Mage Up Close: Baron Vortinbraz the Red

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Meet the Mage

Generally, Vampires conceal themselves from mortals out of self-preservation. Such shadow-dwelling is beneath Vortinbraz. Rather than conceal himself, this scion of the aristocracy frequents fashionable balls, salons, and operas across the free provinces. He is generally discreet about drinking blood and presents himself as simply "well-preserved." Since he is unfailingly charming and often eager to use his illusion magicks to entertain and inspire his fellow revelers, Vortinbraz's unusual longevity is usually overlooked.

While he is an outstandingly entertaining guest, Vortinbraz's state of undeath is occasionally exposed. When this happens, the more pious gentry will try to raise a host to depose him. This always proves difficult because no one is sure where exactly his ancestral fiefdom lies. Whenever someone sets out to find it, they inevitably travel in circles. Before long, the would be vampire hunters either give up or are ambushed by the Baron's army of the undead. Vortinbraz's power has mostly has kept outsiders away and allowed him to rule his lands in peace. Surprisingly, the vampire baron treats his living serfs with a caring kindness akin to the treatment a farmer might show to precious livestock.

For Vortinbraz, the wellsprings offer a chance to live openly in society as a vampire. With their power, it may just be possible for him to fully ignore the judgements of mortal beings and forgo discretion entirely. Oh the fun he could have.

Overview

Vampires have a rich presence in literature and popular culture; they come in a wide variety of genres and styles. You've got your reclusive nightmare vampires, your bestial vampires, your mad killers, and then you have the sort that might just be a good hang. When thinking about who would master necromancy and illusion, I just couldn't shake the idea of the fashionable vampire. The kind that likes opera and art. Vortinbraz was born.

On the board, Vortinbraz is very much the kind of mage who personally gets work done. He has some ability to move things around, and he has access to great support minions from the Illusion school, but the Red Baron is very active on his own. There's a duality to him: a gentleman who controls the board to claim wellsprings and also a bloodthirsty monster who absolutely wrecks face.

Let’s dive in. Here's the dashboard:

An Elegant Gent

Vortinbraz has a solid control game which will allow him to control Wellsprings. Majestic Presence is a very strong trait that gives him a pseudo-board presence advantage, at least when it comes to scoring. In addition to being more impactful as a presence on the Wellsprings, his Acrobatic Leap gives him the mobility to get there. If you're willing to devote both of Vortinbraz's actions to getting in position, he can go 4 tiles, and two of those are a place effect which will ignore terrain and intervening characters.

Dance as Fast as You Can

In addition to his personal ability to control Wellsprings, Vortinbraz brings a pair of wicked control spells. Mesmerizing Voice is a simple, straightforward, and utterly brutal spell which hands out a full stack of speed debuffs. A lot of characters are speed 2, so this spell effectively negates their move action.

Vorty likes skeletons

Then we have the big three mana spell - Dance Macabre. This spell is a powerhouse. Notice that its target value is 3C, meaning it can target up to three characters in range, friendly or enemy. This is very versatile. In the diagram below, Vortinbraz is initially tied for controlof the Wellspring because of the two enemy Ornithopters adjacent to the objective tile. Dance macabre allows the baron to push both of them out of scoring range and also to slid ein his Inspiring Vision to swing the model count around this Wellspring from 2 vs 2 to 3 vs 0.

Kind of a Beast

There's a duality to Vortinbraz, though. It's not just elegant dancing around. When it's time to get ugly, well... vampires know how to mix it up. Vortinbraz brings storng overall defensive stats and an ability to heal himself.

Gory Feast is quite strong. It comes it at 6 dice, so on average you're expecting to roll 5 successes. Against Def 3, that means you expect to do 2 damage. That also means that Vortinbraz can heal two damage at the same time.

Thanks to Unnatural Celerity, Vortinbraz can repeat this action as a spell. So a one health Vorty could heal back up to full into a def 3 opponent for the cost of one action and two mana. Not bad at all. If you take a shot at the kind, you best not miss.

Vulnerabilities

Vortinbraz does not offer a lot of support to his minions. If he doesn't have a lot of mana, he can still do things, but his personal output (and therefore his overall output) suffers. He tends to run cheaper minions for this reason and will fade a bit when running the heavy hitters. Vortinbraz can bring cheap minions, but lists built that way won't have much offensive output aside from Vortinbraz's personal threat.

Closing Thoughts

Vortinbraz is a mage who more often gets support form his minions than the other way around. He's really fun if you want to live the fantasy of a semi-heroic vampire jumping all over the board and doing badass vampire things. Give hime a try and tell us what you think!