Stanislav Greymist's page

Never a family man, Captain Stanislav Greymist was too interested in the finer things in life to care much for other. You know, there was just never enough of anything to share, and the idea of providing for others was simply foreign to him. First his physical strength, and later his prowess at arms were sufficient to provide for his greater than average needs. There were always those weaker than him. As he reached adulthood he was forced to choose a vocation to provide for himself. He certainly was not going to actually work for a living, and was good at telling others what to do so he chose a profession in support of this. His barely upper class family had enough clout to get him an appointment as a junior officer of the city watch which provided plenty of opportunities to extent his meager salary to provide, barely, for his “basic” needs.

More learned that the average guards of Talingarde, and more willing to do what is necessary to advance, Stanislav rose through the ranks of the city watch quickly. His rapid promotions were curtailed at the rank of Senior Sergeant of the Guard when his superior officer took note of his repeated absence from the services praising Mitra, Religion was for weak willed fools. was his thoughts, and he always had better things to do that to attend religious services. Once he realized this was holding him back from promotion he tried to repair his damaged reputation, but could never muster any zeal during services and he feared it showed.

Stuck at his current rank, Stanislav had little choice but to look for other opportunities to stretch his none-too-generous pay. He began to volunteer for night watch in the more unsavory sections of the city and soon was receiving protection money from most of the city’s underworld. But this pittance barely paid his gambling debts. He had worked the graveyard shift for so long he had forgotten what the sun looked like when his luck changed. He was looking for his next opportunity when he met the lady.

Demitris was unlike any of the women he had known. Those he used and tossed aside as whim took him. Always considered handsome, he usually had his pick of the lower class lasses he encountered and on more than one occasion bedded the wife or girlfriend of a junior officer just to prove he could. But no one would ever discard Demitris. The concept was outside his realm of contemplation. She was a dream unreachable and she had chosen him. And all she asked was a small thing. And even then she offered good and generous coin. Fortune truly smiled upon him.

What she wanted was human inventory. She said she had a buyer outside the walls in a city to the north. At first it was easy; a drunkard here; a prostitute there. No one missed those people, and the city was better off without them. And with each delivery she would acquiesce to his advances in addition to paying good gold. These rendezvous were so sweet. Bliss. More than Bliss. Heaven. He is not even sure when he was bitten. But even that was good. He found he was more alert after; more alive. And his vision, already adjusted to his night duty, became acute.

But her demands increased. She wanted better “inventory” and more often. And he found himself taking risks he knew he should not take. It was almost like he could not help himself. Refusing her grew impossible. He wanted so badly to please her. He wants that still, even from his cell. He longs for her touch and wonders if even death will free him from that desire. In three days time the servants of Mitra will remove his head for the high crime of slave taking within the kingdom of Talingarde.

Brooding in his cell, Stanislav contemplates all the wrongs done to him. His only true crime was allowing those plebeians to apprehend him. He should have never bent the knee to those of Talingarde in the first place. Now they have subjected him to abhorrent living conditions; so very far from what he has spent his life trying to achieve. He has a dream for subjection of his own, should he somehow avoid this unjust sentence. All of Talingarde will pay. Perhaps the Lady would help.

Tall, lean, and handsome, Stanislav has the look of a hero, but his heart just is not there. His long black locks do not cover his deep blue uncaring eyes. His features are sharp and his nose is slightly too large for his face, but somehow this marks his as distinguished instead of unattractive. He stands just over 6 feet tall and weighs in at 15 stones, which gives him a muscular build that demands attention.

Stanislav is guilty of the high crime of slave-Taking: Slavery is illegal in Talingarde and a very rare crime. Still, once in a great while, slavers from the mainland will foolishly make an incursion into Talirean protected territories. When they are captured alive they are always made an example of. In this case Stanislav was a willing servant to an outsider who paid well in gold and favors for his delivered human cargo.

Punishment: Death by beheading

Benefit: You receive a +1 trait bonus to both Disarm and Grapple attempts.

It is not merely enough to be bitten by a vampire. The process of transforming into a true vampire is a long, painful and arduous road. Some are not up to this grueling task and instead the curse overwhelms them. Instead of transforming into a vampire, they instead merely sicken and die or worse, become an almost mindless spawn fit for little more than menial service to an undying master. However, our villains are made of sterner stuff.
To become a true vampire requires an investment of five feats – a major expenditure to be sure. However, the rewards of becoming a vampire are viewed by many as being worth the cost of this ascension.

The Bitten
You have been bitten by a vampire and infected with the curse of undeath. As you sicken, your senses heighten and you become profoundly aware that every day, you are changing into something both more and less than mortal. You have only begun your transformation into the living dead.

Prerequisites: You must be bitten by a vampire.

Benefits: You gain darkvision 30 ft. and the alertness feat, however your Constitution score is lowered by two permanently.

The Dying

You are dying. You can feel it in very core of your being. Your mortal blood is failing and the vampiric curse is overtaking you. Soon, you will die and rise again as a vampire.

Prerequisites: The Bitten, 3rd level

Benefits: Your natural armor improves +2, your dark-vision improves to 60 ft., you gain a +2 racial bonus to Perception and you gain the toughness feat. However your Constitution score is again lowered by two permanently, you now cast no shadow and have no reflection in a mirror. Further, in full daylight you are sickened.

The Risen
Vampirism has overtaken you and you have died. However after three days in the ground you have risen from your own death. You are now a fledglingvampire. However, you are still unsure of your powers and only begun to understand the full reprecussions of this dark gift. Still, you are fast as lightning and full of fury. You can barely restrain your thirst for living blood.

Prerequisites: The Bitten, The Dying, 5th level

Benefits: You gain the feats Dodge, Improved Initiative and Lightning Reflexes. Your Dex score is improved by +2. You are now an undead and have no Constitution score. You gain resistance to cold 10 and electricity 10 in addition to all the normal defensive abilities granted by being an undead. You also gain the special attack Blood Drain (as per the vampire template).

However, you must sleep in a coffin every night, you gain the vampiric weaknesses to daylight (this replaces being sickened by daylight) and running water, and if you ever go more than twenty four hours without feeding on living blood you become sickened until you feed. If you are sickened from lack of food and encounter a living creature with blood in their veins, you must make a DC 12 Will save or immediately try to drain their blood. If you succeed at such a save you do not have to check again for one hour.

If reduced to zero hit points, you fall dead, indistinguishable from a normal corpse. You will remain this way until either you are healed by negative energy or fed blood enough to heal you.

The Initiated
You have been a vampire long enough that you are beginning to be able to control your condition. You need to feed less frequently and you have begun to control your form turning into mist or climbing like a spider.

Prerequisites: The Bitten, The Dying, The Risen, 7th level

Benefits: You gain the feat Combat Reflexes. You gain a +4 racial bonus to Bluff, Perception, Sense Motive and Stealth Checks (the Perception bonus replaces the bonus from the Dying feat). You gain the gaseous form and spider climb special qualities of a vampire (see the vampire template). If reduced to zero hit points, you are still sickened if you do not feed but now you need only feed every three days. However, you now recoil from mirrors and strongly presented holy symbols.

True Vampirism
You have mastered your condition of vampirism and are now a true vampire in every sense.

Prerequisites: The Bitten, the Dying, the Risen, The Initiated, 9th level

Benefits: You gain the full benefit and weaknesses of the vampire template.

Drawbacks
Aversion to sunlight is probably the most famous vampire weakness. Here is a magic item that can help a vampire participate during daylight hours. The Shroud of the Daywalker can help a vampire function during the day time.

The second problem all vampires must face is that they need to have a coffin readily at hand. They sleep within their coffin and must flee to it if reduced to zero hit points. Lugging around a coffin can be quite an obstacle but is likely a surmountable one. No doubt the vampire will either establish a lair or perhaps bring a carriage with them that contains their coffin and shields it from the light of the sun. Minions can be used for guard duty to secure the wagon when the vampire must be away from the coffin. Though not mentioned in the template, in traditional vampire lore, the coffin can be desecrated and rendered unusable by holy water or the blessings of a holy man.

The third disadvantage is one often forgotten about both in roleplaying games and fiction, but is perhaps one of the most interesting. A vampire cannot enter a private home or dwelling unless invited by someone with the authority to invite them in. It means that the vampire PC must find a way to, by trickery or guile, get invited into these places.

There is one more vampiric challenge – the creation of vampire spawn. An endlessly replenishable supply of CR 4 minions can be unbalancing. However, if you read the template carefully, this can be managed. First, the PC vampire can only control twice its hit dice in spawn. Any additional become free-willed vampires. Most newly created free-willed vampires will try to flee their creator and so will be of no use as minions. CR 4 spawn are unlikely to be terribly useful in combat at level 12 plus when the PCs are likely to actually have minions in their midst. What can you can do is allow minion organizations a one-time bonus of +2 to Ruthless checks made after dark after a vampire joins the party.