A few levels back, shortly after we advanced to 8th level and got all our magic things, we assaulted a crypt with a vampire lord and some elemental guardians. Final battle against the vampire had us attacking him with a great number of minions on his side. It also was the infamous encounter where Selnar (my character) got dominated and critted Bryan to death. Anyway, I happened across the Monster Manual's Vampire Lord entry, and it got me thinking...
Here's how I would have had a vampire lord in DnD if I were the DM.
Adventure is for five 6th level PCs, assuming they are fairly strong. Level 7 is also a possiblity.
PCs, being wandering heros and the like, recieve a message from a small town, requesting help. Young men are found dead in the morning with no obvious injuries, and rise against as terrible creatures the next sunset. The towns wants help removing the curse that has been afflicting their town, and has turned to the PCs. He offers to pay money as well.
A DC 20 religion check at this point can determine that the people rising are vampire spawn, folks killed by a vampire lord's bite.
Upon arriving, they are met by the mayor, and who tells them that the previous night he lost his son. If the PCs arrive the same day they were contacted, he sent the message when he found his dead son. If not, then it is unrelated. He asks the PCs to watch the body of his son at sunset. Until then, the PCs can go around the town and gather information (diplomacy checks DC 10 then 15, one to engage the townsfolk interviewed, one to illicit interesting information - checks cover all info-gathering, and each PC has two tries before sunset). Depending on how many of the five characters have success with the interviews:
1 success: Each victim was killed during the night, and rose as a nasty creature when the sun set the next day. Several families were killed by their loved one rising and attacking them while they were waiting to be buried. (PCs get another vampire-spawn religion check if they want, DC 15)
2 successes: The people killed have all were young, healthy, and male. The mortician was killed by one of the spawn. The attacks started two weeks ago.
3 successes: The first victims were found killed on the street. When people stopped going out at night, the attacks abated for several days, then resumed with young men killed in their beds with no sign of entry. Also, three weeks ago, raiders attacked the town and killed a number of people and looted a bit before the town guard and militia grabbed their weapons and belately fought back.
4 successes: Many of the victims attacked were members of the town guard, and some people think it is related. All of the people killed in bed were members of the town guard. The town temple was attacked during the raid, killing the priest and his two assistants. No holy healing was preformed after the raid, and many of the injured died of infected wounds days after the attack. Raiders were orcs. Many of the recent victims were chained and sealed underground in coffins. Of those that were not, four killed their entire families and vanished, while the two others were put down by the dwindling guard, killing two of them in the process. (DC 20 Religion says that the four survivors would have either attacked more people or sought out their maker)
5 successes: The first three men killed in bed were sleazy characters, known for drinking, womanizing, and getting away with it by abusing their power and authority. The other two, including the Mayor's son, were captains of the guard, but not known for abusing their power. The four victims who slew their entire families and escaped were never seen or heard of since, though there were no attacks the nights afterwards.
Other specific questions that could be asked: The town graveyard has had minor ghost problems in the past, but nothing the priest, the local hedge-wizard, and the mortician could not handle.
If the PCs ask about the hedge-wizard, they find out that he is extremely old, and weak. His granddaughter was one of those who died after the raid, and he shut himself up in his house, refusing to speak to anyone, after he was unable to save her. He is of no help, and the townsfolk worry about stirring ghosts.
Raiders were orcs from the nearby mountain range.
Asking about surrounding caves or tombs comes up mostly negative. One small cave held kobolds a decade back, but was too small for medium sized creatures. The towns folk poured oil into it, and set it aflame.
A decade ago, elves settled in the forest. This stopped logging, and the town's economy never truly recovered.
All of these are brought up in conversation, no roll needed - obviously some need prior knowledge to ask the right questions (do not volunteer information).
Insight check (DC15) about the proportions of Town Guards to the total population of young men reveals that only a quarter of the young males are part of the town guard, while over 75% of the victims killed were of the town guard.
Each character can only interview one day's worth of people before sunset, but if any particular characters are willing not to monitor the mayor's son during the night, they can do a second check to gather more information.
Staying with the corpse until sunset has it rise as a level 5 vampire spawn bloodhunter, attacking the PCs in a frenzy - two attacks in the surprise round it awakens, and two each round thereafter.
The mayor is shocked by the change in his son, and goes a bit crazy. If the PCs take more than one round to kill it, or somehow mutilate him with powerful attacks (DM judgement), he is traumatized and will not talk to the PCs.
Shortly after the vampire spawn attacks, there is female screaming that can be heard from the temple, behind which is the graveyard. If the PCs investigate, there are normal screams coming from inside of the temple, and an unearthly scream from behind.
If they PCs try to go in: The temple is locked, but the doors can be busted down with a DC 25 strength check. If the PCs try the windows, they are easy to break, but the PCs take 1 damage from sharp glass and have to climb/wiggle in one at a time. Breaking down the door or window elicits more screams, and an impromptu attack by one of the occupants (+7 (including CA from surprise) charging attack with a 1d6 chair by a monk). Once they realise who came in, the monk and two nuns direct the PCs to the back of the temple. Their is a town guard bracing against the back door, with thuds on the other side from something trying to bash in. As they approach, the door is instead pulled/ripped outwards, and the guard stumbles out into the open, and is attacked and killed by three vampire spawn minions. The PCs can see the three minions, but the female screams are coming from something else out there.
Leaving the temple leads to the same encounter that circling it does: one wailing ghost, one trap haunt, and the full 6 formerly-chained vampire spawn. The only difference is that the door (and the guard) stay intact if the PC circle way around (and no glass or monk damage). As the PCs get a good view, they can see one of the vampire spawn pull the door off of a coffin in a shallow pit, and a chained vampire spawn emerges. The other vampire helps it break the chains. (The cinematic spawn is one of the six.)
Vampire spawn killed turn to ash.
A DC 20 perception check during the battle looking around can reveal a shadowy figure on the roof of a near-by building.
Once the two ghosts are killed, or 4 of the spawn, the remaining vampire spawn flee down an alley, but are attacked by the vampire lord (see later) and probably easily destroyed. If the PCs follow, they see the combat if they are in time, if not, they see a shadowy woman crouching over some ashes and letting them fall from between it's fingers. She is wearing a very ordinary blue dress, with a black cloak over it. She makes a stealth check to hide her nature from the PCs, pulling the hood low and hurrying away. Opposed insight checks on players turns can identify her, as does passive insight if she rolls low enough.
She runs away at full speed. If the PCs pursue, she tries to elude them. If they seem to be catching up or trying to attack her or any of them tell each other that she is a vampire, she takes gaseous form, going through a building to elude her pursuers. If they break into the building, she is already gone.
Information PCs get off the bat is that she is female and relatively young, and quite shapely. If they don't know she is a vampire, they consider her quite fast. If they know she's a vampire this should not be relevant. During the encounter, she should take pains to hide her identity, both her nature and her face. Active Insight or perception checks as to who she is always reveal no recognition as if a failure ("You don't recognize her face.") but are relevant for later checks if they score a 15 or higher, as they can describe her better to townsfolk - only the PCs doing the check will get this bonus later on.
The PCs can search onwards once she takes gaseous form or loses them, but automatically fail. The town guard tries to calm people down concerning the screaming and combat heard - people are peering out of their windows, though keeping them closed. The PCs may rest the rest of the night in the major's home, but it is their choice.
The next day, the PCs can go around asking for more evidence. This includes any information they failed to get the prior day, plus asking about the dark lady/vampire they saw.
DC 20 insight checks, 2 complexity, can find information from people who were looking out their windows and saw the chase from different angles. The people living on the alley and chase route know, but if the PCs do not specifically ask them, any person they are interrogating has a 1/6th chance to be an onlooker.
If the PCs saw the face, they can describe it to any townsfolk, and get an answer DC 20 insight.
Either way, the townsfolk recognise the figure as being the deceased granddaughter of the town hedge-wizard. Presumably this leads to a confrontation with the old man.
House is two story, relatively small and normal looking.
Assuming they just knock on the door, he tells them to go away. Diplomacy checks are encouraged, but the door opens when they mention his granddaughter in the diplomacy checks.
If they bust in the door, they find him making soup. He screams and cowers, telling them to not hurt him. He thinks they are raiders, not being up-to-date with their arrival and inquiries around town, and offers them anything they want. No resistance.
Interogating him, skill challenge complexity 5:
Intimidation checks auto-fail, with him turning into a gibbering wreck.
Diplomacy checks are the main work-horse.
Perception checks looking at his wares reveal a mix of implements and other tools, uniformly neutral and good aligned with the exception of a small altar to Orcus on a table in the back room. If this is brought up, it auto-counts as a success.
Perception checks exploring his house reveal a trap-door under a carpet, with a stair-way leading to a basement. If the PCs go down it, the man screams frantically for them not to go down there, giving a multitude of incoherent excuses, from delicate wares to a toxic accident to their being nothing of interest down there. If the PCs continue, they find a steel door. DC 30 to break down, plus the considerable opposed strength checks on the other side by the vampire lady. Whoever is trying to break down the door notices a undead aura eminating from the other side of the door. If they persist, after 5 tries the vampire lady tells them to stop, and tells them that her grandfather knows where the key is, and pleads for them to treat the old man well.
Succeeding the skill challenge has the old man admitting the following story:
When his daughter and his son-in-law died, he raised their daughter as a father. She grew to be a beautiful young woman, and used to flirt with all the young men. He assumed that she would be married off her pick of the possible suitors, but instead she asked him to become part of the local nunnery.
When the raiders attacked, she tried to defend the priest, but was struck down. With the priest dead, and the other nuns busy taking care of the injured town-folk, she was expected to care for herself until they were free. However, her wound from the rusty axe became infected, and her grandfather brought her home to try his own implements. She continued to waste away, and he prayed to the gods for her to be healed. Neither she nor the other victims (under the care of the remaining three nuns) got better, and one by one they wasted away.
He sent a letter to the temple of the Raven Queen in the nearby city (the one the PCs were in), but the reply told him to let her die, that her time had come. Outraged, he cursed the Raven Queen's name, and invoked Orcus to give his daughter the chance the Raven Queen had denied. To his surprise, he was seized by a vision of a magic ritual from Orcus, and the knowledge that the ritual would save his daughter.
He preformed the ritual, but soon afterwards his daughter died. Researching the magic he had preformed, he discovered the ritual was to create a vampire lord from the living. He hurried home and much to his surprise his granddaughter was on her feet, gorging herself on his spell components - the ones that included blood. She saw him and asked him what had he done to her. He replied honestly, and she fled into the basement and slammed the door, horrified at what he had made her into.
He talked with her outside the basement door, and calmed her down. He was willing to give her a nightly supply of his own blood, and she could live in his basement, safe from the prying eyes of others.
He grew weak from giving his blood, and his granddaughter soon began to refuse it, on the basis of it slowly killing him. (If the PCs check, this was around the time the killings began.) His daughter has stayed in the basement ever since.
If the PCs ask him whether he knows about the killings, he will admit he has heard something of them, but note that the metal door is locked from the outside. Other than that, he evades the topic of his grand-daughter being responsible, and denies any possiblity, citing the door.
If the PCs ask him to unlock the door, he will first make them promise not to hurt his grand-daughter, who is still completely innocent in his eyes. He then goes down the stairs and opens it with the magic password, "Myralice."
Upon entering the room, they find the vampire lady sitting placidly on her coffin, non-threateningly. If they approach her threateningly, she raises her hands and tells them she wants to talk. Her grandfather also makes a ruckus about the promise.
The room also contains all manner of alchemical instruments, compotents, ritual components, etc. Not all of it seems to have been used in quite some time. A DC 20 insight check gives the realization that the grandfather, old as he is, is not the original wizard in the family - much of the equipment is for much more complex spellcraft than the kind the hedge-wizard seems capable of.
She asked her grandfather to leave, telling him that she needs to talk to the adventurers privately.
She tells the adventurers that, yes, she has been the one behind the killings. She never wanted to be a vampire, but now that she was, every night she has been filled by an insatable urge to feed. She would smell and hear the fresh blood flowing through their bodies as they walked in the alleys next to the house. One night found she could turn herself into a gas, and used it to seep out onto the street, and she attacked the young man in the alley next to her house. His blood tasted so much more fresh than the old blood provided by her grandfather, and she knew she could not go back to the stale juice of her grandfather. She hunted randomly at first, but when she met and slew the spawns of her creation, she came to realise that with her strength and abilities, she could attack whoever she wanted.
Doubt flickers in her eyes at this point, and instead of continuing the story, she says different stuff:
She tells the PCs that she knows they are here to kill her, and she is willing to let them kill her. To her, this is a false life, and she died two weeks and a half ago - she knows that she is killing people, that that it is wrong, but she cannot help herself. She asked them to do what she could not bring herself to do, and end her life.
She rolls forward off the coffin with surprising grace, and lies down on the ground, face down. She asked the PCs to tell her father whatever story will make him happy... she doesn't know anymore. PCs get one coup de grace, but right before they hit her, she shrieks, turns insubstancial, and sinks into the floor via a drain. DC 15 insight says that leads to the town's river, as seen earlier while information gathering.
If the PCs leave immediately, they can see her in gaseous form, flying swiftly towards the nearby forest. On the road in that direction they can see a caravan of wagons on the road next to the forest - she heads towards that, but passes out of sight due to being semi-transparent.
The PCs have some options now. They can ask around town and gather information about the forest, trading caravans, traits of a vampire (from the folks in the temple, and specifically their books, which have the DMG's vampire template on it (sans the stuff requiring the lady to be 11th level)). Among information gathered about vampires, they will find the Monster Manual blurb about coffins. Forest traits are that is occupied by elves, and a no-go zone for humans, due to the elves and other forest creatures.
The PCs could immediately start to chase the vampire. If this brings them to the caravan (2 hours of fast travel), they will find that the caravan is hiding a raiding party of orcs inside the wagons, with a single, very scared, man driving the oxen pulling the wagon.
This leads to the following encounter:
1 Orc Bloodrager
1 Orc Eye of Gruumsh
6 Orc Warriors (minions!)
If the scared man survives the fight (he runs away, but can be killed by misjudged AOE effects, etc. He will tell you that one of the orcs was found dead an hour or two ago, causing an uproar. The PCs can find the corpse and cut off its head and otherwise mutilate it to avoid its rebirth as a vampire spawn. The dead orc looks very similar to the Bloodrager - a brother, perhaps. Each dead orc has an axe (aside from the Eye, but the orc killed by the vampire is missing his axe and his armor. History/insight check says that orcs are buried in their armor with their weapons, but his are entirely missing.
Further enquiry with the man reveals that the warrior wandered off of the trail and over a hill, then never came back. Insight check if the party researched vampires says it probably was the victim of Dominating Gaze.
Orcish loot is in the wagon as well - the only treasure interesting to the PCs is the gold, unless severed fingers and shrunken skulls are their thing.
The road is very close to the forest at this point. DC 25 nature check can trail the trail of the vampire from over the hill (the man can point it out) into the forest.
Entering the forest is uneventful, but after a few minutes of walking, two unarmed elves come out of nowhere and tell the part to turn back or face violence. They are very terse in their choice of words (or lack of works).
Diplomacy checks auto-fail - the two elves are firm in their insistance that you leave.
Intimidate automatically provokes combat.
Insight versus bluff reveals that one or two of them (depending on check successes) are dryads.
After 10 minute of negotiation, or a time seeming like that, two dire wolves and a normal-looking wolf arrive. At this point the Dryads demand the party leaves, and if they do not, they attack.
If the party tries to intimidate them, they shed their elf disguises and attack. They fight with hit and run tactics via tree stride (the forest is thick enough when generated that no two trees have more than three squares between them), always retreating towards the same direction, parallel to the edge of the forest. If the PCs retreat, they chase continue to hound them with hit-and-run attacks.
Depending on how long the diplomacy took, in 1 to 5 rounds the rest of their group arrives. In total:
2 Dryads
2 Dire Wolves
1 Werewolf
If the combat takes more than 10 rounds, elves arrive en masse and demand that both parties stop fighting. The remaining forest-folk back off (werewolf continues regeneration), elves care for the fallen (both sides).
(If they left the forest, an elf runner appears shortly after they leave, and invites them inside - they meet the full forest company.)
Their leader asked the party what relationship they have with the deadly girl who has intruded into the forest, and has been picking off elves. Insight check or guesswork concludes that the girl is drinking lots of blood to make up for the lack of a coffin. Conversation concerning PC aims occurs, with the elves finding out what they can about vampires. Elf runners are dispatched to behead the dead elves.
The Elves ask the PCs to come to the elf camp with them. On the way, they find a dead elf runner, largely drained of blood. His tunic is ripped open, and cuts on his chest spell "murderer."
If the PCs ask the Elves about them seizing the forest and not allowing humans to enter, they evade the topic.
All the characters of the forest so far gather in the large elf-camp for protection, save for the dire wolves, who patrol around. The night passes without disturbance.
The next day, the PCs and Elves try to figure out how to hunt the Vampire. If the PCs do not come up with a plan, the elves suggest that the vampire might be hiding in one of the caves. They refuse to go in, but lead the humans to the entrance.
The cave goes down quite a bit (full darkness - use sunrods etc), and a DC 15 insight check by anyone who has been in a mine before recognises it as a mine. Several of the mine shafts (going straight down) give off bad vibes, and sending a light down or exploring it reveals a multitude of human bones at the bottom, with some remains of clothes (belt buckles, buttons, etc.).
At the very end of the main mining tunnel, there is the dead body of a elf maiden. Again, the clothes (dress in this case) has been ripped open, and words written on the chest: "Fools."
Nothing else of interest is in the mine, though sleazy sorts could loot the body for a pair of fine elven footpads (+1 stealth).
Upon immerging from the mine, the dead bodies of elves lay all around the clearing near the mine-shaft, and the vampire is sitting on a tree, only slightly wounded. She is wearing leather armor now, and has an axe resting on one slender shoulder. Her chin and neck and clothes are drenched with blood.
"Do you think this was wrong of me to do? I don't think so."
If the PCs tell her that it was wrong:
"No it's not. Elves kill humans, now I kill elves. I could kill humans too, but that would make me no better than these creatures."
DC 15 diplomacy on why reveals:
"My father was a logger, back before the elves came. He used to chop firewood for the house and for market. One day, the elves moved in, claimed the forest like it was theirs. Dad told us that he didn't think that a little bit of logging mattered, and if it did, he was sure he could sort it out with the elves. He went to the forest, and didn't come back that night. The next day, my mother went to the forest. She came in peace. She didn't come back later. You've seen the burial the elves gave my parents. Killed and dumped down a mine-shaft. I should have come here right away, never killed those wicked men in the town."
If it comes up, she will admit that she can't tell right from wrong anymore, not in her heart, but she remembers what she thought before she died.
If the PCs ask about the wicked men in town, she looks away and states that they deserved it.
After that question, or any failed diplomacy check, or any attempt to attack her, she leaves via gaseous form. Almost immediately, the two dryads treestride out of the tree she was standing on, and one claws her ineffectively while the other leaps and stabs her with a small dagger. She immediately reverts to her natural female form, and falls from the tree (20 feet) with the dryad on top of her. She strikes back in midair with her axe, and the dryad lands under her and her axe, the axe chopping through her completely.
Encounter:
1 Vampire Lady
Ally: 1 Dryad.
The Vampire spends the first round trying to pull the axe from the dryad's wooden body - players automatically get initative all before her. If they hit her before she her turn starts, she instead grabs a spear from a nearby dead elf, and fights with that.
She starts at -15 health, and once she become bloodied (without a blood drain and second wind), she will attempt to flee by foot. Foot speed is slowed down by the heavy forest as people have to navigate around trees. The dryad, having treestride, will do her best to teleport in front of the vampire and force an OA. Vampire will attack the Dryad until the party catches up and damages her, in which case she will continue to run. If the dryad dies, it's up to the party to catch up with the Vampire and stop her, with their less than perfect foot speed.
If the vampire is killed, she looks peaceful and whispers 'thanks' to the PCs, and crumbles to dust.
For her to get away, she must be out of LOS to make successful stealth check, and then starts moving slowly. If no member the party can find her in five minutes, she regains gaseous form and is gone.
Failure grants half-XP. Going back to the original battle-site finds a +2 Shapeshifter's Sorrow dagger on the dead Dryad, and a few other magic items on the elves. Footpads can be looted from each of the shoes.
Going back to the town with the news of the dead vampire and the dead elves is greatly welcomed. If the PCs killed the vampire, they get twice the original amount offered - the original payment plus another of the same amount for the elves being dead.
If the PCs did not kill the Vampire, they can still bluff the mayor into paying them the full amount.
If they do not bluff, they gain half the amount (whe original amount offered) for driving the vampire away.
If they fail the bluff, they don't get any of the reward for the vampire.
Vindictive vampire lady, if still living (escaped), can return in other adventures later on, as a templated vampire of level appropriate for the PCs at that time. Probably 2-weapon ranger, given her personality.
It's implied that the men from the town guard abused her at some point - the thread is: her being young and attractive, her sudden choice to become a nun, her uncomfortableness (as a vampire, no less) with talking about the men, and her comment that they deserved to die. It could be speculated that the two town guard captains, which not participating themselves, turned a blind eye of their fellows' misbehavior.
Personality notes - she lost her soul to Orcus when she became a vampire, and can no longer to the things people do with soul. Like have morals. She does miss being a human, however, and tries to act like it, even if she doesn't feel like it. Tries to be nice to her grandfather, as that's what she would have done if she were alive, same with her choice of victims - she certainly remembers wanting certain people to die. Her killing her vampire spawn has to do with her not wanting messiness, or hurting the families she used to care for as a nun. Basically, she is an unfeeling, hateful bitch who tries her best to fake the human thing.
Notes: Myralice is the name of the vampire lady's mother, and the hedge-wizard's daughter. Come up with your own name for the vampire lady.
All the elves of that tribe, every man, woman, and child, die - the ones in the camp are killed after the PCs and the leaders go off to the mine. The ones that went with the PCs are killed while the PCs are in the mine. The Dryads were busy with the werewolf - they were getting the knife he had in his lair. Once they got it (it's a spoil from someone who tried to kill the werewolf), the Dryads treestrided the whole way. The werewolf is unaccounted for after the quest, as are his friends. There may be other tribes in the forest, but the town doesn't know that. The orc raiders indicate an orc presence in the nearby mountain, and they might invade if they think the elves are weak.
Future threads and other notes:
Other elf tribes, if they exist, may be pissed off at the PCs for accepting money on the thing, or even assume that the PCs killed the tribe for the town. Elite elf hunters could hunt after the party, etc.
The hedge-wizard may or may not kill himself after learning that his granddaughter was killed. He's largely harmless, though, if he is upset with the PCs.
Bonus adventure is if the PCs did not properly dispose of the dead elves - they rise again as Vampire Spawn, all of them.
So that's how I would deal with incorporating Vampires into the story if I were DM.
