Vampires on Legon, A New Twist to Explore

This Is Not Buffy Or Vampire Diaries and definitely not the Worst Vampire Stories of All Time: Twilight

The base stats for the Vampire can be found on the Beastiary page, 2nd one down.

On Legon they are mostly known as Splitjaws, but they are also known as Vampires. A spoiler alert; they are not the “undead.” They have been infected with a virus that breaks down the blood in the body. Because of the breakdown, it allows the infected to be very strong, have disjointed joints including the jaw and legs. Their mouth and jaw can “lower” and fangs come out. When it bites a victim, it inhales the blood like a siphon into their blood stream. They have 2 forms, one that is near indistinguishable from a humanoid, and another that turns the body into a Vampire when in fight or flight / smell or sense blood.

The Infection & Feeding

The saliva of a vampire has the virus, and a bite can transfer to it’s victim. Along with the virus, a paralyzing agent is also dispersed, and the victim must make a constitution savings throw. The virus allows the blood to work the body differently, including strength, speed, sight, healing and perceptions. While the blood is working overtime, it breaks down. A vampire must feed every 4-5 days to survive. They can drink animal blood but it is only half as effective meaning they must feed every 2-3 days. If the creature does not feed, their strength wains and in 6-7 days they are half as strong, and half as fast. In 10 days their body will break down, and they will die of suffocation, disease or heart failure.

To feed on an animal or humanoid, the vampire must transform. Their jaws will “unlock” and drop down, their eyes will be blood red (excitement for the blood) and their skin will turn darker. The jaw unlocks to make it easier for them to feed, it is an evolutionary ability that has improved over centuries. The fangs will come up out of the “canine” teeth area. Most vampires will have 4 total fangs, while some more powerful vampires might have 8. The fangs and throat have a separate retrieval mechanism that allows the blood they suck to go directly into the bloodstream. Think of it like someone sucking through a straw, but never losing their breath. During this time, they can max out on strength (roll for constitution) to 20, they are faster and have all of their bonus’s available (unless in the daylight).

Turning Into A Vampire

A bite from a vampire, the victim must make a savings throw against their constitution. Failing that means they have been infected and within 72 hours they will turn. The following day they must make another savings throw against their constitution again, failing that means the infection is too much for their body and they will die in 24 hours. Passing both saving throws leads them to turn into a Vampire, but they must make one last savings throw in the final day against their intelligence. If they fail that, they permanently go insane.

Vampires in D&D 5e

The Abilities Of The Vampire

With this infection, they gain abilities past a normal humanoids.

They have Darkvision up to 90 feet
Natural strength at 18, but during battle can boast to 20, damage bonus up to +8 with weapon
They can double the speed in combat resulting in double slashing abilities
Initiative bonus +5
Bite can cause paralysis (save versus constitution)
Can have multiple forms. Humanoid and vampire
They can’t be killed without a decapitation, burning or removal of heart
Can live for as long as they continue to feed, they’re bodies can rejuvenate themselves easily

Weaknesses Of The Vampyr

Apart from all the legends, light does have a negative impact on the Vampire. Well lit rooms reduces the creatures sight to 15 feet. Legends tell of fighting Vampires with bright lanterns, it affects their eyes so that their attacks are weakened and they sometimes flee.

Sunlight does not make them evaporate in a ridiculous pile of dust. It does 1d4 damage per hour while exposed. They can venture out, and if their bodies are covered, they will take little to no damage. But they lose all fighting bonuses and in fact have negative to hit due to the sunlight and their eyes (-2 to hit). This also speeds up the break down of blood making there craving to feed greater.

As most living creatures, they are vulnerable to fire. This is due to speeding up the metabolism of the blood (heat breaks the blood down quicker). Heat in general affects a vampire, and reduces their combat fighting, sight and daily functions. Fire based attacks get +4 to damage. Placing a Vampire in a warm climate will greatly limit his capabilities and they would have to feed twice as much. That is why they prefer dungeons, caves and the like… cool and no sunlight.

They are not undead, meaning they still live and breath like any NPC. A priest or cleric of Animax would do no more damage than a Barbarian from the Teeter Wind Plains. The ridiculous idea that holy water or a symbol of Animax would do anything anyways is not in Legon’s vocabulary. Stake through the heart does have it’s meaning, but anyway to stop the heart from pumping blood is the only way to truly kill a vampire. Cut off its arms, legs and stab it all over will only incapacitate them. They still could live if given blood to pump through their veins. Removing the heart (stake through the heart if you have a boner for that kind of thing), removing the head (remove the processor from the computer, it fails to work the heart) and burning the corpse (self explanatory).

Characteristics Of Vampires

Becoming a vampire does not make the person, NPC into an evil creature. What the person believed in prior to the change, carries over. Now the ideals may change, because of their situation and the stress it causes. But a Lawful Good person, changed into a vampire will make almost every attempt to feed on an animal. For another example, a true neutral person would not care what they fed on, whatever was easiest to bite. The following is a rough guideline to follow:

Lawful and Neutral Good – Only feed on animals, rarely if ever feed on humans
Chaotic Good, Lawful Neutral – Mostly feed on animals, and occasionally when warranted, feed on humans
True Neutral – Does not care, will feed on the closest thing when needed
Chaotic Neutral, Chaotic Evil – Will feed on either, but prefers humanoids
Lawful Evil, Neutral Evil – Almost always human, will only feed on animals as a last resort

Many vampires like to live in packs, and our unnaturally drawn to each other. Rarely do you see a single vampire out and about and a true NPC vampire is very uncommon. They find a “nest” and make it their home. As the nest grows, so does the loyalty of the pack and the defense of their home. Naturally they feed at night on humanoids or animals. Transformation in daylight is impossible for them, so feeding is too.

Sometimes a pack of vampires will keep “pets.” The vampires who have gone insane, but can be controlled is a favorite among a group. Some larger packs will have 5-7 of them for protection, unleashing them on unknowing victims. The insane vampires are much more docile around other vampires than not.

Types of Vampires

The majority of vampires are about the same. The virus does the same thing to all of them. Once in a while a NPC will be powerful, and contract the virus. This will enhance the abilities of this vampire including all the proficiency, traits and stats of the person prior. They would most likely lead a pack of vampires, and have many followers. These can be called Master Vampires, and their stats can be increased as see fit by the DM bringing in the players character sheet to boot.

A Damphiir is very rare type of vampire, though calling them a vampire might not be appropriate. They are the offspring of a vampire and a human. Female vampires are barren and can’t bare children. Male vampires for a short time after changing still have valid sperm, and could impregnate someone. Now per the Legon lore, only HUMAN woman can be impregnated by other races. Essentially, a freshly turned vampire male, has sex with a human female, could possibly create a mixed baby, and they are called Damphiirs. There was a legend of someone experimenting with this ideals; purposefully turning men into vampires and forcibly have them have sex with human females.

There is only 3 known Damphiirs on Legon. Two of them show up in the Vulcuran adventures here: Adventure #39 – A Watched Pot… A male named Fayllen and a female named Wyness.