Ok, I’m not in this wacked-out group. The (not terribly experienced) GM is a friend of mine and asked me for some help. He set up a situation, they players went way off the rails, and he doesn’t have clue how to proceed with it. I have a few ideas, but I wanted to see what you folks think.
Setup:
The 5 PC’s are a Ranger, Eldritch Knight, Melee Cleric, Fighter/Monk/Rogue, and (I forget the 5th). They are level 8-10.
The PC’s are quasi-minor nobles that have been given holdings to expand the far north end of the realm.
The realm and PC’s are Neutral to Lawful Neutral to Lawful Evil.
The King has declared a vendetta against the neighboring kingdom to the east. (It really is a bad place.)
King orders the PC’s (and other nobles) to begin offensive operations designed to eventually utterly destroy the other kingdom.
Player holdings are very small/new. There is no significant population to recruit an army. The mercs are being hired in the richer lands to the south.
The GM very much expected this pretty martial group to start personally making raids on the cities in the close parts of the neighboring kingdom. Had quite a bit of stuff planned for that.
Player Response:
PC’s are actually fairly familiar with the far side of the enemy kingdom. (They got run out after some plans went bad.)
Players apparently didn’t even seriously consider personal raids (except for a supply of subjects).
They are trying to make a deal with the vampire (waste lands to the north) to create lots of vampires and vampire spawn. They will transport them to the far side of the kingdom and put one in every small village, town, and farming hamlet. The vampire can release them or keep control, they don’t care. As long as it stays in and preys on the community. Their assumption is that very few small communities will have the capable personnel or gear to take on even a vampire spawn. At least not without severe losses.
Food production, taxes, conscript population, etc… Will all be significantly impacted.
He stalled them a bit with getting to the vampire. They have to locate it and find a way to approach it to begin negotiations without making it angry by killing all its guards. So he has a little time, but not much.
Note: Before the accusations start. He is not upset by players wrecking his carefully laid plans! This is not a controlling GM problem. He likes the idea. He’s just not sure what to do with it.
If he allows them to make the deal with the vampire how does he make this an exciting campaign adventure? It is stupidly easy for 8th level PC’s to grab a few or even a lot of random victims. They already have the magic to make tracking and identifying them difficult. What effects should the spawn have? How quickly? How noticeable from outside? What repercussions? How would the enemy nation and its authorities react? The personality the GM has already given their king should make him gleeful. But might have some issues with others in the kingdom if word gets out.
Eventually the bad guys will certainly figure out who is behind it and counter attack in some way. But it doesn’t seem like there is any way that will be soon unless the PC’s really screw up.
He’s not sure how to make this a RP adventure and not just boring session after session of sitting watching their Machiavellian plots. It would make a good novel, but he doesn’t know how to make it an adventure.
Any thoughts I can give him?
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It is easy at the beginning but doesn't mean that they won't get noticed. While 8th level adventurer are impressive, they aren't the only ones and I wouldn't be surprised if some zealous paladin , inquisitors and clerics and all kind of vampire hunters suddenly headed out there, as soon as they hear about the infection, this is where it becomes complicated. Heroes of course, even if the kingdom is bad would come to protect the citizen from such an infestation and everybody knows that there is nothing more annoying than adventurers.
How quickly they react, depends on many factors. If some witness manage to escape and inform the king, or some spies happened to be in a town and noticed their activities, they can be found out rather quickly. That's not without taking into account that Kingdom most likely have their own diviners who can scry on crystal balls and prepare counter attacks.
For warfare, think more game of throne than video games. Which means, they might end in vicious ambush at a large disadvantage, things can get very ugly in warfare even more so when you add class levels to the mix. Assassination attempts, people making deals with outsiders, maybe even a Lich waking up from his mausoleum, annoyed that his careful prepared plans for years to take over the kingdom is about to be destroyed by a bunch of young punks.
Extra bonus for people dying of violent death and possibly coming back as undead, graveknight anyone?
I think using undead is going to be a double-edged sword - and it can easily come back to bite them (no pun intended).
So, lets say the neighboring kingdom falls, is overrun/riddled with undead under the command of a vampire. Well, maybe the vampire is really liking the concept, and it's time to expand - into YOUR kingdom.
Now, time to think about countering the very strategy they used against their enemy - culminating in trying to kill off the vampire. Subsequent cleanup of all the free willed undead after that should prove to be a challenge, perhaps leading to an adventure to find the magical McGuffin that can turn the tide against waves and waves of undead.
As I understand it, they don't think they can create anywhere near enough undead to actually destroy the enemy kingdom. The enemy kingdom should eventually be able to deal with them. But it will weaken them while dealing with it.
The vampire lord, can't control very many of them so he would have to release most of them from his enslavement.
The undead will be causing problems on the far side of the enemy kingdom. Way away from the PC's holdings and even the rest of their kingdom. So any heroes sent to deal with the problem just means less in their neck of the woods.
The will be taking subjects (maybe even just some cattle if that works) from a totally unrelated area.
This powerful undead lord should not be worried about rivals from vampire spawn created from commoners. They figured they would have to wheel-n-deal for a bit to get the vampire lords cooperation.
{{ My very first thought was that the vampire lord will try to betray them as soon as they let down their guard. }}
The group is apparently already heavily invested in mundane and magic to change appearance and block divinations or tracking. Maybe the 5th PC was a druid because I think he said they have a large flying mount. With that and teleport, they are very mobile. Especially since mostly traveling to the middle of nowhere.
I'm not shooting down your ideas. Just responding with what I think I know about the situation.
I appreciate your ideas and will certainly give all your suggestions to the GM.
I like the idea of this plan snowballing beyond their control. Would it be possible for the Spawn (after being dropped in their assigned towns) to bypass their intended victims, and instead all meet in 1 town? Concentrated fire would bury a little town, and result in way more vampires way faster than intended. After focus firing another town or two, the Vampires are now an army in their own right, and have no obligations to where they roam, and who they turn.
I like the idea of this plan snowballing beyond their control. Would it be possible for the Spawn (after being dropped in their assigned towns) to bypass their intended victims, and instead all meet in 1 town? Concentrated fire would bury a little town, and result in way more vampires way faster than intended. After focus firing another town or two, the Vampires are now an army in their own right, and have no obligations to where they roam, and who they turn.
I like that idea. Might have to fabricate some reasoning though. Vampires supposedly don't work together very well. (Except in Carrion Crown for some reason.)
But I doubt that loss of control would really bother them too much. They're still clear over on the other side of the enemy country.
Might make predicting results even more difficult though. And even though that would mean they would wipe out a few towns quicker, it would also give the locals a concentrated force to eliminate.
As I understand it, they don't think they can create anywhere near enough undead to actually destroy the enemy kingdom. The enemy kingdom should eventually be able to deal with them. But it will weaken them while dealing with it.As I understand it, a vampire lord can just keep adding minions to his hierarchy as long as there are minions to convert. He can turn the entire kingdom and his only concern is the long-term planning of being able to feed his vampiric subjects. I mean I could be wrong, but I think the Hit Die cap on undead control is just for clerics and wizards. ...
Nope there is a cap.
A vampire may have enslaved spawn totaling no more than twice its own Hit Dice; any spawn it creates that would exceed this limit become free-willed undead. A vampire may free an enslaved spawn in order to enslave a new spawn, but once freed, a vampire or vampire spawn cannot be enslaved again.
I would allow the things to extend a PC necromancer's limits to work for vampires though. I think I've read that a necromancer can get over 100 HD worth of undead with the proper shenanigans.
Also only victims of 5+ HD or levels can be made into full vampires. Less than that and they just become the vampires spawn. The vampire spawn can not create more undead. So if they are just using easy to nab commoners, there is relatively little danger of exponential growth. And they would nearly all probably be less powerful than the servants it already has.
Oh, yes I will definitely tell him to make sure the bargaining and contract will have to be difficult and tricky. If anyone has some further ideas on how to word the contract, that would be helpful.
I'm pretty sure he will like the idea of the death curse thing.
Attracting, other good heroes that weren't enemies before is an excellent idea. I really like that one. Have to work out how they find out though. And the PC's trying to throw them off the track might be amusing.
Well from their tactics I would assume the fiendish forces would be on their side rather than in opposition. From his descriptions, I'm not sure if the enemy kingdom will be able to call on the celestial forces. But maybe some of the other surrounding countries might call up the angels to contain the problem. They would still have to locate and eliminate spawn scattered all across the country side. But it is a thing that might have another chance to discover their involvement.
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I'll reiterate that unleashing a vampiric army is a risky idea. However, there's an easier way to do this if they're already considering vampires: Greater contagion. It's hard to cure and will eventually kill/incapacitate large portions of the country. It would draw resources to the area as well.
Oh, I agree that this is a risky plan.
I believe they think it is a manageable risk because it is being unleashed on the far side of the enemy empire. They have a lot of time before it could possibly become a threat to them. And they think the enemy will be able to kill off the undead threat before it gets completely out of hand.
Remember they aren't really intending to use this to destroy the enemy kingdom all in one go. This is just to weaken and distract the enemy. And partly to fulfill their orders to attack the enemy. I don't think anyone could say this plan does not count as offensive operations against the enemy.
I have no idea whether or not they have considered greater contagion.
Considering vampires are supposed to be chaotic evil and think they are superior to everything why would a vampire lord agree to work as a common mercenary. Also I get the impression that the enemy kingdom is evil so why would the vampire not simply take what the PC players are offering and turn around and betray them?
Have the vampire seem to agree to the plans but when they get to where they are supposed to drop the vampire army off a force from the enemy kingdom is waiting to attack them. Have the vampires fight alongside the party for a few rounds until they are in a position to betray the party. The only thing to be careful of is that it does not turn out to be a total party kill.
Well, it won't take long for the kingdom to notice wiped-out towns. Those places are supposed to pay tributes and stuff, especially in an evil nation.
What other nations are there? Is there a good-aligned nation nearby? Maybe they and the evil nation decide that the PCs are the true threat—after all, better an country run by evil humans than a country run by the undead. The PCs are working with beings of pure evil, wiping out countless innocents just to inconvenience a regime...yeah, a lot of people would see the PCs as the bad guys. Hell, even a lot of neutral mercenaries might be willing to go after them on the cheap. Suddenly the PCs are dealing with ragtag teams of heroes and assassins left-and-right. Suddenly they've added to the enemies they need to fight.
We're talking adventurers who find the vampires and decide to find out where they came from. We're talking high-level adventurers—druids and wizards trying to keep the balance, paladins and goodly necromancers trying to keep the dead at rest. The kind that eat eighth-level PCs for breakfast. The kind, most important of all, that can purchase (or even cast) spells like Contact Other Plane to find out what's going on. How careful are the PCs being to cover their tracks?
I'd consider having people on the PCs' side balk, too. Maybe someone defects—someone the PCs kinda like, even, if such an NPC exists. Another noble sends his troops into a pre-taken town and they get attacked by vampires. They barely escape, ad the noble begins investigating. The PCs must choose: Kill the noble and risk the king's wrath, or let their schemes be exposed?
This seems like it could be a lot of fun to run.
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It sounds like the PC group is on the other side of an adventure path. Somehow, instead of being independent minded adventurers, they became the assistants to the BBEG (vampire lord).
Good flip sides - the Vampire Lord readily agrees, planning to use the PCs for all they have (asking for assistance or even additional wealth).
Have one or more "adventuring parties" combat the undead and challenge the PC group. The "adventurers" should have no ties to the conflict other than fighting the vampires in hopes of loot.
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I don't think they were planning on the vampire lord fighting alongside them as a merc. It would just kill/spawn the provided victims who would then be placed in the towns and villages before they even rise as spawn.
In this GM's world, I think the PC's are already considered pretty high level. There will be some higher level, but not huge numbers of them. Though yes, that should be a threat they will eventually need to deal with. Fighting off an avenging team of inquisitor, paladin, and clerics could be really tough. Even if not substantially higher level.
I don't think some/most/many of the spawn having little effect would even bother them. Vampire spawn showing up (even if easily defeated) all over the place would still be something the authorities would almost have to do something about.
From what he has said, the PC's are being extremely paranoid about covering their tracks. They have been that way over their entire careers anytime they are doing something even slightly shady. Bluff, disguises, and anti-divination stuff is standard. My guess is they would try to set someone else up to take the blame.
Well, no matter how careful they are, people are gonna find out about vampires attacking towns. They'll also be able to work out the vampire lord is sending them.
Evil tactics can be effective, but they almost always earn new enemies. That's the classic trade-off.
What motivation does the Vampire have to help, what is in it for him/her? What guarentee's can the party give that THEIR king will not want to kill the vampire and it's spawn? Vampires are not known for their benevolence, what is to stop the vampire from turning on them with his own vampire army when it gets enough under it's control?
They are playing with fire here and laying the foundation for an undead kingdom.
Will THEIR kings army be able to slay theses vampires when they come to conquer this nation?
You are Daggat trying to make a deal with Bane. It will end badly for you.
Better to use shadows rather than vampires. It will still end badly for you, but it will have a much more dramatic effect (and you can always protect yourself with protection from evil should it get out of hand).
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First, I assume that none of the party are good characters, especially clerics or paladins or allying with a vampire would not be on their list of options, much less #1. I would definitely make this a situation where the cure is likely to be worse that the ailment.
As a GM, I would seriously flesh out the vampire lord and his trusted lieutenant. One will vie to be the overlord/emperor of this entire area. If the party are veteran players, make it the lieutenant with the vampire lord an arrogant limited thinking thug so the endgame isnt obvious. Now the vampire lord should plan out the path to conquest assuming several things:
- party will use the VL (vampire lord) as a tool and dispose of him when its convenient. At minimum, they will not approve of his expansion plans, so must plans must be made to deal with this eventuality.
- Secret allies must be acquired to counter or freeze the PCs from action. If there is a potential adversary on the other side of the PCs kingdom or even internally (rebels?), these are the first choice. If someone can be found that can unleash a plague in the PCs kingdom at a set point in time, this is also highly desirable. Several spies need to be placed within the PCs power structure and let sleep until needed. Ideally, one of the PCs trusted advisors is a double agent for the vampire (hostages work well as incentive, or turning someone's slowly dying beloved in exchange for loyalty) Lastly, the VL needs a secret weapon the party never sees coming.
The VL should have a plan to
- turn any local druids into vampires to ensure surveillance and hidden scouts whenever necessary.
- Target key locations for military forts and strongholds to build strong defenses in the future VL kingdom areas.
- Magical support will be required to counter PCs. Have the VL turn or enlist a strong wizard/sorcerer to start a VL sponsored school. Same goes for a church, Urgathoa, Zon-Kuthon or the like. Specialized allies or mercenaries should also be acquired.
The Vampire Lord's assistance has a
The party is required to perform several tasks and grant a small section of the kingdom being attacked (landwise) to the vampire lord in return for his help.
Task 1 - The PCs need to kill a priest in a relatively unknown village in a neighboring land, and deliver his head to the vampire lord's minion, who will travel with them. The VL tells the party he was a rival for the VL's beloved when he was human. His rival won her heart, but failed to protect her from danger and let her die. This is a revenge killing. He wants the priests head and diary delivered to his representative who will meet the party after the task.
The reality is that this priest really did know the VL when he was human, and knows a secret weakness of the VL (DM's choice). Whether the love triangle is true or not is up to the GM. The diary holds info as to the VL's weakness.
Task 2 - Enter an ancient crypt and recover a carved box. Box should be sealed and the PCs knowledge checks about it should not succeed no matter what. Let them hire a sage if they wish to know about it. VL tells party the box contains an item that used to belong to his destroyed sire that he promised to recover and was never able to. The crypt is hallowed ground which is why he did not recover it himself. The box should be recoverable without too much effort. Its defended by secrecy not uber traps and guardians.
The box contains an evil relic that lets the VL and his senior minions daywalk. It was buried with a devout priest long ago to keep it safe. This is the secret weapon the VL will not reveal until he and the party are actively at war with each other.
This sort of setup lets the party fairly easily recruit the VL if they choose to, but also to gain some clues about him and his longterm plans if they are a suspicious or nosy sort of group. If they are out for the easy win and don't care how, this will blow up nicely in their face and require some serious fixing. If they are cautious, they can succeed in using the VL as their weapon, then countering his plans with their foreknowledge.
@pennywit
As far as I know the only thing the PC's know about the vampire lord so far. Is that he is ancient, reclusive, holds absolute sway over his small wasted area to the north, and has successfully resisted all efforts to get rid of him. Though there haven't been many efforts since it is an undesirable wasteland.
I think the GM will love your ideas on the vampire and his court. I don't think he originally intended the vampire to really have much of a court. But since the players don't know anything about it yet, it is easily changed.
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Well, no matter how careful they are, people are gonna find out about vampires attacking towns. They'll also be able to work out the vampire lord is sending them.
Evil tactics can be effective, but they almost always earn new enemies. That's the classic trade-off.
I doubt earning new enemies will bother them, especially since they have a king that they can blame things on. "The king didn't give me any choice. He ordered me to try and destroy their country. I'm legally obligated to follow his orders. You'll have to take it up with him." From what he said, they will probably try to play anyone that comes after the source against either the vampire lord. Or if they actually get discovered, the king.
Plus, once before, they have run away to a different part of the world when things got too hot.
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@Gilfalas
I have no idea what the PC's intend to offer the vampire lord. But I believe the GM is inclined to let it work (as long as they work at it hard enough) since he thinks the whole idea will be interesting.
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You are Daggat trying to make a deal with Bane. It will end badly for you. ...
Sorry, I don't recognize the reference.
... Better to use shadows rather than vampires. ... Over half the kingdom will have converted in one night before anyone can mount any kind of reasonable counterattack.
I think that is specifically why they are using vampire spawn. They can not create more vampires.
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I'll presume that the PCs are indeed able to offer the Vampire a reason to do this, although their are numerous things that could make this difficult.
What the PCs have done, is essentially make the Vampire a weapons dealer. Any good weapons dealer knows that the most profit is to be made from selling to both sides. Since the other kingdom is described as pretty nasty, it quite likely wouldn't be more hesitant than they are to use it.
Obviously, employing this tactic would pretty much shift those LN and N characters into the evil alignments, likely moving everyone toward chaotic also. There isn't really anything much more chaotic evil than inflicting a vampire plague upon commoners.
As mentioned, other nobles might have problems with this tactic, but it doesn't end their. Any powerful good church would probably also have a big problem, and if the source was ever determined, even if not specifically the PCs but their kingdom in general, this could cause major issues. Similarly, other kingdoms might decide that perhaps they should intervene as well, especially any kingdoms that are near the region the PCs are going to inflict this on. In addition, presumably the PCs are going to have to report, at least to the king, but probably to the other nobles as well what they have done to 'aid the war effort.' Either they say 'nothing' with whatever consequences that has, or they admit once they have done, and any secret known to more than a very few people is sure to spread far and wide pretty quickly.
Presumably since Vampires don't control the world, there are effective means of dealing with them in place. I doubt this would have a long term effect (although that would be an interesting story if it did) and even the short term effect isn't probably going to be as bad as the PCs hope. Basically their would probably be a fair number of deaths at first, then word would spread in the region and people would stay home at night, limiting the effect. An uncontrolled vampire spawn would then likely wander to a more favorable hunting ground where vampires weren't so common and thus the people less prepared for them (angering other kingdoms as above.) Eventually the nations military forces and any organizations dedicated to destroying undead would probably be able to clear up the problem.
What should the GM do? Well, if the PCs want to go through with this plan, and the GM should probably clue them in on any downsides their characters would reasonably know, the kidnapping and delivering spawn can just be fast forwarded though. I wouldn't bother role playing out grappling a commoner and restraining them. Unless something is going to make the encounter interesting (oh darn, their was a visiting Paladin staying in the town and heard the scream) just let it happen. Then of course the PCs will have to wait to see the effects.
If the GM doesn't want to just have a time passes thing, he could encourage the PCs to go on the raids anyway. For example, when told of their vampire scheme the gleeful king could say 'I love that, but this can't get out right now, and Duke Busybody has been complaining that you guys haven't been contributing. I need you to to do something we can point to. Do you think your team could take out the alchemist shops in EvilTown that are producing curative potions for their armies?"
Alternately, the war could be a background element of the campaign for a bit until it develops more, and the PCs could just go do something else for a while.
... If the GM doesn't want to just have a time passes thing, he could encourage the PCs to go on the raids anyway. For example, when told of their vampire scheme the gleeful king could say 'I love that, but this can't get out right now, and Duke Busybody has been complaining that you guys haven't been contributing. I need you to to do something we can point to. Do you think your team could take out the alchemist shops in EvilTown that are producing curative potions for their armies?" ...
This also a particularly good idea! That will keep his previous prep work from going completely to waste.
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@Pennywit: Yeah seeing as how the VL is an immortal, I imagined he would be easily bored and take great delight in destroying his enemies spiritually before doing it physically. Knowing he will eventually have to kill the PCs, he sets up the seeds for the eventual emotional coup de grace ("You are the ones I should thank for delivering me this dark kingdom...") He doesn't mind risking them possibly finding out about his real motivations because he is confident he is smarter and more talented than the PCs, so it just makes things more interesting if they know.
Besides, he can always sell them out to the overking who commanded them to conquer the eastern kingdom if he really wants to ("They were most helpful, perhaps they have plans to sit on your throne one day?")
Plus PCs really hate it when an NPC outsmarts them, which is incentive to try it fairly regularly as a GM. Nothing motivates a PC better than being hoodwinked :)
@pennywit
I just noticed your first question. They have no books or materials with kingdom building rules. They are just winging it.
Up until now they didn't seem interested in any sort of actual kingdom type activities. Part of why he originally assumed they would just personally raid across the border.
I doubt earning new enemies will bother them, especially since they have a king that they can blame things on. "The king didn't give me any choice. He ordered me to try and destroy their country. I'm legally obligated to follow his orders. You'll have to take it up with him." From what he said, they will probably try to play anyone that comes after the source against either the vampire lord. Or if they actually get discovered, the king.
Well, yeah, that's kind of the point. This plan could end up with the king getting really pissed with the party and forcing them to flight.
I'm guessing recreating Daybreakers in the Pathfinder campaign setting isn't something this GM friend of yours is interested in?
... Well, yeah, that's kind of the point. This plan could end up with the king getting really pissed with the party and forcing them to flight.
Yup!
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I'm guessing recreating Daybreakers in the Pathfinder campaign setting isn't something this GM friend of yours is interested in?
I would guess that is more ambitious than he is ready for. But I'll bring it up.
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Works just as well if he offers to make them lords (his vassals, of course) in his own kingdom, tempting them into evil and into his service for his own amusement. It gets particularly fun if the rest of the land turns against them, and the PCs' only hope ... is to petition the Vampire Lord for protection!!!
As far as the overall idea, I started playing with the idea of a descent into darkness. The idea is to keep feeding the players missions and mini-adventures where each is a little more evil than the last, building it up bit by bit.
Usually, I think leading players into evil is bad GMing. But if the players, of their own free will, choose to make deals with vampires ....
LOL...and in breaking news today, our heroes have shifted Campaign paths from "Rise of the Rulers" to "Way of the Wicked"...
You are Daggat trying to make a deal with Bane. It will end badly for you. ...Sorry, I don't recognize the reference.
... Better to use shadows rather than vampires. ... Over half the kingdom will have converted in one night before anyone can mount any kind of reasonable counterattack.I think that is specifically why they are using vampire...
To my knowledge, shadows don't have limitations on their spawn, and can create new spawn MUCH more quickly.
You are Daggat trying to make a deal with Bane. It will end badly for you. ...Sorry, I don't recognize the reference.To my knowledge, shadows don't have limitations on their spawn, and can create new spawn MUCH more quickly.... Better to use shadows rather than vampires. ... Over half the kingdom will have converted in one night before anyone can mount any kind of reasonable counterattack.I think that is specifically why they are using vampire...
Ok, I get the reference now. Yes, pretty darn applicable. I would guess they think they are Bane. But the GM will try to set it up the other way.
And yes, shadows don't have limits. That's why they didn't go with them. So the world is not overrun with shadows.
Screw the rules, the PCs hired a vampire to provide shock troops for a king's army. The GM will need to shift his focus to how this vampire intends to take his pay. Hooray Adventure!
In a way, the PCs have given themselves and the GM a brilliant chapter in their game. The vampire acquiesces to the party's request/charge/payment/demand, but will hold something back to bend the PC's to its will. Like taking something coveted by the PCs that cannot be bought with wealth; perhaps a loved one, or a social station coveted by a PC.
The PCs are suddenly distracted from the war due to their dark offerings, and may need to plug holes/eliminate voices muttering about their dealings with the dark; sounds like a fun arc not seen in most APs.
Would a vampire enter into a contract as easily a devil, or simply take the PC's words as mere suggestions for the deed to be done, and then let repercussions fall to them with a simple twist of fate?
+1 for any GM who can re-purpose their material for an off-the-rails adventure.
I showed this to the GM last night.
He's thrilled with your ideas!
Thanks guys.
{{ Btw: the 5th PC is a beast rider cavalier with a wyvern. }}
He doesn't think they will go for directly betraying the kingdom in the negotiations. They're too loyal for that. Misinterpreting orders and exceeding their authority? Yeah sure. But actually betraying or kidnapping their own kingdom. Nope. But the other ideas are great.
If he tries to hold fast to that in the contract it will just fail and he wants to succeed since this will be fun.
He's not sure if they will let any of the vassal (still enslaved) vampires accompany them. That might make it too hard to hide their involvement. But he will try.
He doesn't think they will fall for a contract that just kills (vampire already dead) whoever breaches the contract. But it would still be in character to try and get that in the contract at first.
When he left he was furiously designing a magus 13 vampire lord and trying to think up some wierd contract curse.