Saturday, September 1, 2012

Vampire in Wine Cellar Quest

The PCs face a vampire who mixes his blood into wine to weaken his prey.
Can they stop him and his thralls?



A panicked man approaches the PCs and whispers
"You can heal people right? Can you come and take a look at my daughter?"
"The local healer, I don't trust her capabilities, I want the best."


Examining the daughter


Pouring wine
Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

When they arrive at the locked mansion, they meet his wife and the local wine dealer.
The father directs them to his dead daughter.

When the PCs examine the body, they discover two teeth marks on the neck (Heal or Perception).
There is no sign of struggle but she seems pale and drained of blood
(Heal or Perception).

There is a broken glass with spilled wine next to it. Examining the wine leads to thinking there is vampire blood mixed in it (Religion or Nature).

Drinking vampire blood makes a person more susceptible to a vampire's will:
Will defense -2
Saving throws -5
The daughter was weakened by drinking the wine when the vampire appeared before her and dominated her. He entered the house using his mist form ability.

Examining the mansion


The mansion is completely locked down.
Except for some tiny areas for air circulation, there is no sign of forced entry (Thievery or Perception).

Questioning the suspects


When they question the wife or husband, they say
"My daughter was alone in this room, the rest of us was in another room trying out wine. The wine merchant offers this service to his best customers, to let them taste some wines at home.
That's when we heard glass breaking."

When they question the wine dealer:
"I was talking with the parents when we heard glass breaking. We found the body, the father rushed out to get a healer, hoping to save her."
Insight learns that he's dominated.

Streetwise or history learns that other young women died over the years in the same way.
No one found any teeth marks.
They all died when the wine dealer was visiting.

The wine cellar


So they learn that wine dealer is dominated, probably by a vampire.
A streetwise check learns he never leaves his shop except to visit families.
When they go to his shop, they find nothing except a locked cellar.

The wine cellar holds a lot of wine bottles to the sides.
There is broken glass on the floor, and a coffin at the end of the room.
3 people with bite marks are chained to the walls and appear unconscious.
An arcana check reveals the glass pieces to be a glass golem.
An Insight check reveals the humans to be bluffing and dominated.

The wine cellar contains a vampire lord, the rest of the wine dealer's family and a glass golem.
The family appears to be cattle for drinking blood but they are also dominated by him by using his blood in the wine.

The vampire doesn't want to fight the PCs at first, offering them gold, info, knowledge... .
He says he doesn't kill anyone usually, that killing the daughter was a mistake.
He was too impulsive draining her blood.

Fighting the Vampire


Encounter (level 11):
  • Vampire Lord (see monster manual)
  • 3 x Firelasher (see monster manual under elemental)
    Reflavor them as vampire thralls. Fire Lasher becomes Spiked Chain attack and deals untyped damage. Their immunities, resistances and other attacks are gone and they have speed 6.
  • Glass Golem (see below)
Glass Golem level 11 Controller
Large Construct
Initiative +8                    Senses Perception+13; Darkvision
HP 130; Bloodied 65
AC 22, Fortitude 25 Reflex 25, Will 22
Fly 4
Vulnerable Thunder 5, Immune: Disease; Poison; Sleep
Grab,    +17 vs. AC,    1d8 + 8 damage, target is grabbed
Wrap (At-will; grabbed),   
                         +17 vs. AC,   
                         1d8 + 8 damage, target is wrapped
                         (skin-tight layer; immobilized;
                         half damage to the Glass Golem is redirected to the target)
Pierce (At-will; wrapped),  2d8 + 8 damage
Glass Shards (Encounter; Burst 1),    +14 vs. Reflex,    4d10 + 8 damage

I suggest buffing up the monster manual monsters.

The vampire will try to escape with mist form, if PCs locked the door he won't be able to.
If the vampire is killed, the golem dies and the thralls are freed from his influence.

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