Another Vampire, Why Not

[TW: Suicide]

Vampire

AC: 18 (2)

HD: 9

AL: Chaotic

Attacks: Bite 1d6+disease, weapon

Special Abilities: become ethereal, dimension door, charm person, polymorph self, cause disease, chill touch, cause wounds

“Imbécile!—de son empire                                         (Imbecile! If from his empire

Si nos efforts te délivraient,                                        Our efforts would deliver you,

Tes baisers ressusciteraient                                          Your kisses would resuscitate

Le cadavre de ton vampire!”                                      The corpse of your vampire!)

—Charles Baudelaire, “Le Vampire”

Vampires are the corpses of human suicides who ended their own lives out of despair rather than out of honor. The honorable suicide is an act of self-sacrifice, but the despairing suicide is a blasphemous attempt to defeat death, a vain effort affirm one’s wholeness by ending the process of deaths-upon-deaths that constitutes a life, a defensive act that seeks to shore up the walls of the self rather than to dissolve them completely. As a result of this paradoxical desire, vampires are cursed with an unslakeable lust for annihilation.

Finding solace only in the grave, vampires often sleep for months, rising from their interment periodically to feed. The blood of any creature will sustain the vampire, but it is the blood of sentient creatures—especially the immortal blood of elves—that most thoroughly nourishes the vampire. After feeding, the sated vampire often becomes delirious, as though intoxicated, and it is during this period that the vampire is most likely to reveal itself to others through wanton acts of violence or an obsessive, often romantic, attachment to a single individual. To replenish its arcane power, the vampire will slumber in its own grave, passing ethereally through Earth’s fathoms disturbing neither soil nor sod. The only known means of destroying a vampire are striking the head from the body, plunging a stake through the heart, and burning the body to ash.

Those persons cognizant of the secret of the vampire’s creation have been known to make dark pilgrimages to the Fata Subterrane in order to carry out the desperate, fatal ritual, plunging blades into their hearts or dragging them across their throats, expecting to wake, after a three-day respite in their cavernous graves, imbued with new life. Hoping to midwife companions for themselves, some vampires even court humans of such a dolorous mien, creating around themselves foul cults that culminate in mass suicide. Few if any of these humans are ever reborn as vampires. It seems that only those who truly wish for death are granted the curse of eternal life in undeath. 

The Vampire Muse

Vampire Muse

Medium humanoid, neutral evil

AC: 12

HP: 54 (8d8+16)

STR 10 DEX 12 CON 14 INT 14 WIS 16 CHA 18

Saving Throws: Int +6, Cha +8

Resistance: Cannot be charmed

Skills: Perception +7, History (art) +9, Persuasion +8

Languages: Common, Elven (or the dominant artistic language for a particular culture)

Innate Spellcasting:

2/day: charm person, energy form, misty step

1/day: Visceral art

Actions:

Mind blast: recharge 6. DC 15 Intelligence save or take 22 (4d8+4) damage.

Slam: Melee weapon attack, +4 to hit, 2d8+4 bludgeoning damage. While in ethereal form, the Vampire Muse can strike out with a wispy tendril up to 10’ long that affects both corporeal and noncorporeal beings.

Onaya: You already have the talent inside you. I can see it. You just need someone to help you bring it to the surface.

Jake: How?

Onaya: There are ways. Exercises...techniques.

Jake: Can you show them to me?

The pen of the poet, the brush of the painter, the chisel of the sculptor, the voice of the singer: the acts of creation of great artists release arcane energy into the world. There are beings that feed off of this energy. They are called Vampire Muses.

Vampire Muses are aesthetes with a great appreciation for beauty in all its forms. Their charisma allows them to easily forge relationships with young artists who are still full of potential and eager to prove themselves.

Vampire Muses usually reject overt violence, but if attacked, defend themselves with their mind blast, use their energy form ability, and try escape the confrontation.

Visceral Art: With a touch, the Vampire Muse unlocks the target’s latent artistic potential. Establishing contact takes one round. The target does not make a saving throw if he willingly submitted to the Vampire Muse’s touch, and the Vampire Muse cannot use this ability on a creature against its will. As the target creates its work of art, the Vampire Muse surreptitiously saps the target of his power. As the target’s magnum opus pours from the his pen, the Vampire Muse draws sustenance from the target’s mind. Roll on the following table each day that the target is under the spell to determine the spell’s effects:

Roll (d8)          Effect

1                Target loses 1d4 points of Intelligence

2                Target loses 1d4 points of Constitution

3-5             Target loses 1d4 point of Charisma

6                Target loses 1d4 maximum hit points

7                Target takes 1d6 psychic damage from pushing too hard

8                No effect

While in the visceral art trance, the target will actually be creating his finest work of art; it is not a trick or an illusion. The target can see the results. The target does not, however, realize that he is slowly being drained of life until the effects become obvious to him. At the end of each day that the target suffers a negative effect, roll a DC25 perception check. On a successful check, the target may then roll a DC18 Charisma save to break the spell. If the target’s Charisma, Constitution, maximum hit points fall to zero, the target dies.  If the spell is broken while the target is still alive, the target regains any lost ability scores and maximum hit points.

Onaya: They all died in the end...but look what I gave them in return: immortality. Their names will live forever because of me.

One thing though: “Vampire Muse” isn’t a very cool name. Aesthetic Enervator? No. Art Sucker? Nope. Poiesophage? Ehhhh.