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.
Likes: Eating Insects and Spiders, Finding Secret Places to Sleep, Pleasing its Master
Hates: Sunlight, Fresh Herbs, Running Water, Religious Iconography (naturally blasphemous), Mirrors
Attributes: Swords 0 | Pentacles 0 | Cups 0 | Wands 0
HD 2/0 *
* Per the vampire thrall's Blood is the Life doom, a freshly-fed thrall may have 1-4 additional points of Defense.
Notes
Breathless and Ageless. The vampire does not age or breathe. (They do have other physical processes, however. They both sleep and can be poisoned.) Unless ritually desecrated, the vampire thrall can be resurrected from death if given human blood.
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 |
"...And immediately [Sauron] took the form of a vampire, great as a dark cloud across the moon, and he fled, dripping blood from his throat upon the trees..."
- 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.
Use this to represent vampires that aren't tall, dark counts, but slathering monsters.
Likes: Craves Blood, Hanging Upside Down, Crawling into Small Crevices, Nocturnal Creatures
Hates: Nosy Villagers, Fresh Herbs, Running Water, Religious Iconography (naturally blasphemous)
Attributes: Swords 3 | Pentacles 4 | Cups 1 | Wands 2
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"
- "Year Zero," Ghost
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
Likes: Blood (especially that of virgins), Rambling About Unrequited Love, Performatively Weeping Bloody Tears, Playing With Its Food, Nocturnal Predators
Hates: Sunlight, Fresh Herbs, Running Water, Religious Iconography (naturally blasphemous)
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
In addition to their normal hand of major arcana cards, the vampire lord has powers to steal minor arcana cards from the players. These cards are called the blood pool. The blood pool sits near the vampire lord's Initiative in a stack, face up.
The vampire lord can play the top card of the blood pool whenever they can play a card. The suit of the card determines what action is taken.
Swords - Summon Vampire Bat. Play the Swords card in front of the GM to represent the Initiative of a vampire bat (HD 1/0). The vampire bat is not a normal combatant, does not have its own turn, and does not add to the cards the GM draws each round. Instead, on the vampire lord's turn, each summoned vampire bat follows this sequence:
- 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.
Vampire bats attached to an adventurer are killed if successfully Attacked, but the adventurer they're latched onto takes a Wound as well. Unattached vampire bats can be Attacked, targeting their Initiative as normal. Adventurers may try to
pull the bat off of them by playing a Recover action whose value is
at least that of the vampire bat's Initiative.
Pentacles - Dash, Dodge, or Pull Item from their Vestments (e.g., spell components).
Cups - Mesmerize. The Cups card is played as an Attack against a target that the vampire can see. If successful, the target is Controlled—they immediately perform the commanded action. The total value for the Controlled action is equal to the value of the Cups card used to Attack.
Wands - Regeneration. The vampire lord Heals.
Cards from the blood pool cards are put into the minor arcana discard pile after used.
Notes
Aura of Gloom. On the vampire's turn, move a number of cards equal to the number of adventurers engaged with the vampire lord from the top of the minor arcana discard pile to the top of the blood pool.
Breathless and Ageless. The vampire lord does not age or breathe. (They do have other physical processes, however. They both sleep and can be poisoned.)
Celerity. The vampire lord may play two cards per turn. Their second action takes place after all minor actions have resolved.
Invulnerable. The vampire lord ignores all damage except from silver weapons, magic, and fire. Note that this ability is not negated by either herbs or sunlight.
Lesser dooms
Blood Sorcery. The vampire lord can cast spells using the rules in Appendix A. Cast spells by playing a lesser doom Speak Incantations action. Instead of discarding a greater doom card to represent Resolve, the vampire lord takes a Wound to cast a spell. They may cast a spell with extra Resolve, taking up to 4 Wounds per incantation.
The vampire lord might have the components for the following spells secreted in their vestments: Brainfever, Control Undead, Fear, Flare, Illusion, Raise Zombie, Scry, Shroud, Stinking Cloud, Withering.
Preternatural Grace. The vampire lord may have as many Dodge cards facedown at a time as they wish. The vampire lord may decide which Dodge card to use to counter a particular Attack, and can expend multiple Dodge cards against a single Attack.
Preternatural Speed. Discard as many lesser doom cards as you wish, Moving 1 zone per card. This does not count towards the vampire lord's two card per turn limit.
Greater dooms
Mist Form. Play a greater doom card to take the shape of an intangible mist. While in mist form, physical objects pass harmlessly through the vampire. The vampire lord cannot enter their mist form if in direct sunlight.
Sanguine Kiss. If an Attack action actually Wounds a condition or talent (instead of Notching armor or a shield), the vampire lord may discard a greater doom to cause the victim to lose 1XP in addition to a Wound. That adventurer is now Marked by the vampire lord.
- 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.
Shapeshift. The vampire lord can play a greater doom card to take the form of a giant bat, a wolf, or a swarm of rats. This is similar to the Totem spell, but is an innate power instead of sorcery.
Tenebrous Touch. Play a greater doom card to Stun an adventurer that the vampire lord can see. Put the discarded card onto the top of the blood pool.
Special dooms
Psychic Domination. Play the Moon (XVIII) from your hand or the Fool from the blood pool. All adventurers who the vampire lord can see are Stunned. The GM collects the discarded cards and places them on top of the blood pool in any order they desire.
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 |
"Spite! Spite alone holds me aloft!"
- Lingua Ignota
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
Use this as a base stat block for a generic hag and add something weird to make your NPC sing.
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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