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Who gives a fuck about an Oxford comma?
Me. I do.
His Majesty the Worm has a vampire in its Bestiary. Here are some variations on that theme to give you some variety based on age and mental illness.
I think about vampires in roughly four main age groups:
Vampire Thrall (0-100ish years): You suck shit. All pain no gain. No powers, you explode if you go outside. Why did you do this?
Vampire Neophyte (100-500 years): Hey, I developed a power. I can't use it!!! FUCK!!!!! I'm a bat and can't turn back.
Vampire, core book (500+ years): Hey, everything's coming up Dracula!
Vampire Elder (2000+ years): Oh I got over that sunlight thing.
The truths you decide about killing vampires (His Majesty the Worm, core book, p. 283) will apply equally to all vampires in your campaign. (Probably! Unless you decide that vampires need more and more requirements for true death as they grow older.)
Vampire Thrall
Undead minion
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| Mike Mignola |
"Sanguine temperament, great physical strength, morbidly excitable, periods of gloom, ending in some fixed idea which I cannot make out. I presume that the sanguine temperament itself and the disturbing influence end in a mentally-accomplished finish, a possibly dangerous man, probably dangerous if unselfish."
- From Dr. John Seward's journal, Dracula, Bram Stoker
Adventurers who seek quick power by undergoing the transformation to vampire are sorely disappointed. At first, it’s all pain and no gain: a young vampire is a wretched creature—they catch on fire when exposed to sunlight and can only eat blood. It takes at least a century for a vampire to manifest the least of their powers.
A vampire thrall cannot hunt as an older vampire can. At the very beginning of their life as an undead, they can't stomach anything except insect blood. Eventually, they can work their way up to vermin like birds or rats. From there, predator blood, and so on.
These are your Renfields, your Guillermos, your Louises. Since being transformed, they are less than human. Troubled, tragic, and tortured by their very existence. They suffer all of the vampire's vulnerabilities, but have none of its strengths...except that, if killed, they tend to not stay dead.
Notes
Coward. The vampire thrall always plays their highest card for Initiative.
Vulnerabilities. A vampire thrall exposed to sunlight catches on fire, suffering 1 Wound at the start of their turn until they can douse themselves. They cannot use running water for this purpose, as they cringe away from it like a dog with rabies.
Lesser dooms
Blood is the Life. If a living creature is Knocked-out or at Death’s Door, play a lesser doom card to drink its blood. The vampire thrall gains 2 Defense.
There's no real upper limit to the amount of Defense a vampire thrall can gain in this way, although after drinking the blood of 4 creatures, they become swollen and corpulent; they can no longer Dash or Dodge. Every night, the thrall loses 1 Defense gained in this manner until they reach 0 Defense.
Call Vermin. Play a lesser doom card to summon a swarm of vermin—spiders, centipedes, and worms. The card played is the vermin's Initiative. A swarm of vermin has the stats of a HD 2/0 beast minion. If the vermin are active, the GM draws +2 Challenge cards at the beginning of a round.
Vampire Neophyte
Undead Strategist
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| @HushpuppyArt |
- The Silmarillion, J.R.R. Tolkien
Those learned in undead lore will tell you that lycanthropy and vampirism are the same disease. There's no difference between these two creatures, except in the romantic notions of village girls.
At this stage in their deadly de-evolution, the vampire cannot yet control the powers they begin to develop. Like everything on the timescale of eternity, the process is slow. They can attempt to use their powers only once a month, in the darkness of the new moon. Each attempt is clumsy, unskilled. Vampires at this point might attempt to shapeshift and grow their neck grotesquely long. They might form paper-thin wings along the edge of their forearms in such a way that they cannot possibly support flight. Control over these powers takes years; each year, twelve attempts at a time.
Additionally, their bloodlust is never ending. This "adolescent" form has the hunger of a teenager going through a growth spurt. When they see blood, they're driven into a berserk state.
Likes: Craves Blood, Hanging Upside Down, Crawling into Small Crevices, Nocturnal Creatures
Health/Defense: 3/3
Notes
Batshape. The neophyte can fly 1 zone without spending a card any time he takes his turn or minor action. It can crawl on walls and hang from ceilings as well. If it Moves onto a wall, it can avoid the adventurers and leave the area (unless the adventurers have some way to keep up).
Breathless and Ageless. The vampire does not age or breathe. (They do have other physical processes, however. They both sleep and can be poisoned.)
Feed. If an Attack action actually Wounds a condition or talent (instead of Notching armor or a shield), the neophyte must discard any card to quickly feed on the blood drawn. This Heals them.
Once a neophyte has fed on an adventurer's blood, on their turn they may Move 2 zones towards that adventurer without spending a card.
Invulnerable. The vampire ignores all damage except from silver weapons, magic, and fire. This ability is negated by the presence of wholesome herbs (such as garlic) or sunlight.
Lesser dooms
Scream. The neophyte can let out a high pitched shriek. This is treated as a Roughhouse action that targets every character in its zone (but does not engage him with anybody).
If the neophyte's Scream value is greater than an adventurer's Initiative, they are either Disarmed, Rooted, or Tripped (GM's discretion). They must use the Recover action to get rid of this effect. The same effect is applied to everyone who is affected.
Protean Body. Discard a lesser doom card to disengage from all adventurers. This action does not count towards the one card per turn limit.
Greater dooms
Supernatural Swiftness. The neophyte can play a greater doom card as a Dodge. If they successfully Dodge an Attack (or similar), they may choose to also disengage from all adventurers and Move 1 zone.
Tactics. Discard a greater doom card to turn a standard Challenge Action into an interrupt. This action does not count towards the one card per turn limit.
Vampire Elder
Undead Dungeon Lord
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| Mike Mignola |
"Since dawn of time / The fate of man is that of lice / Equal as parasites"
The vampire elder, for a time, may pretend to be a normal vampire. In this case, the vampire elder form is their "second phase" of combat.
Use this if you're adapting Ravenloft to His Majesty the Worm and need a Strahd.
Attributes: Swords 5 | Pentacles 5 | Cups 5 | Wands 5
Vampire Elder tactics
- The vampire elder is smarter than the GM. To represent this, you can take anything the GM knows out of character in character. You can hear the table talk and adjust your strategy accordingly.
- The vampire elder focuses their attacks on a single character for 3 rounds, then retreats. If the party Camps, they attack again.
- The vampire elder attacks the guild's sources of light with the Flare spell. The vampire elder can see in the dark.
- The vampire elder knows when to call for reinforcements. This allows them a chance to escape as a mist.
Special rules: The blood pool
- If the vampire bat is not in the same zone as an adventurer, it flies 1 zone towards an adventurer of the GM's choosing.
- If the vampire bat is in the same zone as an adventurer, it attempts to latch onto them. The value of this Attack is equal to the vampire bat's Initiative.
- If the vampire bat is already latched onto an adventurer, the adventurer suffers a Wound.
Notes
Lesser dooms
Greater dooms
- The vampire lord can communicate telepathically with Marked adventurers from any distance. The vampire lord may choose to restore stolen XP at will, and might choose to do so if the adventurer performs certain tasks to further their goals.
- Marked adventurers regain all lost XP if the vampire lord is defeated.
Special dooms
Bonus Content: Grave Companions
Here are two creatures that are strictly unrelated to the tragic cycle of vampirism, but are often found in their company.
Ghouls
Undead Minion
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| Jacen Burrows |
"To what base uses we may return, Horatio. Why may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander till he find it stopping a bunghole?"
- Hamlet, William Shakespeare
Ghouls have human-like bodies and dog-like heads, resembling baboons somewhat. They speak eloquently with stolen voices. More on this later.
The true history of ghouls is a strange one, and little known except by scholars of obscure occult subjects. Like elves, ghouls were native residents of the Far Realms (Wastes, in all probability) who came to the Realm of Flesh and became trapped. The ghouls' stories on the subject describe being "burned by comets" when they tried to return home.
Ghouls are sapiensaprovores. Their only source of food is human flesh (preferably rotted). They prefer to harvest these bodies from graveyards ("farms," they call them), and are not by nature hateful or murderous. Conflict between humans and ghouls mostly comes from humans objecting to ghouls stealing bodies and defiling the dead.
After a ghoul eats body, they take on the characteristics of the person they devoured. They learn things the living once knew. They can speak with the departed's voice. Parts of the dead person's personality become lodged in their head, and big personalities might subsume older or more mild ones. A ghoul might even begin to introduce themselves as "Arcturus the Uniting King" or "Francisco the Friar."
Because graveyards share a metaphysical border with the Underworld, ghouls can travel from the Wide World to the Underworld by digging through the soil. Ghouls encountered in the Underworld might try to follow behind an guild, hoping that some trap or monster will turn them from adventurers into food. They are also happy to scavenge zombie flesh, if those creatures are encountered.
Likes: Rotten Human Flesh, Hearing About Your Dreams, Interesting Rumors, Wants to Resolve the Unfinished Business of its Last Meal
Hates: Bright Lights (shy), Mirrors (dysmorphic)
Attributes: Swords 0 | Pentacles 0 | Cups 0 | Wands 0
HD 2/1
Notes
Burrowing. Ghouls can burrow through soft earth and mud like a mole.
Rotting Brains. Ghouls have strange, crowded brains. They are immune to the Inspire effect. They cannot see illusions.
Lesser dooms
Devour the Living. If a living creature is Knocked-out or at Death’s Door, play any card to devour it. This Heals 2 Wounds.
Fear. Play a lesser doom card and compare its value to the Initiative of each character in the same zone. If the ghoul does this on its turn, it adds its Wands to the total value. Adventurers it succeeds against are Displaced to an adjacent zone of the player’s choice.
If an adventurer is Rooted when they suffer this effect, they instead take a Wound and do not move.
Paralyzing Claw. If a ghoul successfully Attacks an adventurer, that adventurer is Rooted in addition to taking a Wound. Fay are immune to this ability.
Greater dooms
Paralyzing Aura. Play a greater doom card to cause all adventurers engaged with the ghoul to become Rooted. Fay are immune to this ability.
New alchemical item: Ghoul potion
When drunk, produces a euphoric effect with visual hallucinations, similar to a mushroom high. This lasts about a watch.
If, during this time, the affected adventurer eats the dead body of a sentient kith, they absorb some of the memories and personality of that person. Swap one of your motifs for one the motifs of the cannibalized corpse. You can bid lore to answer questions that they knew regarding this part of their life.
Human adventurers (but not other kiths) can sacrifice 10XP to add this as an extra motif instead of replacing one of their own motifs. They can only do this once.
Hags
Sorcerous Strategist
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| Ali Hdz |
Hags are like ogres: people whose sins are so grave they manifest outwardly. In particular, hags are marked by a specific desire to sell their soul in exchange for the power to do harm.
Selling ones soul is not a simple or tidy affair. It's not a tangible thing, and despite popular conceptions, devils are not regularly in the market. Really, a better way to phrase this is "Killing ones soul."
Hags cut away their humanity, piece by piece, until only the hag remains. This is done through years of ritual acts of deliberate cruelty. Step by step, through ceremonial murder and cannibalism, hags kill their capacity to feel pity, feel shame, feel mercy.
Each hag is unique. Each has some strange skill or preternatural ability. For example:
- able to rot gold into straw by playing the fiddle
- long, razor wire hair
- the ability to speak to iron
- a wooden puppet body dangling from strings of human hair, puppeted by the hag
- the ability to hold their breath for hours, lives in a swamp
Likes: Rhymes and Riddles, Soups of Strange Ingredients, Babies' Fat Cheeks (potent reagents)
Hates: Candy, Cleanliness, Religious Iconography (blasphemous)
Attributes: Swords 1 | Pentacles 2 | Cups 3 | Wands 4
HD 3/3
Notes
Bloated Corpse's Defense. When a hag takes a Wound, if the GM wishes, they are automatically disengaged and Displaced to an adjacent zone by flying.
Smell Magic. The hag can smell magical effects. They can identify who is and isn’t a sorcerer by scent.
Untouched by Hot Iron. Hags are immune to any crafted or forged weapon. They are still vulnerable to natural dangers like fire, falls, and drowning. They can even be bashed by a branch or stone.
Lesser dooms
Hex. Hags can make Attacks or Roughhouse using arcane energy up to one zone away. They add their Wands attribute to these attempts on their turn. Hags are not engaged by using this ability.
Ride the Wind. Play a lesser doom card to Move to an adjacent zone through flight.
Unnatural Sorcery. Each hag has one or two spells from Appendix A that they have mastered. They can cast these spells by Speaking Incantations. They do not require spell components or use Resolve to cast this spell.
The following spells are likely candidates for hags: Control Undead, Fleshcraft, Stinking Cloud, Withering, Gust of Wind, Totem, Woodweave, Wall of Elements, Animate Object, Scry, Shroud, Binding, Veritas, Seal Pact
Greater dooms
Counter-spell. Hags can use the Counter-spell Talent (core book, p. 82). They discard a greater doom instead of spending Resolve, when appropriate.
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