeblood is drained, but all feel a reassuring warmth in the vampire’s embrace.
While the Bastah are beings imbued with light, the sun remains their adversary. To be caught in the eye of Osiros is a death sentence for these vampires: her hateful stare sears their skin and reducing their bones to ash.
Some miscellaneous facts about these creatures:
- The Bastah can take on a humanoid visage, but their true form is that of a hairless cat, larger than a man, with bat-like wings extending from its forelegs.
- While benevolent in nature, the Bastah must consume humanoid blood to survive, and *always* kill their prey in the course of feeding. To leave their prey alive, in more pain than they found them, is considered abhorrent. Stale blood, or the blood of a healthy man is of no interest to them.
- In a pinch, the Bastah can magically summon other servants of Apophos—cats and bats—to their aid.